Straddling the Divide...
This week, we had the great pleasure of sitting down with Buzz, a cattle rancher and veterinarian who moved up to Southern Humboldt in 1985 to caretake the ranch his wife's family owned. The pioneer stock who can trace their roots back to this are for multiple generations.
He speaks about the shifts he's witnessed in this area. Raising children - all of whom are now grown and prospering elsewhere in the world - inside the heart of the emerald triangle.
When it became clear in 2007, that the timber production that he and his wife had been counting on as their retirement nest egg was not going to be what they had hoped for, Buzz recounts the pivotal moment he decided to put, to his mind, a big grow on their family land. Next to the vegetable garden. Ten plants in all.
He talks about the anxiety and stress related to working to come into compliance with the new regulations and upping his production even further to a record 54 plants.
He tells us about his lifelong love affair with cannabis and how a combination of CBD oil and a regular practice of Zen meditation, has helped him deal with some debilitating back pain.
And, like many of our beloved interviewees, he steers us back towards a committed relationship to the land and to one another, and to moving forward responsibly and reverently, as we embark collectively upon this new chapter of our history.