Another new addition to the Farmlet

I would like to welcome our newest member of our porcine family; our first full grown (almost; he's only about 6 months old) boar. (above in the red)  In the above picture he is already introducing himself to one of my gilts. I bought him and one more open gilt yesterday.  He and the new gilt are Red Durocs.

Lamb Roast

This year I decided to host a "Lamb Roast" by butchering and Rotisserie-ing a large lamb.  I invited nearly everyone I thought would be available and interested in doing something a little experimental. It turned out "Okay", but I did learn some things, some of which I will recount here so that I can remember them.  Here are a few photos:

Here are my helpers.  It went so well, we just impulsively decided to do another one that same morning.

Stitching up onions, garlic and lemons inside the cavity

Setting lamb over grill.

Basting every half hour. 

Finally getting done! 

So, the long and short of it is this; It took a lot longer than I expected.  I am sooooo glad we butchered the second lamb and just tossed him into the smoker, or we would have had a lot of angry, hungry people driving to Burger King.  I sure could have lowered it down on the stands earlier for one thing, and another is I guess I needed more fire in general.  I would say next time I would allow at least 8 hours of cook time for a 120 # live weight animal, and certainly start it out lower.  Even when done, it wasn't very tender, so it could have used a few more hours still.