What Have I Wrought, Part 2

All things must pass. ^

The 2-part series, What Have I Wrought, comes to a close. When we last parted ways, I had committed to growing ½ acre of CBD-dominant hemp. That’s nearly 500 plants. I knew it would present a significant challenge

This first hemp season is completed, although the ‘challenge’ I started with has evolved. 500 plants harvested, hung, dried, trimmed and stored. Though I had related experience, learning more was part of the curriculum. Building a 7’ fence, laying irrigation lines, weed-whacking the rows, This project took over my life (while another event midway took it for a few hours, literally).

The planting was small, by most standards. Most folks growing hemp are traditional farmers planting 10-20 acres. Large corporations have much larger holdings. Essentially, because of the small scale, I had to do everything 500 times: preparing the augered holes, amending the soil, harvesting and, most difficult of all, removing the 500 plants from the ground. The only operations that weren’t done multiple times were the deer fence and irrigation system.

The lure was 1# of dried bud per plant that I could use to make a true full-spectrum CBD source. By directly infusing the buds, as I do my other herbs, versus buying the CBD oil, I could achieve this high goal - and of direct benefit to you, dear reader, significantly reduced CBD cost. To that extent, mission accomplished. I have a serous amount of bud available for infusion. But I didn’t achieve the 1# dried bud yield I was anticipating - that is the goal I have set for 2020’s planting.

Yes, this was a challenge - and life decided to deal me another, though unrelated, hand. Midway through the planting and growing season, the chest pains I was experiencing, with increasing intensity, got so bad I said to myself, “This isn’t normal pain. Let me see the doctor.”. I did - and within 10 days I had triple-bypass, open heart surgery. For a couple of hours, my heart was stopped and I was placed on an artificial heart and lung machine. But, in the end, my three clogged arteries are open and I’ve got all kinds of good energy now as a result.

Thanks to an extraordinary surgeon and hospital, I did not endure the pain and slow recovery that everyone was predicting - and what I had been anticipating. I was certainly a motivated get-well-quick person. I experienced little post-op pain and, within days of the operation, walking the hospital corridors. One evening while recuperating, nothing is bothering me - and I’m surrounded by this ‘SWAT’ team of medical folks. There must’ve been ten nurses and others in the room within seconds of this signal beeping. I was in better hands than State Farm! That issue of an irregular heart rhythm kept me in the hospital another week - but, hey, thank you Dr Saifi and St Peters. That’s the care I like.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, the hemp plants are doing quite well. The NYS Ag Inspector who came out, said “Nice job.”; that was gratifying.

And then harvest. I did not expect the yield to be so large.. We weren’t prepared. Annie stepped in and organized the drying. Lines hung everywhere, racks attached to walls. Our two barns were filled with drying hemp, hanging from the myriad wire we stretched between beams and rafters. I had enough floor fans blowing 24/7 I could have lifted an airplane! And then it had to be trimmed, extraneous limbs and leaves had to be stripped.

Now the buds are dried - and the two strains stored. Not everything went well. The 2nd strain was planted late and offered little yield but looked beautiful along the way.

The post-op surgical rehab has been good. The exertions I had before which resulted in chest pain now could be achieved with just getting tired and NO pain whatsoever. I’d like to think that the motivational aspect of having 500 growing hemp plants was the necessary incentive to recovering quickly. I was fortunate.

And I found that rubbing the Arnica & Calendula ointment on the two surgical cuts (left forearm and chest) achieved remarkable healing results. More than one medically-oriented person commented on how well the wounds repaired. This offered a real-time lab to test the efficacy of comfrey, arnica and calendula in their collective skin-repair healing ability.

What have I wrought? I kinda confirmed that if one is realistic in your goals, confident that “If someone else can do it, I can, too.” works for you, then that goal becomes attainable. A challenge presents an opportunity to achieve something that you’ve never done before. It’s gratifying that what I wrought turned into an ongoing, successful outcome, with a literal ‘heartfelt’ bonus thrown in.

There’s a new year dawning~…

^ courtesy George Harrison

~ courtesy Jackie Lomax