Forgotten money savers

I was picking up some milk, eggs, and a couple other items today when I happened to walk past a rack that had charcoal for sale. The price of these small 6 pound bags ranged from $7.50 to $9.00. That insulted me on a level beyond my vocabulary. Later, back at home, I went for a walk in my woods and found a fairly large Oak tree that had died some time back, and had fallen against another, larger Oak tree. This discovery got the old rusty gears turning. What is charcoal? It is simply wood burned in a low oxygen environment. In years past it was made of various hardwoods like oak scraps. So out came the chainsaw, the wedges, the ax and the splitting maul. The first few cuts were tricky, but I'll head back tomorrow to finish gathering up what should be several years supply of charcoal grill fuel.

The time involved, will be about 6 hours. We average grilling about twice a week, from April through November. That's about 8 months, or 35 or so weeks. That equals 70 plus grilling events. Those small bags of charcoal are only good for about 3 grilling events, which would mean buying about 24 bags of charcoal.

So if you heat with wood, but buy charcoal, ask yourself why? You're already gathering wood, why not pick up a little more to grill with.

Oh the wood cooks differently, but let it burn down to a good bed of coals, and steaks come out just as good as with store bought charcoal.

I don't buy charcoal. Hubby does, but I prefer to cook over real wood.

I usually cook over wood here too. I admit I usually start the fire with a few briquettes, but the majority of the fuel is usually downed sticks from the yard. I got a sufficiency of those.

I do buy charcoal but usually get a twin pack 15# bags for around $8-$10. We grill/smoke food several times through the summer but I do grill in the winter as well. I do have a gas grill as well so it depends on weather and what I'm cooking as to what fuel source I use.

The twin pack of the larger bags isn't a bad deal, that's what I had been buying. Those are gone now, and those small over priced bags are all that is out in the stores locally.

My neighbor was laughing last winter when he saw me shoveling out in front of the garage by the overhead door so I could drag the grill out and cook some steaks. I grill year round as long as it isn't too windy.

LOL I would have laughed too, and then offered to help in exchange for a steak of course lol

It sure is funny to see people out shoveling and doing the "sniffing/looking around" to see who is crazy enough to be BBQing in the middle of winter. LOL

That ranked up there with my roasting a corned beef in the toaster over on the patio for St. Patrick's day a few years ago. It was in the '70s that day so instead of heating up the house I cooked it on the patio. There were guys putting a new roof on a house a few houses away across the street. I could hear them saying "man does that smell good" because the wind was blowing in their direction. LOL

Yes, I'm THAT neighbor, the one that tickles your nose & tempts your tastebuds but doesn't share the goodies.

As long as you don't get into trouble for it. http://www.georgianewsday.com/news/national/348541-man-gets-in-trouble-with-city-because-barbecue-smells-waft-in-to-street.html

As far as I know we don't have any laws about BBQing.

and yet another plus for not being within city limits, nor even a proper neighborhood. Getting in trouble because someone gets their nickers in a knot over the smell of food cooking.

At any rate I gathered most of that cooking wood this started out as...there was a lot more there than I really had room for. That's ok though, it won't just go to waste.







That last pic is what I don't have room for inside, and I'm out of mineral buckets to use after it's cut down and split...Oh well, there are a lot worse problems to have.

Good luck with your project.

?? all that's left is to cook food over the chunks, and cut and split those remaining larger pieces as needed.

That's what I mean, the grilling.......what's on the menu and what time is dinner.

LOL well we have 1/4 of a cow in our freezer and tomorrow a second one goes to the slaughter house, so steaks, burgers or roast? On the other hand we also have smoked sausage and pork burgers we could fix...and then there's corn on the cob, frozen in the husk so it could also be grilled...oh and fish too...

Any of the above except the fish please.

Surf and turf with corn on the cob for me!

LOL