Well, it's been quite the weekend (maybe I tried to run before I could walk), but the results are definitely worth it.
I started a 6# beef clod and a 7# pork but at 9:45 on Sun. morning, expecting the beef to be done by 4-5 PM. I started with a firebox practically full of briquets which I lit via the Minion method. I was fully expecting that much charcoal to be enough ...
We ate pizza Sun. night :-)
My biggest problem was maintaining the heat in the smoker. About 1PM the temp started droppping. There still seemed to be enough coals so I tried stirring them and cleaning out some of the ash beneath them (unsuccessfully due to the lack of space beneath the grating) By 1:30 the temp had dropped to 175 so I fired up some coals in my chimney and added them around 2PM. Since I failed to adequately clear the ashes, the temp never rose above 225 and a couple hours later, it started to drop again. I got into this cycle where I was clearing out the ashes from in front of the vent and trying to scrape them out from beneath the grate with a gardern shovel only to wind up adding more coals. Meanwhile the meat temp is hovering around 140 (the pork was closer to the firebox and seemed to be receiving more heat despite my baffle, so it was consistenetly 10* warmer than the beef)
Finally, around 2:30 AM, I caved in, filled the firebox with coals, lit them and went to bed.
At 6:30 I got up and found the pork had risen to 170* (yay!). The beef was still at 145 (boo). I made a fresh attempt to clear the ashes, this time using a fireplace poker to reach the back of the firebox through the vent. Lit some more charcoal and added itm and now the temp easily rises above 250 upon which I close the vent and get it back down to 225-230. This is more like it! A couple hours later the pork hits 180, so I foil it and put it in the cooler. I moved the beed over to where the pork was and get the heat up again. A couple hours later, we decide to pull the pork, which had a nice thick coating of bark (I used the Mr. Brown dry rub). It practically fell apart. Got the neighbors over to try it and everyone loved it!
The beef is still going, but it finally hits 180 at 2:30 PM (I opened the vent and got the temp up to 240 - I was losing patience). It really felt tender when I took it off. We'll be slicing it soon to sample it ... hmmm - delicious, but it tastes a little like ham... It didn't really slice too well, I probably should have taken it out sooner, maybe at 165?
Anyways, thanks for everyone's help. There's definitely some lessons learned ...
Bob