Poison Ivy Blitz

Well it’s not really a blitz on poison ivy but a blitz on everything. Until the leaves come out it’s difficult to spot it so everything is going. The garden was over grown and lost anyway so everything was going anyway (apart from mature trees). We are going to use Poison Ivy Patrol to clear the place and that is a three figure amount so I want to do as much as possible to keep it very low three figures.

First area was back left of garden, I had started on this last weekend but couldn’t sort out camera so no footage*. I love the tools I have, the bow saw can be hard work but it’s very satisfy and for small jobs more convenient and safer than a chainsaw. I’m pretty sure my swimming has helped with the saw pull stroke. There was a pretty big tree trunk that needed cutting up, luckily it was dry and not too heavy to lift and cut.

After this I tackled the garage ivy which we think is pretty much the bad ivy. By the way the garage is huge, it would probably take four cars, thinking BMW 840/850, Porsche 928, Jensen Healey and the Camry, unfortunately the supporting walls were done very poorly and are now bowing in at least 6″- it’s not safe inside.

The garage had this wire fence around it which was stuck in the ground and needed cutting out. It was tough stuff so I got some Klein bolt cutters, not cheap but they should be handy for other legit activities 😉 I bought the smallest ones and I’m glad I did, only 20″ long but they are heavy buggers and then combined with the cutting action it was hard work. I bagged up all the ivy I cut off so we won’t have to handle that stuff again.

It’s interesting throughout the day to hear and watch all the bird life. Today we had quite a lot of male cardinal songs, the song varies but is always the same and ends up with what sounds like star trek phasers, listen to this recording and you will see what I mean: The inspiration for all sci-fi gun sound effects.

Below is a time lapse, it doesn’t look like I did much but I was there almost eight hours. A real gem was at 2.31 on the time lapse, I had a Downey woodpecker, peck away for maybe five minutes and I was sitting less than five foot away. How cool.

The last few screens I’m washing down tools with with wet-wipes and alcohol to clear all Urushiol.

* unlike regular sd cards, micro sd cards can be inserted the wrong way.