Just got back this morning from fetching water from the popular Rattlesnake Spring. Usually a once-a-month trek to fill our drinking/cooking water reserves up (9 x 5gal bottles, 45gal total). I got started a bit late this morning (6am), but nobody was there for the duration of time I was there. Took me about 6.5min per 5gal..I usually don’t time the water flow, but I guess I’ve been there enough to where I am curious to start casually tracking it (especially with the drought that’s going on right now). The picture above is a fairly good representation of the flow this morning (though that picture was taken in August 2012).

‘Getting water’ is sort of a special thing for me. I take pride in knowing that I am providing my family with untreated, natural spring water to drink. The atmosphere (besides the traffic) is usually very nice. It is a time when I just relax and try not to rush things. A sort of meditative trip, if you will. I’ll enjoy my coffee and/or trees and just try to immerse myself in the fact that I am taking a conscious effort to better my (and my family’s) health by spending time and gathering clean water. Sometimes I even do some Tai-Chi amongst the trees.

The people you meet are either very conversational or keep to themselves (usually stay inside their car with the windows up until it’s their turn). I find myself one of these depending on the time of day and my mood. One thing is universal, however – everyone that I talk with that has been here before raves about the water. Not one person have I encountered (or heard of from others) that had a bad experience with it. It is apparently checked yearly for quality and marks much higher than the ‘standard’ for water quality. I met one fellow a while back that had worked for the county water district for 15 years and attested to the absolute quality of the water coming from Rattlesnake Spring. I’ve met a number of people that claim it is ‘miracle water’, water which has cured cancer in people they know, bring their family members, pets and livestock from constant sickness to perfect health… that’s about as much proof as I need.

I’ll happily dismiss scare tactics used to try to convince that all untreated water is dangerous. It’s hard to dismiss the overwhelmingly positive response from so many different people I’ve met first hand. I completely understand the possible hazards that can come into aquifers and ultimately out the little spout (which was created supposedly sometime in the 1950’s) such as animal / human feces, urine, dead carcasses, etc.. but for as big as the mountain is that holds this water, I have a very hard time convincing myself that I will personally come in contact with any of that. When Jack was a newborn, we would boil all of the water for his bottles and keep it separately. Other than that, I keep our bottles sterilized, clean and out of the Sun. My next step will be to replace the plastic (a combo of #3 and #7..ugh) bottles with glass.

Tagged with: rattlesnake spring | water

Categorised as: Blogs