We Interrupt This Cemetery Tour .....

There was a bit of rain the other afternoon.  105 degrees and completely unexpected, this gully washer came over the hill with 50 mph winds (or so I read on my phone).  The drops of rain were over an inch wide EACH, followed by hail that I thought was going to break my side windows.  The noise was deafening.

There was so much water my water station was flooded.  Needless to say there were flash floods everywhere while my motorhome was comfy cozy in her house.   No lightning pictures as I got soaked the second I opened the patio door.

 

 

 I did have more critter videos however.  This was prior to relocating the steel pole.  One nice side effect of the rain, it softened up the ground so I could actually pound the pole into the desert floor in a much better location.

 This coyote pair, siblings I'm guessing, come in almost every night for a drink.  On THIS morning, there were probably ten or twelve singing to the trees.

 

Here's a video of the guys causing all the trouble.  Oh they look all cute and cuddly, just meandering around the water, looking over their shoulder because they know I'm watching.   The second you look away, they bite and chew on everything!  

 

 In other BUY-IT news, you know I love to smoke dinner.  I have a nice Bradley I've been using for a few years.  Honestly, it takes a few years to figure out the perfect recipe for each individual smoker.  When I saw a very small one advertised at Lowes, I thought it would be perfect to take with me in the RV. 

At $100, it was a steal.  Trouble was, no matter how long I cruised the internet looking for one, they were completely sold out. Next best thing was this Masterbuilt at less than half price in their end-of-year sale.  How could I refuse?  Of course I now won't be able to afford meat for the next month, but that's okay.  I'll smoke those cans of dog food.                  Just kidding!!!

So after an hour of putting her together, here she is.  Little did I know, this is a completely  different animal than what I'm used to.  I fired it up ... well I plugged it in (it's electric) ... and waited for the smoke to rise.  And it did!!!

 It said to season it for 3 hours.  I lasted 30 minutes before lowering the temperature and sticking in that chicken I bought last week.  Two hours later there was no smoke and the chicken looked pretty pale.  I frantically searched the internet videos to see what I was doing wrong.

Open the vent and raise the heat.  After five hours, there was STILL no smoke.  I guess there's a learning curve here too.  I should have taken pictures of the chicken, but by 7:00 at night, I was fed up with the entire process and stuck it in the oven to finish.

In the end, it turned out fine, with just enough smoke flavor .... barely.  So with THIS smoker, you have to cook at a higher heat for less time (I guess that's a good thing) with the vent wide open.  Just the opposite of my Bradley.  The good news is it's small enough to carry in the belly of the rig if I want.  Hopefully next time I'll have better luck.

So .... on to the next cemetery tour tomorrow.