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!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

We've had rain on and off since last night. Thunderstorms moved into the area last night from Nebraska and Kansas, but thankfully we didn't have any damage--just more rain that we didn't need. We only got about 80 hundreths of rain here--but that was more than enough! Charles Mix County--the county just west of us, had areas that had over 7 inches of rain--more water to add to the flooding on the Missouri River. The Corps of Engineers announced tonight that they're going to back off slightly on the releases from Ft. Randall dam at Pickstown for a couple of days, but then they're going to go up to 157,000 cfs--the flooding is just unbelievable. 
I was in Springfield today at my friend Carol's house and watched the river from her patio--the current running past her house is just unreal! Normally there isn't any current at all. What used to look like a marsh with all the sandbars and cattails is now just water as far as you can see. We saw chunks of reeds that eroded off the sandbars go whizzing past! I've never seen anything like what we're seeing now--really makes me wonder what Dad would say if he was still here! I'm sure he'd have a few choice words!!
Hopefully we're done with the rain for awhile!

Summer Fun

It's been a busy couple of weeks! Zane has been busy with baseball, I've been busy with work, and we just celebrated Czech Days! It's the annual celebration of our Czech heritage, held in Tabor, SD every year.
Here are some of the photos from this weekend.

Gibby's Corner Bar Float "In Heaven There Is No Beer"

Zane marching in the Bon Homme Middle School Band

Becky, on the right, in the Czech outfit (kroj) she and I sewed. All the costumes are handmade!

My guys, Larry and Zane, before Zane had to Beseda Dance Saturday night.

Mildred Cimpl, one of the Beseda dance instructors, leads the 200 dancers in to Sokol Park. Mildred's mother was the original instructor of the dancers--they've had the Beseda dance performance for 63 years!

Zane's circle

Flooding and Baseball

I've been busy the last week or so due to the flooding on the Missouri River. I've been documenting the rise of the river and flood preparations in our area through photographs for work. Spent Wednesday night this week helping fill sandbags--some of which were used to build a berm around a farm house on the river bottom near Running Water. Below is a photo of what is known as "The Bottom Road" east of Running Water, South Dakota.

The Corps of Engineers is increasing the flows through the dams on the Missouri River daily and the news here is filled with the efforts of citizens and the National Guard to protect property affected by the flooding caused by the increased releases from the dams. The flooding is having an effect on the local economy, as all of the boat ramps and campgrounds in our area are closed because of the flooding.

On a lighter note, Zane had his first Teener baseball of the year yesterday and they won 18-8 over Colome! He pitched one inning and didn't do too bad! He's hoping his cousin Chris who pitches for the local amateur baseball team can work with him today on his pitching. He's playing first base this year and loves it--so it's back to "living at the ball park" for the next couple of months!

It's supposed to be hot and humid the next few days--hopefully the rain will hold off until the farmers can get the soybeans in the ground. We had over 2 inches of rain last weekend--it's dried out over the top of the fields, but it's a sloppy mess underneath. Larry nearly got stuck twice yesterday trying to work up a field for planting. The corn is starting to really grow and some of the area farmers are starting to cut alfalfa--besides trying to get their crops in! It's going to be busy the next few weeks!!