Actually, preparations for the hog killing began some months before with the cutting of stove wood. You couldn't have a decent fire without dry wood. A couple of days before the hog killing final preparations were completed. You went to the woods and found yourself a couple of trees about 8 inches in diameter and cut them down. Logs were cut from the trees to serve as the base for the vats. That's why green logs were important. They wouldn't burn. A trench about a foot deep was dug in the ground a little longer than the vat. A piece of stove pipe with an elbow on the bottom was secured vertically at one end of the vat to act as a chimney. We used 2 vats. One we called the wash vat which was used to heat the water for washing various utensils and tubs throughout the day. The other was the scalding vat -- more about that later. And finally you put up the gutting pole.

Around daybreak the neighbors began arriving. It only remained to wait for enough daylight to see.

Revised 2/14/2006, 10/13/2011.