This is our farm column from farmer Casey O’Neill. O’Neill is the owner operator of HappyDay Farms north of Laytonville, and a long time advocate for the cannabis community in Mendocino Co; more of his writing can be found here. The opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer. If you would like to submit a letter to the editor feel free to write to [email protected].
It’s amazing what a few days of sun will do for crop growth and my state of mind. Yesterday I felt like I was flying, sowing seeds, and reveling in the deep joy of warmth and the scent of the daphnes blooming. Some friends came up to help for a few hours and we got three beds cleared of old salad mixes so that I can prep them and plant them in new salad mixes that are coming along in their paperpot trays.
As the farm gets more efficient, the soil softer and richer, and our practices become more capable, I find that clearing the beds is the most daunting part of the task. Like most things, once we get into the work, it ends up not being so bad. A sunny afternoon with friends and now I’m ready for the next steps.
On Thursday we moved the two ewes and their 4 lambs out onto green grass in one section of pasture surrounded by electric fencing to keep them in and predators out. The three male sheep were in the other section, and we brought out Tank and Ms. Piggie so the pigs could graze on the abundant grasses. Both are overweight, and a return to movement and a grass diet will help bring their gains under control. It feels so good to watch the animals enjoying the forage and laying around in the sun, napping with full bellies in obvious contentment.
We’ve been reveling in the sun, acting as though true spring had come, but we’re in for a rude awakening with the big weather shift coming at the end of the week. All winter we’ve been making plans for what we’ll do when the inevitable big snow arrives, and now the time is coming to put those plans into action.
This afternoon I’ll be irrigating and laying frost blanket over the outdoor beds that I sowed, and I’ll irrigate the hoophouses heavily before shutting off the water and draining the systems for the cold weather that’s coming in tomorrow night. As the late week snow storm approaches, I’ll be covering up the beds in the hoophouses with insect netting to keep the birds away from the crops during the snow.
We learned some hard lessons last year about crop damage from birds who seek refuge inside the tunnels during the heavy snows, so this year I’m not taking any chances. I’ll also be installing 2×4 props underneath some of the hoophouse bows to help provide additional support, hoping to avoid the kinds of catastrophic collapse that we had last year. At our 3000 foot elevation, snow is a “when”, not an “if”, so we’ve been making plans all winter for the inevitable and I feel ready to put them into action.
Before the storm, all the pigs will be moved back into the barn where they can stay snug in a piggie pile nestled in straw. The chicken coop is in the barn but we’ll have some work to do with hard fence panels to keep them enclosed and predators out because the snow will short out the electric netting. The sheep will head to the stalls in the North side of the barn, where we can keep them fed and comfortable with stored hay, and Booboo the livestock dog will move into the barn as well.
In my mind’s eye there lives an idyllic scene of feeding animals in the barn during the snowstorm, with quiet munching and everyone nestled in comfortably. Last winter was the first year we had animals at the ranch, and things did not go that way by any means. We had chickens out on pasture and pigs in pens with shelters out away from the barn. It was difficult to lug feed out to everyone and doubly so to keep the water going.
This year I’m hoping to learn from those hard lessons and have everyone brought into the barn and to leave the hoses running a trickle to prevent freezing so we have a steady supply of water without having to bucket it in. I’m hopeful that this will be a single wallop of snow, rather than the multi-storm megasnow event we had last year, and that I’ll soon be able to get back to the work of prepping beds and sowing seeds.
Winter farming is always a gamble, and I’ve been thinking about the randomness of this season. During my lifetime, any given week of winter has been under snow, rain or sun, and you never know what you’re gonna get. We do our best to prepare for the possibilities, and we learn new lessons each year as we practice our craft. As always, much love and great success to you on your journey!
