Benefits of water

There are so many benefits of water, I don’t think we actually appreciate the fact that we – here in the U.S. in Washington State – have nice, clean, safe water right in our homes.

After living in Thailand for the time that I did, I really did come to appreciate water. We were one of the lucky ones to have running water into our home and had a shower and toilet as well. Believe it or not, many homes did not have those luxuries 1975. Our shower and sink water, however, did not run to any sewer or septic. It ran right out of the pipe into the yard. Yup. There it was, draining into the grass and out to the klong - Thai word for reservoir. Yes; our “grey water ran into a reservoir which then grew water plants which fed water buffalo and the local people who swam and played in this klong. Sounds lovely, yes? No.

The problem with the running water in the house is that you couldn’t drink it because it came from the above klong. You could wash clothes in it (our clothes were washed outside in a hose) and shower in it (as long as you didn’t open your mouth while showering) and flush the toilet. That was pretty much it. You couldn’t brush your teeth or drink it or wash your food from the market in it.

Since I don’t spray the garden with any pesticides, I always feel really comfortable about eating the veggies without washing them. I will sit in the garden and munch on tomatoes, cucumbers, raspberries, blueberries, and corn without feeling like I HAVE to wash them. They don’t have wax on them; they don’t have spray. Why not? Perfectly safe.

Until ……… tonight. I was ever so grateful that I had running water in my house that was safe to wash my salad greens. Because I found a friend:

Yeah. That’s a slug. A tiny one to be sure but ……. ACK. I cannot imagine the pure awfulness of biting into that thing in my salad. *shudder*

I typically don’t care about little bugs or ants or things of that sort. But I think that finding a slug in my lettuce would absolutely put me over the edge.

I will still eat the veggies in the garden but for those veggies that have hiding places, I’m going to give them a good washing with clean, safe, fresh water from the house before indulging in a nutritious salad. Yup.