August 8th was a big day for us. It started early, well to be honest we just never went to bed. We got the pig ready Friday night and Saturday at 1a.m. it was on the grate cooking. Ok, let me start from the beginning.
We cooked our pig in a sort of makeshift grill made from cinder blocks and expanded metal. A roof was fashioned from metal sheeting and 2×4’s. Holes were drilled in certain blocks to fit rebar supports.
We ordered our pig from a butcher fairly close to where we live. They went and picked up the pig and butchered it. Unfortunately they did not cut it right, gave us the wrong pig (our pig went to someone else and the pig we ended up with was even bigger than expected) and then laughed and blamed the whole thing on us. As if we are responsible for them writing “split” instead of “splayed” and giving us the wrong pig. We won’t use them again. So it started rough. We salted the pig up and waited for Husband’s family to come assist in pig surgery. We could not have the pig split like that, it wouldn’t flip well at all. So wire was used to sew it up.
We used hardwood coal to keep the temperature in the pig around 260 degrees.
There was no wind when we started the pig and getting the coals going was difficult. It came up fierce in the morning though and the coals were burning hot and fast. Everything else was also blowing away. I tried to get some sleep and woke up around 8 with Daughter’s foot in my face. We went out and visited the Pig and brought Husband breakfast. All was good until the turkeys arrived. They were biting us, trying to get on the table and eat the food and generally testing our limits. We ended up holding a fly swatter and whacking them until they gave up and went away, temporarily.
Then Husband went to bed and I babysat the pig. I tried to watch a movie but……
I gave up.
After 14 hours of cooking the pig was done. Everything was set up and we awaited guests. The party was wonderful. However, we have TONS of left overs. We will be eating pig for the rest of our lives I think.
Oh, here is the pig being consumed by guests. The legs came off on the last flipping.
Daughter had a grand time once she decided she was ok with eating Pig. It took some doing. She felt like they were friends and wouldn’t eat it to begin with.
We had some rain and quite a bit of wind which graced us with a lovely rainbow and a beautiful sunset.
