KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The community came out on Saturday morning to celebrate the raising of a new barn for Kelseyville High School's agricultural program.

Kelseyville Unified Superintendent Dave McQueen welcomed about 100 people to the morning ribbon-cutting, and recognized the community-wide effort that went into completing the project.

Jared Smith, a member of Kelseyville High School's Future Farmers of America chapter, spoke about the FFA's mission.

FFA is “building the leaders of tomorrow right here today, at Kelseyville High,” he said.

“We are so excited for this barn,” Smith added, offering his thanks to the community, district administration, the school, teachers and advisors.

The new 2,500-square-foot steel barn took a year and a half to complete, and will be available to the 200 students who are in the agriculture program, according to Kyle Reams, the district's maintenance director and one of the people who helped guide the barn's construction.

McQueen told Lake County News that the barn was completed for $80,000, with community donations – from individuals, businesses and the Kelseyville Business Association – helping to fund it. “It was just unbelievable.”

He said it was a fun project. “I really enjoyed doing it.”

Reams also recognized the team effort that went into completing the barn. “We're all family here.”

Before the new barn was built, ag teacher Donelle McCallister and other ag students offered their own barn space to those students who needed it, Reams said.

Reams said the barn project was one that required a lot of research, including looking at other school agriculture projects around Northern California.

“There isn't a book that says this is how you build a barn for a school,” Reams said.

The learning curve for the district included having to put the barn construction out to bid three times due to what Reams called “unforeseen legalities.”

School construction laws also changed during the course of the barn project, said Reams.

However, the result, according to Reams, is one of the biggest new school barns in Northern California.

Reams said the building was overengineered to ensure it was extremely safe. It features reinforced concrete and deep footings for each of the barn's supporting columns.

He said the barn can house anything from chickens to livestock, and on Saturday there were a variety of critters on hand – including a pig who had plenty to say during the dedication ceremony, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens and lambs.

The barn has both concrete and dirt floors to meet the conditions needed for different types of livestock, Reams said.

There also is a wash area, a roll up door on one end to allow trailers to be backed into the barn, places for feed and equipment storage, and plenty of ventilation – along with fans and swamp coolers – for the animals, as well as heat lamps for colder conditions.

Reams said they have large, heavy blankets that can be used to cover the barn's sides in order to protect the animals from both the sun and the cold weather.

“This is a program that works all year-round,” Reams said.

The barn's completion is just one of what Reams estimated will be about 20 steps for the school's agriculture complex, which also includes three large greenhouses that were open for a plant sale on Saturday.

Now that the barn is complete, there are other projects ahead, including lighting, walkways and additional covered structures, and goals for a small vineyard so students can learn more about the area's growing winegrape industry, he said.

The building also is modular, so Reams said it can be expanded in the future.

Reams called the barn project “an amazing task.”

He added, “This barn will be here 50 years.”

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Lake County has been known for decades for its pears, and a couple who has been among its leading growers shared memories and knowledge of the crop at a special event last week.

Skip Rohner, accompanied by wife Carolyn, entertained community members at the Ely Stage Stop and Country Museum on Saturday, March 28, as part of the museum's new “Living History” series.

Sitting out on the museum's broad porch that overlooks Mt. Konocti, the Rohners shared the extensive knowledge of the county's pear industry that they earned through decades of farming.

The Rohners are now retired, although they continue to live on the family farm in Kelseyville.

Both were raised in pear-growing families and had memories to share of work in the orchards and pear packing sheds.

Skip Rohner was born in St. Helena and lived with is family in Berkeley before moving to Lake County, first working on the Quercus Ranch with his father when he was about 12 or 13 years old.

His family had pear farms at various locations around the county, including Upper Lake and Kelseyville, and also had their own packing shed. His father, Hans, had one of the county's first wind machines.

In 1955, Skip Rohner started out farming on his own after getting out of the service, and partnered with his father in packing and selling pears under the “Color-ful” label.

Carolyn Rohner was raised on a farm on Merritt Road, which was named for her grandfather, Fred Merritt. She grew up working on the farm and in the packing sheds.

Their children today carry on the work. His son now farms in his stead, and her daughter, Diane Henderson, is one of the local industry's leading growers and experts today.

It was Carolyn Rohner's idea for her husband to speak at the history series, although she acknowledged in an interview after the well-received presentation, “I had a heck of a time talking Skip into even coming.”

During the hour-long talk, Skip Rohner went over the changes in the industry over the years and some of the challenges of pear farming, and answered questions about pear profitability, spraying and pests, finding workers, profits and costs, and water supply.

He said the tonnage of pears topped out at about 80,000 tons annually during harvest – which he told Lake County News afterward that he estimated occurred in the 1980s – with tonnage now down to about 40,000 tons a year.

When Lake County's pear industry was at its height, Skip Rohner estimated that there were 75 to 100 growers; now, there are 12.

Pear trees can be hardy and productive over long periods of time. Skip Rohner said they have 150-year-old trees that are still producing, which his wife told Lake County News is a matter of good tree stock and good soil.

Pears, he said, have to be picked green. Pear growers then, as now, had to find willing workers to pick the pears, strenuous work that involves going up and down ladders with heavy bags.

In the 1930s many of the pear pickers were people who had come to Lake County to escape the Dust Bowl. “In those early days, that's the pickers we had,” he said, noting he had families that came to pick every year.

Now, contractors come in to provide labor, but finding workers today remains a challenge due, in part, to what Skip Rohner called a “broken immigration system.”

Local pears used to be shipped from a rail station in Ukiah to the East Coast by railcars that used ice to keep the pears cool, but now they're transported by refrigerated trucks, he said.

Lake County pears compete with those grown in Mendocino County and the Sacramento Valley, he said. There also are a lot of pears grown in parts of the world such as Australia and China.

“The pickers, packers, sellers and the buyers, and especially retailers, get all the money first, the grower gets what's left over,” Skip Rohner laughed.

Added, his wife, “I always said if I hadn't been born and raised in this pear industry, I would have had enough sense to do something else.”

For many years, they had aimed to get 15 cents a pound, Skip Rohner said. Now, they get 18 cents a pound or more. And now, when the orchards are pulled, they're being replaced by grapes.

Explaining pest control, he said the trees used to be sprayed by hand, but now they have speed sprayers and puffers, and pest control advisors like Broc Zoller, known as “the Pear Doctor.”

Carolyn Rohner recalled as a girl seeing Henry Mauldin, a pear farmer and a Lake County historian, coming to spray with a team of horses in Big Valley.

“It was just awe-inspiring to me,” she said, adding that she enjoyed watching the lights and horses work through the night. “It was quite exciting.”

Skip Rohner also went over the lengthy list of permits, certificates and requirements required on an annual basis for pear farmers.

He estimated pear orchards need to produce about at least 20 tons per acre to be profitable, with an orchard needing to be at least 50 acres.

He explained that pears require a lot of water, and that he's had challenges in the past with pulling water out of the water table. He recalled that the 1976-77 drought year was “about like we're having now,” and had to dig three new wells down 200 feet to find water.

At one time there also had been many packing sheds; Skip Rohner estimated there were a total of 14, with four in Finley alone. Each packing house had its own label. Several were co-ops.

“One by one, they're closing up,” Carolyn Rohner said.

Skip Rohner said they work to get 50 to 60 percent of their pears on the fresh market, versus those that end up being used for canning. The canners paid a good price last year because there was a pear shortage.

Asked about the best aspect of pear farming, he explained, “It gets in your blood. That's the best part.”

The full video of Skip Rohner's presentation can be seen below.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.