Hog Killing Day

A day of fun and adventures together.

The day began when Mr. Joe Hamm explained the process of killing a hog. He titled his class, Hog Killing 101. Chloe Hamm, age 9, designed the packet handout covers with her crayons for each child to use to document the day. The total number of children present were 12 total from newborn- 13 years old. While Mr. Joe described the process of killing hogs, the men were busy skinning Boris behind the group of children. The men did the job of skinning by hanging the hog on a metal rod after cutting slits behind the ankles in order to slide the rod through the ankles. We did not use hot water to remove the hair due to technical difficulties in the water boiler. After skinning the hog, the smaller children (ages 5 - 12) worked on cutting the fat off the pig. Then the men cut the head then placed it aside. They also cut the meat up and separated it from the intestines, and the organs. In a fortunate turn of events, the cat snuck off with the heart, so no kids had the trauma of bagging the hog’s heart. 

The eldest child, Leon Mauldin, was in charge of writing which family was sent what pieces of meat and fat. Rinoa Mauldin and Abigail Hamm helped distribute meat among the coolers when it was needed and when they had a break.  There were many families helping because Boris was a REALLY big hog. Mrs. Fiona Hamm had a very important job as well, she took care of babies (and did some bagging of the fat). After that Ethan Manning, Abigail Hamm and Leon Mauldin helped get ice and Leon went back to writing. A few children were wandering around doing various jobs such as corralling stray toddlers, cutting fat, bagging fat and other odds and ends. 

Chloe and Hannah Hamm, along with Rinoa Mauldin stuck to the job of cutting and bagging the fat. With so many small children and toddlers in the mix, by lunch we had finally broken into chaos letting kids run free rolling down hills and petting the bunnies (under supervision) until unfortunately it was time to leave. Thankfully the hog was completely butchered by lunchtime. 

The different cuts of the hog included:

Boston butt

Ham

Roast

Hog Jowl

LOTS of fat (for lard.)

In all the gathering was very fun, educational and a great way to spend time with friends all while getting work done together. 

Written by: RL Mauldin