Two weeks after we moved in I decided to take a break from unpacking and spend a Sunday outside in the existing gardens…which ended up consisting mostly of weeds. I noticed a few days earlier a vine growing up our lovely maple tree and decided that it would have to go. Sunday morning out I go, gloves on, pruners in hand and proceeded to remove the vine. And what a vine it was! 10 to 15 feet long, coiled up through the branches, it was like nothing I had ever seen. My thinking was if this vine got any bigger it may take over the whole tree. So, down it came and that was that…or so I thought…

Poison Oak! What a nightmare. Words CAN NOT describe what it was like having poison flippin’ oak!

Mother Nature must have been shinning down on me that day, though… it only appeared on my forearms! I was a LUCKY girl…it could have been so much worse. Thank goodness for gloves or my hands would have been covered as well. It could have easily come in contact with my face since the vine was so high up. Lucky, lucky, lucky!

It lasted for almost a month and left me with a few good scars.

Worst gardening experience, ever! Lesson learned? Alway, always, always identify something you’re not 100% sure of. That is one mistake I will never make again.

http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-Poison-Oak