Tuesday, December 17, 2013
180-VL Video Review by Living Survival
For this post, we just wanted to share a short fun video of a 180-VL review. Check it out and follow Living Survival on YouTube after watching!
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Colorado Trout Quest - A Close Call
Trip report:
Is this starting to sound like a Reader’s Digest Drama in
Real Life? You know, the story where
that dad and the kids get stuck on high mountain ledge for three days eating
lichen and drinking urine until the helicopter picks them off the
precipice? Yes, I read too many of those
stories as a kid too.
Not my picture... From Steve Jurvetson via Wikimedia Commons
The site of our bivouac
Nice catch!
The 180 Stove used for roasting
Our middle son, Dan, is an avid fly fisherman. He has been dreaming of the mountain lake
packed full of trout that can only be found by hiking where others fear to
tread. Dan is 11.
Luke, our youngest, has been aching to go on a “real”
backpacking trip for a few years. He is
9.
Caleb, 16, is a hard core backpacker, wilderness
survivalist, mountain biker, downhill ski racer, and experienced mountain man. He was game.
The problem:
To get to the “easy” access to our wonder lake, we had to drive
over a 12,000 foot high mountain pass.
This particular pass has a snow cornice on top that does not melt very
often. 2013? Not melted.
Will not melt. Snow all year
around.
So, we drove to the snow Friday evening. We were at 12,400 feet above sea level in
early August. We did not get there until
fairly late. The weather was stable. But light was fading fast. We had only a couple of miles to hike to get
down to our lake at 11,000 feet, but there is no trail to get there and the
slopes are steep. No, I mean really
steep. But hey, I am the wilderness
survival guy, right? What’s more, I had
made the hike before, so I knew where we were headed.
We strapped on our packs and made a run for it. An hour later, we were on the steeps. The sun was gone, and there was no moon. Our headlamps were not adequate to do any
route finding. We could see a few steps
ahead of ourselves, but….
I was determined not to make the local news. Determined.
So, when the slope rolled steeper into the void and we
could barely keep our footing and we had no idea what cliffs were below or how
high those cliffs might be, I called it.
No sense in becoming a statistic, right?
We were nearly down, but I did not want to get there airborne. So, we climbed. Up.
More up. Up on scree and rotten
granite outcroppings. Up into the night,
in the pitch black. Up with heavy packs
while the wind blew and the temperature dropped. Did I mention my boys were 9 & 11? Caleb took it all in stride, but I knew this
was a new challenge even for him.
Luke asked how long until we could stop climbing and the
obvious answer was, “Until we are safe.
Until we are off this slope. All
night if we have to.”
But it was not all night.
Finally around midnight we made our goal. There was a spire of rock I dubbed “the guardian”
that acted as an earth dam. It moderated
the slope from “way lose too steep to sit on”
to “we won’t roll off the mountain as long as we stake our sleeping bags
down”. 12,200 feet. Windy.
Temperatures to drop WAY down.
Bivouac.
Now before you call social services on me, please know that we
were prepared. We all had zero degree
bags and all the other gear to enjoy a crazy night at 12,200 feet no matter the
weather. And I did stake the boys down,
even though we were not on a precipice.
Soon they were happily snoring while I stared in awe at the stars.
I have seen the Milky
Way thousands of times before, but this was the first time that I could see the
shape of the curved arm on which our solar system orbits the galactic
center. This was the first time that the
10s of thousands of stars were millions.
I was amazed. It made it hard to
sleep. Never mind the 35 degree, 15 MPH
winds. Never mind that I was lying on
lumpy ground high above tree line. Never
mind the mountain goat whose sleep we disturbed who was tramping around. Never mind the pica that scampered around to
see what we were all about. It was the
stars that kept me awake while my cozy boys slumbered.
The morning dawned with a crisp crescent moon. 45 minutes later we were at the lake. An hour later we had a breakfast of fresh
trout. Yes, Dan caught his fish. After eating a few, we turned to catch and
release and lost count of how many lovely cut throats went for Dan’s hand-tied
dry flies.
We stayed that night at the lake and enjoyed a lovely
rainstorm--a magnificent living canvas of light and shadow, breezes and aromas. The mountains speak a language all their
own. Until you have heard it and lived
it, it cannot be described to you. This
is why we go.
