BJ Feddish typed:
>>> By saying "poison ivy" instead of the more familiar (to me) "poison
> oak," I reckon you are not in California. <<
>
> SE PA.  It's the groundcover of choice at State Parks. It grows like crazy
> in my back yard too. When my old neighbor moved in years ago he said the
> whole hillside was covered in it and he did not know what it was so he
> removed all of it by hand.  He was out of commission for weeks.

When we were kids, we moved into a new tract house in Goleta, CA. The
back yard bordered on a creek, the banks of which were covered with
scrub and poison oak. My dad and a friend cleared the brush down to the
ground. We kids decided to dig holes and trenches and cover them with
cardboard, to create tunnels and dungeons. Through massive amounts of
poison oak roots. We were blistered for weeks, too. It was miserable.
But I'm now apparently immune to the urushiol oil which causes such misery.

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR