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Caution - Poison Ivy
 
Poison Ivy in Early Spring  

Most of you probably think about turkey season, green grass, and fishing as the winter turns to spring.   I think about Poison Ivy!  I was reminded of it this past weekend as my son and I walked through the woods behind my house. 

As Riley and I cruised through the mature oak hollow I soon realized that we had managed to walk into a maze of tiny red leaflets.  This new growth seemed to pop from the earth and surround us just for spite.  I picked up Riley and he got a free ride out of the woods.  The bad part was that there was nothing free about my journey through this maze of poisonous plants.  You?ve probably heard others say, ?If I look at poison ivy I get it?.  Well, that saying seems to apply to me.  You would think that after years of dousing calamine on my skin I would learn, but it seems that this pesky plant always gets the best of me. 

After maneuvering through the woods I thought it would be a good time to teach Riley about poison ivy.  The one thing my Dad always told me that seemed to stick was, ?Leaves of three, Let it be?.  Others that I?ve heard are, ?One, Two, Three, Don?t touch me?, and ?Red leaflets in the spring, it?s a dangerous thing?.  These mnemonics are a neat way to teach kids about the outdoors. 

As we enter springtime and make plans to chase turkeys through the countryside these plants are often hidden and harder to spot.  Check out the video below and see how it's hard to see in early spring.  These are the times that it usually gets me.  I?m pretty conscious of it in the late spring and summer when the leaves are broad and green and cover the edges of the timber, but I often forget about the early spring when it's hard to see.  Believe me when I tell you it's not any less potent in early spring.  I?ve found that washing the areas of the skin that have contacted the plant as soon as possible helps.  One tip would be to make sure you take off your watch when washing your arms.  I have made the mistake of not doing this in the past and paid the price.  I haven?t really found a cost effective remedy as I?d almost rather go to the doctor to get rid of it. 

Does anyone have a good remedy to share? 

How does this pesky plant affect your hunts?  I have buddies that get on me about how aware I am of it.  They seem to be able to sit in the middle of it with no consequence.  I have learned to respect it on the other hand. 

SCDNR has some good info on poison ivy.  A couple tidbits I picked up from reading their website is that only 70% of the U.S. population is allergic to poison ivy.  That means that 30% of the population is very very lucky.  Also, I didn't realize that poison ivy produces a fruit that is popular with wildllife.  Maybe it is not so bad after all.  Scratch that last statement.  Caution - Poison Ivy is bad!

 


Site update, Snow in the upstate, + Poison Ivy
You probably noticed, but I did officially update the site this past Friday.  I feel the updates were much needed and greatly enhanced the site.  Without boring you with a bunch of tech-talk, it was a long and tedious process to get all the new modules implemented and successfully move everything to a new host.  This process didn?t go without some hiccups and we may still experience a few more bumps in the road, but for the most part I think we?re good to go.  So, if you come back to the site and it?s crashed, just know that I?m working on it and that I am backing up the site at regular intervals.  I still have some pretty big updates to come to the photo/video gallery modules and I?m looking into a few more things to add to the site.  Keep in mind that I built the site not knowing what the response would be from hunters around the state and since the start in September we?ve had over 50,000 pages views from 43 states & more than 20 countries.  So in regards to the site, I?m just trying to catch up to the energy and momentum.  The WeHuntSC.com team is constantly on the grind to bring your more and enhance the possibilities of the site even more.  We?ve got some good stuff coming down the pipe and you should see all of this in the near future, but I don?t want to spoil the fun!  With all that said, thanks for your continued support and visits to the site.  If you can think of any ways to make it better, just let me know and we?ll do what we can to accommodate your requests.
 
    WeHuntSC.com - Frozen backglass window of my truck
  An image of my truck the day after the snow
As you are aware, this past weekend the east coast got hit with some wintery weather and boy did it get here quick.  It started snowing around 4:00 pm on Friday or at least that?s when I first saw it.  All of the forecasts were for bad road conditions and snow/sleet/ice all around.  I was supposed to take the second part of the CWP (Concealed Weapons Permit) class, the shooting portion along with taking the test.  Well it didn?t take long for them to cancel the class and post-pone it until the next weekend.  After the CWP class, Adam and I were scheduled to go and do some more food plot work back deep in the woods.  We obviously had to take a rain check on this as well.  I think the upstate got considerably more snow and ice than other parts did.  I like the snow and hope that it brings some interesting game-camera pics!  
 
Adam and I had started working on a remote food plot the previous weekend and after doing so I was reminded of something.  A few days after we worked, I first felt a tingle and in a few hours this tingle turned into an itch.  This itch was yes? Po Po Po Poison Iveeeyyy!  I wore blue jeans with a hole in the knee and dag-bummit if I didn?t catch poison ivy on that one knee from where I had bent over with the chainsaw in some brush.  Of course it took 2 days before I realized what was going on and by that time I had spread the poison ivy to the other leg.  So all week this stuff has been driving me absolutely crazy and not scratching my legs has been very hard to resist.  I started off with Calamine lotion and, from what I can tell, this had little effect on the poison ivy.  I have now switched to ?Ivy Dry? and it burns and really dries out my skin.  If you have any urban legend solutions I?m up for it and respond to this post with your suggestions.  If it persists, I?m going to just break down and go to the doctor, but I?m trying to tough it out?. I won?t lie?it?s rough right now.  I feel like I have scales or something.  Ok, that?s a little to much info so I?ll stop.
 
So both the food plot work and the CWP class got delayed which now affects our plans to go wabbit hunting with Hoot next weekend.  I think we can still make it, but I don?t know how long we?ll be able to get out and about.  We are trying to get Will to shoot a rabbit with a bow and arrow on camera.  Do you think this is possible?  I will be very surprised if he?s able to do it, but then again he did hit that can a few weeks ago on camera.  
Also, if you emailed me since I updated the site, it did not go through.  I realized this tonight and figured out the issue with some tech help from two different hosting companies.  When I updated the DNS entries for the site, it affected the MX records on the exchange email server.  I know that is tech-jargon, but either way it?s working now and our email addresses work again.
 
If you haven?t seen the coyote pics that are getting posted on the site, be sure to check them out.  The guys are really laying the smack down on some coyotes!
 
Regards,
 
Clint
 

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