Poison Ivy and Miserable

I have been grooming fruit trees.  Mowed the front section of the acreage we use and cleaned up the flowerbed in the middle of the driveway.  I knew it would probably happen, it has been a couple of years since I cleaned up the flowerbed, I got a bad case of poison ivy on my arms...I was very careful too!  I knew there was poison ivy in the flowerbed, I thought about just mowing everything in the flowerbed down.  I didn’t, but I had to cut down several trees that had gotten about five feet tall that were growing in it, lots of dewberry vines too...there wasn’t even much poison ivy in there.  I had big loppers, little loppers and a machete and would cut the longest parts and pull things out by the roots as much as possible...and lift them with the tools to put them in piles.  The flowerbed is pretty large, probably about 15 feet wide and 30 feet long.  It was planted with bulbs before we bought the house, but I think a lot had been removed.  The first couple of years jonquils, daffodils and bell flowers bloomed and that was pretty much it.  Last Spring, more flowers popped up...Irises that actually bloomed, Spider And Easter Lillie’s.  They were sparse, except a clump here and there.

I want pretty things to look at.  Here everything is green, there aren’t much in the way of contrasting colors popping out...unless it is the birds or goldenrod, this time of year.  We have Cardinals and Bluebirds in abundance, and humming birds, but since this part up around the house is a few acres, and there were not many trees, there was not many places for them to nest or perch really, up by the house.  I concentrated on planting fruit and nut trees the first five years.  I want to start planting perennials now.  We have wild flowers all around the perimeter, and I let them grow in spots around the house...but, because I did that...dewberries grew too.  I have to cut dewberries away from the house several times a year, otherwise they grow all over the front porch, and strangle out what flowers there were left.  I had planted flowers around the patio area in the back of the house...but my poultry pretty much dug them up and destroyed all of the grass too.  I was able to move some things to the front yard and tried to fill in large gaps that were empty of anything growing.  I even transplanted monkey grass from one half of the porch to the other...trying to balance out the greenery that was left.  I still have a long way to go in my beautification of the land around the house.  I have to mark areas so my husband doesn’t mow down, weedeat or spray things with weed killer.  I planted some Climatis vines that didn’t make it...and some wildflowers around a tree that are trying to come back...

Anyway, I have had the poison ivy rash for over a month now.  It was the worst case I ever had.  Normally I just get a spot or two around my wrists, just above my gloves.  I got it all over my arms, got some around my ankles, on my legs, my neck, chest and stomach too...even in my hair although just a light sprinkling everywhere but my arms.  I went to the doctor and got a shot, but even two weeks afterward...I am still itching.  Most of my wounds have healed now, some of the blisters were awful and I still have a few scabbed spots.  I still get intense itching too.  Usually at night, an extremely hot shower helps, but...I have bruised myself a few times scratching the itch.  I know that you shouldn’t scratch like that, but it feels almost like something is in my skin crawling around!  I will go scrub with jewelweed soap and hot water and it helps, or put Biofreeze on...but it has been driving me crazy.

We have had a lot of problems with things breaking down on us the past few years too, our latest issue was our freezer.  I freeze a lot.  I freeze my garden vegetables like broccoli and green beans, I chop and freeze bell peppers and onions too, and blueberries and peaches.  Our freezer went out last week...it was not good, we lost a lot of the fruit and vegetables and about a fifth of the meat...maybe more.  The fall and winter months are lean months for us.  My husbands shop doesn’t get as much business, so I try and make sure the freezer stays stocked up with meat enough to get us through to spring.  I probably should have thrown out more of the meat, a few things I have fixed lately tasted freezer burned and went to the dogs after I cooked it.  This winter may be a bit tough.  We had to purchase a new freezer.  We have a repairman coming today to see if the old one can be fixed.  It would be nice to have two freezers, we had talked about getting another freezer the past couple of years and going in halves on a cow or pig for meat, things just didn’t happen.  If we can fix the old freezer it will be great!