looks like my wife loves me after all!

[mulepackin]

Happy Birthday. Can't help you with the comparison, but it sounds like you've gotten some solid advice. I agree with the idea of things thawing out around here, and getting winter behind us. It can always be worse, guess we just have to look east and south of us a bit.

 

[rons]

Cool congrats and happy B day!

 

[tasunkawitko]

Thanks, Ron - I had the honor of seeing a few of your photos on your flikr page - you, sir, have quite a gift! I usually have a good eye, but my equipment is unable to do justice to what i see - it is quite a treat to see your work - thanks!

 

[rons]

Your welcome and thank you too for the nice compliments :-)
Equipment does help a lot with digital photography, and hours of learning how to really edit the photos. They rarely look as good as they end up when they first come out of the camera

 

[tasunkawitko]

>>>They rarely look as good as they end up when they first come out of the camera<<<

i know what you mean there - i was a reporter/photographer for our local small-town newspaper for a year and a half. decent camera and i taught myself how to use it. i still thank the digital photography spirits for the crop function as well as the ones that help compensate for bad lighting.

 

[rons]

Cool you were like Jimmy Olsen

so you used film and processed it then?

I really enjoy digital as I can really fix my photos up. Exposure, sharpness, dodging and burning, color, contrast.. etc. It really makes a difference. I think with film you gotta get things right during the shoot, wrong film or a not so sharp lens and your stuck.

 

[tasunkawitko]

>>>so you used film and processed it then?<<<

heck no - digital!

 

[tasunkawitko]

quick help needed here, guys -

the price apparently went up 20$ over night and now mrs. taz is getting cold feet. she said they did have this:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=8154153

which is a little smaller but a more affordable price.

she also mentioned this:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...#ProductDetail

which seems about teh same as my ECBs anyway.

quick help - if the SnP were out of the picture, what would you think of the others as options - or, should we wait until next payday and get the SnP?

i started to hem and haw and said i'd be out there on lunch hour to take a look. THEN she said the dreaded words...."what do you need a new smoker for, anyway?"

HELP!

advice needed! thanks!

 

[killbuck]

My neighbor has the SnP and we both like it. We usually get together to do family cookouts all summer long. Sometimes as many as 40 people show up so we use his a lot. We made some cheap mods to his last year but are just starting to get the mods to really do it up right this summer. We used the cooking chamber and the grate inside last year to cook 3 12-14 pound turkeys at the same time and it went well.

I have the WSM, Weber 22.5" OTG, and the GOSM as well so we have all our bases covered for parties. LOL

I think you'll like the Snp once you get the hang of the thing. Oh...one thing I found out about his was I had to raise the fire grate up a bit to get more air under the coals for burning the first time we used it. I just laid down two empty beer cans under the coal grate and fired it up. Worked like a charm.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[tasunkawitko]

ha ha! i like that comment and it really says it all, killbuck!

thanks to all for the public and private advice/comments. one fellow suggested building a UDS and i will definitely considere that as an option. i went out and did some comparisons over the lunch hour and all alternatives just didn't come close to the SnP. it sucks that theyt raised the price 20$ over night, but i guess that's how she goes sometimes.

for now, the plan is to hold out for the next payday and then get the SnP, but in the intervening 2 weeks i am definitely going to take a close look at the UDS option, especially if there's a chance it would be a "step up" from the ECBs - don't get me wrong, i am perfectly happy with my ECBs, but i figure a guy's gotta "grow" a bit in this endeavour.

thanks again!

ron

 

[tasunkawitko]

....
of course, i looked pretty dejected as we walked out of the place - the only thing missing was a can to kick around to go along with the hands in the pockets, the hanging head and the shuffling gait....maybe she'll take pity on me and get it anyway; that will be a nice surprise for when a get home!

one bit of good news - pork shoulder was 98 cents/pound, so i grabbed one (7.5lb) and will be giving this thing a try this or next weekend. should be good!

 

[bigsteve]

***TWEET!!!!!*** Foul!!

It's a birthday gift! What do you need a new one for is not relevant!!! It's your birthday, what you want is what you want.


Don't let her talk you into a sports jacket.........

 

[rons]

Ah cool, what do you use right now then?

Hey you have a cool name...

Hope you get the smoker you like dude!

Ron (no wonder I thought your name was cool, I thought it sounded famililar lol)

 

[tasunkawitko]

cool name and easy to spell!

the camera we have now is just a simple sony 7MP camera 3xoptical zoom and 5x digital zoom (digital zoom is worthless). the digital pix are not too bad and actually look pretty darn good when you have prints made at walmart.

the one i used when i was working for the newspaper was much better - a spin-off of panasonic with a 12x optical zoom and also 7MP. a very nice camera that i wish i could afford!

 

[rons]

cool, those little Sony's are nice little cameras. Me and my wife are photo nuts, so we have a few cameras. The one I use mostly is my Nikon D40 DSLR, but also pack around a little Canon G9 P&S cam for random shots. My wife uses a Fuji Superzoom S6000fd which was mine before I got my DSLR, it's quite the nice camera for a non DSLR.

I bet you have some awesome scenery there in Montana to photo. I wish I was into photography years ago when I could take vacations. We used to go to Yellowstone every once in a while, we'd stay in Butte on the way there and back. Man it's so gorgeous in Montana.

 

[tasunkawitko]

i've heard great things about the nikon cameras and if i were to go "whole hog" and get one, it would definitely be the one you mentioned.

montana cannot be beat for scenery, even here in the region where i live that is usually considered "boring" compared to yellowstone and glacier. you can see quite a few pix of the area by browsing around at my website (below) or by checking out my facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/people/Ronal...her/1594908980

 

[rons]

Nikon and Canon seem to be about the best choices, but almost any DSLR rocks for photo quality. What kills me, is I bought my D40 years ago when it first came out, paid 599 for it. Now you can grab one for a little over 400. Lot's of those little P&S cams are 3-400 and if a person doesn't need a small pocket sized cam, I can't see why anyone would get those expensive pocket ones.

Cool, I'll check your links out..

I can't see your facebook, I think I'd have to be a member? I tried the baitshop one, thats a forum is there a link on there to your photos?

 

[tasunkawitko]

yeah, facebook requires memberships. i forgot that some folks might not be members ~ never heard of the place until last thanksgiving but the old high school class is all getting together on there and it has become quite the hang-out.

the other place is a forum and the pix are scattered around a bit. i'll see if i can email some to you ~

 

[rons]

OK cool, look forward to seeing some big sky country!

 

[tasunkawitko]

ron - shoot me a PM with your email address and i can email some pix over that are on my computer here at work. they're the same ones that i have on the facebook page.