Important Gilgo Beach Cleanup Dates a Comin' up; East Coast Windsurfing Festival June 6-7

From the blog of Drysuit 2 ...

Important dates a comin' up

April 24th

LIBAG, and The Long Island Windsurfing Group would love to have your help at the Town of Babylon’s Gilgo Beach. LIBAG officially adopted Gilgo Beach.
The clean up will take place on Friday, April 24th, Arbor Day.
We want to thank Florence Findley from the Town of Babylon for the opportunity to help.

May 2nd

LIBAG will also be sponsoring the beach clean up at NYS Park’s Gilgo Beach.
This is the area that encompasses Old Coast Guard through Hemlocks beach.
This clean up is on Love My Park Day May 2nd, 2015. This is in cooperation with the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, as well as Parks & Trails NY.
We want to thank Tim Byrne from NYSOPRHP for the opportunity to help.

June 6th and 7th

Heckscher State Park will again be host to the East Coast Windsurfing Festival, ECWF L.I. June 6th and 7th 2015. Follow the peconicpuffin.com for updates.
We want to thank David Auguste from NYSOPRHP for hosting us again.

3 minutes of peace -- quality here

Here's a vid that's been around, but is a long-term keeper.

A bit of a daydream of a long wave.

Watching this I did get a little frustrated with the occasional lags in the ride itself, the backfootedness. I don't like wave sailing too back footed, period. But that's just me. Yeah, i know, what heresy. He was holding, holding for the right moment to drop in to time the turn. After all, I can't see in front what he sees, so WTF do I know, but give me a shot at a wave like this and I would say "yes, yes, yes."

Juno: Montauk — Winter Surf :: This one's so good I don't want to lose it

I keep getting requests for this so I want to make sure it's easy to find.

Thanks for sharing Drysuit Frank -- see Drysuit's blog and all other original sharers and producers.

Juno from Tauk Is Cheap Productions on Vimeo.

At least the trail won't be muddy, right?

Well...there is wind, but it's a bit on the chilly side.

Still nursing slight symptoms of the herniated neck so surfing is out of the question, even on a mild day like the one pictured below.

It's not like it's a major pain, but just teetering on the edge of a major flare-up. Neck was really stiff last week, but I got it to loosen up, so might try the chiropractor.

Cycling?  I don't know when that'll next be feasible outside. The Polar Vortex effect has set in pretty good here.  9F / 13C.

One thing we do know -- the trail is frozen good and hard.

Of MTBs and Dogs

Al long as it's not muddy and below 26 F, we're good.

 It's that time of year. My neck is back in herniation/spasm mode — aargh — no surfing, road biking, surf SUP, or golf — which leaves ... shorter MTB rides and dog walks. So it's all good from a dog's point of view.

 And if the dog is happy, we're all happy.

 Plenty of walks this weekend. One day the pond is frozen over, the next day it was 52 F and trees are thinking it might be just O.K. to bloom.

 Either way, it's all snowflakes off a dog's back.

On gray days it's important to get all ones ducks in a row.

And, speaking of "walking the dog":

Tricia at Out Walking the Dog, has a doozy of post from a winter visit to Cape Cod, and a spectacular photographed encounter with a red fox.

http://outwalkingthedog.wordpress.com/2015/01/04/red-fox-cape-cod-in-winter/

Early Birds Flap, Late Shift Wrap

Don't be fooled. it's really cold. End of a stealth Noreasterly
for Upwind Mike - last off the water at CIB.

 This was a day to leave the bike in the basement and or the garage and get out the wind-powered water bike. Just too cold and windy for two wheels. So we try to outrun the wind, on the water while it's still not frozen.

 Upwind Mike rolls up his 5.8 at the end of the CIB late shift. The early birds of dawn definitely got the worm. And everybody enjoyed the balmy 35 F temperatures and 25 mph winds -- well maybe more like 13-20 at the end of the afternoon.

Jeannie outlasted her Psycho which got binned.

Jeannie was here. Pity the sail that can't
stand up to the thrashing Miss J dishes out.

 Thanks goodness there are better materials that monofilm these days. Nice and stiff material for  foil that flexes in all the right places, but the UV and scratches really take a toll.

 That's not to say that folk shouldn't sail what they want: in large sails mono = lightness and responsiveness -- so of course not. Come to think of it, I still also have a few monofilm Gaastras that keep on ticking, too. great sails (I've never ridden a Gaastra sail I didn't like.)

 But I do have a garage-full of busted monofilm rigs from the 1990s and early 2000s. Only buying lightweight scrim and such like from now on. 2nd-hand at that.

