Stick This in Your Cannabis Museum

It may seem like marijuana has been liberated overnight. But it hasn’t. But with all the fanfare lately, those of us who have been around awhile, are not used to the herb seeing the light of day. I spent twenty-five years living in a rural Northern California region where pot farming and timber logging were the big industries. And believe me, there was a clash of cultures. We knew things were changing when the local conservative farmers were growing weed that was as good, or better than the hippies living in the woods. The area attracted colorful personalities with unusual quirks, and I kept them in my memory and in the early 1990’s penned it to paper, as I saw it. The result was a novel, “Gone North, – Long After the Summer of Love.” Although it is entirely a work of fiction, it is how I really saw things, living in the early days of the “Emerald Triangle.” Now cannabis is coming out of the shadows and folks are asking for people to come forward with their stories and artifacts because they want to start a cannabis museum. I’ve got one for ya… about the story of a young boy whose life collides with an ex-con who comes to town because he’s got the notion that… surprise, surprise… money grows on trees. Suellen Ocean is the author of Gone North. Available here:

Gone North: http://www.amazon.com/Gone-North-Long-After-Summer/dp/1484094360

Cooking: Salvaging Burnt Beans… LOL

I swear, there are some personality types that never seem to learn. They get distracted and let the beans burn. Because, let’s face it, beans take forever to cook and I mean, who worries about whether you’re going to burn fifty cents worth of beans? I mean… really. My kids are grown and live miles away, but I still worry about them but a pot of beans?

On the other hand, as a vegetarian, beans and legumes are a crucial part of my diet. And I believe they give me stamina. But here’s the deal, you put them on the stove and you forget about them. Yes, I could have set the timer but I didn’t. And when I was upstairs typing away, I heard weird noises coming from down below. Was it the wood stove or was it the rain on the roof? Not a thought to the pot of beans on the kitchen stove, I forgot about those long ago. I didn’t even remember I was cooking them, until I heard the crackling noises of the water being all boiled out and the beans burning. So I dashed down stairs and just like my mother taught me, I picked up the pot (with hot pads) and I stuck the pot in water that was in the sink and I quickly added cold water to the pot. It did the trick. I saved them. And it wasn’t the first time, nor the second, nor even the third time I’ve salvaged burnt beans. So I thought it was a valuable bit of kitchen trivia that should be shared.

Suellen Ocean is the author of the vegetarian cookbook, Poor Jonny’s Cookbook. Available here: http://www.amazon.com/Poor-Jonnys-Cookbook-Suellen-Ocean/dp/0965114031

Skiing… Is it Getting Too Harried?

I remember the first time I went skiing. I was ten and not prepared for the freezing temperatures and that I had to grip a rope tow. The gloves I had were vinyl and they shredded after the first few times. I was scared to death I would fall off of the tow and those behind me would slam into me. Thankfully, the days of rope tows did not last long, for me, but they were around for years and it was a lot better than hiking up the hill… or was it?

Back in the early days, nature-loving types would spend hours hiking up the mountain. Once they reached the top, they would sit, relax, socialize and eat snacks. Then they had a blast skiing down the mountain, only to do it again. They got a work out. In the early 1930’s, when the rope tow came along, made out of thick rope that rotated on old car tire rims, powered by a loud engine from an old Ford, skiing changed. The pace picked up and instead of the long trek up the mountain and the peaceful socializing at the top, skiers raced up and down the mountain, trying to get in as many runs as they could.

Woodstock was the first ski resort in the United States, in 1934, to provide a rope tow. The first known rope tow in the world was in Quebec, Canada in 1932.

Suellen Ocean is the author of The Steinberg Conspiracy Series. Available here:

Book One, Chimney Fire: http://www.amazon.com/Chimney-Fire-Steinberg-Conspiracy-Book-ebook/dp/B00XDCPLEW

Book Two, Hot Snow: http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Snow-Steinberg-Conspiracy-Book-ebook/dp/B014XHUT1K