First BBQ in 18 months.

        This weekend was the first time I have done BBQ since the Saturday after thanksgiving in 2016.  WoW that is hard to believe . I had 2 customers come to the house last week to ask if I would cook them a couple of butts each. I had been thinking about it old habits and I am a little bored . I had put my trailer and a sign up on Friday when I would be selling Saturday. Well I cooked a couple of cases of butts and a few slabs of ribs  hauled up to the HI way  and sold out in 3 hours . My customers all said they missed me. 

       Was nice to make a few hundred and the bad thing was I could have sold triple what I cooked. I told everyone I would be ready and have plenty come the 4th .

A year makes a huge difference .

   Yesterday I turned 55 all the kids called texted or came by. Me and the wife went out and had  good lunch of steak fajita's. She drank a couple of top shelf margaritas and got a little frisky on my ass. I liked my present . I am a year older not dead ! 
   Now last year I was in a hospital bed with 2 I V,s in me. I had a drain tube hanging out my gut wondering  if I was going to be around Mothers day (which I spent in the ICU unit). My dear wife asked if I wanted my birthday present and I had to pass last year . Now I am not being vulgar its just  me . I give her the same answer every time she asks me "what do you want for " dinner ,lunch, birthday, Christmas, you name it has become a running joke with us. She said she knew I was scared and sick last year when she didn't get my normal reply. 

      We have the camper ready to head out this weekend down to the coast. I plan on getting in 10 days down there then come home . My wife,s sister has breast cancer and is having a double Mastectomy to eliminate any chance of it returning. She's the one that normally camps with us. My wife plans on helping her during her recovery. Soon as sister in law is able we will take her to the Smokey's and stay a week.

     I haven't posted much because my mother  has been visiting but she went home yesterday .  

This is one for Harry Flashman

   Found it here H/T daily timewaster  

You have wheat and can make bread now what?

     The basis of most food storage is wheat/flour for bread but what is bread without butter. Red feather makes a canned butter that has good reviews but at 7$ a 7 oz. can I need a cheaper  supply.

    I need to get a dozen 8 oz. or 12 oz. jelly jars so I can try this. I love hot homemade bread  slathered with butter (I am hefty size) and jelly. I have pound blocks of margarine in the freezer but think a few jars of canned butter would store well in the pantry. I think I would shake as it cooled to mix the solids back in to the mix. If it is separated it mite as well be Gee.

     Yea I am on a canning kick I could have a worst hobby . This weekend I soured the lard I planed on canning . Hot dripping in cold water was A BAD IDEA . Oh well live and learn.

Going camping.

   The wife and I are going camping Monday for a week. I need a break from those 2 houses and the kids are driving us nuts. Every married couple needs a break from little kids. The problem with ours is their 24 but want to be took care of like their 10.

   Now that I feel fine I should be busting my butt on finishing those houses but the wife wants to go to the lake to relax and play patty cake. The choice wasn't hard to make. The wife is right we need some time alone and the work will go faster when I get back.

  The camper got a bath and so did the truck, last week it was 80 two days so I waited till it was 45 to wash them today. Yea I froze but got it done . The camper got switched to summer camping from a fall setup. It is a little different as far as food ,bed covers, clothes.

    We went and bought groceries as over the last 4 months we "Robbed" most of what we had in the cabinets. Now it is all rotated and ready to go. I did pull some items out of food stores but when we camp its not heavy meals its more snacks and junk food we can't have at home because the kids wolf it down in a day. The weather is going to be nice it is cool nights and days in the upper 60s . Even with all I have going on we are making our summer travel plans. I have to get moving and finished with most of these places as we want to spend more time on the coast this year.

Must have building materials to keep on hand .

      Most people keep some preparedness items on hand . In the prepper community its standard to have food, water, communication, power, cooking. The one thing most never talk much about is building material . Now I do a lot of projects around the houses and can tell you it is a pain to go to the hardware store multiple times. In the event of a storm or earthquake you wont be able to go and they wont have much left. I got to thinking what would be the most useful construction and repair items to keep on hand that is versatile and reasonable priced . Here is what I think is best for me to keep on hand.

