etc.

Oh, the fun of having a tiny little webcam site.... blah..
Besides the few idiots that visit me and write crap on my guest book. Or the crazy e-mail here and there, I am still here. Still don't know why. But I can't bring myself to pull the plug. After all these years, I just can't do it.

Last post I said I was sick of turkeys. And I still am. But that hasn't stopped my outdoor kitchen from putting out some damn fine food. Just not turkeys...For Christmas, my wife really came through. Lots of goodies for my smoker,and charcole grill. Take tonight. I had a beer can chicken going on my new gas grill. And a rotisserie chicken spinnin' above some kingsford coals on my other grill. I know, sick of turkey, but cooking two chickens at once on two different grills....But man, was it some juicy chicken. Believe I am going to try to do my first brisket soon. I also had a temp. control device (DigiQ DX2) for my smoker under the tree. So I think I will take the plunge and cook what some people say is one of the hardest meats to smoke. We will see.
Was out of town for a few days, but now that I am back I need to catch up at work and then finish my outdoor projects. Lot of storage builds to work on. A pool that still isn't closed all the way, and some garden boxes to build for next summer.
Till next time....
Bks

Too many damn turkeys..

This year I went a little over board. In a short two weeks I have cooked four turkeys. I have feed four groups of people, and I don't believe anyone has left hungry. My neighbors wanted to try my deep fried turkey, and I believe they were very happy with the end product. I also smoked my first turkey this year. And it was really good. The brine was great, and the bird was juicy. BUT, it still doesn't touch a deep fried bird. Now, what to cook for Christmas.........NO MORE TURKEYS THIS YEAR............
I am going to cook for my staff this year. Will have a little Christmas get together for them. But I think I will make this meal a BBQ feast. Pulled pork, baby back ribs, bbq baked beans, baked mac n cheese, rolls, and for the finish................chocolate covered bacon....
And knowing me like I do, a few drinks.......................Just a few.......................
Will write more tonight if I can. I plan to do some changing to this website.
After all these years....
Brian

Too much meat..

Well, The new smoker did come, and I have already put it to go use.
Smoke #1 Was three racks of baby back ribs, and a beer-can-chicken. And that was just the top rack. I could have cooked much more.
Smoke #2 was four, count them, four pork butts. Not sure why they call them butts, but whatever. My daughter had a sleep over with 9 other girls running all over the house, so I hid outdoors over night smoking these 27 + pounds of pork. I started them at 7Pm, and pulled them at 6Am. Let them rest in foil for 1.5 hours, then pulled the pork.
Smoke #3 was a crap load of Atomic Buffalo Turds. And a Fatty. If you don't know what that is you need to look it up! Kinda like a heart attack from just looking at it.
I love this Weber Smokey Mountain. So much better then my old Brinkman (E.C.B.)
"The wife" always makes me feel good when I cook. She says she would rather have my cooking any day then going out to eat.
Weather is a changing, it will be time to close the pool soon. And I have some building projects for the back deck before it gets too bad. Just need to get off my butt and move I guess.
I have added some pictures of my cooking. Hope to add some more beach pictures soon. IF the Outer Banks is fixed up after the storm.. Haven't heard about the section we are going to.
Also hope to have my remote cameras up for this trip.
My guest book doesn't seem to work 95% of the time, and I don't believe I will work hard to fix it. To many damn idiots out there. I just delete most of the bad stuff. No free speech here. Just MY speech. People want to say hi, that's great, people want to talk about my kids, or say things they shouldn't, well, just say goodbye and be on your way.

Brian

Outdoor Cooking..

I love to cook outdoors.
I said, I LOVE to cook outdoors.
I fire up my grill about 3 to 4 times a week. It might be my gas grill, or my Weber charcoal grill, my Brinkmann gourmet smoker (E.C.B.),my deep fryer, or even my tiny little A-MAZE-N smoker. And after someone tasted my pulled pork and placed an order for twenty (20!!!!) pork butts, I might go ahead and order the Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5 inch smoker.Still wont be big enough, but it would add to my outdoor kitchen! Nothing like cooking outdoors...Give me some raw meat, (suck it vegetarians), a beer, and some free time, I am making smoke! Nothing like sitting up for 18 hours or more in the middle of the night with Hickory and Apple smoke in the wind while you smoke 10 to 12 Lbs. of pork.

