This should be small enough and attached to you so that you do not put it down even when you take a break. Take it with you on any hike, drive or emergency. A large fanny pack works well or Ranger Rick suggests putting everything in a vest and a bamboo walking stick. You can duplicate some of the items in your mini kit but add substantially.
Survival cards or pocket survival guide (or print some out).
Knife of your choice (another one can go in your pocket or on your belt)
Sharpening stone (or ceramic insulator)
Fire materials (matches and tender (dryer lint, cotton balls in Vaseline, small candles, etc.) waterproofed)
Magnifying glass wrapped in bandana
Pliers if your knife doesn’t have them
Compass
Maps
Metal cup (boiling water)
2 small bottles of water
Freezer bags (organization, waterproofing and for more water)
Small camp soap (or traveler’s shampoo)
Iodine tablets
At least 2 trash bags (clear for still and heavy black for shelter), or tarp and poncho, or space blanket, or light weight jacket with hood (a shell that compacts) or hat
Rope, twine and wire
Headlamp and extra batteries
Candle
Wipes (these are multipurpose and are more compact than toilet paper, keep them in zip lock bags (add a little water if they get dry))
Gloves and socks
Small first aide kit (including prescriptions)
Sunscreen and bug repellant.
Whistle
Snacks (powerbars, trail mix, food tabs, tea, Gatorade mix, bullion, beef jerky, MRE)
A GPS, FRS radio, am/fm radio, cell phone, or CB can go in here if it fits
Mini binoculars (to spot landmarks, approaching fires, etc.)
Notepad and pencil or pen
A multipurpose tool is a good backup for the other items.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Stuff to almost always carry -- mini kit
You should make a small kit that fits in your pocket or around your neck. This should include:
ways to make a fire (matches, mini bic, flint, etc.)
a button compass
a small knife or razor blade, broken hack saw blade, small file
Swiss Tech Micro-Tech 6-in-1 Tool
led light
small candle (light or fire making)
a saw
short piece of wire
parachute cord (as much as will fit)
iodine tablets
sturdy needle and thread
individual salt servings
food tabs, hard candy, bullion or individual parmesan cheese/sugar (if space permits)
freezer bags (water)
nails (assortment)
trash bag if it will fit (poncho or tarp)
dental floss (twine)
Advil, Imodium, benedryl, vitamins, band aids, spf chapstick any other essential medicine for you or your family (all labeled)
fish hooks, split shot, fish line, safety pins.
Survival cards can go in kit or wallet (you can make something similar).
ways to make a fire (matches, mini bic, flint, etc.)
a button compass
a small knife or razor blade, broken hack saw blade, small file
Swiss Tech Micro-Tech 6-in-1 Tool
led light
small candle (light or fire making)
a saw
short piece of wire
parachute cord (as much as will fit)
iodine tablets
sturdy needle and thread
individual salt servings
food tabs, hard candy, bullion or individual parmesan cheese/sugar (if space permits)
freezer bags (water)
nails (assortment)
trash bag if it will fit (poncho or tarp)
dental floss (twine)
Advil, Imodium, benedryl, vitamins, band aids, spf chapstick any other essential medicine for you or your family (all labeled)
fish hooks, split shot, fish line, safety pins.
Survival cards can go in kit or wallet (you can make something similar).
Equiptment
There are lots of things you can get, but you can also just organize what you have already. The number of lists seems endless and what you need depends upon the situation, your skills, and your budget. Here is what is wrong with the DHS kit I have already mentioned several items above and list some others here but being comprehensive would take a lot of space (read the links and references for more). Here are some basics.
All types of camping equipment and tools come in handy but can be expensive (shipping can be expensive too so you may want to make your own, try your local yard sales, craigslist, sporting goods or hardware store first). You may want a small tent to carry and a larger tent to put in the car. Sleeping pads are as much for insulation as for comfort (learned the hard way—you don’t want to be in the cold without some insulation between you and the ground). A hammock can be multipurpose. You can try your local hardware store for lanterns or Lehmans (they also have candle making supplies).
