Hi everybody!
I am Mark and I am in the rural Pacific Northwest, way up north of Seattle. Right now I am just a wannabe - nothing but a BBQ grill, but I am looking at retiring next year and am starting to plan what my post-working life is going to be like.
I have been spending some time trying to research how retirement finances work. Everyone says you need to get by on 60-80% of your working salary, but where does that savings come from? The house payment doesn't change, car payment doesn't change, utilities won't change much. There will be some savings on gas, but I think the expectation is most of the savings come from less $ on food and entertainment.
I love pulled pork and brisket. There isn't much around here and I get by with packaged stuff and the occasional trip to a restaurant when we are in the big city. So it seemed like a natural fit, since instead of money and no time, I will have time and no money, to take a look at the whole "smoker" thing.
I've been watching some shows on the cooking channel on BBQ and slow cooking and it looks easy - how hard can it be to throw some meat into a oven and take out deliciousness a few hours later?
I'm kidding, like everything else, I am confident there are a slew of disasters in wait for me - I can't really even cook a steak on the grill very well (it goes from rare to cardboard in just a blink of an eye, so I eat a lot of cardboard...sigh) - but I still have a year to experiment and learn.
Mark
I am Mark and I am in the rural Pacific Northwest, way up north of Seattle. Right now I am just a wannabe - nothing but a BBQ grill, but I am looking at retiring next year and am starting to plan what my post-working life is going to be like.
I have been spending some time trying to research how retirement finances work. Everyone says you need to get by on 60-80% of your working salary, but where does that savings come from? The house payment doesn't change, car payment doesn't change, utilities won't change much. There will be some savings on gas, but I think the expectation is most of the savings come from less $ on food and entertainment.
I love pulled pork and brisket. There isn't much around here and I get by with packaged stuff and the occasional trip to a restaurant when we are in the big city. So it seemed like a natural fit, since instead of money and no time, I will have time and no money, to take a look at the whole "smoker" thing.
I've been watching some shows on the cooking channel on BBQ and slow cooking and it looks easy - how hard can it be to throw some meat into a oven and take out deliciousness a few hours later?
I'm kidding, like everything else, I am confident there are a slew of disasters in wait for me - I can't really even cook a steak on the grill very well (it goes from rare to cardboard in just a blink of an eye, so I eat a lot of cardboard...sigh) - but I still have a year to experiment and learn.
Mark
