Pictures: this moment

[JSinMO]

Getting tractors ready this evening. I’m going to try and make hay in the little field tomorrow evening.

[JSinMO]

Not a bad haul for a couple of hours work. A little more tinkering and the old baler is making much more uniform and tighter bales.

[Eugen]

There's no excuse now Jeff, couple of goats and a few cows. Maybe a horse for the boy too!

Looking good!

[JSinMO]

There's no excuse now Jeff, couple of goats and a few cows. Maybe a horse for the boy too!

Looking good!

One step at a time. I might be able to feed them now, but I have no fencing to keep them here! That will be the next step I guess. Probably still a ways in the future.

[Eugen]

@JSinMO you know I'm in part kidding, and in part dreaming how it would be to be able to do that myself. I know everyone has their priorities in life, and it's not simple to do this or that, as simple as it may appear from outside. I know that if we had some land, we would like to have some farm animals. Just like fresh garden veggies are nice, so would be some fresh eggs and milk.

[RoamingGnome]

Laughing at (or with) @Eugen and @JSinMO Always enjoy conversations about small farms and animals... We have a 10 acre forested hillside, so not the best property for any sort of large animals, and we want to travel again after the new home is built so can't be responsible for looking after anything more than our cat.

We did see photos of a really neat Hungarian breed of pig though...

I told if she wanted to have some goats one day, I would want some of these Mangalica pigs... Dad's parents had a farm in Hungary, wish he was here so I could ask if he ever saw this breed in the "old" country...

[Eugen]

@RoamingGnome haha, funny you should mention the Mangalica pig. There is one farmer in Ontario who grows Mangalica pigs, but it's hard to find the meat anywhere. There is a butcher shop in Kensington Market in Toronto where I found some prepared products from Mangalica meat, mostly smoked stuff. The tastiest ever smoked fat! I wish I was able to raise a pig every year. A few years ago during my last visit in Romania, just before Christmas, I participated in the butchering of two home raised pigs in the backyard of my wife's parents place, beginning to end. Not for the faint of heart. All done like it was done for hundreds of years, knives. But it's honest and the result is meats, sausages, and all kind of goodies.

Here are a few pics for your entertainment.

Me and my father in law.

Getting the meat partitioned and ready for sausages and other good stuff.

Making pig fat crips. Really tasty.

[RoamingGnome]

@Eugen - Great photos! That's really interesting, Dad grew up on a small farm in the '30s and '40s so he was used to the simple but sometimes brutal lifestyle. He would talk about a pet rooster he used to have as a kid, until one Sunday it was there on the dinner table, always had a tear in his eye at that point...

[Eugen]

I understand what you mean about the sad part. The killing of the pig was rough, that is not something I enjoyed at all, but that's what I mean by honest, I think you appreciate that piece of meat in a different way when you're involved in the process. It really puts things into perspective much more than when you get all the meat you want for the bbq from the store shelf. It's probably illegal here, and I think the EU has pressured all members of the EU to make the practice illegal, as it's deemed inhumane. Most people there still do it though, it's ingrained in tradition and not easy to change things that have been done that way since the beginning of time. He he, my ramble today on raising and butchering a pig.

[RoamingGnome]

LoL Things can go off on a tangent sometimes
But I'll take responsibility for starting us down that path by sharing a picture of a cute, curly, fuzzy pig that looks more like a teddy bear...