27 Nov

Posted at 18:37h in Living the Dream

Sometimes you just have to start over; wipe the slate clean and begin again. This is where we are in Washington with our testing rules. Everyone wants their cannabis to be clean and free from harmful contaminants. Everyone wants accurate science and reporting of tests. But early on, we did a lousy PR job. There was outcry that Washington was the only state that did not test for pesticides and heavy metals, a belief that suggested to some that unregulated cannabis might be safer. That is the message medical cannabis patients picked up on when our laws ended the safe access collective gardens they...

18 Oct

Posted at 18:31h in Living the Dream

The assumption from people outside the cannabis industry is that we are making the “Big Bucks” but are likely not too savvy, meaning we are easy pickings for exploitation. This attitude crept up on us again last year when we were approached by Mr. King, the owner of the 20-acre parcel to our south. He wants to develop the land and put four houses on it, but land use codes no longer allow for new wells to be drilled and he needs water to proceed. In the early 1990s, our rural area an hour north of Seattle was slated for a massive golf course community,...

28 Sep

Posted at 18:26h in Living the Dream

We had a COVID scare within our crew, and it really put a point on how invasive this virus has become in our daily lives, hiding in plain sight and ready to accept a new host. Last holiday season, we had crew members calling in sick with the worst case of flu symptoms, symptoms beyond what many had ever experienced before. We stocked the cupboards with garlic capsules, echinacea, vitamin C and any other natural immune system support the crew felt they needed. Masks became common among the trim crew and hand sanitizer was bought in bulk. Everyone was back up to full...

16 Aug

Posted at 18:22h in Living the Dream

The saying “opinions are like a**holes, everyone’s got one” is so true. The thing about opinions is they don’t have to be based upon facts, reality or history. They can be pulled out of any dark bitterness or optimistically airy place and floated forward in the hopes that someone latches onto that particular ring of thought, just to watch it sink as others blow holes in the idea. In Washington, we are in phase “Cannabis 2.0.” Our legal industry is six years old, and one opinion all seem to agree upon is that it is time to examine and revise the...

06 Jul

Posted at 18:19h in Living the Dream

The COVID situation, political turmoil and riots for justice sure have brought out the latent stoners in the population. Our sales orders have gone up at least 20% across the board. Even though we’ve never been busier, I have had more “me” time since the pandemic began, because we haven’t been going to dinners and movies, shopping in stores, conducting tours at the farm, attending meetings in person or having our grandchildren over on the weekends. My journals that I began in the mid-1970s are calling me. I was leafing through some of them, and the stories began to flow so I...

28 Jun

Posted at 18:13h in Living the Dream

If there is one thing that unites people in the cannabis scene, it’s our ability to figure out the workaround. We’ve needed a tractor for a long time. A tractor is a key piece of equipment to manage our 10-acre pot farm. A tractor allows us the option of amending our soil, easily moving heavy pots and pallets of equipment, maintaining our road and efficiently mowing the hay field. A tractor would greatly help with general maintenance of the entire property. The issue is the heavy price tag, so a recent offer of 0% financing with 0% down for 84 months caught our attention....

08 Jun

Posted at 18:08h in Living the Dream

I have been putting off filling out the documents the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency (PSCAA) has requested (along with fees) for years. In 2016, an old Pinto pulled onto our 10-acre property and came right up the drive to the main house. A woman and a man, both with the demeaner of retired schoolteachers, stood on the porch avoiding the rain. I had been schooled by our attorney to not give PSCAA access, that the agency had no teeth to enforce anti-cannabis odor policies. I did not invite them in, but allowed them to deliver their forms and their request that I fill...

11 May

Posted at 15:16h in Living the Dream

We are finally experiencing a predictable flow of production cost of goods needs, thanks to months of consistent sales figures. We have data on what strains sell best where and in what weight of packaging. I can predict how many rounds of pre-roll cones we’ll need to meet orders. I can project how many rolls of labels need printed, how many pre-roll tubes, the number of one-gram, eighth, quarter-ounce and full-ounce bags we need to keep up with the demand and not run out prematurely. We had it dialed in … until the COVID-19 virus hit China and then the world. It...

21 Mar

Posted at 16:36h in Living the Dream

There is a lot of discussion around “normalizing” the cannabis business. I have never liked the word “normal.” When my husband and I first got together, he used to say, “You are so normal, I love that about you.” He quit saying that after hearing my repeated response, “That is not a compliment, Bill.” Normal is not special or unique. Normal is boring! The word “normal” in the cannabis space also takes on different connotations depending on your viewpoint and position in the industry. For example, it is “normal” in business to sell and buy on terms. Working the “float” of no interest money,...

20 Mar

Posted at 16:24h in Living the Dream

Sometimes the writing on the wall is still not big enough to get my attention. Our license was up for renewal in November 2019. I diligently paid the $2,880 fee in October and checked that task off my gangly list of things to do. Sometime later, a notice was sent that any license ending in an even number needed to get re-fingerprinted. Ours does, so I called to schedule prints for the third time in three years, recalling the extreme stress caused when the first set of prints were somehow “lost” in the system in 2016, before our license was even...