Itching and Wondering

"Mike, you are always scratching!" Jama said.

It's true.

We've been combating chiggers and poison ivy in our yard.

I've got the rash on my arms and the itchy bites in my arm pits and unmentionables to prove it.

I almost wrote a blog post one day wondering about the daring mosquito who must have flown up my boxers. I planned to title it "the one drawback of boxers." Now, I know the truth. Mosquitoes bite exposed skins. Chiggers look for areas that are normally covered.

Shane still doesn't understand why I don't let him run free. I'll be scratching bug bites with one hand and holding him back from grabbing a fist full of poison ivy with the other. The boy wants trouble! I can read his mind saying "I am INVINCIBLE!!!!!"

The chiggers have been a problem since day one. I thought I'd developed some weird rash or had mosquitoes flying up my clothes at first. Carrie laid down some poison, and it seemed to work for a little while.

They're baaaaaaaack!  Blasted things. I will kill them all. They've actually surpassed crickets on my bugs to kill list. It's a shame they're so small that I can't actually see them to kill them. One of these days Carrie and I will both be home and I'll break out a different kind of poison. She pulled 116 hours in her last 2 week pay period!

The poison ivy has been lurking, but it's gotten worse with my battling the bamboo. The bamboo roots writhed and elevated the landscape all around the porch. The area is so rugged, I can't push the mower over it for fear of the blades hitting dirt. Plus, ripping up the bamboo ripped up some of the grass and other weeds. Now, ivy is somehow flourishing in the accidentally tilled dirt. Carrie found us a decent tiller online and I had planned to destroy what's left of the bamboo with it(the #1 plant on my "Plants to Kill That are Almost Unkillable" list). Now, I'm going to need to suit up and cover all of my skin to take care of the ivy too.

Owning a yard is hard work!

It'll be nice once the yard is fully set up for Shane. I want a swingset and poison free yard for him to race around. The boy is such an outdoorsy little fellow (as I've mentioned before). Brogan prohibits us from using the church playground for fear of doggy poop, so we need our own.

I'll try to start tilling once all the laundry is done tomorrow.