Originally posted by RoxnDox You use the rabbit-food sammich to attract the oinkers, bop *them* on the head with Velveeta, and there you are with a great mound of bacon. Just takes a wee bit of processing is all!
Jim
😎
My parents had a hobby farm for a few years when I was in high school. Although my dad was not up for it, mom had to have all the animals, chickens, a couple cows, ducks, geese, some rabbits, and even a couple little piglets.
Of course the piglets didn't waste any time growing up to be hogs, which is exactly what mom wanted. Of course it was apparent that she hadn't anticipated just how destructive a couple of full grown swine can be. They continually got free from their pen to uproot everything in the garden and flowerbeds.
But what was really interesting is how one day my Dad suddenly (well for me at least) announced that he and I had some work to do. Directing me to get ready to go out and do some work in the barn he grabbed his 30-06 rifle and down to the barn we went.
I remember thinking it was odd that we were going to work in the barn with a rifle.
Well I soon found out there was definitely going to be some work to do.
There was an A-frame set up with a chainfall, a barrel of water set beneath it over a fire. Turns out Dad had been notified that he was going kill and butcher the hogs.
Apparently he and Mom had never discussed this arrangement when the animals were accumulating.
It was also clear that even though it appeared he was ready, Dad had not worked out every detail. The pig pen was a good distance from the barn, way down in the lower back corner of the property. Of course he marched right on down there, and when his arrival at the pen found the curious hogs right there by the trough resulted in their usual eagerness for slop he pointed the gun at one's forehead and promptly pulled the trigger.
Dropped it right on the spot.
The other hog immediately ran the opposite way, through the electric wire that had finally been employed to keep the adventurous animals from destroying the garden.
I looked at Dad, then I looked up the hill at the barn, which seemed miles away. And it may well have been. Since the now dead slab of bacon and ham probably weighed 500 pounds.
As we tried to work out just how to get the freshly made bacon to the simmering barrel of water I mentioned to him that a coffee can with some cracked corn or oats from the feed barrel in the barn would have led the thing anywhere he wanted it to go.
It was about then that I figured out Dad had never done this sort of thing before. It was a very long day.
The second swine was butchered by a professional who came out with a truck that had a hoist on the back and a barrel mounted up over a propane burner.