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Home Depot

Walk in smoke house project

July 13, 2013 by robertforto 7 Comments

Walk in smoke house alaska robert forto

After about a month of evenings and weekends working in the bright daylight in the land of the midnight sun, our walk in smoke house is finished at the Fort.

We had planned on building our smokehouse for over a year since seeing our friend, Marvin “PeeWee” Rankin’s. I knew right from the start that he and I and my son Tyler, could build one similar to his.

We decided on making it six feet by six feet. Much bigger than that any we could have problems with the smoking effect.

Our first step was to lay the foundation. We used the same design as our greenhouse by using railroad ties cut to fit, sunk into the ground and squared.

The walls and the room went up next. We built it in a typical construction fashion using studs on two foot centers. We laid 3/4 in plywood for the floor and skinned the inside walls with plywood as well.

Here are a few photos of the foundation and the shell of the smoke house. 

[Read… Smoking Alaskan Salmon]

Siding

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Our initial plan was to side the walls with rough cut pine from a local saw mill but after several unreturned calls we decided on using 5/8″ thick by 5 1/2″ wide cedar slats, similar to what you may use for fencing. We picked them up at Home Depot for about $2.70 a piece and used about a 120 of them. Since cedar will shrink we used the siding boards ripped in half over each seam to give it a much tighter fit and a very good looking exterior.

Roof

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Our initial plan was to lay down red roofing that matched the barn and the trim on the house but found out that it would take almost 5 weeks to order and was very expensive. We thought about shingles and decided against and eventually went with steel (non-colored) panels.

With the outside complete it was now time to work on the guts of the smoke house. We knew the interior of the structure would be not only the most expensive part of the project but one that would take the most careful planning.

[Read… Smoking Alaskan Salmon]

Racks

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Early in the project my wife, Michele, called the local metal company to order stainless steel expanded metal that was to be cut to fit for a quoted price of about $250.00 for 16 racks. When it came time to order they said it would be three weeks and over $500.00!

We called every metal company in Alaska and no one carried stainless. We found a company in North Carolina but it would cost over three hundred dollars in shipping.

You never want to use galvanized metal in cooking, nor can you use racks from an old refrigerator. They contain metals that are toxic.

I drove down to Anchorage on a quest to find racks and I did. I found 12 grill racks at Fred Meyers that were buy one get one half off, and 16 jerky rack trays and four pretty good sized aluminum racks at Sportsman’s Warehouse.

We spent the evening carefully installing the racks for maximum use of space and smoking ability.

Heat

Walk in smokehouse Robert Forto heat Walk in smokehouse Robert Forto heat 2 Walk in smokehouse robert forto heat 3 walk in smokehouse robert forto heat 4

We decided to use the same system that our friend used to fuel the smoker. We found a heavy duty propane cooker, similar to a turkey fryer but one without a timer. We plumbed in the cooker to a tank outside and fired it up.

[Read… Smoking Alaskan Salmon]

Fuel

In our smoke house we are using pellets in different wood varieties that each have its own flavor: hickory, apple, mesquite. A couple handfuls on a low flame inside a steel pot will last an hour and a half or so and produce the desired smoke at the right temperature.

Seasoning

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We seasoned the smoke house by running it through a couple cycles of pellets three or four times. This will allow the smoke to work its way into the wood and season the racks that we spray with Pam cooking spray.

Cooking time!

We had a goal to finish the smoke house before the annual dip net fishing season here in Alaska. Up here each family can take a number of salmon for personal use during dip net season. The head of household is allowed 25 fish and each family member is allowed 10. In our case 55 fish. We are heading to Kasilof next weekend to try and get our limit.

When we return we will prepare and smoke the fish in our new smoke house!

Smoke House Uses

The smoke house has the ability to both cold smoke and hot smoke a variety of meats. Everything from moose, beef, pork, chickens and turkeys, fish, cheese, eggs and more. Each type of meat will require a different length of time in the smoker at different temperatures and different pellets. A smoke house is not designed to be used like your grill or even the small commercial smokers found in many stores. For example a turkey may take 20 hours or more.

It will be fun to try different things and techniques in our new smoke house. I’ll be sure to share them here with you.

A huge thanks has to go to Marvin for his help and expertise in the design and the hours that he put in with us to make this project a reality. A big thank you to Tyler as well.

Do you have any questions on the design? Or do you have ideas to share? We would love to hear them.

UPDATE October 2017. There have been a lot of questions about our walk-in smokehouse since it was posted on another site on the web. I will do my best to answer them here in this update.

Question: After smoke curing of my meats, how long can I keep it, or do I need to consume it right away?

Forto: You can leave the finished products in the refrigerator for about two weeks. For a longer period you will want to freeze it.

