Drinking from a Branch

When I was in my early teens I often went squirrel hunting with my uncles or grandfather. We never still hunted. Instead they had squirrel dogs that ran through the woods smelling the ground. When the dogs caught the scent of a squirrel or surprised one on the ground the dogs would follow the scent or chase the squirrel to a tree and then bark. We would follow along and when we got to the tree we would locate and shot the squirrel. This kind of hunting made for a lot of walking and occasional running. Even though the weather was cool during squirrel season, pretty soon we would get thirsty. Back then, late 50's and early 60's, we did not take canteens or water bottles along to drink from. Instead, when we got thirsty, we would drink from a branch. It was a little tricky because if you were not careful, you would get wet but few things in my life have ever tasted as refreshing as a drink of cool water from a branch.

They tell me you can't drink from a branch today because of giardia. In case you don't know, giardia are little protozoan parasites that do nasty things in your intestines. I have not drank any branch water in years and would not attempt it now without a proper filter to get the little nasties out first, but this whole situation brings a question to my mind. Where were the giardia back when I was young? I did not take a lot of biology during my years in school, but I know enough to know that protozoa are an old life form. They haven't just shown up in the last few years. People say they are spread in the feces of wild animals and birds. Well, there were plenty of wild animals and birds back then, maybe even more than there are today. So why did we not have intestinal problems back then from drinking from a branch?

Twitter

Since I have started using Twitter I don't blog much anymore. Actually I don't tweet very much either but I do read what others are saying. I have found that most everything that I think of, someone else is thinking of it or has already thought of it some time ago. I have also discovered that most of the time, they have expressed it much more succinctly than I could ever hope to.

Don't get me wrong, I am not giving up on blogging. I just think that when I think of something, I will count to ten before I blog. Chances are while I am counting some one else will tweet what I am thinking and I can just re-tweet them.