April 28, 2004. It's Friday morning and for the first time in quite a while I really got a very good nights sleep. I feel much more relaxed now that the doors are officially closed. It is truly a relief. With all the emails I have received from mostly folks from The BBQ Forum telling me how much respect they still have for me knowing how hard I tried has really done a lot for me in a most positive manner. As mentioned below I failed but I don't feel like a failure.
Now that I don't have to cook I want to! I really have the urge to fire up my old cheapie offset smoker and sit there playing with the fire and watching the temps all night long...just sitting there by myself could be just fine! I've already mentioned to Tommy that we ought to begin thinking about a July 4th party on the "river". His son has planned to bring several of his friends from where he lives on the NC coast to the mountains to camp out at Tommy's in August. I'll guarantee you I will have cooked for many other friends before then back up in Franklin, NC where I will move back to. I can't believe how badly I want to bbq. It must be because I have taken the commercial aspect out of the hobby. Also reading the posts on the forum have something to do with it. For the first time ever I am having another urge...that is to maybe try bbq competitions. That must idea definitely come from reading the bbq forums.
There is a chance that I may re-open in Franklin, NC but not as a sole source as income. Perhaps for a few certain days and hours a week. We'll be consistent on the open times. But this is just a big maybe. If I just do some smoking and grilling for some friends that will probably fill that need!
I feel pretty darn good overall and am really looking forward to getting back into the real mountains /\^/\ of NC. These, /\^/\, are mountains...remember that Paul? Paul, a friend since my mid 20's, created that when we were running ham radio bbs' in Scaly Mountain, NC, where I lived in the mid 80's.
April 28, 2004. Well I did it today, I didn't open, Cap'n Pete's BBQ is officially closed. I took a trip to my friends where I'll be moving back to in Franklin, NC to discuss a plan for closing down.
Funny how so many people can see that small for sale sign I have put up on the trailer, well it is fluorescent orange! I've had several calls about it today alone. My nearest competition is also interested. Probably I am going to put it on eBay doing a couple of 10 day periods. If after a month or so it isn't sold then I'll consider giving it to the local realtor.
My sailboat was sold in 6 months on eBay and that was before they had the "Buy it now". I never expected any bids and never got any but it got her out there for people all over the world to see and received about 3000 hits each time. It usually takes 1 to 2 years or more to sale a boat through a broker, especially a boat like I had. Usually only cruising sailors are about the only ones that might know how to hoist and set the sails of a "gaffer", a traditional rig. Cruising sailors never sail to weather if it can be helped, they'll wait it out if necessary. A cruising gaffer doesn't sail very close to the wind but they'll give a darn good race to any boat of her size and longer (usually the longer the sailboats waterline the faster her maximum speed) when sailing at any point off the wind, and I've proven it. So you weekend sailors in your plastic boats watch out for what you may think may be a sluggish clunker. Most weekenders begin to reduce sail after 15-18 knots, "Norrona" just begins to do her best with full working rig at 20-25 knots, that's the jib, staysail, main, and mizzen...nothing reefed! How did I get off on writing about sailing? Oh well it felt good and made me smile, something I need to do more of now!
There are many mixed emotions about closing down at this time but visiting with friend JOe and his wife helped a lot. We took a trip to visit their son and eat at a huge fantastic Chinese buffet in Ashville. I failed but I am not really sure if I feel like a failure. I made to many mistakes and have, with out a doubt, learned from them. I don't think I'll ever try the food service again but if you want any info about how not to open up a new bbq business, I can help you! I think I'll use what I know about other things and enhance them and stay away from entirely new ways of making a living.
I'm ready right now to smoke and grill for 24 hours straight, if necessary, and love it, for my friends or free for a fund raiser. And no beer necessary...well...maybe 2 beers.
April 24, 2004. Wednesday, which is supposed to be the slowest, was the best. Today was $80 giving a weekly gross of a bit over $300. Better than the last several weeks!
There is enough food and supplies to open at least Wednesday...I'll keep on going until there isn't anything more to sell. If Wednesday is a "killer" day I might have to make a run to Sam's for a few items. We'll see.
April 23, 2004. Yesterday was $67 and today $76! Not good that's for sure. Well folks I thinks it's about time to pack it in. I have to, the bills dictate that. I appreciate everybody's help but it wasn't really enough. I have put a for sale sign on the front of the trailer. Basically it reads $35,000 for trailer and/or business. All equipment included. The landlord said I can leave it on the property for a while until it is sold or until he needs the land.
