First off, I'm finding out I'm not the hardcore Q'er I thought I'd be.
So I sold my Weber Genesis. Got most of the money back minus $150. Oh
well, lesson learned! I was only using it on the weekends for burgers
and dogs. What a waste and a bad decision. Should have started with
what a bought next: the Weber OTG!

You know, all those discussions about gas vs charcoal.... there is
NOTHING like charcoal. Standing over the fire, watching it, smelling
it, then cooking with it, and seeing all that smoke, and that cooking
smell!!!! Man I love that. You lose all that with a gas grill and you
might as well cook inside the house for all I care. I'm glad I went
back to charcoal. Enough on that.

I bought a bag of Kingsford lump charcoal. Didn't know it was various
sizes of chunks of wood - small pieces, large pieces... actual wood,
very cool.

My Weber chimney didn't arrive in time for my first charcoal que, so i
crumpled up B&W newspaper and placed (yes, placed, using my hands) the
sooty lump charcoal on top of the wads of newspaper. What a PITA.

So my questions:

#1. Since the lump is in various sized pieces, how do you fill up the
Weber Chimney? Do you shake it and try to make sure all the pieces are
taken up as much space as possible - i.e. so that a big piece isn't
sitting crooked blocking up space for other pieces.

#2. For like 8-10 pieces of food (burgers and dogs) would you use a
full chimney or half?

#3. With lump charcoal, do you wait for the top lumps in the chimney
to start turning white before you dump them into the OTG ? I thought I
saw something that they burn faster so you dump them out sooner?

Thanks!