Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Jack's New Smoker

Last weekend was my son Jackson’s 2nd birthday and he and I were both surprised to see the mini smoker that my brother decided to build for him. Amidst the dump trucks, toddler’s clothes and Cars movie toys, without a doubt, this stood out as my favorite present…I guess I mean his present.

A few months ago my brother, Kurt, and I talked about building a mini sized replica of my big smoker, but nothing really came of it. Then, true to his word, Kurt started putting the project together…about the same time we were leaving KC on Friday. The late start is really nothing new for Kurt.

There are many more stories like this involving my brother. They all pretty much go the same way…he has 6 months to think about a project, he waits until the last moment and when it’s done it looks like he has spent all that time working to make it perfect. I think he once completely remodeled a bathroom in less than 8 hours, simultaneously wrapping up laying the linoleum floor and texturing the ceiling as the door bell rang and the first of my sister-in-law’s guests for a party were arriving to their home.

So my Dad wasn’t all that surprised when Kurt came back from the metal shop with the supplies to put together this little smoker. As I mentioned, he modeled it after the big cooker my Dad built for us to use in competition a few years ago (cooker #000001). You can see the general similarities between the too. I was blown away when I saw it being put together in the shop. Kurt did a great job of representing the larger cooker in his work and my Dad helped add a few final touches like the smoke stack dampner, which works just like the one on my stack.

After a fresh coat of high temp paint Saturday afternoon, cooker #000002 rolled out of the shop at the Dodge County Smokers assembly headquarters on Sunday Morning, February 1st.

Jack was excited for his new custom cooker. When his present was rolled in to the living room after he opened all of his other presents, he ran over and lifted the lid right away. Then he told his cousins “HOT! No touch!” I guess he does listen to his mom & dad when the smoker is going outside.

We got home Sunday night in time to see the end of the Super Bowl and on Monday we wasted no time in lighting the first fire. It took a couple minutes and about 15 coals and a few sticks of wood to get the chamber up to 250 degrees. We cooked a hotdog, which Jack ate for a pre-dinner “naaaack” (that’s a snack, by the way).

We’ll spend some more time learning how to cook on our new “toy” and hopefully we can bring it out to a few contests this summer where you can see it in person. It really is cool!

See more pictures here: Dodge County Smokers.com

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I love this. My son is 8 months old and I hope to get him his own baby smoker in a few years.

Dodge County Smokers said...

Thanks Rob. You gotta get them started early! I like this one because it's modeled after my big cooker and my boy will be able to pull it with his pedal tractor. But it would be sweet to see a baby stumps like yours for your little guy!

Jerry said...

That it's totally cool!!

lmcmorris said...

What a great way to get the boy started!!!
We posted a link here: http://www.eatlikeanative.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3216#post3216
Great story!

WhiteTrashBBQ said...

That is smokin! Sorry, I just had to say it