Here are some early 1940's memories from my husband's sister about about hog butchering at her grandparent's farm at Blue Knob. Everyone got up while it was still dark to do the regular farm chores. She remembered going with her Grandma (Nettie WALTERS) up the hill to Uncle Lloyd and Aunt El WALTERS' place to help with the work. Hog butchering was done in the late fall or early winter. The cold weather prevented the meat from spoiling while it was being prepared. The flies and mosquitoes were gone. All the family gathered together early because it was a day long event. Usually the family butchered at least two hogs. The companionship from morning until night is probably what made hog butchering a fond memory. The actual butchering procedure was not so enjoyable but they hardly ever went to the grocery store for meat. The men would go to the hog pen and shoot the hog. The hog was put in a long deep trough with scalding hot water poured repeatedly poured over it. The older kids kept heating water in a big kettles over an open fire. The hot water would loosen the hair, and the skin was scrapped with a special tool leaving the hog white and clean. It was then hoisted up on a rack and gutted and then carved. Grandpa and his brother (Calvin Walters and Lloyd Walters) would then cut large pieces of meat and give them to the women who would cut those pieces into smaller sections. Some meat was salted and other portions were smoked. Then came the worst part of all, at least for me. The pig head was put into the boiling kettle! The meat from the pigs gave us sausage, liver sausage, ribs, head cheese, bacon, hams and several gallons of lard. The lard was used for cooking and baking. The smallest pieces were used in Grandma's ham pot pie - my favorite. Carol in Baltimore PS -- Annie posted an obituary for J.A.Knipple on the very same day that I posted the message that my husband's great grandfather died because he went out in the cold for hog butchering day. What was that ancestor's name? John A Knipple, he died 19 November 1908. What a coincidence!