more farm skills

Since it is now officially spring, we have the great pleasure to get out in the garden and start the planting for this year.  And this year, the peas we planted the other day are going to have a new look.  We cut some branches off the "down" wood in the woods, and then plugged them into the ground for a trellis of sorts.  And a pretty, natural kind of trellis at that!  I love natural looking, functional things.

And to the city slicker, we looked like pros taking the pig into the butcher shop tonight.  To the farmer . . . we looked like what we really are . . . GREEN at it all!

Our pig reached the grand scale weight of about 344 lbs so it was time to take him to the market.  That weight, plus I had already put close to $250 worth of feed in him.  The trip to the butcher shop started the other day with putting a hitch on the van.  Which  didn't work.  So we "phoned and friend" who helped us out with his truck.  Along with the borrowed truck, and the borrowed trailer, we coaxed the pig to the end of the barn, and with lots of help, and using some old futon bed frames, got him in the trailer with relative ease.  I was quite impressed with the children and their help.

For those that want to know how to weigh a pig that you can't actually pick up, you simple follow the string (or flexible tape measure) method.  Measure the distance from between the ears to the tail.  Then measure around the heart girth right behind the front legs.  Multiply the hearth girth, times the heart girth, times the length and divide by four hundred.  For example, if the measurement of your pigs length is 53, and the heart girth is 48, then the math would look like this . . . 48 x 48 x 53 = 122,112.  Then divide that number by 400. It goes like this . . . 122,112 / 400 = 305.28  At that point, you can estimate that your pig weighs around 300lbs!  Once you get over 300 lbs, this way tends to over estimate the weight by a few pounds.  As well, if the pig is under 50 lbs, it will tend to underestimate the weight a slight bit.

All this to say that we will have some choice cut pork in the freezer in the next couple of days that averaged us around $1.74 a pound, and a whole new set of farm skills.