New Smoker

Today we put together a new smoker for Kevin. The one we had before had rusted out and finally gotten to be unusable, so we got rid of it and decided to wait until after we moved to get a new one (one less heavy, awkward item to move). We'd been wanting to get a new one, but just hadn't made the time to do it...until last night, we went to HEB and found the one we wanted. We need to get it so we can break it in before smoking a turkey for the family Christmas gathering in early December.

Purchasing it was an ordeal - it always is for us. We found the item out front and were told we could just go to the checkout and they'd have the item number there. The checker looked through his booklet and didn't have it. He sent a bagger out to find it, no luck.... While we waited they checked other people out, we didn't want to hold up the line entirely. They finally had to have a manager help us - after shutting down our checkout line. At least they would sell it to us - when we got the grill, Home Depot wouldn't sell it to us at first because of some kind of recall.... It could be a joke, how many people does it take to sell us something? We were finally able to buy it, and even had a couple of guys who work there help us load it in the car. Its a big, heavy box.

We just left it in the truck last night (and treated ourselves to concrete mixers at Culver's - the pumpkin pecan one is so good, better than pumpkin pie!), and tackled assembly today. The gate in the back of the fence came in handy, Kevin was able to drive the truck behind the fence and we unloaded it (piece by piece) onto our back patio. Much easier than bringing it through the house. It took us quite a while, but we got it put together and it looks great! We are a good team, when one of us is frustrated the other one keeps us focused and plods through to get it done....so we now have a fully assembled smoker, ready to start using next weekend! cannot wait for the good food we can make with it. The smoker even has the Texas star on it in several places, goes well with our door and other decorations..

We also have a painted living room and kitchen!! We hired a local company to install crown molding and paint these two rooms, they look great! We chose a 'honey' color, gives the house a Tuscan look. We'll have pictures soon - after our curtains are installed.