How We Prepared to Butcher 2 Pigs at Home

You're gonna go do the sea monsters? You're gonna weigh them in for us? Yep. Okay, get 3 weights. Oh snap, is it drizzling? It's drizzling. Oh my gosh, Josiah, will you find our umbrella? Shoot. We're not complaining though, Josiah, are we? We're dancing. Our pig food scraps, that's some cabbage, banana peels, pineapple edges, old kale. We're gonna get my hair out for today. This is our last time feeding them, those ladies. Skim milk. Look who's taking over the turkey pulps. It's actually pig butchering day tomorrow. We're all helping out. Gonna make sure we have one more check to make sure we have everything we need. Hey, how'd all that grain spill?

There's a hole in it and I lifted it up.

Oh yeah, you didn't know about that. We've been leaving it outside because it got punctured.

Papa, I need another bag of chicken— I mean turkey grain.

Oh, okay. Wait, is, is this— is that almost empty?

It's like almost empty, like it's only like this full.

Oh good, that was good enough. Breakfast posse. We're gonna also check and see, make sure the Everflow water is still going 24 hours later. Wait, wait, wait, I was gonna do a count. Hold on, how many did we let out? 1, 2, 3, 4. It's just kind of 8, 9, 10, 11. All right, there's 32 plus a good and somebody's dead in the back. Can you go get that dead bird, Gideon? That's handy to have a little guy. We could open the hatch. We can open the hatch if you don't want to do that. This could be bad because I don't know how long this bird's been in there. Wow, so it's probably just a couple days old. It's dead. Don't want to feed that to your animals though, it's probably rotten. Oh look, it's still working! Good deal. Yes! Hey, we'll get it to you guys. Look at you carry that big bucket. They've almost got— that's pretty much compost. Look, 2 eggs in the new compost. Thank you, my man. Right next door to the chickens, a pasture that we planted after pigs. Pigs converted this from a garden to a pasture, and What do we have? We have lamb's quarter. We didn't plant that, but that's coming up. But what we did plant is clover, fescue, orchard grass, and look, I'm excited about this— alfalfa. I don't think we sowed this. I couldn't identify it. See, it's— I don't know what it is, but the cows like it. The sheep love it. Hey, the beautiful one! What's on the agenda today?

Well, I want to see what the rain is going to do, and I need to get—

you don't have an 8-inch potting— oh, you can pot those up.

I could pot them up, but you're just wanting to just set them out. I just want to get them out.

Um, how much growth out of a 2-inch block? I know.

Um, I need to get these out, so you need to get those out.

Why is your tray broke?

It's okay. Um, and then I want to get these flowers— the flowers that I have in here still are going to go around that.

Yeah, the grower board didn't break.

Cool. All right, you got everything packed? Feed for the pigs, water for the ewes, fat hens. And Jonah got our numbers. We're at just We're at 3 pounds average, uh, industry standard 3.2. So we're only a hair behind, and I'm thinking that's because our chickens are actually free to roam, so they burn more calories, and they're soy-free. So I think we're doing really good. Look at that centipede, man. All right, you guys ready? I gotta move these fat hens. Up this steep hill. It's one of the hardest moves on the farm. It should be a good morning workout. I gotta go zigzag up the hill, easier than going straight up it. All right, free the birds! Here they are.

They want me for dinner.

Yeah, they will. You better be careful about laying down in there. Oh, this is weird. Last time we're not feeding them tomorrow morning because we don't want them to have full bellies going into butchering. We appreciate you guys, we really do. We appreciate you converting our food waste into just beautiful sausage, ham, bacon, pork chops, bacon. Yeah, and don't you like— look, Gideon, don't you like the composition of sausage especially? Yeah, look how rounded. That's a skim milk. That's a skim milk pig right there. Be delicious. It's, it's hard when you have just 2 pigs and you come out here and feed them every day and you enjoy them, you pet them, and you, you make sure you care for them and give them fresh ground and make sure they're getting enough to eat, and then you have to end it. I'll help you guys. But actually, I would have it no other way than me ending it. Insist. I need to feel the weight of that responsibility. I need to take that on. I need to feel the weight of that sacrifice. I don't need to trust anybody else, uh, to do it anymore anyway. I mean, in the beginning you just want it to get done nice and clean, humane. So you have other people do it and teach you, but then as soon as possible, you get that weight on your own shoulders. So tomorrow I'm going to take a couple of lives. Every day something dies so that we can live. Tomorrow it's these guys, gals.