Get out there!
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Curt Linville Interview - The Survival Podcast
Just a quick mention that I was interviewed on The
Survival Podcast. The podcast airs today. Jack Spirko and I
discussed the importance of love and community for being prepared for
emergencies or challenging times.
Special thanks to Jack for having me on the show. It was great fun.
The conversation focused on the community in which I grew
up. The reason is that this community
had grown out of WWI, The Great Depression, WWII, and a forced relocation that
happened as part of the US preparedness efforts before the US entered WWII. These challenges to this community helped to
shape it into a loving community of gardeners and hunters who really pulled
together to face individual and community challenges.
This love-based approach to helping each other grew largely
around the kitchen table where food grown in the community was shared and
laughter and stories were swapped.
The goal of this podcast is that by sharing what a community was we can
provide hope for what communities can be today.
And these vibrant communities provide meaning, hope, and security for
their people. At the very least, there
should be some entertainment value for those interested in gardening, wild food
gathering, localized history, and communities banding together to weather the
hard times and celebrate the good times.
To hear the show, go to www.thesurvivalpodcast.com . Hint:
There is a special 180 Stove offer for listeners!
I hope you Independence Day weekend was spectacular!
Curt Linville
Monday, April 15, 2013
Wilderness Survival Part 7 – Fire
I love fire. Fire is
so useful and fun! But….
If you go back to the beginning of this wilderness survival
series, you will see that I chose to address survival subjects in the order of
importance to survival (in my opinion).
So many of you may be wondering why I have written about six survival
“musts” before getting to fire. After
all, isn’t building a fire one of the first things survival schools teach one
to do? When people are lost, aren’t they
supposed to build a fire to stay warm and to help rescuers find them? This is where I part company with many
survival philosophies.
A Quick Review:
I believe that nature is our nurture. If one is skilled and works with nature
rather than against nature, then the whole survival experience changes. Remember that nature is not the enemy. Nature is the source of many good
things. Second, if you know how to find
what you need in nature, then you will not normally need to be rescued. Third, one is not lost if one is in his/her
home. Nature is our home. We leave the hustle and bustle of modern life
to go back to our home, the wild and free places. This approach takes skill development and the
right attitude. By learning nature’s
rhythms we gain a new perspective; one that does not require us to get found or
be rescued very often.
What are the two reasons most survival schools teach
building a fire? First, to stay
warm. However, if you have ever tried to
stay warm on a cold night by feeding a fire, you know that one side roasts
while the other freezes. You also know
that you are going to lose a LOT of sleep trying to keep the fire going. Unless there is a shelter in place that the
fire can heat, fire really is a poor solution to the cold. Certainly for long-term survival, huddling by
a fire is not a reasonable survival strategy.
Instead, build a warm shelter.
See my blog on shelter
for more information. The second reason
many teach the “lost” to build a fire to get found more easily. If getting found is the goal, then by all means,
build that fire. Review my blog on
getting found for more information on this.
Proper Uses for Fire:
There is a third “survival” reason to build a fire which I
agree with. Fire provides light and
comfort. Fire can help to drive away
dark feelings and fears. But if one is
at home in nature, then this is normally not necessary. However, if you find yourself shaking in your
boots and you need an attitude adjustment, then BUILD A FIRE. See my blog on attitude
for more information on how critical the right attitude is for survival.

Knowing how to be
responsible with fire in the wilderness is a critical prerequisite for anyone
who wants to camp, hike, or live in the woods.
Fire can be friend or foe. Responsibility
does not only include fire safety to prevent forest fires and personal
injury. Abusing the wilderness with fire
proves one is immature and has little understanding of or respect for
nature. This type of abuse is all too
common and includes such things as making oversized fires, creating multiple
fire rings in one locale, scorching trees or other plants, using a fire pit as
a trash can, melting cans, bottles, and plastics and leaving them, failing to
put out fires completely, leaving a fire unattended, building fires too close
to surface water, and the list goes on and on.
YIKES!!!!
