I swear I never saw these plants before in my life until a few months ago, right here. They’re incredibly tough. They made my Craftsman Brushwhacker cry. All I did was trim them some to make a path. Now they’re turning brown. There’s some outlaw septic tank drainage field work under all that, too, most expertly if accidentally disguised.
That’s the way it’s been this year. The back yard filled up with some kind of cute little green things that were completely new to me, and I’ve been in this location over ten years. They were so cute (and green), I left them alone for the longest time. It now turns out they produce millions of tiny burrs. This same plant also appeared all over the hillsides like some kind of invasion. I’d swear in court I never saw the things before. The cat’s fur is an unholy mess. Meanwhile, my wife complains of “sharp pokey things” in the rug, another kind of burr the cat drags in. I walk around barefoot all the time and never feel a thing.
“Life is tough all over,” I say nice enough to make her smile.
There’s no way to cut these weeds that I’m aware of. They’re like little carbon fiber trees. Not as if it really matters, though. Two adobes side by side in fatal probate, returning to the land… The property’s too small to qualify for a septic system if you knocked them down and started over. Whoever ends up with this place will have to wait until the sewer line gets out this way.
This is New Mexico, of course. I may not be dead yet then, but we will certainly be gone.
John Hamilton Farr lives at 7,000 feet in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, U.S.A. As New York Times best-selling author James C. Moore tells it, John is “a man attuned to the world who sees it differently than you and I and writes about it with a language and a vision of life that is impossible to ignore.” This JHFARR.COM site is the master writing archive. To email John, please see CONTACT INFO on .png)
Wonder if it’s that salt cedar that’s taking over NM and the world. I spose living there you have already ruled that out.
No, not salt cedar. 🙂 I kinda like it, though. The onslaught is something like a theme song for the Zeitgeist. Karmic raiment of the place.
I’m not sure what that is but it looks like what we used to call “bitterweed” when I was a kid on our farm. We had a dairy and when the cows ate it their milk would taste real bitter.
Bitterweed has flowers, I think. No doubt we’ll have a positive identification soon!
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