Post by Mitra on Oct 27, 2008 22:13:31 GMT -5
The day started early. I woke up at 4 a.m. and was so anxious and excited about the day’s planned activities that I could not go back to sleep. By 4:45 Max and I were having our first cup of coffee. It was raining torrentially and would for another few hours. The rain was supposed to clear by noon. Chores and milking got done early. There were still things that needed to be set up and prepped outside. The 55-gallon drum of water needed to be heated to between 145 and 160 degrees. The fire underneath the drum was lit early so it would be ready for the 10am kill time.
I went to visit Snorton before people arrived. We did not want to feed him in the morning but I took him some of his favorite hay to munch on and an apple. He seemed a bit perplexed to see me without his usual breakfast but he chomped the apple and dug into his hay anyway. I said goodbye and gave him a final scritch. I knew I would not be present for the killing part.
The first of the crew arrived around 9:30. This included Paul (who has a crush on Helen), Erik - chef/owner of Evangeline in Portland, Krista – chef/owner of Bresca in Portland blog.typeadiversions.com/2007/07/bresca.html, and Mitch – Erik’s sous chef at Evangeline. They came armed with cutting equipment and firearms, a .22 and 357 magnum. As soon as they arrived, Erik thanked us profusely for “letting” them be a part of the day. They were so excited to do this! What was so funny to me was how grateful we felt to have them there, sharing their knowledge and expertise. So there was a couple of minutes of “no, thank YOU – no really thank YOU”. We were off to a great start. Mitch was very interested in doing the shooting and was pretty thrilled when Max said, “Sure, go for it.” It continued to rain. Soon after they arrived, the Flying Pond Farm farmers arrived: Harold, Josh, Troy, and granddaughter Jill (3 years old). They also brought a friend Justin who works on their farm. Laura (Mom) planned to arrive after church and what she hoped would be “after the kill”.
By 10am the water wasn’t hot enough in the barrel yet so the kill time was postponed. The crew went down to Snorton’s pen to do a dry run. Janet arrived and joined me in the house. She brought an oat/maple syrup/pecan pie and it was still warm and two quarts of beautiful applesauce she’d made. Paul had suggested that we needed to have a bottle of whiskey for keeping spirits high. Janet brought a VERY nice bottle of Glenlivet single malt scotch whiskey as a thank you gift to me for raising Porky for her. Exquisite!
At 11am the water was almost hot enough. Laura arrived and we, the women, convened in the house. Krista was the only woman outside as she too planned to photo-document the process. My DD Roshan was also out there, camera-in hand, to do the same.
Every time I looked out the kitchen window towards Snorton’s pen I could see the crew milling about and walking back and forth from the driveway, where the barrel was set up, to the pen about 100 yards away. I could also see Helen trying her best to get in on this action. Helen had decided that she was going to have to supervise this motley crew. She tried to wedge herself in next to the truck. Roshan impressed all the men when she went up to Helen and grabbed her by the collar and said, "Helen, we're going to the barn" and Helen let her lead her away! She put Helen in her stanchion and locked her in, gave her some nice hay, and poured a half scopp of COB on it to keep her occupied.
There were two tripods set up for hoisting the pig. One was set up next to pen and would be used to hoist him for the bleed-out. The other larger tripod (Max built these out of saplings) was set up in the driveway next to the barrel and the pig scraping table.
The plan was this. Use wire snippers to cut the fence next to his trough. Give Snorton a final delicious thing to eat and be engrossed in (I had prepared a saucepan of oatmeal, maple syrup and apple chunks. I knew these last bites would be holding his attention). Shoot from point blank range. Jump in the pen through the cut wire and quickly tie the rope to his feet for hoisting on the tripod. The rope would go from his feet through the pulley on the tripod to the tow hitch of the truck. Drive the truck forward, hoist the pig up and bleed out. Have a clean container available to catch the blood (for blood sausage and blood pudding).
