Did You know - outdoor edition

[HemlockKing]

    They are born ugly and do not improve much with age.

:D :D

[WV Sawmiller]

   There has been a lot of discussion lately here on wells and well water and such. Did you know one of the biggest health hazards world wide is poor quality drinking water? One of the first things many NGOs and Benevolent associations try to do to help people in undeveloped or developing countries (Whatever the current PC buzzword for them may be) is to drill or dig wells for community use.

   Water is purified by several methods including the following methods. Community water systems often use a combination of several of these: 

Filtration - various media including ceramic and carbon filters remove the dangerous pathogens. Some natural substances like sand and limestone and such filter the water. One advantage of ceramic is only items smaller than the acceptable level diameter pass through. When dirty, the filter plugs up and no water passes through. In 1986 we returned to Cameroon and trekked in to visit with the Kouma tribesmen and we took a filter we had bought at an outfitter in Charlotte NC. We'd put one end in the stream and pump the water through a ceramic filter to get our drinking water. The trek was too far to carry that much water weight with us so we needed to generate it along the route.

Heat - boiling water is a common technique to kill bacteria and viruses. As an extra measure of safety we often boiled our filtered water to kill any virus which the filter might have missed. 

Chemical treatment - Iodine, chlorine, etc have long been  chemicals added to kill bacteria. We visited the Amazon in Peru and our guide used Iodine to treat our drinking water on the trip.

UV light - UV can kill many pathogens but often it is used with a filter system because too much turbidity in the water prevents the UV light from killing various "bugs" in the water. UV improperly used can give a false sense of security as you think you are drinking safe water but may not be.

   People build up immunity to the "bugs" in their water but are not immune to new ones. A tribesman in a remote village in Africa drinking very sketchy water that would kill one of us might come to our home and drink the well water we drink every day and get sick from it. And you can lose your immunity if not constantly exposed to it. I had an uncle in the USAF (Yeah - I know pretty embarrassing for an old Marine but it is true) who was stationed in Iceland. He came home to central Fla after his tour and went fishing on the Suwannee River and had been dreaming of a good drink of that limestone water he had drunk all his life. He grabbed a PA tobacco can and dipped up a couple of swallows and filled his craving - and it nearly killed him. He had lost all his immunity to the critters in it that he had as a kid.

[Tacotodd]

Very interesting about the built up immunity. What about bleach?

[HemlockKing]

 Interesting stuff. I don't recall ever getting sick from water but have sipped from risky water holes before  :D
If I'm in the woods and see a small stream I'll drink out of that no problem untreated, been doing it since I was a child :D. I don't know ANY science behind if it's safe but my "theory" is the water gets filtered thru moss, rocks all sorts of things and if you sip the surface of the current that's where it's clean since sediment sinks. I'm sure you already knew this just thinking out loud here for discussion ;D. 

[doc henderson]

if you do ever get sick, it will prob. cure you of this.  It is not like it will make you sick every time unless you get a load of organism.  lots of lore like moving water is safe.  if you dig a hole nearby standing water and it fills with water, it will be safe.  we all get a sip of lake water when skiing or swimming.  You do not drink the water or use ice in Mexico.  At Philmont we filtered and boiled our water to make food.  for drinking we filtered and added tablets.  on a canoe trip we carefully got water from the river to make chicken and noodles.  boiled the water first then added a few drops of bleach.  In college I got salmonella typhimurium from my fridge, and was not the same for months.

[HemlockKing]

I had no idea about the dug hole near a water body, makes sense how it would be more clean! Will remember that one.

[doc henderson]

lots of neat survival stuff.  a big tarp that get condensation over night, and collect the "dew" by manipulating the plastic tarp.  can only live so long without water.  If you are in the wilderness with N/V/D you will die sooner.

[Ljohnsaw]

I don't know ANY science behind if it's safe but my "theory" is the water gets filtered thru moss, rocks all sorts of things and if you sip the surface of the current that's where it's clean since sediment sinks.

