Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Test Your Vocab


How many words do you know? A quick test gives an interesting result.


Friday, December 9, 2011

Back to the Drawing Board


Having nearly everything I want for my mobile survival kit, I've been scouring around for the few remaining odds and ends. My latest visits were to a salvage store and a military surplus store.

Finding a reflective safety vest at the salvage store that looks brand new for only $2, I scarfed it up for my car kit along with a canteen for $1.25.

Purchases at the military surplus store were a waist pack, sustainment pouch, insulated canteen cover, and other small miscellaneous items such as a piece of screen to contain the perlite in my Altoids stove and extra fine waterproof sandpaper to glue onto the tops of my match safes to use as striking surfaces.

While I don't like the army camouflage colors of my new waist pack and accessories, I love the price and that they're sturdy enough for the military. A bonus is that everything fits with room to spare for my Cascade II poncho and extra socks plus more if I want. It's perfect for warm weather hiking and to use for the bare essentials for cool weather hiking or backpacking.

The problem is that I can't quite see taking it along when riding in somebody else's vehicle much less using the set-up for air travel.

Back to the drawing board.


Thursday, December 1, 2011

Rethinking My Mobile Survival Kit


Contemplating my mobile survival kit, loath to make duplicate purchases, I realized that my first idea of using my hiking pack as the base for my car survival kit was a good idea. Only the implementation of my hiking pack needed to be altered.

Changing from a lumbar pack for warm weather to a backpack for cool weather to a larger backpack for backpacking trips is what made me think I needed a separate car kit because I don't always keep the pack in the car. However, using a waist pack as the constant component, with the addition of a lumbar pack or backpack as warranted, would satisfy the minimum basics for survival.

For example, the waist pack alone would suit warm weather day hikes. For cool weather hikes, I would use it with my hiking backpack which would contain a sleeping pad and extra clothing. For backpacking, always wearing the waist pack would help me through a rough time should I set my main pack down to rest, go fetch water and not be able to find my way back, have to jettison my main pack to prevent my drowning during a water crossing, etc. There have been stories of individuals wandering away from their base camp to explore just a little and ending up in a survival situation because they couldn't find their way back to camp. The stories get grim when they didn't have anything with them. Wearing a survival waist pack at all times except while sleeping, swimming or bathing, would be a lot better than having nothing.

The waist pack would also supplement my evacuation kit which I plan to be a backpack for greatest portability. Even if I chose a rolling suitcase, the mobile survival kit in a waist pack would integrate nicely.

Keeping the waist pack in my car or taking it along when traveling in someone else's vehicle gives it the widest variety of applications. If I didn't work at home, this mobile survival kit could be carried to and from my workplace daily.

The main purpose for having a mobile survival kit is it will supplement and contain more than my mini kit. While I may not always wear it away from the great outdoors, it will be small enough and lightweight enough to keep in reasonable proximity and should have the capability of being carried hands-free should a survival event occur. The reason I decided on a waist pack instead of a messenger bag is because I already use a cross-body bag as a purse.