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Monthly Archives: September 2010

Someone cut the lock!

Posted on September 30, 2010 by Mikal

A friend who lives down the road and grows a small medical marijuana garden just called to tell me that last night at around 8pm, someone cut the lock on her gate. She assumes that they drove in, saw that the other resident was there in his cabin with the lights on and left. Oddly enough, the lock was just dummy-hooked. They didn’t have to cut it, but could have just unhooked it had they messed with it for a couple seconds. This indicates they came prepared to cut a lock, so there was clearly ill-intent.

This sort of thing adds to the tension around here this time of year. Lots of strangers come into town either with harvest work lined up already or in the hope of finding work. Others come here to scam and steal. This was someone who had cased the place already. She should get some motion-activated alarms, at minimum. Or a dog. If that happened to me, where I knew someone had clearly intended to rip me off, it’s hard to say I would not be tempted to arm myself in case they came back. It’s creepy when it happens to someone you know. I hope she at least has a sharp machete by the door.

Posted in Daily Life Of A Pot Farmer, Reefer growing madness |

So Busted!

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Mikal

The rain on Saturday night saturated the buds and caused plants all over SoHum to snap unless the grower had them very well staked and tied. There are many ways to support plants and I hope to show some photos of them soon. This photo is what happens with no staking at all.

BUSTED!

Believe it or not, this plant will survive. I was at the grower’s place feeding her dog and discovered the fallen plants this morning. I’m sure most growers spent Sunday and Monday tying up broken plants and shaking water off the buds. Since my friend (a personal-use medical grower), is still out of town, I staked the plant up for her and splinted the broken stems, not the first time I’ve put my EMT skills to use on a plant.

When I checked later, after half a day in the sun, the leaves weren’t wilted, so the plant is likely to make a full recovery. Now the hope everywhere is that water-saturated buds don’t mold in the unseasonably cool, moist air.

Posted in Daily Life Of A Pot Farmer |

GET U THE STRANS U WANT on Humboldt Craigslist!

Posted on September 19, 2010 by Mikal

Kym Kemp, in her blog, Redheaded Blackbelt, notes the following post on Humboldt Craigslist in “Farm And Garden” (note that the titles below are links, but I’m having some glitch that is not coloring them green as usual):

Get a Job Manicuring Weed–215 Trim Chicks Needed

Need valid card holders to work. 200 a p. Send pic and number for response. U may be searched upon entering and leaving site. Again I have to be able to verify ur script to work on medicine.

The following two posts are also up at present, neither inspiring much in the way of confidence. If you’re bored, digging around the Farm And Garden section often turns up these sorts of gems, along with the more predictable ads for grow lights, fans and filters. All I can say is, dude, what are you smoking?

215 SHARECROP WE GROW4U (AT THE SPOT)

K YOU GOT YOUR LIC. TO SMOKE NOW ITS ALSO THE SAME EXACT ONE TO GROW Y PAY 350 400 AN OZ FOR THE BEST IN THE CLUB CALL A SHARECROP AND APOINT A LIC. PRO TO GROW 4 U CHOOSE YOUR HYDRO 3 MONTH HARVEST WHITH YOUR EATIBLES OPTOIN GET 89 PLANTS GROWN 4 U NOW WE HAVE MADE IT SIMPLE THIS IS THE 3RD 215 LEGAL GROW HOUSE IN THE STATE OF CALIFORINA TO GROW 4 INDVISUALS I USE TO GET MY GROWERS HOOKED UP WHITH CLUBS NOW ALL THE GROWERS INVESTED IN THERE LINE OF WORK TO GROW 4 THE 215 CARD HOLDER THE BEST I WILL HELP U GET ALL PAPERS FILLED OUT GET U THE STRANS U WANT AND THERE IT IS A HARVEST EVERY 3 MONTHS 4 U TO WALLOW IN YOUR FRUITS BUT HURRY ITS A BIG GROW HOUSE BUT SPACE IS LIMITED FIRST COME FIRST SERVE 300 SPOTS IN ALL 4 A HYDRO GROWER WE HAVE 3 GROWERS TAKING 150 CLIENTS 4 OUR JANUARY 2011 PLANTING OF THE HURBS 215 CROPS IT WILL BE HARVESTED IN OCTOBER 2011 AND ANY GROWERS LET ME KNOW IF U GOT ANY ROOM 4 215 GROWING WHEREEVER AND WE CAN POSIBLY FIND CLIENTS 4 UR GROWING SO HURRY 5K EVERY 3 MONTHS GETS UR PLANTS GROWN 4 U

