About a month ago, my wife and I
decided that it was time to replace
our barbecue. We use the barbecue
constantly and in all seasons. By
January there's often a trail
through the snow to a barbecue you
can barely see over the snowbanks.
The old barbecue was falling apart.
The grates were thinned out, those
metal tents over the burners were full
of holes, and the tank holder was
distintegrating. Leaving anything
outside during a Canadian winter takes
a toll.
Replacement parts, as seems to be the
case these days, were either
unavailable or prohibitively
expensive. I had already changed out
the burners once, using replacements
meant for another model and brand. I'm
sure my insurer would have loved that.
In any case, the barbecue was also
much too large for our needs. There
are only two of us and it was one of
those stainless steel behemoths. We
bought it before hosting a large group
of relatives one summer. I think
there's a lesson there: never buy
unnecessarily oversized durable goods
for temporary purposes.
So I went online and started to look
at barbecues, which run into the
thousands of dollars! As I looked, I
spotted one modest-looking little
barbecue that looked like a model from
20 years back. You know the ones:
black cast aluminum, red igniter
button, no side burner.
There was one difference though. Those
barbecues originally had a grate just
above the burners that you covered
with lava rock, which sat below the
main cooking grate. The burner flames
heated up the lava rock and you cooked
above that 'charcoal imitating' bed of
hot rocks. But this one had the metal
"tent" over the burners that has
become the norm these days.
I've always thought that the new
design isn't as good. The old lava
rock barbecues heated up differently
and cooked much better. At least, that
was my recollection.
Well, I decided to order the barbecue,
and then went down to a local hardware
store to buy an extra grate and a
couple of bags of the lava rock, which
they still sell for some reason, even
though you can't find a lava rock
barbecue.
When the new barbecue arrived, I put
it together, with a few modifications.
The thermometer came off the old
barbecue. I drilled a hole through the
lid of the new one and bolted the
thermometer in place. Then I drilled a
few holes in the frame of the barbecue
and added a few bolt-hooks for the
scraper, tongs, etc. And finally, I
replaced the metal tent-style burner
cover with the grate and lava rock.
My memories of the old lava rock
barbecues were not wrong. It cooks so
much better. If you get the
temperature hovering between 400 and
500F, everything grills so perfectly.
You need a lava rock barbecue,
denizens of gopherspace. You really
do.*
* * *
The cost of lumber is extraordinary
here this summer! I'm renovating a
bedroom and needed some 2x4s ($15
each!) and a couple of sheets of
plywood for the floors ($115 each).
The home supply store in town seems to
be taking advantage of the situation
and charging much more than stores in
neighbouring communities. But why not?
Their competition went out of business
last year. Now they're a local
monopoly and they're behaving like
one. Funny how the big online
retailers are killing off local
businesses until you're left with
super-powerful-megacorp on one hand
and super-powerful-local-store on the
other.
Needless to say, after shelling out
for that stuff, I began to look at
construction and demolition materials
a little differently. Almost every
piece of wood that I have saved over
the past decade has been used. Every
piece that I have pulled out as I was
making modifications has been
salvaged.
I know that current lumber prices must
be causing serious hardship and
anxiety for people in the midst of
building houses, but for me, it's been
a good lesson in the amount of re-use
that is possible during a project like
this.
*I wouldn't publish something like
this on the web. I have no idea about
the environmental implications of
widespread lava rock usage. But the
audience in gopherspace is ... umm ...
nicely restricted.
