bluehorizonfarm.com Blog

On really hot summer days, there’s nothing that I long for more than a nice cool swim. But, since the nearest public swimming pool is over thirty miles away, I often settle for being doused with a hose or, when I’m feeling especially brave, a swim in our pond.

Yes, the water is murky and full of fish. Worse yet, the pond is home to all sorts of creatures, ranging from majestic herons to more fear-inducing creatures such as snakes and snapping turtles (Mr. Bitey and Bitey, Jr. are our two resident snappers, and they’re huge).

However, the denizens of our pond seem to take pity on me during the sweltering days of summer. This is evidenced by the fact that they let me float or swim around the pond without eating me.

Mindful to not wear out my welcome, I usually don’t hang out in the pond for too long. Once I’ve finished my dip in the spring-fed pond’s surprisingly cold water, I always breathe a sigh of relief: not only have I cooled off, but I still have all of my toes! Thanks Mr. Bitey.

I can identify a poison ivy plant from yards away, even on the fly. For example, when I’m mowing with the tractor, I often have to mow under low hanging branches and even while going 10 mph or so, I can pick out and avoid poison ivy-covered limbs from afar.

This wasn’t always the case, and even now, after about 12 summers of dodging the nasty vine daily, my poison-ivy radar is certainly farm from infallible. But I’m definitely better at avoiding it than I used to be.

The biggest lesson that I have learned about poison ivy is that it can look like a tree–it’s not always just a shiny, three-leafed ground cover–sometimes it’s a massive and less shiny “tree”. This is because poison ivy is a vine that climbs trees and can nearly take them over, creating the appearance of a poison ivy tree.

No matter how watchful I am, I end up stumbling into some poison ivy at least once a year, and the resulting rash and itching is always even worse than I remembered it to be.

The best remedy that I’ve discovered for poison ivy is putting jewelweed juice on it. Every summer, when the jewelweed is flowering (I can only identify it while it’s blooming), I harvest some, boil it down, and use the resulting juice as a homemade poison ivy cure. I always try to keep some frozen jewelweed juice ice cubes on hand, just in case the poison ivy wins my daily battle against it!