Search Results: humboldt county (100)

All photos by Sharon Letts

“It’s not Weeds, it’s Real.”
By Sharon Letts
Jake hung up the phone and turned to Lewis who was busy helping take down a room. “She’s raising the rent again. That’s $950 a month now. Three increases in just over a year.”
“So much for the great deal of $650 a month on Craig’s List,” Lewis said, picking up another large, black container and pulling the root ball out onto the floor. We tried to warn you, dude. Three, bedrooms just don’t go for $650 a month in Humboldt.”
The woman in question was a Humboldt slum lord, referred to with disdain as “Dragon Lady.” She was a pot plantation belle, reigning over a pot plantation rented out by the green, or how many plants you were physically able to grow per square foot.

All photos by Sharon Letts
Trimming Sour Diesel

“It’s not Weeds, it’s Real”

By Sharon Letts
Nick drove down Samoa Boulevard from Arcata onto the South Spit, and into the town of Manila, where Greg lived. Tonight Greg was paying $200 a pound, plus a bag of popcorn, for the most tedious, boring work in the industry. 
Getting onto someone’s list for trimming is all about relationships, trust, and if the group wants you there. For the hours are long and often run into the wee hours of the morning. 
There was also the issue of vehicles in front of the house to finesse. Too many, too many days in a row, and red flags would be raised. Greg was a musician, so if you had an instrument you carried it inside, and, if anyone wanted to jam on a break, so much the better.

Sharon Letts

It’s not Weeds, it’s real
By Sharon Letts

The sound of Jake getting ice in the middle of the night startled Caitlin out of a sound sleep. It was 2:30 a.m., and as was her modus operendi, she lay there, unable to sleep, listening as the ice dropped into his bong one by one. She then followed the trail of his movements through sound as he puttered about, alone.
It takes a life together to have intimacy, and she was wanting.
Jake often stayed up late and slept half the day away. They were surrounded by redwoods, but she could count on one hand how often they had hiked together, let alone waked and baked together.

All photos by Sharon Letts

Humboldt Stories
“It’s not Weeds, its real.”
By Sharon Letts
Lewis woke-up, rolled over, and sat up, pushing a half-eaten bag of chips away from the computer screen, knocking an empty can of Rock Star to the living room floor. 
The flashing icon on the screen told him that “Medford Mantis” was ahead again, with “Slayer II” a close third. 
“Take that damn wall down, rat bastard!” 
Peeling a piece of tin foil away from a corner of the window he could see it was light outside, but couldn’t tell if it was early morning or late night.
It took hours to regain his status. When he was satisfied he picked up the bong and fumbled for a lighter that worked.

Made In Humboldt California

Humboldt Stories
It’s not Weeds, it’s real.
By Sharon Letts
Nick arrived at the Small Business Development Center in downtown Eureka one minute before the Business Plan workshop started.
“No small talk with others,” he thought to himself as he summed up the room that was filling up fast. Young and old sat side by side. All were there to start some kind of business of their own, and he was right there with them – it’s just that his business was, well, a little green.
He was tired of house sitting for other people and their grows, but he didn’t want to be just a grower either.
If and when legalization hit he wanted to be ready to do something else, something more.




North Coast Journal Blogthing

It’s not Weeds, it’s real.

By Sharon Letts

The property manager broke
it to her gently. The house she grew up in, the home she hoped would one day
help her through retirement was damaged by a grow operation she knew nothing
about. Of course, the property management people didn’t know either. No one
knew.

“That’s how it is,” she thought as she drove through her own
neighborhood. “All of these homes could be grow houses. You really can’t tell.”

Sharon Letts

It’s not Weeds, It’s real.
“Hi, I’m Caitlin and I’m a Stoner”
Story and Photos By Sharon Letts
Caitlin walked quickly through the living room, into the dining room, and back out through the kitchen, then back again.
“I should leave in 15 minutes,” she thought, and made one more loop around the house.
“No fucking willpower,” she said aloud, and without another thought, she went straight into the bedroom, took a small tray from the bookshelf, and sat on the bed.
On the tray sat a wooden box, and inside held a rolling machine, papers, lighter, ashtray, and a little jar of kief-rich trim.
The plastic rolling machine hurt the inside of her thumb as she rolled the device. Friends teased for her lack of hand-rolling-know-how. “You aren’t a stoner, Caitlin, you are a casual user,” they chided.

Sharon Letts

It’s not Weeds, it’s real.
By Sharon Letts
Author’s note: The following text was taken in part from actual online blog comments from Humboldt County News posted after a home invasion went awry, December 2008, in Humboldt’s county seat of Eureka.
Homeboy circled the block. A man he’d seen earlier in the week tried to get his attention – to say hello. “Not in this lifetime,” he thought to himself, averting his eyes, circling around the block one more time.
Parking around the corner from the house, he turned the engine off, then acted like he was adjusting the radio, and lit a cigarette. Panning the houses in front of him, he noticed a curtain corner slowly being pulled back. 
“Chicken shit,” he said in the onlookers direction. “I don’t want your stupid-ass grow, fucker.”
When the curtain closed again Homeboy got out of the car and quickly disappeared around the block.
He was feeling stealthy, but anyone could guess what he was up to by the uniform he wore — a wanna-be gangsta-like ensemble of a D-G hoodie, pants falling down around his knees, and a baseball cap with “707,” Humboldt’s area code, sitting high atop his long, blond dreads.

Sharon Letts

“It’s Not WeedsIt’s Real.”


By Sharon Letts
Nick took the leash down from the hook on the wall. “Here, boy!” he said to the carefree mutt, galloping toward him. “Let’s go for a walk!”
Walking Buster was the hardest part of watching his friend’s house. It meant he had to walk around the neighborhood with the dog, without making eye-contact with the neighbors.
“Just don’t offer any information,” Jake lectured. “I don’t even know their names,” he added. “And they don’t know mine, and that’s the way we all like it.”
Jake said there were a lot of grow houses here in Cutten. The town was an old, established neighborhood in Humboldt’s County seat, and still considered a family neighborhood with parks, a school and a town center. 
This was just one of Jake’s houses and no one lived here. A four-bedroom California ranch-style, with four grow rooms for the ladies and a false room in the garage for growing babies. Nick was just one of several house-sitters keeping watch at any given time.

Sharon Letts
This delicious-looking shot, “Bowl o’ Sour D,” is one of the photographs by Sharon Letts which will be part of “The Marijuana Show” this Saturday in Humboldt County, California. Sour Diesel is a Humboldt favorite, trimmed fluffy for personal use (indoor, organic).

“The Marijuana Show” Features Photos, Paintings
Saturday, March 3, 6 p.m. to Midnight

By Sharon Letts
Eureka, California – “‘The Marijuana Show’ will embrace the elephant in the room,” said co-organizer Alice Krause of the Humboldt Kinetic Association Artist Co-op in Old Town Eureka. “Local artists and photographers will be sharing their take on the many aspects of cannabis culture in Humboldt.”
Co-sponsored by Hobart Galleries and The Kinetic Sculpture Race Museum, which shares the same space, the show features oil paintings by Curtis Otto and photos by both Kym Kemp and Sharon Letts. Humboldt Canna quilters will also be coming out of the closet with the 420 Quilt project.
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