One day he was cooking and he brought me Spam and egg. Having been a teen Monty Python fan, this food combination amused me.
Lately bennett has been messing the the cushions on the couch a lot- hiding toys under them, throwing them on the floor, etc. On this occassion he needed to get underneath the cushion while Daddy read a story.
Saturday we went to Sturbridge. More about that in a minute, but here are some pictures. These mittens he's wearing are awesome. He had been using hand-knits (which are actually the green things dangling from his wrists) but his hands were always still really cold. Not that he complained, but we always felt bad when we took them off and his hands were red with cold. But last weekend I was looking through a bag of hand-me-down mittens and hats and found these red ones. After hours in the cold his hands were still toasty warm. Awesome!
And it wouldn't be a visit to Sturbridge without stopping at the store to get some cookies. Today's selection was chocolate chip. We normally don't give Bennett sweets, but he loves them!
When we went to Sturbridge on the 1st we were in the farm where the women were making candles. They were discussing the various forms of fats that were available and their uses, and one of the women, in an off-hand comment, mentioned that in a couple of weeks they would be butchering a pig. I let her finish what she was saying and then asked for more details. What was the date? What would we be able to see? How was this process different than in the 1830s? Etc. We were eager to see this process! Normally Saturdays don't work well for us to go to Sturbridge due to skating and nap time, but we decided to risk messing up lunch and naps so that we could see this. After all, there would be much more to see on Saturday than on Sunday.
Due to the sensitive nature of this event (and other similar events) they don't publicize it. However, we were told that if you ask, they will let you know when it will be. And apparently pig slaughter is usually the first weekend in January but was delayed a week for some reason or another this year. They also post signs when you get your tickets (plus the employee verbally told us in case we had missed the sign) and they have signs at the roads as you near the farm.
Apparently lots of the interpreters sign up to participate on weekends like this. After all, it's not an experience that frequently presents itself and they want to learn as well. My guess is there was one person there who knew what they were doing and everyone else was learning.
When we first got there, Bennett made his cute pig noises. He doesn't say"oink". Instead he makes grunting sounds, much like what pig would actually make. Those who could hear him thought it was cute. He definitely recognized that it was a pig, but I'm not sure that he understood that the pig was dead.
We watched for a while, got a tour of the smokehouse, watched for a while, went into the farm to see what was going on in there (making blood sausage), watched for a while, went to the blacksmith shop, watched for a while, looked at the other animals, watched for a while...
Eventually Bennett had had enough and started saying, "bye-bye". Guess that was our cue to leave.
If you are easily grossed out, (Mel, this means you- I won't be held responsible for you no longer eating pork products) please don't read the following paragraphs or click on the links. There is nothing else here for you to see.
Due to modern regulations the pig must be shot. They did this just before the museum opened. Historically they would have knocked it unconscious, hung it up by it's hind legs. They then would have slit the throat. By doing it in this order, they would have been able to collect the most blood as the heart would have still been pumping. There was an awesome interpreter who spoke with us and mentioned that things hadn't gone so well on this occassion. They had missed the artery when slitting the throat to collect the blood and as a result there was a lot of blood lost on the ground. They tried to cover it up with some snow (so that it wouldn't be super gruesome) but you could still see some of it.
When we arrived the pig was lying on a table and they were in the process of removing the heart. Surprisingly it looked very "clean"- really no blood on it. They put it in a bowl and held it out so that those who were interested could look.
Next they hung it up again so that they could tie off the anus. Chris and I wondered why this hadn't been done earlier in the process, but I'm sure they had their reasons. We then went away to do something else.
When we came back, the pig was back on the table. They had removed the other organs, intestines, etc and were getting ready to further butcher it. This is around the time Bennett had had enough, so we didn't get to see the rest.
If you're interested, here are a couple of pictures that I took. If you're really curious I have a few others.
Image 1
Image 2
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