Poison Ivy!!!!!!

where to begin.

poison ivy is one of the banes of my existence. i hate it. it's one of the few material things i can honestly say that about. it does nothing but make me itch. or worry about itching. just talking about it makes me itch. i also hate ticks.

so i don't like poison ivy? join the club, right? it's more serious than that!! it's personal.

poison ivy grows pretty thick in North Carolina. i play my share of the disc golf, which means being out-of-doors. that equals bad news for my exposed body parts. i keep it in the fairway these days, for the most part, but back in the diz, i had to go hunting in the woods for bad shots. i got it so bad on my legs several years ago that i stopped wearing shorts. REI Sahara pants became the norm for me year round. and so it is today. i decided it wasn't worth the risk and changed my ways. but dealing with it on its turf is one thing. when it invades my personal property, that's something completely different. and so begins my story...

Andrea bought a house in Raleigh late last year. it was a great find: 3 bedroom in a decent neighborhood and a great back yard. the yard needed some attention, but i was looking forward to getting on it. the sellers mowed and picked up the big limbs, but there was still plenty to do. lots of trash all over the place and broken glass. the glass collection is an ongoing project.

one of the things that caught my eye were 2 of the big pecan trees in the back. they both were home to very large, very healthy vines of some sort. one of the trees had a significantly larger vine system than the other, but both were quite healthy and old. they had been left untouched for years and years. how many, i could only guess (1,000?). i don't recall thinking they might be poison ivy right away, but for whatever reason, i came to suspect it.

Andrea's dad came over with some tools, so just before Christmas 2006, i began chopping one of the vines with an axe. it was like chopping down a small tree: wood chips were flying. with every swing, i was saying to myself "if this is poison ivy, it's the likes of which i have never seen!!". well, it was poison ivy, as my swollen face and watery eyes would attest days later. each flying wood chip that bounced off my face carried with it a large amount of urushiol which caused said puffiness and wateriness. it wasn't until i went home for Christmas that i got relief in the form of a steroid shot. looking back, i was extremely lucky. there are some nasty photos of P.I. rashes out there on the internet. there's no good reason my rash wasn't 100 times worse. thankfully, i now know i am not allergic. like most people, though, i am susceptible.

fast forward several months. instead of using an axe to take care of the other infested tree, i got a pair of heavy duty loppers. with these, i could sever the lifeline of each vine up to about a 9" or 10" circumference. that was all of them but 1. there was one big daddy roughly the size of my leg (below the knee) and i needed to do more chopping to take care of it. i borrowed Kari's hatchet (the neighbor), protected my face with a dust mask and a towel and headed into the yard. it was hot and trying to chop the fat vine with all that headgear on with a camping hatchet was tough. but i managed to get it done with minimal exposure. again, there were lots of wood chips, but this time i ran in the house after finishing and took a long shower, including wiping myself down with alcohol squares. even with the precautions, i was sure i was going to contract it again. not helping matters was the allergy attack i was having. i crawled into bed like a scared little girl and awaited the rash.

thankfully, it didn't come. the next day, Andrea was out of town, so i went back to her place to tempt fate yet again: the first vine i chopped, back in December, had sent out about 50 vines radiating outwardly from the trunk of the tree along the top of the yard in a last ditch effort to sustain itself. as old and huge as the vines were, i can only imagine how vast the root system is. if so, i may be dealing with this for a while. years, maybe.

i put the gloves back on and started pulling up vines. they varied in length from a few feet to as many as 20 or more. when i was done, i had quite an impressive pile. every time i felt a leaf touch me, i ran into the house to wash my hands. that happened 7 or 8 times. i was being overly cautious and i think it may have paid off. the yard is, for the most part, free of poison ivy and i only managed to contract it in about 6 or 7 places...a few spots on my left arm, my right shoulder, my right wrist. and maybe a little on my face and in my ear. i'm again very surprised and lucky i didn't contract it all over my face and neck.

my project now is to keep the vines off the yard by pulling them as soon as i see them. my theory is that without leaves, photosynthesis can't happen and the root system will die in the ground. how long will that take? a while. i'm hoping the gasoline i poured on the exposed root will bring death more quickly. no matter, i'm nothing if not patient. and next time i'll wear long sleeves.

i have pictures to include. i'll modify the post to include them when they're ready. i went looking for pictures online of nasty poison ivy, but nothing i found compared to what's in the back yard. nothing. i read how, when healthy and mature, the vines can have branches "up to 3 or 4 feet in length". the branches coming off the vine in the back are upwards of 8 feet or more. it's horrifying. but now, i am pleased b/c the leaves on those branches are already wilting. it doesn't take long for them to die. but as i learned with the 1st vine, the roots stay active and it's only a matter of time before it sends out the emergency shoots seeking to preserve its life.

with any luck, i'll be there to pull the plug.