Allnight03
Knows what a fatty is.
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2014
- Location
- Suumerville, SC
Picked up my new Shirley last Monday. I got the 50 x 24 patio model. I tried to write this up just after I loaded her up early on the fourth, but I had a hard time uploading pictures from my phone so let me try to rewrite this.
We left our house in SC at 03:00 Monday morning. I took my wife and two year old son. Our first stop was the Children's Hands On Museum in Tuscaloosa. We then had to go to Fayette (about 45 minutes up the road) to pick up a u-haul trailer, and then we made our way back to the Shirley's. Paul wasn't there as he was working an outage at the refinery, but I had the pleasure of meeting Tyler, Cody, Ross, and of course, Mrs. Sharon. Paul had them boys working!! They were covered in dirt and sweating like they just ran a marathon. They all dropped what they were doing to help me get the pit loaded. Mrs. Shirley came out and we all just talked for about an hour. It was like we had known them for years. Everthing you read on here about how nice they are is 100% true. The Shirley's have done a fine job raising their young men. Mrs. Shirley even told them to throw in a poker and gave me an extra can of high temp paint. My wife loved the guys and thought Ross was cute as a button. I told Paul that I was lucky we didn't live closer to them.
I reached out to another pit builder about a week before I contacted Paul and still haven't gotten a reply. The reason I initially reached out to the other fabricator is because they're about 4 hours closer than Tuscaloosa. Paul definitely over delivered on his end. From taking the time to talk on the phone on a weekly basis to his emails and texts and throwing in all kinds of extras that we didn't even discuss. He really is a great guy to do business with and someone that I would love to stay in touch with. To make a long story short, I know I made the right decision by not following up with the other builder.
From the Shirley's we hit Dreamland and then headed home. Got back home at 02:00 Tuesday morning. We originally planned to spend the night, but we sold our house last week and had plans with a realtor to house hunt Tuesday-Thursday. I did a low temp seasoning on Tuesday night to set the paint. This is my first stick burner so I was a little cautious on keeping the temp low. I started with a lit chimney and 4 splits. The temp was at 200f in 40 minutes. After that, I threw a split on about every hour and kept the damper about 10% open and held 200f for about four hours. I'm used to my WSM and this pit is just as easy as keeping at temp. Wednesday night I fired it up again to learn how to get the temps up. I had her up to 300f in about an hour and once there, it stayed there like a champ.
On the fourth, we had about 40 people come over. I did four pork butts, two packers, and seven racks of st louis ribs. This is by far the most I have cooked at one time. I fired up the pit at 03:30 Friday morning and had the butts and briskets on at 04:30 and was running at 240f. At 09:30, the ribs went on and I wrapped the butts and briskets in bp. I didn't have any thermometers. My wireless probe gave out and my Taylor pen broke. First cook that I have done without monitoring internal temps. Not a huge deal, but I do like to know where I'm at. It didn't change anything, I always pull the puts when the bone gets loose and the briskets when they probe like butter and the bend test for ribs. Everyone raved about the meat. It turned out to be way too much food and I knew I'd have left overs, but didn't want to get caught short. I'll do better next time with planning.
Aside from the food, everyone was amazed by the new pit. I'm telling you, the Shirley's put together some beautiful work. I still can't believe it's in my yard. The welds, cuts, and precision is amazing. The funniest thing was when someone came over to see it, I told them go ahead and open it - they would try with one hand to lift the door and say a cuss word and then grab it with the other hand to finish opening it.
After the trip, house hunting, playing the pit every night last week, I think I averaged around 4 hours of sleep per night. I had to come back to work just to get some downtime!
Here are some pictures from last week and I must say if you're looking for a new pit, give Paul a call. I'm telling you he will treat you right and you won't regret it.
We left our house in SC at 03:00 Monday morning. I took my wife and two year old son. Our first stop was the Children's Hands On Museum in Tuscaloosa. We then had to go to Fayette (about 45 minutes up the road) to pick up a u-haul trailer, and then we made our way back to the Shirley's. Paul wasn't there as he was working an outage at the refinery, but I had the pleasure of meeting Tyler, Cody, Ross, and of course, Mrs. Sharon. Paul had them boys working!! They were covered in dirt and sweating like they just ran a marathon. They all dropped what they were doing to help me get the pit loaded. Mrs. Shirley came out and we all just talked for about an hour. It was like we had known them for years. Everthing you read on here about how nice they are is 100% true. The Shirley's have done a fine job raising their young men. Mrs. Shirley even told them to throw in a poker and gave me an extra can of high temp paint. My wife loved the guys and thought Ross was cute as a button. I told Paul that I was lucky we didn't live closer to them.
I reached out to another pit builder about a week before I contacted Paul and still haven't gotten a reply. The reason I initially reached out to the other fabricator is because they're about 4 hours closer than Tuscaloosa. Paul definitely over delivered on his end. From taking the time to talk on the phone on a weekly basis to his emails and texts and throwing in all kinds of extras that we didn't even discuss. He really is a great guy to do business with and someone that I would love to stay in touch with. To make a long story short, I know I made the right decision by not following up with the other builder.
From the Shirley's we hit Dreamland and then headed home. Got back home at 02:00 Tuesday morning. We originally planned to spend the night, but we sold our house last week and had plans with a realtor to house hunt Tuesday-Thursday. I did a low temp seasoning on Tuesday night to set the paint. This is my first stick burner so I was a little cautious on keeping the temp low. I started with a lit chimney and 4 splits. The temp was at 200f in 40 minutes. After that, I threw a split on about every hour and kept the damper about 10% open and held 200f for about four hours. I'm used to my WSM and this pit is just as easy as keeping at temp. Wednesday night I fired it up again to learn how to get the temps up. I had her up to 300f in about an hour and once there, it stayed there like a champ.
On the fourth, we had about 40 people come over. I did four pork butts, two packers, and seven racks of st louis ribs. This is by far the most I have cooked at one time. I fired up the pit at 03:30 Friday morning and had the butts and briskets on at 04:30 and was running at 240f. At 09:30, the ribs went on and I wrapped the butts and briskets in bp. I didn't have any thermometers. My wireless probe gave out and my Taylor pen broke. First cook that I have done without monitoring internal temps. Not a huge deal, but I do like to know where I'm at. It didn't change anything, I always pull the puts when the bone gets loose and the briskets when they probe like butter and the bend test for ribs. Everyone raved about the meat. It turned out to be way too much food and I knew I'd have left overs, but didn't want to get caught short. I'll do better next time with planning.
Aside from the food, everyone was amazed by the new pit. I'm telling you, the Shirley's put together some beautiful work. I still can't believe it's in my yard. The welds, cuts, and precision is amazing. The funniest thing was when someone came over to see it, I told them go ahead and open it - they would try with one hand to lift the door and say a cuss word and then grab it with the other hand to finish opening it.
After the trip, house hunting, playing the pit every night last week, I think I averaged around 4 hours of sleep per night. I had to come back to work just to get some downtime!
Here are some pictures from last week and I must say if you're looking for a new pit, give Paul a call. I'm telling you he will treat you right and you won't regret it.
