Family Archives - Horn Creek Hemp The Healing Power of Nature Tue, 02 Jul 2024 20:39:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://horncreekhemp.com/wp-content/uploads/cropped-Horn-Creek-Owl-Logo-black-32x32.png Family Archives - Horn Creek Hemp 32 32 The Unique Advantages of Farming Hemp in Southern Oregon https://horncreekhemp.com/the-unique-advantages-of-farming-hemp-in-southern-oregon/ https://horncreekhemp.com/the-unique-advantages-of-farming-hemp-in-southern-oregon/#respond Wed, 10 May 2023 16:53:34 +0000 https://horncreekhemp.com/?p=62341 Benefits of Cultivating Hemp in Southern Oregon Southern Oregon Hemp Southern Oregon, with its pristine environment and optimal growing conditions, has quickly become a top destination for hemp farming. Located in the beautiful town of Jacksonville, we are proud to be a part of this thriving agricultural community. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the […]

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horn creek hemp farm

Benefits of Cultivating Hemp in Southern Oregon

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Southern Oregon Hemp

Southern Oregon, with its pristine environment and optimal growing conditions, has quickly become a top destination for hemp farming. Located in the beautiful town of Jacksonville, we are proud to be a part of this thriving agricultural community. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the benefits and reasons why Southern Oregon is an ideal location for farming hemp.

Main Reasons why Southern Oregon is an ideal location for farming hemp.

Favorable Climate

It is difficult to say exactly what makes our climate work so well for both CBD-rich hemp.  Some places simply have the proper combination of sunlight, temperatures and nutrients for various plant cultivars to thrive.  Hemp loves heat, but not too much.  Also, our position near the 45th parallel ensures that we will experience significant changes in sunlight exposure.  It is the increase in daylight hours during June, followed by a sharp decline that triggers hemp flowering. 

Rich, Fertile Soil

Hemp prefers a sandy loam soil.  Clay can help with water retention, but we find that cannabis plants like soils that will drain easily.  Our portion of Southern Oregon was once a lake bed.  Millenia of organic matter settled to the bottom of the lake and created what is now the highly desirable sandy loam we farm on.  All that is required of us is to maintain the healthy living microbiome in our soil.  As long as we keep our soil healthy, vibrant and alive, those microbes will feed our plants.

Sustainable Farming Practices

Sustainability on a micro scale means simply watching our for the health of our farm’s environment.  We look out for soil health as well as the health of those naturally occurring plants that border our fields.  These seemingly minor presences have a huge impact.  Every plant, animal and insect population plays a role in the overall balance.  By nurturing these populations, we insure that no single microbe or pest will suddenly bloom and cause issues.  Biodynamic farming strives to maintain this natural balance.  Biodynamic practices prevent any one population from exploiting weakness to overpopulate.  Balance is essential.

Strong Agricultural Heritage

We are able to rely upon generational farming knowledge of our area.  Though hemp was not in the historical lineup of crops, farming practices translate quite well.  WE make every effort to learn from our predecessors.  They know the secrets to producing healthy crops in our valley.

Thriving Hemp Community

As the hemp industry continues to expand, Southern Oregon has become a hub for hemp-related businesses and research facilities. This strong community fosters collaboration, innovation, and a shared commitment to producing the best hemp products on the market.  The renewal of hemp farming meant that many of us were learning the same things at the same times.  A healthy exchange of ideas and best practices helps all farms produce quality material.  We are fortunate to have cooperative farmers, and especially to have the cooperation of Oregon State University’s Global Hemp Innovation Center.  OSU GHIC works with our local Research and Extension office.  We all are the beneficiaries of their studies in hemp.

Farm Direct Pricing

By farming hemp in Southern Oregon, Horn Creek Hemp can offer its customers farm direct pricing, ensuring that they receive high-quality products at the best possible price. This commitment to affordability is a key advantage of cultivating hemp in this region.  Very few opportunities arise for a new ag industry to form around farm-direct principles.  We think it is critical to know your hemp farmer.  This way you feel comfortable that your CBD hemp was produced in a healthy manner, and you get the economic benefit of buying direct.