I suggest four knives for anyone responsible enough to have one (in general you get what you pay for, but start cheap and upgrade later): a folding lock blade knife (buck and gerber are both good reasonably priced brands), a swiss army knife (with saw blade) or leatherman type knife (pliers are handy), a solid full tang knife, and a machete or short sword for brush. A kitchen knife can work until you get any of these. A hatchet would also be useful. Keep them sharp.
You need several maps (local, state (small scale and large scale), neighboring states, topographic and road) and a compass. A GPS is optional but very handy. There are usually welcome centers along interstates and in some cities that hand out free maps. The USGS is a good source for reasonably priced maps but sometimes it is a bit hard to find what you are looking for. They have a catalog for each state that really helps. They are also very friendly by phone but still prefer if you order online.
You should have at least one non portable (plug in) phone that can be used with the power out. Medicine, diapers and feminine products will be hard to get. A generator is great but can be expensive and you must have enough fuel (I don’t have one but want one). Solar powered battery chargers are really slow but might be the only option.
Change you attitude, don’t be wasteful, and you can reuse many items. A tin can becomes a cup or pot with a little work. Use both sides of a piece of paper and then use it as insulation or tinder. Waste not, want not. This also minimizes trash as there may be no trash pickup.
Organize your equipment and supplies into different levels and packages
All types of camping equipment and tools come in handy but can be expensive (shipping can be expensive too so you may want to make your own, try your local yard sales, craigslist, sporting goods or hardware store first). You may want a small tent to carry and a larger tent to put in the car. Sleeping pads are as much for insulation as for comfort (learned the hard way—you don’t want to be in the cold without some insulation between you and the ground). A hammock can be multipurpose. You can try your local hardware store for lanterns or Lehmans (they also have candle making supplies).
I suggest four knives for anyone responsible enough to have one (in general you get what you pay for, but start cheap and upgrade later): a folding lock blade knife (buck and gerber are both good reasonably priced brands), a swiss army knife (with saw blade) or leatherman type knife (pliers are handy), a solid full tang knife, and a machete or short sword for brush. A kitchen knife can work until you get any of these. A hatchet would also be useful. Keep them sharp.
You need several maps (local, state (small scale and large scale), neighboring states, topographic and road) and a compass. A GPS is optional but very handy. There are usually welcome centers along interstates and in some cities that hand out free maps. The USGS is a good source for reasonably priced maps but sometimes it is a bit hard to find what you are looking for. They have a catalog for each state that really helps. They are also very friendly by phone but still prefer if you order online.
You should have at least one non portable (plug in) phone that can be used with the power out. Medicine, diapers and feminine products will be hard to get. A generator is great but can be expensive and you must have enough fuel (I don’t have one but want one). Solar powered battery chargers are really slow but might be the only option.
Change you attitude, don’t be wasteful, and you can reuse many items. A tin can becomes a cup or pot with a little work. Use both sides of a piece of paper and then use it as insulation or tinder. Waste not, want not. This also minimizes trash as there may be no trash pickup.
Organize your equipment and supplies into different levels and packages
Priority Six: Hope
Hope is different for everyone. It can be safety, comfort, companionship, or normalcy. For me it is mainly hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I can work hard and persevere if I know eventually things will get better. This means long term planning. So I want to have what I need in the short term but also have some hope for the long term (so I have gardening tools and seeds in addition to rice and spam). You also want comfort items such as a book, bible, game, coloring book, pictures, beer, tea, or warm shower. Some of these can be dual purpose such as a book about hiking or gardening, survival playing cards, or a novel about survival and perseverance.
Priority Five: Food
Providing food can be as easy or complicated as you want. The easiest thing to do is simply buy more of any food you normally buy that stores well. By store well, I mean does not spoil. Foods like fresh milk, meat and bread do not store well. Other foods like rice, dried beans and pasta all store well and are cheap. They eventually lose some of their nutrition but this is gradual and will not make you sick from eating “expired” food if you forget to rotate. I do not list exact rotation schedules because every source is different. Some sources say grains only last one year but most sources say 10 plus years and other credible sources say hundreds or thousands of years. It all depends upon how it is packed and where it is stored which is discussed below (vacuum packed, cool and dry are best) Canned meats, fruits and vegetables store OK and are more expensive.
