Fall Pig Butchering

Well, we were hoping to be putting the pigs (hogs now) in the freezer by now, but the weather certainly has not been cooperating. However, we have set the date with our friends for December 31st. Surely, it will be cold enough by then. I certainly can't wait as they are eating us out of house and home at this point. Right now they are going through approximately 100 lbs. of grain a week in addition to whatever scraps and acorns we can get to them. We have one that is at about 300 lbs and will more than likely be well over by the end of the month. I try to get them about 5-10 lbs of acorns a day, but since I have to process them beforehand somedays they get less than that. Our acorns are mostly red oak variety and so have more tannin than white acorns. The pigs will eat a few of them without being processed but not many. If I process them then they chow down and eat them all up. At 1700 calories per pound they are worth the trouble to process. I just keep thinking about all that yummy meat and lard that we will get. While the pigs have definitely been a good amount of trouble, I will definitely do this again next year. I guess I am a glutton for punishment! I will say that they have done an awesome job tilling and clearing roots from the area they are in. It is now arable plantable land and will make a great expansion to the garden. Now I just have to decide what to put in there when the time comes. When the day comes I will put up a picture tutorial on how to process hogs at home. I have decided that is one things that I need to do is to put up tutorials on all the animals that we process so look forward to those coming soon. Have a blessed day!