Update, Adjust, Make Ready

[stickmaker]

The seasons are changing. Have you updated your vehicle emergency kit for the cold weather?

Anyone who drives more than an hour's walking distance from home (and most would be surprised to learn how short a distance that is, especially in bad weather) needs to have at least a medical kit and simple tools. Keeping in mind that winter storms can come on suddenly, and can still surprise forecasters, some warm clothing (including socks) and good shoes should also be included.

Maybe it comes from reading _Robinson Crusoe_ and _Swiss Family Robinson_ at an impressionable age. Maybe it comes from both family and my youth church group enjoying camping and hiking. Maybe it's a holdover from the Great Depression, passed down from grandparents on both sides of my family. Whatever the reason, I've always felt more comfortable having things available to help with problems both common and unlikely.

A Get Home Bag is something intended to help you walk out of a place where you're stranded, or survive in that place until help can arrive. The problem can be as simple as getting lost and running out of gas in an isolated area with no cell phone coverage. It can be as complicated as a record snowfall which leaves cars buried on the Interstate.

The point is, having a source of warmth - even if only an old sleeping bag - and food - even if only some granola bars - and water - even if only a few supermarket water bottles - can save your life.

Comments

[xander-opal.livejournal.com]

I know a lot of folk who have various emergency kits because, well, you never know. Bumblebee (tinned tuna and chicken) has what I call Cat Food and Crackers: a tin of chicken or tuna salad, a packet of six crackers, and a spoon, in a little box. Much tastier than the name I gave it; the tin simply looks _exactly_ like a tin of wet cat food.

I also try to keep around at least half a dozen sets of hand-warmers, the air-activated kind. One in each shoe, hip pocket, breast pocket, and glove, and it makes blankets (or several jackets) go a lot further.

I should add a few more things... small (unused) gas can, space-blanket, regular blanket, spare multitool, two 4x4 blocks, a more convenient jack than the one that came with the car, change of clothes (including sweatshirt), scarf, lighter, box of matches, bag of kitty litter (absorbs spills, gives traction), small shovel, a small pot, a few bricks of ramen, a few Sterno tins. Oh, and a fire extinguisher, spools of wire at gauges commonly used in automotive electronics, full set of spare fuses, electrical tape.

Even if I wind up not needing any of it, 'tis far better to have and not need, than to need and not have. There'll still be plenty of room in the trunk and back seat of my Sunfire for anything else I might haul.

[kengr]

Have both the pocket size "foil" rescue blanket and the "tarp" kind (folds to the size of a coffee table book and usually has a case you can stuff it back into.

The foil kind is ok in a pinch, but the tarp kind doubles as a ground cloth or even a tent.

Given one of my cloaks and the "tarp" I could probably curl up in a minor blizzard (not that we get them here) and be ok for a while.

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

I'm old enough to remember when they were called "space blankets." :-)

Another use of the cheap ones is as a reflector on the far side of a camp fire.

[kengr]

So am I. :-)

Oh, useful tip if you have one of the *old* metal Army canteens with the canteen cup that it fits into (inside the cloth cover).

Lipton instant soup packets will (or at least used to) make one canteen cup of soup. Very useful.

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

One tip useful for both "in the wilderness" and at home is to flavor ramen with chicken or beef bouillon cubes, instead of the included flavor packets.

Save the packets. They can (at home, at least) be used to flavor rice or mashed potatoes.

[kengr]

Yeah, picked that one up in the early 70s when sharing a house with some other folks. But instead of bouillon cubes, buy bulk beef, chicken or ham soup base.

A local store used to have a bulk food section that had those as well as flake unflavored TVP, and both flake and chunk beef, chicken & ham flavored TVP.

Got thru a lot of lean times with rice, the soup base and matching chunk TVP as the starches & protein with the big bags of frozen mixed veggies for the rest.

Winco has the chicken & beef soup base. I have to buy the ham soup base in a different store that has a section that sells restaurant sized cans and packages of stuff.

Haven't found TVP since that one store went out of business.

Currently I use the ham soup base to make "lentil glop". Basicly, coook up a big batch of lentils with ham soup base added to the water and a bunch of chopped up bacon ends & pieces added as well.

When cool, it's got about the consistency of refried beans.

I use the chicken soup base with barley.

And I mostly use the beef soup base for my version of rice & beans. I cook the beans (dried pinto beans) in a big batch, then divide them into containers with enough for a batch of the rice and beans. I also chop up some Bar S hot sausages into the container and freeze it.

So when it's time to make a batch, I start pot of water, add soy sauce until it's the "right" color, dried chopped onions, dried gran garlic, and chili powder. Then I drop in the frozen chunk of beans and sausage chunks. Once the block has thawed to individual pieces, I bring things back to a boil and add the rice.

A batch will last for a day or two.

Oh yeah, the "small" cans of Nalley's chili? 32 of them *exactly* fit a plastic milk crate. So I have a lot of stuff I can eat straight from the can, and more I can eat with minimal cooking facilities.

I *could* last a month or more without buying anything. I wouldn't enjoy it, but...

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

Many lightweight hikers cut beef jerky into small pieces and put it into a sealable bag. They put the jerky chips in the water before putting that on the heat, to let the jerky hydrate. Then they cook the rest of the meal, once the water is boiling.

[kengr]

Oh yeah, another goodie on camping trips. I like cream or wheat/farina.

I'd cook up a batch in the canteen cup. Then use extra milk to dilute & cool it. Add sugar and then you have a hot filling *drink*, even if it's a bit thick.

Worst case, make it with powdered milk, and as long as you've got water and a heat source, one box will last a *long* time.

I mostly make oatmeal at home because if you buy quick oats, you can doi it in the microwave. Add some dried fruit. Raisin, cranberries, cherries... Mmmm.

[kengr]

FRS radios are a good fallback from cell phones. They don't need towers and search parties *will* be carrying them. Plus, there's a good chance that *somebody) will be listening unless you are way out in the middle of nowhere. Mine, like most all of my gesar (GPS, bike lite, at least one of the flashlights) runs on AA batteries, and I carry a bunch)

Oh yeah, one of the flashlights has a USB power jack, and I carry the cable that'll let my use it to power my phone. I may not get many hours on the 4 AAs in that flashlight, but it's more than I'd get if the regular battery ran down.

Since I don't have a car, I'm only going to get as stranded as my bike could get me stranded. Which means I'll have at least one bottle of water and several to a dozen granola bars type things (depends on when I last refilled the ziplock. I put one of each kind I have in a big ziplock and then refil when it gets empty). if I was going someplace that wasn't more or less in town, I'd go for a second bag if the first was getting low.

Gear I'd carry if going hiking/camping would include my fire kit. Piece of hacksaw blade, one of those *huge* metal "flints" to get sparks from, a hunk of magnesium )even *wet* wood will start if you put a spark from the flint into a pile of magnesium shavings sitting on it. :-)

Also have one of those "solar cigarette lighters" that Radio Shack used to sell and a large magnifying glass (I've started fires with both on sunny days)

Another useful trick if you walk or bike near the right sort of streets is "used" road flares. Ones that have burned part way, then been put out are often by the side of the road after an accident.

Not easy to light unless you have my fire kit (why yes, I *am* a scrounger:-)

Real road flares are best saved for other situations.

A filter straw or filter pump for folks who might get stranded farther out than I'm likely to wind up are a good investment.