A Grower's Tale

A Grower's Tale
Chapter One - The First Taste​

He was a precocious child, that kid. Not even yet 12 he had already felt the allure of cannabis, and was actively seeking a way to try it. Not so easy it would seem. He asked the kids who looked like they smoked it; they laughed and teased him or didn't trust him. Why would this kid who got good grades want to smoke pot? He must be a narc!

He used to smoke cigarettes outside with his best friend, his next door neighbor. Being blessed with hundreds of acres of woods behind their homes in a rural area, the forest offered both a playground and a refuge.

One day the boy got home from school and went back into the woods to meet up with his friend, share a smoke, and hang out. It was an almost daily ritual in the Summer. This time something was different. His friend's older sister, a very hot (to the 12 year old boy) 16 year old, and her boyfriend were at the boy's usual spot where the brook took a turn to head deep into the forest. His friend (let's call the protagonist of this tale 'Rick' and the friend 'Chester' to make this less cumbersome) was there too, and they were smoking something.

It wasn't tobacco that they were smoking. Right away Rick smelled something he couldn't quite identify. It smelled both sweet and pungent at the same time; an alluring odor that while smelling faintly like a skunk had an immediate attraction to the boy.

Awkwardly, Rick sat down next to Chester. The hot sister and her boyfriend were sitting on the other side of Rick's friend. Immediately Rick could tell what was up. He'd almost given up, and here it was, just like it had been delivered from heaven! Chester was clearly not right. His eyes were red and he had a rather stupid grin on his face. He was holding what looked like a hand rolled cigarette and was about to give it back to his sister when she said 'Aren't you going to give that to Rick?'.

Trembling just a little more from excitement than anything else, the boy took the offered joint. He took as big a drag as he could from the marijuana cigarette, then handed it back to Rick. The smoke was different than the tobacco he'd foolishly been smoking. It was both thick and smooth with a taste that couldn't quite be described by the boy.

The four of them shared the joint, which later would turn out to have been the original Skunk #1. After a time the sister and her boyfriend left the two children at their spot by the brook, letting them keep the roach.

Rick wasn't sure what to think at first. He felt nothing at all. That is to say until he and Chester stood up to walk back to their houses. "My legs feel like lead!" exclaimed Rick. Chester just laughed and laughed then said, "I'm hungry, let's go eat."

The pair of intrepid psychonauts on their first journey walked back to Chester's house. After eating an entire bag of potato chips they found themselves just laying on their sides in Chester's basement laughing and giggling for what seemed forever.

Later on, after the buzz was fading, Rick looked at Chester and said. "I can't believe that is a PLANT. I gotta get some seeds to plant in the Spring."


And so it began.

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EDIT: All of the chapters are now being posted in my blog here, but please keep comments here in the main thread. I just thought it would be easier for people if they could access them all consecutively without the intervening discussion. - OSG

 

...to be continued.

 

Thanks

I'm not sure how often I'll add to this but there will be at least one more chapter coming this weekend


EDIT: Obviously I'll be changing names and blurring/omitting some RL details. The last thing I want to hear is this ever being read into evidence in court

 

Thanks blades.

 

Much appreciated.

 

A Grower's Tale
Chapter 2 - The First Planting
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Many months had passed. Fall had given way to Winter which in turn ceded it's authority to Spring. The boys, Rick and Chester, had begun getting bags of cannabis through the Hot Sister. The wonderful Skunk sinsemilla was a bit expensive but the Colombian, both brown and gold, was plentiful, potent, and cheap.

On a particularly nice day in the middle of May, Rick reminded Chester that he wanted to plant. The boy had saved precious seeds from the bags they'd shared and he was intent on seeing the plant grow.

They trekked back into the forest to a remote clearing that not many people ever came to. Carefully, the boys set seed in the ground. They knew nothing of how to grow or raise the plant, but Rick had always had a green thumb and was confident. Too confident perhaps, but this is how we all learn; through mistakes, trial, and error.

