"Duh" right? Wrong. This couldn't have been poison ivy, the leaves were 10" long! Poison ivy and oak usually have 2-4" leaves and don't have woody vines scaling 60' up a tree. Plus who would knowingly keep a poison ivy plant in their yard?
So I started trimming all that I could reach whilst the branches and leaves fell all over me. Turns out <ding> it was poison ivy. We called over an arborist to get a quote on removing it. He came, he saw, he was floored. He wouldn't take the job. Wouldn't even give us a quote. He speculated the plant to be at least 35 years old! He did tell us how to kill it. However, even after being dead for years poison ivy is still a serious hazard.
Turns out Jen and I are quite different when it comes to poison ivy reactions. She is unaffected by it and I am seriously affected by it. In fact, I have a systemic reaction to poison ivy. That is, when it touches me, it gets in my blood and will pop up everywhere, yes <cough>, everywhere. Slathered in steroid creams and popping steroid pills I conquered it in 3 weeks. Then it came back. Another 2 weeks and it was gone. Important to note: your body doesn't devolop an immunity, it gets worse with every new encounter.
Needless to say, Jen has since removed all of the vines 12' up the tree, poisoned the roots and dug them up.
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