Buckmaster, my smoker is insulated, too, and like you, I have found that when it's really cold the smoker has a hard time maintaining temps. the most smoking/cooking I do with my Bradley is when I make sausage. I usually spend nearly a week babysitting smoker after all the mixing and stuffing is done. I go to great lengths to shield smoker from wind. I run smoker this time of year on screened in porch, covering screens on whatever side is needed with polyethylene tarps to block the wind, plus after I am done fiddling with opening door and stuff getting a smoke started I wrap the smoker in an old unzipped sleeping bag, making sure not to cover the top vent. if wind is blowing pretty hard I use a big cardboard box to make another wind shield that wraps all the way around smoker, leaving only the digital controls exposed so I can read them from in the house. I do several all niters with the big sausages as most of them take 10-18 hours. extra insulation and wind shields make big difference when doing large batches of (say 15-20lbs at a time in smoker) of large diameter (2"-4") sausages. is important to not cook them too slow or they get dried out from spending too long in smoker. cooking them too fast usually results in liquefying the fat and ruining the sausage.
I see you have a meat mixer. is a huge help. don't know what I'd do without mine. I use my grinder motor to power the mixer, too. I don't see how it is possible to mix 25lb batches by hand as good as the mixer does it in just a few minutes.
