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.
We’re back on the road after another Saturday at the State Fair to celebrate the Home Grow competition winners and connect with customers at the Redwood Roots booth where our herb is for sale through Embarc. We combined the trip with Farmers Market Friday activations at the GreenGold stores in San Andreas, Sonora and Arnold. It’s been a whirlwind that will wrap up today with demos at the Petaluma and Sebastopol Solful shops, then home to the farm to get back to work.
Yesterday, while we were at the fair, a fire started on the hill at our neighbor’s place. It was gut-wrenching to be so far away while an existential threat to our lives unfolded. I couldn’t focus on connecting with customers, so I stepped away to work the phone, activating the text message program we use for our volunteer department to let firefighters know the conditions as I received them from folks on the ground. I was glad to be able to help in some small way while we waited to hear what would happen.
Cal Fire sent everything at it with multiple engines and ground crews, tanker drops and chopper support dipping water from our pond and dropping it on the fire. The quick response from Cal Fire, Laytonville Fire and the Bell Springs Volunteers stopped the fire at five acres even though it had gotten into brushy woodland. We were very lucky that it wasn’t super windy and that so many resources were available. We’re deeply grateful for the strong response.
It was an awful feeling to be so powerless in the face of fear, hours from home and waiting miserably for word of our fate. I was deeply, emotionally moved by how many friends reached out with support, ready to drop everything to come to our aid if we needed it. Thinking about it now in the calm aftermath, I treasure the community in which I live and the knowledge that we care for each other and show up when times get tough. Moving livestock during a fire is no small task, but folks were at the ready with trucks and trailers if the word came down that we had to evacuate, as well as offers of support for any help that we needed.
To be so scared and far from home but to know that folks had our back made me teary-eyed and grateful. The adrenaline of the whole experience was intense. When the call came that Cal Fire had it under control with a line around the fire and was beginning mop-up, the relief and the adrenaline crash that followed meant that it was time to pack up early and head out from the fair. We’re grateful to our good friend in San Leandro who lets us stay with him when we’re on the road, and it was a deep relief to arrive and settle in for the night.
Drinking coffee on a cool summer morning in the bay, I’m thinking about fire preparedness and what it means to be ready as a family, a farm, a community. We have fire pumps with dedicated tanks at each homestead, but they aren’t all set up even though it’s July. We haven’t done a fire drill training on the farm this summer, and I realize how lax we’ve been with the overall cooler, milder weather we’ve had thus far. Amber always says “pray for gentle lessons.” I’m grateful that we get another chance to deploy our resources and do the correct training so that we’re ready for the next time a fire happens.
In our Mediterranean landscape with such long dry periods, fire is a “when,” not an “if.” We’ve done significant infrastructure work to be ready for fire, but there is still more work on deploying sprinklers and making sure that everyone knows what to do when fire breaks out. Plans for livestock and structure protection are variable because of the multiple homesteads and separate ranch property with barn and house, so we need different prescriptions depending on where the fire is and the conditions, including temperatures, humidity, wind speeds and time of day.
I’m saddened for my neighbor who lost a cabin, but I’m grateful that the fire didn’t spread and become a bigger blaze threatening the neighborhood. These types of incidents remind us that we need to be prepared, to go to fire training even though we’re all busy and don’t feel like we have time for it. This coming week, we’ll do a training on the farm, going over the fire pumps and water systems, locations of fire hoses and sprinklers and contingency plans for what to do in a fire event.
Despite all the excitement, life moves along, and I’m glad that this week we’ll slaughter our last batch of meat birds, and soon we’ll begin harvesting light dep. The summer workload gets overwhelming, but the feeling of finishing out some of the projects we’ve committed to is worth the challenge as we turn towards the changing of the season, sowing fall brassica and planting the next successions of the crops to come. As always, much love and great success to you on your journey!