Welcome! Great gift you received!
As for skin, happens with chicken. You could flash them on the gas grill, really hot, really quick. One thing I want to try soon is adding some baking powder prior to cooking and see if that helps.
For thermometer, I have a chef alarm from Thermo. It works well, as I run multiple probes and just plug in as I go to check temps. Doesn’t offer WiFi or that stuff, but works nice and isn’t too expensive.
If you feel at some point you will upgrade, take a peak at the FireBoard. Someday I may end up with this, as I do some other smoking on my kettle that needs more babysitting.
Have fun on your journey!