Tree Tent, Poison Oak & Very Cool

Tree Tent:
Today my wife arrived home and was working in her studio. A knock was heard, somewhat muffled and far away but still probably for us. A face appeared in the port-hole of our gate, and a pleasant looking, smallish woman began apologizing for the intrusion. She explained that she was from "The County" and that because we have fruit trees we are officially "requested" to allow the county to hang insect traps in the fruit trees to control pests and provide early warning info prior to ordering overhead spraying for the entire county, which nobody wants. If they catch the infestation soon enough, they don't have to spray everywhere. My wife said yes, and we now have tent traps in some of our trees.

Poison Oak:
I am exceptionally allergic to poison oak and when we first moved to this home in 1987 we hired laborers to remove the oak from the property (no small job) by hand pulling and de-rooting the stuff. About 3 years ago a small patch appeared on the county road side of our property, and I spotted it and dug it out. It comes back each year but I know where to look and so I just remove it each year and it does not come back until the following year. Two years ago a second, closer-to-the-house patch appeared and I spotted it and removed it also. This year both patches dutifully appeared in the spring, grew to about 2 feet in height, spread to about 18" in circumference, and when I spotted them I dug them out. Then the weather changed. This spring has been quite different than average, and the extra rain and the combo of rain-sun-rain has caused things to go through a regeneration cycle. I did not know this until I was working on the county road side of the property installing better deer fencing, moving back and forth and not paying much attention to the ground, and then dropped a tool and as I was bending to pick it up, came face to face with new poison oak growth, 2 feet high, growing straight up from the location from where I dug it out earlier in the spring. I stopped dead still, looked all around the area, and when I realized that this was the only spot, I then very carefully removed and got rid of the oak, cleaned all the tools with gasoline, washed my work clothes twice in hot soapy water, and took a hot soapy shower myself. The oak discovery cost me about 1.5 hours of productive work time, and it has been a week now and no oak has appeared on my body, so I guess I survived *:-)
I then realized that the other spot had also probably grown back, so a couple days later I took that new growth out as well.

Very Cool:
Our cat, while truly a "Cool Cat", is also quite upset with us. We did not listen carefully enough to the radio weather warning about the sudden drop in temperature accompanied with wind and cold rain and we left our cat out ALL DAY in the cold and rain *:-( She is still pissed off about it and provides us with reminder lectures as she goes in and out the door now *:-)

Movie Recommendations:
"The Inspector Lynley Mysteries 2: (all episodes)" (2003) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Swimming Pool" (2003) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.