On Saturday, The Spouse and I loaded the girls into a borrowed trailer and drove them off to be killed. It felt like I spent more time glancing into the rear vision mirror checking the girls than I did watching the road. I was really quite nervous towing two hundred kilos of pig down the highway, especially when Sweety started to lean on the trailer’s gate.I had visions of one of the girls leaping out of the trailer and I had to stop myself from imagining all kinds of mayhem.
I was relieved when I turned off the highway onto the gravel road and I could just dawdle along at 60 k’s. I had never towed a trailer for any distance before and it really feels like you are driving with the handbrake on and the arse end of the car feels all floaty.
When we arrived at our destination, The Spouse took over and reversed the trailer into position.With a bit of encouragement and a bucket of pellets, the girls just hopped out into a stock crate and started to eat.
‘X’ gave the girls a pat and as I watched him scratching Blue behind the ear, I felt heaps better about letting him kill the girls. He had a nice easy manner about him and I could tell that he genuinely liked pigs.
We discussed how I wanted the girls cut up and all the while he was giving Blue a bit of a scratch behind her ear and I felt so much lighter. I didn’t realise how much the thought of someone else killing my animals had been stressing me out. Because what is the point of raising your own animals if at the end they are going to be killed badly. I left X’s place confident that the girls would be killed quickly, cleanly and efficiently.
As we drove down the long drive way, the top two boards of the trailer fell off. The spouse and I looked at each other and went, “Fuck we’re glad that didn’t happen half an hour ago!”
We go back and pick up the pork next Saturday. Veronica is keen to have a go at making some bacon and pancetta as well as some ham and she is going to be detailing the process she goes through on her food blog.
I mooched around the house all afternoon twittering that I had empty sty syndrome. It is really quiet here without the girls. I will be getting some more pigs soon but we, meaning ‘The Spouse’, will have to do some work to the pig sty and their run before I can have any more piggies.
I have uploaded a short, 90 second clip showing the girls in their pen. You can see how they have eaten nearly all the greenery in this front part of their run. I want to extend the run and make it a bit sturdier with permanent fences so that it is easier to move the girls around.I also want to have a bit of a vegie garden down there as well with raised garden beds made from sheets of corrugated iron.
At the end of the clip when I am giggling and the camera is waving all over the place, it is because Blue came up to me and shook herself like a dog, spraying me with mud. I was trying to hop back over the electric fence before she could rub against me and get me even muddier. Harry the dog was about to leap in and protect me as well and you can hear me telling him to get back, which he did.
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I’m a long time lurker here!
Much as the thought of killing piggy friends makes me squeamish I know your way is much more respectful (and respectable) than the wholesale, often wasteful slaughter that characterises the way most of us Aussies get our meat.
I’m jealous of your pork chops already. I recently ate veal that came from my friend’s family’s calf. It was SO much better than what we get in the supermarket.
Pork chops. Nomness!!!
And I love your vid. And I love your voice.XO
Wow I heard your voice, how odd after all this time of reading your blog. Happy pigs = happy meat. Enjoy.
Aw, cute piggies, and fun to finally hear your voice!
Ah .. sad to say goodbye to piggies! I couldn’t do it ..but I am not a farmer!
Camera quandry – the bigger camera is obviously the way to go but to me it’s complicated. I had a few lessons/pointers from Jeanette yesterday as my hubby has a Canon 350 and she says I need to learn how to use it – mine is so much easier (it’s like yours) but it doesn’t have the quality of photos
LOVE the headline. Hello pork chops.
And ham, bacon, sausages…..
I like ham and occasionally eat bacon too, but pork as meat is something I can’t even put in my mouth. The taste is totally repellant to me.
I completely respect you for raising your own pigs. I always say that people should be responsible for their own food, instead of buying it in sterile packets from the supermarket. If more people had to raise and kill their own meat, there would be a lot more respect for our food.
I know I wouldn’t be able to do it… 🙂
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I’m glad all went well Kim. I’m sure their meat is going to be delicious, because they were very happy piggies up until the last minutes of their lives. I loved the video, the piggie looked like she was enjoying her bath very much!
Oh totally yummy! I wish I could come over for dinner 😉
Hey, sexy ads!
Mmmmm, yum yum. Well done you – responsible breeding of your own tea is a good thing. Not sure the husb would let me have pigs in our little garden!
blogwalking friend
What do you want to exchange links with me?
I gotta say, it’s pretty interesting that you raise your own pigs. I’ve never heard of anybody doing that for food that isn’t a farmer.