Recent content by BACyclone
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Hy-Vee's weirdest business decision yet?
It's quite likely that is a kindly-worded way to say the stores were, in fact losing money. -
Hy-Vee's weirdest business decision yet?
The one on Logan Ave in Waterloo was a very, very basic store. The only premium feature about it was having the Wine & Spirits section, which was also pretty basic, but better than some I have encountered. The downside is, I'm not sure there's another local option in that immediate area. -
Smoking Meat Questions and Discussion
I take a shop vac and clean it out preferably every other cook. There's usually some debris in that cook pot that can accumulate and can cause you to fail to start the burn at startup. This happened to me once and made a huge mess because it keeps feeding pellets until it hits the startup... -
Smoking Meat Questions and Discussion
I've never smoked without them, but I prefer to run on my lowest temp setting, which holds around 235-250 and have no complaints. Pit Boss grills have a "smoke" setting for the early portion of the cook which runs it around 160F and I'm not sure it's more smoky, but it extends the time when the... -
Smoking Meat Questions and Discussion
Great question! Doing 4 butts absolutely took longer. Although I did a single butt on Sunday and I had to rush it (higher heat than I normally run to finish it) to get it done in 12-13 hours, including butcher paper wrap at 160F IT. It still turned out amazing though. The 4 butts at once... -
Smoking Meat Questions and Discussion
I bought my PitBoss 1100 (the big one) at least 4 years ago when they were discounted at Menards ($600?) and have had zero issues. It's built like a tank. Would buy one again. I use it exclusively as a smoker and contain my meats on a tray so I never let juices/fat drip down into the machine... -
Smoking Meat Questions and Discussion
What do you use yours for, specifically? -
Smoking Meat Questions and Discussion
Almost every time. I just use regular gallon freezer bags. I save any juices I can and pour them into the bag with the meat. I also have a supply of bacon grease in my fridge (we bake bacon) that I will throw a few dollops of into the bag, just to be sure there's adequate flavor/moisture when... -
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Missing NW Iowa Men
That's understandable, but I can appreciate that when you don't really know where to search other than 'around this area', covering every square yard of that much ground would require a ton of time and people. -
Acreage tips from the Fanatics
There is a LOT I do not miss about owning an acreage, but having "a little bit of land" plus the privacy it affords is certainly one thing. Having "a couple acres" I think would be relatively no sweat. I would never try to own or keep large animals on my property ever again. -
Acreage tips from the Fanatics
I'd assume you would want/need this to be zoned Ag-residential -
Acreage tips from the Fanatics
You will want a zero turn mower to mow the house yard. Trust me on this, it has nothing to do with obstacles. They are just FAR more efficient. You'll use a small tractor with a bucket for odd jobs, and I'd buy a bigger mower attachment for this to mow the pastures from time to time. You... -
New water heater...
I replaced mine myself in 2020 with a model I picked up from Menards. We only have one bathroom so I went with the in-stock model (you can order larger ones) and it's been fantastic. The only tricky thing (I was unsure about) was routing the exhaust as we are on natural gas and I kept using...