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.
I like digging postholes for fencing, the rhythm of the work, the satisfaction as the pile of clay, dirt and rock builds up on the side of the hole. Using the digging bar when there are bigger rocks, breaking up the pieces and removing them. I like the mindless nature of the effort, the steady movement, the brief pauses for breath as the job moves along.
The return of the sun brings deep joy, making the work fun as we banter back and forth. It feels good to work in cooperation, friends and neighbors gathering in shared effort. It reminds me of what I value in this life, of how I want to be in the world. When the sun is out, it’s hard to have a bad day.
We’re building a high-tensile electric fence to keep livestock out of the creek in the north pasture. Once the fence is installed, we’ll plant willow stakes to regenerate the riparian area, running irrigation for a season or two and caging the plantings to keep the deer away. I’m excited to see the changes in the seasons to come as the willow gets established.
In the same pasture, we’re revamping the old ranch fences, adding in sections of coyote fencing, stabilizing ancient wooden fence posts with new t-posts and adding electric wire along the top to discourage predators. I’m excited to be able to run sheep and pigs in this zone, to start to build up the soil like we have in the pastures south and west of the barn. It feels good to see our management goals be more achievable with more space to work with.
The work is funded by a Roots Grant from Point Blue Conservation Sciences, with crucial help from our friend and fellow farmer Chris Moore. His expertise got the new electric fence charger and deep-cycle battery installed properly, and once we run all the lines, it will be a big upgrade from the small solar chargers we’ve been using, which work great when it’s sunny but run low on battery with multiple days of rain. More electric fencing with stronger perimeters gives us more options for moving livestock, which will lead to greater animal and pasture health and more carbon sequestration over time.
I’m glad to breathe new life into fencing that was built over the last hundred years. I think back to the times when I helped build and repair fences on the ranch as a kid, working for Jeff as he taught me about stretching wire, tamping posts and bracing corners. We three boys got paid to pull star thistle out of the pasture, little knowing that more than 30 years later we’d be back at it again. I’m appreciating the continuities of my life, the way things come back around.
Yesterday a group of us installed the new woodstove in the community center at the fire department after a significant year-long effort to rehabilitate the building. High Country Roofing did an excellent job putting the new roof on, and Oni and Noah installed new siding, trim and installed flooring, sealing up the leaks and making it all look beautiful. Tom painted the building and also put Varathane on the floor, Jono installed the power system and Matt built a tile hearth for the stove.
Tomorrow we’ll have a fire department board meeting in a warm building that will house the mountain school and all sorts of community events in the years to come. I think back on the good times I’ve had in the earlier iterations of the structure, and feel gratitude to Luna and Akua Angel and fond memories of Moese and Vidal Angel and Dan Ryan. As people have come and gone from our lives here on the hill, the sense of community continues.
The feeling of generational transfer is strong these days as I see the children of the community scampering around while we adults carry on the work at hand. I think back to being one of those kids a generation ago, and look forward to eventually being one of the elders who passes on the torch in the decades to come. The sense of continuity-in-place is one of the greatest treasures of my life, and it is built on the shared work and contribution that is the foundation for community.
With the return of the sun, it feels like 2026 has really begun, and I’m excited for the season to come. Yesterday I sowed the first greens of the year: lettuces, arugula, tatsoi, purple choy, green and purple mizuna and hakurei salad turnips. Today I’ll sow broccoli, cabbage, collards, kale, bok choy, beets, scallions and salanova head lettuce. I’m glad to feel the excitement of a new season after the darkness of the solstice and many days of rain. It gives me hope. As always, much love and great success to you on your journey!
Love your articles but do not care for all the plastic that growers like your self continue to pollute the county with we all know that the sun brakes it down sooner or later and what do you do with all that plastic that breaks down on your hoop tunnels? I have been using my glass greenhouse for 40 years and have only broke 3 panes in all that time. There’s so much disintegrated plastic in the hills that it’s heartbreaking and it will be there for centuries