Tonight is a happy night. The boy and the girl will be going to bed early because the first day of school is in the A.M.! Oh happy days................ It will suck a bit, home work every night, earlier dinners, baths, packing school lunches, etc.. But The WIFE and I will have our Thursdays alone, the kids will be forced to go to bed at an earlier time, ((again), alone time for me and the wife!),
and less BABY SITTER time.. And trust me, that's a good thing.

Anyway, the kids are going to bed now, time for me to say goodnight to them and you.
Happy grilling, till next time!
Brian

Beer and Mead

Trying to get back into the home brewing hobby.. I have managed to brew two batches up, and they are ready to keg.
I spent most of the day a while back to clean a few kegs, beer lines, chest cooler, etc. I kegged up a Mead, and hooked up an old keg of barley wine. But my chest cooler isn't working 100% right now. Only cooling to about 48 degrees. Like most things around here, it needs work.

Grew some great veggies this year. More tomatoes then we need. Lots of different hot peppers, corn, onions, etc. Can't wait till next year, I plan to add more garden space. It was all just a test to see if I could grow stuff, and I think I passed.

ALAIN, send me an email again. I haven't been on top of my e-mail, or website much, and I can't seem to find your address. Wife said she is ready to fly to France! Hope you have room for us all!!

Brian

Happy Independence Day.

We are home. Vacation is over. Life goes back to "normal", what ever that is.
It was a great holiday, and now is the time to plan next years trip.
The wife and I keep talking about somewhere new. Florida keeps pooping up, but I don't know if the kids can take a 14 hour drive. They have a hard time with 10 hours in a car. And that is with toys, two T.V.'s, DVD players, computers, snacks, etc. They still fight and bicker half the time. And that makes me an unhappy driver.
I just want to find a nice family style beach, not to many people, and a place to relax.

So this being the 4th, I will be grilling today.. But then again, I grill more then most people, but it should be the law to grill on the 4th of July!
Will be grilling a Beer Can Chicken today, maybe some grilled potatoes and peppers, corn on the cob, and what ever else sounds good to the family.

Tuesday it's back to work. I am sure I have a lot to catch up on. The wife had to go in today for a few hours to try to get some things done. But that was three hours ago, and she still isn't home. She works far to hard, and I worry she is going to burn out one day. She needs more help from us all..

Sand....Beach.....North Carolina..........

Well, I am not home. But I guess the people that visit my little camera site know that.
I never tell people before I go out of town. You know, security reasons, but I have things buttoned down very well. So here it is, The family and I have hit the beach in the Outer Banks. Tonight will be night two, and so far things are going very well. Not great, but it is VACATION!
I look out the window, and watch the sun rise.Drinking lots of different, great beers, and dig holes in the sand all day long.
I can't add my "remote" cams this vacation, but will try to get one or two running soon. When I do, I will post the addy for those cams. I will use ww.com to broadcast, but if you go to that site, be careful, lots of old, or bald, or old and bald guys on that site doing things I would rather not see. It is never what you would call a family friendly site. But, the camera streaming works welll for what it is. Do get me wrong, a few great people on that site. BUT, few and far between.
To Tim who wrote me on the guest book.
The backyard camera and the living room camera is the same model. It is a very old Picturetel PTZ-1. I found these old cameras on E-bay. They are hard to come by, and harder to find ones that still work. But the picture is one of the best I think. I use software from a guy on the net. It is called BDLCAM. His name is Brian also, and he lets people download and use this for free, but does take donations. I hate that I have never gave to him, even though I have used his software for 8 to 10 years. That being said, I have had problems with the living room controls for a good long time now. BUT, I really have no idea what I am doing. As you can tell by my website. Not the best looking thing in the world huh....
I had to make the cables to make BDL talk to the PTZ, but it was all fun. Add a bunch of cheap webcams, and a few IR cameras, and I have my site....
And by the way, thanks Tim for a nice post on my guest book. Seems like I get some crazy ones now and again.
Will give you all a link to beach cams when I get them up!
Till later,
Bks

Recap

Lots and lots of hits on my website today. Not sure why, but I am getting pounded hard.
If anyone knows why, let me know.
But just to recap, this is just a small FAMILY web cam site. We don't do much around here, and you will never see nudity, or anything bad here. Just a hobby for me, and a nice add on to my security system. People from all over the world drop in from time to time, and I am still not sure why. BUT I find it cool, and I guess some of the people that come here find it cool also.
Just a family, lots of pets, and the insane life that goes with it.
Just sign my guest book, let me know where you are from, and please be nice. If you don't like it here I see no reason to be mean. If you want, send me some pictures so I know who is stopping in.
Just e-mail pics, or questions, or rants to insanitycam@gmail.com

Brew Day is coming up.