Horn Creek Farms

Farming hemp in Southern Oregon offers numerous advantages, from its ideal climate and fertile soil to its sustainable farming practices and strong agricultural heritage. Horn Creek Hemp is proud to be a part of this thriving community, providing customers with top-quality CBD and CBG products.

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]]> https://horncreekhemp.com/the-unique-advantages-of-farming-hemp-in-southern-oregon/feed/ 0 Farm Update March 2023 https://horncreekhemp.com/farm-update-march-2023/ https://horncreekhemp.com/farm-update-march-2023/#comments Tue, 14 Mar 2023 20:40:15 +0000 https://horncreekhemp.com/?p=60235 We find ourselves caught in second winter. After a brief window of warm spring weather we are once again in snow storms.  Great for skiing, poor for farming. So we are firing up the greenhouse grow.  It’s new to us.  The real sun is so much more fun, and straightforward.  Growing inside is a bit […]

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Views From Southern Oregon

Farm Update March 2023

cattle and pig on horn creek farmsWe find ourselves caught in second winter. After a brief window of warm spring weather we are once again in snow storms.  Great for skiing, poor for farming.

So we are firing up the greenhouse grow.  It’s new to us.  The real sun is so much more fun, and straightforward.  Growing inside is a bit like playing God.  That’s a heavy responsibility.

horse on horn creek farmsOur sungrown fields are dormant, at least for hemp.  Patrick, Johnny and Quincy are actively working the security and grazing detail.  We are diving into no-till this year.  Living soil is an environment unto itself.  It builds up an insect and microbe ecosystem.  Mycorrhizae networks are a mind-blowing fungal chain that is worthy of its own sci-fi show.

Discing and rototilling this all up each spring sets the biome back.  This year we are working with it.  We will also continue with our usage of straw for mulch beds.  If we don’t till the soil, weed management shouldn’t be as much of an issue.  We shall see.

osu researcher with horn creekAt this point we have released all 25 cultivars from our most recent harvest.  It was a tremendous learning curve.  Not all cultivars are so easy to grow.  We are diving back into an equally diverse genetics menu this year.

I’ve been appointed to the Oregon Hemp Commission.  We are working to stabilize the industry which is recovering from a boom/bust cycle.  It didn’t help that we had a wave of illicit grows.  The public doesn’t differentiate, and resulting legislation isn’t always on target.  But we shall get it right.  After all, some of our legislators are both fans and customers.  We all want this to work.

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]]> https://horncreekhemp.com/farm-update-march-2023/feed/ 2 On Hemp: The Start of Horn Creek https://horncreekhemp.com/the-start-of-horn-creek/ https://horncreekhemp.com/the-start-of-horn-creek/#respond Thu, 22 Sep 2022 15:54:46 +0000 https://horncreekhemp.com/?p=53978 From The Jacksonville Review – July 2022 Issue Ten years ago, I slid off the Gary West Meats roof during a December storm. Each surgery confirmed it was not my best decision. That fall still impacts our family’s path. At the time, opioids were still the go-to for chronic pain. I attempted to work a month […]

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paul walking with plants

On Hemp: The Start of Horn Creek

From The Jacksonville Review – July 2022 Issue

Ten years ago, I slid off the Gary West Meats roof during a December storm. Each surgery confirmed it was not my best decision. That fall still impacts our family’s path. At the time, opioids were still the go-to for chronic pain. I attempted to work a month after leaving the hospital. But pills left me foggy and unable to focus. That is probably a good thing, given how the opiate story unfolded.

During recovery my son had brought me some generic CBD cream. I was skeptical. The jar sat unused for weeks. Reluctantly one day I tried some. I did not expect to become a convert. But shortly after, the pain subsided, and my head was clear. Cannabidiol (CBD) can be extraordinary. It is misunderstood, over-hyped and under-studied. But for many of us it provides an effective palliative tool. CBD worked for me, but so little was known, and there were no regulatory bodies. I wanted to know exactly what was in this product.

