Last week Meijer had a great deal on pork short ribs so I got 8.5 pounds to smoke. Last night I mixed up the following rub and applied it so it could sit overnight:

3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup paprika
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup garlic powder
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
2 tablespoons ground ginger powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 teaspoons rosemary powder

I didn't have any brown sugar so I just used all white sugar.

I am getting ready to start the smoker. I was up and ready to go at 7:30 am, but the outside temperature was about 31 degrees and thought I might have a problem keeping the temperature up, so I decided to wait until it warmed up a bit. I took the ribs out of the fridge to bring up to room temp.

After that I plan on doing various chores while I babysit the ribs which include some more yard work and laundry.

I have the A Christmas Story DVD on for background ambience.

I got a whole-house humidifier when I got my new furnace. The humidifier has an outside temperature probe and sets the inside humidity based on the outside temperature.

Supposedly this will prevent the condensation that occurs and can cause mold and drywall damage when you forget to set the correct humidity level manually.

These are the levels that are programmed into the unit:

Outside Temp/Inside Humidity
40° / 45%
30° / 40%
20° / 35%
10° / 30%
0° / 25%
-10° / 20%
-20° / 15%

I can't wait until we start getting some consistent below-freezing temperatures to see how the system performs.

Going on the first pheasant hunt of the season tomorrow morning. I think whatever I bring home tomorrow I'll toss into the smoker with the ribs I am going to smoke on Sunday.