Buster
Lovin' The Homestead
So my neighbor's hog gets loose last night and onto my property. I rounded him up and DW called my neighbor to let him know.
Several times.
Late in the evening here comes my neighbor and his daughter, so I go to let the pig out of pen so we could chase him home.
Except he isn't in the pen. He had broken the hinges on the gate and was escaping toward the back of my property and in the direction of my neighbor's. I'm a little ticked, but understand these things can happen. I now know at least this particular pen is not pig proof.
I get him going in the right direction and turn him over to my neighbors, then return to check the damages and repair my gate.
About 15 minutes later, from the back corner of my property, I hear BAM!! BAM!!
What the H???
I jump in the truck and head back there, and there is my neighbor standing next to a stone dead hog, rifle lying on the ground, a pocket knife in his hand as he leans over his piggy. I guess pig took one wrong turn too many.
He looks up with a helpless look on his face like "Oh sh__ what have I done" and says, "I'll give you half if you help me butcher him."
I think for minute and reply, "Have you ever butchered one?"
"Nope, but I saw how to do it on YouTube. You?"
"No. But I watched a friend butcher a goat the other day. How different could it be?"
The blind leading the blind.
"Could your friend help?"
"I don't think so. He's Muslim."
Guy gets a big grin and says, "Yeah that might not go over so well. So can you help me?"
I said we could give it a shot.
I went back up to run some hose back there, along with my deer dressing stand (I've never dressed a deer either. I bought if for 50 pound turkeys.) while he dragged the pig close enough for the hose to reach. DW went home a sharpened our butcher knives so we wouldn't be limited to his pocket knife.
It really wasn't all that different from my goat experience. It ties up the same, guts the same, skins kind of the same except it it difficult to tell when the meat stops and the fat starts, at least in the headlights of a pickup truck at 10:00 at night.
We were about 90% done when my wife pipes up out of pride about how far I have come since my massive heart attack what was it 7 years ago. Two minutes later the guy says, "Well, I think that's good enough for now. I'll take him in and have him finished up at a butcher shop in the morning."
Afraid I was going to keel over right in the middle of dressing out this pig, I guess.
He thanks me profusely, insists I accept half the hog. I told him I didn't feel right about that since he spent all that money and time raising it. Said I would take a few pork chops though and maybe he could help me butcher a goat when he gets back from Iraq.
I returned home with not a little pride in what we had accomplished. I learned a lot last night. Probably the two most important were 1) I can do this thing and 2) never tick off my neighbor.
Several times.
Late in the evening here comes my neighbor and his daughter, so I go to let the pig out of pen so we could chase him home.
Except he isn't in the pen. He had broken the hinges on the gate and was escaping toward the back of my property and in the direction of my neighbor's. I'm a little ticked, but understand these things can happen. I now know at least this particular pen is not pig proof.
I get him going in the right direction and turn him over to my neighbors, then return to check the damages and repair my gate.
About 15 minutes later, from the back corner of my property, I hear BAM!! BAM!!
What the H???
I jump in the truck and head back there, and there is my neighbor standing next to a stone dead hog, rifle lying on the ground, a pocket knife in his hand as he leans over his piggy. I guess pig took one wrong turn too many.
He looks up with a helpless look on his face like "Oh sh__ what have I done" and says, "I'll give you half if you help me butcher him."
I think for minute and reply, "Have you ever butchered one?"
"Nope, but I saw how to do it on YouTube. You?"
"No. But I watched a friend butcher a goat the other day. How different could it be?"
The blind leading the blind.
"Could your friend help?"
"I don't think so. He's Muslim."
Guy gets a big grin and says, "Yeah that might not go over so well. So can you help me?"
I said we could give it a shot.
I went back up to run some hose back there, along with my deer dressing stand (I've never dressed a deer either. I bought if for 50 pound turkeys.) while he dragged the pig close enough for the hose to reach. DW went home a sharpened our butcher knives so we wouldn't be limited to his pocket knife.
It really wasn't all that different from my goat experience. It ties up the same, guts the same, skins kind of the same except it it difficult to tell when the meat stops and the fat starts, at least in the headlights of a pickup truck at 10:00 at night.
We were about 90% done when my wife pipes up out of pride about how far I have come since my massive heart attack what was it 7 years ago. Two minutes later the guy says, "Well, I think that's good enough for now. I'll take him in and have him finished up at a butcher shop in the morning."
Afraid I was going to keel over right in the middle of dressing out this pig, I guess.
He thanks me profusely, insists I accept half the hog. I told him I didn't feel right about that since he spent all that money and time raising it. Said I would take a few pork chops though and maybe he could help me butcher a goat when he gets back from Iraq.
I returned home with not a little pride in what we had accomplished. I learned a lot last night. Probably the two most important were 1) I can do this thing and 2) never tick off my neighbor.
