Life On Regal-Hill by Gail Hillriegel

Well we got another frost last week Tuesday at Regal-Hill. I am disgusted with myself that I didn’t cut the asparagus. I went to check it this morning and it had definitely been frozen. I knew it was there too and just didn’t remember to go out and cut it and bring it inside. Now I have to cut it and wait for it to grow again before serving it in any meals.

Well, we got a rather hard frost here at Regal-Hill last week. George built a fire. It sure felt good until the sun came up and warmed things up. The wind didn’t blow either which helped speed up the warming process. It is amazing how so often when we get a frost that the sun will shine and gradually warm up the air so it doesn’t seem so bad if you have to be outside.

We could use a good rain here at Regal-Hill. I really don’t want to start watering so soon.
Apparently there has been enough rain for the shadblows, sometimes called the shad tree, to appear. The shadblows are the pin cherry trees when they are in blossom.

Most days are more like springtime here at Regal-Hill. Even some of the birds are thinking spring as we now have barn swallows residing in the barn. Yesterday it was cold, rainy or snowy and it was very windy, but two yellow-shafted flickers appeared in a nearby tree. (Of course we had to look in our bird book.) Today the sun is out, making it easier to work outside in the flowerbeds.

Plans are being made here at Regal-Hill to grow more wheat this year. It was grown last year as an experiment and since it was somewhat of a success, there are plans to grow more wheat this year. Presently the wheat grown will be ready to use as soon as it is ground. It has already been thrashed, washed and dried.
We are all familiar with whole wheat flour, white flour, bleached flour, unbleached flour, cake flour and bread flour.