Hog butchering

While I can't say that hog butchering is completely behind us since bacons are still curing to be sliced and vacuum-sealed tomorrow, we are close! And my window to write about it is now, so here I am! We also just got the piglets moved to their winter paddock (they have graduated to the larger pen/house and seem quite pleased with it). They were so frisky, tearing around the pen in circles, but stopping now and then for back, belly and ear scratches! They were too excited to eat much of the pumpkin we had for them and didn't want to stand still for us to clip off their ear tags. 

Hog butchering weekend felt like it kind of snuck up on us this year  with our focus going in multiple directions, but especially focused on Mom and Dad's final transition to Tangly Woods. I was grateful for a few minutes out by the scalding pan fire early the first morning to sip coffee in the dark and ponder the day ahead. I am always so grateful when the killing part is done and has gone smoothly. I can feel my whole body relax. I relate a lot to this section of Wendell Berry's essay, The Neighborly Art of Hog Killing, where he notes that "the primary...artist of the day would be the shooter...In an industrial slaughterhouse, living animals are treated as if they are already dead. But the hogs we were preparing to kill that day belonged to this farm...[We] had raised them, fed and watered them, cared for them, observed and known each one of them...everybody's first thought was that none of them should be frightened or hurt." 

A lot of hog butchering weekend has (thankfully) become routine. We have slowly gotten our systems set up and have our roles more or less clarified on who does what. But there are always variables that make each year unique. This year we butchered 3 hogs and had 3 families each getting one. With Covid still a consideration, we kept the event pretty low key, but there were still more humans milling about than has been typical at Tangly Woods this past year and a half plus! And for the younger generation, the learning is a bit different each year, with their ever changing abilities and interests.

The first day always feels more chill for me. I help a little with the butchering but am more involved keeping other systems flowing (the chores and making food and tending to any other non-butchering home needs). Jason has his hands literally in the pigs more or less all day! There is not nearly as much that the girls can do on the first day and any help they offer is more for the experience and learning than it is making a dent in the work of the day. Day 2 is another story. Any willing and helpful hands are welcome! On guinea hogs there is plenty of lard to cut up, and these were no exception. Now all our kids are able to do this well, but this year Alida was getting pretty curious about other processes and learning about the different cuts of meat. She really likes novelty and so tired quickly of the monotony of cutting slab after slab of lard into chunks. I admit that I was pretty tired of it by the end too!

I love downloading pictures when various kids have had the camera. And we get some unique perspectives, especially when Terah was behind the lens. I had to chuckle with this one with me nearly hidden by the large slabs of pork. There were times in my life where I would have said such a scene would never have me in it, and definitely not smiling. 

The last moment of relaxing on day 2 was the delicious and enjoyable lunch break. And then it was the cascade of way too many things to do before nightfall. 

Oh, I also did savor the kids gobbling up the pig tongue. Most of us tried it but I think the 3 youngest kids present were the ones that probably ate 2 of the 3 tongues by themselves. They loved it!!

There was lard rendering to monitor (and to fish the whole potatoes out of it so we could enjoy one of our favorite yearly snacks) and then ponhoss to strain and sort meat for and then add cornmeal/salt/pepper and pan up.

We filled the lard kettle full and even gave away a 5 gallon bucket of diced pork fat to a friend. We jarred up about 14 gallons of lard from 3 pigs. Yes, that is a huge amount.

When we finally crawled into bed late that night after two early mornings and a series of late nights, I commented that I hope I'll be able to enjoy hog butchering more next year. I'm already looking back on it with fondness and nostalgia (which I have a habit of doing) but for about half of the 2nd day I felt overwhelmed to the point of being near tears. I think it was having hog butchering coinciding with so many other big life things and feeling challenged to just stay present to what was right in front of me. 

One of the things on my mind in those days was preparing for the adventure ahead of us as we prepare for the upcoming holidays. We had become excited about the prospect of spending Christmas with one of Jason's siblings and spouse, but were in conversations about what precautions we would need to take to make a blending of our households possible. In order to make our gathering safe for them to join, our conversations led us to the point of needing our quarantine to involve splitting our T.W. home into to two unique air spaces. This initially felt rather overwhelming to consider, but that is pretty common for me. Now, after some time to adjust, I'm starting to see a whole variety of silver linings and possible gifts of this time. I'll name a few here:

- we are having the opportunity to try out new ways of being with Mom and Dad. The girls have already spent some time at the swing set or out on the deck with Mom. And, after getting out of our walking together habit, Mom and I have weekly walks on the calendar.

- we have not had to give up nearly as much as so many families have during Covid. And so this time of talking through windows or limiting our time together is not something I would have chosen to do without a good reason, but it's making me feel a deep sense of gratitude for the ease and flow between our households normally.

- for my dad, he noted that yesterday (our first quarantine day) was his quietest day at Tangly Woods ever! I have hopes that this time will give my parents a chance to settle in and experience their home here in new ways. 

- I'm getting to enjoy the constant chatter and singing of Christmas carols in the background that I often miss when kids "migrate" upstairs. I'm happy to share them, but I'm enjoying the background noise as they play Rook or put puzzles together (at least I like when the background noise is pleasant!). 

We will be eager to pod back up at the end of the year, and I hope we can all make the most of the next few weeks as the flow here at Tangly Woods looks pretty different. I've been switching around a saying I grew up hearing a lot. Rather than saying "no great loss without some small gain," I feel like looking back this time will be characterized by "no great gain without some small losses." We are all super excited about the chance to be with some family that we have not been able to spend much time at all with during Covid. 

p.s. Well this is probably an indication of how discombobulated I feel some days! I just found on the blog a draft I started on Wednesday November 10. It was one of those days that just unfolded with me getting my hands in one project after another on the home front. I never finished it, but it was a pretty good snaphot of a Wednesday (my "at home catch up day!"): Alida just commented "You managed to make some good things today!" In retrospect, I spent the majority of today in the kitchen. Here's how it went down. Jason and I enjoyed coffee while reading more of Christy Harrison's Anti-Diet book together. One chapter to go! Then I did the chicken and pig chores with Alida while Jason did some computer stuff (a nice reversal of roles for an hour). And then here's how my day in the kitchen unfolded: first thing in the morning I had started milk heating for yogurt and cheddar cheese. Those processes continued over the course of several hours while I started in on other projects. There was amaranth porridge for breakfast. And a day off zoom meant I finally had the bandwidth to crystallize some of our homegrown ginger. I made parmesan out of the dried cheddar rinds that had been building up on the counter. I processed the persimmons in the fridge and made chocolate persimmon muffins with 100% Tangly Woods rye flour. If I was going to to have the oven on anyway, I got some more delicata squash ready for roasting/taste testing for seed. Then there was a build up of seeds in the fridge from previous testings to roast along with the ones not selected for seed today. I noticed this morning the gorgeous stinging nettle patch while doing chores so also made some nettle garlic buttermilk biscuits, this time with 100% Tangly Woods cornmeal and rye flour. As we got rolling on our newly instituted Wednesday family cleaning night, I noted the paprika peppers that were starting to go bad so got those cleaned up and into the dehydrator to make into paprika tomorrow morning...