I’m back, with nothing serious on my mind.  Did I hear a sigh of relief?

I am sure you have all heard the saying “Jack of all trades and master of none”.  If we change it just a little to “Jack of several trades and master of none” I think I qualify.  I know the master of none fits.

Over the years I have learned to do a lot of things.  Most of it was out of necessity usually for economic reasons.  Some of it was to satisfy my curiosity and some of it just kind of happened.

Two of those things are fixing broke carburetors (carbs) and smoking meat.  I learned about carbs many years ago out of necessity.  I learned about smoking meat very recently because I was curious.

My dad was a pretty good old “shade tree” mechanic; the only problem he was a man of few words.  By listening carefully and watching I learned what a carb was supposed to do and how it was supposed to do it.  A You Tube video would have been nice.

Over the years I honed my skills and had some success with things like AFBs, Qaudrajets or the 3 Rochester 2Gs on my 57 Olds.  I used to put the pieces from all three of those in one pile clean reassemble, adjust and go give it a test run at about 140 mph.  I even messed with those strange 3-barrel deals the early Hondas used.

As technology has advanced, fuel injection has almost made carbs obsolete.  Unfortunately my boats are old and still have carburetors.

About three or four years ago the kids gave me an electric smoker for Christmas.  It was after Sharyl and I were confined because of her illness.  I had never wanted a smoker, it turned out to be one of the best gifts I ever received.

I had time to do my homework, I had the little book that came with the smoker and I had Google.  I used various combinations of the stuff I read.  I screwed up some pretty good cuts of meat, but through trial, error and imagination I figured out how to put some pretty good brisket, bologna, ribs, pulled pork and chicken legs on the table.  I don’t plan to open a rib joint or take my show on the road it just goes on the bottom of my jack-of-all-trades list and provides an alternative to grilling burgers.

Pictured are my smokers, yes there are two of them.  The kids bought me #1; I thought I needed more capacity so I added #2.  There is a new model available.  It is about the size of #2 but it has more “bells and whistles” I really like some of them.

A couple weeks ago I talked about bringing the old bass boat home for some much-needed TLC.  One of the things needing some help was (you guessed it) the carburetor.It has one Rochester 2G; the old Olds had 3 like this.  I have provided a picture with some scribbling depicting what is supposed to happen, gas in, air in, and they enter the engine as a mixture.  It is kind of simple if it works but sometimes they can be a little finicky.

How did smokers and carbs wind up in the same blog?

In a routine conversation with one of the girls I talked about my lack of success with the carb repair.  I also mentioned the “bells and whistles” laden smoker I had seen.  Coincidently the smoker and a new carb cost are almost identical.  She said, “If you could fix the carb you could use your carb money and buy the smoker.”  She didn’t intend it as a challenge; I took it as one.

I guess I am not as good at fixing carbs as I once was.  I have spent way too many hours doing, undoing and redoing the thing.  I runs pretty good but this is a boat, not horseshoes or hand grenades, close don’t count.

I have a tracking number on the new one.  It is on a brown truck probably somewhere between Albuquerque and Amarillo.  It should be at my house Tuesday.

I didn’t need the dang smoker anyway.  I could go ahead and buy the thing but I have my pride.  I really do like some of those new features.

Please keep me in your prayers.

Good Night and God Bless.

Dave