When camping, use existing fire rings and scatter extra
ones. Pack out trash left by
others. Leave nature better than you
found it. If you are in an area where
there is no fire ring, then consider using fire practices that respect
nature. One of the biggest mistakes is
making the fire too large. Small fires
use less wood, create less smoke, leave smaller scars, and are much easier to
use for cooking. And small fires provide
comforting heat and light that does not force campers to stand ten feet away.

If you want to REALLY minimize the weight, then cook with
the 180-VL. At less than 6 ounces, the
180-VL allows one to cook efficiently with a minimum of weight to carry. This stove is a bit smaller than the 180 Stove,
but still does a fine job. The ash pans
are designed to work with either stove.
These stoves are small enough to fit in a back pocket, but assemble to
form large and stable cooking platforms similar in size to a burner on your
range at home.
Using the 180 Stove or the 180-VL greatly reduces the amount
of fuel you will need to cook your food, protects nature from fire scars, and
provides a much safer cooking method than trying to balance your dinner on
rocks or micro-stoves. Using these
stoves also respects nature on deeper levels.
No toxic fuels are pumped out of the ground, hauled around the world,
and forced into wasteful canisters. No
fuel spills into the ground water. No
canisters go to the landfill.

In summary, fire can be a great friend on a lonely night and
is a very useful tool for a variety of wilderness tasks. While fire is not a top priority for
short-term wilderness survival, it is a necessary survival tool for the long
term.
In future posts, we will discuss various fire-making
techniques.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Wilderness Survival Part 6 – Food
Food and eating are central to what it means to be alive. We eat several times a day and one only needs
to go a few hours without food before hunger provides a powerful reminder that
we need to eat. For those new to
wilderness survival, “What will I eat?” seems to be one of the first questions
asked. Just watch children playing “living
in the wild” and one of the first things they will do is start collecting “food”
in little piles and pretend to eat.
The reality is that food is not nearly as critical to short
term survival as one might think. Most
healthy people can go several days without food with few ill effects. Certainly attitude, shelter, and water are
much more critical to survival than food.
That said, food goes a long way toward helping to maintain that good
attitude! And as hunger intensifies, it
makes it increasingly hard to perform strenuous tasks. Few people enjoy going hungry, but by slowing
down a bit and staying hydrated, most people can function well after skipping a
few meals.
This posting will focus on wild edible plants. Hunting, fishing, and trapping will be
touched on in future posts.
Foraging for wild foods takes a lot more time than running
to the fridge or fast food restaurant.
The reality is that in long term living off the land, one may spend more
time searching for food than doing any other necessary activity. While there is a LOT of food in the woods, it
is NOT convenient to gather or to prepare.
Significant skills are required to live off the land long term, and even
after many years of study and experience there will be much left to learn about
edible wild foods.
But there are many simple “nibble foods” that can be plucked
and chewed while hiking, building shelter, etc.
By nibbling on these foods, hunger can be abated until there is time to
spend on a more exhaustive food gathering effort. I recommend everyone who spends time in the
woods build familiarity with local edible plants so he or she can snack along
the trail. These nibble foods will often
be enough to sustain one through a short term survival situation. The type of foods available is heavily
dependent on the local environment. In
the Rockies, nibble foods might include fireweed, pine tree growth buds or
succulent pollen buds, wax currants, rose hips and flowers, grass seeds, dock, dandelion
flowers and greens, and thistle stalks. In
the Appalachians, add to these foods many more types of flowers and berries,
persimmons, and leafy shrubs. Don’t
forget about prickly pear fruit which you will find in most ecosystems in the
U.S.
How many edible plants are in the picture above?
These nibble foods, like most wild foods, will have a strong
and often bitter flavor. It takes an
open mind and a few attempts to appreciate some of the powerful flavors of wild
foods. We have trained our palates to
enjoy foods with most of the flavor cooked out, and then foreign flavors of
salts, sugars, and other spices added back in.
Be assured though that given time you will appreciate these foods more,
and will develop your personal favorites.
You will also find that these foods are seasonal. A pine tree growth bud in the spring is
sweet, juicy, and tart with a notable pine flavor. Later in the year, they are bitter, tough,
and taste like turpentine. If you have
even bit into a green persimmon, then you know beyond a doubt that they are
seasonal fruits! If you have not had
that experience, then it is worth a try.