Out here, it is assumed that ALL surface water has Giardia since there is so much cattle grassing on public land.  My wife and daughter got Giardia from eating at an "authentic" Chinese food establishment off the beaten track in San Francisco.  We were the only English speaking people there.  Either that, or the locals had built up an immunity to what they served there!  My theory on "bugs" is I eat just about everything leftover in the fridge.  If it hasn't popped the top off the Tupperware (just bulging a little), its all good!  I have a pretty high tolerance to questionable food.

[HemlockKing]

I don't know ANY science behind if it's safe but my "theory" is the water gets filtered thru moss, rocks all sorts of things and if you sip the surface of the current that's where it's clean since sediment sinks.

Out here, it is assumed that ALL surface water has Giardia since there is so much cattle grassing on public land.  My wife and daughter got Giardia from eating My theory on "bugs" is I eat just about everything leftover in the fridge.  If it hasn't popped the top off the Tupperware (just bulging a little), its all good!  I have a pretty high tolerance to questionable food.

:D :D As long as no mushrooms or anything is growing from the leftovers right?

[ESFted]

On a long spring hike in the wilds of Alaska, I took a chance on a drink from a beautiful clear running little stream running down the valley.  Tasted great.  Then I noticed the dead and rotting winter kill moose 50' upstream.  Moose infused water.  Tastes great, less filling.

[WV Sawmiller]

Todd,

   There are recipes out there on how much bleach to use to purify water. When we first got married and I was assigned to Okinawa and we lived in the ville the water pressure was erratic and when low crud flowed back into the water system so we were told how many drops of bleach per gallon. Seems like a teaspoon for 5 gallons was one guideline. When I mentioned chlorine I was including bleach as a purifier. The various survival reality shows include many of these steps such as the well near a stream to help filter water. Not 100% but much better than flowing water. I think giardia (I believe that is the one called Beaver fever) can be removed by simply filtering through a fine cloth as they are a pretty big organism. There are plants and vines that you can cut that contain or drip pure water or refill the stump with water. Taking charcoal left from the fire and crushing it and filling a hollow tube, like bamboo with a layer of sand and letting the water filter through is one technique. Putting a clear bottle of water in the sun and letting the UV rays purify it is another. Using several of these together is even safer like boiling iodized or chlorinated water. Contaminated water remains one of the world's biggest health hazards. If you are going into a remote area you can buy filtration systems like the one I mentioned or you can buy purification tablets. We used to take powdered Gatorade to add both for the electrolytes we were losing and to kill the taste of treated water. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know other cultures (OK - maybe just different individuals) have developed a different taste for various foods? We trekked in to camp with and visit the Kouma people in the Atlanka Mountains on the border with Cameroon and Nigeria. On the way out we stopped for a rest break and my wife and I broke out some small boxes of raisins and were snacking on them. My local guide for the trip, Abdou, asked what they were so I explained they were dried grapes, etc and gave him a box. He tossed a handful in his mouth like we had been doing and chomped down a couple of times and started gagging and spitting out the remnants, rinsed out his mouth with drinking water and spit it out a couple of times then calmly went back to eating his termites. 

[Don P]

Never been downstream of a moose but have met a dead deer in the water a couple of times after camping and cooking downstream the night before. It's surprising how much sketchy water is out there. Giardia takes a heathy period at a rolling boil to do in. Very often travelling around building we were getting different water or were the first ones to use a new well. It wasn't uncommon to get the green apple quickstep for a few days as my system adjusted to the new flora. Some wells I decided it was better to buy water and a time or two the test results came back not so lovely after we had been drinking it for quite awhile. There's a couple of commercial places that somehow pass that I would never eat in, wells that go turbid after a rain (no surface water there  :) and cross connects in old work. Pretty much all municipal water systems have leaks. As long as the pressure stays positive treated water is leaving the system so no health worries. When the pressure drops like in a power outage then the soil water can enter the system and bring whatever it has been in contact with back into the pipes, all depending that can be not so good for a body. Generally if water or squeezings will make beer or wine it is safe, that is where what to us seems like heavy consumption comes from in some cultures, hard cider was the drink of choice for colonists here.

[Texas Ranger]

We live 90 some odd miles north of where my inlaws lived just south of Houston.  I soon learned to take bottled water with me, as drinking their water would lead to a day of quick step.  Cooked food, no, ice in scotch, no, just straight water.

[Magicman]

 

 
Pumping from a stream.


 
using this pump and then 


 
using the above shown UV "light" to further purify our water.  After we had been there several days Marty was walking upstream and noticed a big cow pie.  Yup, upstream from our pumping location and no, we did not get sick.

[WV Sawmiller]

  Yep, same company if not same model we used for filter pump. Mine has a ceramic filter that  removes all dangerous pathogens.

[RichTired]

When my Dad returned from WWII he got a job at a tractor company. He made deliveries and made repairs out in the field. He had one story where he had worked all morning on a tractor left out in the back 40 from the end of the last season. He got it running and drove it back to the man's house. He was parched from being out in the sun all morning and went directly to the well, drew a bucket of water and put the dipper in the bucket and pulled out a big dead rat.
He said, "boy all of a sudden I was no longer thirsty!"

[Magicman]

Yep, same company if not same model we used for filter pump. Mine has a ceramic filter that removes all dangerous pathogens.

 
Here it is disassembled.  The ceramic filter is seen in the top right.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know that one way prickly pear cactus spreads is by the pads breaking off into various animals which then transport them to a new location and then pull the pad free and it takes root in the new site starting a new plant. They have very long, sharp, barbed thorns and can be very painful and dangerous to people and animals. My grandfather had a piece of land that had a bunch on them in Central Fla and when deer hunters using dogs jumped a deer in the area the deer would often deliberately run through them. The dogs following would run into the prickly pear patch and it would shut them down that day and until the hunter could remove them and they could heal up which usually took several days. 

[doc henderson]

MM I have the same one, and we used another that held 4 L and went through a filter by gravity, for enough water to make a meal for the group (13).  water is heavy, so you cannot always carry it with you in large quantities.  when we made food, we boiled the water well after filtering. then added the dehydrated stuff.  The wide mouth Katadyn can attach directly to the top of a water bottle (Nalgene) and then we added a purification tab.  if you waited several hours to use that water for drinking, there was no bad taste.

[Will.K]

Did you know prickly pear cactus is good to eat too? I first ate prickly pear (with a roasted little javelina) when camping near the big bend of the Rio Grande. Now I have some growing on my place and harvest occasionally.

[Tacotodd]

Just don't eat the spines.  

O U C H !!!🤬👿😄😱

[Magicman]

Yes, doc, we pumped directly into the Nalgene water bottles and then inserted the UV light thingy for the specified amount of time.  No tablets.  We then used it for our freeze dried meals and also poured it directly into our "Camelbaks for the next day's water.

We used and drank "cow pie" water for 10 days with no ill effects.

[WV Sawmiller]

   The streams we used as a source were plenty sketchy too and the filter worked fine for us. Weight of the water was the very reason we bought and used it as we'd have had to have hired 2-3 extra porters to carry enough safe water in to see us through in the remote areas we were visiting. Every day we could just generate the next days water and stay as long as we liked and we were carrying a device that weighed a couple of pounds instead of carrying 100 lbs or more and limiting our stay to the amount of our water supply.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know the first fruit trees in my area of WV to bloom are Blackheart (Wild sweet) cherries, followed almost immediately by plums, then apples? Actually, this year I have a peach tree that beat them all to the bloom by nearly a week. The cherries will start to ripen in late May and finish in early June. My Red Delicious apples will get ripe in August and September. The plums probably in June/July (I don't know as this is the first year the bush has bloomed). The odd thing is my peaches, which were first to bloom, will ripen in late September and October. Our dogwoods are just starting to bloom. 

   I typically actually get a crop of Blackheart cherries about every 4-5 years as most years a late freeze knocks the blooms off the tree. The last couple of years critters stole nearly all my apples. I don't know what I will be fighting to get my plums. The deer, horse and mule eat a few peaches but not enough to hurt me.  My big horse can easily reach 10' high and will trample you to get an apple out of your hand but has not figured out how to eat the ones hanging 4'-5' high in his pasture. Go figure!