It was great . . .

Normally I don't dwell on something like a BBQ meal, but today's pork butt roast was something special. I'd estimate the total smoking time to be about 9 hours with temps in the 200 to 225 degree range. As mentioned in an earlier post, hickory and apple wood were used - I've discovered this to be a very pleasant combination for use in the Pro-Griller. The apple juice and Jim Beam spitzing spray performed well above expectation too.

I'm still consider myself a novice at this whole process of smoke grilling. True, I kind of backed into it a few years ago but didn't really understand there is something of a science to it. The techniques I practiced on much smaller charcoal grills serve me well with the much larger Pro-Griller. The big difference now seems to be smoke penetration into the meat . . . something not previously realized by the use of smaller grills that tend to cook the meat much quicker than the bigger smokers. I think the blend of hickory and apple woods make a huge difference as well, but have no idea why . . . hickory and cherry is a good combo too . . . as is straight cherry . . . but prior to 2006, these woods were always used in conjunction with the smaller grills. For the bigger smoker, for now, the best smoke penetration and flavor is achieved with hickory and apple.

At the 7 hour mark, I pinched off a small chuck of roast . . . it broke away effortlessly and was flavor was excellent. If anything, the bone-in roast got a bit dry near the bone area . . . I'm thinking meat injection next time w/ apple juice and JB . . . but all-in-all, this roast jumped to the top of the "best ever" list, and I surely do this again. Pork pickin' this roast was a real treat . . . while I had plenty of Try Me Tiger Sauce on hand, it seemed inappropriate to taint the smokey taste of the pork . . . tried a few bites with the Tiger Sauce . . . it was good that way too. Successful experiment and delicious results!

Ready for turn in . . .

Spent the afternoon detailing my company vehicle . . . ready for turn in on Wednesday.

Final Update . . .

The pork butt roast turned out great! Nice carmelized crust on the outside, meat falls off the bone, and it tastes divine!

Madison Spends The Day with Dad

Unofficially, this must be the first day of summer in the neighborhood. Pools have opened, kids are swimming and playing volleyball, and Madison is on "full patrol" scampering along the fence in anticipation of anyone breeching the perimeter . . . it's a riot to watch!

He's a great dog, loyal companion, and completely fearless. "Come on Dad, just open the gate and let me at 'em." Gotta love him!

Update . . .

At the 6 hour mark . . . internal meat temperature is 160 degrees . . . should be at the "just keep her warm" mode for the rest of the afternoon. I decided not to mop sauce the roast and opted to spirtz it with a mix of apple juice, Jim Beam, and red pepper sauce (1:1:1 ratio) every 30 minutes. I decided not to do the riblets today . . . maybe Wednesday evening.

Pork Butt Roast . . . progressing nicely

OK . . . at the 3 hour mark, and coming along nicely. I'm using hickory and apple wood chucks/chips combo supplimented with charcoal to maintain temperatures of 200-220 degrees. At this point, only dry rub . . . haven't decided if I'll mop sauce this yet or not . . . leaning toward not.

Happiness is . . .

. . . a quiet Sunday morning and a smoker grill already fired and cookin' dinner before anyone in the neighborhood is even awake! Call me crazy . . . but this is a pretty fairly excellent way to start the day! The biggest decision I have to make before noon is what kind of mop sauce I want to use on the ribs and whether or not the pork butt roast will become "pulled-pork" for sandwiches or just sliced down for a chef salad later in the week . . .

Quiet Sunday Morning . . .

I enjoyed getting up early this morning . . . a brisk Sunday morning, coffee and camera in hand, walking about outside . . . the only real sounds that time of day are the birds and a occassional dog bark off in the distance. The last day of April . . . while I dread the first 5 days of May, this morning has brought me peace. No doubt this will be a BBQ-kind-of-day . . . time to fire up the smoker grill and sip a brew or two . . . this is my knid of mornin'.

Gas prices . . . a friend sent me this

I went into a local Wawa store today and asked for twenty dollars worth of gas. The clerk promptly farted and handed me my receipt!

Optical Illusion . . .

