From Cast Iron Hand Water Pump to Igloo Cooler: My Formative Relationship with Water (LeakBird)

Jan.28, 2009 in Water Management, Water Rights

From the age of 7 to 20 I grew up off the grid in the Northwest woods.

I remember the day we had a dowser come out, when I was 7 or 8, to designate a couple of spots for potential wells. He seemed like a blind man wandering around our property, his Y-shaped branch in hand twitching like an antenna.

The dowser even tried to show me how to divine water beneath the ground, leading me around the property, but I couldn’t feel anything. He gave me his dowsing rod before he left. It was a freshly cut deciduous branch containing transpirated moisture. I carried it around with awe for the next few days, like a talisman.

Once we drilled our well, I pumped water by hand from a cast iron hand pump everyday for 13 or 14 years. We used five-gallon buckets — some of them former pickle buckets from McDonald’s. They were usually Kermit the Frog green.

We always had a surplus of two to three fresh buckets in the house, with which we used to put water in the kettle on the stove for a shower or to fill the Igloo cooler for drinking water.

My parents still live there, and there’s still no running water.

The well water is still iron-rich and sweet. It’s tonalities change with the seasons and the weather.

I remember how in the summer, even in western Washington where it rained heavily throughout the year, sometimes for weeks on end, our groundwater tables would weaken and we’d only be able to get a few five gallon buckets per day. We’d have to prime the pump and schedule sessions every couple of hours to most effectively utilize the conditions. If you could get one full bucket every couple hours, you were in good standing.

And then of course, during the rainy season or bouts of heavy rain, the well would overflow without much effort, gushing like a torrent with only a few light-hearted pumps. There were limits, though — I can’t remember a time we ever got more than 3 full buckets out of our well at one given moment.

Our buckets would also be turned into rain barrels to gather the rain shooting down our tin roof. We’d fill the outdoor hot tub with rain water, which we heated with an underground propane tank, and run a sieve through it to get the pine needles out.

As I’ve been studying water politically, economically, sociologically and philosophically, I often return to the relationship established with our well for 13 or 14 years. There’s a different feeling I get when I drink water that I’ve just freshly pumped out of the ground by hand. I have a deeper respect for the water cycle.

It’s something I never thought about until much later. The slight wheezing sound the well makes through the pressure and force it emits. How it behaved when it was overflowing as opposed to when it needed to be primed or was low and needed to be given a rest.

I realize that because of that experience, when I drink Hetch-Hetchy from the tap here in San Francisco, my appreciation is deepened for its source.

I also think that contained within that 13 or 14-year experience, I can find an analogue to the heavy stress we’re putting on our groundwater and fresh water systems. Running an outdoor hot tub (actually, a bath for two) was truly a luxury and worked the best during the rainy season when the pump overflowed. It was wonderful to soak in fresh hot rainwater with rain coming down all around, pounding the umbrella overhead.

We were a family of five and we certainly did put a certain amount of stress on our water system. I can only imagine what it might have been like were we a family of 9 or 10, or if we had other greater water needs. I’m glad I didn’t launch a hand pumped bottled water company during those years. ;-)

Recently my dad said someone from the local municipality came out to the homestead in Washington with a contract, offering my dad the opportunity to sign away his water rights in the name of the common good. My dad politely declined. History is littered with examples of those fallen for signing their water rights away.

And now that we’re seeing the growing scarcity and hence, rising preciousness of the non-renewable commodity we call groundwater, this kind of momentum is only gathering steam (no pun intended).

Water is powerful, life-giving and relational. I think if we can all deepen our relationship with water, we’ll be better off.

If you are interested in How You Can Increase Your Cash Flows by $2,500.00 Every Year and Never Pay for High Water Bills Due to Your Tenants’ Running Toilets, sign up for our Free Report here.

Abendigo Reebs is the VP of Business Development for LeakBird Industries LLC in San Francisco, CA. He may be reached by email at ben@leakbird.com

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