Garden Winter Prep, Tomatoes, RAIN, Pig Butcher Party

It was warm yesterday morning, low 40s F thanks to the cloud cover overnight. I didn't need to cover the garden it was so warm but I had just in case. One never really knows this time of year.

I got myself out to the garden early and made my way around the farm ensuring more was under cover and put away for the winter. I grabbed a arm load of the wire sections I have for hoops and jabbed them into the ground over the celery. We are expecting 27F tonight so I am going to cover them to ensure we keep them good. This is the best celery I have ever grown and am not about to lose it to frosts.

Then the cherry tomatoes got picked. I worked down the one side and got the 10 gallon tub about 2/3 full.

After working the other side of the row I had managed just about 30 pounds.

Then I started hacking the plants down. As I did I found nice little shoots on a number of the plants which I cut off and ran in the house to a cup of water where they are going to hopefully put out roots. I'm hoping to have tomato plants to grow over winter in the house.

The top part of the row of the tomatoes got cut down and piled in the wheelbarrow. The fence rolled and set with the other rolls I dumped the wheelbarrow in the mulch pile for the birds to peruse.

Then right as the rains began, (an hour earlier than forecast) I cut the tomato plants off at the base then after removing the fence posts I rolled the plants up in the fence.

It then dumped for the next few hours and by the time it had stopped we had .3 inch of rain.

We headed to a newer friend's farm a bit south of us to help them butcher a pig. It actually ended up being a pair of pigs.

They have a pair of sows with piglets, bacon seeds, and then they have the 5 males of which we dealt with a pair.

The first one went quickly and I had its throat slit and the hocks cut to hang it, then we hoisted it from the pen and hauled it to the barn to hang while we got the other one. Being inexperienced at hog butchering things went a lot slower. The scalding pot didn't get heating till way late so it took forever to get them dehaired.

With pots of boiling water from the house the first pig got the bulk of it scraped. The second we got into the trashcan scalder and ended up finally getting it hot enough to get the hair and skin dealt with.

Once the hair was largely removed and the skin worked we slung the first one up on the hoist and gutted it. Once the first was gutted it was about 10pm and I was so sore and tired and J had fallen asleep in the car while R was running on 5 year old energy. They were very appreciative of our help.

We HAD to shower once home then went out for a very much needed soak to work on the extremely sore and tight muscles.

Today I have to go get grain this morning along with doing an irrigation shutdown for a long standing client. No rains today so that helps. The freeze dryer batch is done, it is warm this morning, then this afternoon we will be going back to our friend's for the pig feast. They are building a fire in a pit this morning then will lay the pigs on hot rocks for the day to roast, then this evening will pull them for the feast.

I know I am using the same pic for a pair of posts but it was a lot of work and a major part of the day.