 Plywood/OSB
 2 x4s different lengths
Nails /screws assorted
Plastic sheeting thick and lots
Tape (gorilla, duct)
Shingles
Metal roofing (expensive but priceless)

   The list as always could go on and on but these items cover most emergence repairs improvised shelter water catchment and get a lot of home projects started. Having the trailer and house work on- going plus this article got me thinking what I need more of on hand.
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/preps/your-own-home-depot-for-preparedness/

Its almost festival and football season.

    Here in the south we enjoy our college football. It is a time when people make time to get together on weekends. Friends that may not see each other all year reconnect and catch up on each others lives. Friendly rivalry's add to the gatherings and fun most teams are acceptable( Tennessee and LSU excluded) even wives wear jerseys. Its all about friends family food and fun. How many of your friendships started over sports ?

    Even as football season starts so do festivals and city and community events. Every area has them and they are fun and can be a cheap way to have a fun family outing . I have even got some good deals at some that have vendors and craft areas. All my honey comes from a man that I met at one he is a local.

    Even if you cant afford to buy at a local festival it is a great place for a person that is prepared minded to attend . You have an opportunity to see and sample wares of people in your area. I have business cards for local seamstress ,honey, soap, jelly jam ,eggs and rabbits. I have made friends with a vegetable farmer and a wood worker . Now is the time to make friends of like minded folks that have skills you may not. If things were to fall apart you stand a better chance dealing with some one you know.

Trip planning with family.

     For the last week we have been trying to coordinate a trip back to Big Lagoon in Perdido Bay Fl. We are set, reservations are made the Camper is packed. Add food and we can roll ! My sister in law is going to join us she has reservations for 4 days .Our daughter is going to come down and spend 3 days staying with us or her Aunt. For 4 days it will be 3 Man bashing women and me !

     My stepson and his wife are planning on coming down for our last 2 days and want to use the camper for 3 more nights and bring it home when done . I have no problem with that but for some reason they are hee hawing on the reservations and Gulf shores is full and big lagoon has 1 spot left. The days of plenty of camping spots are done . Now you have to plan a little ahead if you want weekend camping.  They are wanting to be at gulf state park because its closer to the night life and his father is going to be camping at GSP.

     Kind of funny my wife's EX bought a camper. Now he wants the kids to camp with them like they have with us. He has always been a condo resort type .Makes you wonder what brought it on .

Its yardsale season Time to hunt.

     A quick post with the nice weather yard sales are popping up everywhere  . If your like me you have plenty of junk but some thing are to good to pass up. Today I stopped at one before I went to sell BBQ and picked up 2 nice kitchen aid mixing bowls a large and a small for a buck each. When I got to my BBQ spot there was a yard sale to the side of my spot (the man had asked last week if id mind) and so I tried to buy 2 ammo boxes but not for sale .He had his tools in them . I did find a military  not duffel but personal effects bag for 3 bucks . I have one that I store camping cloths and odds and ends. Be selective and yard sales can be bargains , remember Shop Quality or its just their junk is now your junk .

A link on making Saeurkraut.

     My Mom made sauerkraut and hominy for years and I loved it . I found this post and a neat way to do small batches of kraut .

    Wander around the site by clicking the header neat stuff.
http://selfreliantschool.com/making-sauerkraut-mason-jar-fermenting-3-different-set-ups/

I got chicks !!!!!

     Well I have been wanting more chickens and today my hen led out 10 chicks . Last year I had 2 clutches hatch and lost them all to hawks and coyote's . Yes I have coyote's I have seen them twice this year. Well I decided to catch them . Needless to say easier said than done. A mad mother hen and 10 chicks made for 2 hours of chasing for 4 of us. Chicks hide when told by the hen .We caught 4 of the chicks first, the hen paced the side of the pen then she called out 4 more chicks that we caught . Catching her took an hour she has never been penned . Once she was with her chicks she calmed down and called the last 2 out of hiding and we got them into her pen covered it with a blanket watered and fed her added straw to the pen.