How much food you want to have on hand depends on what type of situation you expect and how much you want to spend. Buying a month’ worth of rice, beans, salt, and pasta will not cost much (and is a good start). You will be a lot happier if you add:
canned or dried meat (Costco and BJs have multipaks of spam, ham, tuna and chicken for under $10)
canned or dried fruits and nuts
canned or dried vegetables
dried potatoes
canned or dried sauces (for pasta, chili, etc.)
soup mixes (bean soups are cheap) and bullion
dried onions
parmesan cheese
cooking oil
ramen noodles
peanut butter
mayo
vinegar
sugar and honey
powdered milk
bread crumbs, stuffing, oatmeal, cereal
flour, pancake mix, biscuit mix
baking soda
cocoa, instant coffee, tea, drink mixes, juice mixes (cranberry)
lemon juice
dry yeast
spices
Some of these can be eaten without cooking or water if you have to. Costco is great for the rice, canned goods, bullion, yeast (2 pound box), cooking oil and spices. Don’t forget a can opener and other utensils. Of course you can do the drying (wood or solar) and canning yourself for better quality and lower cost. The oil, flour, baking soda and yeast (refrigerate the yeast if possible) do not store well and have to be rotated more frequently than the rice, beans and pasta. You will be healthier if you add some multivitamins. There are also luxury items like powerbars, powdered eggs, powdered cheese, powdered butter, food tabs, and meals ready to eat (MREs).
To decide how much you need, you can simply scale up recipes and meals (print some simple recipes that use your stored food). How much rice and beans would you eat at a meal or in a day if that was all you ate? A lot probably (make a meal as a trial). Now multiply that by the number of people and the number of days and you have a ball park of how much to store. The problem is that you could end up feeding more people than your immediate family. Who else would you not turn away? Start with the cheap stuff (rice, beans, pasta, salt) and then slowly keeping adding and rotating the other food until you have at least one months worth. Do an inventory at least twice a year.
Store everything in airtight/waterproof containers inside a tough container in a cool, dry, dark place. Some things come packed pretty well and can just go in a plastic bucket or crate (cans can be dipped in wax). Other items should be vacuum packed in small bags or large mylar bags with oxygen absorbers and then put in the plastic bucket with a lid or crate (with a solid latching lid). If you don’t have shelves, you can make shelves out of the buckets or crates and 1”x12” lumber. Put 2”x4”’s under the bottom shelf to keep it off the floor.
For years worth of food instead of months worth of food we need to move to grain and grain grinders. The Church of Latter Day Saints are the experts here. They also have storehouses that will sell to the public if you are polite. Of course you can buy online but the shipping will be as much or more than the food. I went cheap and was able to get about six months worth of food for one person for $100. I stuck to grains (400 lbs/year), beans (40 lbs/year), soup mix (20 lbs/year), and milk (16 lbs/year) (I already had sugar (60 pounds/year), salt (10 lbs/year), oil (5 gallons/year), baking soda and yeast). I borrowed some of their equipment to pack some of the food, the rest I packed at home in the mylar bags and buckets described above. The milk is a sticky powder and very messy (think of spilling flour and multiply by 100), repack it outside if possible. I also bought a hand operated grain grinder to make flour from the wheat. Then I can make bread (scale this recipe up to one loaf per day for a year as a cross check for a year’s supply). This would be a pretty miserable diet but I think it would keep me alive and healthy if I had enough vitamins. Because of the sack size I have more of some things than others so towards the end I may be eating paste. I hope to upgrade later. For infants you need more milk, oil, sugar, and vitamins from which you can make an emergency formula (breast feeding is better, then you give the extra food to the mother).
For even longer food solutions you need to farm. Supplementing your food with a garden or sprouting would also make things last longer and provide some healthy variety. Its best to have some non-hybrid seeds on hand or save seeds from your garden. Serious (expensive) seed packages are here. Have some fertilizer and pesticides on hand but in the long run organic is the way to go.
