Howdy from the Southwest!

[tukson]

 I would like to introduce myself and compliment you guys on the information you freely give .... I have been reading here for a week now after my son gave me a new smoker (SMOKE CANYON) .. For Fathers Day...

Started out in Flagstaff, Ariz about 30years ago after checking a book out from the library that helped me start cold smoking trout we caught there in the mountains... I had an old brick grill in the backyard that I was able to modify with plywood and use for the fish... I still get compliments from folks that remember the smoked fish there, talk about pure dumb luck! At least I didn't make anyone sick...LOL! We moved to Tucson, Az. about 25 years ago and I picked up a Brinkman electric, vertical smoker at a garage sale for 5.00 bucks .. It has served me and the family extremely well for many years with a family tradition for smoking turkey's for Thanksgiving and pork shoulders for New Years day. I have always wanted a larger horizontal smoker and this one has a few features that I love... Thick (1/4 in) steel walls, a 6 in diameter vent pipe, and a very large offset rectangle box that doubles as a grill. Since I got it last weekend we have smoked pork ribs and yesterday a 12lb. turkey.

Even though I have been at this for many years, I am very ignorant about good techniques and that is why I have found this site to be excellent for all the tips I have read about. This week was the first time I had ever loaded the firebox and had a great slow 7 hour burn. A combination of technique and new smoker .. thanks.

I remember helping my dad and grandpa as a kid in Oklahoma, to cut up hogs and salt them down in large wooden barrels in the smoke house and the hams that we hung on the back porch for breakfast meat after smoking for many days...

I wish now I had been a better student..

Thanks for putting up with the ramblings of an old bear!

HOWDY from Tucson, Arizona.

 

[pineywoods]

Welcome to SMF glad you decided to join us. Congrats on the new smoker. I'm sure you'll be smoking a lot more than the holidays from now on

 Have fun and happy smoking

 

[eman]

welcome from south louisiana,

 The old ways were great and i'm glad that we have not lost them but improved on them.

 

[meateater]

Welcome to the SMF. Glad to have you here. Lots of good folks, great recipes and knowledge. Looking forward to your first qview.

 

[mballi3011]

First off welcome Tukson to SMF. You'll like it here cause there are alot of really good folks that would just love to help you with anything to do with smoking. Now we like having new folks here to give a new prospective on some of the ways we do things around here. Now if you are really new then I would suggest that you sign up fir the 5-day E-course it free and it will give you the basics on smoking and a few recipes too. Here's a link to it:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/list/127

then you will have a method to your newly found madness and believe me it will be a madness. Then when you start smoking things you will have to learn how to post the pictures / Qview 

here. So here's a link to a tutorial on how to post your Qview so we can see what your doing.

 http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/82034/how-to-post-qview-to-smf

Now the next thing you have to do is run out and get something to smoke. Then just smoke it and if you have any questions just post  them here and we will answer all your questions that you might have. Oh yea there's no stupid questions we were all there in the beginning and we just really like to help others enjoy the fabulous smoked foods that we do. So again

 

Welcome to Your New Addiction

 

[caveman]

Welcome to SMF Tukson.  I used to work at TEP for three years before the desert dust clogged my mind.  I missed the ocean view & headed back to California.  But my team was still the Trojans.  Couldn't stand the wildcats but loved, absolutely loved the sorority parties.  Love the avatar.  Now, you have some fun here & enjoy your stay. 

 

[squirrel]

Welcome Tukson! Wow, what a great son you have there! Don't ever apologize for rambling, I never do and these good folks don't seem to mind. Be sure to post some pictures of the new rig and some great food!

 

[tukson]

Thanks for that tip, Squirrel....LOL....

Caveman, no wonder you had to move back to cal.... if you love the trojans, as you well know they are one of the teams that we Arizona Wildcats love to hate..... and as for the dust... my mind has been dust clogged so long that I don't even remember what decade it started getting clogged.........

mballi3011  thanks for the links you posted .. I will certainely sign up for the classes......

