Water that doesn't kill fish
I just took some water out of the tap and added it to our fish tank which was getting low from evaporation. It made me thankful that our water doesn't kill fish.
You see, when we lived in IL and had city water, you couldn't just take water out of the tap and give it to fish other wise we wound up with a bunch of dead fish. Back then our water had all kinds of neat stuff in it like chlorine and fluoride. Killed tropical fish pretty much on contact. Oh we did use city water for our fish tanks, but we had to let it sit for a period of time (days long) before using it and we also added special drops to it that would neutralize the chlorine.
Hmm, if it killed fish what in the world was it doing to us, I wonder? I've always been a water drinker. Ever since I was a kid I drank large amounts of water. Even before bed I'd take a few big gulps to last me the night. I had my own special little water jug in the fridge. It was yellow in color. Drank right out of it. In fact so did all my cousins when they came over. Germs? We didn't care about germs in the 1960's and 70's.
Actually the whole jug of water in the fridge thing started when we still had well water. My great-uncle Jim supplied our whole neighborhood with water from his well. It was excellent water. But, then the evil city ordinances made us hook up to the city line and we all got off of my uncles well.
After that when we filled the bathtub it smelled just like when we went to the public swimming pool. And I remember the water tasted funny too. But, in time we all got used to it,,,, sort of. However, turning on the tap always did remind us of going to the public pool.
After getting our well, here in northern WI, we appreciated the fact that we could put our tropical fish in it and low and behold they did not die! You could fill a bowl with water and immediately put a fish in it and it would live! Whoa!!! What a revelation!
The way I look at it now is, the toxicity of city water to fish, is kind of like the canary in a cage. Kills fish quickly, kills people slowly. I can only imagine what nasty things city water is doing to people. It has to be destroying the health of countless numbers of people. And you don't have to drink it for it to be bad for you. Just by taking a shower you can absorb all that junk.
But, I reckon that's why so many folks buy their water from a store. Well, I hate to say it but, I have a lot of misgivings about that as well. I remember when we still lived in IL, I used to see one of the popular bottled water companies, between where we lived and Chicago. I honestly can't remember the name of the water but, I remember it had one of those pure looking logos making a person think it was pure spring water coming from some far away location in some yet unspoiled place on earth. Perhaps from some remote mountain spring? Man, this stuff was coming right out of a place that was more city than where I grew up. It was probably less than 20 minutes from down town Chicago. Used to think, "yeah right this stuff is pure." I'll bet it came right out of the city water supply. They probably filtered it. But, they failed to put that fact on their pristine looking label, you can count on that. But, I don't know, maybe it was only some kind of distribution facility, but it sure looked like a factory to me.
We are fortunate, that we have good, good water here. Many folks in our area have rusty water or water that smells like eggs. In fact we have sand here and everywhere we have driven a well point we've gotten water. Good water. I imagine that we have the equivalent to an under ground lake. Where our house is at there is about 20 feet of sand. After that it is solid rock. They call it granite but, a well man once told me it is not a true granite. It's black rock. As far as I can tell, our water sits on top of the rock under the sand.
And we have a fresh water spring that we use as a watering hole for our animals. It is simply a low point in the land where the water table is exposed. It is very shallow, but flows out to an even lower point. It is always fresh and clear looking.
The other night we heard peepers for the first time this year. Peepers are frogs. It has been unseasonably warm lately. Right now, I think the sap run is close to being done. It hasn't run for two days. Very little anyway. Been too warm at night. But, so far we've made 4 gallons and one quart of maple syrup. More than enough to last us another year. As far as we have learned, syrup season is officially over when the buds come out on the trees. After that the sap turns to starch instead of sugar. That's what we've heard anyways.
Well, we are slowly gearing up for planting season. I had already planted some spinach in the green house but, it got dry in there and I kept forgetting to water the beds. The spinach kind of fizzled out. Now we have some tomato seeds planted in there. Friends Kristine, Kelly and Jeanna came over and helped. Hopefully we will stay on top of it and keep them alive. In the day time we have to open things up otherwise it gets WAY too hot. And at night we have to close it all up. Can't be lax on it or nothing will grow. Life is a delicate balance. Living systems need a balance of everything. And good clean water is essential. Especially, water that doesn't kill fish.