Lazy Saturday BBQ Pulled Pork Butt

The all-important internal temperature gradient chart. When
you start out, the internal temperature is going to be shockingly
low for a couple of hours. If you didn't know better you'd think
nothing was going on. It takes a while. Not New York time,
but something more suited to a lazy afternoon. 

Low and slow is what it's all about, and right now, I'm er stuck on slow. Getting that internal meat temperature up to 160 then eventually, 195 looks like it's going to take half the night.

But then, I began at 12:30, so I knew I was in for about an 11-hour barbecue smoke-fest. And that's what my shirt and T-shirt and jacket smell of—smoke.

The chart (right) has proven to be more or less in line with what's taking place.

Right now the meat is at 163 F in the thickest part of the meat and 152 in the thinner end of the pork butt. My goal is 165 before I take it out and wrap it in aluminum foil for the final tenderization.

You will end up night cooking. A foil 'floor' (decorated
with cooking juices), and a two-piece vertical foil dam, help
shield the meat from direct heat, sort of ... converting the
humble Weber kettle into something akin to a smoker.

Modern technology is allowing me to stay indoors, monitor the temperatures using a Weber 6741 Dual Probe Wireless Thermometer. I'm venturing out every hour or two to baste the pork butt with a mopping sauce of: 

1/3 cup rubbing spices, 4 oz cider vinegar, 4 oz vegetable oil, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tbs worcestershire sauce, 1 tbs soy sauce, and 8 oz. or so of water. 

Another useful guide to cooking time and
temperature, from SmokingMeatForums. 

Periodically tossing on some hickory chips onto the coals. But they're not just hickory chips, they're doused in a mix of water and Buffalo Trace bourbon. Not to much of course, I don't want hyper-inflammable chips, of course. 

If I'd had more time I might have set up another (new) probe for the ambient temperature, but didn't want to get bogged down in setting up a new device, however, for now I am using an old fashioned standup dial inside the grill to get the grid temp. At one point, while I was walking the dog of course, the heat turbo'd up to 325, but for the most part I've kept it in the 200 - 250 range. 

RUBBING START

To start out, I put dry rub right on the meat (after removing most, but not all, excess fat), but ... I forgot the mustard. No problem, after it smoked for 20 minutes, I squirted on some Grey Poupon, slathered it over the meat on both sides and shook on a good dose of dry rub to cover the entire butt (a mix of PickyPig and Stubbs to give it some variety).

In a couple of places that corresponded with where I held the meat with the tongs, I lost the rub bark. What to do?  I made a thick "repair paste" of dry rub mixed with mustard, and spackled it back on. Within an hour it looked just the same as the rest of the bark.

Today was the first time I used a Lodge coal funnel to get the coals going. They were ready in no time. Too soon, in fact. I wasn't ready. I used paper towel soaked with vegetable oil as my firestarter. A bit nasty-smoky but better than lighter fluid by a million miles.

Another person's recommendation of 13 coals for the indirect heat source turned out to be inadequate...maybe because it's 36 F outside? Maybe because it's a Weber kettle. I'm not sure. My 1/4 bag of charcoal was finished sooner than I expected, so I went back to my local hardware store, picked up a bag of better quality hardwood charcoal.

This one has now had about 7 hours of smoke.
As the hours of darkness roll on, I may take this inside to the oven to finish the last 30 or so degrees to fully tenderize [although my goal was 195 - I sailed it to 197 and 203]. There were a couple of stalls in temperature, so I am not expecting a competition winning butt, this time out.]

Tomorrow the sauce. A mix of Stubb's sweet and heat added for depth, and the following with some improv variations as the base:

2 cups ketchup

1 cup dark agave syrup

1/2 cup spicy brown mustard

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons garlic salt

2 tablespoons paprika (or 1 tablespoon smoked paprika)

1 tablespoon ground mustard

1 tablespoon onion powder

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons hot cayenne pepper sauce [Tar Heels Cayenne Hot Sauce]

Sauce based on: http://www.sogoodblog.com/2014/04/20/incredible-pulled-pork-bbq-sauce-recipe-authentic-fresh/#ixzz3KW22Vghw

RESOURCES
http://howtobbqright.com/pulledporkrecipe.html

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/49593/pork-butt-cooking-time

I'm not using an Egg, but for a quicker finish in case of time issues, there are a few tips here:
http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1150356/pork-butt-what-is-your-grid-temp-of-choice

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/447582

How to set a probe for ambient temperature without a clip:
http://amazingribs.com/BBQ_buyers_guide/thermometer_buying_guide.html

Some thermometer science
http://amazingribs.com/BBQ_buyers_guide/thermometer_buying_guide.html

http://killerhogs.com/thebbqrub