Butt's still cooking

Trouble

Thanks for all the great input yesterday. I wish I would have read Stump's post about how he starts his fire before I started mine. It took a long time to stabilize (kindof stabilize). I put the plate setter, drip pan and grid in at 250 and the temp dropped to 175. With just that baby fire, it took a long time to come back up.[p]Anyway, once my butt was on, I set the Maverick to wake me up if the dome went below 210 or over 250. I was awakened a lot. A Nor'easter blew in last night and the gusty winds might have had something to do with it. Or else my teeny tiny adjustments were too big. Good thing I started it last night...just reaching 160° now. [p]The fire spent a lot of time in the 210° (dome) range, and the meat spent a long time between 140 and 150--at least three hours, I'd say. I hope that's nothing to worry about; I'm assuming not, but let me know if you disagree.[p]Should be a yummy day, at some point.

Sundown

Trouble,
A butt will plateau around 150º - 160º and sit there for as long as 3 or 4 hours. Once it breaks down all of the tough connecting tissue and the plateau it's generally a short time to finish. Be patient. Note: Stump's description of the lighting process is one of the clearest and simplest I've seen. He's a master of the written word.

Unknown

Trouble,
Can anyone post a link to Stumps fire lighting proceedure?

Trouble

JPinAZ,
About seven topics down is one called "Pork Shoulder Advice." Read Stump's response and you'll see what I was talking about. It's not a huge long procedure, just some of his preferred finer points.

Sundown

JPinAZ,[p]Here it is verbaitum
"For me .. it seems to depend on which egg I'm cooking on. I'll tell you what I tend to do .. but remember . .it's a little unusual apparently .. but then again, I'm a Stump .. but honestly .. this is what works for me.
In my medium, I start the fire in the center, a full load of lump, bottom and top open all the way, use a single fire starter, build a little pyramid of big lump around the lit firestarter, then close the dome. I let this get up to say, 250º - 300º ish, then I open up, spread the lit lump around, drop in my smoking wood chunks, the plate setter, the drip pan (usually empty), and the grid, then put the meat in (sometimes I hug it first .. never kiss it .. if you do .. don't let anybody see .. unless it's somebody you don't want kissing you anyway .. then by all means French kiss the thing if it makes your day .. life is just too damned short) then I close the top and bottom down to about a half of an inc h.. now .. at this point, the fire has dropped because I added all that mass .. the mea t.. the plate setter, the drip pan .. so I'm usually just under 200º at this point . slowly .. over the next 20 minutes to half an hour .. that temp will climb up again .. when it gets close to 225º (I actually shoot for a little bit higher, just under 250º if I can) I start closing the top and bottom vents down till I settle in at somewhere near 250º. For my medium egg...it's as other folks stated here .. just about an eighth of an inch .. but for some doggonned reason I can't figure out (remember I'm a Stump) my small egg has the top and bottom vents open about a quarter of an inch .. maybe a bit more top and bottom to stay at that time .. no idea why .. never really thought about it, whatever works. Simple is as simple does."
StumpBaby[p]

Unknown

Sundown,
Thanks