What Weekend?

Friday after working a little late, I got home to find the replacement lid for my new smoker on the front porch. After Needles and I had supper we both went out to the garage to work on our projects. She had her fiber that she had dyed a couple of days before to braid and get ready to sell on her Saturday trek to a yarn and fiber get together. I had several smoker modifications to implement. I first mounted the 2 new temperature gauges and started on the baffles. The baffles make the heat from the charcoal box move across the bottom of the smoker instead of going straight up. It makes for even heat in the cooking chamber. Needles and I finally called it quits around 10pm. The next day Needles as off to her get together while I worked on seasoning the smoker. Like a cast iron skillet the smoker needed to be put through a heat cycle and be wiped down with vegetable oil. The seasoning takes about 4 hours but since my new baffle was a little more restrictive than I liked the heating took longer than I expected. It ended up taking over an hour to get the temps into the needed range. After I got finished with that it was close to 2pm and Needles was on her way home. That afternoon I was just simply wiped out. Every time I sat down I was fighting to keep my eyes open. I felt very tired and had a headache. The rest of the afternoon I spent on the couch. We went to bed somewhat early for a Sat. night calling it at 11pm. The next day we had plans to visit with Needles Mom and I need to to check my rail camera since I hadn't checked it for 3 weeks. If you want to see the results click here. This evening we both have just taken it easy in preparation for tomorrow and the start of new week. Hope you had a good weekend.

Main Street Costumes (New Location)

Weekend so far.

Friday night was uneventful. We ended the night with prepping 2 chickens and 2 lbs of Salmon for the Saturday smoke. Saturday morning I got up around 7:30am and started in on getting the smoker ready. Around 2pm I pulled the Salmon and the chickens off the smokers. The Salmon was for a late lunch and the chicken was later pulled off the bone to eat Sunday and early next week. This was the first time I had done a brine for the Salmon so I wasn't surprised that the fish was a little salty. I think I should have rinsed them before putting them on the smoker. The chickens were brined overnight and also dry rubbed before going in the smoker. They turned out pretty good. Unfortunately I was hit with a migraine about the time we started to eat. From 2pm to 6pm I suffered on the couch and finally gave up and went to bed. After about a 4 and a half hour nap it was 10:30pm and I noticed the TV was still on. I got up and felt a lot better. Needles and I ended up staying up pretty late. This morning we woke up and had plans to do a little shopping in V'cennes. Before we left I checked my email and noticed I had some email failure to send notifications. I thought this was strange since I hadn't sent an email to the people on the list. On our way to V'cennes I got a call from a co worker that say she had received an email from me last night. I told her to delete it, that it was a Virus or my email had been hacked. Not long after that I got a call from another co worker that received the same email. After we got home I changed my email password and did and full systems scan which showed no infection. Hopefully that is over with. Shopping in V'cennes yielded a pair of pants for me and several tops for Needles. Now we are home and enjoying what is left of our weekend.

Pulled the Trigger.

Since Needle's Mom got me the Brinkmann Gourmet Vertical Water Smoker I have been smoking meats almost every weekend to my hearts content. I have seemed to stumble upon an addiction of sorts. I have been thinking on getting another smoker. A larger one with an offset firebox. I found the website that I want to buy it from and as I slept last night I contemplated the purchase. I know we have another vacation coming up and the money would be best spent there but I happen to find the type of smoker I wanted on a end of summer clearance discount with an additional 10% off and free shipping. How could I pass this up so I pulled the trigger. It is supposed to be here Friday but we will see. I think this design will be easier to flip, mop and move around the meat instead of disassembling half the smoker and loosing you heat every time you need to do any of these things as I have to do with the vertical smoker.

From this.
To this.

Trail Cam Pics.

I posted some trail camera pics on my hunting blog. If you want to check them out.

CLICK HERE.

Just a few more pictures of the upstairs progress. This is Braden's room in Cold Stone Blue. We are progressing down the stairs with a stair rail. They are hoping to have carpet by next weekend. They they will have few finishing touches. Building shelves for the built in book cases, trimming and doors for the closets.

Braden's dormer with new window and air conditioner.

Built in book case.

Pocket door.

Doorway to large walk in closet.

Branden's room.

Railing just installed.