May 20 – We’re all set up! Plant Sale starts tomorrow.

Here are the Plant Descriptions and Plant Order Form in Excel and as a PDF . As you can tell, this year the variety of veggie starts is smaller, and once again I’m focused primarily on tomatoes – yum! – Fresh, dried, roasted, canned juice, sauce and soup base…but I get ahead of myself…and here is a Self-Service Guide for your visit to my Sanity Shack. I hope to see you in the greenhouse behind our big red barn on Benfield Farm in Corbett, OR.

It’s Saturday, May 7th. Today, at our local Grange Hall, Columbia Grange 267, there’s a Plant Share and Open House going on. Free seeds and starts and information on our Grange activities. For example, tonight there’s a Blue Grass concert. Tomorrow is Mother’s Day so Happy Mother’s Day!

As for Sara’s Sanity shack, bad news first. Some critter has once again eaten most of my pepper starts. As I understand it from Katie and Montana of Fiddlehead Farms, it’s likely a mouse. Apparently they love peppers and cucurbits. That tragedy plus the constant rain certainly put the damper on my greenhouse work yesterday, but Katie and Montana (and Jerry) have advised me on the fix — a cloth that can be laid across the flats at night when the mice roam the darkness in search of a tasty snack.

Now for the good news. The tomatoes are going/growing strong! Check out the latest gallery additions. And the broccoli, chives, and lettuce are coming along splendidly. Parsley and Basil are still small but pushing upward.

The Plant Sale will start on Saturday, May 21, but if you would like to place your order now, just fill out the order form or simply list what you want in an email and I’ll fill the order and have it ready for you. First come first serve so I’ll select the biggest/strongest.

Today is Wednesday, April 27, 2022. Say it again, Sara. It’s Wednesday and April and it’s 2022. Okay… So welcome back to Sara’s Sanity Shack. What does Spring look like in Corbett? Like Spring in Tennessee, weather patterns moving through several times a day. Like Spring anywhere I suspect, plant births – a sequential peaking above ground, reaching upwards, and then, emerging blooms and fullness, and then a shower of petals blown through the air dotting the ground with pinks and whites, followed by emerging leaves and reaching branches. Spring here, likely as everywhere, and as weather permits, work outside begins – clean-up of branches, cutting and stacking fallen wood/trees, and oh yes, weeding! Garden prep begins.

In the greenhouse, my babies are growing albeit slowly, and thriving. Gills, Roma, San Mariano and Brandywine tomato varieties are out front. I’ve divided all the tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce, chives and scallions. Those dear pepper starts will likely be the laggers as always.

I’ve added a few photos to the gallery from my wandering through the yard and greenhouse. Thanks for being a part of my life.

It’s April 13th and the weather’s rolling through – first rain, then sleet, then thunder and now bright sunshine gleaming through cumulonimbus clouds. On Monday, April 11 we got about 12 inches of snow. That’s crazy! Our lilac and cherry trees are budding, fruit trees blooming, and the forsythia, weigela, azaleas, camellia, daffodils and bleeding heart have been out for more than a week. Snow Bells have long since come and gone. Portland reported that it’s the first-ever April snowfall recorded. I’ve added a few snow shots in the gallery.

So I went to the greenhouse and looked back at what I journaled last year, in 2021, and guess what. In April, 2021 I noted wildfires in the surrounding Counties. I didn’t believe it and just researched it and sure enough, last year the first wildfire started April 18 and burned over 1600 acres in Klamath County. That was the beginning of the fire season. The 2020 fire season didn’t start until August.

On to the babies in the greenhouse! Most of the tomatoes have their first true leaves – check out the photos – but all of those little creatures are still so small. Up-coming tasks include dividing the tomatoes and giving them some organic fertilizer, and replanting some of the seeds that didn’t germinate.

I hope you are all well and navigating the dynamics of the current world we live in – dictators and global warming – and are experiencing and supporting peace, love, creative expression, and the beauty and health of the natural world.

It’s April 2nd and I’m in that hurry up and wait period. It’s so cool to see those baby plants push up out of the soil and sprout their first wings. All the tomatoes have germinated, half the peppers and then what seems random — so has the broccoli, chives, scallions, and basil but why not the cilantro, leeks and celery?! – Patience Sara. Of course, that’s what the Sanity Shack is all about – Patience and realizing I can influence but I can’t control. A Life-Long Lesson…in capitals!

On a related topic, I attended an Oregon State Grange Growth Summit on membership and met about 40 Graingers from across the state. All but about 5 of the attendees were/are over 60 – thus the membership conversation. I met a woman named Marilyn from Tualatin’s Winona Grange and she was giving away BOXES of seeds that she gets every year from WinCo or Walmart – leftover inventory. So I brought home a box of seeds for our local Columbia Grange plant and seed sharing event in early May. Cool!

It’s March 16, 2022 in Corbett, Oregon and as with every Spring, rain and sunshine pass through several. times a day, with a little hail and breezes mixed in for good measure. Masks optional in Oregon as of 3/13 so I am now able to see the smiling faces of neighbors when I pick up the mail at the Corbett Post Office. And as always this time of year, we look around inside and out and see the list of things to be done – the tree that blew down in the front yard, the tiny branches that are everywhere, the wood pile that will need to be renewed, dirty windows, gutters that need cleaning as well and that sunflower shower that’s been in process for 20 years now that just MUST get done this year!

But first the greenhouse gets swept and dusted, and the seed packages inventoried and selected for this year’s planting, and tables and heat mats and planters filled with dirt. It rains and hail pounds the ceiling and walls while I am dry and delighted to be outside but inside the greenhouse that is my haven.

I’ve started 15 varieties of tomatoes, 8 of peppers and a smattering of herbs and other veggies that prefer to be started indoors. Here are a few photos. As this greenhouse season begins, it’s reminding me that we will all be meeting up as the weather warms and we begin our gardening. Love to all of us and this Earth, our Home.

Happy Spring Everyone.