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more poison ivy

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

This winter (early Spring here in Texas) but everything was still dormant, 
I was digging out a new bed and those 'grapevine roots' were invasive and 
ornery. About 2 days later, I realized those twern't ordinary grapevines. 
They were poison ivy roots!  Hands were awful, and peeled and itched like 
mad for over 2 weeks, nothing helped. BUT, one kind soul suggested using 
cheap roll on deodorant to help the itching, and either this stuff was 
about to run it's course, or it really did help. Don't discount it when 
you're suffering, though.
(I had on shorts and was sitting on the ground, pulling roots out. must 
have also sat in some. Then, came in here and sat in the computer chair. 
The next morning, in undies, I sat again... getting my drift??? Very hard 
to get hubby to rub deodorant on my ample rump without him laughing his 
head off. humiliating to say the least!)
Word to the wise, if you use gloves to pull the vines, probably best to put 
on a pair of rubber surgical ones under your gardening gloves first. That 
juice can penetrate cloth gloves and the leather ones would hold the resin 
way too long.
Another hint DO NOT put leather gloves in your pant's pocket and 
accidentally wash them later. Goatskin shrinks like mad, I now have Barbie 
Doll gardening gloves! (No wonder my poor goats hate to get wet!! They 
don't want to be Pygmies.)
But, yes, you can get a goat who will love you as long as the poison ivy is 
around. they can eat the stuff without any reaction. But, don't handle, 
hug, work on the goat afterward. That resin also stays on their hair and 
it's hard to milk a goat w/out touching her. I drink the milk also, but I 
still have pretty bad reactions to poison ivy. I've heard of that theory 
also, that you can drink their milk and be immune to it. On the other hand, 
maybe I'd be hospitalized if I DIDN'T drink the milk and got around poison 
ivy. Don't know any way of knowing without a lot of personal testing, which 
I refuse to do!
More PI stuff: My Grandmother was very much allergic to the stuff. She had 
my Uncle hack and burn out all the vines she could find growing, and 
somehow managed to get downwind. She almost died when the stuff got in her 
lungs, and her breathing became very labored.

You can go from being unaffected to severely affected in one season. You 
can have no reaction for years, then build up a 'toxic overload' and the 
next contact, you're now in with the rest of us miserable poison ivy 
sufferers.
martha

end


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