no Emerald Ash Borer where you are then, I guess

Like I said, all parks have their own rules and they change, so you have to check with the park you're in... better yet before you're in.

:D

An example of bizarre fire rules is that Virginia has a statewide fire ban during daylight hours in spring. So you can go camping and have it be kind of cold, and collect some downed branches off the ground and have a nice fire at night. But if it's cold in the morning and you have a big pile of leftover wood, you can't start a fire to warm up a bit the next morning.

Army tents come in "shelter halves" which two man teams put two together to make the tent.
During a training exercise a looong time ago my tent partner put it up while I was doing some other task and covered the bottom (inside) with nice soft vegetation.
The next morning I discovered it was poison ivy, to which he seemed to be immune and I never have been. Gahh!

I will not piss you off again.

I promise.

I'm sorry to have commented in a way that made you angry or upset. I did not intend this result. I don't know how I offended you with what I said, but I obviously did.

Won't happen again.

You haven't offended or pissed me off. You're comment seemed a little snarky, though, so I responded in kind :) Maybe you didn't mean to be and I took it wrong. That would be my bad

get a room you two...


I wanna watch.:yum:

Mr. Clod is severely allergic to poison ivy--just a little touch on his hands, and it "goes systemic," which means his entire body breaks out and the inflammation takes 2-3 months to heal. I can't even imagine what would happen if he slept on a pile of it.

Part of the invasive insect issue is hauled firewood so it is a good idea to follow the local rules.

I missed a whole page of responses. Sorry for being re-dumb-dant.

The poison ivy incident was at Benning School for Boys in Georgia, where I think they have ivy as opposed to our nearly identical poison oak in the west.

I had a girlfriend who shared Mr. Clod's severe allergy to the nasty plant.
I still feel extremely chagrinned and remorseful almost fifty years later for telling her on a December hike through a leafless forest: "You can't catch it this time of year."

I had a reaction on my first Boy Scout campout; I woke up completely covered in rash.

No idea why; I grew up frequently exposed to Poison Ivy, and had occasional rashes just at the exposure area; it probably was some other allergen.

It wasn't super-uncomfortable, actually, but it looked terrible, and scared the Scoutmaster.

I got poison ivy second hand when I was young. The stupid people I lived with brought a basketball that had bounced into the evil weed into the family room. There it sat until I came in from playing, turned on the tv, and played with the ball on the floor. I broke out all over my fingers - I only touched it using the tips. In between the fingers was the worst. Painful as all get out. I had Miss Piggy and Kermit band aids.

I never had a problem with poison ivy until I did.

That's when I decided to teach myself what it looks like. Now I can spot it from a distance. In the daytime, anyway.

The leaves don't go on the tent floor, but under the tent. A hatchet is good for pounding tent pegs in the ground or cutting off your fingers. Better to have a 7" filet knife hanging off your belt. You will use it more.

Just take a section of fallen wood in your hands like a baseball bat and wrap it on the nearest tree. Dry wood will break up. Green wood will remind you what it feels like to hit a 100 mph speed ball.