How can I dump you?

It's going to be a bittersweet moment. Good job. So here we're gonna need— we're gonna come up with the tractor. Tractor's gonna need a chain. Josiah, do you know if a chain ever got put in the tractor? And again, barrel we have to put in there. I want to catch their blood too. I want to catch their blood in a feed pan. Some humans use that, but, uh, it's food. But we're not gonna, but we are gonna capture it. Let's bring out a bucket, uh, with some water in it and pour the blood in it, and we'll fertilize where they are in memory of them. We'll have a greener spot here in memory of them, and basically they'll live on forever in the green grass. Bye, gals. Thank you. Feed pan. As soon as we get home, get our plastic feed pan. Okay, get a bucket. Say, get one bucket full of water and one, one bucket with no water in it. Okay, water buckets. And put it in our, our tractor bucket. Okay, maybe we'll do that together. Look, Josie, another centipede! I like to see the wildlife out. Next, this is where we come— this is where we started with the luchadors. This grass is fully recovered. They're way over there, but they're not at the end. But that's okay, we'll skip it in the spring. You got to skip paddock sometimes because you just can't keep up with it. So we'll skip it, mow it, and it'll level it all out. Hey Beck, we got the pigs fed last time. Oh wow, kind of, yeah, kind of emotional.

Oh, did you cry?

No, Gideon was too interruptive for that. Life goes on, buddy, right? We're getting around.

Yes, it does.

Yep, I couldn't get too caught up in the emotions. All right, it's misting. I gotta move the luchadors, so maybe you can do minerals later.

I will do them when it stops.

Yeah, raining. Really, they would need moved tomorrow, but I don't want to do that tomorrow because Um, it's gonna be— we don't need any extra chores tomorrow.

How do we do that?

I hope you get some rest because I'm waking up at 5 in the morning to start that fire. Come, you're gonna go out there with me?

No, go out there as long as it's not raining.

Just kidding. You fair weather farmer?

No, uh, it's just— well, you have your appointment today and I don't want to look like a dirty farm person.

I know, we better get going. Let's milk early.

I already have to wear shoes that are closed-toed because my toes have Dirt all in them. I need to buy a scrub brush for my feet.

Hey, these farmers got to go to town every once in a while.

My fingernails are so gross no matter how many times I scrub them. It's just— yeah, this is not the time to look like a town person.

Okay, this grass, we're wanting to get off of it anyway. It's, uh, it's past its peak. And so it's not going to have as much nutrients as younger grass. That's ready. Let's do it. We're going to drag it with Sally. You guys ready? Big move, big move. Look how excited they are. Primo grass right there, guys. Primo grass. Primo. Time that perfect. Oh man, that wasn't gonna hit. I thought that was gonna hit, so I stopped. You guys sit here, watch that. Tell me if it's gonna hit, and I'm gonna pull it by hand. The feed pan is just to catch it. The pig's down low, that's just easier to catch than in a bucket. We've got all our knives, temperature gauge. Mr. Brown, let's test the tractor. Mark fixed the alternator. Let's just double check, make sure it's charged. We're gonna need the tractor We'll take these gambrels.

Yeah, back there. Okay, because it'll chop your finger.

No, don't ever. You gotta be very careful around a tractor. Got the gambrel. Hey Jonah! Jonah did poke his head out. He's doing the first edit today because I gotta go to town. Hey, how'd the first edit go?

Oh, good, good.

Hey, do you know where the chains are? They weren't where they're supposed to be.

Did you see our office?

No. You want to go look at it? All right, you got shovels?

Yep.

All right, we're gonna, um, work on this scalder, make sure it's safe. Jonah, you got it out here and established, that's good, thank you. We're gonna actually move it away from the logs and get it out here in the open. Uh, we're gonna actually stack 2 blocks well, we're gonna have 6 blocks. Put these on there, you'll see, you guys will see. Let's get to it. We're gonna level it because that's not quite level, so let's get to work on that now. All right, we got it perfectly level. See how we turned our blocks sideways, stacked them on each other? Put 4, and that's very stable. Jonah McMahon, I need chain. We have some chains in here, but it seemed like we had longer ones. Oh look, you've done some work on your office, got some walls in. Good deal. See how that— I found that chain, it's too short.

