Too many toys?

This is my custom built traditional offset. It was built by Jamie Geer, aka Pits by Jambo. Jamie is a craftsman, both with his pits and his barbecue. It's been said not to let Jamie taste your entries, because instantly he will know what you're doing. But I digress . . . . I've been getting some friendly pressure to pull this thing out of the mothballs this year. We cooked on it eight times in 2006, winning three of the events. Since then, we cooked on it for both of the Pellet Envy cooking schools and at one contest in July. It is so easy to cook on this machine. I believe that Jamie's excellent cooking skills gives him an advantage in pit design. Said another way, his understanding of barbecue makes him a better pit builder. Jamie is not building pits these days. So much time and effort, in the form of attention to detail, goes into each one of his creations. So, he's decided to take a well deserved break. He's a little bit cantankerous too. I ordered candy apple red. And no, he's not color blind!

We're going to cook on this pit some this year because we're going to travel. It's just too far to pull that big parachute we call a trailer to places like Vermont. If the price of fuel get's anywhere near the predictions, we'll be traveling more with this pit or just staying close to home. February is a slow month for barbecue, but we have 2008 pretty well planned out and we're looking forward to doing some cooking soon!

Speaking of barbecue in February, good luck to all of the competitors this weekend in Great Bend, Kansas. The Barton County Fair contest is one of our favorite events in July. Kent Romine, the contest organizer, is a really great guy. This idea to host an event in February is bringing him a lot of new faces. Hat's off to Kent and the teams for braving the Kansas winter to cook some great barbecue!