SC - reasonably safe water at Pennsic

[Stefan li Rous]

Corwyn commented:
> Actually, as I understand it.. a lot of the "epidemics of diarrhea" at 
> camping events aren't viral or bacterial. They are in fact caused by 
> insufficient dishwashing, or more correctly, insufficient rinsing. Soap is 
> such a WONDERFUL laxative.
> 
> That's what I've been told, and I've since been sure to rinse everything 
> thoroughly. Haven't had a real stomach upset in years.

This is a very good point. In the Boy Scouts, one of the tricks we used
was to apply soap to the outside of the cooking pots. (We found out, don't
use lemon Joy. It not only doesn't work, it burns on!). The smoke collects
on the soap and is easily washed off, although certain soots such as that
from pine trees are worse than others.

Anyway, at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, we were given industrial
strength detergent for this and told not to soap the last inch or two
near the edge because if you got any of the stuff in the pot, you were
almost certain to get the runs.

This is actually not a bad trick for SCA folks cooking over open
fires since once the pot has been on the fire for a few minutes you
can't tell if it has been soaped or not and it makes cleanup much
easier.

- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
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