Hey guys/gals,
My name is Nate. I live in Colorado but was born and raised in North Dakota. I grew up not knowing some people purchased meat from a store. We always butchered 100% of our own meats, pork, beef, deer, chickens, ducks, etc. My family never got fancy with BBQ, maybe slow roasting an entire hog in the ground every few years but that was the extent of it. I moved away to go to college, got married and starting doing small things like hotdogs and burgers on a gas grill. Sure I've played a bit with charcoal or a wood pit but never really got back into the entire butcher scene or real BBQ again. Last fall after hunting season I call my father and asked for our family recipe for deer sausage. He gave it to me but I realized I did not have the capabilities of properly smoking it. I tried a $200 electric smoker someone gave me, zero luck there. Then I tried using my Char-Broil Tru Infrared with a smoke box, no luck there, then I pulled out my Brinkman R2D2 $80 smoker, modified it to hang the sausage and wala, great smoke. Since last fall I have been collecting bricks to build myself a walk in smokehouse hopefully sometime this year (before hunting season).
Right now my arsenal of pits is as follows: Electric Smoker, Small barrow wood pit two level, a Char-Broil Tru Infrared and the Brinkman R2D2. A few weeks ago we had a massive storm that blew through our area that took about 40% of my shingles off my roof, ripped doors off their hinges, busted windows, but the saddest part was I found all of my pits busted up. My smokers were upside down busted up, smoke stacks broken, shelves bent up and my nice Infrared grill upside down in my fish Pond and the doors ripped off the hinges. Yes, very SAD day in deed. However with great loss goodness can be born. I spoke to my insurance, sent pictures and they are replacing my items, so what did I do...... I went and ordered my new Grill, yep, tomorrow they should be delivering my brand new Rec Tec (RT-680) Pellet Smoker! I am so excited, I can't wait to learn something new and share my experiences here with all of you.