Sunday, September 19, 2010

Survival Gear: Carts!

I am not sure if anyone has talked about carts on here, but I thought I would mention it. Since I live in an apartment, I needed a way to haul groceries and other items from my car fairly quickly. I well I got one several years ago for Christmas. That thing has helped like you would not believe. I have used it for hauling my laundry down to the laundromat, bringing home groceries, to hauling out garbage. In fact it came in handy when the apartment elevator broke down and I needed to use the stairs. That cart saved me several trips if I had to do it by hand, so instead of making 3-4 trips, It only took me 1. This one is close to the one that I have, from the same company, except it does not have a metal plate. Also there is an extra thick rubber-ish hooded liner that you can put in it. I have taken this cart to many stores and have never gotten a complaint. Overall it is well made, folds up very flat so it saves room and I use it all the time.

Do any of you use carts, trailers or wagons?

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Goodies in the Mail!

Yesterday I got some goodies that I will be doing reviews on. One is 'One Man's Wilderness' by Sam Keith and Richard Proenneke, the other is '98 degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive' by Cody Lundin. Both I got on Amazon, plus I have some stuff on the way that I will be testing out. Thought I would let you guys know.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Survival Media: Dual Survival

Morning guys, it is WAY early for me to be up, but I cant sleep due to my back is sore, and I am not going to waste time doing nothing. Plus on top of that, I will be very busy this weekend and will not have time to put up another blog post till next week. Now on to the topic, Dual Survival.

I am not sure how I found out about this show, though I know it was from somewhere on the internet. Dual Survival is about two survival experts who have had opposite types of training in survival. The famous Cody Lundin, (author of 98 degrees, and When All Hell Breaks Loose,) is an expert in primitive survival skills and believes in working with nature. Dave Canterbury is trained in the military ways of survival, believing that nature is against you. Both of these men are put together in typical dangerous survival situations, with tools that everyday people are likely to have with them. One situation was if your car dies in a desert area, what do you do? Would you think about taking out the reflectors in the car headlights to help start a fire? They show what can be used for tools and how to improvise for the things you need. That is pretty typical for every show, but it is interesting how they go around doing things. Dave tries to rely on hunting for meat more, whereas Cody checks areas for wild plants and insects as a food base. They go over the basics of food, shelter, fire, water and security, and show the multiple ways that those can be obtained. These two really know their stuff.

Now, I must admit, when I first heard about the synopsis of the show, I thought that this was going to be an out and out "reality show" kind of bitchfest. From what I remember there was a little amount of that in the first episode, but after Cody made that amazing shelter in the first episode, there was a huge amount of respect between the two men. Sure there still some times that they pick on each other, but all in all it is not that bad. I have to admit, this a bit of a refreshing change from other shows.

The one gripe that I have about this show are They always point out that Cody walks around barefoot, We really do not need to be reminded about that so much.

Overall it is entertaining to watch.

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Survival Gear: Flour Sack Cloth

sack cloth


Thought I would mention this to you guys. I know that many folks recommend a sort of large cloth like a bandanna for an emergency bag or a Bug Out Bag. Here is an alternative to the bandanna, flour sack cloth. The white piece of material under the camo colored bandanna in the picture above is flour sacking. It is pretty good because most flour sacking is a little bit bigger than a bandanna and can be used for a lot of things. Good flour sacking is really thick and durable, can soak up a bit of water, yet it dries pretty quickly. It can serve as a hat, a shirt if you have more than one and I have even heard of this material being made in to dresses during the Depression era. It can act as a bag too. I personally have been using really good sack cloth for years as dish drying towels. I have some that were given to me. Even the white color can act as a contrasting flag to signal for help in an emergency. I keep an eye out for this when I can and recently I had bought some from wal-mart for under $5 and some a little pricier at hardware stores. I know that there are some dollar store ones that are thin and cheap, but quality is best.

If any of you out there know where to get some more real quality sack cloth, let me know.

Flour Sacks for Clothes Article