How do we make them DIE

The title is not quite a quote from Withnail and I (it is a chicken they are trying to kill). One of my favourite films.

We went to the abattoir to talk to them about taking the pigs. Firstly to check that we have the right paperwork. It looks like we do, although we won't believe it until it is all completed successfully - and there did seem to be some confusion about whether we should put our holding number or the holding number of the breeder on to one of the forms. Secondly to discuss what they provide in the way of butchering and to understand the whole process so it is as stress free (for us and the pigs) as possible.
The lady we spoke to at reception was very helpful and nice, tolerant of both our rubbish French and lack of experience with animals and getting them slaughtered.

The pigs are booked in for the 5th of November. If you are just having them killed their you don't need a reservation but if you want them butchered you do. In the future we would like to do the butchering ourselves, but the size and hygiene of the kitchen isn't up to scratch at the moment plus we have a lot to learn doing the curing and sausage and black pudding without also having to manage to chop them in to bits first.
We will get them back on the 8th after they have hung for a while and then been butchered. We have a little form to fill in with how we want the butchering done. Bit tricky because French cuts are different to British and our instruction manual (Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's 'The River Cottage Cookbook) uses British.

We have also had two giant chest freezers delivered (once we removed a door and managed to get them upstairs where they are going to live for the mo), so we are nearly ready for the big day. We just need to work out what we are going to make (black pudding, sausages, dried ham, pâte, etc) and make sure we have all the ingredients, equipment, gas for the cooker and plenty of salt.

Room for more than a pig in each

We have arranged for the farmer who had his cows on our land to come and pick the pigs up and drive them to the abattoir in his small cow lorry as they are now WAY to big for the back of the pickup - they would fit in but don't fancy trying to get them up or down again as they weight well over 100kg each.

I had a moment of worry in the night that it is was going to be too much of an emotional trauma and we (or at least I) might not be able to do it at the last moment. We are very fond of the pigs, they are quite affectionate and interactive and we have spent a lot of time playing with them and scratching their backs and it is quite horrible to think of dropping them off somewhere they are alone and confused. However I decided we will be fine and went to sleep in the end. They have had a lovely life here and the pork should taste amazing. If we can't do it then we will have to go vegetarian as they will have had a much better life and death than most meat.

There is the option to have someone come to your home to do the slaughter. However this cannot be done until perhaps January when the outdoors temperature is low enough to hang the meat (the abattoir of course have a big cold room) and we cannot keep them until them because of them being one male and one female (bit of a stupid mistake we made). In addition I think this service might require better facilities and cleanliness than our kitchen and barn can currently provide. This is something we will certainly look at next year though as it seems likely to be a kinder end for the pigs not having to go off in a lorry to somewhere strange and unknown.