A Hancock Barnhart Pictoral Progress Report

Greetings, fellow Barnhart-bloggers. There have been numerous requests for a pictoral update on the progress being made here in the soon-to-be winter wonderland. So, here are a few favorites from my latest batch of photos (the past week or so). I'll include some text as well. Read on......and on, and on, and on....or so the story goes. At least, this one in particular. Here Ella sits through her first reading of "The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins" in its entirety. I'm quite certain it won't be her last, though it might be a while before she picks that one out again (it's a bit lengthy for a girl whose longest sentence is somewhere around 5 words).


Elisabeth turned 4 months old on Saturday (the day before Mom's big birthday). Here she shows off her smile and her bear (we photograph her monthly with this bear to record her growth).



To celebrate the autumn season, crazy hours at work, lots of progress on the garage (wait, Mike, I'll get to those photos soon!), and just life in general, we enjoyed a scrumptious Deep Dish Pizza. It made the menu since the recipe calls for it to be made in a cast iron pan. And because it looked amazingly yummy.



Here's what was left of the pizza after we'd stuffed ourselves.



As Steve watched the weather forecasts, we decided it was finally time to finish harvesting our produce from the garden. Ella and I picked tomatoes and peppers on Wednesday afternoon, and Thursday morning we awoke to a very hard frost. Excellent timing, if I do say so myself. Here's what we gathered. (we didn't pick the strawberries, though there were a few ripe ones still out there, and even more green yet! - a 3rd wave of berries from this season)



And last, but certainly not least, the much anticipated garage siding photos. Please note, it's beautifully sunny and the garage siding looks amazing. Great work, Steve! Feast your eyes on our newly sided garage.....Steve wonders how much longer we'll have nice enough weather for outdoor work and whether or not he'll get ALL of the siding onto the garage in that span of time. Just a few more boards to go! (we'll be putting on some paint come spring...it - the paint - will spend the winter waiting in our living room for it's final destination)

Well, that's all for now. Back to work...there's more progress to be made!

Fall Harvest of Dune Grass Knees, and Frig Magnets

The dry hot summer took a toll on the knee harvest at Lake Michigan. It's slim pickings, as you can see; the knees are few, and sparse.











On a happier note, the guys pose for a photo.












Beautiful Lake Michigan, in mid-October!








All those years of keeping my spices in alphabetical order!
Now they tell me!









Well Andy, looks like you're off the hook, ole vegetable lover (NOT!)

I am gifted

While it is true that I find myself to be incredibly intelligent, I actually meant that upon the occasion of my birthday, I received several gifts. See, gifted.

Anyway, I thought I'd let all the left hands know what the right hands were doing, so here is a little pictorial.



These aren't the exact flowers I received, but they are virtually identical to the bouquet that graced my office on my birthday. Thanks Lisa!



A perfect Janell-sized French Press (I meant portion size, not my actual dimensions)



What more could I ask for? Gourmet dark chocolate from the streets of Paris (imported by Ben), the breathy haunting voice of "A girl called Eddy" floating throughout the house (thoughtfully selected by David), all while I sip on my rich dark coffee, made in my new French Press (expertly chosen by the UP coffee aficionados).



As I'm sure you probably all, with the possible exceptions of Daniel and Rachel, recognize these from years past, I must explain that mom did not carry on the fine tradition of Daniel (and David?) and "give" me something I already owned. Rather, she gave me what I'm sure were several hours of tedious cleaning and repair in order to restore my dress-up favorites to their original glory.

I would like to christen this as the first "blank you" (a blog thank you), of which I hope to post many more. (See how I did that? It sounds like I'm so very thankful, but it actually just means I would have to receive many more gifts in the future to keep posting these. Pretty good eh?) Thank you all for your thoughtfulness.

*If your gift didn't appear somewhere in this post, please don't be embarrassed. Most likely, you are Dad, and I didn't give you a gift idea until several days after my birthday.

It's Birthday Time!

Tis birthday time for one who is dear,
I'll give you a clue, in proximity she's not near.

Oops! I slipped and told you the gender,
And as a young Mom, she's ever so tender.

I did it again! Can you figure out who?
She has Ella & Elisabeth; that makes two!