       Now tomorrow I have to build a run for her and a small roost. I have some old dog wire and will line the bottom edge with fine mesh  just 8x12 may make it portable have to see what junk I have. Some may die but I hope most make it. It will be nice to have 6 or so laying hens next year . Now that I am committed to having a chicken coop I wish I had bought those hens at Mt Top last week.

I thought i knew my neighborhood .

     I have lived in my house almost 30 years . I have walked the woods and driven all the roads around here . This afternoon the weather got cold and rainy so I quit working on clearing the pond and some how got on google earth. Now I have been on google earth in the past but never played with it . Today I zoomed in on the area around the house out to 2 miles . I thought I knew my neighborhood  boy was I wrong . I knew the roads and the drives but I found 5 houses 3 pond/lakes and 2 streams hidden in the woods that I didn't know were there. Saw dirt bike trails going deeper than I thought they did, saw where the hardwood and pine thickets separated along ridgelines. If you haven't given a close look to your area using google earth I HIGHLY Recommend you make time to study where you live and if you plan on bugging out in case of trouble . Use google earth to get a GOOD idea of what is hidden around your safe location . 

    If you live in a city it will still give you a lot of insight into obstacle's and assets in your area . The ponds and streams that I found could be a good source of fish if needed . The hardwoods should have nut trees mixed in .Some areas had a block pattern that may have been old farm sections that have over grown. Today US steel and ABC coal own most of the vacant land near here. I used a large chunk of my download for the day on google earth but I will be studying it more in the future. Even from the free view I know my daughter was visiting ,I still had my yellow truck, had just built my lean-to and had left my tractor in the middle of the back yard that day .

  

Back to work.Sorta

     I have been busy the last 2 weeks getting my vending trailer cleaned up and reset.I have decided to go legal as a food truck and to do that i had to deep clean my trailer repair some pluming and electrical issues.Me and my wife have talked at length about what to serve and if we wanted to just do festivals or set up around the city.
     This weekend I am going to be working a biker rally that should have 1500 to 2000 people.Since this is my first non BBQ set up in a while and i will be health department inspected i will be doing Funnel Cakes.

     Yes I know its standard fair food but I wanted to keep it simple because it my first time in 6 years of doing an event.I will be doing corn dogs and silver Dollar pancakes also.The Rally is a 4 day event but it is less than 20 minutes from home so i will be able to sleep at home (if you call leaving at 1 and being back at 6 sleep).
     This is the first step in getting into a fully licensed and permitted food operation.The real start date will be October 1st that when i will get my annual license and permanent health permit this is a special event permit but the lady that will inspect my set up is the same one that will issue the permanent licensee.The event may be a gold mine and it may be a bust but it is a start.

      The Family that puts on the rally also does a haunted house on weekend nit es all October and have asked me if i wanted to set up as a food snack stand outside.It has between 3 to 9 hundred teens on Saturday and Sunday niter.Between the rally and haunted house i should be on good ground opening up.
      Will post first of the week and let you know how it went.

Are you a collector?

     Around here a lot of folks collect stuff muscle cars,old tractors are in barns and yards.Some i know have toy trains,guns, crystal,china depression wear glass.I have nothing against it but if it means little to your family at some point you have to get rid of it.
     Yesterday i listed part of what i plan on getting rid of.I have a friend that has over 60 rifles and shotguns.Now like any man I love Old guns but we were talking I asked him if you die will your wife know what to ask when selling your guns?Long story short he called me a lot of names told me even thinking about him dying and his guns being sold was wrong.I asked him if he was going to live forever or did i scare the hell out of him thinking about how little she would take?The later one.About a month latter he said he had asked his wife what she would do.Her reply was he needed to decide what he would will to the kids,what  5 or 6 he had to have was worth and what she needed to get on them and start selling the rest for top dollar!Now he was guilty on guns but she has a room full of depression glass in all colors that she has to sell.Both of them are about 65 and are SLOWLY selling off their collections for top dollar.We are talking a lot of crying here folks but they both know what their items are worth and will admit its better than the kids selling it for pennies.
       We all have hobbies and jobs and have good items we have hung on to isn't better that we get top dollar for the stuff.Think of all the time saved from cleaning and dusting it.Yes the cash is nice but not having to take care of it and store it is worth more. 


