From the loader to the trimigrant: how to move to the United States and earn tens of thousands of dollars on marijuana

If your parents were frightened by the close connection between school grades and the work of a janitor or loader, then their fears came true. How to get to that point, what to do next and how to earn from 10 to 50 thousands of dollars in a few months using scissors, says in his column for TJ Andrey Ivakhov from Kiev.

Photo by the author of the article Andrew Ivakhov

Part of 1. Prestatal

It was May 2015 of the year. Once again, quitting and feeling hopeless hopelessness, I fell into a post-hibernation hibernation. Once again.
You know that state, when you understand God for whom you learned, you don't know a damn thing, and your hobbies are not clear even to you.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the lack of work did not equal starvation, and the mother, not sharing the unemployed suffering, methodically reminded of a friend in faraway Los Angeles.

After a while it gave fruit. The visa was received long before (just in case), the ticket was purchased, and somehow it will be decided with housing and work. Not bad, I planned everything, right?

In June, saying goodbye to friends, I was waiting for departure at the Kiev airport.

Part of 2. #MomYavAmerike, adaptation

The luggage in the hands exceeded the amount of luggage in my head (therefore I still load boxes, ha-ha), but the comfort zone has not changed much. Met, sheltered, fed. The first two weeks I, as promised to the officer at the airport, was a real tourist. He lived comfortably, visited Vegas and did not work.

Further, as the chicks are expelled from the nest, I myself wrote out my ass. Such a giant (by Ukrainian standards) stash in 2 thousands of dollars were dissipated before the eyes, prices were converted into hryvnias and compared, and documents required for work. So I turned from a tourist into an immigrant.

First job and housing

After the tourist euphoria, everyday reality came. Without permission to work, all your LinkedIn and stuff disappear instantly. Russian-speaking communities come into play. VKontakte groups, RussianLA, local newspapers, Karl.

Found an ad - called - came to the parking lot. So we came to the part where I turned into a porter. The same scheme with the first housing.

What are you loading, author?

Trucking, popularly, moving, is a popular branch in California. Americans move often, sometimes changing housing two or three times a year. Apartments, if it is not Airbnb, are rarely furnished, because the saying “I carry my whole burden with myself” comes to life at the expense of us, hard workers and hard workers. Furniture and other rubbish is quite cheap, because they certainly overgrow them, reaching the stage when it is impossible to transport it by yourself.

Typical start of work. Favorite boxes. A photo article author Andrew Ivakhov

For the sake of what our friends are asking for us and calling Uncle Tole with Gazel, it turned into a business model. For every taste and color:
- air travel;
- long distance;
- packaging of everything and everything;
- paid garages where you can dump all the trash (Storage Units);
- POD.

Garage with home delivery. A photo article author Andrew Ivakhov

Feels like, percent 80% of male immigrants at least once and have worked as a loader. The popularity of this profession is associated with the following factors:

- clean cache;
- do not need documents;
- Tips.

Keep your managers, CEOs and CEOs. In the MA there is only an assistant, a driver and a foreman. I mean helper, driver and forman, if in Nashenski.

The scheme of work is simple:

1. We receive SMS from the manager. Okay, okay, there’s still a manager here.

2. We come to the parking lot.

* Getting to hate life *

3. Distribute roles.

4. We enter the client's address, we report about the time of the arrival.

5. Marvel at the amount of crap, open the "contract".

6. Getting started.

7. We stop the timer, we count the client, we beat out the tip.

8. Repeat the next day.

Pros:

- Deep penetration (if you know what i mean) into American culture. Having visited more than 100 various houses / apartments, owners and their things, I saw a lot. Starting with a dildo in the nightstand and ending with a full box of sand brought from vacation. 80's comic collections, dozens of dusty treadmills, furniture worth 20 dollars, and 200 kilograms weighing;

- Salary. No matter how funny it sounds, but among anti-intellectual works it is one of the lucrative;

- Workers tourism. Due to increasing competition, companies are taking orders from everywhere, covering an area up to 150 kilometers around. Unexpectedly, for the year of my work I found myself in all tourist and non-tourist places where I would not have been working in another place.

Cons:

- You are a loader;

“You clearly know how much the treadmill weighs, the piano and the box of books.” Your back knows it too;

- Customers are different, I mean dirty;

- Given the number of posts, imagine a career growth.

In the second month of work, I thought that I already knew everything, but my constant colleague, obsessed with masons, served as a vivid example of how you can remain a loader for five years. Because instead of buying an iPhone and paying for an apartment, I bought a ticket to Hawaii and flew there for two months.

Part of 3. How to accumulate 5 thousand dollars

This is the most difficult part, it is called - ******** [work]. To my surprise, this was not a problem. When the season starts (March-December), you get a sinister sms daily. Do not ask for the weekend - do not get the weekend. The peculiarity of working in the states is that they pay for working hours. The term rat racing has opened for me in a new way. It turns out the day off is not happiness and relaxation, but “damn, I did not earn my 100 \ 150 \ 200 $”, but it passes.

