Time for a little "weed story" for ya'll.
Im a man that has had many paths in this life. When i was 17ish I worked as a lumberjack. Not a big commercial operation like up north. This was a 5-6 man crew, two shifts per day. On top of a mountain on 30,000 acre ranch at least 10 miles from anybody. We would go out in the woods, pick a few trees, fell them. Trim em up. Bring em back. And cut dimensional lumber. The better you were at the lumber part, the higher grade of lumber and the more you were paid. Within a few weeks I was the crew leader. Let me tell you... 40+yr old men, who worked thier asses off thier whole life dont have alot of respect for a 17yr old kid. But Im a bigger guy who back then wasnt scared of anything so the first lip I got, I got about 1/2" form a guys face and reminded him we were in the woods with chainsaws and Frontend loaders and disposing of a body would be very easy. Never heard another grumble..
One thing I would do to up morale was bring a couple J's to smoke with the old timers. They were always impressed with the "youngsters" weed so soon they all digged our smoke breaks. Plus they all saw how hard I worked and I was able to put out the best product, so the guys fell right into line.
One of the guys and I became good friends and I would pick him up at crack of dawn and we would usually burn down on the way to the site. This guy was knew to my area and had picked a hell of a GF.... Her older brothers were the biggest hardcore drug dealers in my part of the state. Like major major hard stuff. And lots of it. Noone could move anything without them or it was maor trouble. I knew the family so I was golden. Went to school with one of the sons and I actually did some 'side work' for them occasionally if the money was right. But they both went to jail about a month after this guy hooked up with the sister. So he was handed a 400 acre ranch withshit stashed everywhere under the insturctions-- It better all be here when we get out! He was so far in over his head, I actually found it comical. He was just a stoner like me and didnt even know where the stuff was to protect it!!
So one day i went to pick him up and he asked me to help him feed the roosters. These guys had 125 fighting chickens tied to barrels all over the pasture just like you used to see all over this part of the country. Feeding those f'ers was rediculous. They were tied so that they could get 6 inches from each other in all directions to make them crazy and better fighters I guess. So walkinging down there was literally expected to get pecked and spurred. Halfway through the feeding I saw in the back of one of the barrels was a black plastic square... I fought the rooster off while I retrieved the package. Opened it... 2 kilos of brick weed!!!!
My friend told me to put it back, but ILL BE DAMNED!!!
About this time the owner of the Lumber operation starting being shady.. Shorting checks each Friday under the guise "I missed delivery, Ill have it next paycheck". This went on for 3 weeks and on the last payday, I showe up and the entire operation was gone. Heavy equipment, already cut lumber, our table we built outta scraps. Everything. He had came in the middle of the night and bolted. We owed me about $1200. And I had 10 other workers he owed as well. I was hit hardest becasue i made almost double what the crew made. All in all we figured he owed us about $8,000. WOW. So, I told the crew to wait for me for 30 mins and Id figure something out. I wasnt too concerned about me, I didnt have a mortgage and kids. But my workers did.
When I returned to the jobsite everyone was starting to get restless. I dropped the tailgate on my truck, threw the remaing 1.9 keys on the bed and said, Heres payday boys. We split it up right there in the middle of the woods in a clearing on my truck. They all decide to give me 3x share since I was hit hardest and it was my stuff. Everyone left more than happy that day.
Even the non smokers were happy, cause it was decent quality stuff and they had no problem getting rid of it.
To this day, everyone of those guys still think they "owe me". If Isee one of them, its like I found a long lost sibling.
And for the brothers who did eventually got outta jail, turns out some of my crew went to school with them and told them the story. Both brothers told me I did right by them and I had a favor from them should I ever need it.
I never did find that SOB who f'ed us. And If I ever do, I still know where that mountain is....