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Three day weekend this week. Monday is Patriot's Day in MA. A state holiday.

Sister-in-law and niece flew in on Thus night to visit her Mom. My Son and I gonna head down (about an hour away) and pay a visit. Prolly have some lunch with them and make it up as we go.

Other than that, no major plans for the weekend. Do some house cleaning and cooking. If it's nice outside we'll put together the fire pit and burn some wood. At work we have plenty of scrap wood for the taking. Either solid oak, furniture grade plywood in oak or Baltic birch. I don't mind burning plywood in an outdoor fire pit. If I had a fireplace or wood stove I'd stick with just the solid oak.

Went up on the back 40 with one of my buddies this morning--spent several hours.

Added corn to the deer feeder, added a "varmint trap" to the dispensing area of the feeder, which is basically some wire fencing to keep the raccoons out.

Checked the trail cam-- lots of deer activity on there.

Then cut across the the property toward the western boundary, where the other creek I own is located. It's a feeder creek that runs into the bigger creek that I live along. It's a beautiful forested cove with rhododendron growing along the banks...

While there my buddy wanted to hunt for some Morrell Mushrooms. Didn't find any but he found a patch of "ramps". They are a wild edible that only grows in the Appalachian Mountains. They smell like a wild onion to me, but from what I'm told they are like a mix between a green onion and garlic. They do smell great. We dug a bunch of them and I kept maybe 1/3 of what we gathered, he took the rest.

Finally, I replaced 3 posted signs on the western end that were damaged, or blown away, by the wind from the storm a couple days ago.

Sunny and mid 60's here today. Think I'm going to relax for a while.

That's the report. Enjoy your weekend!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and nice smoking weather.
Windy and cool not smoking weather here, at the shpo for an event tho
Smoke em if you got em

Have a Blessed Day my Brothers ☀️ Mosquito and flying insect weather is firmly settled in here. Smoking cigars will not be as enjoyable. Next comes the heat which dang near puts the smoking lamp out for me…almost.

^Speaking of which... my lanai project starts next week sometime. They called to tell me the materials were in and the project would start as soon as they finish their current project.

Screens will be removed, and windows and insulated aluminum panels will replace it, along with sealing all the edges much better than they are now... which is not sealed at all. Soooo... my lanai will effectively be an air conditioned sun room. So the insects, heat and humidity can kiss my arse.

Butts bogo $3lb so $1.50/lb not great but worth grabbing a pair.

Threw em on at noon for an overnight smoke. Coworkers keep asking when I'm bringing in some bbq. Monday.

Awesome. I’ve got dreams of doing a similar thing on the back deck. I’ve got $500 each month I’m setting aside for it. About $11k stacked up now. I think next year the dream will develop into a plan.

CS at the high place down by ded is awesome.

They screwed up, let me keep their screwup and are shipping the right stuff out.

Been buying a lot from tenski and well, you get what you paid for.

^

Has the Tenski Place went downhill?

I think somebody else on here mentioned that.

I haven't ordered from them since early January...

Good Saturday Afternoon to All! Had a fun day at the Red. White and Blue range in Tennile. GA.

Mrs Gene came in third, I was ninth. The wind was shifty and strong.

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Definitely gone downhill in the past few months. But I can't pass on their pricing. I buy where the best deals are.

Last year they accidentally shipped me some Padrons instead of a sampler thing I ordered. I called, they said keep the Padrons and sent me the sampler.

I had another screwup on some Fuente mag44's in early January, they had me keep the bigger ones and reshipped the 44s.

Then I got a box of moldy Epernays, called and they wanted pictures. Emailed pictures. Then took several days to get back to me, they said they're out of stock and can't replace and they'd refund me once I shipped them back. Problem is I used a $30 coupon on them and they wouldn't replace the coupon. I called back and said hey there's another close size, $7 more can we just exchange for that? Nope, it's $7 more. I said I will pay you $7. She said they can't do that. I said the 5 packs still show in stock can you just exchange for 4xfivers? nope. Fine send the damn return label. They emailed me a link to a return label UPS said was invalid. Emailed saying that the label they sent was invalid. They told me to give it a week and it should become valid. Week passes, still no work. Called again, went over the whole thing. I said I want the $30 coupon, I want the cigars I ordered in not moldy condition this shipping back thing is ridiculous, why can't I pay the $7 difference and get the other size? This person said oh no problem, emailed me a return label pdf and once I returned the moldy chit they shipped the other size.

I ordered La Colmenas, came in a box without any kind of packing pillows, bubble wrap, nothing but a fiver of Colmena and a fiver of something else. Those brittle ass la colmenas were destroyed. Same story. Call, need pictures, send email, week goes by, need to ship them back before they'll replace. I suggested I pay double the fiver and they ship me a box (same price box or fiver on sale) they said no and would reship the fiver. Waiting on those to come, probably gonna be another return shipment.

I've had several boxes come with no packing material. I've had fiver bags come with a boveda in the box, but not in the bag.

Emails are often not replied to, or it takes a week to get a response. If you call in the middle of the day (the only time I can now at new job is on lunch break) it rings and rings then voicemail that doesn't take messages. But the return everything before replacement is bullchit. It's on them, they can certainly ask that I return the defective item but to make me wait until that's returned before they reship is ridiculous.

^

Damn. Thanks for the heads up. Tenski and the other auction place are the only places I ordered from last yr.

I know about the Arizona place, but have never tried them. I quit with the MB3 place yrs ago bc of pricing and lack of selection.

So idk where I'm going to place the bulk of my orders once I start buying again.

Keep us posted on the Tenski Place. Hope they go back to being reliable.

^ I'd PM Celtic. He's the customer support agent for many online cigar sellers. He can work wonders.

under the weather since Thu night...flu like symptoms with chills and body aches...no cigars since Wed night...gettin da shakes...

^

Hope you feel better soon Delta.

Make sure to take some vitamin C and drink a lot of water.

My meats got done early.

I refueled around 5pm and they were sitting around 170. I remember that distinctly because I said 170 at 1700. I assumed this would be an overnight smoke having started them at noon. But I also wasn't worrying about temps, letting it sing at 260-270 instead of keeping it low. I haven't seen any real difference between 230-240 and 250-260 so I've been letting my smoker run hotter lately. I just didn't expect to come out at 9pm to see 208 on the meat probe. Pulled the probe and jammed it back in in a few places. One firm spot in one butt but otherwise butter tender everywhere else and a nice firm bark that should soften enough for shredding while resting foil wrapped in a cooler for a couple hours.

Hope you feel better immediately. I’ll say a prayer for you tonight. If you’re not into that, don’t worry - it won’t make it worse 😎

Mornin' dudes...

Morning.

Going on an early, colder than I want, walk in a few minutes.

Couple compelling (for me) soccer games this morning and a vid-chat with our man child.