If I have said it once, I probably have said it 100 times – I love this time of year. There is something about the changing temperatures with cool evenings and brisk mornings. Our southern mountain that faces the house is covered in a variety of hardwoods. In mid-October, the trees slowly begin to transform their green canopies into a myriad of shades of oranges, yellows, and reds. More evenings are spent around a campfire with the family and friends.

While it sounds like I am trying to set up a Norman Rockwell scene, not every experience this time of year is sentimental and relaxing. This time of year is also hog processing time. Since I sell pork to local customers, I can’t process on farm. I have to load all my hogs and take them to a USDA inspected facility that handles all the processing.

So why is this not a favorite time for me? Quite frankly, it is the stress.

My first year raising hogs for commercial processing was an interesting experience. I learned so much that first year mostly by mistakes. I was surprised I managed to keep them all alive the first year. The culmination of my trial by fire was my first attempt to load the hogs into the trailer. I was ignorant in thinking that they would walk themselves into the trailer if I simply place food in it. It didn’t go quite that smoothly. After a couple of days and several times of sending the boys to the house so they wouldn’t see their dad lose his mind and offer up colorful vocabulary, I finally got them loaded.

Each year loading the hogs has been easier, but the desperation I felt that first year manages to creep up on me as loading day approaches. A knot forms in my throat as I imagine standing in an empty corral while all the hogs are perched on the pasture hill laughing and taunting me (maybe I’m reminded of Junior High). I can’t shake that anxiety that builds even though today I had every hog in the corral within the last parting gate ready to go into the trailer. I was tempted to load them right then but it wouldn’t be humane to leave them in a trailer for 36 hours.

Last year was the easiest loading I had ever experienced. I simply had to close the trailer gate when I came down to the barn because all the hogs were sleeping in the trailer. I keep telling myself it could be that easy tomorrow. I walked around and tested every board on the corral to make sure they were solid and none had come loose. I have checked and rechecked the alignment of the trailer to the load chute and verified that the trailer doors are latched so pigs don’t spill out the other end as I load them.

This time I do have one wrinkle in the process. One of the 12 hogs I want to be a new breeder. She will be in the corral with the other 11 and I have to make sure I can separate her without letting everyone else out in a piggy jail break. I am not sure just how this is going to unfold.

Now, I realize some of you are thinking, “Sure, Troy. You are stressed. Imagine how the pigs feel as they are being loaded for their trip to freezer camp.” Yes, I get it. It is stressful for all. I do take this time very seriously. These pigs have been my responsibility since they were born and I have tried hard to make their time on our farm the most pig pleasing time available. We always tell people that we let a pig be a pig. These pigs will provide food for my family and for other families. At some point, I will do the same for worms. Morbid – I know. Depending on your age, you may be humming the Circle of Life song from the Lion King at this point (if you weren’t now you definitely are). This is the part of farming/homesteading that is hard.

So, while this is the closing chapter for some of our hogs here at Red Tool House, later this month will be the start of the book for the next litter as we breed our sows for a spring farrowing. Another part of homesteading that makes this time of year interesting – but isn’t homesteading always challenging and interesting?