I'll continue out the rest of this week and may open next week for a day, 2 days, or whatever. I'm not done yet but I think I'm finished! I really do think there is a potential here but I hate to go further and further into debt. What this business needs is someone younger and preferable a husband and wife team. Physically I am to much out of shape and feeling my age...by the way I'm 60 today. I'll head back to Franklin, NC and hopefully things can turn out better there...if I do any bbq again it'll be low key, very low key. I am sure of one thing...I won't go back on the road. Maybe I'll pursue my sauce on the Internet and even my Brunswick Stew frozen for the local mountain people.
Something I have started is writing about driving! I haven't seen to many books about it and I use to write out loud, if you will, while I drove those few millions of miles. I don't know if I can write a whole book about it but I might try. I have only started and have it on this computer as an html page. Perhaps I'll try to write a bit more and make it available to the public on my web page somewhere. I thought about when it really becomes long enough to be interesting I'll throw a PayPal donation link on it! I have thought that if the children could learn certain things that they could helpful to whomever they are riding with, such as "Mommy you are staying in the trucks blind area" or Mommy don't stay next to that truck, something might break off of it". It could be like an additional set of eyes driving while Mommy is thinking about what to buy for dinner and not thinking about driving down the highway at 65 MPH. Most parents want to be a good role model and if the kids says your doing something wrong, like speeding, perhaps they'll slow down. It amazes me how fast everyone is driving and how so many drivers have moved to driving the left lane on a multi-lane highway like no one is driving faster then they! I could go on and on so I'll just save it for my "book"!
I'll continue to keep writing about whatever until I see the page counter dwindling. I really do enjoy writing and I know that I don't remember how to properly construct sentences anymore. Thank goodness for the spell checker!
I am truly sorry if I have let any of you down...I tried!
April 21, 2004. It's about 1 PM and had a nice lunch run of a little over $50.
It is now after closing. Not bad for a Wednesday...$90. I better not make any predictions, I don't want to jinx myself! More comments tomorrow or? I am feeling mixed emotions.
April 17, 2004. $67 today, all day, $267 gross this week! And Tommy just came back from his NC trip a few minutes ago and said when he passed a bbq place in Toccoa, about 20 minutes from here, he said they were packed! I'll open next week to accumulate funds to close!
April 16, 2004. Perhaps that slump has passed. Today was closer to what I was getting so excided about many weeks ago. Took in $125! It was a bit different then all the Fridays I can remember for the fact that it was more of almost a steady, but slow, trickle all day long, more like what I expect out of Saturday. But that trickle is what I'd like to have but just about 2 to 3 times as much. I am seeing more and more return customers besides still many or mostly new ones. They keep telling me I have the best bbq in the area but I really think they're just being nice.
Today was an extremely busy day for me preparing various things for next week. I am proud of how beautiful the pulled pork looks today. If I didn't have the FE100 that cooks by itself all night I am not sure how I could do it....but they say if there is a will there is a way! I'm absolutely exhausted!
One thing I must mention again...if it weren't for those handful of people that sent me checks, cash, and PayPal's for whatever your reasons, as you explained, I would really be in a serious way this very moment. I thank you all very much and I expect for you to identify yourselves should we meet in person at my bbq or somewhere else.
One case of 16 ounce bbq sauces bottled today! I'll be shipping soon to those that I have received orders for, which were really a bit premature. When the sauce web page is complete I'll mention it here and on that page, as well.
April 15, 2004. It seemed like a dull day but I guess it wasn't so terrible for a Thursday. Grossed $82!
The owner of the flashing arrow sign I have been renting came by to pick up his sign as I had requested due to low funds. He gave me a deal to keep it another month. He said he wouldn't make anything with it sitting on his lot and had no takers for it at this time.
Paid the water bill today...that's the only one I like...it's always $11.55! Still owe the lot rent and the garbage pick up. Then I'll be caught up for right now. Hopefully I'll make that tomorrow and Saturday.
The smoker has 8 butts in it right now which usually would last me into or through next week as things are going. Also there is a batch of sauce I made today. This batch may wind up being those that have or want to order some. Have enough stew for this week and almost enough ingredients for another batch next week.
April 14, 2004. It's 4 PM and there has been 1 customer during the lunch hour, $5.35!
Have closed down for the day....was hoping for a better day but it is Wednesday and traditionally for me it has been probably the slowest day of any week, even if it was a good week. But today a new record was broken...grand total today was $5.35. Believe it or not it doesn't really have me down, at least not yet. It will if the rest of the week is poor. But I'll hang in there, so many of you have encouraged me to do so. As long as I can eat I'll continue.
Today the UPS driver delivered a UPS merchant packet. It was to early for him to eat and to early for me to be ready but he did make a comment...he did say he heard the bbq was really good.
