Hurdles on the Way

It has been a bumpy couple of days, which is why the blog posts have been few and far between. I am hoping things smooth out a bit now.

The pigs were scheduled to go to the processor yesterday. Last week, the husband asked me to look at his back, and I discovered that he had broken out in shingles. I’ve had shingles and know how painful they can be, but mine were limited to a small patch about 3” across on my lower back. His spread from the middle of his back around to the front. He was past the window for antivirals at that point—and he wasn’t going to stop working long enough to go to the doctor, anyway—so he toughed his way through them. I could tell he was hurting, though, because he didn’t do much this past weekend beyond getting the trailer set up for loading pigs.

Loading pigs is an arduous process. The husband can’t back the trailer into the pasture; he has to back it close to the gate, then rig up a chute from the gate to the back of the trailer. He puts their food and water inside the trailer and closes off the pig palace. The pigs know, though, that to get to the trailer, they have to walk past the (no-longer-electrified) electric fence, and they are reluctant to believe they won’t get shocked. They also don’t like it when their feet leave the ground. Getting them to step up onto an unfamiliar surface takes some coaxing. And of course, the ground where the chute is located is virgin soil that they haven’t plowed up yet, so they have to stop every so often and dig for truffles. A flock of turkeys came to see what was happening.

It’s a process. Every year, it takes most of the day before to get them into the trailer.

I came home from town Monday with several bags of marshmallows, which are the pigs’ favorite treat and useful for getting 1800 pounds of pork moving in the desired direction. The husband was close to getting them into the trailer when the neighbors stopped by to say goodbye to them. These neighbors have been feeding the pigs scraps all summer—which we appreciate—but as soon as the pigs saw them, they thought the neighbors were bringing them scraps and took off to greet them. At that point, there was no getting them back on track. It was getting dark and starting to snow. And we had run out of marshmallows.

Neither of us slept much Monday night. The husband was in pain and worried about loading the pigs. Getting a date with a processor is incredibly difficult, and I had assured this one that we would be there first thing Tuesday morning. We ran through various scenarios about what we would do if we had to cancel.

I called our friend Smokey in the morning. Thank goodness for Smokey. He has extensive livestock experience and came right over. Between him, the husband, and our employees, they were able to coax the first five pigs into the trailer. A stubborn sixth one took a bit of manhandling, but not much. While they were busy, I called the processor to let him know what was going on. He knew the roads were icy and said we didn’t have to rush.

We were at the processor and unloaded by about 11 am and home by 1:30 pm. I grabbed some lunch, changed clothes, and then headed back into town for Ruler Club at the quilt store. After dinner, the husband parked himself in his recliner—the one place where he has been able to sleep comfortably—and I curled up on the couch under a quilt. We both went to sleep. DD#2’s plane was scheduled to arrive from Seattle at midnight. Normally, he would go to get her, but I wanted him to get some sleep. I set my alarm for 11 pm, went and picked her up, and went back to bed.

We’re both dragging a bit this morning, but the big hurdle of getting pigs to the processor is behind us. With all the issues we had with this year’s batch, I am not sure either of us is eager to commit to raising them next year. We’ll see. In any case, Smokey is getting a big gift of ham and bacon for all his help.

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I probably won’t do much sewing for the next couple of weeks beyond finishing the tops I’ve already cut up. I have more cleaning to do. The craft co-op Christmas potluck is tomorrow. I have to defrost a freezer.

One of the members of the Facebook Necchi sewing machines group shared this video this week. Apparently, the old Necchi sewing machine factory in Pavia, Italy, is scheduled to undergo transformation into a shopping area. They plan to name it “Supernova” as a nod to Necchi’s most famous machine. The video is in Italian (I am going to see if DD#2 can translate), but the shots of the old factory are fascinating.