Monday Memories - Butcher Hollow

When I was young . . . 

• it was my job to chase the "chicken with his head cut off" until he had flopped over and lay still then take him back to my mom and older siblings who finished the plucking and butchering.  My neighbor friend and I made a game of it betting which chicken would go the farthest before toppling over.   I didn't like being splattered with blood, but it didn't particularly disgust me either.

• as for butchering the cows, the mobile butcher drove out in his truck with a hook and a heist and slaughtered them.  I just watched and maybe carried the liver in a bucket back home while he drove the carcass back to his meat-cutting shop.

When I was a newlywed . . .

• my job was stuffing hams and wrapping meat at the BYU meat lab.  The smell didn't bother me much, at least until I got pregnant with Cali and then the smell definitely became a problem.

When I was a young mother . . . 

• we raised rabbits, pigs, and steers and Calvin butchered them all.  We also ate plenty of venison.  The best year, however, was the year he shot a moose.

All this to say butchering is not foreign to me and I have enough stomach for it, although I don't love doing it.  (And that is why I shall hope that we always have a small grandchild here when it's butchering time.  Somebody needed to keep Levin out of the way so I took him to gather eggs until the hog was good and dead.)  But what I do love about butchering is doing it as a family and storing up meat for the winter.  

Calvin and Ray baiting one hog out of the pen with an apple.

Cali and Levin watching the pig leave the pen.
At this point Levin and I left for ten or fifteen minutes.

Having hosed the pig off, Ray is attaching him to the tractor so they can lift him into
the scalding tub.  (Aren't you glad I took a discretionary picture?)
Ray has always been a big hunter, so butchering is part of his life.

Ray and Calvin scraping the pig's hide.
The pig is in the cast iron tub of hot water, heated by the little fire beneath it.

Calvin, Ray, and Cali scraping the hide.
Cali is a natural with all things biological.

One of the first traits I loved and admired in Ray is his curiosity.
Look who he passed it on to.

The garage became the meat shop.
Calvin, Ray, and Cali grinding, mixing, and packaging sausage.  We made Italian, summer, and breakfast sausage.

Ray stuffing summer sausage into the casing.

meat chilling in the freezer

Because the chickens are laying so heavy right now and
Ray and Cali's vacuum packaging machine is so good, we bagged eggs too.
I haven't ever frozen beaten eggs before (just whole eggs).
I'll let you know how they turn out and if it's worth it.  

Ray, Cali, and Calvin eating apple skins.  All three of them love the long, stringy things and it looked funny
seeing them all slurping them up so I had them pose.
Cali and Ray remind me of Lady and the Tramp eating spaghetti.

A couple of neighbors stopped by to see how the butchering was going.
One had a big bin of apple "seconds" on the back of his truck and he offered us some.
We took a cooler full and made applesauce.
The other neighbor brought big heads of broccoli and cabbage and a dozen melons from his garden.
All we were missing was the pilgrims.

Calvin grinding the apples into sauce.

We had a great weekend. We worked hard and it felt good to get so much food stored away.