Paul with the hemp flower wonderwallWe began growing high CBD plants on our Old Stage Rd farm. Family Matriarch Whitney dusted off her herbal remedy books. We produced topicals, creams, and tinctures. Hundreds of family and friends sampled our formulas provided in exchange for feedback. My father is a retired pediatrician. He uses the topical on his knees after replacement surgery, as ibuprofen doesn’t work for him. We weren’t aware how many suffer chronic conditions unresponsive to traditional western medicine. After dialing in our recipes, we formalized our operation as Horn Creek Farms. It has taken over our daily lives with exhausting but deeply fulfilling work.

Per the USDA farm bill, “Industrial Hemp” is the Cannabis Sativa L. plant with high CBD content and virtually all psychoactive THC removed. It looks and smells the same as its potent cousin. High-THC Cannabis Sativa L. is referred to as medical or recreational marijuana. Other industrial hemp cultivars grown for fiber or seed are very different plants. They are not yet grown locally. Southern Oregon is among best places to cultivate hemp and marijuana in the US – and perhaps in the world. This created two problems. Local hemp farms proliferated, shoehorned into every piece of suitable land. Many were messy affairs, with plastic strewn about and pirated water. But hemp can also be grown in a legal, aesthetically pleasing and responsible manner.

We heard rumors of marijuana being grown in those hemp fields. Then last year all pretense was removed as indiscrete black market grows took over. These left environmental and legal messes for landowners. Licensed Cannabis ops were among the most negatively impacted. Illegal grows took water and drove land and supply prices skyward. PR was a disaster, as the public can’t differentiate between white market and black-market farms. Ultimately these operations resulted in two additional restrictions to legal grows—HB 3000 and SB 1564.

HB 3000 provided resources to law enforcement, water regulators and code enforcers. SB1564 placed a moratorium on new license applications. These efforts seem to be effective, but we won’t know until later this summer. So far there isn’t nearly the level of illicit activity. Market conditions also factor in. Much of the legislation makes good sense. It addressed hemp farms which were growing black market weed under disguise. New laws made OLCC field testing easier, which is good. But many other changes mostly restrict legit operations. That is just the way regulations work. New rules aren’t necessary for those who follow the law, but law enforcement can’t tell who is on which side. And the black market is not known to follow rules.

horn creek family planting

Today, Horn Creek ships raw hemp and formulated CBD products around the world. Everyone in the family participates. Whitney is our head grower and product formulator. Our oldest daughter does the books. Her husband runs field operations. Our youngest does marketing and social media. Two grandchildren keep morale high. Growing hemp has given us the wonderful experiences of working a family farm.

This year will see material change. Many players have moved on. Farming isn’t as easy as it seems. Water restrictions, field audits and more enforcement are changing the landscape. Agencies are working to stabilize and manage this young movement. New science will come forth now that universities are able to do research. I will share developments in research, legislation and trends around CBD in Southern Oregon. Hemp can be a healthy and beneficial crop. It provides a much-needed boost for our rural areas. Hemp sequesters more carbon than most other crops. Oregon can and should be a world leader in this developing industry. We must shape it so that a legal hemp farm is as good a neighbor and community member as any other crop.

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]]> https://horncreekhemp.com/the-start-of-horn-creek/feed/ 0 Who has the Best Hemp Flower? Growing And Showing At Hemp Competitions https://horncreekhemp.com/how-cbd-and-hemp-flower-competitions-work/ https://horncreekhemp.com/how-cbd-and-hemp-flower-competitions-work/#respond Tue, 16 Mar 2021 00:08:07 +0000 https://www.horncreekhemp.com/?p=3053 Who Has The Best Hemp Flower? Horn Creek Hemp Is On A Roll. Top 10 Best Hemp Flowers? The Internet Wants To Know. The internet is obsessed with rankings and lists. Best hemp flower cultivars. Top 10 CBD companies. The answers are much more nuanced. Mostly, consumers want to know that they can order from […]

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horn creek team members holding awards

Who has the Best Hemp Flower? Growing And Showing At Hemp Competitions

Who Has The Best Hemp Flower? Horn Creek Hemp Is On A Roll.

Top 10 Best Hemp Flowers? The Internet Wants To Know.

The internet is obsessed with rankings and lists. Best hemp flower cultivars. Top 10 CBD companies. The answers are much more nuanced. Mostly, consumers want to know that they can order from a company and trust that what they receive will be quality products.

