HappyDay: Setting the Cycle in Motion

Casey O’Neill is a cannabis and food farmer in Mendocino County who has been writing newsletters about his efforts to provide sustainable produce and marijuana. We feature his column once a week.

      It’s always easy to set the cycles in motion, sitting in a warm house drinking coffee and talking about the season to come while the rain pounds the windows.  Once begun though, each cycle must be maintained through to its finish, and they tend to compound over time.

      As meat birds get bigger they need more food and care, and today the first batch will go out onto pasture.  Plants grow from seeds and need tending and harvesting, while weeds flourish and need pulling.  There is much to be done but the days are long and I relish the effort.

      One of my favorite things is to head out the door with no specific work agenda, moving through tasks as I encounter them.  I love to flow from one thing to the next, allowing the urge to do a given job to pull me through each step.  This method works well for cleaning and organizing, as so many things are interconnected that there becomes a rhythm to the effort.

       During the course of the week I’ll do dozens of different tasks, each using a range of tools, equipment and materials.  How well I do at putting them away when I’m done has a lot to do with how effective I am in the long run.  Knowing where to find things is a critical part of the operation, and time spent looking is waste and frustration.

       There is more happening on the farm this spring than in any previous year, with new veggie tunnels, more livestock and new cannabis hoops.  The coordination of it all takes time and effort but is worth it for the payoff of smooth operations.  May is the time when I find the issues with my spring cup-of-coffee planning sessions.

      Each year I get a little better at the planning and the practice, gauging timelines and workload.  This is the first year that I haven’t felt behind, struggling to play catchup and sacrificing quality of life to do so.  So far, we’re right on the ball!

       Riding the on-time-line is a profound feeling if I can settle into it.   Knowing that I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing at the time that it is supposed to be done is confirmation, a deep calm in my psyche and body.  Flowing through the work without worrying about what else needs to be done is a gift that I strive to give myself.

      So often I feel pulled in multiple directions, like I should be doing something else at the same time.  The weight of plants awaiting their turn in the earth as they sit in pots can be heavy on the mind, a commitment made but not yet honored.  After years of promising them, I’ve finally gotten the rabbits into a mobile tractor that I move across the pasture, giving them access to fresh forage every day.

       Multi-purpose and re-purposed equipment is a huge part of my farming strategy.  I get a kick out of scavenging or creating anew from materials that I already have onsite.  Amber and I took an old chicken tractor and partitioned it into two sections for male and female rabbits.  A length of the no-climb metal fencing with 2”x4” rectangles wrapped the bottom of the tractor so that the rabbits can’t dig out, but that the spacing is big enough for them to access the forage underneath.  Now I just move it a bit each morning.

       Tending plants brings that same lovely feeling of “something for nothing”, in which I tend and watch the growth of abundance with joy.  Comfrey is one of my favorites in this realm, because I can dig it and divide it ad infinitum and there will always be more.  It is so easy to replicate and I’m planting it anywhere I can find a damp spot that isn’t slated for annual crops.

       Our farm purchases a lot of mulch for garden beds, importing organic straw or alfalfa from somewhere else.  Comfrey and alfalfa are both abundant biomass producers, and over the years they have grown to encompass many edges and cut banks on the terraces.  I look forward to a time perhaps ten years down the line when there will be enough biomass on farm to provide for all of our mulch and livestock needs.

       Honoring the commitment to pasture for the meat birds delights me, watching them run, jump and forage in the grass makes me smile in happiness.  Seeing the growth in the pasture over time because of the rotation of the birds brings the deep joy of positive change through effort, a realization of beneficial impact.  As much as these changes are wrought, they bring about change in me in the give-and-take of life.  As always, much love and great success to you on your journey!