My daily routine starts out with bible reading, coffee from 6:30 until 8, then I eat and go outside to feed the dogs and horses. It was cold and crisp this morning, and when I walked out the barn through the stall, the dogs were taking off like bullets out of a gun barrel. Looking down the path that the horses had packed down, I could see the woods, with the trees in front and I could smell and see the smoke wafting up from a pecan tree that I had piled up and burned last weekend. The sight and smell carried me back to the early 50's when all the neighbors gathered at grandpa's to have a hog killing. I know that it sounds cruel and if you were a hog, it probably was. However if the people did not get the meat and prepare it for winter, most of them would starve to death. The person hosting the killing would get the majority of the meat and the rest would be paid in meat.
That morning was bitterly cold and we were all outside at the crack of dawn. Someone had built a large fire under the syrup kettle, that today was going to be used to scald the hogs so that the hair could be scraped off easier. NO they were already dead before being scalded. That was the first place that I stopped at. It was sure warm by that pot, but being a young kid I was disturbed by the sight. Even today I can still remember the sounds of the squealing hogs, not knowing what was fixing to take place. At that time and age I could not understand how people could do what they were doing to the animals, but just a few years later, home butchering was over with. I was with my father at a hog pen near the creek, where there was a group of hogs waiting to go to the sale. They were young gilts and shoats, so I know now that they were not going to slaughter at that time. I don't know why I did it, but I spit on one of them. Instead of whipping me, daddy told me that on judgement day God would make me lick that spit off the hog. I was never more embarrassed than at that moment. However, I knew then, that on that cold morning that the people doing the slaughter had respect for the animals. Even native Indians gave honor and glory to the wild animals that they used for food.
