Snow on St. Patrick’s Day - March 17, 2020 @goldenoakfarm

This is what we woke to on St. Patrick’s Day. It’s a reminder that this is still New England, and it is still winter, for 4 more days.

It was still snowing at 9AM and then stopped. By 4PM it had all melted.

My helper friend was here and he went down to our local foods market for some spices for a pickling mix we were making. They had that day decided to close the doors to the public, so he had to stand outside while they filled his order. He was gone for an hour for a 20 minute trip.

But in the end we got the pickle spice mix made, a double batch, and used it to start the corned beef brisket he had started 10 days ago. It simmered for most of the day and was just delicious! I make ours with garlic, potatoes, carrots and cabbage and a few other herbs. I do not use pink salt, only kosher salt for brining.

My husband was laid low again on his last day of doing the doxycycline so nothing was done on the addition. I puttered with paperwork then watched Goodbye Christopher Robin again. I’d called the library, which is closed to the public, and they said you can return books, but not take any out and any orders for the statewide system (I have several) are on pause. Sigh.

Good thing I have several thousand books in this house and hundreds of movies. It’s too cold and rainy for the next 10 days to be outside (one would think it was April…) so I will be bored.

I tried to buy a treadmill from craigslist but the seller decided to suspend the sale until later. I did break down and order an exercise mat, so at least I can do my stretches and PT work. The PT office called and cancelled all my appointments until April 4th. Hopefully won’t need them then…

Wednesday is supposed to be the only good day for a while. I am hoping to get outside if it warms up and get some raking done. Too cold and wet to sit on the ground. My intern will be here and she will either work with me, or with my husband building the hood frame or the attic stairs.