Everyone should know what a green persimmon feels like. Feels?
Yes, feels. It will not be a
pleasant experience. Ha! The point is that it takes some trial and
error to know which foods will be best at various times of the year.
The foods listed above are great for getting through an
active and hungry day, but our goal is not to simply get by for the short
term. The real goal is to be comfortable
living in harmony with nature indefinitely.
This goal does require much more practice and skill. The truth is that most wild plants are edible
if one knows which parts to harvest and how to prepare them. However, there are plenty of poisonous plants
growing in the woods too. It is critical
to learn each plant thoroughly and to learn any dangerous “look alikes” and how
to discern between the two.
Wilderness food is a rather vast subject. Scores of books have been written on wild
edible plants. I strongly recommend that
you purchase some field guides and spend time identifying and carefully
sampling wild foods. BEWARE! Not all field guides will cover the plants
adequately to discern between the good and the imposter. There are some real killers out there, so
make sure you know a plant very well before attempting to eat it, and then
follow some practical rules of caution. It is the goal of this post to introduce the
reader to the vast and fun world of wild edible plants, but this is only an
introduction. Years can (and should) be
spent learning and practicing wild plants skills.
----DANGER----
The process below is not fool proof and can lead to
DEATH. The intention is to provide some
information that might save a life, but this information can in NO WAY
guarantee your safety. Using the below
edibility test should be a last resort.
It is far better to learn wild edible foods from an experienced person!!!
Testing just one part of a plant takes a full day. But if you must, to test to see if a plant is
edible, start when you have had nothing to eat for eight hours. You also should not eat other foods while you
are testing a plant. Start by smashing
it up a bit and rub it on the inside of your arm. Wait for a quarter hour or more to see if it
causes any irritation. If there is no
irritation, then rub a little of the plant on your lips. Wait several minutes to see if there are any
ill effects. Next place a piece of the
plant on your tongue. Hold it there for
15 minutes but do not swallow. If all is
well, then chew a pinch of the food thoroughly and again, do not swallow. Hold the food in your mouth for 15
minutes. At this point, if you have not
experienced any burning, or stinging, or numbing, or itching, then you can
swallow ONE BITE of the food. Wait eight
hours to see what happens. If all is
well, then attempt eating ten bites or so of the food, and again wait eight
hours. NOTE! Just because one part of a plant is edible
does not mean that other parts are. Each
part of a plant has to be tested by itself.
Roots, leaves, stems, flowers, fruit, and seeds all need to be tested individually. It can take days to prove even one plant is
edible.
Again, the above testing method is not perfect. Rather than using this method, it is far
better to use multiple field guides and learn from one who has years of
experience eating wild foods. It is also
recommended that you start by studying poisonous wild plants so as to avoid
anything that remotely resembles them.
Why go to all the trouble of studying wild edible
plants? It makes a great hobby that
could save your life someday. It is also
fun to supplement one’s backpacking diet with fresh foods at hand. But perhaps the best reason to learn these
skills is that they will provide you with a far greater appreciation of
nature. By learning where various plants
grow and what factors influence their flavor and usefulness, one transitions
from just being a visitor in the wilderness to being a part of the natural
order. This is a major part of learning
to harmonize with the natural flow and to work with nature rather than against
it.
To that end, watch how the animals forage for food. Observe how the deer will move through an
area taking a sampling of several difference species of plants, and especially
how they do not eat all of a plant in an area.
By taking a bit here and a bit there, they preserve the plants to
continue to grow and flourish. We should
harvest our foods in the same way. Never
destroy a species in an area. Harvest
with concern for the health of the ecosystem.
Watch a squirrel as it gathers nuts. Squirrels bury nuts to be stored for
winter. Sure they eat a lot of them, but
they also successfully plant thousands of new trees. We too can give to an ecosystem that gives to
us. Matter of fact, it is a wise
practice to give to the ecosystem before
harvesting anything from it. This reminds
us of the value of the natural world and will keep us from wasting and
destroying, as many humans have selfish
tendency to do.
By following the examples of these animals, you can even make the plants in an area thrive
more than they would have if left untouched.
