Pig Processor Problems

The pigs went to the processor yesterday. And then they came back, because the processor wasn’t there.

I’m so angry about this. Our original processing date was August 14. I called the week before to verify, only to be told that they couldn’t accommodate us that day and could we come on August 21st instead? I said that worked well for us. The processor said, “Have them there as early as possible,” and when I said, “How early is early?” he replied that 7 am would be good.

Loading the pigs went relatively well this year. We weren’t loading them in a snowstorm, for one thing, and this group of pigs was willing to follow the trail of treats into the trailer. By 7 pm Sunday night, we had all eight loaded into the trailer, where they spent the night.

We were up early and on the road by 5:45 am. We pulled into the processing facility at 7:01 am. No one was around. I knocked on the door. No answer. We waited. And waited. I called and left a message. After an hour of waiting for someone to show up, the husband said, “We need to get these pigs home and back into the pasture.” Pigs get stressed easily—by heat, travel, and a thousand other things. As we were leaving, I decided to look at the voicemail messages on my phone.

[I rarely get voicemail messages. I am not in the habit of looking at them regularly and my phone wasn’t set up to notify me. Also, I had my phone on silent Saturday morning because I was in a meeting.]

The processor had left a voicemail on my cellphone Saturday morning saying he wouldn’t be there on Monday and we should bring the pigs Tuesday.

Should I have checked my voicemail? Probably, but I am not going to own this one. If you, the processor, have changed the date twice in two weeks on a customer who is hauling eight pigs 80 miles to your facility, it is incumbent upon you to get verbal confirmation that the customer is aware of any changes to the schedule. Leaving a voicemail as your only communication is unacceptable. A text message would have been helpful because at least I would have seen that.

We cannot take the pigs to the processor today. I doubt we could have convinced them to get into the trailer again last night. Even if we had managed that feat, the husband has a concrete pour scheduled. We are done with that processor. We still have a processing date in November at another facility. I was hedging my bets with that later date in case the pigs weren’t ready by mid-August. We could keep them another three months, although that raises our feed costs and we have to make sure they don’t gain too much weight. Elysian gave me a lead on someone else who has started processing, so I have a call in to them.

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The good news is that it’s raining. It was rainy and cool most of yesterday, which was wonderful. After we got home and got the pigs sorted, I made a quick trip to town to run errands and to pick up more pig feed. After lunch, I set a small batch of tomato sauce to cook down. I have much more energy and motivation when it’s not 97 degrees outside.

The BMW needs a new belt pulley. The husband says that it is a relatively easy repair; he was halfway there just diagnosing the problem, but he had to order the part. I will take the Acura to Spokane. I don’t like driving it in Seattle because of the hills—it’s a manual—but I can avoid any hills in Spokane.

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I am kicking around an idea for something new. I am not quite ready to reveal it yet, because I want to do a bit more research. I ran it past the husband last night and he said,”Is this the point where I am supposed to hit you upside the head with a 2 x 4?” (He knows me so well.) I said, “Yes, probably, but I might go ahead with this project anyway.” Stay tuned.