10/02/2026
Here we glow again; Me and Crawford.
We meet up early mornings, day after day, to do our thing in the tranquility of pre-dawn hours. Crawford never considered being a smoker, and I hadn't really considered being a pitmaster, until we met.
He had a life as an electricians job box, but he was abandoned. I saw him on Facebook Marketplace... beat up, and lost - and I got an idea!
So, I drove to Massachusetts, and convinced him to start a new life as smoker many years ago.
He was reluctant at first, but now performs like a champion after numerous modifications.
Together, we've smoked tens of thousands of pounds of meat. I can now feed him 50 racks of ribs, or 220 pieces of chicken, and he just cranks it out with few complaints. He did set my first bbq trailer on fire, but that was partly my fault for letting his water pan run dry and accumulate grease that ignited above the intense heat. But, we thought about it, fixed that issue.
Where he used to shelve tools, parts and and pieces, he now has a block lined firebox, topped with a 12 gallon, gravity fed 1/4 in thick stainless steel water pan, regulated with a high temp float valve. (He never runs out of water, so long as I keep the reservoir filled).
Above the water pan is four 32x44 in adjustable grill racks with 5,632 sq inches of grill area. Its a whopping amount of grill real estate, in a very small footprint.
Crawford is a meat smoking powerhouse, that together, I've learned to play like a violin, through trial and error.
This season alone, Crawford and his pal Humphrey ( who hides out back) have put out 12,640 lbs of meat, as of this morning.
But, the one thing we've been fortunate to produce, aside from smoked meat, is smiles... joy, and laughter...
and that really is the main ingredient, that separates BBQ from so many other foods.
I think it's why me and Crawford keep getting up at 4:00 AM to do it again and again.