That should always be our goal, to leave this world a little better than
we found it. Help nurture the nature
that nurtures you.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Wilderness Survival - Part 5.5: Wilderness Water
Safe Water in the Wild
In our previous post we visited many fascinating aspects of
water with the intent of increasing our appreciation for clean, natural water
and all that it means to us. Water is
critical for life, mysterious in its properties, and poetic in its several
forms. Protecting water should be a high
priority for all of us. Whether you are
in an area with plenty of water or an arid locale where water is scarce really
should not change your view of this life-giving liquid. Water should be cherished and efforts taken
to keep the water as pure as we reasonably can.
Water really matters.
So what makes water safe to drink or dangerous? How can we make dangerous water safe? Where should we look for water in the
wilderness?
Pure water is safe to drink.
Water full of minerals and other contaminants can also be safe, but that
depends on many factors. In brief, what
makes water dangerous is not necessarily how “dirty” is seems but what kind of
contaminants are in it. Bacteria,
viruses, giardia, protozoa, heavy metals, poisonous chemicals, parasites, cryptosporidium,
and even radioactive isotopes can be present in water and turn a nice
wilderness adventure into long-term misery or even death. Our eyes cannot see these threats and
sometimes our noses cannot smell them. To
stay safe, one should select conservative sources for drinking water and one
should always take measures to assure water safety before drinking it.
Safer water sources:
As a rule, water will be more pure at its source. Rain water is safer than river water. Spring water is safer than streams or
creeks. Snow melt is safer than pond
water. When in doubt, go to the source. The closer to the source that you get your
water, the cleaner it will likely be.
That does NOT mean that all snowmelt, rainwater, or spring water is
reliably safe. But these sources are
much more likely to be safe. When
choosing water to drink, ask yourself the following questions:
1)
How close to the source am I?
2)
Are there any dead animals near the water or
upstream?
3)
Is the water full life such as fish and aquatic
insects? Are the plants growing near the
water healthy?
4)
Are the rocks in the stream discolored? If so there is likely high mineral content in
the water which could be a hazard.
5)
Does the water have an odor?
6)
Is the water flowing or stagnant?
7)
Are there industries, mines, dumps, or septic
systems that may contaminate this water?
Answering these questions will lead explorers to cleaner
water sources. I have risked drinking
untreated water from excellent sources when necessary and I have experienced no
ill effects. It is not a good idea,
however! And keep in mind that water
that is clean one day can be deadly the next depending on runoff
conditions. Also note that in a survival
situation, when you get seriously thirsty, you will drink stagnant mud. I did not say you should drink mud, but you will
if you are thirsty enough. So it is
critical to find water before your thirst is extreme and to take steps to make
the water as pure as possible before drinking it.
Water purification:
Water can be made much safer with just a few simple
precautions. Obviously, find the best
source of water that you can, then treat the water to make it safer. There are scores of good camping water
filters that can be used to clean up the water.
Some filter out dirt, parasites, protozoa, bacteria and cryptosporidium. Others will have activated carbon that will
also remove much of the minerals and radioactive isotopes. Few can remove viruses due to their extremely
small size. The good news is that
viruses are DNA specific. What that
means is that a virus that will make a deer sick will rarely make a human
sick. So even if we ingest viruses, they
will cause no harm unless they are adapted to humans.
I will not take the time and space here to go into
manufactured water filters except to say that you should take one into the
wilderness with you, and I have found the bag style gravity feed filters are
much easier to use than the hand pump varieties.
But what happens when there is no filter? Then what?
Water can be chemically sterilized or sterilized by boiling. Using chemicals, such as chlorine or iodine,
to purify water will usually kill most of the viruses, protozoa and bacteria,
but if the water is too dirty, then these critters can hide in the solid
particles and escape the chemical bath.
What’s more, the concentration of chlorine required to kill
cryptosporidium is also dangerous for humans.
Again, chemically treating water will not remove heavy metals and the
chemicals used to sterilize the water can combine with other chemicals in the
water to make even more dangerous toxins.
And remember that if you chemically treat the water, you will generally
be drinking the chemicals used.