One of you did a lot of homework last week trying to help me. One thing he researched was the population of Cornelia and mentioned it was 3 or 4 thousand and having 2 McDonald's. One of the McDonald's is in the Wal-Mart where the menu is limited, they don't even offer the Quarter Pounder! The population of Cornelia itself is not a fair calculation, I don't think. The county is about 35,000 and many people from 3 other surrounding counties shop the Wal-Mart. However I have the feeling that the normal economy may very well be a down fall. By the way, the main McDonald's is one of the 22 in the country that is a test full service restaurant, even with waitresses! I believe they prepare things like meat loaf, perhaps steaks, I'm not sure but I recall reading about it in the local newspaper. If I go there it is through the drive through for a quick sandwich.
There have been some orders for my sauce...please understand that it may be weeks before I can ship. Tommy didn't give me much warning on his order and it was all I could so in the 2 days he gave me to put his together and me be prepared to open Today. I was actually behind and made the beans and rubbed and smoked the ribs today instead of letting the ribs sit overnight. Now I need to make another batch of sauce which I started this afternoon. Hopefully I'll be able to make a 35 jar batch of sauce for shipping my next weekend.
April 13, 2004. Yesterday was a trip to Sam's Club and PFG Milton's. For the first time I bought 2 cases of butts, a total of 16 butts, 123.9 pounds @ $1.02/lb. Usually I buy 1 small case in the 55 pound area. Also I purchased at Milton's a case of Kansas City Style ribs. As usual I keep half, or 8 ribs in the freezer. Friend Tommy has increased the 11 pounds of pulled pork and 1 case of bbq sauce to 20 pounds and 2 cases! He paid me in advance.
Before Tommy's check I had $455 in the bank from last week and after the shopping trip and paying the county for my food license there was $17 left! But wait there's more....Tommy paid me in advance, $238.50, he still owes me $6, and I have received an order for 2 racks of ribs, 4 jars of sauce, and an anonymous gift in the mail which totals another $101.37. So my bank account and PayPal accounts are making things look very feasible to probably get caught up by the end of this week or next week if the "bbq draught" has passed. The help I received from The BBQ Forum folks helped to get me over the edge and took away some of the stress.
I mentioned that Tommy still owes me $6. What happened was when I went to buy the Mason jars I couldn't find any 12 ounce jars, only 8, 16, and 32 ounce. Well that isn't quite true...I did find a 12 ounce Mason jar that is quilted and cost considerably more. So I have changed everything to 16 ounces on my web site and to Tommy. The price for shipping isn't cheap because of the weight of the jar but I'd rather use the jars and the buyer will able to reuse it when emptied. Believe it or not our Ace Hardware gift center price was about 5% more inexpensive than Wal-Mart!
It's still morning and the sauce is just about done so I can begin bottling them soon. Last night I put the large case, 8 butts at 68 pounds, into the FE100 pellet smoker. One of the butts already hit 190*F, it has been removed, pulled, and packaged. It's about 1 hour 20 minutes later and it looks like several more are at temp. I'll stir the sauce and pull out more butts. Looks like a busy day off!
April 10, 2004. It's 3:30 Saturday afternoon. I have done $238 today. I am out of ribs, beans, and have enough pork for 2 more sandwiches! And my back is aching a bit! That figure is the best ever for a day but it may have to do with you folks on the BBQ Forum. Charlie, an avid competition bbq-er and forum reader sent me an email that I read early this morning. He said he was coming by about 1 PM and requested, 2 quarts of stew, 2 pounds of pork, and 3 racks of ribs! I emailed him back with my phone number to make sure he was in fact really coming here and wanted that much. I only had 4 and 1/2 racks and wanted to know if I should save his 3. I never heard from him because he had already left his home and arrived here at 2 PM in his new sports car. He wanted to test it out was one of his reasons to make this long trek. He did in fact buy all he requested plus a sandwich and cup of tea, his final bill with tax was $84.10, he paid with cash! We had a very enjoyable visit. He closed the joint with me and then headed back to Cartersville, GA. Thanks Charlie is was my pleasure for sure!
My friend Tommy has an order to take with him to eastern North Carolina this Tuesday, to visit with his son and baby grandson, of 11 pounds of pork and 1 dozen 12 ounce jars of bbq sauce!
So I guess I'll be able to make it another week after paying for the food license. I'll do some figuring and try to post it here asap.
The new bbq sauce page is running but really not complete, I want to add a real shipping cost per zip codes instead of the same shipping whether you're 10 miles or 3000 miles from here. JOe and I are reading through the USPS instructions. Right now I might be a little light for shipping along with handling if I needed to send a jar to the "left side", the west coast. The jars are quite heavy so I'll continue to look at lighter containers which are a bit more costly but might come out better. If I can I'd rather stick with the Mason Jars.
