2020 Trip To South Dakota

Post by **JEBar** » Sat Jun 20, 2020 11:45 pm

for today's family get together we grilled locally made bratwurst (first picture) .... I'm a fan of Johnsonville Brats but do have to admit that these locally made ones are in a totally different class .... after the morning rain passed, some of the guys went fishing .... they didn't have much luck .... weather permitting I plan to join them in fishing a different lake .... with most everyone else out and about today, I took the opportunity to get my fishing gear ready and to setup our portable reloading press for the first time .... used it to resize +/- 700 44 Mag cases .... happy to report that the portable equipment worked well

Post by **JEBar** » Mon Jun 22, 2020 10:55 pm

following a really good day, we are once again settled in for the evening .... we thoroughly enjoyed watching one of my wife's nephews shooting trap in qualifications for the states High School championship .... it was really good to see young people excited about participating in a shooting sport competition .... we later ate out at a Perkins restaurant .... the first time we've dined in a restaurant since we were in Texas in February .... after that we moved on to watch another nephew playing in a county league baseball game .... when the sun went down, the temperature dropped with it .... not being dressed for the cold we headed back to the camper

Post by **JEBar** » Tue Jun 23, 2020 9:16 pm

another relaxed day .... had to move stuff around our site so it could be mowed .... later installed primers in 300 44 Mag cases .... next on the agenda was switching water softeners and recharging the one we've used for the last week .... next helped Maureen's niece pack up their camper and head for home .... kids baseball game now underway on the field behind our camper .... yep, an easy going day

Post by **JEBar** » Wed Jun 24, 2020 9:46 pm

its been a beautiful day in the neighborhood ..

.. as noted in another thread, I happily spent most of the day puttering around with our portable loading station .... I've already learned much .... some things I thought would work, have gone well .... some haven't .... with the forecast calling for 14 mph winds out of the south further reloading may have to be delayed .... a shopping trip to Brookings is on tap for tomorrow

Post by **MuddyWaters62** » Thu Jun 25, 2020 9:52 am

Jim;

Those are what I call Brats!!
Did you soak them before putting them on the grill? I, like you, like Johnsonville brats. My mouth is drooling over those SD brats.

Muddy Waters

Post by **JEBar** » Thu Jun 25, 2020 10:04 am

MuddyWaters62 wrote: ↑
Thu Jun 25, 2020 9:52 am
Jim;

Those are what I call Brats!!
Did you soak them before putting them on the grill? I, like you, like Johnsonville brats. My mouth is drooling over those SD brats.

Muddy Waters

40+ years ago I learned the hard way about the name Brats ..

.. I misunderstood and thought they were calling them Broks .... you know, some folks up here are very defensive about it ..

.. for years we would boil them in beer but have gotten away from doing that .... based on recommendations from the folks out here, we grilled them over indirect heat

Post by **MuddyWaters62** » Thu Jun 25, 2020 10:26 am

Jim;
Thanks for the info. I have mixed feelings on soaking brats. I am trending more to not soak or boil. I need to go to SD and get me some of those brats! LOL!!
Muddy Waters

Post by **brm4450** » Thu Jun 25, 2020 3:51 pm

Picked up some for the grill this weekend!

Post by **JEBar** » Thu Jun 25, 2020 6:58 pm

in a post above I mentioned watching one of my wife's nephews shooting trap for his school team .... the picture below shows the local trap range where the competition took place .... talk about a beautiful setting ..

.. her nephew is the shooter directly in front of our cheering section, one of my wife's brothers on the left, me in the center, my wife on the right .... he earned the right to go to the state tournament that is scheduled to be held tomorrow .... a heavy thunderstorm is raging as this is being typed .... earlier today we drove down to Brookings where we picked up stuff at Lowe's, HyVee grocery and JoAnn's fabric store .... I stayed in the truck while Maureen went in JoAnn's ..

Post by **JEBar** » Sun Jun 28, 2020 10:10 am

UPDATE :

considering he is 12 years old, in the 7th grade and this is his first year in the sport, my wife's nephew did extremely well in his first state competition .... in his practice round he fired his first perfect score of 25 .... for that he received a patch for his shooting vest and, as is their tradition, each of his teammates and his coach got to take shot at his cap ..

