This picture narrative describes a part of the history of farming in Martin County. As the name implies, one of God’s creatures loses it’s life that another might live. While this story begins with death, it is none the less a celebration of life. A life lived close to the land and the animals that sustain us.

A word of warning: if you are a very sensitive, tender-hearted person or a child, you may not wish to continue. I have pulled no punches here. There is at least one photograph (or perhaps all of them) that may be upsetting to you. I have tried to describe the process as thoroughly as memory will allow and at the same time to give you some sense of what it meant to be a part of this particular history.

• Growing Up
• Preparations
• Shooting
• Scalding
• Scraping
• Gutting Pole
• Gutting
• Weighing
• Cutting Up
• Sausage and Chitterlings and Souse, Oh my!
• The Gut Hole
• Chitterlings and Souse
• Rendering the Fat – Lard and Cracklings
• Sausage – or – The Art of “Stuffing It”
• Salting Down the Meat
• Conclusion

by J. B. Coltrain
Retired County Extension Director