What Are You Smoking? - June 2018.

I.R. Three Star Blue date on Mason jar 2010

Pipe of choice: Don Carlos Smooth Bent Bulldog pipe.

I ended up with Pharengitis, so I am refraining from smoking until my painful throat gets better.

Starting the day off with Old Joe Krantz in the MM Charles Towne Cobbler. Pot of coffee ready to go.

   Feel better real soon 🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈

Thank you. After visiting the emergency room and getting steroids (and some Advil) my throat feels better (comparatively). This is the worst sore throat I've had, by far.

Hearth & Home Butternut date on jar 2015

Pipe of choice: Restored LaStrada Simpatico Oom Paul pipe. Pipe was made in Italy and a popular brand sold throughout Europe.

I am sipping my Billy Budd Blonde, a freshly opened tin, in my great bear of a pipe, my Savinelli smooth Hercules 320EX. Warmish coffee back.

Last night we had a scare, something rolled out of the woods on the hill up behind and banged into the house. I looked out there this morning and could find nothing, not even a path through the leaves. I figure something was chasing something else and in a panic the else ran into the house, or couldn't stop, or something. Looking out the back windows as I smoke.

Pretty thickly wooded, my back yard goes up a rather large hill. The top edge is perhaps a little less than 300 feet above the house. Sugar maple, Douglas fir, Silver birch, and the remnants of an apple orchard up there. Deer, turkey, an occasional coyote or coydog, an occasional grouse, (I think. He looks like the bottle of Scotch), Red Tail hawks, countless small bats huddled in numerous small caves where the ground has washed away under the roots of the bigger trees up there, and every few years a bear. Stray cats from home owners down the hill on the edges of my woods, which I believe brings in the coyotes.

Oh and huge bluejays. Someone told me they are a kind of subspecies called Texas Blue Jays? I don't know, I just think they are well fed. They look like a blue jay swallowed a tennis ball. They kind of look at you when startled, as if to say "What?"

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Had a lunch-time smoke of house blend cherry in a mm Legend (of course). Was bliss...until I had to fit black-out blinds. Back to work now.

   Have you tried this particular blend in bulk form? For me Billy Budd regular is excellent in bulk. In the past 2 years I’ve had mold issues with C&D tins....ALL of my Bijou except 1 tin had to be replaced. So now if and when I purchase C&D it’s bulk only. Even though I definitely don’t need any tobacco’s it’s now I WANT TO TRY BILLY BUDD BLONDE. I ordered a pound of bulk. Seems a few members here rave about it, plus it’s a good change...no Latakia 👍👍👍

My dang cold is still with me, so I haven't been able to have a pipe since Friday. It also sucks, because I got 11 tobaccos in on Saturday, that I can't even smell, let alone try. Let's hope for a speedy recovery for all of us.

     The Bijou tins swelled up like a baseball ⚾️ in under a year so I decided to open a tin to smoke and found a huge amount of mold. I was told by a rep from C&D at Smokingpipes that another anti fungal agent was used and the next release will have the original agent. Well, after a year my replacement tins also swelled up severely and developed mold.  GLP has had a few of their tin blends develop mold as well. Smokingpipes made good on ALL without a hassle. Excellent customer service 👍. Tins will swell with age/natural fermentation, but should not be able to roll on the floor like a ball with less than a year of aging! 
  Plastic/Ziplock bags are not good for long term storage. I purchase different size Mason or Ball jars for storing my bulk blends, they age well when stored air tight. If I open a tin it’s finished within two weeks so I don’t worry about storing in small jars. They hold just fine for a number of weeks in their original tin with the plastic lid it came with. Any Walmart store carries Mason or Ball jars with replacement lids. Have fun!!! 

GLP Cumberland dated 2006 in my Radice Chubby Reubens Rhodesian Shape Bullcap Bulldog, now an excellent smoking pipe 👍👍👍