Photos and hello again after a few years

[Swing Swang]

Hi all,

It's been a long time since I've been on these pages - it seems that photobucket is now a pay-service, what free image hosting service do people now use to upload images?

It's been a long journey - 9 years ago I set myself a target - to make my own charcuterie from my own pigs on my own land and bring a commercial product to market within 10 years.

Over this time I acquired a lot of charcuterie-making skills, both practical and theoretical (this forum was a huge help - so thanks to all members past and present), learnt how to look after pigs, moved onto a smallholding, set up all the fencing, built a home butchery, and once the land dries up in the spring we'll bring on the pigs. Yesterday we butchered a couple of my friend's porkers in the prep room I've built.

In the middle of this life told me to do things differently threw incurable cancer at me - thanks life! To steal a neologism from the late Terry Pratchett, that was a bit of an 'embuggerance'. So chemo and transplant means that I'll probably not want to go down the business/commercial route as I do have to live my life in chunks of 4 months and never know when the next round of chemo could be, but pretty much on track to make my own bacon from my own pigs in the 10-year time frame I set myself.

Set yourself goals, make your dreams happen, but don't be afraid to rejig them along the way. Oh; and if you're living with cancer, or know anyone who is, 'it's only cancer, it's not the end, no need to live your life as if you're on death row'.

Stay sane everyone,

Philip

[NCPaul]

Thank you for the update about your life and health. It's heartwarming to hear that you are closing in on your ten year goal.

[wheels]

It's great to hear about what you've been up to but I'm sorry to hear about your illness.

You deserve that bacon butty. Just one question - red or brown?

Phil