(As a side note, why is cryptosporidium so hard to
kill? Cryptosporidium are parasitic
protozoa that travel via the fecal-oral routes as oocysts. These oocysts are extremely robust little
packages of genetic material that are not easily defeated. These hard packets protect the material
inside under some very extreme conditions.
Matter of fact, it is theorized that cryptosporidium may have been blown
to the upper atmosphere and may have actually scattered from Earth throughout
the solar system. Someday we may find
these protozoa on Mars for instance. Wild, huh?)
Boiling water will kill viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and
even cryptosporidium, but it will not remove heavy metals nor many dangerous
chemicals. Water needs to be boiled for
one minute at low elevations to wipe out the bugs, but as one’s elevation
increases, the boiling point of water decreases, so longer boiling times are
needed. Add roughly one minute for every
thousand feet of elevation, or just plan on ten minutes of boiling.
Since neither chemically treating water nor boiling water
will get rid of heavy metals and chemicals, neither stand alone as 100 percent
effective. This is why selecting water
from a “safe” source is important. It is
also why filtering the water before other treatments is also recommended. It is not difficult to make a filter in the
wilderness that will remove sediments and chemicals from water. These filters should not be trusted to remove
germs, so the water should still be boiled or chemically treated.
How to make a water filter in the woods:
To make a filter in the woods, it is best to have some sort
of cylinder on hand. This can be a
challenge. A water bottle, two liter
bottle, milk jug, coffee can or bucket will all work. If none of these can be found, then you have
finally found a true wilderness area to enjoy.
Good for you. But then finding
the cylinder will be a bit tougher. A
hollow log can be used. There are
several “filter” designs, but all depend on a series of gravel and sand packed
into a tube with a charcoal stage in the middle. Cloth or grass can be used as a first stage
to pull out the larger material in the water.
The increasingly finer particles screen all but the really tiny stuff
out of the water. The charcoal will
absorb many of the chemicals in the water, too.
Be sure that the sand and charcoal are packed tightly so water does not
just run around the outside edges.
When using a filter like this, it is best to continue to run
water through the filter until the water starts running clear. At first the water will be washing the sand
and rocks. Once the water runs clear,
then it is ready for use. Again, water
from the filter should still be boiled before drinking.
Less obvious water sources:
Dew collected with a rag or bandanna
Rainwater
Solar still
Steam collected from boiled salt water
Liquids squeezed or drained from vegetation: vines, cacti, tubers, coconuts. (Local knowledge of plants is critical for
safety before attempting to get water from plants.)
Use tubing to gather water from difficult to access places
like cracks in rock.
How to make a solar still:
To make a solar still, tubing, a large sheet of plastic, and
a container are needed. Dig a hole
around three feet deep and three feet wide.
Place green and/or wet vegetation in the bottom of the hole. Place the container in the center on the
bottom of the hole, and brace it so it will not fall over. Run tubing from the container up and out of
the hole. Cover the hole with the
plastic, and trap the edges down with rocks or dirt. Place a stone in the middle of the plastic
centered over the container. The sun
will evaporate moisture from the plants and soils in the hole. The cooler plastic will cause the water vapor
to condense and run down the plastic into the container. You can collect or drink the water directly
by using the tubing. The water in the
container will be clean to drink as long as the container and plastic are
clean. This method can also be used to
distill urine or non-potable water into pure drinking water. Depending on the conditions, multiple stills
may be required to distill enough water to keep up with hydration demands
Planning ahead:
Most tasks take longer in the woods. In our society we are accustomed to heating
food in a microwave oven, getting water from a tap, and heating our homes at
the twist of a dial. When we return to
the wilderness, we find that basic things like shelter, food, water, and fire
all take considerable amounts of time.
We have to adopt a different rhythm in nature, and a big part of that
rhythm is planning ahead. Since it may
well take an hour to purify some drinking water, start solving the water
challenges early. And finding a clean
source of water can take much longer. If
you find yourself in a survival situation, prioritize water right behind proper
shelter. Solve the water challenges
early.
And enjoy the new rhythms that nature encourages. Don’t make the mistake of expecting the
wilderness to be convenient and then stressing when simple tasks take a lot
longer. Seek to enjoy the processes of
wilderness living. Don’t fixate on only
getting the end result. Find peace in
each activity and harmonize with nature’s song.
