It's ON!! 6-28-13

I've had it. I'm ready to kick some herbal heiny. 
I did something very stupid last week. I was trying to clean out around the edge of my deck. And  with all of the time I played down in the country, I learned long ago. And I should have remembered. "Leaflets 3, let it be." It didn't dawn on me that I could encounter it in my humble little plot; so my radar wasn't even on.
My skin has been crawling since about 3:30am. I couldn't get any peace; so I figured I would get up and find a distraction. Apparently the stuff has just spread to my face. 

4am photo. Not sure if you can see the rash that is just developing on my face.
My face is a bit swollen, too. You can see a bit of the rash on my finger.

We've got 2 culprits here; so I can't just blame myself. Sure I was weeding with wanton abandonment, determined to get that tree and weeds cut out of some of my garden decor. However, my urushoil footprint was likely a bit low. After all, I was using some heavy gloves for most of the time. But the bigger biological terrorist is likely my little Winnie. 

Sure, she *looks* innocent enough!

Dogs aren't affected by poison ivy. They just carry it along to unsuspecting folks. So one of the 1st things I did this morning was email her groomer to see if we can get some of that hair cut off. The next thing I did was try to figure out how in the world I'm going to get rid of this stuff. Here are the results of my web search and other ideas for my shopping list:

• Dawn dishwashing liquid for Winnie's bath (check)
• Long rubber gloves to wash Winnie and to remove the offender (check)
• Plastic barrier with ground clips for around the shed to keep Winnie from getting underneath. Not sure how I'm going to get it stuck on--maybe hammer and brads?
• Black plastic tarp for covering weeds and compost pile, which is no longer any good.
• Maybe herbicide? I really don't like this idea, especially so near to my container gardens and with the baby
• Arrid Extra Dry spray. Yes, it will be hot out there in long sleeves and pants, but my 'research' tells me that this can help heal the rash
• Calagel. Again, to help heal the rash
• Large plastic bags to get rid of the offender
• An ocean of calamine lotion

So, it looks like a trip to Lowe's is in order. Winnie has a UTI; so I guess we'll hit Lowe's on our way back from the vet. It looks like I have A LOT of laundry to re-do this weekend. Grrrr!