Cannabis marijuana clone’s (paso robles)

For now I have 2 different kind’s og Kush and jack Herrera clone’s there will be more verity in the near future. The clones are $10 each but there are price breaks at 10, 25, 50, ext…. All you have to do is call or email me and place an order for how many you want to buy. I will let you know when I can have you order ready cash on delivery. When you order is ready you have a couple options you can meet me or I can deliver. If you want them delivered you just have to pay for gas also I won’t go very far if you only want one you have to come to me. I have 215 card but let’s talk anyway it’s up to you. All clone’s have root’s when you get them.
For more information: ask for Kevin. Looking to hear from you soon.
Phone (805) 406-xxxx

Or email me at kevxxxx@hotmail.com
[personal details removed]

If anyone finds any other fun ads to share, post them here or email the link and text to me and I’ll post them.

Posted in Craigslist Pot-Related Posts |

Ripoff Moon

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Mikal

By Mikal Jakubal
“The ripoff moon. That’s what my grandpa used to call it…the ripoff moon.”

Ripoff moon

“Yes,” I mumbled under my breath to my friend standing next to me, “he should know.” The speaker was, after all, the notorious ripoff son of said grandpa, himself a notorious ripoff. A friend and I were talking with him in front of my place, across the street from the junkyard and jumbled cluster of squalid hovels where the family lives.

He was referring to the full moon of late September. While still several days away, it is already bright enough to permit movement at night without a flashlight. This is the most dangerous and risky time for growers. The entire year’s work is riding on the hope that the next two to five weeks will go well. While the marijuana crop is not at peak harvest quality, it is mature enough to be smokable, salable and, unfortunately, stealable. By next month, with harvest in full swing, each farm will be abuzz with workers busily cutting, hanging and trimming the marijuana. But now, it is still quiet, with most growers doing the guarding themselves.

Anywhere you find an abundance of illicit wealth you will find an abundance of thieves. Some are locals—such as the family across the street from me—who make their living ripping off others’ marijuana harvest. In other cases, low-lifes come here from elsewhere with the intent of reaping what others have grown. Thieves in pot country are considered the lowest of the low, the scummiest of the scum, probably even lower on the totem pole of social respect than snitches.

Most growers I know rely on the remoteness of their homesteads—security through obscurity—for protection against ripoffs. Many also have dogs and simple security systems such as motion-activated lights or alarms to alert them to intruders. All have fences to protect the marijuana and the rest of their garden from deer. One grower I know has a large greenhouse with chicken wire air-nailed and battened to the inside of the stud framing, adding an additional layer of difficulty to any attempted break-in.

Almost ready…

The real fear of most pot farmers I know is what is generically referred to as “armed home invasion,” where there is a forcible break-in involving weapons and a direct confrontation. In most cases, ripoffs will flee the garden if they think they have been seen. They are only there for an easy heist that isn’t worth the risk of a confrontation with an angry grower who may be armed or at least recognize them if they’re local. In an armed home invasion, the thieves are more determined, aggressive and unpredictable.

I haven’t seen any law enforcement statistics on this, but my overall impression is that these sort of violent conflicts have increased in the last half-dozen years. The actual numbers are also likely far higher than any official statistics, since many crimes go unreported due to the pirate nature of the industry. I should note that the fact that marijuana is becoming mainstream and tolerated might mean that the apparent increase is actually just an increase in reporting, now that busting hippies for a few plants is no longer a law-enforcement priority in Humboldt County or most of California.

Growers I know have responded to this perceived threat in a number of ways, mostly involving more security devices, fences, dogs and, unfortunately, guns. Many sleep in or near their pot patch this time of the year. While I have yet to talk to anyone who says that pot is worth killing anyone over or dying for, those who carry weapons usually phrase it as a matter of self-defense against an armed intruder. While they say they wouldn’t kill someone for ripping off their marijuana plants, they might shoot back—or shoot first—if the intruder points a gun at them.

