Baseball, baseball and more baseball!!

Spent the last three days at the State "B" 13-14 VFW Teener tournament. The team Zane plays for hosted the tournament this year, so only had 20 miles to drive.

Zane meditating before he gets up to bat in the game against Flandreau

Connecting for a 2 RBI single in the game against Ethan

It was a long hot weekend--temps were in the 90's with the heat index in the 105-110 range! I was sure glad to get home to the air conditioning!

How Hot Is It?

Temps have been in the upper 90's to low 100's with the heat index in the 105-115 range since last week--this cartoon pretty much sums up the weather in South Dakota lately!

Bucket Dill Pickles

Today's project--making a batch of bucket dills. Mom's cucumbers are starting to produce and the dill is taking over the garden so it's time to make pickles!

Here's the recipe:


8 cups water (I use Nursery water as our tap water makes the pickles mushy)
2 cups white vinegar (Heinz)
1/3 cup canning/pickling salt
About 30 medium sized cucumbers
1 bulb of garlic, peeled and separated into "toes"
2 dried red peppers
About 15 heads of dill
Wash cucumbers. In a 5 quart ice cream bucket put 1 layer of dill, 1 layer of quartered cucumbers and 2 "toes" of garlic; repeat layers ending with a layer of dill until bucket is full. Put the red peppers in along the side of the bucket.
In large kettle, mix water, vinegar and salt. Bring to a boil and boil 5 minutes. Remove from heat, let cool 10 minutes and then pour over cucumber mixture. Put lid on bucket and let stand 1 hour. I usually set the bucket on a couple of layers of paper towel before I pour on the brine, as it may run over when the lid is put on. After 1 hour, put in refrigerator for 5 days. Do not open the lid until the 5 days are up!
After the 5 days, they are ready to eat. At this point, I usually pack them into clean quart jars with the dill and garlic and then fill with brine from the bucket and put on the lids and rings. Must be stored in refrigerator. Makes about 5 quarts.

It's Already July!

July 4th Fireworks in Springfield

Boy, am I behind on posting to my blog! Hard to believe that July 4th has come and gone! Have been busy with ballgames and work. It's been hotter than heck here--the dog days of summer are upon us! Temps have been in the 90's with about 80% humidity!
Spent this last weekend at softball tournaments. Tabor's 14 & under team won their conference end of the season tournament. My niece, Raquel and nephew, Christopher, were the coaches for Tabor.
Here are a some of the photos from the tournament.

Raquel receiving the championship trophy

Happy bunch of girls!

Brad and Jackie Adams and Krista and Rich (my  sister-in-law and brother) watching the games

Raquel taking a snooze and my mom watching the games

What every well-dressed coach wears for a ball game--Raquel making a fashion statement!

 Mom's garden is starting to produce like crazy with all the hot weather we've been having. She pickled beets last week. We've had a couple of meals of string beans and tomorrow I'm going to start putting up pickles--after I run Zane to baseball practice!
His season is winding down--Region tournaments are in Colome July 22-24 and State is in Scotland at the end of the month!