My first problem is getting my new smoker into the back of my pickup so I can haul it back to Tucson.. Grandma and I are in Las

Cruces, NM visiting the grandkids for a few weeks.. she is a librarian at a grade school and just as soon as it closes for the summer we are off to spend June with the New Mexico grandkids... (this is not optional for me).

.

The smoker was a floor model and now after only using it twice I have to take it apart so it will fit in the bed. I will take pics and and do a smoke just as soon as we get home.. hopefully in the next couple of weeks... thanks everyone for the warm welcome.

 

[richoso1]

Welcome to the SMF, and thanks for the introduction. I'm usually in Tucson every year for the Mariachi Festival. I also have family scattered all over Arizona. Good luck on getting your smoker home. It's all good my friend.

 

[chefrob]

welcome from up north..........

 

[realtorterry]

Welcome friend & happy fathers day

 

[etcher1]

Welcome to the SMF forum, You came to the right place. Good people and good info.

 

[tukson]

Never guess what I did today!!!!!!!

Spent the day at junk stores and muffler shops trying to get all the parts for my modifications that I have read about here... LOL..

ITS ALL YOUR GALS AND GUYS FAULT...

Met all kinds of nice folks here in Las Cruces, NM. the muffler guy spent an hour fitting and cutting a very large elbow to help lower the smoke level down to the grates. He wouldn't even take the money I offered... Liked the idea of setting up a smoker...

The junk guy was more than happy to take my money and I'll get some pics of the stuff for the smoker I found there when I get home this weekend... The fireplace store had some high temp gasket material for the fire box...

and we even had time to eat at La Posta.. the last postoffice building still standing on the old Butterfield Cattle Trail that is now a fantastic Mexican Restraunt.. Billy The Kid, Kit Carson, Pancho Villa and many more have been inside the building (I love old cowboy stories) and smoked meats..

Is there medication I can take ... I think I'm afflicted...

 

[pit 4 brains]

I gotta know.. what made you move from the Flag area to the Tucson area and give up all that good fishing up there ???? The Butterfield trail was a mail route, also known as the Ol' Oxbow due to it's shape from east to west, not a cattle route. In fact, they used to haul ice to Tucson down that trail from the ice caves.. (no biggie, just FYI).

Welcome to the site and happy smokin'

 

[walle]

Welcome aboard, Tukson from your neighbors to the North!

Tucson is beautiful country - nothing like the desert in the spring.  Glad to have ya, looking forward to some of your smokes.

 

[tukson]

P4B, I had part of a lung removed due to chronic infections from asthma.. thats what put us in Flagstaff in the first place from Oklahoma. (sweet clean air just thin at 7200ft where we lived) ...We loved it and both our sons were born there and raised in Tucson.

I really miss going to Lees Ferry for trout even though its poor now compared to the 70's, it was nothin to catch a 5-10 pound rainbow along with brook and cutthroat back then.. my youngest son and I go to the San Juan every few years, but it is an awful long drive for us now..

Your correct about the Butterfield Trail... just checkin you guys out..LOL..

Thanks Walle, last winter was a good wet one and it was certainally green this spring.. and I can hardley wait to get some of my Mesquite trees trimmed and the new smoker all smoked up..I also have a couple of citrus(orange and grapefrui)and used them to smoke about 10years ago, but don't remember much about the flavors, so will try some of them again...

 

[chefrc]

Welcome Tukson

From a brother up north. I used to visit OK every weekend when I lived in Texas. God's Country. I loved it. Sure miss Turner Falls and Chickasaw National Rec area. we loved Freedom OK. quaint little town. I owned 40 acres there. 20 outside Wilberton and 20 outside Dustin. Again Wecome fellow Smokie.

 

[tukson]

Howdy Chefrc, I too love that area around Wilberton. My wife and I were raised just north of there at Checotah... Wish I had some of the hardwoods to smoke with that we used to just chop down and clear out on our farm there... a lot of native pecan, hickory, persimmon and plenty of oak... at least I have a lot of mesquite trees out here in Arizona.. so I shouldn't complain.. LOL...