Sir Loin and his sibling sealed their fates late this week. They broke out of their big old pig pen at the neighbors farm. They were inciting a near hog riot with their other four siblings in which close to a ton of hog would have been loose and wild! They sealed their fate. It is time for the two big’ems to go to finishing school.

There are lots of blogs out there that wax poetic about the first large critter that they finished. I like finished… it sounds a little better than slaughtered. Slaughtered just sounds, well, not so nice. Sir Loin will be finished. Done. His life fulfilled. I suppose that truely his life fulfilled would be to reproduce and pass on his genes, that kind of thing, but in the farming business, chances are he wouldn’t have had that opportunity anyway. It’s only the few, the proud, the champions that get to go on to the boar stud business. It’s just a cruel fate of nature that males just get eaten.

That being said, yes, there is a little tinge of this feeling of well, weirdness. I can’t really put a good finger on the emotion. It’s not regret, because when I see him, I do sort of think of bacon and chops and ham and all that. You just can’t help it. And I know that Jr. and Julia and their boys have taken good care of him. He’s always got a big pig smile on his face when I see him, and he gets to eat all the time and hang out with his siblings and make big pig hay nests and lounge about. He seems pretty content with his life. I think it’s that feeling of well, respect, that he’s going to be feeding my family. And I thank him for that. I think if I was like crass and unfeeling, I would want to examine that lack of compassion for an animal that didn’t really have much chance in life other than this final destiny. I mean, it’s not like he had a say in the matter… like a chance to speak up and say he wanted to work at a petting zoo or maybe learn to plow, maybe hire out as a gardening hog or perhaps train to snuffle out truffles. He pretty much had his fate sealed on that late summer day last year when he came into the world with his other little piglet kin. He was bacon from the start.

So tomorrow, a few hours from now, I’m going over to have a hand in the process. Okay, watch the process. I just don’t feel comfortable being a trigger man. I’m not afraid to kill something, not really, just not experienced at all and wouldn’t feel comfortable with that huge responsibility of a clean and decent shot. I sure don’t want him all stressed and running around in a panic when I missed. I want him dispatched gently, calmly and without a lot of concern. That is my hope for him. A nice quick and simple death.

I spent a little time this evening online, looking at charts and reading folks suggestions for how to order him processed. My goodness. There are so many options! I do know that I want the hams and bacon smoked. And I want the leaf lard for pastry cooking. I’m not really wanting the stuff like kidneys, brain and lungs, etc. Ah, no thanks. I’m hoping that some of him might go towards bones for the dogs. Just so that there’s not a lot of waste. Sausage… chops, ribs. Going to the butchers with our dead hogs is going to be a learning adventure for sure. They will be killed on the farm. I like that. I wouldn’t like them to have to worry over getting loaded and taken to some nearby location and fearful, worried. I guess they might have woke up with different plans, but in the end, it will be quick and over with fast. That’s good.

I have made a big decision though… I don’t think I’m going ahead with my tenative plans to grow a pair of hogs ourselves. We just don’t have the right enclosure for them. I’m not ruling it out, because I think it’s a good thing and I have friends that would like a share of a pair of hogs. But this year? I just don’t really have a good place for them and I’m not sure if I will have the funds to prepare a spot for them. It’s like my decision to put off beekeeping for another year. I just don’t see us needing that much honey right away. I’m reading this cool book right now… it’s called Make the Bread and Buy the Butter. By Jennifer Reese. The author goes into all sorts of things like making cheese, and doing homemade products, what is worthwhile and what is a hassle. She talked about raising animals and such and to be honest, her frank talk about beekeeping made me reconsider at the moment.

We don’t use that much honey in a year. Maybe… MAYBE a gallon. I do use it in cooking, and I do like it for baking and such. But honestly, over the year? I think I could probably just make do with some of the local keeper’s golden delight and feel just fine about handing over $20 or $30 for it. I was pricing the start up costs and I think it would be easily close to $500. I could probably shave some off that cost by building my own hive, but in the end, I would need a good deal of beginning equipment and well, that makes that gallon of honey pretty darn expensive. I think it can wait a year or two. I’m not giving up on it completely, I’m just shelving it for a bit.

And the hogs things… yeah, hmmm… again, there are local people selling sides and halves and all that of their nicely raised hogs that I could always encourage without worrying if my hogs would break through our probably hillbilly rigged enclosure and wreck havoc through the homestead. I’m still a little gun shy after the goat adventure! A 300 pound wild hog would be hard for the girls and I to wrangle! I think we should probably keep our livestock addition to one species a year. This year, it’s turkeys. Maggie wants to raise a batch of turkeys. And we like fowl and know fowl pretty good now. I think that’s good. I want to keep learning more about hogs, because I’m pretty darn sure that once we get one of Sir Loin’s juicy roasts in the oven and on our plates, we’re GOING to taste a difference. I just want to make sure I’m ready to do it right. And that means learning more and researching the right and easy way to keep them happy and healthy and grown right.

Tomorrow is the last day of our very first year here at the homestead. One full year, four full seasons. Windhaven has tried to kick our butts but we made it. We have gotten through a whole year and weathered each and every challenge and blessing that came our ways and we’re still smiling and content and pleased with our efforts. It’s a huge change from that bleak cold wintery day last year that we pulled up to the door with keys in hand and a to do list twenty hundred items long! At least. We have a wonderful home, lots of possibilities, critters galore and some pretty amusing stories to share. Not too bad for a couple of newbie farm chicks! We have fixed up, rehabbed, acquired stock, bred stock, eaten of our own stock and regained a bit of personal self sufficiency skills along the way. We’re bona-fide! We started with just a little three acres of neglect and now we have a functioning, growing homestead and a year full of wonderful memories, accomplishments and HUGE blessings. Thanks for coming along on the ride! Year Two is going to be more and more fun!!! We can’t wait to see what the journey holds in store!!!