.. from what I've heard an early miss jolted him in his first competition round .... all things considered that's understandable and hopefully will prove to be a learning experience for him .... in the three rounds of competition his scores equaled or were better than what it takes to get into the competition but weren't as good as they should have been ....

Post by **JEBar** » Thu Jul 02, 2020 8:58 am

Estelline's 6 site campground is booked solid for this weekend .... on one site will be a couple of my wife's relatives .... food planning is well underway ..

.. and will kick off tonight with a with a really nice BBQ ..

Post by **JEBar** » Thu Jul 02, 2020 11:52 pm

well, our 6 site campground is full (first two pictures) .... to kickoff the weekend we had four of Maureen's relatives over for a late evening meal .... Huli Huli Chicken ===> http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... li#p132068 ....corn on the cob .... stuffed Vidalia Onion ===> http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... on#p139981 .... John Wayne Toast ... to put it mildly, the meal was a hit ....

... the last picture shows the night lighting of our camper's flag

Post by **JEBar** » Sat Jul 04, 2020 9:54 am

we really enjoy the way small town America celebrates holidays like Independence Day .... family gatherings are central and where we are camped in east central South Dakota they are flourishing .... breakfast preparations are underway for a picnic outside our camper ..... the same is true for all of the other families camped with us today in Estelline, SD

Post by **JEBar** » Sat Jul 04, 2020 10:49 pm

we've had a very nice 4th, hope the same can be said by all of our folks .... Lake Poinsett is a few miles west of Estelline ===> https://www.lakepoinsett.org/ .... it does one's heart good to see the houses all around the lake flying Old Glory and decked out in Red, White, and Blue ..... the same was true for many boats .... fireworks have sounded on and off all day .... families picnicking in the park .... yep, a truly nice 4th indeed

Post by **The Wiz** » Sun Jul 05, 2020 10:57 am

Growing up in Sioux Falls,S.D.,the 4th was almost like Christmas. Having two fireworks companies (one blew up) in town was great! They would send out catalogs with their products about a month before and us kids would drool over what to get. We got to spend $5.00 each to buy Black Cats, Ladyfingers, etc. At 1950's,60's prices, that bought a lot. My stepdad ( may he rot in hell) would buy the display package and we would go out on some country road or out to Wall Lake and set them off. Of course, at that time, fireworks were legal so you were free to blow your self up. Ah good memories of throwing firecrackers at my buddies and they doing the same. Good, clean, not safe, fun.

Post by **JEBar** » Sun Jul 05, 2020 1:08 pm

following an good family breakfast, I'm getting ready to head to Brookings for an afternoon Trap shoot .... really looking forward to firing a hundred or more rounds ..

Post by **brm4450** » Mon Jul 06, 2020 5:20 pm

Hope your 4th was better than the people at Mina Lake, storm blew through: 5 pontoon boats were flipped over, a lot of peoples docks dunk or were blown away, campers at the campgrounds were tipped and a lot of trees snapped off. The etanol plant at Mina was damaged. And quite a few other boats were damaged.

Post by **JEBar** » Mon Jul 06, 2020 9:19 pm

we had a delightful day, hadn't heard about the bad storm .... South Dakota certainly has interesting weather

Post by **JEBar** » Tue Jul 07, 2020 10:57 am

we are starting to gear up for Sunday's annual gathering of Maureen's family that features a Frogmore Stew .... we've held this family event for over 10 years and its become a family favorite ... the pictures at the bottom of this page were taken 7 years ago ===> http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... ore#p48964 .... we are parked on Site 4 in Estelline's City Park Campground .... a water leak has surfaced on Site 3 (pictures below) .... should someone come to repair it, that should prove to be today's excitement ....

Post by **JEBar** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 9:43 am

as anticipated, the campground water leak was handled quickly .... as can be seen in the pictures below the leak was caused by the black pipe sliding back on the fitting .... in the third picture a thin stream of water can be seen coming from the black pipe, just above the fitting .... at first that mystified me .... how could it slide when buried ..

.. once I was told that the winter freezing and thawing it isn't unusual around here with pipes buried less than 6 feet deep .... we don't have that issue back home and the explanation made sense to me .....