Question: Do you have plans for the smokehouse that you can share?

Forto: No. This is by far the most asked question about our smokehouse. Our good friend, Marvin “PeeWee” Rankin and my son and I built it from scratch over a couple weekends based similarly on what he had build for his own smokehouse. It is a pretty simple design. It is about six feet square with an 8 foot peak roof. The foundation is railroad ties and the framing is simple 2/4 framing 16 inches on center. It is sheeted with plywood on the inside and cedar outside using fence pickets that you find at Home Depot or Lowe’s. The roof rafters are left open and we use dowels to hang hams from the ceiling. The smokehouse is not vented intentionally by smoke does escape from the roof as intended.

We used plywood on the floor over 2×6 floorboards and 2x2s to build the rack system. The racks are rectangular in shape and were special order from a supply company back east. We also have a rack system that is used in smaller metal-type smokers that we use for jerky and white fish.

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Our friend, PeeWee passed away a couple years after we build our smokehouse and we have honored him with a small plaque above the door. Now each time we use our smokehouse we pay a bit of gratitude to our dear friend.

Question: What do you use the smokehouse for primarily?

Forto: We use the smokehouse mainly for fish that we catch dip netting every July here in Alaska. Almost always it is Sockeye (Red) Salmon from the Kasilof River. Each resident in Alaska is allowed to use a dip net and catch 25 fish for head of household and 10 for each additional family member.

Over the last few years we have smoked briskets, chicken wings, turkeys, chickens, ribs, other fish like halibut and rock fish, and even a 1/4 pig.

Question: Can you share your recipe for your smoked salmon?

Forto: Sure! Here it is: Smoking Alaskan Salmon

Question: Can you share a recipe for smoked chicken?

Forto: Here is one: Chicken in the Smokehouse 

We took everyone’s advice on YouTube and added a wood-stove to the outside of the smokehouse and it works great!

More to come…

Here is some photos too!

Filed Under: Alaska, Daily Post Tagged With: alaska, Anchorage, Barbecue, Fred Meyers, Home Depot, Shopping, Smoking

Foursquare, goodbye

March 31, 2013 by robertforto Leave a Comment

Logo for Foursquare
Logo for Foursquare (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There comes a time in every man’s life when he just has to let go.

For some it is the 30 inch waist line they had back in high school when they woo’ed the girls in their acid washed jeans and pegged legs.

For others it is that hobby of collecting Beanie Babies that their neighbor announced on Facebook and he finally came out of the proverbial closet.

For me it is my ‘almost’ four year addiction to Foursquare.

I woke up last Sunday and realized, what in the hell am I doing? I am here collecting virtual badges for no other reason than to one-up my family and friends.

I was once the mayor of my hometown and several others across the country. I had almost 8,000 check-ins and left some, what I thought was valuable, tips at several locations and so many ‘friends’ that I reached my limit.

Why?

I have no idea. I never received any REAL benefit of playing this stupid little game. I did acquire a stalker or two though. One time a lady walked up to me at Home Depot and said she followed me on Foursquare. I don’t even know how she knew who I was since my profile picture was a cartoon of my dog. Another time a dog training client drove ALL the way to Willow so they could check-in at our place.

Like other addiction, I don’t know if I have quite hit rock bottom yet. I still have the app on my iPhone and I just might check in to leave that extra-special tip or maybe snag the next ulra-hip badge.

____________________

Robert Forto is mushin’ down a dream in the wilds of Alaska while with his wife and kids at Fortos Fort

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Filed Under: Alaska, Daily Post Tagged With: app store, Beanie Babies, Dennis Crowley, facebook, foursquare, Home Depot, iphone, twitter

The Rise of the Killer Squirrel

July 20, 2011 by robertforto 2 Comments

It all started innocently enough, I bought a little bird feeder this spring and began feeding the birds as the last of the snow began to melt up here in the Great White North. Some days there would be a couple dozen birds flying to and fro scooping up the cornucopia of seeds.

About three weeks into spring a baby squirrel (I affectionately named him Rocky) came onto the scene and started eating all of the bird seed and scared off most of the birds. I thought nothing much of it and continued to put the bird seed into the feeder.

In mid-May we began replacing the roof on Fortos’ Fort and all the sudden our little squirrel friend became a little more brazen. He began to “scream” in a high pitched chirp at sunrise (which is really about 4 am in the summer in Alaska) right outside my bedroom window.

In early June we could hear him running around the attic and heard a scratching noise upstairs. So much so that it alarmed the two dogs, Raegan and Bodhi, and they ran upstairs to investigate.

The days ticked by. We lived our lives and Rocky lived his. We finished the roof project in early July and thought we sealed up any holes that he might be able to use to get into the attic.

