A White St. Patrick's Day

Yesterday it was windblown rain and last night we went to bed with snowflakes in the air.  This morning we awoke to a very white St. Patrick's Day.  And a fair bit of shoveling.  We're not used to this wet heavy snow - especially after loosing most of what we already had.  But is sure looks better than the brown snowbanks.

Merry Christmas

Hoping you all have a merry Christmas, from the Hancock Barnharts!

The kids would like to share a krumkake with you.  And here are some winter photos for those who find themselves snow-challenged today.

Snow, Sleds and Statues

This past week has brought great fluctuations in the weather here in Hancock, though our snow has managed to mostly stay on the ground. One week ago, we had "life threatening blizzard conditions" according to the National Weather Service (and that lasted for two days - Wednesday and Thursday) with a high temp of 2 and windchills of anywhere from 15 to 30 degrees BELOW zero. We (the girls and I) didn't leave the house. Friday was a veritable heat wave at 16 degrees and sunny, and Ella asked to go "play in the snow", so out we went, donning snow gear, grabbing a sled, and heading for the nearest hill...our front yard. We spent about half an hour outside enjoying beautiful blue skies and sunshine and white sparkly snow before heading in.


It continued to warm up over the weekend, reaching 32 degrees (and thus melting weather) on Sunday and Monday. Today it took another dive, predicted to reach 2 again tonight. But in spite of the cold, Winter Carnival is in full swing, with the theme of "Scary Creatures with Icy Features." And this was the 3rd annual installment of our youth group's All-Nighter Statue Build in the Barnhart yard. After about 3 hours of snow, water, slush, ice and much fun - we have a very large rendition of Jaba the Hut gracing our front yard.


In addition, the sculptors decided to leave their mark on our front snowbank (next to the road) and made their own version of Mount Rushmore. This one is much more interesting than the real thing.





And since everyone seems to enjoy them, here are a few random photos of the girls, Fletcher and Noelle.

Snowy Scenes from Muskegon!

About a week ago, we had a couple of good snowfalls, and it was interesting to see how deep the snow got, in places. Thought you might enjoy a few pictures. Also, they've lost the "battle" on Giles Rd. The pictures tell it all! And finally, a lovely sunset over Lake Michigan (Pere Marquette Park.)

Cowgirls Just Want to Have Fun!

This year we enjoyed a relatively calm All Hallows' Eve here in Hancock. And very spur of the momently, we decided that Ella would get to go "trick-or-treating" with her good buddy Cameron, mostly because Cameron's grandma and grandpa Cischke asked if she'd be stopping by their place. And since there was not much notice (the call came at 4 pm, and treats were being handed out from 5-8 pm), we had to come up with a costume with whatever was on hand. Grandpa Mike to the rescue! After spotting Ella's new horse sitting in it's "stall" next to the toy box, I was taken back to memories of myself as a youngster dressing up as a farmer girl. And since Ella had a clean pair of bib overalls and hair long enough for pig tails, and I could contribute a red bandana, we had the makings for quite the costume. We didn't have appropriate footwear (read: no cowboy boots), but the galoshes stood in - saying that they're muck boots and suitable for mucking out the horse's stall. Ella looked quite adorable, if I do say so myself. And here's some photographic proof of her adorableness. By the way, Elisabeth dressed up in Ella's old ladybug costume, but we didn't get any pictures of that as she spent most of her time resting in her car seat.I thought that perhaps I'd also include a photo of Ella and Elisabeth lounging on Elisabeth's pink blanket the other morning, mostly just because they're so cute together.We were blessed with our first blanketing of the fluffy white stuff this morning. Here are Ella and Cameron "romping" in the snow. (Cameron was very determined that Ella play in the snow with him this afternoon, and even though she didn't have boots on, she was willing to run around the house and play in the white stuff)