Catching Up - March 2 - 4, 2026@goldenoakfarm

On Monday I was up early as usual, got my post up and headed to exercise class. I finished washing and drying the laundry but it didn’t get folded. I had an odd thing happen to me when I ordered the plant lights over the weekend.

I spent a lot of time trying, unsuccessfully, to resolve it. I had put a payment on the credit card because they were not cheap. The payment was no longer pending, it had cleared my bank. But the credit card company is holding my payment until March 9th!

When I called to find out what was going on, the first person I spoke with said it was being held because I was suspected of money laundrying!! I’ve been with this company for 40 years! So I asked to speak with someone higher up.

They told me that because the computer had flagged the payment, they did not have the ability to reverse it. I said, “So you have to do your job as the computer tells you to? You have no discretionary power? Welcome AI!!” and I hung up. Sigh…

So I called my local bank and arranged to transfer the balance to a local card and once that’s done, I’m closing my accounts with the previous bank. They’ve been giving poorer and poorer service for the last 15 years, and I have been removing my business from them over that time. I’m fed up!

I had an appointment in the afternoon and was pretty tired so not much else got done.

Mesclun seedlings just up Tuesday morning

On Tuesday morning the first seedlings were up from the Sunday starting. My helper friend is sick so I had a free morning. I started on the bills/budget and worked on that until I had to go to a PT appointment mid afternoon.

She worked me hard because I hadn’t had exercise class that day. When I went in, it had been lightly snowing for a while and we had about an inch. When I came out it was still snowing and we had 3”. This was an unexpected snow storm and we ended up getting 6”, from a forecast of 1”. My brother got us plowed out as I had 2 people who would need to get up the driveway on Wednesday.

I was pretty wiped out from PT and just sat down to watch To Sir, With Love after getting fires going again. I pulled shades around 6PM and made supper. I also got the steps and walks swept before the snow turned to sleet.

Foggy morning on Wednesday

On Wednesday, exercise class was cancelled because the town hadn’t planned on so much snow and things weren’t cleaned up. So I had another free day but I had to feed house plants as my helper friend hadn’t come and done it on Tuesday.

I watered the seedlings first, to make sure they got done. Then I added ½ tsp of SeaCrop to 3 quarts of water to feed all the cuttings that have lived in water for years. Next I fed all the plants on the second floor and had to sit down for a while. All the standing and walking really takes it out of me.

After 45 minutes rest, I got up and finished feeding all the houseplants on the first floor. Then I rested until the Senior van arrived to take me to another appointment.

It was near 50F on Wednesday and the snow started to melt. The contractor came late afternoon to snowblow but mostly ended up pushing the snow as it was too heavy to snowblow. But he got the paths mostly cleaned out.

I had lay down to watch the Dalai Lama movie and fallen asleep. The contractor woke me up so I got up and made something to eat. Outside of doing shades and fires, I didn’t get anything else done.

On Thursday I have to make 2 birthday cards, get caught up on my posts, and finish doing the bills/budget. My #4 helper arrives at 1:30PM and I have chores and errands for her. I have no idea what else we’ll do, but there’s a nice long list…. It’s to be cloudy and start raining in the afternoon. That ought to make a lovely slushy, muddy mess….