This little piggy went to market.

From this last April...

 To this yesterday.

But not before she got to roll in the mud....

model her full body mud mask...

And root around in some tasty greenery.

Snoopy even had a chance to mingle with the pigs one afternoon.

And then quickly decided that hog heaven was not for him.

She was a good pig all the way up to the end when she literally loaded herself into the trailer.

 

It was quite an experience to raise a pig for the first time.  We bought her with the intention of raising her for meat, so she was never a 'pet'.  We've had mixed reactions from people.  Everything from, 'how how sad', to 'mmmm....bacon'.  To tell you the truth, it was a little sad to take her to the butcher - how could you not feel a twinge of sadness?  That's human.  Sadness though was not the overwhelming emotion.  It was more a feeling of satisfaction.  Satisfied that we did our current best to raise our own food.  That we know what she ate, how she lived and how she died.  It's a connection to our food that is so lost in our society today.  It's not a novel idea - raising your own food.  Many people still do it.  Many more though never see or know where exactly their food comes from.  The most they know about it is how much it cost them in the meat department.  When you pick up that package of bacon or sausage do you ever wonder what it took to get it into your cart?  If you knew you would still feel good about purchasing it?  Probably not.  That's 'sad'.  What is not sad is the bacon defrosting in my fridge right now. I am throughly satisfied with where it came from.  Just another step in trying to 'keep it real'.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday.

Comments

[Marcy]

We raised a batch of chickens this spring and we also got a wide range of reactions.

The third time someone asked my sister why I would want to raise my own chickens, she decided her kids would help with the processing, so they wouldn't grow up thinking it was "weird" to know where your food comes from, to have a hand in giving it a good life, and even ending that life.

There's a recognition that all life is interrelated. No creature lives but at the expense of others and even though it sometimes seems sad, it's also beautiful. I do admit I cried.