5 thousand dollars - an incredibly small amount for most Americans (their credit limits exceed it 2-10 times), for me this is the only proof that I work for a reason. At the same time, there was no particular infringement on food / gulne / kine. Like time.

Favorite weekly envelope. A photo article author Andrew Ivakhov

Dry figures and lyrical digression

Everything is indicated in dollars per hour.

Assistant salary per hour - from 12 to 15 (depending on staff, company, and seasonality);

Prorab driver - from 16 to 25;

Tips - for one job from 20 to 130 (as long as it was my maximum);

Yelp review - from 30 to 50. A nice bonus paid by the company, if after your work the client has left a good review.

Yelp for moving companies is one of the main sources of orders and calls. In the summer, due to violations of Yelp’s policy (the guys were offering a discount for a positive review), the biggest moving alliance was closed.

It is important to understand that constantly using the arms, legs and back instead of the brain, the brain becomes upset and goes to sleep. This is the worst minus of my work. Finding the second and third breath, doing something after work is possible, but for that you need not be me. Therefore, the only reason for postponing any amount of money is to buy from oneself at the same time — for planning, studying, traveling, and so on. Without doing this, you remain in place, buying yourself all the material crap, which will give temporary relief.

The second story of the same hero will tell us about what is trimmigration and "forest" in California

It will not talk about national parks or campgrounds - here about one of the dumbest works of the planet, where you could earn from 10 to 50 thousand dollars per season. It's about trimigrants - from the words "trim" (trim) and "immigrant."

About the classic work for immigrants in Los Angeles, the loader I described above. Breaking away from it is the desire of all, and it is expressed in different ways.

Being able to do something at home, in the end you return to your profession and to the USA. If you didn’t know anything at home, the choice is a little worse: messing with hourly work at the bottom of the food chain (from 10 to 18-20 dollars per hour at best), finding stability in deliveries, cleaning, building sites, creating something of your own or ask about success stories with friends.

For me, the last option worked. Working for someone who came a year or two before you, it is interesting to learn about his financial success.

Making sure that this is not a legacy or an elevated IQ, you, as a tax service, are interested in the source of the 30-40 origin of the thousands of dollars that so quickly formed to start a business.

So I heard about the "forest" - something related to marijuana and big money.

It looks like a bush, almost ready to cut. In one tent will be from 50 to 200 plants. A photo article author Andrew Ivakhov

The forest, the north, the mountains - these are all the codenames for marijuana paradise in northern California. It’s all in the Emerald Triangle - three counties in northern California (Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity). Their total population is about 250 thousand people, of which 20 thousand people grow marijuana.

After reading a couple of stories of the same trimigrants, he could not resist and prepared his story. In an attempt to preserve authenticity, I translated Anglicisms, which I will use:

• Property - a farm where marijuana is grown;
• Bada - cones, Bosko, fruits of flowers;
• Trim - cut buds, cutting leaves from them and cutting off a branch;
• Clip - to separate bada from branches from cut flowers (most often they don’t pay for it);
• Harvest - harvest, depends on the size of the property, whether you will do it or not;
• Bast - meeting guests from the FBI, in which all the grass will be cut, and you will be temporarily planted;
• Mold, White Powder - ills on bads, make it difficult to trim;
• Grover - the one who grows plants on the property;
• Pound - pound, 454 grams. Always pay for weight. Cost in 2016 - 150 dollars per pound, in 2017 and 2018 - almost everywhere 100 dollars. In distant 2012-14 there were 200 dollars;
• Bean - a box with sticking bads;
• Season - the period from June to November-December, when everyone shears;
• Run - the harvest, for the season passes two wounds.

For six months, the questions "Hello, tell me about the forest", "How to get into the forest?", "Is it true that in the forest?" I did not receive information on how to get there. Fortunately, a more stubborn friend coped with this better, having received his "little book".

It took half a year to get 1 / 10 information about the forest. Now the whole picture can be found in 10 minutes of reading.

Intro

Dude, Serbok fired, there is a place. You will gain.

That same friend got on the first property two weeks before me. It was all the information he reported.

Then there were several messages to VibER (for some reason, the Bulgarian drug barons discovered Telegram only in 2018 / 19), a three-minute conversation in the Bulgarian-English-Russian surzhik and a ticket bought for 90 dollars. In 48 hours, a note for neighbors about my departure, dismissal from work, a collected briefcase and a farewell to civilization fit in.

In the forest you go fast or not going at all. To plan this trip (especially the first time) is almost impossible. In July and August, the phrase “You will be gathered” is heard by excited immigrants from all states and neighboring countries, rejoicing as an invitation to Hogwarts.

Mom, I'm in the woods. First month, property №1

The 16 bus took me from Los Angeles to Garberville (a city in Humboldt County). Graphs of the popularity of this trend probably look like this:

Picture of the author of the article Andrew Ivakhov

After stopping in San Francisco, the chances of someone continuing on their way and going there not to cut the grass are zero. For those who want to risk and without dating to get on the trim - this is your chance.

