After just sitting down to work on manuals, we hear squealing tires and loud crashes. Some guy comes skidding out of Todd's she-she subdivision and slams into the next door neighbor's townhouse. Needless to say, this was a bit distracting.

4th of July Redux

Spent the 4th of July this year cooking whole hog barbecue with my dad's volunteer fire department. An annual event for the Bostwick VFD, the preparation of this picnic starts about 18 hours before serving. Pigs were smoked under corrugated shigles with indirect charcoal heat. The heads, along with beef shoulders and whole chickens, were boiled for brunswick stew. And after an all-nighter, which included bourbon for me, the pig picking began. A cool experience, and I think I held my own on shveling coals, picking pigs and working the stick on the stew, but dad may be on his own next year.