For cooking you can use a wood burning stove, barbeque, or camp stove in the short run (have some extra fuel on hand). The petromax lantern is pricey but well made and also has a stove attachment. If you don’t have one of these or run out of fuel you can build one: a coffee can stove, a bucket stove (avoid galvanized metal), a alcohol stove, a collapsible stove, a tin can stove (simple version), solar oven (portable version), or a clay stove (print directions for making at least one of these). This is also a good commercial stove for those with cash to burn. These are much more efficient than an open fire. You need a good pot or dutch oven for boiling water and cooking. For more portable food you can go with MREs, make your own or stock what ever you would normally backpack with.
How much food you want to have on hand depends on what type of situation you expect and how much you want to spend. Buying a month’ worth of rice, beans, salt, and pasta will not cost much (and is a good start). You will be a lot happier if you add:
canned or dried meat (Costco and BJs have multipaks of spam, ham, tuna and chicken for under $10)
canned or dried fruits and nuts
canned or dried vegetables
dried potatoes
canned or dried sauces (for pasta, chili, etc.)
soup mixes (bean soups are cheap) and bullion
dried onions
parmesan cheese
cooking oil
ramen noodles
peanut butter
mayo
vinegar
sugar and honey
powdered milk
bread crumbs, stuffing, oatmeal, cereal
flour, pancake mix, biscuit mix
baking soda
cocoa, instant coffee, tea, drink mixes, juice mixes (cranberry)
lemon juice
dry yeast
spices
Some of these can be eaten without cooking or water if you have to. Costco is great for the rice, canned goods, bullion, yeast (2 pound box), cooking oil and spices. Don’t forget a can opener and other utensils. Of course you can do the drying (wood or solar) and canning yourself for better quality and lower cost. The oil, flour, baking soda and yeast (refrigerate the yeast if possible) do not store well and have to be rotated more frequently than the rice, beans and pasta. You will be healthier if you add some multivitamins. There are also luxury items like powerbars, powdered eggs, powdered cheese, powdered butter, food tabs, and meals ready to eat (MREs).
To decide how much you need, you can simply scale up recipes and meals (print some simple recipes that use your stored food). How much rice and beans would you eat at a meal or in a day if that was all you ate? A lot probably (make a meal as a trial). Now multiply that by the number of people and the number of days and you have a ball park of how much to store. The problem is that you could end up feeding more people than your immediate family. Who else would you not turn away? Start with the cheap stuff (rice, beans, pasta, salt) and then slowly keeping adding and rotating the other food until you have at least one months worth. Do an inventory at least twice a year.
Store everything in airtight/waterproof containers inside a tough container in a cool, dry, dark place. Some things come packed pretty well and can just go in a plastic bucket or crate (cans can be dipped in wax). Other items should be vacuum packed in small bags or large mylar bags with oxygen absorbers and then put in the plastic bucket with a lid or crate (with a solid latching lid). If you don’t have shelves, you can make shelves out of the buckets or crates and 1”x12” lumber. Put 2”x4”’s under the bottom shelf to keep it off the floor.
For years worth of food instead of months worth of food we need to move to grain and grain grinders. The Church of Latter Day Saints are the experts here. They also have storehouses that will sell to the public if you are polite. Of course you can buy online but the shipping will be as much or more than the food. I went cheap and was able to get about six months worth of food for one person for $100. I stuck to grains (400 lbs/year), beans (40 lbs/year), soup mix (20 lbs/year), and milk (16 lbs/year) (I already had sugar (60 pounds/year), salt (10 lbs/year), oil (5 gallons/year), baking soda and yeast). I borrowed some of their equipment to pack some of the food, the rest I packed at home in the mylar bags and buckets described above. The milk is a sticky powder and very messy (think of spilling flour and multiply by 100), repack it outside if possible. I also bought a hand operated grain grinder to make flour from the wheat. Then I can make bread (scale this recipe up to one loaf per day for a year as a cross check for a year’s supply). This would be a pretty miserable diet but I think it would keep me alive and healthy if I had enough vitamins. Because of the sack size I have more of some things than others so towards the end I may be eating paste. I hope to upgrade later. For infants you need more milk, oil, sugar, and vitamins from which you can make an emergency formula (breast feeding is better, then you give the extra food to the mother).