Every farmer properly believes their hemp is the very best. We are subjective and must rely on third parties to make that call. Horn Creek relies on competitions, reviewers and customer testimonials to score our quality and to keep improving. Hemp competitions carry the most weight in certifying a companies claims. Competitions are growing in popularity. Numerous Cannabis Cups have added hemp flower and product categories. How do they work and what can we learn from them? How can farmer’s grow the best hemp possible to put their operation on the CBD map?

How Do CBD Flower Competitions Determine The Best Hemp Flower?

Typically, competitions employ a panel of judges with experience in both Hemp and Marijuana. Their backgrounds will be either as growers, hemp enthusiasts or both. There are some tremendously talented and knowledgeable people in the cannabis industry. They can detect minute hints of a cultivar’s origin, genetics and cultivation practices. We prize those insights as they help us evolve our farming practices.

There is another method which is increasingly popular – People’s Choice. In the same way that wine is assessed and consumed, not all users value or can even detect the subtleties of a bud connoisseur or wine sommelier. People know what they like. And really, that is what hemp flower competitions are about – answering the questions of who grows the best hemp flower? and “How can I find the best hemp flower among the hundreds of hemp companies?

This latter method works best for finding the most popular hemp flower and CBD products. I must admit that at times experts operate well above my head. They can go deep into terpene profiles and bud structures. That is their job and they are good at it. Many buyers simply want to know whether the products have the right nose, the right effects and the potency as advertised. People’s choice categories are very good providing a consumer’s stamp of approval.

What Do Hemp Judges Judge?

Submissions are usually a month or more in advance of the event. In some cases such as the Cultivation Classic it will be 4-6 months prior. The submissions must be lab-tested for compliance and re-packaged into blind samples. This is important. We appreciate knowing that there were no preconceptions from the judges based on the origin farm or the genetics. We only enter competitions that use blind testing. Some People’s Choice contests are not blind, those potential biased results are mitigated over several hundred judges.

CBD products and hemp flowers are evaluated differently. Products such as CBD salves, tinctures, topicals, and teas are judged based on appearance, feel, fragrance and efficacy. CBD hemp flower is judged based on looks, nose, terpene profile, potency, cure, flavor, and effects. Curing is absolutely critical.

The most credible results come from be either single or double-blind, which is to say the judge’s do not know the farm, the cultivar, or even whether the flower is THC or CBD-rich. We were quite pleased and the judges quite surprised to find that our Sour Space Candy won the Cultivations Classic’s flagship ‘Credible Cultivar’ award. That award is given to the flower which receives the most consistent, and consistently favorable positive votes. This award has only been won by THC flower prior to 2020. It is a statement about the quality and effects potential for CBD hemp flower.

Horn Creek Hemp’s Process And Results

hanging greenhouse hemp trellisMuch of the hemp and CBD experience is subjective, which lends itself to seeking as many opinions as possible. In 2020 we set out to seek as many considered opinions as possible. That meant entering all of the hemp and CBD competitions we could and taking their feedback to heart. We also found a handful of online reviewers to be very helpful.

Two Youtube reviewers that we like include Shabazz and Hemp Ups Low Down/Lonermob. They’ve both been objective and offered good feedback for better curing.Good feedback isn’t always positive. That is the opportunity. It is soothing to receive compliments about your products. But you don’t learn anything. We were grateful for some polite and thoughtfully critical opinions about our flower. The most common criticisms we heard early on were insufficient curing and over-drying. These two perspectives caused us to review our procedures for quality and consistency.

We spent months reviewing and refining how we dry, cure and store hemp flower. Whitney is an outstanding and demanding cultivator. We know she can produce top quality flower. Drying properly takes close observation to determine when the flower is ready. The hard part is curing and storing. I look at a cure as a proprietary chef’s recipe. There is no fixed static process. Every batch is different, requiring regular assessment. It will be ready when it is ready.

After that, storage is critical. We have put months into growing, harvesting, drying and curing premium hemp flower. Poor storage can put that entire effort to waste. Dark, cool, stable temperature and Rh are vital for preservation of the products. And you must be able to control air – at times you want limited air movement, and at times none.

Once we dialed these components in we wanted to see what others thought of our work.

