Usually I am not one for making New Year resolutions, but this year I have resolved to declutter my life. I just have too much stuff. I am challenging myself to throw out, or recycle, at least one item a day. The item to be binned does not have to be something substantial, it just has to be something that I no longer have a use for and is just sitting collecting dust. I am doing good so far: I threw away three things today. Vinomaker dug up this bottle of Jackson's Napa Soda down by Vinoland's creek a few months ago and it has sat in his woodshop ever since. I have decided, for now, that it can stay.
Napa Soda Water was bottled at a natural springs, located on Soda Canyon Road, between 1875 and 1929. The property eventually became the Soda Springs Resort which was owned and operated by a Colonel J. P. Jackson. The property had an interesting history: it was eventually destroyed by fire in 1929. Although this bottle is probably about 100 years old it does not have any monetary value, well, perhaps $10.00. But, seeing as Jackson is a family name, it's a keeper. The bottle will have to be put to some use though, perhaps as a vase when the daffodils begin to appear in a few weeks time. This small piece of Napa Valley history has to have a job if it is going to stick around Vinoland.
