Tuesday, November 13, 2012

One Mans Junk is Another Mans Hogcienda

I am married to an incredible man. whom I love very much.
I do not, however, love his junk inventory.

Over the last 19 years of marriage we have come to an understanding. As long as he stacks his junk inventory in neat, alphabetical piles, with the largest items in back and the smallest in front, with the wood grain all facing the same way and or/ the rusted items stacked up in order of degree of decay and/or the mildewing books/magazines grouped by number of remaining pages, as long as he does THAT, there's no problem.

The real killer for me is when this good guy of mine actually pulls it all together and creates something wonderful and FREE.  Like our new hogcienda which will go out into our pasture and house several rapidly growing market hogs.  If you missed my post showing the early beginnings of this new shelter you can read about it HERE



Well, it was  almost free. He did have to break down and buy 6 long bolts for a cost of nearly 10 bucks. The rest of the recycled, up cycled, side-cycled materials came from:

My sister Marys basement remodel a decade ago
Our back deck remodel 2 months ago
Our son Coltons porch remodel earlier this summer
Our niece Tina's old barn lost in this past springs tornado
Our goat barn. Steel roof put on 15 years ago and removed with barn demolition last month
Steel beams found on our property when we bought the farm in 1995.



You'll note that entrance is now from the short side whereas last years model the entrance was from the long side. This will allow hogs to burrow back deep into the shelter when weather gets really interesting. It will also keep the shelter dryer as less snow will be able to infiltrate the interior. With only two more sides to close up we should have hogs in residence within a week.


And you know what that means don't you? Yup, happy hogs make great tasting meat. Like this



 And this

 
And some of this too
 
 
Gotta go. Time to make supper.
 

11 comments:

  1. Haha, sometimes that junk does have a good use! As long as it's alphabetized that is.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Karen, Just finished your last book. Lighting Candles in the Snow. Great job, a different level of depth than your others. Can't wait to pass it on to MY sisters (Maggie...I mean you)

    And yeah, I'm getting used to the junk, as I get older and more tired I get less worked up about alot of things...OK, a FEW things.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The hogcienda looks great! Has Keith thought about anchoring it to the ground somehow? I would hate to see it turn into an airplane flying through the air from a big gust of wind. The landing might not be very nice.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your meats look great. No ears or bread-crumbs in the sausages. No water injected into the bacon. Just like here!

    ReplyDelete
  5. My husband will not have any possible recyclable material here and either burns it or takes it to the dump. But he is a computer whizz, and does keep old PC parts including miles of electrical cables. Not much use for those out on the smallholding!
    We are going to slaughter a girl pig tomorrow. Do not have time to do things with the pork, so will freeze it and learn to make sausage, ham, bacon, etc, at a future date, but it will never look anywhere near the standard of your pork products!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I like your husband's collection and the resulting hogcienda.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I could live in that place - just so long as I wasn't carted away to be turned into sausages!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dear Seester!
    A book, yes!! And for the record you and I are married to men from the same mold, you are so much more better than I. I throw it out, and to the curb on Monday, and he digs it out before they come pick it up!! LOL
    -Maggie Mae

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow, what a great Hogcienda! Himself and i collect stuff, but the putting together and making it something wonderful eludes us a good deal of the time. I like to think we are improving, though.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Congrats on the Hogcienda. Boy, that meat looks awsome!

    ReplyDelete
  11. The hogcienda is quite impressive! I LOVE your rules for your husband organizing his junk. Your pork looks lovely!

    Here's a link to the photo of my husband and me proudly wearing your shirts! Thank you again!

    http://zephyrhillfarm.blogspot.com/2012/11/whats-in-fashion-this-fall.html

    ReplyDelete