Operation grow my own hemp: Memorial day weekend edition

HAPPY MONDAY NIGHT LOUNIVERSE UNIVERSE!

So, we're in the final moments of a long weekend, if you didn't get to have a long weekend I apologize and gladly rise up with you against your employer who I assume is Scrooge McDuck! DEATH TO THE DUCK! If you did get to have a long weekend I hope it was relaxing, fun filled and family centric or not depending on your family lol.

Moving on. If you've been following these last few blog posts about my adventures in growing my own hemp then lasty you read there was no real news to report, well unfortunately nothing is growing yet, but I did try a few different things. I removed the plastic covering in the hopes this will allow more sun and help with the moisture levels in the soil. I was home all day Sunday and all day today so I made sure to keep fresh water in the soil and move the pan into direct sunlight whenever the sun was out. Today was pretty cloudy and rainy so not so much today but yesterday I must have moved the pan 5 times. Still no visible growth.

I am not quitting, but if I do not see a sprout by the end of this week I am going to dig up the seeds for one final inspection to see if any roots broke free of the shells and if not I am going to start again from scratch. I am in the process of ordering more hemp buds which will inturn yield me more seeds and I am going to plant every single one of them! MUAHHAHAHAHAHAHA! This way I am almost guaranteed at least ONE plant which will make me very happy. Once I get some growth of any kind I can make more plants and more hemp products, etc.

Still I am optimistic that I will see some growth in the next few days and look forward to writing the words "WE GOT A WINNER! WEEEEEEEEE GOT A WINNER!" If you've seen the movie Requiem for a dream you'll understand that, if not PLEASE SEE REQUIEM FOR A DREAM ALREADY!

Anywho! Thank you for reading and fulfilling your Louniverse destiny!

Have a good night!

The Louniverse

Operation grow my own hemp: Day 4

Another hot day today! It was in the high 80's most of the day. Plants are blooming and growing all around me, but still no growth yet on my little green seedlings. The soil was still moist and there was a very small amount of runoff in the lower pan. I think the green plastic cover is allowing a good amount of evaporation and rehydration. So far so good as far as I can tell right now. The most important thing for me right now is that no animals have disturbed the soil so far. Last year I did throw a bunch of seeds in a pot of soil and bury it and two little tiny plants out of maybe 25 seeds pushed through to the surface. For about 2 days I was growing hemp! Then on the third day it was clear a squirrel found his way to the pot and ate the plant and it's roots. Nature can be cruel, but interesting none the less.  This time I'm putting forth more effort and keeping a close eye on my project in the hopes of growing my very own hemp!

It's pretty uneventful but exciting! I will keep you posted, thank you for reading and please feel free to leave a comment or any feedback whatsoever. 

Goodnight,

The Louniverse

Operation grow my own hemp: Day 3

Everything looked good today.  No visible growth yet, but that was expected.  We had our first really warm day so far this Spring,  it was in the high 80's and humid. When i lifted the plastic I could see and feel that the soil was still wet and dense but there was no excess water runoff so I assume all is well at this point. Depending on how moist it is tomorrow I may add water, if needed. I think going forward I'm going to use a glass gravity watering despensor.  This hopefully will keep the right amount of water in the soil for optimum saturation and guarantee water on the plants should I ever forget to water them, I will.

Follow up to some of my gardening research last night. I watched a few videos on growing hemp and it seems the best method is to germinate the seeds before putting them in the soil, which I did not do regrettably.  This will do a few things: 1. It will show you which seeds will grow at all and which will not. And 2. It allows the root to grow out of the seed outside of the soil which I think would ensure faster growth of plants. It's really simple,  all you have to do is place your seeds in water, preferably distilled water and wait an hour for them to sink. If they haven't sunk after an hour you can nudge them and they should sink. After that you leave them in the water until roots begin to show, but no more than 2 days. After that, if roots have grown you take the seeds and place them in wet paper towel until you're ready to plant then in a day or so. I'm gonna go do more research tonight as well.  I will definitely do this with my next batch of seeds but I do have hope for this batch. 

Well, that's it for day day 3. Thanks for reading!  Please feel free to post any comments or feedback and hey why not subscribe to my blog while you're here!

Until tomorrow!  Goodnight,

The Louniverse

Operation grow my own hemp: Day 2

Ok, so as I was rereading my post from yesterday and I realized that some of you may not even know what hemp or CBD is so I found this short YouTube video that will explain what it is and some of the health benefits as well.

https://youtu.be/31SrjjgPbhU

Last night it started to rain and rained throughout the night and pretty much all day. I uncovered the soil as you can see in the photo and it's very saturated but not flooded which I assume is good. I guess this is a good time for me to do more gardening research. I drained the overflow tray to allow more water to filter through the soil. Hopefully tomorrow it will be warmer and sunny so I can see if the plastic bubble wrap works to produce condensation and keep the soil at the right level of moisture and utilize the water better. Again, I will do some gardening research tonight.