For even longer food solutions you need to farm. Supplementing your food with a garden or sprouting would also make things last longer and provide some healthy variety. Its best to have some non-hybrid seeds on hand or save seeds from your garden. Serious (expensive) seed packages are here. Have some fertilizer and pesticides on hand but in the long run organic is the way to go.
For cooking you can use a wood burning stove, barbeque, or camp stove in the short run (have some extra fuel on hand). The petromax lantern is pricey but well made and also has a stove attachment. If you don’t have one of these or run out of fuel you can build one: a coffee can stove, a bucket stove (avoid galvanized metal), a alcohol stove, a collapsible stove, a tin can stove (simple version), solar oven (portable version), or a clay stove (print directions for making at least one of these). This is also a good commercial stove for those with cash to burn. These are much more efficient than an open fire. You need a good pot or dutch oven for boiling water and cooking. For more portable food you can go with MREs, make your own or stock what ever you would normally backpack with.
Priority Four: Water
This is a crucial area that can be helped a lot with very cheap and easy actions before TSHTF (The S Hits The Fan). This is probably the thing you can do with the highest payoff for amount of effort. The only problem with water is that it is heavy and can take up a lot of room. If you have storage room and are staying home this isn’t a problem but if you are on the move it can become a driving factor in your progress. Long term solutions are also difficult if your primary water source (city water or well) goes out and you are not near a river or lake.
Used plastic soda bottles and orange juice jugs with screw tops make very convenient water storage containers. Just rinse them a few times with hot water. Old liquor bottles and wine box bladders work well too. I also have several canteens and rugged 5 gallon containers with taps. The five gallon containers weigh about 40 pounds each and are about as big as can be easily moved (larger drums can go in your basement or garage or under a rain spout). A few collapsible containers might also be useful because they can be stored and carried empty. Tap water can last for years without going bad if kept in a cool dark place. But you should check water that has been stored for clarity and odors. If in doubt, treat it with one of the methods below. You can also freeze the plastic soda or oj containers (these do crack sometimes when freezing) and use them in a cooler to keep food cold if the power goes out before drinking it. If you know a disaster is coming fill up any container you can including the coffee maker, crystal vase, bucket, bathtub, sink, and kiddy pool (some of these could be spilled or contaminated but hopefully some will make it).
Most sources recommend about a gallon per person per day. People consume about 2 quarts in cool low activity environments but much more if hot or active. You should have at least 2 weeks worth per person in your primary residence (but why not have months worth if you have the room). If you are traveling by car, three days worth per person is minimum (more for bathing), and if you are walking take as much as you reasonably can carry but at least one days worth (several small bottles are better for diversification if one leaks and also to let you know to start looking for more water before you are on your last bottle). I also store extra water for washing and bathing. Here the container doesn’t matter quite as much. I use old liquid detergent jugs. You should also have at least two methods of sterilizing water.
The first step in sterilizing water is to get the water as clear as possible. If it is cloudy, strain it with coffee filters, a clean cloth, or sand. Or you can let it settle and pour off the more clear water.
The primary and most reliable method of sterilizing water is boiling. You actually do not need to boil the water just heat it past 145 degrees for long enough. But if you don’t do it right you can get sick. So to be safe, boil it for 5 minutes if you can. If you are walking, a metal cup (enamel or stainless) or a converted tin can is easier to boil than a full pot. You can carry a backpacking stove or a Kelly Kettle. You can use solar power to sterilize water (in a soda bottle) if no cooking is possible. Other stoves are suggested below under food.