The trimming capital of Garberville is one street, two bus stops, a couple of motels where night is more expensive than San Francisco (guess why), the complete absence of ATMs of the largest banks and a bunch of vagrants / homeless.

Before the trip, I was warned that it’s better not to talk in Russian in the city, there is paranoia around, created by the same trimmers. Pick-up trucks drive around the city, driven by rich, but too glum dudes.

Sixteen hours later, I was met by two guys of my age (23) and a persistent smell of grass in the car. A month later, the same will come from me. The bus, late for an hour, did not add joy to those meeting, as well as the stay in the area itself. Nowhere have I seen such a concentration of ever-complaining people earning 200 dollars a day.

In other stories I read about blindfolds when you are being carried to the property. For two full seasons, 9, various properties and 20 + polls, I have not heard of other trimers about real-life examples.

They brought me to a typical American house, in a corner on an inflatable mattress something is sleeping, a friend is not observed. A few hours of sleep, new strangers with zero desire to answer the growing number of questions. Every person's face tells you: “Soon you will understand everything.”

A Bulgarian Mr. Surzhik appeared, he is the owner of the property, to which we left the next morning. This turned out to be more talkative than the rest, telling about the fact that he himself is an artist, and he is engaged in grass just for fun.

When I arrived on the property, I had a picture: a house, the construction of which was completed on 60%, cheap plastic chairs, a girl who quickly wields scissors, and a girlfriend, at the sight of whom the question arose: “I, too, will look so bad after two weeks ?

Understanding that for every pound you get 150 dollars, you rush into battle, but after a couple of weeks you will already rush home.

The first awkward movements with scissors, the study of the situation and the work itself. Here it must be remembered that the special desire of someone to teach trimmers do not show: while you teach, someone else mows, depriving you of $.

The manager or owner will teach you to cut so that you become their pet, while you do not earn money.

The essence of the work is simple: you need to give the trimmed cones a marketable appearance. Pay for cones with a minimum of leaves and sticks. The stick is important to cut off for another reason - it can pierce a sealed bag during transport. Smells, paranoia, everything.

He opened the box, threw the cones into the tray, quickly took the cone, cut off the large leaves, small branches, shortened the lower stick, threw it into the jar. In the next two months you will repeat it from 180 to 300 thousands of times.

Bada are different: gram monsters or popcorn, wet, which can not be cut, dry, that weigh little and crumble in the hands.

In different bins you get different surprises: several types of dead insects, bad with mold or cobwebs.

Such a number of bins on some property cut off in a day or two. The average order lasts from three weeks to six. Each of them is filled with sticking grass / Photo by Andrew Ivakhov article

The first weeks you do a lot of unnecessary movements, not knowing how to accelerate. Once again he twisted the bad in his hands - he lost time, once again chicked with scissors - he lost time, took a few bumps from Bina, got distracted by the phone and so on.

Little by little you turn into a robot, where a request to hand a paper napkin is a waste of time. Dine faster, go to bed later. The pursuit of profit deprives you of sleep, and the magic gram numbers after weighing please or upset you.

Weigh everywhere in different ways: leaving the scales in the room so that the trimer can recheck itself, the grass is taken away and the results are reported the next day, weighed and the results are reported immediately after a week.

An example of forest accounting and recording results. No you 1C, only hardcore / Photo by Andrew Ivakhov article

Abstraction from the fact that through your hands more 450 grams of weed passes daily every day is easy. In your hands the money. This link has never been so short, profitable and simple.

Get up as early as possible, prepare a place (scissors, napkin with alcohol / oil, water, candy bars, headphones) and start cutting.

This is what the 99% of jobs look like on most properties. Trey (tray), in it a jar for cones, a glass for alcohol, a pair of scissors, on the left a napkin with oil in the lid / Photo article author Andrew Ivakhov

At 5-7, the day of work comes a little despair - it's not at all clear how to cut faster. You cut 300-450 grams, and 1 kg and more are stably cut next to you.

This package is approximately 1100-1350 grams. In 2016 it cost 450 dollars.

Your 150 dollars a day against your neighbor's 450 dollars right. For 14-16 hours of work on one pound went 10 dollars per hour, 3 dollars less than you earned before the trip. It's hard to imagine how the fingers of another person move four times faster than yours, allowing you to make four times more money every day than you do. Difficult, but motivating.

Days go by, you finally speed up and ... the grass ends - the first wound is over, the order is processed. The bad news is nothing more to cut and it's time to look for a new place. In the best cases, the owner of the property will take you to friends / partners, in the worst cases, you go to Garberville or go home and wait for the news. Occasionally you will be allowed to stay on the property for a couple of days for a new search.

Results of the first property: 3200 dollars for three weeks. Everything can be written into income, trimers do not pay for housing and food (in rare exceptions)

Near crying is the same, "more than a kilogram," the neighbor. She is sad that her first month ended with the 12 result of thousands of dollars - she never cut so little, she says to me.

Waiting for news about whether we will be taken somewhere, for the first time we smoke what we have cut the last three weeks.

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