2020 Golden Grow Awards

We began 2020’s competition season at the first annual Hemp, Inc. Golden Grow Awards. We entered our Special Sauce by Oregon CBD. It had the best nose and it is the cultivar that launched Horn Creek Farms. We finished the curing process with a couple weeks of mason jar time. Just like any pageant, we primped and pruned our entries and hoped for the best. We were pleased to win 2nd place for Judge’s Favorite and 3rd for people’s choice.

Oregon Grower’s Cup

We next submitted two flowers and two CBD products to the Oregon Grower’s Cup. We put some strong contenders through the prep routine though we did not finish in the top three. As I said, critiques provide an opportunity to learn.

We also entered two of our favorite crafted CBD products into the Cup. We make our CBD Topical, Ruby’s Max salve, with oil extracted from our Special Sauce flower. Rubys Salve uses 5,000mg CBD per ounce. The base is a proprietary base including MCT and an assortment of essential oils. Whitney’s blend comes from years of experience with herbal remedies. This is the original recipe that helped me recover from injury and launched our farm. It is astonishingly effective, with broad entourage effects from both full and broad-spectrum distillate. Ruby’s Max was voted the best CBD Topical at the competition.

Super Special Sauce dry extraction kief is golden in color. Any hemp flower material that is not well suited for standalone sale is sifted for kief. Quality kief requires three things – First, strong cultivation for maximum trichome production. Cure is important but not as much as with flower. Good kief must be light gold in color, which means it consists of just trichomes and no green plant material. It must also clump together well which indicates stickiness and freshness. Special Sauce Kief won Best CBD Extraction.

Cultivation Classic

horn creek hemp awardsThis was the 6th year for the Cultivation Classic. It was a challenging year. We submitted entries in February for an anticipated award show in May. Covid 19 changed that. The Classic finally aired their program in November of 2020.

The Classic is known for rigorous and data-centric judging processes. They have the largest judge panel of all, with some 150 volunteers. Each judge is given samples without knowing the farm, the cultivar, or even whether it is high THC, a blend, or high CBD. Judges grade on multiple aspects of the flower, including how it makes them feel and how pleasurable the effects are.

We were thrilled to win the top two spots in the hemp category with Oregon CBD genetics Suver Haze which took gold and Special Sauce (Silver). The flagship award at the Classic is named ‘Credible Cultivar’. This prize is awarded to the flower from all categories that all judges rate not just the best, but also the most enjoyable. Judges named this winner the most consistently relaxing flower of all entries. We were thrilled that Sour Space Candy won this category. It is the first time a non-thc flower even placed. To us, this demonstrates that low or non-thc deserves a seat at the cannabis table.

2021 Golden Grow Awards

To finish 2020 and kick off 2021 we conducted an in-house competition to determine which cultivars we would enter in our second Golden Grow. An internal blind panel selected our Lifter and Hawaiian Haze. The Golden Grow awards organizers put in an heroic effort to hold a live show. Ultimately the ceremony had to be virtual. At the end of their online hemp conference, they handed out awards after commentary by the five judge panel. Out of five judged categories, Lifter won top marks for Best CBD potency, Judge’s Favorite, and the Aggregate award – Best NW Hemp Grower for Horn Creek Farms.

What’s Next?

We feel very fortunate to have done well in our first year of competition. We are proud of our team and they deserve our gratitude. We’ve next set our sights on larger competitions and continuously improving our methods. We are working to get placement on someone’s Best Hemp of 2021 list.

Next Up: High Times Cannabis Cup.
Epilog: High Times People’s Choice Awards

High Times runs The Annual Hemp Cup Awards. While not a blind judging event, HT Cup is inarguably the highest profile event of its kind. We were eager to see how we compared to other brands. Horn Creek went all in.. We submitted in multiple categories, though our #1 focus was on the flower category. We sent caramels, pre-rolls, kief, liquid capsules, and other items. Products were divided among 8 different assortments which were then sent around the country to judges who opted in to receive a kit and provide feedback.

