What if it Snows?

I remember him

 

Only way to go with liver. JR said that 916/22 @1.24 CST.

 

Only had that when we killed hogs; in Sept of the years up to 1954. Cold enough back then to hang from 4x4 racked off a tree fork to cool overnight.
That Al Gore messed it up for the younger generation. Still remember dad axe whacking the hogshead to split out the brain, one clean strike.

We had an empty 55 gal barrel, leaned over a log at 45 degrees and staked down solid and in front a flooring of 5 -2x12x8 boards. Shoot the hog, stick him, 4 men grab and shove into the barrel already filled with scalding water. Twist him around a bit, tug out onto the boards and proceed to scrape off the hair. 3 or 4 sets of hands scraping with knives soon had him as clean as an newborns unspanked ###... Hang, gut, prop wide open for overnight cooling.

Next day, cut up, trim ham/shoulder areas, sort out lean/fat to hand grind the sausage. Momma did the pepper, salt, sage mix to season and had sewn up cotton sacks to hold the sausage. No piddly J. Dean size, working men's eats (2 1/2 x 3 at least).

If the hog was too big for the barrel, just laid him on the boards, padded him with burlap sacks, poured scalding water on by bucketful's till soggy, then scraped. Seems as if we/they threw in 2 or 3 shovels full of the kettle fires ashes into the water prior to scalding, loosened the hair.

Hard times come upon us, I steal me a hog and feed meat for family of 4. (If I can get a couple of guys to work long enough to tote, twist, and hang.)

 

It is that time of year... I think most people that get bit are not originally from here or just don't watch where they walk... my parents and grandparents raised us to always watch where we are walking... especially if near bushes or wherever there is stuff laying on the ground..because that's where they hide. A lot of the babies don't even rattle at you, just bite and they are so small you can't even see them most of the times, until it's to late... other than the 2 we found a couple weeks ago. Haven't seen any others since then.

 

Pathology came back today. Guess we will have a bit more work done and time off.