Twenty seeds were lovingly planted about a foot apart from each other. The rest of the seeds Rick tossed off into a corner of the clearing and forgot about them for a time.

Weeks passed. Every day Rick went back to that clearing to check on the precious plantings. Eventually a few spindly, straggling seedlings managed to poke forth. It was disappointing to the boy; only 3 or 4 out of the 20 even sprouted. Looking over into the corner though brought pause. The seeds he'd carelessly tossed aside were growing and looked much stronger than the ones he'd planted!

Rick dragged Chester back to their garden. The boys weeded and pulled out the weaker plants. Over the months they grew, and grew, and grew. Sadly though neither boy knew anything of cannabis growing; they left the males in with the females that first year.

Undeterred, come October the boys picked their plants. They'd found out too late about males but they discarded them and kept the 4 precious females that had matured. Tall and spindly with loose tiny seed filled buds, it was nevertheless their very own.

The chopped plants were hung inside an old tree fort left by past generations of children who had played in the forest. One grew mold and they discarded it; the other three they bagged and smoked.

A most amazing thing happened when they first tried it. Though it did not taste nearly as good nor held nearly the potency they were used to, they got high. They got high on the herb they had grown themselves. To Rick that was an almost religious experience and he knew at that point that he would be growing for many years to come.

Rick vowed that the next harvest would be better than their first. He saved some of the precious seed and began learning all he could about the plant. He knew then that if he were to continue growing he wanted to grow the best possible herb he could.


To be continued...​

 

Thanks friends. I will probably do at least one more chapter this weekend; perhaps more.

 

I'm going to chronicle each year of significance in my growing history. Don't worry, I won't spam you with 30 chapters (one for each year). I'm sticking to milestones and years of significance.

 

A Grower's Tale
Chapter 3 - An Unexpected Pleasure
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Young Rick waited all through the long Winter. He would take out his cache of seeds from the best buds he'd smoked that year and look at them, even fondle them. The lad was bitten by the growing bug now and there was no turning back.

Spring came with it's usual fits and starts, and the boy watched the weather forecasts and read every Almanac he could get his hands on. Just after Mother's Day that year he once more made the long hike to his growing spot, dragging Chester along with him.

The two boys, now just on the edge of young manhood, shared a joint as the prepared the ground. This time Rick had plans; he had brought manure and peat moss to mix with the rich hummus and earth of the forest.

They lovingly planted the precious seeds, this time several feet apart from each other. The previous year Rick had noted that the plants were very tall and lanky and had correctly surmised that giving them more space to grow would allow them to bush out more.

Weeks and months passed. The two friends visited their garden almost daily as Spring turned to Summer. Many a pleasant afternoon was spent watching the thriving plants grow, smoking a pipe or joint while the warm breeze drifted lazily through the forest. They knew what to look for now but still they failed to get all the males in time. No matter though; they did a far better job than the year before.

A minor tragedy struck in the form of deer eating half the plants. Undeterred, the boys built a crude fence around what was left. They even took to urinating around the clearing in hopes of driving the deer off. Rick had figured that if his mother used store bought fox urine around her vegetable garden then perhaps theirs would help.

Summer gave way to the first wistful days of Fall. It was going to be an early Winter and Rick, having now taken to constantly watching and tracking the weather, decided they would harvest a bit early. The boys chopped their plants down and hung them up to dry. Within a week there was frost, but by then the harvest was dry enough to withstand the cold and growing damp as Autumn turned suddenly chill and hostile.

They smoked the first of it, their second harvest, and It Was Good. There were seeds, but the buds were dense and tight. Beyond Rick's expectations they had grown bud just as potent as any they normally bought. The taste was not what they were used to in what they bought; they had yet to learn about the proper curing of the bud. Still they were unexpectedly pleased, and the pounds they harvested lasted them well into the following year.


To be continued...​