Now you know, and Sunday's the day,
And I've got an idea, oh, by the way!

She needs new tennis and/or hiking shoes,
And contributions toward those would help, tis true.

So Rachel we hope your birthday is sweet,
And that you can get what you want for your feet!

A Few Fresh Photos

Here's Lookin' at You, Kid.....

Just a few photos of the project progress here in Hancock. Projects, of course, including the garage (it's pretty much an un-ending project) and the girls, along with grandpa-time.


Elisabeth has to check things out...
a nice summery evening and relaxing on the lawn. Life just doesn't get a whole lot better than this.


Grandpa Mike gets some time with the girls. Ella loves her little sister, sometimes to the point of smothering. But Elisabeth just loves it!


Here Steve and Mike install some of our new trim on the garage. It's not completed, but it sure looks a LOT better than it did before!


Ella ready to throw rocks at Lake Superior. What a relaxing way to spend a Saturday afternoon.


Elisabeth at Lake Superior. Need any more be said?!


Ella enjoys the beautiful summer weather while Dad and Grandpa Mike continue working on the garage. She's keeping a close eye on them (or maybe the camera). The next thing to come out of her mouth (after this picture) undoubtedly was "See it!"rather emphatically, meaning she wanted to see the photo on the back of the camera. Another "cute" 2-year old thing to do.


And that's all for now. We're working on a new website for our photos (photosite has discontinued service, in case you haven't checked for a while), and will hopefully have that up within the month (but no promises!). We've lots to do 'round here getting ready for the snow to fly, so time is in short supply for "playing" on the computer.

Birthday Photo Booth Adventures

"Didn't someone really important just have a birthday? Who could it possibly be?"


"ME?!?!?!"


"You mean you already knew?! Does that mean there's birthday cake?"



"Start shoveling in that Ryke's cake!"

The Princess has a Birthday!

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! All loyal subjects take note! The Princess has a Birthday. Gifts must be presented to Her Majesty, or it will be "Off With Your Head!"

An American in Paris

Apparently I forgot to pay my Francification tax, so the pictures weren't all showing up. I think I've got it taken care of now, though. -ben

I know you're all dying to see each one of the 550 pictures I took while I was in Paris, but you'll have to settle for the top 10. I know it's a crushing disappointment, but the French have a saying–which can't be translated directly into English–that roughly goes, "Even the underside of a cow's hoof doesn't get wet in the rainstorm." I'm not exactly sure how that applies here, but I think it's a fine sentiment, and hopefully the confusion will cover over any disappointment.

The short version of it all is that we had a great time. Our apartment was a block and a half from the Eiffel Tower, and close to everything else we wanted to see (the Musee Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, Notre Dame, the Latin Quarter, Montmartre, the Catacombs, and the list goes on). We walked a lot, rode Paris's new rental bikes (Velib) a lot, talked a lot, ate a lot, and–thanks to the "roll over on its back and play dead" American dollar–spent a lot.

Here's the photo highlights from the trip:



(1) Kevin on the far left, Loren turning toward me, Jesse and Kelly just beyond him. We're riding the Velib rental bikes over a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Seine.



(2) And here's a photo of the Seine; houseboats lining the bank, and the Musee d'Orsay (one of the largest collections of Impressionist painting) in the distance on the opposite bank.



(3) A typical intersection, and a pretty typical picture of us (that's Jesse, Kevin, and Loren, left to right), circling around the street map. Kelly, Loren's wife, is standing behind Kevin in this picture. She was a brave soul to put up with all of us this past week.




(4) The Church of the Sacred Heart (or Sacre Coeur, as the French call it), which sits at the top of Montmartre, one of Paris's nine hilltops.



(5) The face of Notre Dame. Later in the week, we climbed the bell tower on the left.



(6) This is the garden of Versailles, which lies directly behind the palace. The water in the distance is the Grand Canal, which was filled with gondolas and gondoliers from Venice during the reign of Louis XVI (and perhaps other Louis's as well).



(7) Here's Kelly in a pensive mood. This is in a little restaurant in the garden of Versailles, which was rumored to serve cups of chocolat chaud ("hot chocolate," for you Americans) as thick as melted candy bars. I can assure you, the rumors are quite true.



