"Relatively" successful weekend

So, Easter weekend is always the date for our annual family fishing trip and picnic, plus Sunday lunch after church with BBQ. The entire thing nearly killed me this year, church Thursday night, fishing Friday from daylight to 3:00 in the afternoon, church Friday night, mow three acres of grass, set up cookers and prep meat Saturday, sunrise service Sunday morning and cook four racks of ribs, four links of sausage, four beer can chickens and a 9# pork butt for 1:00 lunch with my wife's family. After six months' worth of cancer treatments, I just don't have the stamina/strength I used to. Everything came out good with the exception of two racks of spares that just wouldn't get tender, even after 7 hours on the offset. Finally got tired of wasting wood and stuck them in the oven for another 2 hours at 250. They ended up being edible but nothing to brag about. Pulled pork was very good, chicken moist and tasty, two racks of spares were bite off the bone tender and the homemade sausage was, well, sausage. First time I used a pan to wrap the butt and it worked really well, leaving enough juice to moisten the pork just right. Attached are a couple of photos of my cook setup with the new Coleman canopy, along with one of my oldest daughter with her first big bass (3#) and my two-year-old grandson and his dad at the lake.

daninnewjersey said:

it seems like you're less than happy with the ribs...but the family being together cancels out all the less than fun parts. Remember.....these ARE the good old days....:becky:

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Ribs are the one thing I can usually count on being pretty much perfect (IMHO), so having those two racks turn out like jerky after the customary 4 - 5 hours on the pit is pretty disappointing. They were the ones I bought Saturday night at Wally World so I wonder if they were jus tough by nature or something. You're right, these ARE the good old days, especially since my grandson was born one week after my cancer surgery. Teaching him to fish and hunt and giving him something to remember me by is my new mission in life.

Thanks for the good wishes, guys. I don't mean to be a Wendy Whiner, because I am blessed to be doing so well at this point. I think it's just hard for any of us to accept our limitations as we get older.