And last month winners were announced. The team gathered in the kitchen, watching on an iPhone. Except me. I stayed in the field on a tractor because I couldn’t take the suspense. as the show built up to the flagship flower category, we were so pleased to get honorable mention for Special Sauce kief, 3rd place for capsules, then 3rd place for our CBD caramels. Then the flower category came up… And this happened. 

high times hemp cup
Cultivation classic

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]]> https://horncreekhemp.com/how-cbd-and-hemp-flower-competitions-work/feed/ 0 Gory Story, Part II https://horncreekhemp.com/a-gory-story-part-2/ https://horncreekhemp.com/a-gory-story-part-2/#respond Wed, 01 Apr 2020 01:48:45 +0000 https://www.horncreekhemp.com/?p=2464 After my embarrassing fall (read PART 1) that left my foot a little more than useless, I decided to try some CBD salves for pain relief that my son shared with me. I had been transitioning between excruciating pain and drooling zombification, and I was fed up. I applied the CBD salve liberally to my […]

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post leg surgery in office

Gory Story, Part II

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After my embarrassing fall (read PART 1) that left my foot a little more than useless, I decided to try some CBD salves for pain relief that my son shared with me.

I had been transitioning between excruciating pain and drooling zombification, and I was fed up. I applied the CBD salve liberally to my wounds, and I waited. I couldn’t tell if it was working. I thought so, but quantifying the absence of pain is difficult. So I would apply salve for a day. Then stop for a day. Definite difference.

Premium quality CBD for pain relief is much different than western medicine’s diet of crunchy oxy-something or other. Opioids work in a ham-fisted way. The pain is dulled but present, buried under a stupor–like throwing a blanket over a scary monster to ignore it.

Topical Salves

I marveled at the clear-headed and pain-free result of topical CBD salves. With the right dose of CBD, I would realize that the monster had left the room.

At first, while using the CBD, I had to dip into pain pills at times, but not nearly as much as when I wasn’t using CBD.  And as time went on, salve was enough to combat the pain.

So we started experimenting…

I bought raw hemp flower, and we steeped CBD salves and CBD teas with various potencies and blends. 2,000 mg/ounce was the sweet spot: it best controlled the bone-deep chronic pain I had been experiencing.

As we got deeper into making CBD products, friends and family became volunteer test subjects. We sought out the cynical, as they give the most candid reviews.

CBD Experiments

Doctors in our family took a clinical approach on themselves. They treated knee replacements and other ailments with experimental methodology: three days on, three days off.

Frequently, they found ancillary benefits.

They slept better.

Their skin improved.

We’d hear that the doubtful spouse who rubbed it on their back found their arthritic fingers felt much better.

So rather than transition from couch to wheelchair, I went with a tractor, and we found ourselves growing a half-acre of premium CBD hemp. Three years post-experimentation later, the entire family is deeply involved in our 17-acre family-owned hemp farm.

Horn Creek Farms

Gory Story Continues

Seven years post-accident and 15 surgeries later, I sit here with 8 dramatic scars (trophies!) on my left leg. I’m due for two more surgeries soon.

I now have recycled parts. Screws derived from cow bones (they are assimilated by your own bones), spare parts from unfortunate others, and even re-routed my own functioning tendons. Sadly, that left foot remains a shadow of its former self. It hangs awkwardly, but it doesn’t flash pain quite like it did thanks to premium quality CBD. And I no longer even need to salve regularly.

I don’t know exactly what CBD does. How it works.  I wish U.S. laws had allowed more research studies to examine that. But it is truly a gift. It isn’t fixing my core disability, but it certainly dulls the piercing, infuriating nerve pain.

So short story long…

That is why we farm organic hemp. We’ve come a long way. Farming is tremendously fun. The industry is exciting, and we are about to release a commercial line of CBD tinctures, salves, and teas.

Arguably one of the best things about this work is the look on the face of a new convert.  Invariably they ask, “What was in that?!” I can only hope that if you’re suffering, CBD can offer you similar relief.

