One great feeling of achievement is being able to put meat on the table, literally. Monkeyman & MoTitmouse are great teachers and lead by example. He slaughtered the pig, we skinned it & cut into pieces for freezing, curing & smoking & whatever else came to mind. Now all of this is quite a feat, but imagine going to the livestock auction & buying that pig first. While at the auction we toured the pens in the back, seeing pigs of various age & size, goats & sheep of several breeds. An auction is an amazing fast paced marketplace. There were probably 200 or 300 buyers & sellers on site while we were there. Auction starts at 5:00pm prox and finishes when last animal sold, which could well be midnight. The tour was so much better because Monkeyman knows a pretty fair amount about livestock. The pig we purchased was 340 lbs and probably dressed out around 240 lbs. Now let's see 240 lbs of meat for $71.65, uh, that sounds like .30 cents a lb and about 7 hours of our time from slaughter to end of cutting. He has made this offer to others and I can only say it is most definitely a worthwhile venture. My freezer is looking so good & I look forward to being able to add some beef as well. annie
And dont forget the chickens. lol Thanks, glad you enjoyed it and learned from it, we had fun too. Im still kicking myself for letting those silver quarters at the auction go for $1.60 each though. I dont know that I would say Im a especialy knowledgable on livestock and at least not any expert but have tried to pick up at least the basics on the critters. I think we will have to be sure to wait for the weather to be better and be SURE it isnt going to pop off 80 the day after the slaughter before we do a beef though. lol So have you tried any of the fresh meat yet?
That's great..... it's an awesome feeling isn't it? Now you've got one more step to take..... it's almost deer season!
Cool! Great experience!... I still remember my first wild pig... butchered it up in the mountains and carried it down.... figured it would be lighter that way and might as well leave the rest for the other pigs...
YUMMY fresh pork. Once you do a few animals it just becomes secound nature. People have asked me to teach them but what they really want is for me to do it and them get the meat. That teaches you nothing. Unless you get in there and do the work you don't get anything but a meal. Congrats Annie you have done what most won't and it puts you that much more ahead of the game. OGM
Have I tasted the meat yet ? Oh yeah, put many bones in the pressure cooker, and cooked till the meat fell off. That meat will go into goetta, scrapple or simmer it a bit with my home made barbecue sauce. One bone was about 18" long & Weps kindly cut it in half for me to be able to get it into any pan ! There is probably conservatively 10-15 lbs of meat from cooking those bones ! Oh yeah, lotsa barbecue. Actually Monkeyman, I was trying to forget those chickens, the worst of the whole thing for me. Think I have probably forgotten animals from sale barn, but it is the best & worst tired for me in a very long time, never said it was easy. lol Oh and for anyone who might be interested, Monkeyman has a way with blade sharpening that is absolutely the ULTIMATE ! My filet knife has been with me for about 30 years, and never has it been sharper than after his fine tuning (a great big 4 minutes maybe). And just in case I was to tired to remember my manners, THANK YOU BOTH, so very much. annie
Very nice, annie! And Hooray for MM and MT for sharing their knowledge and experience with you. "...teach a man to fish..." Lovin' it!!
From MOtitmouse: Thanks Annie for not mentioning tha I talk to all the animals alive and dead. lol Monkeymans just used to it.
MM & MT, roflmao, but I do confess to telling my son. Of course he quipped, soooooo you do too ! You have just provided the chuckle for the day that I've needed since 4:30 or so. annie
yeah she does talk to her cat , just like it's human...i have a weird mom.....lol and she has done deer , about 4 so far i think , one she got with my truck...lol, and one she shot , a spine shot at that!!! and with deer season coming up , it looks like i might need to buy a new , bigger freezer...groan thanks monkey and titmouse for taking good care of her down there. P.S. monkey , you need to show me your secret way of sharping a knife , i thought i did a good job till i seen what her knife will now do!!! Weps Out!
Congrats!!!! As that is a HUGE accomplishment... which many will never experience. One day though it could be "DO IT, or DIE!" Most will probably do the latter... kinda like a deja vu of Hurricane Katrina!?!?! ~W~
Well, main thing I do is I have medium and fine dimond stones (the set ran like $20). I start on the medium grit with circular to get to a basic edge then draw it across like to take off thin slices of the stone. Once it is smothed and down to an edge then I draw it about a dozen times on each side on the fine stone like shaveing off slices, then if I have it handy I hit it a few times with a sharpening steel. A thin blade like a filet knife is pretty easy as long as you have a decent stone. The main thing is to keep the same angle all the time and make sure when you get it fully sharp and get the 'foil curl' edge on it the raise the angle just eanouph for one or 2 pases on each side to remove the foil there OR cut a slice or 2 through a sheet of paper to remove it. We were glad to have her and if comes down again we should be able to do better o lodgeing. While our camper isnt in the best shape we FINALY got out today and cleared it out where it had been used as storage. So now should actualy be able to do it as a guest room again. Still not great but better than a tent at least.
You cleaned out the camper?!?!? I'll be damned. Miracles and all that.... I got to meet Annie briefly (during the chicken escapade). Was nice to be able to put a face to a name finally. I'm afraid I was lazy and didn't help the butchering or wrapping, though. Had to get back to work (ick). HOWEVER.....
Yup, still isnt 'cleaned' but its at least cleared out so theres room to get into it and have a spot to crash. Now once I get the propane bottle filled and make sure I have the flowr pot it can be heated as well, or COULD use a space heater. It aint the rits but might beat a ten in unplesant weather or if the ground dont like to let go.