P.S. I had no idea depression glass in red was worth almost what a browning pump in good shape was.

Do you have useful junk to.

     At some point in every one's life we need to inventory what we have in our home and what purpose it serves.Anyone that is over 40 probably has a lot of stuff that has accumulated and no this isn't a post on having a yard sale.I have a packed house and 3 sheds.The sheds are my domain and the house is my wife's.I was thinking about building a new shed because the 3 were over flowing but i have changed my approach.USE OR GET RID OF THE CRAP!!!! If i haven't used it in 5 years it needs to go.Yard sale Craig's list E bay or dump.Now the part that kills me is I paid good money for some of the crap that is just sitting.The first thing i did was clean out an area in one building for stuff that i will need for my vending trailers.This was the inventory part.

     I do BBQ for a living but i have 4 trailers not counting 3 campers.3 of the trailers need to be set up for something.When i was going through the sheds i found I had a ton of equipment not in use.
 stoleing ice cream machine
 funnel cake cooker
 shaved ice maker/snowball
 a 50 count hot dog/sausage cooker
 cotton candy maker
 nacho cheese and chip station
 pizza oven commercial set up
 full size propane stove/oven
 2 box smokers capable of 400lb cooking
 3 high output 2 burner stove tops
 40lb 2 basket fryer
 20lb 4 basket counter fryer
  This list is'nt bragging it is STUPID that i have all this stored and not in use or sold.I closed down my store 3 years ago sure some of it was from it but most of this crap i just got for a steal.BUT what good is it doing in my shed.Between now and the first of the year I plan on setting up 4 trailers.My trailer is already in demolition stage and will be built by November(I told you in an earlier post i was building a LARGE multi use one)but i will have 3 trailers to set with 
   1. funnel cake and ice cream
   2  shaved ice ,cotton candy, nachos
   3  pizza hot dog/smoked sausage,Sub/hogies
  This will clear out my sheds of a lot of large item's and my yard of vending trailers.First i will see if any of the kids or grand kids may be interested in using them.If that fails it is time to sell them.I am 1man i can't use 2 at once let alone 4.I hope the kids will try it my worst weekend in 3 year i made 180$ for 8 hours work and my best i made 1600$ in 10 hour of work.The kids think it is a waste of their time to even try.I love it, it isn't work its fun, smiling people make it worth doing.Its paid for equipment it needs to be put to use.I do not need to store stuff i want to clear out and not have the up keep.
    What have you stuck back and got that needs to be used or got rid of ? I bet it is more than you think.For me it was an eye opener.

A good reason to go to the gun range.

                My shooting range isnt like this.

Hobbies can be more than fun.

     I have a few hobbies that occupy my time.Some are just fun .Others are educational . And a few hobbies are profitable.I think most people have interest that fit into these classes.
    A lot small businesses start out as hobbies my BBQ started that way.I know several local breweries started as hobbies.Stop and think do you have a hobby that you could turn a profit?If your a prepper is your hobby useful after a collapse.give it some thought.

   

I survived the 4th.

     Sorry i haven't posted but the week before the 4th was busy.Had a lot of cooking and serving to plan.I had as good a 4th as memorial weekend was.The main problem was everyone wanted to pick up between 10 and 12 o'clock last Friday.It was difficult to have 36 racks of ribs and 48 butts done and ready to go in such a rush.
      In the spare seconds i had to chop make sandwiches fix plates.I am sure some things were not as hot as i like them the doors on the smoker was being opened and closed to much.Will fix some of my troubles this fall by building a new BBQ Trailer .
    