To sterilize water with bleach use 2 drops of plain unscented bleach per quart of water (or 8 drops per gallon or ¼ tsp per 2 gallons). If you don’t have a dropper you can wet a paper towel and then drip it (wear gloves). Let the water sit for 20 minutes and then smell it. If it smells like chorine then its good to go. If it doesn’t, repeat with the same amount of bleach. If that doesn’t work try to find other water. (Really bad water or salt water requires a still.) Bleach is cheap but does not last forever – rotate.
There are also Potable Aqua iodine tablets that are more compact for sterilizing water. You can also use Tincture of Iodine. Iodine and chlorine are poisons so be careful (kill the bacteria not yourself).
Any of the chemical treatments can make the water taste funny. You can use drink mixes to make it taste better. I’m not sure if sports drinks are really better, but Gatorade seems more thirst quenching to me than water. The powder form is more convenient and cheaper. You can also make your own sports drink (1/4 tsp nu salt(potassium), ¼ tsp salt, 3-6 tbl sugar (to taste), juice of 1 lemon (or orange), and optional flavoring (kool aide) per gallon of water) or switchel.
Of course you can spend money for water if you want to. You can buy prepackaged water or expensive filters. There are backpacking filters but I have found these to be temperamental. A water bottle with a filter would be a good backup or a straw. You can also go the more expensive route with a good gravity fed filter like this: http://www.doultonfilters.com/gravity.html. This is a great looking solar still but doesn’t appear to be for sale right now.
If you are a homebrewer (or like beer), you can add some dry malt extract, hops, and dry yeast to your stash. Beer is boiled as part of the brewing process. Then the alcohol and hops act as a natural preservative. For the long term you can get some sproutable barley, grow some hops, and culture yeast. If you or someone with you doesn’t handle alcohol well, skip this.
Used plastic soda bottles and orange juice jugs with screw tops make very convenient water storage containers. Just rinse them a few times with hot water. Old liquor bottles and wine box bladders work well too. I also have several canteens and rugged 5 gallon containers with taps. The five gallon containers weigh about 40 pounds each and are about as big as can be easily moved (larger drums can go in your basement or garage or under a rain spout). A few collapsible containers might also be useful because they can be stored and carried empty. Tap water can last for years without going bad if kept in a cool dark place. But you should check water that has been stored for clarity and odors. If in doubt, treat it with one of the methods below. You can also freeze the plastic soda or oj containers (these do crack sometimes when freezing) and use them in a cooler to keep food cold if the power goes out before drinking it. If you know a disaster is coming fill up any container you can including the coffee maker, crystal vase, bucket, bathtub, sink, and kiddy pool (some of these could be spilled or contaminated but hopefully some will make it).
Most sources recommend about a gallon per person per day. People consume about 2 quarts in cool low activity environments but much more if hot or active. You should have at least 2 weeks worth per person in your primary residence (but why not have months worth if you have the room). If you are traveling by car, three days worth per person is minimum (more for bathing), and if you are walking take as much as you reasonably can carry but at least one days worth (several small bottles are better for diversification if one leaks and also to let you know to start looking for more water before you are on your last bottle). I also store extra water for washing and bathing. Here the container doesn’t matter quite as much. I use old liquid detergent jugs. You should also have at least two methods of sterilizing water.
The first step in sterilizing water is to get the water as clear as possible. If it is cloudy, strain it with coffee filters, a clean cloth, or sand. Or you can let it settle and pour off the more clear water.
The primary and most reliable method of sterilizing water is boiling. You actually do not need to boil the water just heat it past 145 degrees for long enough. But if you don’t do it right you can get sick. So to be safe, boil it for 5 minutes if you can. If you are walking, a metal cup (enamel or stainless) or a converted tin can is easier to boil than a full pot. You can carry a backpacking stove or a Kelly Kettle. You can use solar power to sterilize water (in a soda bottle) if no cooking is possible. Other stoves are suggested below under food.
To sterilize water with bleach use 2 drops of plain unscented bleach per quart of water (or 8 drops per gallon or ¼ tsp per 2 gallons). If you don’t have a dropper you can wet a paper towel and then drip it (wear gloves). Let the water sit for 20 minutes and then smell it. If it smells like chorine then its good to go. If it doesn’t, repeat with the same amount of bleach. If that doesn’t work try to find other water. (Really bad water or salt water requires a still.) Bleach is cheap but does not last forever – rotate.
