I belong to a VA farm bartering group on Facebook. It's fun seeing what people put on there. One day I saw a Tamworth barrow for trade. The young lady was interested in trading for lots of different things, one of them being goats. I have lots of goat kids that need homes this year so I said I'd be interested in trading 2 kids for her pig. Actually, now I'm thinking the ad was on Craigslist. Whatever. She was two hours away and I wasn't really interested in driving that far since I didn't really need another pig. Strangely enough, her grandparents live just minutes from us and she makes the trip this way pretty often and said she'd deliver Bacon. That's the name she gave the pig. I've decided to change his name to Kevin Bacon. I think he has a strong resemblance to the actor. Don't you agree?
He took to the name right away :)
I thought this summer we might have a pig roast and if we were going to do the slaughtering ourselves it would be good to start with a pig I hadn't raised from a little guy. I'm not sure it's going to be any easier though because he's a friendly thing, rolls over for tummy rubs just like some of my other pigs and follows us around talking. He's smaller than I expected him to be and super hairy. I've never owned a hairy pig. He's the color of Raisa. Unlike our other pigs, his ears are erect.
Being the gracious hostess she is, Roxie promptly welcomed him by tossing him 8 feet in the air with her nose. He didn't seem too upset by it. Later the large black hogs chased him and were biting at him. Baxter took his turn showing him how great his herding skills are. Today I see they're leaving him alone and he's grazing closer to them. It will probably be just a matter of time before he's sleeping with them, making their quarters even tighter. It's funny how they choose to sleep all crowded together. These arrangements will probably change soon. Mickey appears to be heavy with piglets. Every day she gets rounder. She seems more winded and stares off into space. Her udder is not developed yet so I really have no idea how soon it will be but I'm going to guess in the next couple weeks.
It's going to be fun having little spotted pigs running around.
I thought this summer we might have a pig roast and if we were going to do the slaughtering ourselves it would be good to start with a pig I hadn't raised from a little guy. I'm not sure it's going to be any easier though because he's a friendly thing, rolls over for tummy rubs just like some of my other pigs and follows us around talking. He's smaller than I expected him to be and super hairy. I've never owned a hairy pig. He's the color of Raisa. Unlike our other pigs, his ears are erect.
Being the gracious hostess she is, Roxie promptly welcomed him by tossing him 8 feet in the air with her nose. He didn't seem too upset by it. Later the large black hogs chased him and were biting at him. Baxter took his turn showing him how great his herding skills are. Today I see they're leaving him alone and he's grazing closer to them. It will probably be just a matter of time before he's sleeping with them, making their quarters even tighter. It's funny how they choose to sleep all crowded together. These arrangements will probably change soon. Mickey appears to be heavy with piglets. Every day she gets rounder. She seems more winded and stares off into space. Her udder is not developed yet so I really have no idea how soon it will be but I'm going to guess in the next couple weeks.
I really admire you for being able to even contemplate eating something you've been introduced to, as Alice would say. Your pigs look delicious and adorable. How do you work that out?
ReplyDeleteWell Virginia, usually we take them to the butcher so we're a little bit removed, but slaughtering a large animal ourselves may be tough. I'll let you know how we work that out if we do.
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