Yard Work & Poison Ivy

It seems that spring weather is here to stay. This past Saturday Jon and I - with the help of my sister Alysa (thanks so much Lysa!) – FINALLY were able to start working in our yard! We started a little before noon and worked until around 3:30pm. I had no idea we would get done as much as we did. I started with pulling out the dead mums I planted last year in my flower beds; then we all worked on the side yard. We dug out bushes and trees, picked up big rocks and branches, raked leaves and smaller branches and cut off some dead branches from bigger trees. Jon and Alysa did most of the digging out and cutting down of the trees and bigger bush-like plants. I stuck with pulling out weeds and smaller bushes and picking up sticks. Mid-way through we started accumulating pretty big piles of wood and leaves so we started a fire and piled everything on.

I took some before, during and after pictures but don’t have them with me now, I’ll post them later. Our yard looks so different. We still have one small corner to finish up but we had to stop on Saturday because Jon and I actually went up to Shady Maple in Lancaster for dinner with friends!

Sunday my worst fear about working in the yard came true: I had poison ivy! It’s all over my right arm and some on my left, as well as on my feet, little bits on my legs and some small areas on my face and neck! I must be much more allergic to the poison than Jon and Alysa are because neither of them got it as bad – at least I don’t think Alysa did. Jon’s got some on his legs and a little on his arms.

As for me… I despise poison ivy! It’s absolutely the worst! I hate looking at it or feeling it. I can’t even rub medicated creams on my own poison ivy because I can’t stand the way it feels and I get the irresistible urge to pop it all. Jon has been so sweet! He’s more than willing to help doctor me up. He puts the itch cream on for me and Monday night, when I just couldn’t take it anymore, he drove out to Wal-mart to pick up this expensive scrub stuff (called Zanfel). Then he took the time to scrub all my poison with it and wash it off! Ahhh! That stuff really works on the itch. I hardly have any itch now even though the rash has been spreading a little each day. Hopefully it will go away altogether soon!

Well, those are the big things that have happened lately. I’ll post the pictures of the yard as soon as I get a chance.