In Colorado Springs we get to enjoy wonderful, clean drinking water. What a privilege it is to just go to the faucet and get cold water that tastes great. My Arizona friends are not so lucky. In Scottsdale, everyone has to have a water cooler with those big five gallon jugs of water. This drives me crazy! The cooler takes up space in the kitchen and the jugs are really heavy when you have to change them out.

Colorado Springs Utilities publishes reports on the water quality and sends them out in the billing statements.  The report can also be viewed online along with lots of other interesting data about our water.

The water we drink in Colorado Springs mostly comes from mountain streams. Sources near Aspen, Leadville and Breckenridge provide the crisp clean water that we many times take for granted. This water is stored in reservoirs on Pikes Peak while it waits to be used.  The fact that the water travels in underground pipelines makes me feel better. This keeps the water from contamination from herbicides and pesticides. The city also uses local surface and ground water sources such as wells and creeks.

We are very lucky to have such good water here! If you are planning amove to the city soon, don’t worry about drinking bottled water. Ours tastes great right from the tap!

What does this mean? Can I now unlock my doors at night? Probably not but it does confirm what I have always believed about our city. This is a great place to live all around! I feel safe going downtown to a restaurant with friends. Of course I don’t stay out that late and don’t frequent the downtown nightclubs that seem to have weekly incidents involving police. The places that I go, day or night seem to be safe and well lit.

The key here is to look at all of the factors that made up this safety study. Our air quality is excellent. We get the best water in the whole world cold and tasty right out of the tap. As for life expectancy, my grandfather was a Colorado Springs native (b.1900) and he lived to be nearly 99! Our clean living and penchant for fitness makes it easy to live a long time here.

The large military presence in this city gives financial stability to the region. Job losses are less than other cities due to our guaranteed military payroll every two weeks. We never boomed as much as other cities during the past ten years so our job losses have been much less than other areas similar to Colorado Springs.

Housing areas can be safe in most area of the city. Even in lower price ranges, a good safe home can be found. It all depends on who is assisting you in your search. I am a lifetime native of Colorado Springs. I know the areas that are most popular with buyers based on typical needs such as safety, convenience, schools etc. If you are considering a move to the area, feel free to contact me. I would love to assist you!

Keep Colorado Springs Green!

I heard about this recipe about 6 months ago and had to try it for myself. I was reading an article about the Duggar family. You know, the ones with 18 bazillion kids? I figured if they said it worked, it must be good. I have one son still at home. He brings home lots of dirty sports clothes so I thought it would be a good test.

I am happy to report that this soap, no matter how crazy people think I am, works! I had to get past the initial creepy feeling that the Tide people put in my head but then I was fine. For many years their slick marketing convinced me that they were the only way. The ingredients in regular detergent are surprising! The reason the cost has gone up so much is that products like Tide are made with petroleum products. Yuk! I don’t want that stuff on my skin! Even if you don’t care about your skin do you care about your water supply? Colorado Springs has the best tasting water in the world. I don’t want that to change!

The recipe or this laundry soap is so simple. The first thing to do is to save back a couple of old liquid detergent bottles. I can fit a batch of soap into two or three old Tide bottles. The follow the recipe below.

Hot water
1/2 cup Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax
1/4 bar Soap (grated)

• In a large pot, heat 3 pints of water. Add the grated bar soap and stir until melted. Then add the washing soda and borax. Stir until powder is dissolved, then remove from heat.
• In a 2 gallon clean pail, pour 1 quart of hot water and add the heated soap mixture. Top pail with cold water and stir well.
• Use 1/2 cup per load, stirring soap before each use (will gel).

The soap will gel overnight and look like a thickened version of egg-drop soup from your local Chinese restaurant. You can store it in a covered bucket or just use the old bottles that I mentioned above.

The best thing about making and using this soap is the cost! With all of the ingredients, I will spend less than $10 per year to wash clothes! I was spending so much more on Tide at the commissary!  I plan to use the savings on fun things like manicures and pedicures. This new found cash will be put to very good use!

Keeping our city green is very important to me. Don’t get me wrong, I am a very conservative person who strongly dislikes Al Gore and his claims about Global Warming, I mean Climate Change. Remember, he said he invented the internet and that was false. I have no desire to follow him. I do have a desire to keep my drinking water clean and safe. I do have a big desire to save money. This little recipe fills those squares for me. Laugh if you want to but it has been working great for me and my family. Try it!