(8) This is Sacre Coeur, seen from behind the clock at the top of the Musee d'Orsay.



(9) One of the bored gargoyles at the top of Notre Dame.



(10) And here's southern Paris at night. I shot this from the second deck of the Eiffel Tower on our last night in town. Napoleon is buried at the end of the long grassy park.

Wow, I can't believe that's 10 pictures already. I'm trying to put together a little photo slideshow, which I may post here if it turns out. Otherwise, each of you can look forward to long-winded explanations about the incredibly funny events that provided context for each one of my 550 photos.

Tearing Down the Big Shed

Out of laziness, I've let these photos lie dormant for the last couple weeks. Since Ben will soon be returning from Paris with prize-winning pictures, I should probably get these up fast and ensure them at least a few days of undivided attention.

The photos are pretty self-explanatory, so I'm not going to weight them done with captions.

New hair

Actually I just have less of my old hair if we're going to get technical. Anyway, I got my hair cut today and got bangs, which mom wanted to see, so here they are. (along with the rest of me)

By the way, I didn't mean to bump Ben's post so soon, which is actually more worth reading than this one. So please scroll down if you haven't read it yet.

Suteki rises from the Raleigh's (stolen) ashes

As most of you know (except Edmund and Anonymous, who I haven't talked to in a while), my Raleigh was stolen about a month ago from the bike rack behind my apartment. Though I was sad to lose it, I had learned recently that the Raleigh bikes made in Taiwan (of which mine was one) were cheap frames with the Raleigh logo on them (rather than the higher-end Raleighs produced at the original Nottingham, England factory. Knowing this, I was eager to go out and find a bike that might prove to be a little more solid in the frame department.

What I found was a bike that few people know anything about. It's a Suteki, and from the little I've found online, they were manufactured in Japan in the early 80's, and are made with high-quality Japanese steel.

What I do know is that I've had to put a fair amount of work into this bike. So far, I've:

1. replaced the rear wheel
2. replaced the rear derailleur
3. replaced the shift and brake cables
4. replaced the original seat post and seat
5. replaced the pedals so I could attach toe clips

And now I'm hearing some annoying rubbing noises from my chain rings, which may mean I need to replace the crankset.

At any rate, here are some pictures of the new bike:

"The Side Angle (Bike at Repose)"


"The Suteki logo"


"The View from the Front (Bike Attack)"


"Poor Saps' View (The Angle from which Most Trail Riders See My New Bike)"

Moved posts

I moved my last two posts to Mikes blog, they were meant for the discriminating reader, so I had to move them.