     I have been planning on building a nice all in one trailer for a few years i have all the kitchen equipment and plumbing.I have had an old 1968 GEM camper 23 ft that I paid 200 for and have used as a storage shed.It was gutted but water tight.Now it will become a log cabin BBQ on wheels.This year has been hell on my legs and back the in out and up down of my present set up is taking a toll.This will be built for looks and easy of use. I plan on doing this for a long time so i better build it so i can operate it despite father times affects.I hope it will resemble this but with smokers on both ends .

What is a cache?

     A cache is a place to hide and position items of use and value for future needs.But is that all it needs to be?Can it be a shelter can it be a safe place hidden to?
      I think we have all thought about a survival retreat in the woods.Usually our mind goes to a cabin with a wood stove a well right out of a Danial Boone book.Now in today's world if we had this it would be broke into looted used as a meth lab or a dozen other things if we didn't live there.

     Now we have all read about PVC caches Bucket cache and others.I have several of these myself but due to size they are limited in what can be stored and provide little shelter.The PVC cache is usually for 3 or 4 days food some ammo and a few other items. A Bucket cache will hold a weeks food for 2,ammo other items to help for a short period.Here are a few pics of typical tube and bucket caches

   These are useful but are limited in scope.The good thing about them is they are away from our houses and hidden.As preppers most of what we have is in our homes and at risk if SHTF happens.
      Most preppers will refuse to leave their homes the idea of "bugging out" isn't an option.For some it due to age others its health.For most its "This is my castle" i have all my prep's in the basement,garage,shed.I feel the same way but if the  Feds or a zombie hoard comes you will die.At best you will flee and lose most of your supplies.Then you are down to what you hid in buckets and PVC caches.
     I want something safer with more options.I want it for the house or on other property.I don't want to have it found and robbed to crackheads or government flunkies (little difference both are parasites).I want capacity to have a chance.

A look at Big Red my baby.

     OK I have been doing BBQ for 10 years on and off.For the last 3 years it has been all i have done.When I started it was a whim i had a convince store 5 miles from any restaurants so on Friday and Saturday i sold BBQ at the store.Me and my son used drum smokers mounted on an old pop up camper trailer.Back then i was a busy man had a lot of irons in the fire.BBQ became my sons he was making good money for a 14 year old kid then he hit that "that's good enough "stage.Basically he ran it into the ground twice.
      That is a back ground of our start.About 6 years a go i was playing on Ebay just looking and i ran across a Big Red smoker it was in Andalusia AL about 160 miles away.Starting bid was 400$ so i bid a max bid of 450$ Long story short i got it for 405$.It was a 6 hour round trip.The man that i got it from said it cost him 1200$ in 2005.The company that built it is really a fab shop for construction steel they build smokers and trailers when work is slow so they keep their welders and layout men busy

     This is what it looked like when i got it it was a 200 gallon propane tank upright smoker with 3 racks and room to smoke 16 boston butts.Three rounds of wood will last 8 hours when smoking but i needed it to do more for holidays and i wanted to do ribs so i got a second 200 gallon tank and it now looks like this.

    This is BIG RED the front grill can hold 24 pork butts and 12 slabs of ribs.The upright will do 12 butts and 4 racks of ribs.Now i smoke everything in the upright because it gives a deeper smoke the front holds it at temp and adds light smoke.
    Now to cook great Q takes time I cook for 10 hour with gas then smoke it 4 to 6 hours.Anyone can make good smoked meat all it takes is time and a box to hold smoke.I started with barrel smoker made out of a barrel with expanded metal rack on old tent pole rods.A wooden box will work. GOT MEAT START SMOKING!!!!
    The original BBQ trailer has morphed with time it now looks like this.If my son straightens up i may give him a 4th chance