BBQ Smoker - v0.2

For version 2 (ok, 0.2) i swapped out the broken dish for a glazed one to hopefully give it more heat resistance and bought a pizza try which had holes throughout to lift the fire off the lower plate entirely. This also allowed air to come up through the base of the fire and burn far better.

Ideally i would have added holes to the saucer but wasn't sure if the lack of total protection form the eat would make it crack. Best try the first one without the holes and see what happens. At least its not wasted work if it does break now.

Took a while to get a decent fire going (as you can see by all the matches, which were dire and either broke striking or went out as soon as the head burnt) but once it went it kept a good temperature. For this one I used some scrap wood, but amde sure it was actual wood, rather than mdf/chipboard.

Because this time it was getting food! It generated a good amount of smoke, but having a very limited supply of wood at this point, it was never going to cook the whole chop.

The lid went on and then i decided to move it off the BBQ, party because i didnt want to melt the cover and party because if it toppled, maybe something would survive and lower fall.

The fire burned for about 40minutes, an the chop good cooked through on the George Forman along with another chop which hadn't been in the smoker as a comparison.

The difference in flavour was noticable even after only a very short time cooking in the smoker itself, so some success at least.

BBQ Smoker - v0.1

[From-the-archive-of-things-didnt-post-at-the-time: This post should have gone out last year, but didn't and as i've not improved it, and used it with success. It's about time]

For a while I've been wanting to try some different styles of BBQing. One specifically sounds and looks more delicious - slow and low.

Its fairly simple: Make fire, direct smoke over meat, leave for some time, tend fire as needed.

Firstly, the fire. Most large scale smokers in the US have a brick fire box and large metal box with shelves or racks four the meat. But, that's a tiny bit impractical. B&Q provided the answer, somewhat unexpectedly. A large thick walled plant pot upturned on a saucer makes a good firebox and another pot on top with wire racks for holding the meat.

The pot needs a hole cut for fuel and air to get in. Fortunately, the clay pot is soft enough a dremel eats it away nicely.

Sadly the enamel pattern is somewhat harder and took as long to cut through as the rest of the pot.

Once the hole is cut the inside of the pot and saucer got a liberal coating of fire sealant and the saucer had some holes drilled at the edge to draw air in.

Unfortunately about 15 minutes into the fire test, the saucer shattered down the middle. The pot at least stayed intact which as it took the most work is probably for the best.

The new saucer has enamel which should resist the heat a little better and i've got a pizza tray for the next test to lift the fire up to get air under it as well as maybe keep the saucer from breaking.

The top of the smoker is a straight sided pot, with a bell pot upturned to trap the smoke inside. To hold the meat up, i've made a rack from a couple of dish racks for a microwave. Soon i'll get some proper fuel for it and test it for a full cooking time on something.

Must be Spring!

It's the time of year again when the garden needs some attention. While it's not the latest I've left it, its pretty late (mostly due to not being at home to help). The lawnmower is good enough to to chew through it, but the sheer volume of grass means about a minutes worth of cutting fills the hopper (and its not exactly small).

I may have forgotten to take a picture after the first time it was full, but for reference, it didn't even clear the grass between the table and the dandelions.

Another part of the spring ritual is finding the frog. Sure enough, hopping around the grass and plants, a frog.

Previously I've released them in the nature pond at the back of where I live, but they inevitably return. So once i'd done mowing he got released it back into the plants. Pint glass for scale, (there was no banana to hand.

In digging over the veg patch, i found a few onions (or possibly spring onions) and replanted them. I have no idea when i planted them, but if they grow, marvelous.

I've also, after much neglect refilled the bird feeders. The dark blue one has been empty for a little over a month and was being emptied in about 4 days by Goldfinch. A flock in fact, of about a dozen managed to polish it off fairly quickly. The light blue one took longer, but also had some of the nyger seeds in which were the sole contents of the other blue one, so i guess it eventually got eaten.

After filling them I was sat in the garden and wondered how long it'd take for the nyger seeds to start disappearing. Roughly 90 minutes after i'd filled it, and while still sat int he garden, Goldfinch started sitting in the tree calling incessantly. I'm assuming they were waiting for me to leave as they didn't take any (that I saw), but there were quite a few eyeing it from the fence and tree.

Maybe it'll last the weekend, but i doubt it.

All in all, success (and yes, that is my finger).

New Bike Cover

At the side of the house is a path with some space, and m e being me, i've filled it with loads of stuff and made it a pain to Sues bike out. On top of this its covered with a tarp (yes, its a tarp!) which is far too big, despite being cut in half already. 

A while ago I made a BBQ cover and used some stainless steel hooks to hang the tarp from the fence so i'm using the same idea again.

To hold the frame around the bike and help lift it out of the way we've made a frame to hold the tarp in its shape. Fortunately i've had this 2x1 sitting around for ages and its been getting in the way, so at least its been used at last.

Because the fence goes at an angle from the path the sides have to be different lengths and a normal hinge wouldn't work. Using another two hooks and some spare metal brackets the frame hinges nicely on a couple of bump stops screwed underneath.

The tarp hangs over it pretty well but clearly baggy.

Took about an hour to wrangle the tarp and staple it down, by which time the sun went down. I'll take another picture of it open and post it later. The sides are zip tied through punch holes, but the eyelets wouldn't crimp properly (cheap Maplin tool) so i improvised.

The bottom edge at the front is weighted with some steel 1/16" angle so it doesnt flap about badly and stays roughly where it should, again same as the BBQ cover.

All in all, it's pretty much how I wanted save for not using the eyelets like on the BBQ cover and one side not being quite so nicely fitted at the top. But it works, and that's all that matters, plus theres space for two bikes so if i ever get round to cycling again, its ready to go.