Water Hardness

I just saw a comment from a couple of days ago asking about my family's "hard" well water, so I thought I'd do a new post. When I related earlier that our water was "three times as hard" as most people's water, I was referring to a water hardness test that Rainsoft (the water softener dealer) did on our water seven years ago. Our numbers were three times as high as water from other areas of the county.

Although it's true that Rainsoft wanted to sell us a water softener, we had no problem believing what the rep said, not only because we witnessed the test, but also because the water hardly makes any suds when you try to lather up dish detergent or shampoo, hair and skin usually smell strongly of sulfur (at least immediately following a bath), and the hair especially never feels clean. Additionally, I am from a state where most of my friends had the same problems (I grew up with sweet spring water)and compared to theirs ours is so much worse--and they don't have the muddy water when it rains.

All our dishes, especially the pots and pans, are prone to the mineral scaling that many people have seen on water pipes or in coffee pots. To get rid of it, I use baking soda and vinegar in my dishwater (how I wish I could say dishwasher!) to soften the water, and sometimes have to scrub with straight vinegar. It works, but the vinegar cuts down on the few suds I have.

If you look at the wikipedia article on hard water, most all of it applies to our situation. I lived for a time with some friends (my pastor and his wife) in my home state (WV) who had water hardness problems. They bought a Rainsoft water softener (which I didn't realize costs about $1000) which took care of the hardness, but their whole house still smelled sulfuric. We could only stand to drink their water if it were put in a glass jar and allowed to set overnight. For some reason this took care of the bad taste and odor.

But that isn't the whole story on the water here. Whenever it rains, the water becomes unsettled, and, depending on the intensity of the rain, is no different from what you'd get out of a mud puddle. It can take days to clear up enough to use it. According to our county engineer, this entire area has a very unstable type of shale for many feet under the ground surface, so the ground shifts, and there are problems with the roads, water, and foundations of houses. (So far, our 60+ year-old house hasn't had any such problems; it's the new houses that are going to pot, but that's a topic for another post.)

Incidentally, I live about three miles from "Big Bone Springs", which has had noteriety in years past simliar to White Sulfur Springs, WV (about 50 miles from my childhood home), for the health benefits from drinking the mineral waters. Big Bone is touted as the "Birthplace of American Paelentology" and for the salt springs where Mary Ingles, with an unnamed companion, escaped from Indian captivity. Our water is not only sulfuric, but apparently has a high concentration of other minerals as well.

Some friends from MO, who now live in KY, told me that their well water back home was similar to ours when it rained, and they were concerned about the chemicals from nearby farms possibly getting into their well and contaminating the water.

I don't mean to gripe about our circumstances, and I have learned a lot. It makes a person learn how to clean really fast and get a lot done in a short time. It's also shown me the practicality of why people consumed wine, beer, and ale throughout history. The only reason our family can stay here is that we can buy drinking water, and sometimes haul water in barrels. Historically, most people have had to make due with what they had, including an inadequate water supply and/or poor water quality.

I certainly don't advocate alcoholic beverages. I do believe that Jesus used wine when He instituted the Lord's Supper, and I think that He surely drank wine as most people would have in those days. I do not believe a person can use the Bible to prove total abstinence from alcohol, although I can't see why anyone would want it. It is true that Kentucky Bourbon was the brainchild of a Baptist preacher, and a reading of the minutes of various denominational churches reveals a close association with and acceptance of moderate use of alcohol, but church discipline when the use was in excess and members became drunken.

When I moved to Kentucky, I knew it was "grape juice" territory. Many churches in this state (or, more correctly, Commonwealth) switched from wine to grape juice during prohibition. But some churches and preachers try to cover this up and act as if grape juice has always been the accepted scriptual element. I will try not to elaborate on this too much just now, but what they do is attempt to go into language study (which they mangle badly) to prove their point. This is followed by an examination of Biblical references to wine, which usually consists of mentioning a few passages where wine is portrayed as negative, for whatever reason, and they harp on that. But for passages in which wine is referred to in a positive light, they twist and turn them and try to say that the translation of "wine" in these passages is inaccurate, and it was instead a very special type of grape juice.

Their real point is that God hates alcohol, and Christian association with it in any form is the result of a mistaken Biblical translation. I fell into this for awhile, trying to go along with this type of reasoning because I thought I could use it to convince my brother to stop drinking. He just laughed, and after awhile I did too (not literally).

When a drunkard tells you, "Jesus drank wine," as an excuse for their drinking, their motives are obviously completely self-serving. In the first place, most of them seldom, if ever, drink wine. My extended family on both sides is replete with drunks, and my 31-year-old brother died of liver failure almost three weeks ago on August 24th. My husband's Jewish professors drink wine moderately and during festivals, but I have never known anyone who drank beer or whiskey moderately.

I hate alcohol and I don't think there is any good reason for people to consume it as a beverage. My family put forth a good deal of time and effort in opposition to a proposed zone change which would have allowed a biker bar on our road. The smell of alcohol is repugnant to me, and I can't understand why anyone wants to drink it. I also hate the bourbon balls and rum cake that my "grape juice" friends love.

I have never personally known anyone who used alcohol for medicinal purposes, or to "purify" their bad water enough to drink it. Mary Breckenridge used it for her hospital in Hyden, KY, and says in her autobiography, Wide Neighborhoods, that she had no difficulty obtaining it for her hospital, but was always worried about being robbed of it while transporting it on the long hosreback ride from Lexington. (She never was.)

I would like to say more about all this, but my children are in need of parenting, and I will follow some of this up at a later date. I made this blog on Saturday (09/07) and didn't get online again until today, so I'm not sure when I'll get back to this. I will probably follow this up with a post against alcohol (in case anyone has any doubts about my convictions) and my brother's death because I am having some trouble dealing with that (and it helps to get something like that off your chest), so stay tuned.