Behind The Curtain 12 – The Big Blackout: bad for baby buds
It’s in the Eye,” Caitlin read aloud. “No power from two in the afternoon on Saturday until around noon on Sunday.”
“That’s our entire cycle,” Jake said as he pulled the generator from the shed.
“I just hate the noise of that thing,” Caitlin responded. “I’m not going to get any sleep and I have to study this weekend! Besides, we’ve been without power before, why the big deal?”
Jake filled the generator with gasoline and gave it a start. “It’s not working. It’s old. I knew we shouldn’t have put it away without checking it.”
Jake had been doing this a lot longer than Caitlin, but he knew she had a point.
On the other hand, the plants were on the verge of budding and he wasn’t sure the lack of light would confuse them.
“I’d rather be safe than sorry,” he replied. “Can you please just start calling?”
Caitlin began going through the list of rental shops in the phone book, making calls.
“Everyone’s booked. Action has five, four are reserved and they only have one 3,000 watt genie left,” Caitlin reported.
We need at least a 6,000 watt for four lights,” Jake responded. “A thousand watts a light, remember?”
“Ace has four, all of them are reserved. Time for a road-trip if you really want a genie,” Caitlin said, reaching for the Santa Rosa telephone directory.
“You know, this is another good reason why we need to grow outside. They call it ‘weed’ for a reason.”
He knew she was right, and not just due to the hassle of the indoor grow. There were other reasons.
An opinion in the North Coast Journal last week expounding on the waste associated with the indoor grow made him feel guilty.
“On-grid and off-grid, indoor pot growing in the county adds about 40,000 metric tons of CO2 to the atmosphere,” it read.
“Ninety million kWhs a year… or 70 times the total output of all the solar panels in the county, or enough to power 13,000 typical homes… [with] 20,000 metric tons of CO2 going into the atmosphere.”
“We’re working on it,” Jake said. “So Hum next weekend. Eric and Kristen are on board. I just hope the babies make it through to Sunday.”
Jake adjusted his headlamp and went in to check on the starts of Kush stacked just inside the room’s closet.
He was tired of the indoor grow, but he felt stuck for the time-being. School was taking up a lot of time.
He and Caitlin seemed to work more hours on the grow than he’d like. “I want to grow to have a life, not for the grow to be our lives,” Caitlin had told him after another all-nighter working in the room.
“So, what are we going to do, hun?” Caitlin asked.
This spring we are growing outside,” he said with a smile. “But today, we are driving to Santa Rosa to rent a generator.”
