Last Christmas my fiancee gave me a New Branfels Bandera Smoker to replace my old, rusted up Silver Smoker, and I got it a few days early in order for me to... Can you guess? Smoke up the Christmas Turkey. Okay, no problem right? That's what I thought, until the weather turned COLD, RAINY, and WINDY after the bird went in the smoker and it was all I could do to keep any sort of fire going. What to do?...
Digging through my camping gear, a solution presented itself.
Take 1 EZ Up canopy that is, uh, inadvertently ventilated toward the top due to age, set up over the smoker, and use sandbags filled with topsoil from the garage (gardening stuff) to keep it from blowing away.
Next take 10x20 foot giant Poly tarp, and create walls on 3 sides facing the wind. Leave enough of a gap between canopy top and wall sides to allow smoke to escape. Anchor bottom of tarp to ground with heavy stuff. I used paver bricks from a ripped out patio project. The top was tied on with parachute cord from my hunting supplies.
I would like to figure out a better solution, but that is what worked for me and saved Christmas. Thanksgiving this year is coming up, and I have GOT to outdo her brother in smoking up turkeys. Any suggestions you might have would be greatly appreciated. (He takes as much pride in his BBQ as I do mine, and he volunteered to help cook for the wedding, then backed out leaving us to foot the bill for a $1,500.00 caterer. If I wasn't the groom, I would BBQ my own stuff for the party... So this is a big deal matter of pride here...)
Digging through my camping gear, a solution presented itself.
Take 1 EZ Up canopy that is, uh, inadvertently ventilated toward the top due to age, set up over the smoker, and use sandbags filled with topsoil from the garage (gardening stuff) to keep it from blowing away.
Next take 10x20 foot giant Poly tarp, and create walls on 3 sides facing the wind. Leave enough of a gap between canopy top and wall sides to allow smoke to escape. Anchor bottom of tarp to ground with heavy stuff. I used paver bricks from a ripped out patio project. The top was tied on with parachute cord from my hunting supplies.
I would like to figure out a better solution, but that is what worked for me and saved Christmas. Thanksgiving this year is coming up, and I have GOT to outdo her brother in smoking up turkeys. Any suggestions you might have would be greatly appreciated. (He takes as much pride in his BBQ as I do mine, and he volunteered to help cook for the wedding, then backed out leaving us to foot the bill for a $1,500.00 caterer. If I wasn't the groom, I would BBQ my own stuff for the party... So this is a big deal matter of pride here...)