What the Hell Happened?

[BarryBobPosthole]

So here's a curmudgeonly rant.

If I were to list all of the things I have taken a drink from, and by that I mean for hydration purposes, I am sure that a doctor would run away screaming with his hair on fire. I've never had the beaver fever, never had the all day dirty hurries, never had internal parasites (that
i know of) although I did get wormed one summer when my Mom thought I was skinnier than I should be. So I'm lucky. And dumb.
I've drank from:
Farm ponds - the grossest of the gross. As a kid I swam in every one I came across and that was every neighbor farm, visiting at friends and family farms, and so on. And when you walk a couple miles in an Oklahoma August to fish a pond you found you didn't know was there, and its a long ways to the water hose at the pumphouse back home, I will admit to laying on my belly and sucking in a big larrupin mouthful of water. Yeah, stupid. But it was good. So good I shucked my britches and cooled my outside off as well.
Lakes - I drank from many of them. Strip pits, reservoirs, you name it. And from Canada to Texas.
Rivers and creeks - drinking ice melt water in the Rockies is as dangerous as it is tasty. Six or seven days at a time in the backcountry was a fairly common thing for me when I was in my twenties and thirties. About, oh, day three I was sipping icy water from streams.

So none of that matters at all. But according to todays rules it was mighty stupid. Which brings me to my question. I would not think of taking those risks now. But is it the risk that is overblown or is it that my luck was that phenomenal? I will admit to being a risk taker. I didnt ask for that personality trait. I couldnt change it if I wanted to. But to me its fact that there is as much fly shit in the mix as there is pepper. Sorting the difference is the challenge.

So thats a long bit about nothing.

BKb

[Chicken Dinner]

I don't really know the answer. (Of course, we smoked and didn't wear seat belts back in the day either.) But, have spent a fair amount of time in the back country the past 10 years and have always treated, filtered or boiled my water. It's just not worth the risk.


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[airbud7]

Staples like broccoli, canned tomatoes, and hops readily contain “insect fragments”—heads, thoraxes, and legs and even whole insects. (I won’t tell you about the rat hair) Fig paste can harbor up to 13 insect heads in 100 grams; canned fruit juices can contain a maggot for every 250 milliliters; 10 grams of hops can be the home for 2,500 aphids

Some estimates show an individual probably ingests about one to two pounds of flies, maggots and other bugs each year without even knowing it.

[Thumper]

Well, to tell you the truth P-hole, similar thoughts have been running through my mind lately. I remember tagging along with my uncle when he was hunting and we'd many times stop for a drink of water in one of the many swamps. To me, "swamp" means stagnant water, but quite a few have movement ... like a stream (or drainage) fed "low area". He explained to me that as long as the water was moving, it's good to drink. I drank gallons of the stuff through the years and never had a problem (knock on wood).

I spent every summer at my grandparents place in the mountains of N. Carolina and probably drank from half the springs and creeks in the whole western part of the state at one time or another. Again, never a problem. I have taken a drink from a lake in Canada while bear hunting ... I'd get on my knees, kind of brush any floating objects to the side with my hand and take a sip, but I'd VERY seldom drink from a lake ... probably because what my uncle had told me so many years before ... it needs to be moving water. I remember back in the day, you'd go downtown and there'd be big wooden water barrels in front of some of the stores. There'd be a large ladle hanging on a hook nearby and those were the public drinking "fountains"!

Now I'd have to say 99.9% of the water I drank as a kid came from a garden hose. Heck, it didn't matter ... ours, a friend's hose, a neighbor ... it didn't matter. Lately I've read that even HOSE WATER is taboo and will kill you!

I never have thought much about it until relatively recently. I watch shows like Survivor or Naked & Afraid and see those people willing to die of thirst before drinking water (from ANY source) without boiling it first.

Like you, I have to assume I pushed my luck as a kid and am lucky to be alive ... but then again, I grew up riding in cars with hard metal dashboards and no child seats OR seatbelts! Heck, I even rode bikes and skateboards without a helmet or elbow/knee pads! :hair

[Thumper]

Yep Airbud, most insects could actually be considered food and are even good for you ... I think it's the possibility of mycobacteria in untreated drinking water that'll get'cha.

[airbud7]

http://insidethegate.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/FactsAboutWater1.jpg

[Thumper]

That's why I drink Scotch. ;)

[LJ3]

I'd say my experience was similar to yours BBP. I like think of it as exercising my immune system. Worked pretty well from what I can tell.

[Arty]

I drink from a place called "Buttermilk Falls" every time I go home.
I also have drank from a small waterfall in Bath County, Va.
but ain't never, and will never, drink from a cattle pond!

[BarryBobPosthole]

One of the things Larke does that we never did on our farm is to keep livestock away from the ponds and he put in a watering system for all of his pastures. The water quality in his ponds is pretty damn good as a result.

BKb

[Arty]

One of the things Larke does that we never did on our farm is to keep livestock away from the ponds and he put in a watering system for all of his pastures. The water quality in his ponds is pretty damn good as a result.

BKb
Correct. The farm ponds I grew up around were just great big glorified mud pits.

[Captain]

Yep, we don't let the cattle go in the ponds. They remain clean and the fish are good to eat.