Captain Jeff Hedlund manages Brusco Tug & Barge’s Northern California operation in Stockton, where he started as a deckhand in 1973.

While Rose Loveall oversees the plants at Morningsun Herb Farm, her husband Dan Sale handles maintenance and business operations. When the duo opened their nursery 20 years ago, they started with just one small greenhouse and two hoop houses. Since then, Sale has built another greenhouse and eight more hoop houses, in addition to the small gardens that dot the property.

Stephen Lyman, owner of Fence World, has been in the family fencing business since he was a boy (on payroll since the age of 10, he says). “This is one of the decorative arts that is just limitless — the things you can’t do in wood, you can do in iron,” Lyman says with pride. “You can’t build a bridge like the Golden Gate out of wood. It has to be steel.”

Two years ago Addison Quarles opened Addison’s Bicycle Reparium, where he says he’ll work on anything “new, old or esoteric.”

Andy Heape has been a California Department of Fish and Wildlife technician at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery in Gold River — where he sorts, fertilizes and counts salmon — for 15 years.

Jeremy Shepherd has been tending to his growing flock since 2009. He sells mutton to local markets but also works his herds as mobile mowers with local farmers in Yolo County. 

Nicole Castles teaches UC Davis Children’s Hospital in Sacramento. Castles is the sole instructor for all school-aged children in the pediatrics ward, as well as school-age patients in other wings of the hospital. In a given week she’ll schedule bedside sessions with as many as 30 students.

Bridge worker Scott Bennett has been tending to the iconic Sacramento structure for 12 years. 

Waylin Carpenter has been building custom, classical guitars in his home workshop in Sacramento since 2000. Carpenter makes 5-, 6- and 7-string guitars, and each can take 150 to 200 hours to complete. He is about to finish his 20th guitar.