Right now my number one goal is to get some growth and a few plants to choose from. Once I get a few little plants my plan is to separate them and have several bud producing plants. I know it takes about ten grams of buds to produce one gram of oil. The buds will also supply me with seeds for more plants. With more plants I can make oil, tea, and even have some to smoke or make tinctures with. I don't want to get ahead of myself, I'm on day 2 and looking forward to seeing some green stems poking out of the dirt. 

Thank you for reading!

The Louniverse

Operation grow my own hemp: Day 1

 I've used cannabidiol (CBD) for about a year now. I've used tinctures, oil, dabs, vape products, and Omega fatty oils and smoked and drank as a tea the leaves and buds. So far I would say it's great. I use it to relax, stay calm and focused,  keep a positive mood and sleep. I'm now attempting to grow my own CBD strain hemp for all the above reasons. For those of you who've used CBD products you know how great this herb can be and how expensive it can be as well, at least the oil. The buds and leaves are pretty cheap and can be purchased on Amazon or from one of many suppliers online.  I'm growing my own in the attempt to make my own oil, tea, and tincture.

As a former pot smoker I initially sought out the CBD strains after I noticed THC wasn't working for me any longer.  Back in college I used to be able to enjoy Marijuana almost daily for about two years. Gradually I noticed after smoking or even eating edibles I would have more energy than normal and even become jittery. After a while sometime during my junior year it was clear that Mary Jane gave me more anxiety than relaxation. I could not relax, I would have racing anxious thoughts and just general uncomfortable feelings. I'm not blaming Marijuana at all. I still love it and have since my college years given it numerous opportunities to enhance my mental state. It's been pretty hit or miss, mostly slanted towards the anxious state rather than relaxation. Again, I'm not blaming weed, I'm pretty sure my anxiety was there years before and with or without the THC I would have found my anxious state around that time in my life anyway. In-fact, over the past ten years I've struggled with anxiety free of Marijuana for most of this time. It's in me and I'm dealing with it best I can right now.

  CBD does make a difference,  a very noticeable one. It's no cure as I'm pretty sure there is no herb or chemical cure in existence but it helps a whole lot. So, today I decided to take some seeds I saved from the last batch of hemp buds I had and stuck them in Miracle Grow all purpose use top soil. As you can see in the photo, I put the soil in a four inch deep aluminum tray, poked holes about 1-2 inches apart and added some water. I also poked holes in the bottom of the tray for drainage and covered the tray with some green bubble wrap I found. I hope this will create a greenhouse effect and aid in the hydration and growth of the plants. Today is just day one and I'll be checking up on the little green monsters everyday and updating the inter-webs with this SUPER COOL BLOG!!! JOYGASM!

I hope you've enjoyed reading this and I would love to read your thoughts and hear any questions, comments or concerns you might have. If you have a green thumb and would like to give me any pointers they will be greatly appreciated!

The Louniverse thanks you!

Lou

You don't matter anymore!

The process.
The situation.
The circumstances of your death do not matter to you the dead person.
You will not be around to know what happened. Sure, if you're dying of cancer or some other horrible disease and you know you're gonna go, every time you fall asleep you think "this might be it" and maybe it will be, but still you won't know when or how exactly.
Even if you're awake or as awake as you can be while it happens no one really knows exactly what goes through the mind as you fade away into the darkness because no one has come back after death.
Now if you're thinking about people dying then being brought back in an ambulance or on the operating table I think it's safe to assume that even though that person was clinically dead it's not the same thing as being dead. Like being dead for hours then coming back.
Whatever you believe happens when you die is irrelevant. I believe nothing happens. Now, when I say nothing what I mean or what I think I mean is that as you're dying maybe thoughts are pumping through your head, maybe hallucinations of some kind and maybe it feels like what you think heaven or hell might feel like depending on what's in your head.
If you believe in the afterlife, whatever that may be, heaven or hell or purgatory or even reincarnation of some kind in my opinion believing this does not satisfy the notion that no matter what I am going to die and so are you. One day, maybe tomorrow, it's going to happen. This life will end.
Even though I don't believe in an afterlife of any kind the thought of heaven is cool. The idea that your personality will somehow continue on in some other plane of existence or realm of reality forever with all of your loved ones and everyone else who's died is cool. It's cool, but I don't think it's true. I think this idea comes from centuries of humans watching people die around them and not being able to understand how someone can be there one minute and not there the next. Their body is still here, still warm for a little while as if they're sleeping. They're not. They're gone. So, we throughout time may have come up with ideas of what happens or where we go and over time we integrated them into our religions or cultures or visa versa, maybe entire cultures and religions came to be solely because of what groups of people thought or wanted to happen after death.
I find this topic to be something I either really love to think about and ponder for long periods of time or find myself feeling greatly anxious thinking about. It can be a great conversation to have with friends, family or even strangers or it can be the easiest way to get into an argument. I think it's safe to say that we've all had this kind of a conversation or argument at least once in our life. If you haven't maybe you should. It could be a great experience, it could be a fight or it could be a horrible fearful experience but either way it will be interesting.

