Hog Waller Pig Update

[Ben B]

I am looking forward to seeing what is involved in hog raisin'!

[Super A]

I am looking forward to seeing what is involved in hog raisin'!

Don't do it Ben....

I love pork as good as anybody but I have been around hogs my whole life and still get regularly asked to help my dad with his. There is no more miserable work on earth than working with hogs. It is truly a job that is "never done!"

Al

[Tezell]

We don't have very many hogs around here anymore. We used have them everywhere. My Dad and I raised hogs all my life up until the last 15 years or so. I miss having them. They were alot of work but they kinda get in your blood after awhile. Nice litter of pigs.

[Ben B]

I don't know that I will raise hogs. I've threatened to a couple of times but that don't mean much. I'm always bouncing ideas around in my head. I've had the cub idea for years and just recently got into them.

I'm mainly concentrating on raising my boys, and part of that is teaching them WHERE food comes from and HOW to get it for themselves if they ever need to. There isn't enough education on that kind of thing anymore. I grew up in a rural area and there were still a lot of small farms around when I was a kid. Now, most of them have been sold and turned into subdivisions. I want to expose my boys to the same things I was so they can pass along the same thing to their kids hopefully.

And, I want them to have a good work ethic when they get grown, and farmers are some of the hardest working people you will ever find!

[Super A]

I don't know that I will raise hogs. I've threatened to a couple of times but that don't mean much. I'm always bouncing ideas around in my head. I've had the cub idea for years and just recently got into them.

I'm mainly concentrating on raising my boys, and part of that is teaching them WHERE food comes from and HOW to get it for themselves if they ever need to. There isn't enough education on that kind of thing anymore. I grew up in a rural area and there were still a lot of small farms around when I was a kid. Now, most of them have been sold and turned into subdivisions. I want to expose my boys to the same things I was so they can pass along the same thing to their kids hopefully.

And, I want them to have a good work ethic when they get grown, and farmers are some of the hardest working people you will ever find!

Good reasons to do so, especially for your boys. I guess that is where I learned my work ethic. There were, though, many days where I wished we had 1,000 acures of tobacco, all of which I had to top & sucker by myself, instead of having to work with hogs!

Al

[Ben B]

One thing I do remember about my Grandad's hog slaughtering was that it was indeed very hard work, nasty, and just plain messy. That man loved his sausage though, and according to my Dad, he would make canned sausage out of the whole thing if Dad didn't beg him to keep the tenderloin and cure the hams.

As for the work, he was one of the hardest working men I ever knew, so I'm sure that didn't bother him. After all, he grew up on a farm, and at the age of 12 quit school to help his dad (my great grandad) work on the farm. When he joined the army in 1943 his vocation was listed as "plowing with a team of horses". And, he's one of my heros. He's no longer with us, but he left his mark on me in a good way.

I don't know if I'll raise a hog or not, but if I do part of the reason will be because of him.

[grumpy]

No offense but I'd raise at least one because someone told me not to!!

[Super A]

No offense but I'd raise at least one because someone told me not to!!

Spoken like someone who has never raised hogs before....

Al

[grumpy]

No offense but I'd raise at least one because someone told me not to!!

Spoken like someone who has never raised hogs before....

Al

I've castrated at least 50 many years ago with a single edge razor blade and a bottle of rubbing alcohol and shoveled quite a few loads of manure on the spreader so, I've been around a few. Didn't mind them a bit. Used to seperate the cream and slop them with the waste which we now pay $4.00 for at the market along with garbage from the grade school and day old bread. I'd do it now if I had the room. Grump

[Don McCombs]

Which one are we going to eat next month.

[Super A]

No offense but I'd raise at least one because someone told me not to!!

Spoken like someone who has never raised hogs before....

Al

I've castrated at least 50 many years ago with a single edge razor blade and a bottle of rubbing alcohol and shoveled quite a few loads of manure on the spreader so, I've been around a few. Didn't mind them a bit. Used to seperate the cream and slop them with the waste which we now pay $4.00 for at the market along with garbage from the grade school and day old bread. I'd do it now if I had the room. Grump

That is probably the job I hate the most. In fact I helped my dad do a few this evening. I have always been the "holder." Nothing like getting every body fluid a pig's body can produce all over you. We got our "system" worked out many years ago and I am always the "holder." As many as I have seen cut, I have never done one myself and don't intend to learn now. When he retires, I intend to "retire" too. I hope I live to be 100, keep 20-20 vision 'till the day I die, and never see another hog again unless it's on my plate!

The worst thing about raising hogs is you are never finished. Growing up, I wondered many times what I was being punished for, having to work with the miserable things. If all you had to do was water, and throw them some feed every day it wouldn't be so bad. But the coldest, rainiest, day you can think of, or the hottest and most miserable day you can think of, or on a day when you just don't have time to fool around, is when they will decide to tear the fence down, or have pigs a day or two early before they are in their huts, or if not that, there's a fence to build, or a shed/hut to fix, or a dead one to drag out and bury, or a sow to put to the boar, or they've torn the fence down again, or there's sows to move, or there's feed to grind, or there's MORE fence to fix, or a water line has busted, or the things are out AGAIN, or a sow needs a shot of penicillin, or they've torn their waterer apart and now the pen's flooded, or you mean they're out AGAIN??? and on and on and on.

My dad loves them and he's pretty good at raising them. But if I had to raise hogs for a living, I'd probably be a raging alcoholic or in the nut house, one or the other!

Al
Al

[grumpy]

Al, too much of a good thing aint good. I can see why your no fan of them. Grump

[Gary Dotson]

Al, you forgot to mention that the hogs are out again!

[Super A]

I helped my dad do another litter this evening. The guys had come to start spreading turkey litter so I was anxious to get on the tractor and start disking it in. Only had a half a dozen. Did fine till pig #3 and doggone if he wasn't ruptured. So it took a few extra minutes to sew him up.....

Al