Pig @ MindSay

More pics of Ina-blanket, jethro and mama

When I commented to my fiance about bringing home the bacon, i did NOT mean for him to bring home a 200+ pound PIG! Ina-blanket has since pretty much taken over the front deck. She would have taken over the house, but the goats are already doing that.lol. The goats are another one of those things. My daughter wanted to try making goat cheese. We now have three goats. Pretty much the same for the chickens. And the lovebirds. And the goldfish. At this point, its like open mouth...get new pet.

So now we have faux outrage over these remarks. Honestly I am getting so tired of this election, 55 days seems like such a long way to go and coverage continue to get dumber and dumber. Look, I don't think that Obama was insulting Sarah Palin with his "lipstick on a pig" remark but it was a misstep that should have been avoided. All this does is play into the meme that exists to a certain section of the voting public who think Obama is a bit of a sexist. This gaffe also created the opening for the McCain camp to use this against Obama as well as being just the moronic bullshit that makes the embarressing excuse of a American news media salivate. We are now going to be fed a steady diet of this nonsense as if it is an important topic of debate.
And worst of all it is yet another thing that does nothing but help Sarah Palin. it continues to keep her as the #1 story in the media and it makes it look like she is being attacked yet again by the mean old Democrats.
It is amazing how sloppily the formerly well oiled Obama machine has become over the last few weeks. But it does make me chuckle a bit to see every word from the Obama side getting parsed for hidden meanings like what was done to the Hillary camp during the primaries. Ah, sweet irony.

Cajuns fete Carnival with pig slaughter

By STACEY PLAISANCE, Associated Press Writer

ST. MARTINVILLE, La.

Far from the Carnival balls, parades and raucous crowds of New Orleans, Cajuns in St. Martinville held their last "bon temps" before Lent in a far different fashion: with a grand boucherie, or slaughtering of a pig.

Hundreds of people watched at least part of the ritual Saturday, though most have seen it before. The pig's skin was being shaved for cracklins, a Cajun snack, while the carcass was being prepared for transport to a butcher shop.

"The boucherie is so important to our culture," said Denise Leger, 34, a Cajun Catholic from New Iberia who helped her uncle butcher the pig. "A lot of people give up their favorite foods, like boudin, as a penance during Lent."

Every year, Catholic Cajuns in this community about 140 miles west of New Orleans hold "La Grande Boucherie des Cajuns" the weekend before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent.

"This is a celebration that was started out of necessity," said Stephen Hardy, 38, who leads the group organizing the event. "Before refrigeration, they had to share the slaughter. One family could not consume a whole hog before it would go bad. They would have family and friends over to help, and everyone would leave with something."

Back then, he said, a family would either host or attend a boucherie about once a month. With meat readily available at any grocery store today, the boucherie is simply a celebration of an old tradition, bringing family and friends together once a year for one last hoorah before the Catholic season of fasting begins.

Unlike other Carnival celebrations, food is the focus in Cajun communities like St. Martinville. In Mamou, locals ride on horseback collecting ingredients for a community gumbo during the "Courir de Mardi Gras," or "Fat Tuesday Run."

"I don't think I'll be able to watch them kill the pig, but I sure like the food," Jody Gibbens, of Bandera, Texas, said Saturday as she sipped a beer and weighed her lunch options as a band played in the background.

Federal health code regulations prevent attendees from eating what is slaughtered during the celebration, Hardy said. So the butcher, after showing what is done traditionally, will take the carcass and byproducts to his shop to finish preparing the meat.

He'll have plenty of options: salt meat, patties and sandwiches, sausages such as andouille and boudin, rice and pork dressing stuffed in an edible casing, head cheese and cracklins, among them.

Nothing goes to waste, Hardy said. The skin of the hog is scraped and the fat layer next to it rendered into lard for cooking. The skin and attached fat are what's fried to make the crisp, tasty cracklins.

Twelve-year-old Sage DeLaunay's arms were dripping with fat after he beat out more than 20 kids to win a greased pig contest — and the lard-covered piglet he nabbed.

"This was my first time, and I'm so excited," he said. "I'm gonna raise it and kill it one day."

I learned about intral divinatation in my Spiritual Counseling classes a few years back!  The teacher was from Sudan and Jamacan born.  I really caught her by suprise during the divinitation information class by asking if we are going to be taught the theory based technicques for intral divinatation and unfortantually she said no.  But in the class most of her information about intral divination was about Voodoo Practicioners, Various African Tribal Practicioners, and a few South American Tribal Practicioners.  Intral divinatation is on my list to learn about but it is a dying art but low and behold reading the news this morning I can add another country and area of the World as to where it was and some folks still practice it!  The Ukrane!

 

A farmer of Ukranian decent up in ND weather predicts using pig spleens!  A researcher said she knew of one other gentleman in Canada use to intral divine also but he passed away!  I am so excited!  If it is found in parts of Europe also, I now wonder how many other tribal cultures that have or are dying out have used intral divinatation!

 

Here is the link to the story!  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22391067/