Okay, there's another one.

I found that one too. Do we not have any others than those? That one's too big, too thick.

On the picky side, like this.

Yeah, because I feel like we have a better chain. There it is, that's it. And what were y'all doing with that? Tire swing?

A tire swing.

Okay, but it's missing a hook, so I guess we can use the hook on the Gambrel. All right, we got our chain for— Jonah was hoping this work. I don't think it's gonna work now that it's wet. This is super slippery. Pallets are good for scraping. How are we gonna get them around with 150 1,000 pounds of logs in our way. Or couldn't we bring Sally— well, no, yeah, we could bring Sally back here. Hey, he's convinced me to throw it, but it definitely works better with the camera. These are wet, waterlogged, and there's an electric fence right there.

Just shoot it through that crack or something.

Ready?

Yeah.

And I just realized we're probably getting sea monsters tomorrow morning and fat hens. Fat— well, they're gonna— chicks at this moment, but they will get bigger. Yeah, I think that'll work. But this pallet, we can't flip it because look, that's the bottom. It needs to be replaced though. Let's, let's, let's replace that pallet. Some nails sticking up. Gonna be as safe as possible. How's our water over here, Jonah? Yep, you can cut that. Better pallet on top. Johnny, you gonna rinse it? Yeah. Nice. Teddy, I got you something for while we milk. Crazy dog loves bananas. You love bananas. Ain't nobody ever seen a dog like a banana. Give him a little work. Got a little— got it in his peel. He can work it out. Oh, there he goes. He must have just ate. He's not too hungry. Oh, you better eat it before that cat does. Oh man, just rubbing on him. That's funny. You bring out the best in me. By your side, I'll forever be. Okay, we got fat hens coming tomorrow. We got sea monsters coming tomorrow. We kind of need these brooders. This was to be a small brooder. That would have been perfect. I designed it to build a brooder, but right now we got storage there until we build some shelves. You guys might need to go out. I'm kind of voting you guys go out today. We'll see what everybody thinks. Thank you, Lily. Next up, Phyllis. We'll miss you. Okay, you give her 2 and a half scoops.

Okay, I need to look for this one.

Hey, this is our last time milking Phyllis. Pretty much. You gonna miss it? It'll be nice to have a break. All right, drying her off. It's exciting. We get a little break. The two pigs are gone tomorrow. One less cow to milk tomorrow. It's the ebb and flow that keeps us from burning out, isn't it? Oh, oh my. Well, we won't be getting as much manure for the compost, will we, without her? As we take in this, I gotta ask Jonah and you something. Yeah, so there's chicks coming probably tomorrow.

What's today?

Wednesday. So if I emailed them yesterday, they replied saying they packed them.

Did they mail them though?

He was packing them. Oh, they could come tomorrow, Friday. But what if they come tomorrow? We don't have a brooder, so, uh, I'm voting we put the turkeys out. It's rainy-ish, so we could put the chicken track. We could put them in the chicken tractor.

I'm voting we get—

oh, inside their net. We'll put the shawl out there, the turkey shawl, and then we'll keep them in the chicken tractor for a couple of days, and then we'll open the door to chicken tractor because it's kind of transition them to it.

I have another—

if we get them out today— sorry, what was your thought?

Um, you know that plastic booter? We could put the fat Danny chicken in there.

We could, we could, we could put the fat chicks in there. Fat chicks. But, uh, the fat hen chick. I don't know, we got to get the turkeys out anyway. I don't really want to set up another brooder, do you? No.

Okay, let's— I like the chicken tractor idea.

Let's just do that. Yeah, we are outside the— what is it?

Oral surgery.

Oral surgery. If you guys have been watching a while You know, we had to pull some teeth. Mm-hmm. Uh, couldn't afford implants at the time. Are now working on implants, but they had to like—

Do a bone graft.

Widen my—

They had to widen your— Jaw. Gum area. And then we just got another scan.

Yeah, that was 4 months ago when we did the surgery.

