Pig Pickin a success!

Weldon Thornton would be proud.

I'm happy to report that the Big Event was a success. You'll note that I used the time-honored materials, including rusty roofing tin and concrete blocks. Ugly, but effective:


(yes, I know he's really unpleasant to look at, but he's a pig, cooking over a fire. What did you expect??)

I had help--Pappy and Grammie came up from Atlanta to join in the party and help with the preparations. Oh, and they did get a little recreation with The Little Boy:

(you'll note who's still slaving away, shoveling coal)

And we had about 60 people come to the party, plenty of children, folks from church, from my department, other moms from W's playgroup. Inexplicably, most did not want to actually "pick" the pig, though I did get a few intrepid helpers:


Summary: Got up at 3, cooked the pig from 4 until about 3 in the afternoon, shoveled six bags of charcoal and four bags of hickory wood chunks, only caught the pig on fire once, Pappy and Grammie helped The Little Boy stay occupied and enormously happy (he was outside all day long), weather was great, folks brought plenty of good food with them, we made a relatively tasty NC-style sauce, and we've got about eight containers of barbecue in the freezer now that it's all said and done.

We'll do it again next year. All family, friends, and fellow Tar Heels welcome.