Cloud Effects

U.S. Navy Releases Terrorist

Difficult Days and Difficult Nights

Honestly, once I made my decision to change jobs, I didn't think it would be this difficult to wind things down at my facilities and move on what I'm sure will be the greatest opportunity and challenge of my career.

It took a few days for the news of my impending departure to filter through the ranks. I've supervised safety and training operations for nearly 800 drivers for over 11 years - developing strong rapport with these folks. It's like having a huge family. I know, or at least recognize, every name, every face, and often have come know some details about a good number of their lives. Pictures of their kids, war stories, pets they bring in to show off, some bit of advise they ask for or offer, news of a wedding or funeral, are all daily experiences for me in any one of the 8 facilities in my district.

I was doing OK earlier in the week, before the news hit the ranks. Thursday and Friday were an emotional roller coaster for a number of reasons . . . having "best wishes with your new career" conversations with tearing-eye drivers hit me pretty hard. As I make my final rounds to the facilities next week, attend 3 luncheons staff and drivers have planned, and bid farewell to my "family" it's going to be emotionally gut wrenching. I knew it would be hard, never thought it would hurt, not like this. These folks made such a difference in my life, I can only hope that I've made a difference in their lives as well . . . it would seem that way . . . and that's a huge embraceable positive to take away next Friday.

Comparing Terra Server and Google Earth

Terra Server images seem a bit dated - I'm guessing 8 to 9 years since the last aerial fly over/update, based on known images. T.S. offers b&w images, most Google Earth are in color. Both offer "roof top zoom in" but Google Earth doesn't have near the database for this type of image. Google is more current, but not 100% capable of image "zoom in" - you get a fuzzy map in these cases. Both will get you within 300 meters of a destination or target. Google has a better street and road grid capability. Google has a "terrain tilt" feature, but the 3D images seem distorted - but, this feature is cool when looking at big buildings in cities, landmarks, etc. Pretty cool stuff.

A new opportunity . . .

Yeah Buddy . . .

Wise old Irishman Mr. Hennigan . . .

From TLP . . .

"Bit by bit I came to understand the secrets of a sad life . . . for a long time my friend had found their only joy in the quiet pleasure of looking at the sunset . . ."

Baked red potato soup . . .

Note to self . . . baked red potato soup with melted cheese is superb!

OK . . . I got duped, now it's someone else's turn

Difficult Days and Difficult Nights

They say that changing a job assignment is one of the Top 10 stress factors in a person's life . . . well, as I wind down my 11 years with a wonderful company to take a new position . . . these past few days have proven to be an emotional roller coaster. I can see the "stress" part of it being an overwhelming sadness about leaving "my family" . . . it's amazing how many bonds of friendship can be cultivated . . . and, well I'm sure we'll all keep in touch, it's no less painful to approach the morning when these folks won't be part of the workday.

WTF?!?

"Not now kid!"

Sunday's Sunset

Madison In The Spotlight . . .

Pork Tenderloin Cuts . . .

Sunday was nice enough outside to fire up the gas grill for the second time this season. Chops turned out great . . . Lawry's Marinade is the best!

Time To Hoist The Flags

First task of the day . . . get the flags on the mast.

This is gonna hurt . . .

Today, I'll pick up the motor home from the shop . . . then, it's a stop at Turkey Hill to fill up the tank . . . Lord have mercy!

Music Added . . .

Setting up this blog has been an interesting learning experience . . . you don't know what you don't know about blogging until you try something different or attempt to add a new feature.

Well, I love Doo Wop, it's my favorite genre of music and I was determined to feature it on this blog. I wanted to install a music player with a menu of songs (tried relentlessly but unsuccessfully) but for now I'll settle for one song until I have more time to figure the jukebox thing out.

The first featured song (I plan to rotate them manually for now, new song every other week, not that many folks hang out here) is called "The Night" performed by an obscure Doo Wop group called the Velvet Satins. Great 5 part harmonies and a cool falsetto at the end . . . I found this song 2 years ago on a British Doo Wop site, fell in love with it and it's here, for now, to enjoy. I haven't figured out how to get it to play "on demand" or to stop looping after it plays once . . . well, it's a good song so hearing it again ain't so bad.

Madison . . .

Abbey gets most of the camera time . . . but Madison is a "little ham" when the flash starts going off . . .

