Jim had a busy week chasing an errant pig this week. First it was report on the streets inYeppoon and Jim was dispatched to begin the chase. No such luck. The next night was better, caught the bugger and put him in the cage at the yard(pound). But the bugger got away again. Two nights later Jim was called again. This time with permanent success. That was in between all of the other calls for road kill and cows on the road. So I suppose you're wondering what Jim does in his spare time. Saturday he mustered some of his own cows and changed their pastures. Sunday with a little time before dinner he decided to slaughter Scotty's pigs. Scotty lives down the road and raises sheep and pigs for sale.
Anyway we headed over to Scotty's where he had a big fire going and was getting ready to put three big copper pots in. I learned that to scrape the skin and hair off the water temperature had to be real close to 62 degrees centigrade that's 143.6 Fahrenheit. If it's cooler than that it takes forever to get the skin and hair off. That happened on the first pig. The three copper pots were emptied into the waiting bath tub and Jim shot and bled the first pig. The water was not quite hot enough. I don't know how long it took to scrape it, but 4 of us worked on it for it seemed forever.
Then Jim butchered it. Hocks, head, innards... the whole deal. Meanwhile Scotty's son Luke and his friend Jacob kept the fire hot and water heating for the next pig.
Repeat, except the water was just right and the process was a lot smoother. We trucked them both back to Jim's cold locker. I heard Jim was planning on cutting them up this afternoon.
Bonnie and I finished the small bedroom during the week. Now she's got to get some carpet installed and
put the bedroom back together.
I've finished stripping in the kitchen and have moved down the wall to the dining area and moving on to the living room. Not real happy with it. There have been some remodels (windows added/removed) and mud applied over paint which lifts after the top layers of paint are removed. I'm thinking to go ahead and prime what I have stripped so far to see how well it covers.
Yesterday we scrubbed the roof. Yes, scrubbed with green scratchers and painted it silver. A contractor is coming in a few weeks to install a solar electricity generator. Bonnie and I both fell once. I ended up looking like the Tin Man in the wizard of OZ with silver paint up my arms and legs. The Aussies are very conscientious with regard to using solar and capturing rain water.
So, back to Jim. This morning we went back to Scotty's and Jim sheared about 30 sheep. Jim used to do it for a living ( long ago ) but he is still very good at it. Teaching Scotty, too. Scotty has about a 100 left (just a guess).
We're getting some much loved rain today and Harvey is getting ready to leave for his Master's horse training class in Brisbane tomorrow.
We did make it to the beach on Wednesday. Unfortunately the weather had changed and the wind was blowing from the south. Seemed to make the water colder. We braved it. At least Teresa did and waded awhile. I got my feet wet. If it's not like bath water I don't get in... ever!!! But we had a great day and the best fish and chips at Beachside 66 in Yeppoon. Come on over and try some. HAH.
Busy place.
No comments:
Post a Comment