It was now about 11:15 and inside we were oohing and aahing about Laura’s homemade hamburger buns, rolls, and mozzarella cheese which we’d soon be eating. Suddenly, I heard a shot and I quickly turned to look out the window. The shot was soon followed by the loudest most shrill pig screaming ever and I saw the pig RUN! I saw Max and Mitch get in the pen and run towards the pig. The pig was zigging and zagging and screaming the whole time. Then I saw Roshan coming towards the house with her fingers in her ears and her face all scrunched up. Mitch shot him again and just as the previous shot, it seemed to be in the PERFECT spot, just like in the diagram we had studied. Snorton still did not go down. He ran around the pen some more. Then I saw Max, who was standing next to Mitch turn his head toward Mitch and extend his open hand out to him. No words were spoken. Mitch placed the .22 in his hand. Snorton had run into his shed. Max went around to the other endof the shed and I heard a third shot. The squealing stopped.
I felt like I was going to vomit. The adrenalin I was feeling made my heart feel like it would come through my chest. I wanted to cry. This was my worst nightmare. We had gone to other end of the spectrum from “stress-free and painless” kill. While Janet and Laura talked at the table trying to drown out the outside noises, I quickly opened the scotch and poured myself a hefty shot. As soon as that alcohol went down my throat, I felt an immediate calming warmth. I thought this must be what heroine feels like. I could feel it in my toes. It was the antidote to all that adrenalin that was coursing through me. One reason I was feeling it in my toes was that all I’d had since 4:00 a.m was two cups of coffee.
It had all gone horribly wrong. One of the reasons to document what happened is to learn from these mistakes and hopefully save others from some of the same mistakes. So what happened? Why did a “perfect” shot not do the trick. The answer lies in the “angle” of the shot. The shot was in the right spot but the gun was angled too far down so that the bullet did not go into his brain, it went down through the roof of his mouth. Fortunately from the kitchen window, I could not see that there was a lot of blood gushing from his mouth while he was running. The second shot was also angled too steeply because nobody had figured out yet what went wrong with the first “perfect” shot. When Max took the gun and fired the third shot, the angle was correct and he dropped immediately.
Things got a little worse when they tried to hoist him. His feet were tied and he was pulled out of the pen where there was a lot of clean hay we’d put down for this purpose. When they tied the pig up to the rope on the pulley and the truck pulled forward, the tripod collapsed. The guys quickly got the tripod out of the way and bled him out where he lay. We had read that the bleed out could be done that way but would take awhile longer.
The following pictures may be disturbing to some. You are warned.
Max preparing the trough area, snipping the wire, and saying his goodbyes.
snipping the wire
Putting in his saucepan of food
There are no pictures of the killing.
He was pulled over onto the clean hay and Max washed his neck and chest for the "sticking" and bleed out.
Here is a shot video of the bleedout. Click on the photo below.
Part II - Scalding and scraping
I went to visit Snorton before people arrived. We did not want to feed him in the morning but I took him some of his favorite hay to munch on and an apple. He seemed a bit perplexed to see me without his usual breakfast but he chomped the apple and dug into his hay anyway. I said goodbye and gave him a final scritch. I knew I would not be present for the killing part.
The first of the crew arrived around 9:30. This included Paul (who has a crush on Helen), Erik - chef/owner of Evangeline in Portland, Krista – chef/owner of Bresca in Portland blog.typeadiversions.com/2007/07/bresca.html, and Mitch – Erik’s sous chef at Evangeline. They came armed with cutting equipment and firearms, a .22 and 357 magnum. As soon as they arrived, Erik thanked us profusely for “letting” them be a part of the day. They were so excited to do this! What was so funny to me was how grateful we felt to have them there, sharing their knowledge and expertise. So there was a couple of minutes of “no, thank YOU – no really thank YOU”. We were off to a great start. Mitch was very interested in doing the shooting and was pretty thrilled when Max said, “Sure, go for it.” It continued to rain. Soon after they arrived, the Flying Pond Farm farmers arrived: Harold, Josh, Troy, and granddaughter Jill (3 years old). They also brought a friend Justin who works on their farm. Laura (Mom) planned to arrive after church and what she hoped would be “after the kill”.
By 10am the water wasn’t hot enough in the barrel yet so the kill time was postponed. The crew went down to Snorton’s pen to do a dry run. Janet arrived and joined me in the house. She brought an oat/maple syrup/pecan pie and it was still warm and two quarts of beautiful applesauce she’d made. Paul had suggested that we needed to have a bottle of whiskey for keeping spirits high. Janet brought a VERY nice bottle of Glenlivet single malt scotch whiskey as a thank you gift to me for raising Porky for her. Exquisite!