The bottom line in my opinion is that once you die you don't matter anymore. Your head stone, your grave, your belongings, your wake and funeral are all for your family and the problem of the living. Even as a memory you're going to be faded and over time completely gone, from this Earth and the minds of anyone who is currently living. Just gone. If you have children they will remember you, then your grandchildren and maybe great-grandchildren if they got the chance to meet you. After that you're gone. Completely gone. The odds that you or I will do something so important that we're talked about for hundreds of years after were dead like Julius Cesar or George Washington or Christ is slim so basically you won't matter anymore.

I don't know for sure and truly don't think anyone really does, but I am interested in knowing what you think.

What do you think?

Lou

The Louniverse floats again!

Lou's Float tank experience: Part Deux

If you'd like to read about my first float experience you can check it out on my Instagram page @the_louniverse. 

I went to The Float Place again, located right in my hometown Deer Park. It's a cool, chill place. As soon as you walk in the door you get this balmy spa feeling. It's warm, and humid, but not uncomfortable. I've never been to a spa but I imagine that's what it could be like. It's relaxing. This time I chose Tranquility, one of their larger float rooms. Instead of a tank it's the size of an elevator so if you're a big fatty like me you'll be able to really stretch out in the water which really enhanced the experience. I liked the tank which is in their Serenity room, but as the tank is 4' wide and I'm about 3'+ feet wide from elbow to elbow I found that touching the walls kind of pulled me out of the darkness. In the float room which is 6'X8' you have plenty of room to spread out and explore the space. I found it to be much easier to lose myself and sink into a meditative state. 

After my first float a few weeks ago I spoke with Tom one of the owners and he said "People like their first float, but love their second." Now, of course you could say "Oh, that's just him selling you another float." and of course you could be right, but if you do take the plunge and experience a float at The Float Place they do offer a discount for your second float and more importantly he was 100% right. My first float was great and I have zero complaints but in my experience I spent a good deal of time just getting orientated to being inside of a tank of super salty water and the EXTREME darkness. It was good but my second float was great and I'm sure my next float will be even better. I signed up for their monthly membership and intend on floating twice a month, at least at first.  

My plan was this: I had to work from 5AM to 3PM the day of my float and attend a Twiddle concert that night (check them out on Youtube SO AWESOME!) so I knew I would be burnt if I just went straight from work to my house and got ready for the show or napped or whatever. SO, I left work at 3PM and went home for a quick change then to The Float Place for my 4PM float hoping that I would just pass out in the tank and have the best sleep ever. I was part right. I was way more relaxed this time and took my shower, then got right into the tank and nearly fell asleep right away. I didn't, but only because I was so much more comfortable in the larger tank and was able to stretch out and allow myself to float without touching the sides or bottom of the tank and was thoroughly enjoying the feeling or lack of feeling that takes place. All your limbs kinda go numb or become one with the water and you kind of lose yourself in the darkness only having the feeling of your heart beating and breathing to keep you in this realm of reality. That's the best way I can describe it. You just float away. It's meditation, it's inner exploration, it's outer exploration, it's looking deep into the darkness whether your eyes are open or not, you're looking deep into the silent darkness and seeing nothing and sometimes seeing colors and shapes. I did fall asleep on and off. I would pass out and have semi-lucid dreams, unfortunately these dreams were all pretty much conversations that took place that day at work and weren't at all interesting but were lucid enough that I kept jolting awake as the conversation would get too loud, or too vivid. The 90 minutes went by much quicker than the last time and I imagine the passage of time will only feel shorter the more I float. 

Overall this is a great experience and I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone. I've been telling anyone who will listen about it and not just about the meditation aspect of the float but simply how just floating in Epsom salt for an hour and a half is so therapeutic. I literally feel taller when I get out of the tank and instead of feeling relaxed I feel very energized. All of your muscles stretch out, your joints relax, your back stretches out, etc. It's great for mind and body equally. It's $75 for 90 minutes and the second float is $45. All floats after that are regular price unless you sign up for their membership which is very worth it in my opinion. It's one float per month for $50 and if you want to float more than your one float per month you get a 25% member discount on all additional floats. It's a great investment for your health.  

Well, thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it and hope you take the plunge and float on at The Float Place in Deer Park. Now, I have to get back to watching pure insanity on Youtube. Check out their website, the link is below.

Good Morning, Good Evening and Good Night!

The Float Place

~The Louniverse