My students and I went out this morning - it was drippy and wet but it didn't storm - and we finished (thank goodness) the fieldwork for their summer project.
There was poison ivy EVERYWHERE in the second forest we did. I went out and bought a product called "Ivy Block" yesterday and put it on before going out this morning, and also immediately after the sampling I went home and got in as cold of a shower as I could stand ("conventional wisdom" is that cold water, no soap to start off with is the best way to remove the poison ivy oils).
We'll see if it worked. I really sincerely hope that it did, or else my hands will be all rashy, and I need my hands this week.
I came back here (my office) and went through the first sample and keyed out and counted the critters. I don't have the energy to do another one just yet but at least I have the set-up all ready for Monday. (It takes me ~1 1/2 hours to do a sample, so if I really push, I should be able to do 3 Monday, 3 Thursday, maybe 2 Tuesday, and a bunch on Friday, since I am now done with going out in the field).
Even if I don't FINISH the samples, at least I'll get a few done to see general trends before the Prairie Conference. (I just hope my identification of the critters is good enough; I am far from an expert and am mainly using a key to identify them).
But now, I'm going home. To knit.
2 comments:
Shamefully, I admit that I started singing THAT SONG once I read this post.
"You're gonna need an ocean / Of calamine lotion..."
Eventually I figured out that the Coasters, or Leiber and Stoller anyway, were talking about, um, something else, but that's another story.
We went for a walk yesterday down by the river, and there's poison ivy *everywhere*—some of the leaves were larger than my hand! Tecnu is what I use if I'm exposed (as I was earlier this year when I was weeding the strawberries and ended up pulling out vines and vines of poison ivy . . . )—and so far I haven't gotten a rash. I bought mine at Rite Aid; I think it was $11.99 for a big bottle that will probably last me for years. (The same people also make CalaGel, my favorite itch-stopper/)
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