May the 7th is Big brew day.. But I guess I should explain..
Big Brew is a celebration of National Homebrew Day (May 7th). Each year home brewers around the world invite family and friends to their brewing site on the first Saturday in May to celebrate the holiday. Everyone is encouraged to help out with the brew, enjoy the fun and join in on a world-wide toast at noon Central time.

And this year, it looks like more members of our local home brewing club will be brewing together then in the past few years. I love this get together more then any of the other monthly meetings.
And this year I will miss it... The wife and I will be going on a little trip. Just a little alone time at our first bed and breakfast. So, I might be missing big brew this year, I think our little trip will be really fun.
So, since I wont be here to brew with my fellow club members, I plan to brew this Saturday instead. I am going to start at noon. I will be brewing an all grain, ten gallon batch, of Caribou Slobber! A nice looking Brown Ale.
Wish me luck. I haven't made a batch of beer for a while, but I plan to chance that this summer. After all, I have four empty taps in my back room.. Would love to be able to pull any beer at any time!

Family website.....

OK people, I had to say it before, and now I find myself doing it again..
This is a family webcam site. The family deals with my crazy little hobby, but they don't like it most of the time. That being said, some of you people need to stop with the zoom feature on the living room camera. You don't need to zoom in on my wife,s face so damn close. And my daughter doesn't need to be looked at so closely. I will just turn the webcam controls off if need be. Or if it keeps up, I will just start blocking people. And if that isn't good enough, I guess I will shut it down to the outside world all together.

Oh, and "Peter" from ww.com. I don't need your comments.. OK? Thanks.

Keep it clean, be nice to my family, or be gone..
This was just a nice hobby for me, and I have meet some wonderful people here. I don't want to end it but I will. After 6 or 7 years with these cameras it is sad that I am getting all the ass holes all at once.
Brian

Wow, two post, one day!

After I decided to write here this morning, it made me want to work on my site again. I have been on the net for years with these webcams, sometimes they work, sometimes some are down, and I never blog. Opps, ramblin' again. Anyway, I found an unused webcam sitting around so I replaced the dining room camera. And it works really well. But I guess it should. It was high dollar when I picked it up a year or so ago. And it was the exact same camera that I had running. So, since I can't see what I am doing on my monitor, I just shut it down, changed the cams, and reboot. Has a great picture for the 4 or 5 people that drop in my home.
Off to order stuff for my brew day April 16th.
Bks

Hello Again..

Well I would say that it has been a long time.
I would say that I will start writing more, but I say that all the time.
So I will just write today, and see how long it takes me to post again.

Lots of things have been going on since I wrote last, but I wont go into everything.
On the webcam side, I still struggle with the cameras. The front room cam controls still dont work 99% of the time. And my dinning room cam seems to be out of focus. I would love to fix that camera, but someone....but a fist into the monitor.... I had a little bit of a temper tantrum one day. I was an idiot. I struggle with my feelings sometimes, and I taught myself a good lesson that day.
Things are much better at our house now. And I am working on being a better person.. Well, I try..

The weather was really nice for a week and I go started on my squarefoot gardens. But then it turned cold again. But it was enough to give me and my wife the fever. Lots of outdoor projects coming up. And the pool will need to be worked on soon. Kids can't wait to swim.

Also planning on brewin' some beer the 16th of April. It has been far to long. I have four empty taps in my laundry room. So I plan to jump in head first and try to get them full before summer really gets here. The 16th I will be doing a batch of Caribou Slobber! A nice brown Ale.
I am also planning on getting my remote cams running again. The front porch camera is still down and in need of a video capture device.
I just really wish I could get BDLCAM to work in the living room. I know people love to move cams! And this software is kicking my butt.
Fayetteville, West Virginia

Going to take a trip down to Fayetteville, West Virginia in May. A friend told me about a nice bed and breakfast and the wife and I really, really need to get away. It will only be a short two day trip, but should be really nice. Then THE beach trip in June!! We don't get out much, so this beach trip is the best time of the year.. Outer Banks, get ready for us!!
Don't know if anyone will see this, but feels good to rant and rave, and write once in a while...
Till later, Bks