We decided that this evening would be a good time to butcher one of the hogs. The weather was comfortable, but temperatures were quickly dropping back down to freezing. It's 26 degrees now so we should be good letting the carcass hang overnight.
The hog we chose for tonight was one of the sows that we no longer want to breed. She had given us two litters, but the piglets didn't grow very quickly. She, herself was a small sow and I guess she had been passing on her small genes to her offspring. (We will also butcher the other sow soon for the same reasons.)
Matthew did the shooting this time. I don't know what our homestead ever did before we got this Marlin 30-30:
Matthew's shot dropped her immediately, and then Simon did the "sticking". It was his first time slitting the throat of an animal and he did great!
The hog thrashes about and shakes after it is shot and it is during this time that you have to cut the throat. You have to cut pretty deeply and thoroughly so it will bleed out.
With his first job going so smoothly, it looks like Simon is a natural!
We got the old John Deere backhoe out to make the hanging easier. Matthew is our backhoe operator:
Here is something we got for ourselves this Christmas. It is a scale we can use to see what the hanging weight is of our animals we butcher:
This was the first time we had a scale, so we were eager to try it out:
This picture didn't take very well, but it says this hog weighs 260 pounds:
This picture didn't take very well, but it says this hog weighs 260 pounds:
Here is Matthew and Christina at the beginning of the skinning job:
And the next pictures are of the scene when it was all finished. We will let it hang during this 26 degree night and cut it up sometime tomorrow. This was the first time we used our John Deere to help in butchering and the front end loader made everything much easier:
This should be some good pork, and we are thankful to God for His provisions!
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