There are also Potable Aqua iodine tablets that are more compact for sterilizing water. You can also use Tincture of Iodine. Iodine and chlorine are poisons so be careful (kill the bacteria not yourself).
Any of the chemical treatments can make the water taste funny. You can use drink mixes to make it taste better. I’m not sure if sports drinks are really better, but Gatorade seems more thirst quenching to me than water. The powder form is more convenient and cheaper. You can also make your own sports drink (1/4 tsp nu salt(potassium), ¼ tsp salt, 3-6 tbl sugar (to taste), juice of 1 lemon (or orange), and optional flavoring (kool aide) per gallon of water) or switchel.
Of course you can spend money for water if you want to. You can buy prepackaged water or expensive filters. There are backpacking filters but I have found these to be temperamental. A water bottle with a filter would be a good backup or a straw. You can also go the more expensive route with a good gravity fed filter like this: http://www.doultonfilters.com/gravity.html. This is a great looking solar still but doesn’t appear to be for sale right now.
If you are a homebrewer (or like beer), you can add some dry malt extract, hops, and dry yeast to your stash. Beer is boiled as part of the brewing process. Then the alcohol and hops act as a natural preservative. For the long term you can get some sproutable barley, grow some hops, and culture yeast. If you or someone with you doesn’t handle alcohol well, skip this.
Priority Three: Shelter
Shelter is mainly about staying dry and the right temperature, but you also want to avoid sunburn, bugs, animals and other dangers. Your house is your usual primary shelter but it could become damaged or you may have to evacuate. You should have emergency repair items on hand such as tarps, lumber, shovels, nails, plastic sheeting, crowbars, and a saw.
Your clothes are your first and most important layer of shelter outdoors. Clothes protect you from heat, cold and abrasions. In general silk, wool, and synthetic materials are better than cotton especially to keep you warm in cold wet weather. I find cotton more comfortable especially in hot weather, so I compromise and wear a cotton shirt and shorts, but carry a better shirt, pants and socks in my bag, as well as additional layers and a change of underwear. This makes my pack a little heavier, but I have been cold and wet in the wilds and that is miserable. For me, a hat and sunglasses are indispensable. I try to always carry at least a light water resistant jacket or poncho (with a garbage bag as a backup). For me, boots are the only sensible walking shoes. Find some that are rugged and comfortable. Have extra laces and a backup pair.
You can carry a tent, a tarp or garbage bag for resting and sleeping. A tarp can make a simple shelter or an elaborate one. Rope, twine and tape are also useful. You can carry some type of staff or tent poles or make them with an ax or saw. Mosquito netting is necessary in some places.
You should have many ways to start a fire since most are cheap and compact. At least have a lighter, matches, and flint. You can also build a firebed to sleep in if you have inadequate shelter from the cold.
Your clothes are your first and most important layer of shelter outdoors. Clothes protect you from heat, cold and abrasions. In general silk, wool, and synthetic materials are better than cotton especially to keep you warm in cold wet weather. I find cotton more comfortable especially in hot weather, so I compromise and wear a cotton shirt and shorts, but carry a better shirt, pants and socks in my bag, as well as additional layers and a change of underwear. This makes my pack a little heavier, but I have been cold and wet in the wilds and that is miserable. For me, a hat and sunglasses are indispensable. I try to always carry at least a light water resistant jacket or poncho (with a garbage bag as a backup). For me, boots are the only sensible walking shoes. Find some that are rugged and comfortable. Have extra laces and a backup pair.
You can carry a tent, a tarp or garbage bag for resting and sleeping. A tarp can make a simple shelter or an elaborate one. Rope, twine and tape are also useful. You can carry some type of staff or tent poles or make them with an ax or saw. Mosquito netting is necessary in some places.
You should have many ways to start a fire since most are cheap and compact. At least have a lighter, matches, and flint. You can also build a firebed to sleep in if you have inadequate shelter from the cold.
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