Until Next Time
You see, when we lived in IL and had city water, you couldn't just take water out of the tap and give it to fish other wise we wound up with a bunch of dead fish. Back then our water had all kinds of neat stuff in it like chlorine and fluoride. Killed tropical fish pretty much on contact. Oh we did use city water for our fish tanks, but we had to let it sit for a period of time (days long) before using it and we also added special drops to it that would neutralize the chlorine.
Hmm, if it killed fish what in the world was it doing to us, I wonder? I've always been a water drinker. Ever since I was a kid I drank large amounts of water. Even before bed I'd take a few big gulps to last me the night. I had my own special little water jug in the fridge. It was yellow in color. Drank right out of it. In fact so did all my cousins when they came over. Germs? We didn't care about germs in the 1960's and 70's.
Actually the whole jug of water in the fridge thing started when we still had well water. My great-uncle Jim supplied our whole neighborhood with water from his well. It was excellent water. But, then the evil city ordinances made us hook up to the city line and we all got off of my uncles well.
After that when we filled the bathtub it smelled just like when we went to the public swimming pool. And I remember the water tasted funny too. But, in time we all got used to it,,,, sort of. However, turning on the tap always did remind us of going to the public pool.
After getting our well, here in northern WI, we appreciated the fact that we could put our tropical fish in it and low and behold they did not die! You could fill a bowl with water and immediately put a fish in it and it would live! Whoa!!! What a revelation!
The way I look at it now is, the toxicity of city water to fish, is kind of like the canary in a cage. Kills fish quickly, kills people slowly. I can only imagine what nasty things city water is doing to people. It has to be destroying the health of countless numbers of people. And you don't have to drink it for it to be bad for you. Just by taking a shower you can absorb all that junk.
But, I reckon that's why so many folks buy their water from a store. Well, I hate to say it but, I have a lot of misgivings about that as well. I remember when we still lived in IL, I used to see one of the popular bottled water companies, between where we lived and Chicago. I honestly can't remember the name of the water but, I remember it had one of those pure looking logos making a person think it was pure spring water coming from some far away location in some yet unspoiled place on earth. Perhaps from some remote mountain spring? Man, this stuff was coming right out of a place that was more city than where I grew up. It was probably less than 20 minutes from down town Chicago. Used to think, "yeah right this stuff is pure." I'll bet it came right out of the city water supply. They probably filtered it. But, they failed to put that fact on their pristine looking label, you can count on that. But, I don't know, maybe it was only some kind of distribution facility, but it sure looked like a factory to me.
We are fortunate, that we have good, good water here. Many folks in our area have rusty water or water that smells like eggs. In fact we have sand here and everywhere we have driven a well point we've gotten water. Good water. I imagine that we have the equivalent to an under ground lake. Where our house is at there is about 20 feet of sand. After that it is solid rock. They call it granite but, a well man once told me it is not a true granite. It's black rock. As far as I can tell, our water sits on top of the rock under the sand.
And we have a fresh water spring that we use as a watering hole for our animals. It is simply a low point in the land where the water table is exposed. It is very shallow, but flows out to an even lower point. It is always fresh and clear looking.
The other night we heard peepers for the first time this year. Peepers are frogs. It has been unseasonably warm lately. Right now, I think the sap run is close to being done. It hasn't run for two days. Very little anyway. Been too warm at night. But, so far we've made 4 gallons and one quart of maple syrup. More than enough to last us another year. As far as we have learned, syrup season is officially over when the buds come out on the trees. After that the sap turns to starch instead of sugar. That's what we've heard anyways.
Well, we are slowly gearing up for planting season. I had already planted some spinach in the green house but, it got dry in there and I kept forgetting to water the beds. The spinach kind of fizzled out. Now we have some tomato seeds planted in there. Friends Kristine, Kelly and Jeanna came over and helped. Hopefully we will stay on top of it and keep them alive. In the day time we have to open things up otherwise it gets WAY too hot. And at night we have to close it all up. Can't be lax on it or nothing will grow. Life is a delicate balance. Living systems need a balance of everything. And good clean water is essential. Especially, water that doesn't kill fish.
Until Next Time
posted by RL at 9:53 PM
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