At 11am the water was almost hot enough. Laura arrived and we, the women, convened in the house. Krista was the only woman outside as she too planned to photo-document the process. My DD Roshan was also out there, camera-in hand, to do the same.
Every time I looked out the kitchen window towards Snorton’s pen I could see the crew milling about and walking back and forth from the driveway, where the barrel was set up, to the pen about 100 yards away. I could also see Helen trying her best to get in on this action. Helen had decided that she was going to have to supervise this motley crew. She tried to wedge herself in next to the truck. Roshan impressed all the men when she went up to Helen and grabbed her by the collar and said, "Helen, we're going to the barn" and Helen let her lead her away! She put Helen in her stanchion and locked her in, gave her some nice hay, and poured a half scopp of COB on it to keep her occupied.
There were two tripods set up for hoisting the pig. One was set up next to pen and would be used to hoist him for the bleed-out. The other larger tripod (Max built these out of saplings) was set up in the driveway next to the barrel and the pig scraping table.
The plan was this. Use wire snippers to cut the fence next to his trough. Give Snorton a final delicious thing to eat and be engrossed in (I had prepared a saucepan of oatmeal, maple syrup and apple chunks. I knew these last bites would be holding his attention). Shoot from point blank range. Jump in the pen through the cut wire and quickly tie the rope to his feet for hoisting on the tripod. The rope would go from his feet through the pulley on the tripod to the tow hitch of the truck. Drive the truck forward, hoist the pig up and bleed out. Have a clean container available to catch the blood (for blood sausage and blood pudding).
It was now about 11:15 and inside we were oohing and aahing about Laura’s homemade hamburger buns, rolls, and mozzarella cheese which we’d soon be eating. Suddenly, I heard a shot and I quickly turned to look out the window. The shot was soon followed by the loudest most shrill pig screaming ever and I saw the pig RUN! I saw Max and Mitch get in the pen and run towards the pig. The pig was zigging and zagging and screaming the whole time. Then I saw Roshan coming towards the house with her fingers in her ears and her face all scrunched up. Mitch shot him again and just as the previous shot, it seemed to be in the PERFECT spot, just like in the diagram we had studied. Snorton still did not go down. He ran around the pen some more. Then I saw Max, who was standing next to Mitch turn his head toward Mitch and extend his open hand out to him. No words were spoken. Mitch placed the .22 in his hand. Snorton had run into his shed. Max went around to the other endof the shed and I heard a third shot. The squealing stopped.
I felt like I was going to vomit. The adrenalin I was feeling made my heart feel like it would come through my chest. I wanted to cry. This was my worst nightmare. We had gone to other end of the spectrum from “stress-free and painless” kill. While Janet and Laura talked at the table trying to drown out the outside noises, I quickly opened the scotch and poured myself a hefty shot. As soon as that alcohol went down my throat, I felt an immediate calming warmth. I thought this must be what heroine feels like. I could feel it in my toes. It was the antidote to all that adrenalin that was coursing through me. One reason I was feeling it in my toes was that all I’d had since 4:00 a.m was two cups of coffee.
It had all gone horribly wrong. One of the reasons to document what happened is to learn from these mistakes and hopefully save others from some of the same mistakes. So what happened? Why did a “perfect” shot not do the trick. The answer lies in the “angle” of the shot. The shot was in the right spot but the gun was angled too far down so that the bullet did not go into his brain, it went down through the roof of his mouth. Fortunately from the kitchen window, I could not see that there was a lot of blood gushing from his mouth while he was running. The second shot was also angled too steeply because nobody had figured out yet what went wrong with the first “perfect” shot. When Max took the gun and fired the third shot, the angle was correct and he dropped immediately.
Things got a little worse when they tried to hoist him. His feet were tied and he was pulled out of the pen where there was a lot of clean hay we’d put down for this purpose. When they tied the pig up to the rope on the pulley and the truck pulled forward, the tripod collapsed. The guys quickly got the tripod out of the way and bled him out where he lay. We had read that the bleed out could be done that way but would take awhile longer.
The following pictures may be disturbing to some. You are warned.
Max preparing the trough area, snipping the wire, and saying his goodbyes.
snipping the wire
Putting in his saucepan of food
There are no pictures of the killing.
He was pulled over onto the clean hay and Max washed his neck and chest for the "sticking" and bleed out.
Here is a shot video of the bleedout. Click on the photo below.
Part II - Scalding and scraping