Casey O’Neill is a farmer and owner of Happy Day Farms in Laytonville, Calif. The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of The Mendocino Voice. If you’d like to write your own column for The Mendocino Voice, send your idea to info@mendovoice.com.
Looking back over the years, I think about how hard we worked as we began to farm. Building infrastructure, learning the tasks of cultivation, breaking ground and creating space to grow plants. I think about the paradox of having to work extra hard through enough repetitions to figure out ways to make the tasks easier, learning to evaluate with a critical eye, searching out ways to make each movement more efficient.
After fifteen years of working a little harder each year, it feels like we’re finally crossing a threshold where some things are getting easier. This doesn’t mean we’re working any less, but that we’re getting more done for our efforts. We’ve done the jobs enough times that I now find myself thinking, “You know what would make this easier?”
We slaughtered our last batch of spring meat birds this week, and I was struck by how much more smooth the operation has become. We manage the chicken tractors on the pasture, leaving the quad hooked up to the tow strap on the big 10’x20’ structure with the waterers mounted in the corners, minimizing steps for shifting the birds each day. We pre-soak feed in the barn, filling buckets for multiple feedings so that rations are ready at chore time.
The birds free-range for their last few weeks, but we close them back into the tractor the day before slaughter so that they’re easy to gather. We put them into totes early in the morning rather than catching them the night before like we used to. Then we drive from the ranch to my place where the equipment is set up and ready.
I used to haul buckets of water out to the scalder, making multiple trips before I had my coffee, but now I unroll 75 feet of Pex tubing that attaches to the hot water line at the wash pack sink and runs out to the scalder. I set this up the night before so that I can stumble outside at 4:30 in the morning and just flip on the valve to fill the scalder.
We used to haul three heavy coolers of ice to chill the birds in the cooling tanks, and then reload the coolers with birds and remaining ice for the trip to town to a friend’s walk-in cooler. Then a couple days later, another trip to town to package the birds and put them into the freezer. Now, birds come out of chill tanks onto bread crates and into our cold storage, skipping the back-breaking step of hauling the massively heavy coolers plus two trips to town.
Over time, we’ve refined our methods, abandoning practices that no longer serve, learning new ways of doing things from reading and communicating with other farmers. One of my favorite things is to go see how someone else does things, and I’m always happy to soak up a new possibility that will make my work easier. Being open about how we do things and ready to adopt new methods is key. I try not to get so set in my ways that I miss opportunities for improvement.
Planting has undergone a similar set of refinements for us over the years. We used to plant salad mixes, greens and root crops by hand from 48 cell trays that took up a lot of space in the greenhouse and had to be carried to the place where we’d plant them. Ten trays of salad mix meant five trips back and forth from the greenhouse. Now, two trays of Paperpot seedlings hold more cells, and I can carry them in the tray carrier in one hand along with the transplanter in the other. Planting takes less time and is easier on the body than the stoop labor of hand-planting.
We still hand-plant larger crops like brassica, squash, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and cannabis, but even here our methods have changed to make things easier. We use smaller pots than we used to, timing our plantings to go out quicker so that the plants don’t get stressed and utilizing shade cloth to protect the tender seedlings. Veggies shifted from four inch to three inch pots so we get 25 to the tray instead of 16. Cannabis plants are mostly done in five to six inch square pots that fit nine to a tray, rather than the larger one- to three-gallon round pots that required so many trips back and forth from propagation house to planting space.
They say ten thousand hours makes an artist, the time it takes to develop a craft, a way of doing things that works within a given context. There is always a “why” to the way we do things, but it shifts over time as new information, equipment and skills become available. The more we refine and revise, the more we sharpen the blade, makes the work easier and the results more beautiful. There is deep joy in efficient work that produces quality goods, and though there is always room for improvement, it feels good to be here now. As always, much love and great success to you on your journey!
Casey O’Neill owns and runs HappyDay Farms, a small vegetable and cannabis farm north of Laytonville. He is a long time cannabis policy advocate, and was born and raised in the Bell Springs area. The preceding has been an editorial column. The Mendocino Voice has not necessarily fact-checked or copyedited this work, and it should be interpreted as the words of the author, not necessarily reflecting the opinions of The Mendocino Voice.
Casey’s produce is the best! I try to stock up on it every trip to the Laytonville Feedstore!