The Pig Roast

Before we left Kentucky, we decided we needed to throw ourselves a going away party. The thing is, we had so many amazing friends and neighbors that we grew to love in our short 2 years that we wanted to find a way to say goodbye without all the awkward goodbye stuff.

Enter the pig.

One night Keith decided we needed to roast a pig. He got online and found recipes and instructions and even watched videos of people fixing their hogs (further proof that you can find anything online).

It took some creativity and a few phone calls but I found a place that would sell me a gutted, headless, amish pig. Perfect.

Keith picked up the pig on Friday night, on his way home from his LAST DAY OF WORK! That was an exciting day: No job and a pig in the fridge. Yesssss.

We had one of our neighbors drive his little bobcat over to dig a hole for roasting. Then, we raided our wood pile and prepared for a bonfire like none other. To kick things off, we started with this:

Keith's effigy. This comes from a tradition we learned when we were in Ecuador over New Years in 1999. Ecuadorians celebrate the new year by burning effigies in an attempt to rid themselves of their "old" selves and all their bad habits and start the year anew. Keith got some of his work clothes and made his likeness which he used to kick off the bonfire. Good bye Kentucky Dr. Card!!!

Keith kept the fire going all night long. He was waking up every couple of hours to throw new logs on the fire. We needed a lot of good coals to cook the pig.

On Saturday morning, we were up early seasoning and wrapping the pig in foil. Then we put it on the coals and buried it with dirt. That pig was roasting!!

Then we started moving. We picked up the moving truck and spent the rest of the day loading it. Funny to be moving and hosting a party on the same day....

People started arriving at around 5. We pulled the pig out of the ground and feasted on our pork and all kinds of lovely summer salads and desserts. What a blast! We had over 40 people at our house. When we were all so full we could hardly stand it, we jumped in the lake. When it got too dark to swim, we lit fireworks. When we ran out of fireworks, we laughed and talked some more. It was after 11 pm when the last of our friends left. What a night! We have such fantastic memories of that party and what great friends we had to share with. We miss our Kentucky friends!!!