Present from Aunty Carisa

Opening of present from Alexandra

Connor's Fire Engine

Opening of the present from Grandmar and Poppa

An unmarked pressy

This present didn't say who it was too, or from (I think it was from Aunty Amy, and I'm guessing it's for Connor), eitherway, he's claimed it!

Present from Aunty Nicola (ps Happy Birthday Aunty Nic!)

Even more pork photos.

More porker photos

Christmas Photos

Farmer Connor

The "wheelbarrow" hold

just before the shot

Just after sticking

Christmas Eve

Last night, in preparation for today, we slaughtered the pig.  Gees, I spent the day formulating a plan, we would coax him into the pen with food, already set up was a rope with a loop, the loop would go over his back foot, whilst he was eating he would be shot, and then the gate to the pen would be opened (this requires a bit of 4"x4" timber as the catch is very tight. With the gate open, and the pig held by it's back leg to a bit of rope that is up a tree over a pully and then on to the back of the bike, the bike is driven off to hoist the pig up into the air, and then I can stick it and bleed it out..A well laid out plan, you know what that means...The pig wouldn't go in the pen, we ended up catching it in the pig paddock by trapping it, and then wheelbarrow walking it (or dragging) into the pen. Once there the plan worked a treat.

I caught the pig, Andy shot it, Jules was on the gate, and Alex was on the bike. Once the shot was taken, in about 15 seconds the pig was up in the air, and then I quickly stuck it (not a very tidy sticking, but effective).  We left it to hang for five minutes whilst we all had a beer (or some other beverage).  Thankfully Pete (Andy and Jule's friend who is out for Christmas) was looking after Connor.

Once we got him down, I carried the pig into the barn for scraping. I hope I never have to carry a pig out from the bush (well hopefully one day I will, but it was very heavy and he was small really)

To scrape, we boiled water, mixed it 8:2 with cold water, then pour it over the pig (using a towel to hold the hot water close to the skin).  It took about 10 minutes before the skin starting coming off, and then it was furious scraping. After many boiled kettles (and repeated tripping of the circuit overload protectors) we got most of the hair off (there is still some there, but since it's an open flame BBQ they will burn off). This took about 2ish hours.

Once the pig was scraped, the next bit was bringing the inside out! Following the instructions on the web, I made the typical incision, but instead of starting at the junction of the legs, I started at the pizzle and went down to the diapraghm. This was just big enough for my hand, and I started pulling bits out (and it stunk). After a few minutes of this, I decided on a change of tack, and made the cavity bigger by extending the cut all the way to the join (this made the bladder easy to get to).

Slowly and carefully ('cause I only had my big knifes) I cut the connective tissue from around the insides and let it fall into the bucket. Also the anus was tied off, and we had also cleaned (by squeezing) about a foot long section inside of the lower intestine, which we also tied off and cut. 

After getting the guts and the heart and lights out, we got photos etc  and measured it up for getting on the spit. I looks like we'll take the hams and up to rib 8.

After taking the photos, I realised that I had not removed either the testicles or the penis, whoops. So making Alex squeamish I removed the testicles (with a a sharp knife!), and then got him to hold the end of the other bit whilst I worked the knife down the side to remove it.

And finally one finished pig, just needs setting, so we moved it around to the fridge and hung it with all the ice we had.

Oh also today, I finished making the spit roaster, turned a few handles for it, and made a contraption that allows us to have the spit in a few positions, cleaned the barn, mended the tractor ( the exhaust needed welding again).

So now it Christmas day, and Connor wants to do something other than watch Dad type...So hopefully there will be some video shortly of him eating wrapping paper.

I'll do photos at the end.

Christmas Preparations

Well, Christmas eve is here, and for Steph and I this year, whilst being Connor's first Christmas, will be little more than a day off work, coupled with on massive BBQ (for 6 people!).

We've spent the last two days building a modification for the BBQ to turn it into a spit roaster, made out of bits left over from when the shed was made, I've almost finished it, just got the front to add and one bracket to weld on.  Photos on Christmas day.

This evening is D-Day for spit-roast, I measured him the other day, he was 44 inches long (1.11m long) and stands 21 inches(53 cm) high at the shoulder, as you can imagine, that ain't going to fit in the BBQ, so on Saturday I bought myself a bone saw, and we're going take the best bits off and roast that...So no pig with apple in the mouth :-(

Not really looking forward to "doing" (my euphemism for slaughter and gut) him, as I've never done a pig before, and he is quite strong, has big teeth, and sharp toes! Hopefully no injurys tonight. I'm going to get Andy to shoot it whilst I'm on the back legs holding it like a wheelbarrow, and be ready with the knife for sticking it.  Steph will be on the camera (I'll do the same as the sheep slaughter and put the photos off the main page, I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea).