A couple days ago, I talked to someone who lives down the same paved road I live on about his situation. He is not far off the road and only has a deer fence for protection. He has to leave to work elsewhere during the day. The patch is in his large vegetable garden, eighty feet from the house and too far to hear an intruder cutting plants while he is sleeping at night. He says he plans to put up motion-activated alarms soon [dude, do it now!], but in the meantime, he describes his situation like this:

“Every morning I get up and go down to the garden first thing to see if my marijuana is still there. Every evening when I get back from work I go down to see if it’s still there. So far it has been. Tomorrow it may all be gone. I could lose the entire year’s crop and the majority of my year’s income in a few minutes when my back is turned, but I can’t let it run my life. I have work to do in the day, I have to sleep at night and I don’t have anyone else here to guard it for me. You can’t be attached to an outcome in a situation like this. It’s like this every frickin’ year, so I’ve learned to accept that I might get nothing and then be grateful for whatever harvest I do get.”

While unarmed, my neighbor does keep a big, sharp machete by the door in case he has to go out at night and confront someone, noting, finally, “I always sleep a little easier once this full moon is past.”

Posted in Daily Life Of A Pot Farmer, Reefer growing madness | 3 Comments |

Environmental Cost Of Pot Video.

Posted on September 16, 2010 by Mikal

Though apparently posted in May, this is the first time I’ve seen it. The video—with SoHum scenery and personalities, among others—covers the environmental damage caused by diesel pollution from remote, diesel-generator-powered grows, the trash and poison left behind on public lands by large grows and the energy used in on-grid grows. This is all true and fair enough (though I’m skeptical that the haze in the one scene is actually from diesel generators).

The benign alternative to this “pollution pot,” as some people here call it, is small-scale, organic growing operations on private homesteads or backyards. That’s what my documentary peeps are all about.

Posted in Uncategorized |

A Typical Scene In SoHum: Solar Panels And Pot Garden.

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Mikal

This small, off-the-grid homestead has its solar-electric panels in the middle of the marijuana garden—the sunniest part of the site.

Posted in Daily Life Of A Pot Farmer |

How Much Does Weed Cost?

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Mikal

One of the most amusing and interesting weed websites I’ve ever seen. Amazing that no one thought of this before.

http://www.priceofweed.com/
From the site: We want to crowdsource the street value of marijuana from the most accurate source possible: you, the consumer. Help by anonymously submitting data on the latest transaction you’ve made.

They have an interactive website where you can put in the price you’ve recently paid for marijuana and your location, anywhere in the world. A quick look shows that Oregon is the place for cheap weed, with an ounce of “high quality” going for about $278. On the East Coast, Midwest and South, it is running consistently over $400/oz, with ounces in West Virginia  fetching an outrageous $553.

To the extent that this is accurate—it is not terribly scientific, to say the least—it shows that despite the proliferation of medical marijuana laws in other states, their ability to supply their markets hasn’t yet caught up to the demand the way it has on the West Coast. Or maybe there is some sort of inflationary or cost-of-living pressure on the price in these other areas. I was quite surprised to see that California prices are over $300/oz, despite the massive production glut.

It is commonly assumed that most of California’s production leaves the state to supply these more profitable markets shown on the PriceOfWeed.com map. One take-away lesson for black-market growers is that if your dealer says, “aw, man, prices are down all over. I can only give you $-,— per pound,” you can whip out your smartphone and pull up this map and call bullshit. Not that I’m advocating interstate transport or the black market, but it is a big factor in the whole economy, like it or not.

The folks behind PriceOfWeed.com also have a lot of new features coming up. These people are way on to something and I can’t wait to see how this all develops.

Posted in Marijuana News | 1 Comment |

World’s Oldest Marijuana Stash Found

Posted on September 13, 2010 by Mikal

An interesting tidbit from the ancient world of weed. Seems someone was buried with two pounds of marijuana in the Gobi Desert 2,700 years ago. The weed and other burial items were found when the grave was excavated by archeologists. If those people could figure out how to keep stored marijuana green for 2,700 years, there’s no excuse for your dealer to have brown weed.

Here’s the link http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/12/03/marijuana-stash.html

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments |

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