Piggy Processing Pron...........(GRAPHIC)

Well, here it goes. I learned a lot from my dad and just as much from my grandfather. My grandfather grew up in a time when growing your own food in the ground and raising your own animals was part of the normal, everyday plan. My dad tells me stories about the chores that him and his brother had before they left for school every day. Collecting eggs, feeding goats, sheep, ducks, chickens, pigs, etc, changing their drinking water and cleaning up after them. And on certain days, killing a chicken or two for my grandmother and leaving the birds on the back porch for her to remove the feathers and prepare for dinner that evening.
My grandfather took great pride in raising beautiful, and healthy animals......these in turn would end up feeding his family of 3 boys and 3 girls.
Much later on, I remember going out with him to cut fresh, wild long grass from the irrigation canals to feed the animals and we'd always make a stop at the wild asparagus patch that grew alongside the canal. (It's still there by the way, and I pass their old house everyday on the way to work. Brings back some memories.) We'd come home with a 5 gallon bucket full of wild asparagus.
My dad continued the tradition my grandfather had instilled in me. To this day, my dad still has chickens and we had our share of sheep, goats, rabbits, ducks and they all made it to the dinner table!
A few years ago, my dad went got into a little side business with a friend of his. They purchased some pigs and let them do what pigs do best.............multiply. They "leased" the land from an old cowboy(Vaquero), Don Luis. He let them keep the pigs on his property, and from time to time he would have his pick of the new piglets and as they got older he'd get to fill up his freezer in exchange for letting them use his land. He had close to 3 acres of land.
Things feel apart at the end due to lost jobs, but those 3 years were great. Seems we were out there every other weekend harvesting an animal, or selling some off, or just out there feeding and tending to them. It made for some great memories with my dad.
This wasn't intended to be a how to thread, but just a collection of pics that I though you all might enjoy. I'll just post them along with a few comments here and there. Hope you enjoy them.

These are some pics of the last pig party we had at my folks house. The pics are not in any order.


Breakfast before the work begins. Can you spot Miss Piggy!! We got her all tucked in. Below the water is boiling in the half drum. Well pour it on the skin to aid in removing the hair and getting it shaved down as well as cleaning it.



Cutting the skin for chicharrones.
My folks always get their mail on time. Can you see the sauce stains on his shirt?

The chicharonnes early on. All that's in there is one gallon of salt water and all their fatty goodness.

Assembly line. Seems like Miss Piggy lost her head.

Here are some carnitas. Mostly the odd bits and pieces from the process that got tossed in the lard left over from the chicharrones.

My dad smoked up both slabs of ribs. Dang, they were good!


My favorite pic. Dad and the feast!!



I just love to stir the pot!!


I'm adding more pics. This is the first batch o pron.

Here are some from Don Luis' place. His son owns a steel door business...........the old doors make for good building and fencing material.
Here's the original male they purchased. While he was quite the ladies man and knew how to do the deed, we later found out he was given a vasectomy and could seal any deals with the ladies. The guys from the original farm didn't want him back, so they sent another male to take over his duties. This guy ended up getting a full on castration and was fattened up even more for a few months and then was sold. It took about 10 guys to pull his carcass up a wooden ramp and onto a truck when he was sold. He was freaking huge!!

The smallest of the females was the best producer and the best mother. A tender moment.....ahhhh!

This was the new male that took over the stud duties. Quite the handsome farker, no!

Future smoker meat........

Gotta start the day with breakfast. Plow discs are very versatile. Scrammbled eggs and chorizo.


The larger sections waiting to get cut up into smaller portions.
A hind leg I brought home for the freezer. It ended up in tamales, I believe.

A whole rack..........

Another batch of chicharonnes

More lardy, greasy, goodness.

The final crispy, crunchy, treats.........


Here are some pics from a pig party at my Inlaws...........

Boiling the water....

Early on.

Pretty much done. My good buddy, Cooper. His grandfather owned a hog farm in NC when he was a kid. He made it look easy.

Skins waiting for their time in the UDF.........Ugly Drum Fryer.

Some carnita appetizers.

Enjoy!!