An old man had 3 trees down on the ground. 75 years old. Good size digger pines. I saw him bucking them while driving by one day. The next day I stopped by on my lunch break, and offered my services to him. I explained simple terms and he said he would think about it. He called me a couple days later and said he would like to take me up on my offer. From these three trees there was about 5 cords of firewood. He wanted them to finish being bucked, and be split and left in piles. He said he only had $150. My crew and I were out there for 4 days, bucking, splitting, making burn piles, and stacking his wood. I also cut the uneven stumps out for him so he could get his riding mower around them without getting caught up, so they wouldn't be an eye sore and he wouldn't trip over them as he walked around. I explained the terms to my crew, that we were splitting it even, $50 each for 4 days worth of hard work. A deal is a deal and you don't go back on it. I knew what I was getting myself into. We finished the job, and he asked me where we were at. I said "the deal was $150." He said , "but you have done much more than we had agreed, and I haven't seen anyone bust their asses like you kids do for almost 30 years. You have to let me give you more."
I said,"I was always taught to listen to my elders and do what they say with respect. That was the deal, and I will stick to it. If you can really afford to pay me more, I couldn't refuse."
He paid me $240. I accepted with humble respects, and MANY MANY thanks!
The next day I have 5 more customers calling me for firewood, for landscaping projects, and to cut trees down for them. They had the money to pay me what I am worth, and work out solid deals and times.
I would trim the medicine for my patients if I had the time. I would be happy to and even happier to deliver it to them. The deal was that they would contribute what they could and I would provide them with free medicine. That is the deal. TMB hit me on the head like I said before, but he said it was a problem for me, and I say it is a blessing for me. I am a man of my word and I take a lot of pride in that. In the end, my name is all I have, all that I will be remembered by. My name will be associated to my deeds, my deeds, words, actions and decisions. HOW I carried it all out and saw it through. My name is all that I will TRULY be able to pass onto my children. I have been through it myself. My name passed on to me by my parents, and everything that comes with their name. A name that demands modest respect in the deeds and decisions of my parents and grandparents. Honor, and virtue. I have felt the respect from people I do not know in meeting them, because I carry the name, and I choose to pass that onto my children. I choose to instill in them the same values, and I must provide an example for that, and live up to the high standards already set in the name.
I am told by many that this way of life has been forgotten by many people in the world, cast aside by the pursuit of material things out of a general fear of our world. What was more important to me than the money from the job I did for that elderly man and his wife (social security retirement) or the jobs that came out of it, was the respect he gives me, the kind knowing smile, and the twinkle of appreciation in his eyes. That he has carried my name to others in a good way, and that one day my children may benefit from just that, is more than worth it to me.
The growth of cannabis is no different than those things. It is all in the way we live. I will be able to harvest enough to provide for my patients and myself, and more. I may trade some for some services to other patients if need be, or I may donate it to a local collective for slight compensation.
Money will come and go over time. My name will be with me my entire life, and will live on beyond me in anything that I am remembered by. It is how my children will remember me.