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]]> https://horncreekhemp.com/a-gory-story-part-2/feed/ 0 A Fall Starts It All: Part 1 (A Gory Story) https://horncreekhemp.com/a-gory-story-part-1/ https://horncreekhemp.com/a-gory-story-part-1/#comments Fri, 13 Mar 2020 19:32:02 +0000 https://www.horncreekhemp.com/?p=2404 Discovering Hemp & CBD To Help Relieve Pain It isn’t just a product that we produce. It is a deeply integrated part of our lives. Our journey with hemp began many years ago with Whitney’s fascination for natural remedies and CBD to relieve pain. She has forever prepared herbal remedies with items from her expansive garden.  […]

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x ray of leg

A Fall Starts It All: Part 1 (A Gory Story)

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Discovering Hemp & CBD To Help Relieve Pain

It isn’t just a product that we produce. It is a deeply integrated part of our lives. Our journey with hemp began many years ago with Whitney’s fascination for natural remedies and CBD to relieve pain. She has forever prepared herbal remedies with items from her expansive garden.  But CBD to relieve pain became a much larger issue one evening seven years ago.

I was halfway down a ladder that was perched against a frozen gutter.  The ladder slipped and I fell, snapping my leg upon touchdown.  But this isn’t a simple broken bone story.

More embarrassed than hurt, I made my way to the ER.  The overworked on-call surgeon had been at it all day.  He needed rest, so we postponed surgery to the following day.

Things Go Wrong.

The procedure went as planned.  I gained some new stainless accessories.  No drama.  However, things became complicated in the recovery room.  As the anesthesia wore off I was in terrible pain.  Much worse than before surgery.  Much worse than any other surgical trauma.  It was well beyond normal.

Hospitals in 2013 responded to pain with their weapon of choice – opioids.  So that’s what I got, and many of them.  Opioids are great for numbing you to the point that yes, I feel pain, but my brain is too squishy to worry about it.

All evening and all night I was gorked out of my mind, slipping in and out of consciousness. I was either knocked out or in agony. Periodically I would forget to breathe and come awake, gasping for air.  And my calf had swollen to the size of my waist.

Before daylight, a young surgeon appeared, saw my leg, and called reinforcements.  Doctors performed an emergency fasciotomy, opening it from knee to toes on both sides, allowing it to swell.  Afterward, we learned that a complication called Compartment Syndrome had manifested during or after surgery. Compartment syndrome is where blood fills the muscle compartments, building such high pressure that no more blood can get in.

Continued...

Without blood, things start to die.  Which is painful.  Capital “P” Painful.  Worse than anything I could have ever imagined. Even with a smorgasbord of opioids.

A portion of the muscles in my leg had died overnight due to the lack of blood flow.   To ease the pressure and allow easy access, doctors left the fasciotomy incisions open. They weaved surgical twine through holes in my skin on either side. For two weeks vampire pumps methodically sucked fluid from the incisions. Every few days they’d go back in to remove more dead muscle.

My leg looked like an oversized football, complete with laces. It was disgusting… even to me.

I had always been healthy and fit, learning sports quickly, injuries healing quickly.  But not this time.  In four OR visits over 12 days, we had multiple surgeries to remove dead muscle.  By the fourth, they had removed all of the muscle I needed to lift my foot.

That may not sound like too much, but it is how you walk.  If you can’t lift your foot, you can’t walk.

Horn Creek Farms

Everything Changes. New Reality.

You can’t run. You can’t ski. Or chase your grandkids. Or even go upstairs. You need specialized braces and shoes and patience.

I left the hospital on Christmas day with less leg and a paper sack filled with opioids.  There was fast-acting, timed-release, neuropathy targeting, whatever. My family created a spreadsheet to track which and what I needed to take at which hour. It was a ridiculous armory of multicolor pills, mostly opioids with some neurological stuff like Gabapentin, Neurontin, and Lyrica. It left me like rubber. Zombied and drooling. I only knew they were working when my head felt heavy.

That might work short term, but chronic drooling is not a viable, long-term option.  My wife insists it is not a good look. During recovery friends brought gifts to make me feel better, bringing books, drink concoctions, and a fair bit of recently legalized weed. One day, my son brought a small white jar of premium quality CBD cream. We had heard of CBD but had no experience.

Candidly, I was skeptical. I believed that MMJ and CBD were medical excuses to use recreational drugs.  It sat unused for a few weeks, almost forgotten. After a particularly rough day, I’d had enough. This was ridiculous. Time for alternatives.   Enter: the little white jar.

Stay tuned for part 2 – Recovery and Discovery.

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