April 6-27, 1996

You could also say many small hands make more work. Its taken several weeks to clear the property. Most of the trees were not too large but we cut them into 3 foot sections and stacked them. Surprisingly, the kids had a lot of fun helping out and generally staying out of trouble even when they would go adventuring.

One word of warning when you clear property, beware of poison ivy! Margaret is very susceptible to it and until recently I was immune to it. Needless to say we both got bad cases of poison ivy. Margaret got it on her legs and arms and I got it on my arms and torso. Apparently some of the sawdust from the chainsaw got down into my coveralls and boy do they itch. After three nights of toughing it out without sleep because of the itching I went to the doctor for cortisone pills. They helped immediately. Thank goodness the kids didn't get any poison ivy.

Two products are now religiously used when we are working in the woods. Felds Naptha is a laundry strength soap that washes away the oils and we use it when we shower after work. If we find some affected areas we have used Tecnu solution to wash away the poison.

Oh well, at least the trees are gone and we are ready for the excavator.

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