I just finished wrapping up wild hog sausage--two hogs, as a matter of fact. Our places are overrun with the things. You can come up on them in any of our pastures and there will be up to 30 or 40 in a group...Joshua killed one on the Wildcat Road place on Friday while he was deer hunting before he left on Saturday to go back to KY...he brought it home, strung it up, skinned it, cut it up, put it in large containers, covered them with water (to keep them from drying out overnight) and put them in the refrigerator out in the barn to chill. That was on Friday. Sunday after church Leslie went out to check on it and all of it was frozen solid!
Then Leslie and I took a load of hay over to the same place a couple days ago around 4pm. Leslie stopped right inside the gate and I got on the tractor and followed him back to where we were going to dump the hay. He stops not too far past the corral and I thought he was looking at a calf or something. I looked up past a tree and saw something small stretching and thought it was a calf. Then another appeared behind him...then another appeared behind him...there were about six or seven grown hogs with around 12 or 13 little ones. They had yet to really notice us--I guess because they are used to the cows roaming around in the pasture.
Leslie had been taking his gun and hunting stuff with him every day just in case he saw a deer. All of a sudden I hear a "Boom!" One of the hogs jumps and they all turn in one accord and take off in the opposite direction. They went through the fence behind the neighbor's house and headed for the trees. For some reason, they all turned and started running back towards us. They came back through the fence and headed straight towards Leslie. That's when he shot a boar. That one went down. The rest scurried towards the trees on the other side and disappeared. So....we had two hogs to process.
Thankfully, we have a commercial tenderizer and a commercial grinder. Do any of you remember the store that was on Rosston Road run by Bob Lee? My goodness, that's been 35 years ago! I know that when I rode the JayCee bus to/from school our bus driver would let us off at the store and pick us back up when he made his circuit. Before anyone gets in an uproar about that, I don't think they allow that anymore.:-) When he closed that store Leslie bought his processing equipment for $200....that $200 has been used over and over on deer. This is the first time it's been used for wild hog. I really thought the meat would taste rancid but it tasted just like that you buy out of the supermarkets. The pork chops were terrific and I cooked a pork roast with the prerequisite veggies in a crockpot last night...
Anyway, that's what I've done today ...I can't really face cooking supper.:-) And I doubt I'll be eating pork again any time soon...