It was a little over 4 months. And now we're to the place where he can actually put the implants in and some more, do a little bit more bone graft.

At the same time.

At the same time and then— he'll let them— um— heal and hopefully the bone will continue to grow and then he'll actually place the posts in a couple months after that and then you'll be able to get your crowns.

That means I could be eating steak— by the end of the month. —on the left side of my mouth. Within a year. Yeah. This afternoon, Jonah and Josiah have been hard at it. They got the turkey shaw set up, they got the turkey system set up minus the chicken tractor. Looks like the boys did good. The sheep and the calves are up there in the upper lane. It's only 10 after 4. We'll see why we won't be able to do this. Oh shoot, we need to do a few more things for the pigs. The boys did a great job up there. Jonah, you did a great job up there. Josiah did a great job up there. You guys ready to move the turkeys? First up, let's move the turkey— chicken— chicken tractor over there, and if that all goes well, we'll go get the turkeys. I need two strong fellas to grab the other end of that. Can y'all lift it up? Good. Yep, you're good.

Okay, get over.

Yeah, put it down. There we go. Take it out. I got some tea. Look at that tea bird. Yeah, they're more than ready to go, aren't they? Teddy, are you in my way? Yes. Okay, so should we put them in the door or should we open the hatch?

I, I was just contemplating that and I don't know.

More could do it if we open the hatch. Put it gently, gently. Hey, look, they're starting to get more comfortable picking at the grass. They'll eat so much grass, guys. I am the apron-wearing permaculture chicken ninja master. Master, not the T-bird master. So I'm gonna play it safe. We're gonna orient them. So we're gonna orient them in this. We're just gonna give those some— a couple days. It's rainy, this will keep them out of the rain. Let's do it for 2 days, and then, then we'll open this during the day. What do you say? Yeah. Is that gonna throw them off when we remove this completely? Hey, I feel good about that. Me too. You feel good about it? Yeah, it feels great. Yeah. All right, Lily, get down here and sit down and we'll get over there. Okay guys, one more thing. Hey, oh wait, did you get wood? Dry wood? Yep. Okay, what about, what about— oh, that's, that's green wood. Hey, what about, uh, starter logs? Jonah and Kenlan? Okay, he's— he put it here. I asked him in the barn, he forgot, I guess. Okay, we got Kenlan we got, and we got dry wood. Okay, let's put it all under this and keep it off the tank, and we're gonna get this heating. The plan is to heat that up tonight slowly with this. That will not get it up to— I think we're gonna try 185 for 30 seconds. Yeah, that's what Ben was saying. We're gonna try Ben Holler method. Um, so That will start it. We'll start the fire in the morning. This will start getting it warmed up. Make sure you don't get the one that has the tractor battery on it. I'm working on it. Okay, we have 2 buckets, Mom, for when we're done. These have been washed out, and should we put a lid on? We'll put 1 pig in 1 when we're done and 1 pig on that one. What, you couldn't reach? You could— you can't reach? Okay. We've got a clamp on here. Jonah, where'd you find this clamp? This is awesome. It's a mobile vise, actually. Well, I like the mobile vise. So listen to him correcting me. That's good. So we got it connected right there, and then we got it vise grip holding this. Keep it, keep it from falling down in there. There goes nothing. Wait, Mom, we'll see if it starts bubbling tomorrow. This is fine. We'll start the wood— we'll start the fire tomorrow, but then as us— after we start it, we're moving this. The tarp's getting out of here. The wood needs to go to the barn. Do we have paper and kindling for you to start that in the morning?

Uh, yeah, there's the kindlings on the porch, isn't it?

We have kindling, we have starter logs, cardboard. What about paper and a lighter?

Uh, I have it all at the house.

I'll make up a kit for you. Thank you. Is it bubbling? Yep. You see bubbles coming off of it? Oh, that's a guard of the heat plants. I think it is bubbling, right? How appropriate. I cannot believe this. Ribs. This is a party. That's a good celebratory meal going into the butcher tomorrow. Oh my word, my mouth is watering. Here's two. Oh, and with coleslaw and baked beans. Lily's already got it. She's figured it out. Jonah's got it. Not excited about the ribs, Mr. Brown? Josiah found it. Rebecca found it. You gotta see this. There we go. I'll be your best friend.