Yes, mine's slowly sinking into the garden
My advice is start off simple, burger, sausages, steaks, chops, etc and learn the heating controls (usually around 2-3 fingers on bottom vent and then between 1st and 2nd notch on the top. Then just use top vent to control temps.
Buy a looft lighter and get decent Charcoal - Kamado Big Block
Really happy I bought the charcoal basket for mine (comes with the 3, I believe), far less wastage of charcoal for small cooks.
Going to try an overnight brisket in the next couple of weeks and a couple of tomahawks and definitely ribs!!
This is a great cookbook - Grillstock: The BBQ Book