Sending a Boy to do a Man's Job
There is only one practical solution for the invasive plant known as duckweed. This tiny but obnoxious plant that replicates faster than wild rabbits can quickly overwhelm the surface of a pond. What begins as a delicate lacing along the shoreline becomes, within weeks, an oxygen-blocking mat that covers most if not all the surface of the pond. And there is only one way to get rid of it. Grass carp. In previous years, when duckweed has shown itself early in the spring, I have acquired four grass carp (if the ones in residence have died) to deal with the problem. Around these parts one buys grass carp from traveling representatives of fish farms. Once or twice a year they will make their rounds, bringing with them stock of various types for rural ponds. Grass carp don't live forever; you buy them young and small, and over a period of a few years they essentially eat themselves to death. They eat and eat until they become huge, then they die. This year, since the existing stock was found floating after spring thaw, when the duckweed revealed itself I went to town to close a deal with the traveling fish folk. With only a tiny bit of duckweed started, I thought, I'll just get two carp this year. They should be able to handle the job. Silly boy. Last year the four mature grass carp kept the pond clean without breaking a sweat. This year those two scrawny youngsters were quickly overwhelmed by the fast-growing duckweed. So now we are paying the price of our short-sighted thrift with a pond in which the water is barely visible through the thick carpet of green weed.Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
Acts 18:24-28 nasbu