The road to Adobe Springs is a gentle, winding rise through serene foothills that border the central valley. This road follows a stream that runs with the same water that bubbles out of the spigot at the Adobe Springs self serve water station. As soon as you enter the valley you lose cell phone reception entirely. For the most part, it's cattle ranchers that call this valley home, and as you drive up to the spring you'll pass many pastures dotted with cows and bulls laying in the grass completely ignorant of the busy world that lays just 20 miles away.

We had learned about Adobe Springs on findaspring.com, a website that helps people find free sources of natural, mineralized, and untreated drinking water. While many of the listings in our area are for roadside springs with no testing and some level of risk, Adobe Springs is provided to the public free of charge by a land owner that sells the water by the truckload. Since they are a drinking water provider, they test the water regularly.

Adobe Springs is unique because the water contains 110 milligrams of magnesium per liter. Many mineral waters available contain virtually no magnesium or if they have a good amount, 5 or 6 milligrams per liter. If a person consumed 2 liters of this water each day, they would get half of the RDA of magnesium just from their water.

Water that contains minerals hydrates better and these nutrients are extremely bioavailable because they're already dissolved in the water. While municipal water may retain it's minerals, it is laced with fluoride and chlorine and must be filtered. The only reliable way of filtering fluoride is with reverse osmosis, which also removes all of the minerals.

Magnesium is absolutely essential for good health. It's involved in 300 different processes in the body, including helping regulate vitamin D levels. Interestingly vitamin D also helps the utilization of magnesium in the body. I take a magnesium supplement but I think water is the best way to get bioavailable minerals.

Once we arrived at the property the driveway "runneth over" with the previous living waters of the Adobe Spring. I was unprepared for this reality and decided to forge ahead through fast moving ankle deep water. I had to cross it several times and it was precarious. The water was deep enough to make me lose my footing and I almost slipped several times attempting to cross.

We met another couple, two bicyclists, and a rancher all filling up. The bicyclists were just leaving, the other couple had a few glass bottles in a back pack. We chatted for a bit about findaspring, the high quality h20, the dangers encountered with the stream during winter flooding, and about my 3 gallon glass carboys. Eventually it was my turn to fill up, and as I got my 3rd bottle filled the rancher came by. We offered him the opportunity to go ahead and he was very appreciative. He told us he has come by weekly to Adobe Springs for some 15 years. He said his daughter developed arthritis as an infant and the water from this spring was special and relieved her symptoms and when he stopped giving her the water, they came back, so he said he has just continued bringing it home.

As soon as we got in the car we topped up our cups and drank deeply. The water tastes similarly to other mineral waters. When I got home I put some through the Soda Stream and carbonated it. It is extremely bubbly and holds onto the carbonation better than water that's devoid of minerals. With 12 gallons of water, I'll need to return to Adobe Springs monthly, which seems like quite the task. I think I'll have to expand my water storage a bit so that I can come every 2-3 months, making sure to get enough in the late fall to hold me over until the spring, as the spigot can freeze over and sometimes the water can be unavailable.

All in all it was a small adventure driving so far for something as ubiquitous as water. Without water everything on this earth would die in a very short period of time. We all are aware contaminated water can kill quickly, but with all of the chronic illness that plagues our society, perhaps we might do well to think about "treated" water and it's long term consequences as well.

Forests are magical places. Viewing green light reduces pain signals in the body. The sounds of birds and flowing water reduce anxiety and lower blood pressure. Phytoncides released by pines boosts the immune system, specifically the cells that prevent tumors and viral infections. Just visiting a forest reduces blood pressure and anxiety as well as prescription medications. A forest lowers cortisol, adrenaline, and noradrenaline.

While most people have access to a park or forest, making time to visit these healing environments can be difficult.

For example, I work from home 8 hour a day and the closest pine forest is an hour or more. I decided to experiment with replicating a forest environment to see of it made me
feel better. I don't think it's the same or as beneficial as actually visiting the forest but I do think there is "some" scientific evidence that recorded sounds, essential oils derived from pines, and green lights have therapeutic benefits.

Here's how I did it:

1: Bird sounds: Recordings of natural sounds help alleviate stress from man made sounds like traffic, stereos, and construction noises. Youtube has tons of these ambient recordings available.

2: Forest smells: Pine essential oil and Frankincense both have limited scientific evidence that they provide health benefits to humans. These include boosting immune function and lowering stress hormones. Essential oils from plants, especially the ones mentioned are antifungal, antibacterial, and antiviral. While this evidence is limited, I put it in the category of being intuitive and low risk. I have bonsai inside but they are too small, so a diffuser and essential oils do the trick.

