Thanks and hello @GrowDiaries and every one that read this interview. Today is a good day and I feel honored to get the master status and this interview. I think this is a nice way to honor growers that are active and serious in this excellent platform. And I know from my own experience that I like this part of Growdiaries a lot, its interesting to read about a grower and get to know them a little more.
Q: Tell us about yourself. Where are you from? What's your passion besides growing? Favorite movie/band/pet?
A: Im 42 years old and live in a house in Sweden 80 km from the Swedish capitol Stockholm in a county called Södermanland. I am married and have 2 children, 15 and 18 years old. Im blond and blue eyed and look like a typical Swedish man and talk English with a Swedish accent just like the stereotype of Swedes :). Me and my wife have been together for 23 years and celebrate 24 years now in November.
I have my own company that plows snow in the winter (and we have a lot of it here :) and in the summer we cut grass with big lawnmowers all around Stockholm, we also plan and build parks, playgrounds and takes care of entire neighborhoods so that it is always clean, safe and functional for residents.
As far as music is concerned, I like most things, but rock and heavy metal make me warm about the heart. I can also reluctantly admit that I like eurodisco from the 90's. When it comes to movies, Clint Eastwood's movies are one of the favorites. Most action films, crime drama, documentaries, war movies, western movies and reality-based movies. I cannot handle family drama, romantic comedies or science fiction and zombie movies. In terms of series, I'm currently watching Designated Survivor, Shooter and The Blacklist.
We have 3 cats at home and one is mine, it’s a wonderful and lovely American Main Coon cat called Hudson, he is 1.5 years old and is a big fellow and 8 kilograms heavy and he will continue to grow until he is 5. I hope he gets to 12 KG like his majestic father. He can also tell if im going to have a seizure and always be by my side until its over, then he leaves and do his thing again.
I am a former pro motocross rider that started riding when I was 3 years old. I have been in the Swedish elite from junior to senior and have competed in the Swedish nationals for many years in different classes and been in the top ten over my whole career. I stopped pro riding when I was 23 but still rides the bike when I feel and can do it. I have served in the Swedish army and was a part of the Swedish special forces in northern part of Sweden. I was a marksman (Sniper) in that unit. After that I have been self-employed in my own company. My passions are salt licorice, pancakes, crayfish in the Swedish way, Motocross, Snowmobiles, exercising sports in many different ways and of course my family and work. Im also like nature and traveling.
Q: Why did you start growing?
A: I started growing cannabis to get a medicine that helps me with my nerve aches and seizures. I had tried all kinds of drugs and treatment methods the doctors gave me without it helping me. I have spent about 1 year researching and studying all the studies I've found in terms of medical cannabis before I decided to try it. I had never tried cannabis before in my life. And when it worked, I started to grow it myself because cbd rich cannabis is impossible to be found in the black market here in Sweden. And I don’t like to sponsor criminal gangs and drug smugglers and i dident know any one that grew cannabis at that point.
In June 2015 I was hit by a car from behind when I was sitting in my car at a stop light, the oter driver was watching the student girls att the side of the road in ther wite short dresses. He hit me in a speed of 70 km/h (44 mp/h). I got 8 disc rupture in my neck, chest back and lumbar spine. It also hurt my spinal cord and parts of my central nervous system. I live with constant pain throughout the body, it is called nerve pain and it should apparently be the worst pain you can have. It also causes me to have different types of seizures and spasticity in my muscles just like people with Multiple Sclerosis. I sometimes get paralyzed in my legs, face and arms. But not in all parts of the body at the same time.
I have not been able to work physically since my accident but hope I will get the right care and be able to come back to a more normal life. In the end of this month Im going to meet the leading experts in Sweden in this kind of injuries after a year of waiting for them to have the time to take care of me and try to help me.
Q: How did you find out about GrowDiaries?
A: When I was looking for a strain to help me with my problems I came across CBD Crew from Spain. They helped me to choose strain. When I was about to start my first grow, Line from CBD Crew told me that if a wanted I could use this platform and document my grow. I think I was the first private grower that documented a CBD Therapy in this way.
Q: Do you grow for personal use only?
A: My grows are only for me, but if someone of my GD friends is passing by Sweden I will gladly let them have a real taste of some organic grown and water cured buds.
Q: How do people react when they find out you grow weed? Do you family and friends know you grow?
A: The only ones that know I grow is my wife and you all here in GD, she doesn’t like it but when she sees that this works and makes me feel a lot better she is more understanding. She has gotten her husband back in some way.
Before I started medicating with cbd rich cannabis I was on all the opioids, OxyContin, hydrokodon, Vicodin, kodein ,morfin, fentanyl and tramadol that the doctors had given me. I took 63 pills every day to handle the pain and all Sid effects of the painmedicine. 2 times I have had respiratory arrest by accidental opiate overdose of the drugs the doctor had me on. And the first time my wife saved my life and the second time I was already in hospital so they fixed it there.After the second time I stop taking any pharmaceutical drugs even if my doctor wanted me to continue with them.
Q: What was your first strain to grow?
A: My first strain that I grew was CBD Crews CBD therapy and I documented it here I GD. It was a little scary but it worked out fine and I got fantastic medicine out of it.
Q: Why do you want to keep a Diary of your grow?
A: It’s a way of storing my pictures and a easy way to have all the info about the grow in the same place. I can also look back and see what I did right or wrong so I can fix it to the next grow or discuss it with a other growers here in GD.
Q: Anything you'd like to add?
A: Yes I have a couple of things. I would like to start by thanking Growdiaries for a wonderful platform for us growers and an amazing site that brings so much joy to both me and all other users here. You have created something unique and I hope you will continue to develop as the best site for growers and achieve great success as a business, economically, sizeally and in number of users. Growdiaries is a page that has replaced Facebook for me and I have attached many lovely contacts here both to users and even to seed companies who are very helpful and maintain a high level of service if you have questions about cultivation and such.
And i would like to thank the lovely women @GardenOfAutos, for wanting me to get interview here so i can tell you my story. I have about 15 growers from here that i talk with every day, they are a bunch of crazy, kind, helpful and lovely people. They can get a bad day to be a great day in a instant. And then i have to say thanks to the old guard of growers who have been here at GD since the start, they helped and and took good care of me when i was new here and made me feel welcome. I would also like to thank CBD Crew who helped me when I started looking at doing my own medicine and all the help they have given me. Thank you to all sponsors who help with the totally crazy prizes in the competitions and make GD something unique, I will also like to thank them for their dedication and time on this page.
For those who do not know anything about Sweden and feel like you'd like to know more about this amazing country, you can always search Sweden in Wikipedia or elsewhere and read a little about it and also check where we are in comparison with your country on the world map. And as a side note, Gd are located at Santa Monica Boulevard if I have the right info. In 2005 me and my friend were in west Hollywood and walking in Santa Monica Boulevard looking for our hotel after been out drinking to many beers. The hotel was the Chamberlain West Hollywood Hotel at 1000 Westmount Drive and they had just opened up the hotel and there were still some work left to be done. When we was going to walk in to the hotel I was so drunk that I had to vomit and it was right outside the entrance and I can still today feel ashamed of the event and the embarrassment of vomiting outside that hotel :).
Q: Whose story do you want to hear next?
A: I would like to hear every growers story that has become a Master Grower. But I have one in mind right now and that is @Bigpun, he is a Canadian with Scandinavian ancestry's and he loves licorice like me. He also have a interesting story and is a funny and crazy guy with a big Viking beard.
