What a week!

After a lot of tearful deliberations we had decided our pig Thumbelina had to go. I had organized the home kill man to come on Monday and spent the weekend before mentally preparing myself for it. I had also decided that I was going to butcher her myself and spent a lot of time researching and printing out diagrams.

A Sunday night call about the time confirmed Tuesday then.

Tuesday morning was spent in a daze, cleaning everything and getting the other animals sorted, so I wouldn't have to do anything major for the next couple of days.
At 2pm he arrived and by 3pm she was hanging under cover behind the rabbits.
I was very pleased having stuck with the original plan, as Vic is a very gentle and kind person and he undertook the job with the utmost professionality and kindness. Considering his job, I found this the most pleasing aspect.
On Wednesday morning I had Kara home sick, which made me feel a bit worried, but I just went ahead as professional and calm as I could be. She was keen on observing me, so any qualms or squeamishness I might have felt, I had to subdue.
Fortunately my husband had supplied me with an ample supply of sharp and appropriate tools and the job got done a lot faster than I had anticipated: by the afternoon I had made her up into all the parcels I wanted and packed her away into the fridge.

Kara, who had been the most adamant about not killing her, was ready for pork chops for dinner at the end of it! But I decided we were going to have our first home grown meal on the weekend for Sunday lunch. With mashed potatoes, apple sauce and homemade Sauerkraut.
And it was beautiful! Moist, and what struck me as most interesting: no pig sty smell. Store bought pork always smells like a dirty pig sty. Not this one. The children hooved into it, and even cleaned up the bones. Winner all round I'd say.

With the freezer being full of meat, we got 33kgs of ready to eat meat, and then some bits and bobs that I have to do something with, we are feeling rather rich. Quantity and Quality wise.

The first pics were taken by me, than Kara decided to document the process too.

On top of that we had a mother-of-gale on the weekend, with a major power cut on Saturday. We had been invited to our friends for dinner, and were wondering how they would manage without power. The other neighbour's had rushed to their aid with a big diesel generator and a gas barbecue and all was on track!
We had a lovely turkey dinner, with all the trimmings, and even got to see a slide show: another neighbour had been for a month in Afghanistan to teach tractor driving!
By the time we got back home still no power, so straight to bed! And in the morning? Still nothing. After realizing that and drawing a film picture for the tv, the kids got on with life playing a board game!!
Ross started our little generator to boost the freezers and I had cooked Breakfast on our trusty fire place and by the time I had brewed a coffee for Ross it was back on again.
Interesting exercise in survival and we did pretty well actually.
Glad to have electricity back though, the generator was deafeningly loud due to a corroded exhaust.

That's it for now, having quiet times for a while now.

TTFN