Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Pigs! We have pigs!

Monday night, we got our two new pigs. Hmmmm, odd that my last post was about beef and now, I'm moving onto pork, "The other white meat." Which isn't true, but great marketing.
Sunday night, Dustin and I put up the pig pen fences and Monday night, a red and white hog appeared. Ian is having a blast with Orville and Stan.
I realize that naming them is a dangerous thing because they could become pets in Ian's mind, but he loves to feed them and he wanted them to have names. I am not sure when it comes time to take them to the butcher how much we will tell him. Probably not a lot. He may be over them by then, they will no longer be cute pigs and instead will be ugly hogs. It's possible.
I may tell him what I told him when one of the calves that he named Dolly was taken to the sale barn. (For the record, if you have kids, get them attached to a good looking heifer that would make a good replacement and therefore, won't be leaving.)  Anyway, when he asked about Dolly, I told him simply that Dolly had to go to a new home. I just didn't tell him the the home was someones freezer.
I don't want to shelter my kids from the truth of ranching and growing our own food, but I do think we have to be careful not to traumatize them in the process. There is plenty of time for them to understand the whole process.
Dustin was raised with this and it's a process of understanding. And as you get older, you start to understand what is involved.  I don't want to scare my kids, but I do want them to understand that this is where their food comes from.
Of course, I love the idea of our own bacon, pork chops, and roasts and I will know exactly what went into them.  So, let the new adventure begin. We have pigs.

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