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Monday, July 18, 2016

Drinking right out of the stream



When I was a kid I used to hike in the woods. It was common for me to drink right out of the streams. It never made me sick either. These days, thanks to the prevalence of giardia, everything is run through a water filter, or at least boiled.

It's only in recent years that I've bothered with putting a water filter on my house. Now I'm careful to get really good filters that handle both biological and chemical threats. Just ordered another package of filters to keep on hand.

My lovely wife pointed out the cover on my shallow well needs to be replaced. Our well is a traditional rocked up shallow well. A good cover is key to keeping out contaminants. The fit has to be good and tight.

Our course, once again, I'm working without much of a budget. With that in mind I'm going to use what I have around the house. There's also the issue of avoiding anything with harsh chemicals that could leech into the water. Pressure treated lumber could stand up to the wet environment, but the “treatment” is actually poison. Instead I'm going to cut up some cedar beams from downed trees. Cedar is naturally rot resistant.

One of these days I'm going to to build a traditional spring house. They were a lot more common in the days before refrigeration. It's just basically a well insulated little shed over the well. Very low tech, but very useful.

Sixbears

17 comments:

  1. There is a spring house beside a house near here. It is set up with a crock trough to keep food cool. It has a water temp the owner said of 40 to 45 good enough even for meat in the crocks.

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    1. Nice. There's more of them out there than I thought.

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  2. We always called them "well houses." Spring houses were for springs. (Guess I've picked MY nit for the day!) lol

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  3. You will probably find, if you look in your US State rule book that there is a law against that and actually taking water from your own stream is punishable by either ten thousand days in prison or death by hanging... and just wait till Trump has his way...

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    1. I've been my own water department for over 20 years and I'm not going to stop now.

      Some say laws, others say . . . suggestions.

      Do you think you are far enough away to avoid the long arm of the Trump?

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  4. Cutting Cedar beams from downed trees?

    Man, you are ambitious!

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    1. Nope, just strapped for cash right now. My dad framed a whole cabin using tall straight spruce trees. Did the job but peeling them was a messy business.

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  5. Still see lots of them around here. Those and root cellars too.

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    1. I'm tempted to build a small root cellar one of these days. Only so many hours in the day though.

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  6. My well is way down there. 440 feet down. The water is soooo good and sweet. Expensive if the pump goes, though.

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    1. My water is good and cold but only 4.5 feet down. That's not a typo. Produced enough to survive raising 3 daughters who liked to live in the shower.

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  7. Our well goes down 278 feet. Nothing around us but national forest. I still have the water tested annually, just a precaution.

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    1. Never hurts to check as things can change without warning.

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  8. My well is only a hundred feet or les and very acidic. Eats out pumps, etc. But, I think it taste great. Guess I am just used to it.

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  9. What brand and kind of water filter do you use. We had a well house. My mother grew up with a spring house.

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