I've got till the 7th off work this year, and unfortunatly there is an equally long list of things to do around here, the main one being dig down to the septic tank and get it emptied, only one snag, I built a deck over it!  I knew it was there and moved poles etc to allow me to put a trapdoor in later, I guess now is later!

Connor now has 4 teeth, and is trying them out on everything (except Steph to her delight).

Anyway, Connor wants some attention, so till tomorrow...Have a good and safe christmas.

The earthquake

Reference Number 2839343/G

Universal Time December 20 2007 at 7:55

NZ Daylight Time Thursday, December 20 2007 at 8:55 pm

Latitude, Longitude 38.86°S, 178.52°E

Focal Depth 40 km

Richter magnitude 6.8

Region Hikurangi Trough

Location



* 50 km south-east of Gisborne

* 400 km south-east of Auckland

Earthquake

Wow, just had a big earthquake....still going....

I'll post the size later when it's released on the net.

Connor playing in the high chair (no sound)

Connor Eating avacado and bacon (no sound)

Just a random Connor video (no sound)

Birds in the garden

We could have turkey for Christmas lunch, this little girl was wandering up our driveway whilst I was coming home...A few minutes later!!! Wild turkey is VERY yummy.

A wild male quail we have running around at the moment. These are safe from my predatory instincts (too small).

The boy and girl.

This mornings sunrise.

Another hot weekend

Well, summer is certainly here, the paddocks are drying up, and the sun is blistering fierce, and it's not even January yet! On Saturday, I had the great idea of building the pig crush for next weekend when I have to cull spit roast (as we're doing it ourselves), but whilst I was down in the race thinking about how I was to do it, I had a case of "sparkles", which means I can't see, and it typically followed up with a massive headache...that was Saturday dealt to, all day was spent either asleep, with my eye closed or feeling like crap.
Today was a bit better, we got out nice and early and brought to goats in, they needed a drench and a hoof trim, whilst they were in I checked them over for suitable for the freezer, and a few looked quite good, especially the kids (because they will easily fit in my chiller).
After that the day got too hot, and apart from a few sessions of catching piglets that escaped the pig pen, not much else was achieved.

Oh we got our pork back, around 55Kg all up, so far we got 22kg of chops, 9 kgs of roasts and 5 kg of belly strips, tasty, and I'm really looking forward to the bacon next week....So far it's worked out about $6/kg, which over here is pretty good (good bacon is $20 to $30/kg and good roasts or chops are upwards from $12/kg.

There wasn't much difference in flavour from Wessex saddlebacks to the Large Whites, and the large white didn't go to fat so fast (these pigs were quite fatty). Next we have wild type pork..That should be quite a bit leaner.

Oh well, till next time, and I will make sure that if I don't post before Christmas, there will be copious amounts of photos (probably more of the spit roast than of Connor though)..

Have a great christmas..

More photos.

Connor rides on the local miniture railway as part of the PAFT (Parents as First Teachers) Christmas outing


His first proper swing

WHo's playing at the park..

New pigs

No doubt I spend most of my time in gum boots (Wellington boots)

A busy weekend

Well, this week, the weekend started with me having Friday off. On this day of rest, and relaxation, Steph and I headed into Wellington for the day, mainly because I had a Christmas party in the evening at a wildlife sanctuary which sounded like it could be a good event, and also so Steph could have a meeting with her boss to discuss options for her going back to work. She's only thinking about heading back for 1 day a week, and not until February anyway, so quite a bit of time to work out what to do with Connor for that 1 day.


Whilst we were in Welly, we met up with Amy, and spent the day with her too, and then in the evening we went to the party, and had a bite to eat, before heading off around 8pm.

On Saturday and Sunday we headed up to Palmerston North and met up with Mum and Dad. And on Sunday we took the pigs in, and collected the new piglets. Gee's that was fun, I spent about an hour chasing one of the boars around and around in the midday sun! We almost gave up but then it came back to the pen (it escaped), and we finally caught it!

6 Month Comparison

We've stopped taking the nightly photos, here is Connor a few days old, and another at 6 months!