Geocaching

One of my other hobbies is Geocaching. I have not done much caching in the past few years. I was a little disillusioned with all the micro caches in the bushes I was finding. We still cache on holidays and at other odd times. We still use our old Garmin Legend but recently I got a new cell phone. I now have a smart phone, an Xperia by Sony Ericsson. I love the phone and now there are many applications for geocaching. I have downloaded many of them but the one that I have now and I really like is the one made by Groundspeak. Their app for the Droid market is very good. I have been trying it out for the past week and I am impressed. The GPS in my phone is more accurate than my Garmin but the battery life sucks big time when using the GPS, only about 3 hours. I can see myself using the phone for caching when we go into Vancouver or somewhere in the province and we have a few hours to kill, go online with the phone grab the nearest caches and off we go. Very handy. I would not use it for everyday caching but for grabbing a cache on the go when you do not a PQ loaded up in the GPS or the GPS is sitting at home a great way to grab a few.

BBQ

Well I went and did it, I took a course and became a certified BBQ judge for the Pacific Northwest BBQ Association. I am now able to judge BBQ competitions. I did not know until I took the course how many there are in the Pacific Northwest. From May to October there is a competition just about every weekend. The region I judge for goes from Oregon to Saskatchewan. As a judge I am not allowed to see the BBQ competition we are in the judges area and are not allowed to leave until our job is over. Now being a judge is hard work. We have to try and judge food from ten competitors. Now that does not sound like much, but each competitor will do at least four different types of meat. The most popular are Chicken, Beef Brisket, Pulled Pork and Ribs. If you eat all the meat that is put in front of you as a judge you will eat about ten pounds of meat in a day. I am looking forward to judging my first competition this September here in Langley. I will let you know how if goes and if I want to continue to Juge or if I become a competitor.

Salmon Season is Here

Well it is that time of year when the salmon are starting to return to the rivers and I start to get itchy feet to go after some springs. Now I know that my chances are slim fishing the lower river but I still like to try. In my heart I know that one day my efforts will pay off.

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Monday Fishing

On Monday my buddy Rick and I went fishing. Rick picked me up at the unholy hour of 5:45am. We loaded the tubes and gear into Rick's little Honda and we were off. Thankfully Rick brought along a Extra Large Timmies coffee for me. Off we go, about two hours later we arrived at our destination, Coquihalla Lakes. We unpack the car, inflate the float tubes and gear up. We hit the lake in a torrential down pour, we were in the clouds ( the lakes are at an elevation of 1145meters) and it was cold. We braved the elements until 11:30, then we were just down right cold, felt like my feet were blocks of ice, but we did get into some nice 18 inch fat rainbows.

Rick fighting a fish on Coquihalla Lake

After we packed everything back up we headed back down the mountain toward home. Another quick stop a Timmies in Hope and we were off to Lake of the Woods just outside Hope on the #1.

Lake of The Woods

Now the water here is crystal clear and warm, 62 degrees F. compared to Coquihalla Lakes 48 degrees. I could see the bottom in over 20 feet of water. Within five minutes of being on the water I was into 3 fish. One which I landed. Over the next 3-4 hours both Rick and Myself were into lots of fish.

Nice Fish about to be released

They would be hitting our flies fast and hard for 15 minutes then there would be 30 minutes of nothing then they would start again. We came off the lake at about 5:00 in the afternoon and headed home. A great day fishing with a good friend, thanks Rick.

Father's Day

Well fathers day was a good day for me. All the boys came over to eat my food, so I drank their beer. I was up at 6:00am on Sunday to get the Pork Shoulder Roast in the smoker. I set the Bradley up on the back deck and had it preheated to 250 degrees by 6:30. The Roast went in the smoker at that time with enough bisquettes to last 4 hours.

4.5lb pork roast seasoned and waiting for smoke.

I used and equal amount of Hickory, Mesquite and Cherry for the smoke.

In the smoker ready to cook

At the end of the four hours smoking the internal temp was 168 degree and that is were it stayed for the next 3 hours, then it slowly rose to 194 degrees when I pulled it out of the smoker and wrapped it in foil with a splash of apple juice.

Just out of the smoker ready to be wrapped

During the time the roast was at 168 degrees I made some BBQ sauce to go onto the pulled pork sandwiches. The sauce turned out great.

The Sauce

I think they liked the pulled pork as a 4.5 lb. Roast was made into sandwiches for 2 of the boys, my wife and myself and there was just enough left for me to have a sandwich on Monday. Heck even Alex, my vegetarian son had some pulled pork and asked for more.

The Pulled Pork ready for Sandwiches

Pulled Pork Part 2

Well in my search for a good pulled pork sandwich I am going to attempt to make my own pulled pork. Tomorrow I am off to the butcher to get a nice Pork Butt Roast about 4-5 lbs. Going to slather it with CYM (cheap yellow mustard) and then a coating of a good rub that I am going to make up, recipe from the Bradley smoker forum. This is going to happen on Saturday night. Then the butt will get wrapped in plastic wrap and into the fridge for the night. Bright and early on Sunday, I will get the Bradley heated up and put the butt in by 7:00 am. I plan on smoking the butt with a combination of Cherry and Mesquite for 4 hours, then letting it cook for the next 4 hours at 225 degrees. I will pull it out of the smoker when it reaches an internal temp of 195 degrees. Hopefully if everything goes according to plan I will be eating a pulled pork sandwich about 6:00pm on Sunday. I will be posting pictures of the smoke next week.

Pulled Pork

Last night after work Lisa and myself went out to South Surrey to do some shopping and to go for dinner. It was my pick so we went to Memphis Blues, a rib house were they smoke their own ribs, pork and brisket. I had heard good reports on this place and I wanted a pulled pork sandwich so off we went. The restaurant is like a fast food joint were you go to the counter to order your food, strike one, but we forage ahead giving them the benefit of the doubt, after all I have heard good things about Memphis Blues. When we received our food, we both ordered Pulled Pork Sandwich, I knew I was in a fast food restaurant, the beans and coleslaw that came with the meal were served in little paper cups. The portion was a good size for the sandwich itself, beans and slaw on the small size. The taste of the food itself was a 7 out of 10. I found the sauce on the sandwich to be on the heavy side, coleslaw was like anyone else s, nothing to make it stand out and the beans were OK. Will I go back to Memphis Blues, I doubt it. The local Mr. Mikes has better food. So I continue my quest for a good Pulled Pork sandwich in the Lower Mainland.