Just call me Midge

For all of you who remember the family get togethers at the old house on Central, you will not have a hard time recalling Grandma Barnhart's special snack mixes - always stale, deceptively tempting, and rarely edible. When pressed, Grandma would admit that some of the components may be a little on the older side, but usually in very vague terms that trailed off into telling you about something else in the fridge you could eat if you wanted.
One year at Thanksgiving, I stood over a bowl filled with tortilla chips, peanuts, triscuits, cheese crackers, pretzel sticks, and several other various items which had weathered enough time in a box or bag on the front porch to be considered worthy of the snack bowl. Having had prior experience with the snack bowl, I knew not all components were created equal. For instance, the tortilla chips could have been a fairly new addition, and therefore to be highly prized as the least stale and retaining much of its original flavor. The triscuits, on the the hand, may have been the original base of the snack mix, and could hypothetically be fossilized at this point, and were to be treated like a ham bone in soup. (A necessity to the recipe, but certainly no one would be foolish enough to attempt EATING it!!) I do not remember which item I eventually chose to try, but I do remember that I chose terribly. I'm actually suspicious that I happened to pick out a mothball which had fallen through the vent in the kitchen ceiling directly into the bowl, slyly joining the festive mixture. After disposing of the moth ball (secretly of course) I asked Grandma when she made the snack mix. This seemed like a good, tactful way of finding out if perhaps none of the components were in fact edible and I should abandon my pursuit immediately. She hemmed and hawed for awhile, and then said something to the effect of "Well, I don't know. I guess I found it on the front porch, and I think its from last Christmas. Why, isn't it good?" I think I lied and said it was, then quickly did the math in my head and realized that was almost a YEAR ago! I wish I could say I never attempted eating anything from a snack mix in subsequent visits, but all you in the Barnhart family know that unlike most children who pick daintily at their food, we were apparently half starved 100% of the time and devoured anything remotely edible within a 100 foot radius of our beings. So of course I made several more attempts, and not all were as unrewarding as the day I just described.
Anyway, the last time I went grocery shopping, I decided to make my own trail mix for Andy and I to put in our lunches. I don't typically like trail mix because it has too many raisins, and I don't really like pretzels that much, but Andy really likes it and I figured it was probably healthier than chips, so I would make a custom blend for us. This is all perfectly acceptable so far. I picked up several different things, including peanuts, cashews, good raisins (not too dried out), cheddar goldfish crackers, honey nut cheerios, and some dark chocolate m&m's. A little unorthodox perhaps, but it seemed like a good mixture of salty and sweet. After putting all the groceries away, I put all the trail mix ingredients in a tupperware container and mixed it up, and overall I was impressed with the results. I saved some out for our lunches, but when I opened the cupboard to put it away, I couldn't find a single place to put it. I had almost decided to just leave it on the counter when I realized that there was a box of Cheez-its that had been in there forever, and if I just threw those away like I should have weeks ago, I would have room for my trail mix. I had almost thrown the box in the garbage when a little thought popped into my head: instead of wasting them, I could just add the to the trail mix! I had thought it needed to be a little more on the salty side anyway, so this was a perfect solution. I quickly emptied the box and mixed the crackers in, then took a handful to see how it tasted with my newest addition. While it didn't begin to compare to the mothball I'd almost ingested years before, I was immediately reminded of why I was going to throw the Cheez-its away: because they were very old. And mixing them with a bunch of new fresh food didn't make them any less old. At this exact moment, I realized what I had done. It was so easy, and seemed like a very sensible thing to do at the time.
I've now placed Andy on alert. If he sees me placing any food in water, especially fruit or hot dogs, a direct intervention is called for. Also, if I ever save old coffee, especially if I save it in 2-liter soda bottles, this is not to be taken lightly and you will all be notified.
Well, all this writing has tired me out, and I'm actually getting kind of hungry with all this talk about food. I think I'll go eat on the pork chops we had for dinner last night...

New Photos!

That's right, everyone! There are new photos to peruse at your leisure on our photosite. More specifically, there are new Ella and Elisabeth photos on our photosite (along with Steve's addition of the 4th of July and Bike Ride photos). We'll see how well we can keep our photosite updated now that we have 2 kids instead of just one (I hadn't even downloaded my pictures from the camera in over a month!). But for now, enjoy the new photos. And you'll soon get to enjoy Ella and Elisabeth in person - since we'll be down in Muskegon at the end of July.

July 4, A Superior Ride, and The Best Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Ever

The Crumble

Rhubarb: Mmmmm.

Rhubarb and Strawberries: Even MMMmmmier.

Rhubarb and Strawberries in The Best Crumble Ever: Well, I'll just show you the picture.

Mom made this crumble from an acclaimed recipe using fresh strawberries from our garden and fresh rhubarb from our neighbor's garden. It was fantastic. We enjoyed having her up for a few days to help with this kids.


The Ride

Ben also visited for a bit and we were able to fit in a short bike ride to Lake Superior. It was a great day for a ride and we had a great time. I only wish I were still biking the paper route so that I would have been in shape.

We biked along the Portage to Lake Superior at McLain's State Park. As is typical, we spent more time tuning up our bikes than riding. In our youth, this meant getting as much oil in the chain as possible, flipping the bike up on its seat and handle bars, and spinning up the pedals to see how long the wheel would spin while we did laps around the house. Now we don't do laps.


The 4th

Today, we took Ella and Elisabeth to the parade in Dollar Bay. Ella liked the parade and all the floats. Her favorite was the root beer float. Tonight we'll try to take in some fireworks. Ella hasn't seen them up here before and I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that it will be a first time for Elisabeth as well.

You can find more pictures of the parade and the bike ride at our Photo Site: http://sandr.photosite.com/. I'm pretty sure Rachel is planning to update the site with those anticipated Elisabeth photos soon.

Have a good 4th all!