A crackling good time

Random Act of Kindness No. 25 – If you see an old person struggling in a supermarket, help them do their shopping.

Well those who read my blog yesterday will know I came back to the smell the roses of Warwickshire. Two of my brothers have a rare bread Tamworth pig farm and Thursday is a busy day. One of the brothers was down in London prancing around in make-up and in front of cameras as he is taking part in Britain’s Best Dish. So I got drafted in to make up the work force. I therefore didn’t get to spend much time in a supermarket to help an old person. And I hate supermarkets anyway. So I decided my RAOK for today, would be to help my brothers out for free, for a whole day.

And that is what I did.

BANG BANG BANG BANG. Yep that will be my bedroom door at 6.00am this morning. Nice wake up call from my brother there. Once my eyes managed to stay open by their own accord – after a couple of shots of coffee - I braved the outdoors to go and feed the grunters (as Garry, the main butcher calls them).

This is the mean machine that I fed the pigs on this morning, fully loaded with the feed.

I decided I would take my time feeding this morning. It was a tactic I am sure my other brother uses. The idea is, if you feed the pigs slowly on a Thursday morning, you arrive up at the butchery when they have already got into the swing of things. So I decided to take some pictures to put up on here to show you. This is the view from the gate entrance.

Here is a picture of the oldest sows on the farm Rebecca and Amie, enjoying their breakfast with their little ones. (Amie is camera shy but Rebecca laps up the fame).

This picture is Lucy’s little porkers. This sow was named after my house mate Lucy. It is a great honour to have a sow named after you. Only special people have achieved such status…there is a long waiting list.

After taking my time with the feeding I did, eventually, head up to the butchery. My brother Jon, and Garry were in full swing. I think I had taken just a little too long this morning – oops. Never mind I hopped to it and cracked on.

After mainly standing in front of the vac-packing machine all morning, Garry gave me a crash course on how to tie the sausages – check these bad boy bangers out!

Soon it was lunchtime and as the new boy I was in charge of cracking out some lunch. Freshly made pork burgers, or freshly made pork burgers were on the menu. So I got to it. Molded some minced pork into burger shapes and hey presto, some seriously tasty pork burgers. Crackin’. (Sorry Lakshmi, I promised I wouldn’t use that word again).

Well after a short lunch break it was back to work. Slicing bacon, packing chops, hanging hams, and yes, the washing up. B-E-A-UTIFUL.

I was then told to go and do the evening feed. I also had to do some bedding down so it was a large load on the way to the field. Check out the mean machine this time round…

Rightyo, that was my RAOK for the day. Not the one actually stated in the book, but I am sure you can all understand that kindness starts at home. Who would I be if I couldn’t help my brothers out once in a while?

I also bought a Stratford-Upon-Avon Herald today and sadly they haven't published my letter. I am going to write to them tomorrow and ask jolly well why not!