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judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 11:33 am Post subject: They've gone
I've just got back from taking my porkers to the abattoir. It's all rather quiet around here at the moment

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45670
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 11:34 am Post subject:
But think of all the bacon..

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 11:36 am Post subject:
I know. I will be fine when they come back, but it is bothering me more than I expected it to today.

Andy B

Joined: 12 Jan 2005
Posts: 3920
Location: Brum

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 11:37 am Post subject: Re: They've gone

Judith wrote:

I've just got back from taking my porkers to the abattoir. It's all rather quiet around here at the moment

I think thats the bit i would struggle with. Tahir just thinks of his stomach!

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 12:13 pm Post subject:

Judith wrote:

I know. I will be fine when they come back, but it is bothering me more than I expected it to today.

I think it's a necessary part of the process, at least you think about what's happening, most people choose to ignore the consequences of eating meat.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 12:20 pm Post subject:
Good luck Judith - I'm really impressed and in a way I think it's a good thing that you're affected by it, because it shows you really were taking good care of them while you were responsible for them. I hope we'll be doing this ourselves one day and I'm really grateful for you letting us know how it's going. Like JB says, the fact that you're thinking about it says it all.

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 12:31 pm Post subject:
Feeling a bit better now - I was ridiculously weepy earlier. Had the classic beginners reversing-the-trailer debacle at the abattoir. I tried, OH tried, then the nice farmer who went in before us took pity and did it for us . In one seamless movement!

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45670
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 12:49 pm Post subject:
Glad you're feeling better Judith, I hate to think what I'd be like at reversing a trailer in at the abbatoir, I'm sure it did nothing for stress levels. I'm glad you shared your feelings because it is (contrary to my previous post) definitely something that takes a lot of doing, I respect anybody that raises their own livestock.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28235
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 12:56 pm Post subject:
I know i'd struggle badly. I am not even convinced i'd want to eat the Bacon I congratulate those who really do have the courage of their meat eating convictions.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 1:04 pm Post subject:

I know it's not really the same thing, but in a way it does relate.

The first few times we ate our own chickens' eggs I felt quite sick about it...bit too close for comfort, plus all the slugs and snails I'd seen go in the other end

But it was something I wanted to do and something I knew was right so I simply perservered.

These days I love looking at the eggs as I crack them, examining the colour and size and shape and knowing that the animal that produced them is merrily devastating the vegetable patch without a care in the world rather than squashed in a box with four other birds and very little opportunity to devestate anything apart from its neighbour's body.

A year or so ago I realised I'd completely turned a corner when I brought home some fresh pasta for dinner from the supermarket. I read the ingredients and thought about the eggs and had exactly the same sick feeling eating that pasta as I did when I first started eating "home grown" eggs, because I knew that if they're not labelled free range they're quite likely to come from appalling conditions.

I'm not sure if this makes sense but I think it would be the same feeling eating meat from your own animals to begin with - but you know it's right and you couldn't have done anything better for them or for you, so it won't take long for you to turn that corner (plus Judith has a much more sensible attitude than I do!)

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28235
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 1:07 pm Post subject:
I am sure you are entirely right. You just have to relearn conditioning.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 1:21 pm Post subject:
Is it harder with pigs than with other animals?

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 1:29 pm Post subject:
I think the sight of the empty pen would bother me too! There must be something very forlorn about it! I wonder how other people cope. Do you think its harder if they all go together, or if you've got other animals around to distract yu a bit? Oh dear Bugs - I think becoming a smallholder is going to be a long road for us!

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 1:31 pm Post subject:
It certainly was for me - they were very endearing chaps. If Farmwoody reads this thread - your boys were much admired up to the last. Even the trading standards woman at the abattoir was rather taken with them!

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 1:34 pm Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

I think the sight of the empty pen would bother me too! There must be something very forlorn about it!

OH has gone out and taken it down for me. Bless him!

Anyway, enough of this maudlin bit. I am looking forward to getting them back too - we are doing the full sausage / brawn / bacon-making thing over the weekend. My sister wants to make light sabre sausages for her four year-old's birthday party!!!

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