Already one of you from IL purchased a jar. He sent me an email and requested that I don't send it to him because he will pick it up. He stated that the next time he comes to GA is when he'll come by...he says he usually gets to GA about once every 10 years! Thank you very much John but I'd really like you to have the sauce! I'll get it to you when possible.
April 9, 2004. Have a slight problem on this page. My friend JOe did some editing for me and didn't bring this page up to date. I updated what he did which is, if you look closely under my picture, the ? link. It is the beginning of the bbq sauce page. He forgot to update this page and I over wrote my files from the web host server!
I hope you all read what I wrote about what I found on the BBQ Forum about me. Briefly I really appreciate how many of you all are coming together as a community to help a fraternity brother. I am not sure I should except anything from you all though. If you aren't familiar with the post on the forum the beginning link for the thread is here. I'll try to make some detailed comments soon, however there is one poster that has posted now and before that he thinks I shouldn't have the time to write this journal. It certainly doesn't take long and this is my time for relaxation and final thoughts of the day. Also, unfortunately, I have to much time between customers just waiting and trying to stay busy. I really want to write what I think of his posts but I'd better not!
Today was $148...sold quite a bit of ribs and looks like things are back to where they were before about 3 or 4 weeks ago when the weather turned warm. This is Easter weekend so tomorrow could go anywhere. I had really been deciding to make Saturday the last day...I'm about 90 percent thinking that way, so there is enough room left to decide otherwise. It has some to do with how much money there is to restock and pay some of the necessary bills such as the food license ($125) must get paid Monday at the absolute latest.
April 2, 2004. One hundred dollars today...maybe it's coming back. Had a few today that I hadn't seen in a few weeks one was the landlord. I left him a message several days ago explaining my cash flow problems. He told me today that he wasn't making anything on the property before me. He's telling me to not worry about his rent and to pay the other things that are mounting up. He is really the best today and all along as you might have read way down the page...remember the $300 of gravel he paid for? He spent $22 tonight on bbq.
There are the last of the butts in the smoker as of about 6 PM. They'll be ready sometime in the late morning. Still have half a case of frozen Kansas City style spare ribs and about 3 cooked racks too. The Health dept. has informed me that I probably can pay them in a week or maybe even a bit more. The phone bill is over due by a few days and the bank note comes up on the 5th. I probably will be able to pay those but then I know I need some things food wise for next week. I probably will need to by a chuck roll, about $50, and chicken, about $15, for the Brunswick Stew. I have plenty of the staples and should have enough pork. I just made a new batch of bbq sauce yesterday.
Still have to play it day by day and hope I make the right decisions of what to do next.
Monday morning I have an special request appointment with the VA outpatient clinic for something to help me sleep. I can get to sleep okay but then awaken 2-4 hours later and it takes 2-3 hour to get back to sleep. It's the stress I'm sure, I just can't stop thinking hard and fall back asleep.
April 1, 2004, Evening. Did $90 today...much better but I ain't counting any chickens yet!
Spoke to the mother of Mitch and about his bad check...she said to just redeposit the check and it'll clear and yes he did use his fathers checks!
April 1, 2004. Had 3 customers yesterday, total income about $35! Well I guess things are constant now doing that much about everyday lately. But that isn't quite enough to pay for the overhead.
Last Saturday my friend Tommy called and said he was coming by for a late lunch with some friends that dropped by to visit with him. It was, Mitch, the son of a man that Tommy used to work for some years ago. I had met him a couple of times long ago. Today I received a bounced check
back from the bank of Mitch's! Wonderful...just what I need. The only good thing is that it was only for $11.24. If you recall I am existing on those kinds of funds. Tommy was also upset that Mitch would have done such a thing, however Tommy noted that he knew he was pretty much a deadbeat and often lived off his father. I
guess Mitch is in his upper 20's. Mitch showed up unannounced at Tommy's house just when he was on his way out to come eat at my place. When I looked at his check for the phone number I noticed that it was John and not Mitch's check and Tommy said the address on the check was in fact Mitch's fathers. It
appears Mitch forged the check! I called the number on the check but haven't gotten an answer nor a response from my message yet. John is now an over the road truck driver and his wife is presently in Florida so it may be a while before I hear from anybody. Since they bank at a branch of my bank, which
is in Gainesville, 25 miles south, I may ask for a signature check and proceed from there if I don't hear from someone soon. I'll call each morning and evening for several days before I do that. This really bothers me!