Take time to truly appreciate simple, life-giving resources. Celebrate water. Protect it.
Respect it.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Wilderness Survival - Part 5: Water
Water. What could be more
plain than water? No color. No real flavor. Just a couple hydrogens and an oxygen doing a
molecular dance. These days, even in the
desert, with the twist of a knob we get water.
It is like a genie at our beck and call.
Water cleanses our homes, washes our bodies, sweeps away all manner of nastiness;
out of sight and out of mind. Do you
suppose we take water for granted?

And water carries information. While this might not yet be considered
scientific fact, I am convinced it is so.
No two snowflakes are alike. Why
not? How many crystal designs can two
hydrogens and an oxygen make? How is
that possible? There must be a nearly infinite
number of ways that two water molecules can cling to each other when they slow
down enough to grab hold. And this
foundation is built on to form a snowflake governed by the form of these first
two molecules. Our digital age is based
on just 1s and 0s. Two things. Our DNA is also digital, but it has four
digits that define the vast, VAST warehouses of information that govern how the
elements come together to form our bodies.
But what about this water thing?
Just two hydrogens and an oxygen but their relative positions result in
a nearly infinite number of snowflake shapes.
How much information could we store in that mechanism?
From http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/02/photogalleries/snowflakes/index.html
But what is more interesting, is that there has been shown a
correlation between the structures water crystals form and influences to the
water before freezing. Anger and violent
music directed toward water result in chaotic crystal patterns, while love and
harmonious music result in ordered and symmetrical
patterns. Really?
Similarly, homeopathy, though not the usual focus of modern
medicine, still gets impressive results.
How does that work? A substance
that creates similar symptoms to an illness is put into solution, and then the
solution is diluted. It is diluted to
the point that odds are there is NONE of the original substance left in final
product, remedy pills. But those pills
trigger amazing results. How? Information, that’s how. The water used to dilute the substance to
form the remedy seems to capture instructions from the original substance. That information is read by our bodies, and
the homeopathic remedy actually reprograms how our bodies behave. This information programs our immune systems. We do not know exactly how this works, but it
does. What is amazing is that the more
diluted the substance—the more water is used—the more potent the remedy. That is counter intuitive! But then water is often counter intuitive.
Consider for a moment that when free flowing liquids freeze,
the general rule is that these busy molecules or atoms quit bouncing around so
much and become denser. They lock into a
solid that is smaller than the space taken up by the liquid it came from. Makes sense.
This is intuitive. But not so
with water. Water gets larger—less dense—when
it gives up energy and freezes into ice.
So why the science lesson?


As I type this, this morning, I have watched a sunrise
followed immediately by a snow storm.
This water has filled the air with trillions of individual snowflakes,
all formed with the unique information of those first two molecules that
grabbed hold of each other. If we could decode all the information, what would
it tell us?
Would water tell the story of the creation of life? Would it tell us the secrets of the
stars? Does water store information in
it from the very formation of hydrogen at the big bang, or from the formation
of oxygen as the plasma of stars ran out of fuel and collapsed into heavier
elements?

If you want to know if you are sick, then go get a blood
sample taken. Doctors will analyze that
bit of blood, and tell you what kinds of diseases you have.
If you want to know if the Earth is sick, take a sample of
water. Is it clean? What disease does it carry? Does the water carry life-giving information
that brings health and strength to an environment, or is that water carrying
the stories of poisons and toxins and the abuse of the Earth. Interesting, isn’t it that a little rain
water causes a garden to flourish. More
tap water irrigated to the same garden does not have the same effect. Why is that?
Not all water is the same.
We need to understand water is more than we have
understood. We need to respect water as
a substance that allows for life.
Water. It cleanses. It nurtures. It shapes.
It informs. It matters.

Now that I have built the case for the importance of water,
perhaps we will approach water differently than before. We can now better protect and respect this
life blood of the planet. We can enjoy
the mystery of water and perhaps even unlock some of the secrets of life and
the creation of the universe. And
especially, when we are in the wilderness, we can understand and utilize water
better.
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