Inventory - Check your stuff

Quite randomly the month of July was the month I put into my phone to inventory and take stock of where we are for emergency preparedness. Best reason I can remember is I had achieved some goal at this point in the years prior.

Having a time you plan to check what you have, replace stuff and see where you want to be is a really good tool. I must admit life seemed to get in the way with my inventory this year. Work, kids, etc etc etc. Honestly there is not a whole lot to go through at the house, no we do not have a bunker full of every item we might need if the aliens invade, but I found enough to work on when I did sit down to go through our get home bags.

I know as our situation at home changes we need to adapt our planning and gear to the new situation. Kids grow, grown folks get older, you move or any of the other things which can change your situation come up and having a day or in this case a month to review your preparedness comes in handy. Biggest thing I found was duplicated items. I have a habit of getting items and just stuffing them inside of the bags. Of course I forget what I already have in them!

Expired or poorly packaged items were the next thing I found. Over the course of the last year I had found higher quality items but had failed to move out the older stuff. (going back to my habit of just stuffing stuff in the bag)

Somethings do not change, expire or need upgrading. Rain cover for the bag, first aid supplies, mirror, whistle and headlamp.

I realized my water purifying equipment had gotten a bit out of hand. The bag is packed to help get me home from work on a really bad day. If I need three types of water filters to get home things have gone way, way bad and the bag is not designed for a really, really bad day. Just a bad day!!! Although having multiple ways of doing something is a really good idea this was kind of a waste of space when I realized what I had done.  

I also realized my medical supplies needed to be revamped. The focus was more on the gunfight and needed to move toward covering regular issues one might have walking home. My background leads me to see things through the gunfighter lens. We should all make sure we look at our planning through the lens of disciplines outside of our own.

I also needed to trade out the MREs which had sat in my car for a year or more. Ok I know people will say you should do this more often because they go bad. Ate on of the ones I took out for lunch that day. Tabasco sauce had evaporated magically somehow but the rest of the meal was good! I couldn't remember if I had water bladder in the bag until I looked. Another good reason for going through the stuff.

I also had recently bought a new pack for everyday carry and decided to move the stuff over to the new bag. Having both bags open at the same time lead me to again find some gear which was duplicated and did not need to be carried in both bags. This bag is the Vertex EDC bag, after I carry it for awhile there will be a review.

One of the first things I did with the new bag was add a tourniquet and extra bandages. With everything going on in the world right now I felt I needed to add more medical stuff to the EDC.

Just inventory of this gear seemed to take up all of the spare time I had this month. Of course I have to still go through some other stuff but this gave me a good indication of where we are and where we need to go during the next year. If you can't deal with situations with what you carry everyday, combined with the gear you have to help you get home than what you have at home might just not matter.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

I am not sure how this works...... When I talk to people about preparedness the conversation a lot of time drifts towards something like this;

"Can you start a fire with sticks?"
"Yes"
"What is your favorite method?"
"A lighter." Usually this gets a weird look in reply.
"Yeah but if you were doing it with sticks, what is your prefered method?"
"Stick matches."

Some people I talk to are focused on being able to do things the hard way. Having a bow drill can be useful and the only option in some cases. Yet why would you want this method to be the one you are going to count on during a bad day? Carry two lighters and some matches as a back up.

Learning how to start a fire with a bow drill is an outstanding idea! Starting a fire this way is not easy, this takes longer and is harder than what you might think by reading a book or watching a TV show. If you and the family are huddled in a shack, freezing and in desperate need of heat do you want to spend time trying to use friction to start a fire? NO, you reach in your pocket, pull out a lighter and lite a fire!

Think of the childhood game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Rock beats Scissors, Scissors beats Paper and Paper beats Rock. Lighter beats matches, matches beat bow drill. Take this idea to other items, house beats tent, tent beats emergency shelter, emergency shelter beats jacket and jacket beats being butt naked!

Let's try another example. Quality beats check the box. You can buy ponchos which are basically one use items and check poncho off the list. They are thin and barely keep the water off you. If we buy a decent poncho, one which is well made, has grommets and is brightly colored. We can use the quality poncho for a temporary shelter, signaling and do this multiple times! Multiple use beats one time use.

Using less time and energy beats showing off skills. Need a shelter from the blazing sun? String the poncho up between two bushes, no need to gather building material to make an emergency shelter. Having thrown up a quick shelter, you now have more time to use toward other needs.

Of course you could take the time to gather up material to build a shelter. Then spend more time carving a container out of a gourd, using a piece of flint stone you napped. After which you could take some time to use your bow drill to make fire, then carefully boil the water utilizing hot rocks from the fire.

