Well, Working My Way Back in Action. Been a long haul. All canning, drying and freezing done, and in the midst of a massive cleanup which'll take a week or so because I'm slow with all of the contrainments, including a rotten and rather large case of eczema - get these once in a while when I overindulge in forbidden foods. Just started two years ago - age related probably. Seems once you turn 72 your immune system falters, and I'm going to be 75 in April. Life - it is what it is. The
Phillie's Blunt Chocolate Cigar I'm chomping on tonight helps a lot - my favourite cigar because it's the only way I can taste chocolate without doing the St. Vitus Dance. Vitamin N, of course! Helps the itch a lot.
During the course of my erraticism, I've been fairly consistent in my smoking - very structured and all with a purpose. Anal as usual, of course.
I'll update you on the break ins, first.
All three of these pipes have had four break in smokes, using the two day break in on each. Half a bowl one day, and the finish of the half bowl the next. Then on to the next pipe in the same manner, and then the third. Let 'em all rest on Sunday, and start the process over. The process is now entering week five, and it has worked splendidly for me.
They're all fine smokers, all different, and the
Peterson Rhodesian Tavern pipe (middle) has become perhaps my favourite pipe in my collection. Love smoking it. It's a company pipe, and has already showed a preference to the break-in Dark Cavendishes. It dotes on Borkum Riff Dark Cavendish. It's definitely tipped it's hand, and I'll be trying other Cavendish blends. All of these pipes are ready for tobacco trials now. The fact that it loves BR Dark is great 'cause I love this tobacco myself.
The
Lubinsky Olive Bent (top) has not yet tipped its hand. It likes the Captain Black Dark, but is the only pipe I've tried Borkum Riff Dark in that has told me, "Uh, Gord, don't like this stuff. Try again buddy. . . . " so it's now a work in progress.
The
Mr. Brog "Birdie" (bottom) also likes both these tobaccos, but still hasn't screamed "Yes!!" so I'll start to experiment this coming week with other blends. It's got a very decent char to it, so it the Quest begins tomorrow and Tuesday. It has a fine, sipping type of draw, and I'm looking forward to the experimentation.
Next up on the firing line is my entire collection (below) of pipsqueak Miniature McQueens. They've all been either biased or dedicated to certain tobaccos, I have 7 of these pipes (the top one, the "Barrel Rider") has a double, but buddy Stu the pipemaker is modifying the bowl to enlarge it somewhat because it's a stellar smoker, has lots of wood in the bowl, and will become a medium pipe. Hope the experiment works. As you can see, not all of them are longstems.
Over the past two weeks, I've cleaned these pipes thoroughly, given them the
"Smoker's Pride Whiskey Clean" and smoked them subsequently with great success with what they were origiinally biased for. Not having had a terrible amount of time for long smoking sessions, this plan has worked out great.
Even though I've progressed in smoking technique, I've just come off of my meds, so tastebuds seem to be returning. Had a terrific smoke with the longest of them, the third from the top, the "Dwarf" after the pipe smoked by the head Dwarf in the movie "Return of the King", which started this whole wooden longstem craze. Could actually taste Backwoods Buttered Rum very well, so I'm really quite pleased!! to say the least. Hope the trend continues.
It was really nice to know that in my early pipe days I still had good taste buds, and that all of the pipes confirmed their biases.
One last pipe adventure before I sign off tonight, my
Ropp J06. A wonderful smoker. It's now broken in and continues it's fondness for
Borkum Riff Dark Cavendish. Loves it. No problem. So do I. Now up is to find a couple of other fodders it takes to. It's already rejected a couple of possibles, but accepted
SWR ARO. This is a new tobacco in my larder, just bought three packets of it - available at the Reserve Store for $21 Canadain, which is as cheap as it gets here. So now there are two. This is a new tobacco for me, and I really enjoy it. Seems to be very similar to SWR itself, but with the addition of Virginias. Quite thrilled about this actually. An easy tobacco to smoke.
That wraps up my post for tonight. I'll catch up on other interesting smokes I've had sometime tomorrow. Only had time to go back and comment on about two previous pages; we'll see what happens tomorrow. Cleanup continues in the AM, and PM is our monthly Director's Meeting at the Prince George Rod and Gun.
Have a great Monday!
I'm leaning toward recently acquired St. Bruno RR (never tried before), mainly because I smell the aroma through the pouch and it's enticing me ... 
️ on the side
