[landarc]

Say, I dropped my soap, it is over in that cor...never mind...

I would say, number one, be relaxed and patient, do not get over-wrought if things do not go just as planned. Also, allow for a little time when making heat adjustments, they can take up to 30 minutes depending on your cooker to happen. Also, allow you fire time to stabilize before loading the smoker, it it burns in for 30 minutes and you are getting light blue, then load er up. Do you have a grate thermo that you can read from outside the smoker? That will be a huge help if you have one.