THE QATSPY® From the Kerosene Cowboy Journal Perception
By: Charles W. Boatright
It is More Fulfilling to Serve than to be Served– If you want to feel Content, Gratified and have Satisfaction beyond your expectation SEVER. To be a service to others, learn how to serve by learning a VOTECH Trade that is basic service.
I had the pleasure of being raised on a dairy farm where you had to become a Jack of all Trades and hope to master some of these trades. Besides our farm, we had a Bakery and Catering business that my grandparents and I worked. Some of our specialties at the bakery were whole wheat rolls, cinnamon rolls, and an Irish Cream Cheesecake that was very popular around the holidays.
We also catered for approximately 400 people a week where our special request was steaks and cream butter/sour cream potatoes with steam cheese broccoli, homemade whole wheat rolls, and Ice Tea.
Restaurant Style Ice Tea Process
For those that want to make the perfect tasting brewed Iced Tea, use a 12- cup coffee maker (due to the perfect water temperature of 200- 205° F) and use three regular size tea bags in the hopper. As soon as the tea completes brewing, pour tea over a one gallon size pitcher filled with filtered ice to the brim. The amount of ice in the pitcher will perfectly dilute the tea to serve. Refrigerate as soon as the ice melts. Leaving it out specially during the summer months will sour the tea.
To offer the best meats to our customers, we butchered our own grass fed black Angus meats. So I spent my time with band saw, cleavers and butcher knives in my days preparing meats for our catering jobs since age 12. I mention this to show why it is important to expose your kids to various skills even at a early age that is age appropriate for them.
My Special Opportunity to Serve Others
The reason that I mentioned this type of work was the opportunity that came up while I was a Grid Engineer in Arkansas with what was then AP&L, now known as Entergy Arkansas. We were tying in a 161kV Transmission Line with the Corps of Engineers’ at Bull Shoals Dam facilities that I helped to coordinate the work and outages with their control/dispatch center.
The work went so smoothly for the 30-men crew that the crew’s foreman (Shorty) wanted to grill steak for his crew to celebrate the completed project done safety and before schedule. Shorty aware that I worked in my grandparent’s catering business, Shorty asked me to purchase 45- ribeyes steaks at what was then Harps Grocery Store on US Hwy 412.
This was after 5:30 p.m. so there was no personnel to cut meat in the butcher shop for us. The manager, not wanting to lose the sale, asked us if we could cut our own ribeyes. The manager was from Harrison, Arkansas where my grandparents’ farm was and knew the Boatright family. The manager knew me from my days working in our catering business. So he let me go into the butcher shop and cut 45- 2- inch thick ribeyes to marinate where I used Cavender’s Greek seasoning.
If you look at the container of Cavender’s seasoning, you will find that it is manufactured in Harrison, Arkansas, a family we knew. I use two other marinade ingredients besides Cavendar’s. I used the crew’s pull behind grill to grill the steaks with potato chips and baked beans. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to bake potatoes.
Preparing steaks for Shorty’s line crew gave me unimaginable satisfaction of serving others. I still have vivid memories of that moment in time that have allowed me to write this article.
This Grilling Created a Second Career for me
I enjoy grilling so much that a couple of years ago, I attended a VOTECH College to pick up welding for when I retired that I could start my second career, welding. I designed and drafted shop drawings for what I call my P-40 WARHAWK Tiger Grill to grill meats and vegetables that I absolutely enjoy doing. Our hangar is called The Flying Tiger Hangar, named for the P-40 Warhawk with tiger shark teeth on the nose.
The steel that I ordered was from Metal Supermarket that came in on Saturday (25May2024). What is great about Metal Supermarkets is that they cut the metal to your specifications where you’re not purchasing any more than you will need to fabricate your project. The only thing I do is button (or weld) the project up, do a little grinding on the steel, run my welds. Then I prime and spray paint the outside of the grill.
As the steel came in, I measured, checked, and placed Mark No’s. on each piece of steel. A great marker to use for marking is a Sharpie Metallic marker. The Sharpie Metallic marker is better than soapstone for marking that is smoother. I purchased my Sharpie Metallic Marker from Hobby Lobby. They have some great drafting paper and supplies also.
