Life on Regal-Hill by Gail Hillriegel

Decorating for Christmas is always fun. Here at Regal-Hill I think we are finished. Certainly I am done doing anymore outdoors since it is too cold to be outside for any length of time. Inside I still need to do a bit more like little details in the bedrooms but since we aren’t in the bedrooms much maybe it isn’t necessary to spend much time there since hopefully we will be sleeping most of the time.

This year I was hoping I could come up with some different things to be thankful for. It isn’t that good health, a nice home, good food, family and friends aren’t important. I just thought it would be nice to have a change of thankfulness. For example, my daughter just came home with some skirts she got at a thrift store for practically nothing for me to wear. How good is that?

It would seem to me that we are having Indian summer now, although George disagrees with me. We are enjoying it anyway. At least it isn’t raining or snowing. I am sure that will come soon enough.

Recent days here at Regal-Hill were spent digging potatoes. It seemed it was time to get them out of the ground and into storage before it got any colder and the ground became muddier.

A few weeks ago we had 17 hens and two roosters given to us. They weren’t all the same age as the eggs vary in size from small to extra large. It seems the former owners were moving and couldn’t take the chickens with them. Since we have been getting fresh brown eggs for some time from different sources now, I didn’t want to have to go back to buying eggs at the store, so I was glad we had a chance to get these chickens.

The sun is finally shining this morning. I am going to dry some clothes and clean up outside today.
We had four unexpected visitors the other day. I remember one of them from high school although he was in school with my sister. The other three were his sister and a couple who were his friends from Sidney. They were here for Arena Day and decided to ride around the area where he grew up.

Now that we have had several frosts in a row here at Regal-Hill it is time to clean up the gardens and get ready for colder weather. After all, it is now officially fall. The first day of fall really turned out to be nice since it was about 70 degrees even though the sun didn’t shine nor did it rain, considering how cloudy it was most of the day.

An interesting new development occurred here at Regal-Hill this summer. Allegra, our granddaughter who has been in 4-H almost a year now, entered some vegetables and baking at the county fair. As a 4-H member she is expected to take entries to the fair.

It has been wonderful here at Regal-Hill the last several days. No rain and just wonderful sunshine. It has been a long time coming but it is sure nice while it lasts even if the nights are rather cool. At least we haven’t had a frost yet.

The other morning, as I started out to walk, George told me that he had just seen a bear while he was running the barn cleaner. He said that the bear had crossed the road and gone up the old sap bush road and into the meadow. I went on down the road as I usually do, but cautiously looked all around for any sign of the bear. Thankfully, I didn’t see anything of it.