3: Solar charged water: When I first read about it I chuckled. A few years ago Giselle Bundchen was using a blue bottle to solar charge her water. It seems a bit extra. I discovered this after being curious if UV light has any effect on water. The summary is, I don't think there is any evidence that sunlight changes any measurable attribute of water. That being said, I do if anyway. Water in forests is exposed to sunlight, and I'm simulating a forest environment, so why not.

​4:Green lighting: I bought a green LED bulb on amazon and I turn it on for 20 or 30 minutes once or twice a week. Viewing light through trees is also a way to achieve this.

​5: Negative Ions: Negative ions are abundant in forests thanks to UV light and water moving in streams and waterfalls. Negative ions relieve stress and anxiety and attach themselves to pollutants which makes them inert. The best way to get exposure to negative ions is a hot shower or sunlight exposure. Salt lamps don't produce enough, ion generators also create ozone which can trigger asthma. Some suggest an indoor waterfall or table top fountain which may be practical anyway for the soundscape.

6: Blue light: Blue light is not bad. It promotes alertness and helps set the circadian rhythm. As soon as I wake up, I go outside and stare at the sky for 5-10 minutes. I also make a point of viewing sunlight every few hours.

7: Earthing / Grounding: There is very little proof that having contact with the earth is important for health, but it is intuitive and there are a few very small studies that show it improves wound healing, blood flow and sleep. Humans used to be in physical contact with the ground at all times. They had earthen floors in their homes, wore leather moccasins which are conductive, and walked barefoot. I take off my shoes when I go out in my backyard to get my daily sunlight exposure.

8: Sunlight exposure: To me this is the most important aspect of simulating a forest environment. Sunlight is absolutely critical for good sleep, and good sleep is critical for good immune function. On top of the benefits for sleep, UV light exposure boosts vitamin D which is also essential for immune function. UV light also kills bacteria and fungus on the skin. Sunlight exposure provides full spectrum light which includes UV A, UV B, blue, red, and green wavelengths.

Tying it all together, I think it's intuitive and a proven fact that forests are medicinal and promote health. To a much lesser extent there is minimal evidence that we can recreate some aspects of forest exposure and gain benefit. I would rate most of these activities as supplemental. I think they can help manage stress, maybe relieve some pain, and generally promote health, but they aren't miracle cures or going to make a person live forever.

The heavy hitter is sunlight exposure and simply being out doors where we can also get some physical activity. Unfortunately cities are heavily polluted from vehicles, natural gas burning, and industrial activity so it's important to do everything we can to lessen the body's burden from these sources. Keeping the immune system functioning by getting enough vitamin d from sunlight is really important. The immune system protects us against viruses and bacteria but also against tumors.

Whether or not simulating a forest environment has benefits or not, I can't be sure, but I do think anecdotally that it may have some stress management benefits so I'm going to keep doing it for a while.

A couple of months ago I noticed a rash, I go to the doctor, he gives me some cream and says to just keep going until it's gone. After 2 months the rash had barely improved, so I scheduled a follow up appointment and decided to take matters into my own hands. I used a UV bulb for 4 minutes and then 90 seconds every other day until my appointment. The rash improved and my doctor was positive it was the cream and laughed when I told him I used UV light.

The doctor insisted to keep using the cream but wanted to check my liver enzymes to make sure using it for so long wasn't harming me. My enzymes were 2x higher than normal but he wasn't worried about it. I hadn't been feeling well and had been having horrible night sweats, something I usually only have when I'm sick. In fact, I never had a rash in my life until I took antibiotics I didn't need because they couldn't drain a small boil for 3 days, but whatever.

The next day I wake up to find a new rash on my thigh. My doctor prescribed a steroid cream which I never picked up. Instead I went to my mom's house. She uses a rife machine which generates EMF frequencies (like a wi-fi router or cell phone tower) and she thinks it cures everything. If the doctor couldn't cure me with western drugs I'd do something else.


I don't know if rife works, I'm a skeptic, but my mom is very healthy and I've let her use it on me many times and it has never hurt me. I felt a strong pain in my rash, it burned during one of the sets of frequencies she ran. She assured me that meant it was working. The next day I woke up and it looked better, but after a few hours it was red and angry looking again.

She had me come back on the following day and blasted me with EMF again and when I woke up the next day it was still very inflamed but no longer itched.

On Thursday I was off from work so I stood in the sun and grounded myself by taking my shoes and socks off and standing in the grass. I did this for an hour Thursday and an hour Friday.

The first photo is Thursday morning, the second photo is Friday afternoon.

Did the rife machine, sun bathing, and grounding fix me? 🤷🏻‍♂️ But I'm going to keep doing it when things go wrong and probably before I go see another doctor.