Last Saturday I headed downstairs with the two dogs in tow to let them outside. As I headed into the kitchen there was Rocky sitting on the window sill. The dogs paid little attention to him as the dashed by heading to the deck off the laundry room. Rocky didn’t even move. Over the next few minutes he was scurrying all over the kitchen and eating crumbs on the counter left from the night before.

I quickly texted my son, Tyler, and told him to come out very quietly with a sheet so we could throw it over him and take him back outside. I immediately thought of the scene in Christmas Vacation!

Rocky darted behind the stove and within minutes we could hear him chirping outside.

“This has to stop,” I quipped!

Tyler and I headed to Anchorage in search of a trap to catch Rocky. On the way down I searched the Internet and Al Gore said that they sold them at Home Depot. We arrived at the Big Box Behemoth and asked the “very nice” lady at customer service if she could help find the trap.

She began typing away on a computer old enough to be found in the Smithsonian and said there is not one trap available in the entire state of Alaska.

I found a seat and began searching the web for another location as Tyler spoke up triumphantly, “Poppy has one! Let me call him!”

You see, my father in-law Ed has everything. He shops at thrift stores like a woman does for shoes. One could say it is his obsession. He once found nine cookie sheets for $2.99 a piece and worked a deal for a buck a piece. Who needs nine cookie sheets? He doesn’t even bake (I don’t think).

Tyler got him on the phone and they began to discuss the particulars of sending the trap to us by Priority Mail on Monday when I finally found one at True Value Hardware all the way across town.

We headed over to the True Value, laid down 39 bucks and change for the trap and headed North back to Willow.

Later that evening we set up the trap after at least ten tries to make sure we were doing it right including even reading the directions.

We placed a spoonful of peanut butter with some of that tasty bird seed that Rocky had a fancy for and waited.

Within an hour Rocky was in the trap! No we didn’t catch him. The little booger was smart enough to pull the little paper plate off the tray and keep his butt out of the trap. We tried everything including Tyler trying to sneak up on him with a broom so he could reach over and close the trap while Rocky feasted.

It didn’t work. As soon as he saw Tyler, Rocky took off and headed in the trees mocking and laughing at us with his high pitched squeak.

On Sunday night we went to Plan B. Tyler rigged up an elaborate series of bungee cords (we didn’t have any rope) to the trap so he wouldn’t have to get so close to the trap when Rocky was inside. One pull on the cord and the trap would set. We tried it a few times and he continued to run off as we got close.

Last night (Monday) as Tyler and I finished up a pizza and settled in for a movie we heard the little mongrel in the kitchen. He was sitting on the stove ready to dive into the pizza box at a moments notice.

Tyler hurriedly grabbed his sheet again but Rocky split before we could catch him.

Enough already!

Then it hit me. Let’s put the peanut butter under the little tray so he would have to step on it to eat the tasty treat.

Low and behold this morning Rocky was trapped. I jumped up and down in my stocking feet with my arms in the air like I just won the Super Bowl and yelled for Tyler, ‘WE CAUGHT THE SQUIRREL!”

We had decided early on that we would catch and release Rocky if we trapped him. We loaded him up on the ATV and Tyler headed down the road.

Within a couple minutes I get a text on my iPhone from Tyler. It said: Ran out of gas.

Of course we didn’t have any in the gas can so I had to drive into Willow and buy a couple gallons.

I found Tyler along the Parks Highway with Rocky bouncing around in the cage. He filled up the tank and headed down the road.

Tyler released Rocky near a stream under the bridge. Such a tranquil place, far removed from anyone or houses. He should be able to live in a little squirrel paradise. Maybe he will even find Misses Rocky and they will settle down and get married. Maybe even have a couple young-in’s….

I am sure what a lot of you are thinking: Why didn’t he just get a BB gun or kill the little booger?

Its not as easy as that. You see when I was a little kid my dad and I visited Cincinnati, Ohio and he bought me this little gray stuffed animal squirrel and his name on the tag was Rocky. My mom and dad were divorced so this little toy was very dear to me. I kept him around for a long time.

Well at least until I was old enough to have girls over to my room to “study, do homework, and what-not.”

But I will assure you…If Rocky comes back to Fortos’ Fort it might just be a different story!

Follow my news and updates on Twitter, my whereabouts on Foursquare and relationship status on Facebook. Or send me a telegram.

Related articles
  • Fortos Fort: Roof Project Complete! (robertforto.wordpress.com)
  • Black and red eastern gray squirrel (retrieverman.wordpress.com)
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Filed Under: Alaska, Daily Post, Fortos Fort Tagged With: alaska, Bird feeder, Fortos Fort, Home Depot, iphone, postaday2011, robert forto, squirrel, Willow Alaska

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