A LONG lie to recover from a late one…then brunch in the garden.

Quite a few wee jobs to get through today. First up is the rotten bit of wooden window surround at the side of the office.

I get the old wood off, pull the leftover nails, clean with a wire brush and sand things down before treating the exposed wood and cutting the replacement bit of wood to size.

Margaret stains the new bit of wood and does some other prep. I’ll nail it on tomorrow once everything’s had a chance to dry/cure.

Next job is a complete clean out of the smoker. The grate and heat deflector get cleaned after every smoke session and every two or three sessions I clean the ash out. This time, though, I can’t get the bit of metal through the vent and into the bottom of the kamado…that’s what prompts the complete clean out!

I take out the unused charcoal then remove the ceramic fire bowl and empty it out. Underneath there’s a load of ash and I see why the metal ash remover isn’t getting through the back of the vent…the opening on the bottom collar of the bowl is mis-aligned. My bad – can’t have put it all back together properly after the last deep clean.

Next, I cut the grass and do some strumming then hit the studio.

I deal with some stuff on the to-do list then find there’s some kind of problem with my website. A ‘fatal error’ when I try and log in….and I notice the online store is fucked up. Aaarggh…time to make some tortillas for tonight’s tacos so I leave the web stuff until faster dinner (ie: about 11pm!) and manage to get things fixed. Phew!