Good Sunday Morning To Ya!

The new camera takes superb pictures! It's a KM Z6, easy to operate, intuitive settings and dials, huge LCD viewer, and 48x (12x digital, 4x optical) zoom . . . just love it! The supermacro allows extreme close ups. I like the extra features (add on flash shoe and it can take a wide angle lens) . . . excellent!

Deary Day In The Neighborhood

Abbey . . . Little Miss Sugar Bear

Burgers and Bass . . .

The 2006-2007 season can't get here quick enough!

Derek Williams # 2

Good to see this player with a football in his hands again! Blue and White Game today . . . what's not to like?

Rainy Day . . .

Rainy Day . . .

Not since 1965 . . .

Kind of hard to believe that some 41 years have past since my last trip to NYC . . . I was my last mission with the company I work for . . . it took me back to Jersey City and NYC. I shall go back again very soon . . . I could fall in love with NYC . . .

Roller Coaster 72 Hours . . .

It's a good day!

Jogging a Mad River Memory

In speaking with a friend of mine today who needed to verify some driving directions, a place name was mentioned that jogged a memory that has both haunted and affirmed me for over a decade. The place name . . . Codorus Furnace . . . the memory . . . a white water canoe accident on Palm Sunday just over 12 years ago.

Our canoe breeched on a rock in Class 4 rapids and my buddy and I were both thrown from the craft. He was lucky . . . surfaced almost immediately and was carried down stream by the current a few hundred feet. I wasn't as lucky . . . my head hit a large boulder and I was pulled under the swirling water pool near the boulder. I didn't know it at the time, but I was trapped in a "roller" . . . roughly described as being in large commerical front loading washing machine, the kind you'd see at a laundry mat. Every time my head would get near the surface, I'd be rolled under by the trubulance . . . gets real scary after 3 or 4 times . . . especially in 36 degree water and knowing that you have maybe enough oxygen in your lungs for one or 2 more rolls . . .

To this day, I swear by every religious fiber in my being, a heavenly force intervened . . . on what I am sure would have been my final trip to the surface, I could see a log hanging over the boulder . . . it stood out perfectly as the sun was directly in the sky above it . . . one opportunity to grasp upward for the branch . . . which I was somehow managed to do . . . air . . . finally some air . . . a guardian angel must have put it there . . . I swear it wasn't there when we breeched that rock.

The rest is pretty blurry . . . my buddies had made their way back upstream. I know I was in shock for quite some time and to this day am pretty lucky that they were able to build a small fire to prevent hypothermia for the 2 of us who ended up in the water.

This little creek . . . after several weeks of Spring rains had achieved Class 3 and Class 4 rapids the day of our canoe trip. There were 3 crafts in the water that day . . . 2 Mad River canoes and an Olde Town canoe. Yes . . . I continued several years of white water and flat water canoe trips . . . but remain haunted by the memory of that day in April.

They say that there are some moments in life that define who you are and who you become . . . there's no doubt in my mind that this accident set me on a whole different course. I made a number of personal resolutions . . . most too private to share in this venue . . . but I think the experienced help make me a far better person now than I was before it happened. Maybe we appreciate life so much more after we come real close to losing it, or maybe a higher power had another plan for me . . . in any event, I've learned not to waste any of the precious minutes I've been granted since then.

Blue and White Game

The annual Blue and White game is scheduled for this Saturday at State College. While seldom a good early indicator of Penn State's likely performance abilities in the upcoming campaign, it is a great opportunity to see the which young players are being groomed for various positions on both sides of the ball. Unfortunately, I can't get there this year . . . but after Saturday's scrimmage, this year's season has "officially started" . . . along with all our hopes and dreams for another Big 10 Championship!

Special Day in My Dad's Memory

Today, members of our family were presented with limited edition prints of "The Colonel and The Commander-In-Chief" by artist Mel Shull, commissioned by the Gettysburg News and Publishing Company. The print recreates President Kennedy's trip over the battlefield with my Dad as his guide on 31 MAR 1963. Today my Dad would have been 96 years old. I'm sure he and Marie admired the proceeding from above. What a great honor for Dad and all of his descendant's.