{"id":1308,"date":"2008-10-18T09:24:06","date_gmt":"2008-10-18T15:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=1308"},"modified":"2008-10-18T10:33:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-18T16:33:00","slug":"quack-will-inherit-the-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=1308","title":{"rendered":"Quack Will Inherit the Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>42\u00a0 bar steady 30.28\u00a0 0mph WNW\u00a0 windchill 42\u00a0 Autumn<\/p>\n<p>Waxing Gibbous Blood Moon<\/p>\n<p>That damned quack.\u00a0 It has begun to overtake our new plantings.\u00a0 So, purity to the wind.\u00a0 If it warms up to 60 degrees, we&#8217;ll hit it with Roundup.\u00a0 Then again.\u00a0 And, probably, given the tenacious qualities of quack grass, again <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/quackgrass_rhizome2300.jpg\" title=\"quackgrass_rhizome2300.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/quackgrass_rhizome2300.jpg\" alt=\"quackgrass_rhizome2300.jpg\" align=\"right\" \/><\/a>next spring.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years I have become a grudging fan of these hardy herbaceous plants, the weeds.\u00a0 Without sophisticated gardening intervention they thrive; in fact, they often thrive in spite of it.\u00a0\u00a0 They are true survivors and give succor to anyone worried about humankind&#8217;s ultimate effect on the planet.<\/p>\n<p>Herbicide us.\u00a0 Nuke us.\u00a0 Poison Gas.\u00a0 Plague.\u00a0 Quack grass and creeping charlie will soldier on.\u00a0 I have not yet read The World Without Us but if it&#8217;s honest, it will tell the tale of a world dominated by weeds.\u00a0 Only they will not be weeds anymore, since a weed is a plant out of place.\u00a0 No, The World Without Us will be quack world, dandelion heaven, creeping charlie nirvana.\u00a0 Long may they reign.<\/p>\n<p>Until then, however, I want to get the damned stuff out of my young orchard.<\/p>\n<p>Right now I have no Sierra Club responsibilities, except my last rounds of stranger phone calls ever.\u00a0 I have no tours for which I have to prepare.\u00a0 My sermons have left the computer and entered the world.\u00a0 So for the next week or so I can devote myself to finishing up gardening chores, cleaning up my spaces infected with piles and perhaps catching up on a bit of reading.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of that, I have a recommendation for those of you who like literature and mysteries:\u00a0 The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, by Swedish author Steig Larson.\u00a0 A smart mystery and an intriguing look into contemporary Swedish life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>42\u00a0 bar steady 30.28\u00a0 0mph WNW\u00a0 windchill 42\u00a0 Autumn Waxing Gibbous Blood Moon That damned quack.\u00a0 It has begun to overtake our new plantings.\u00a0 So, purity to the wind.\u00a0 If it warms up to 60 degrees, we&#8217;ll hit it with Roundup.\u00a0 Then again.\u00a0 And, probably, given the tenacious qualities of quack grass, again next spring. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=1308\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Quack Will Inherit the Earth<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87,184],"tags":[1097,1094,1095,600],"class_list":["post-1308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-garden","category-literature","tag-1097","tag-quack-grass","tag-steig-larson","tag-weeds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}