Prior planning beats roughing it. Maybe you pull out the extra money you had stashed in your Bail Out Bag or Get Home Bag. Walk up to the cheap hotel, secure a room for the night. Utilize the heater in the room to keep your family warm, drink water from the tap, eat junk food out of the machine down the hallway, while making a phone call to someone to come get you guys in the morning. Those pieces of paper beat quality gear and skills in most situations we are likely to find ourselves in.

Having the skill set to take care of yourself in a worst case scenario is good. Having the skill set to take care of yourself and the proper gear to assist you beats the skill set alone. Having the skill set to take care of yourself, the gear to assist you and the resources to better your position beats skills and gear. Do not let yourself get caught up in the romantic idea of surviving by utilizing primitive skills to answer every situation. There is a reason people invented easier ways to do things.........

As Always,

Stay Safe.    
    

Communications (do not need to)

Being able to communicate with others is an ability most of us take for granted. We talk to others every day. Some of us spend too much time using our phones and computers to communicate with others via social media. Some of us are tethered to our phones due to work. Most of us take this ability to reach out and communicate with others for granted. We really do not think about all the things which have to work right to allow us to communicate as easily with each other as we do.

This ability to call someone around the globe is new. Some of us just might be “experienced” enough to remember when communicating with others around the globe or across town was not as simple as now. Not that long ago, people did not walk around with portable phones in their purse or pocket. Everyone did not stare at their phone while walking, driving and when you sat down to eat you might have even spoken to the people around you. What can we remember from the “old days” to help us should something happen to interfere with our ability to instantly communicate with family or friends?

Picture a situation in which your phone and internet does not work. Ok, some of you might have to take a deep breath and calm down after thinking about this. Heck your phone battery could just run out of juice and you are not able to charge your phone!!!! Welcome to the world 20 years or so ago.

A few simple habits can cover this emergency and others:
1) Let people know where you are going
2) Set a time you are going to return
3) Go home

If you’re leaving the house let folks you live with know. In most cases should something come up this lets them know where you should be or at the very least where you might be at. Knowing where you are at can help calm people down during an emergency. Gives people one less thing to worry about. If your loved ones can think “She’s at the mall.” Instead of “I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE SHE IS! OH MY GOD WHERE IS SHE?” their ability to deal with whatever the situation improves.

Having a time for your return works the same way. If you’re supposed to be home at five o’clock and something comes up at three o’clock your loved ones are less likely to get really worried until after five o’clock. This is especially true if you are home at the same time every night. Even if you are just going to the mall let folks know when you plan on being home. Say maybe an hour or two. Something happens they won’t get really worried until after the time frame passes.

Making these two ideas a habit is really easy and can aid your family in mentally dealing with a situation when one arises. Putting off an overwhelming sense of panic for even an hour or two can make the difference in what your loved ones can do during an emergency. If they are not worried about you they can take proactive steps to improve their own situation.

This last one is a simple one and can be the answer to most situations you and your loved ones might face. Go home, something happens, GO HOME! Phone not working, go home. Car breaks down, go home. With the exception of a few emergencies the answer of what to do is GO HOME! If we tell all of our loved ones this is the standard answer to an emergency than no matter what happens we know our family is doing one thing. Everyone is trying to get home!

If we practice these ideas of letting people know where we are going, when we are planning on being back and agree to come home as our initial rally point we can separate ourselves from having to rely on electronic devices to communicate during an emergency. Having these ideas in place also allows us to "communicate" with our loved ones without actually having to.

As Always,

Stay Safe!!!

Get Home Bag

Our first priority when something happens is to get out of immediate danger. Right after that, get back to our loved ones. Maybe this means we get ahold of them on the phone and we know everyone is safe and sound? This should be enough for most situations and what we carry on us every day can handle these situations. For those situations when this might not be enough we should have a plan and some resources to accomplish our mission; get ‘in home.

The subject of this post is building a Get Home Bag, the third ‘tier’ or link in our emergency planning. As stated before each bag or set of equipment you put together needs to be tailored to the task and purpose built. Not everyone is in the same situation or faces the same issues. Each of us has to tailor our equipment to our own needs and abilities. If you have a medical condition this needs to be taken into account when putting items together. Of great importance is your physical condition.

You can have the most complete, everything you could ever want included and expensive pack ever made……………… but if you cannot carry the pack a hundred yards you have collected a lot of equipment for someone else to use!!!!

The bag in the photos is the one keep stashed in my truck. It is purpose built to my needs and abilities. For me the average distance I might have to walk home, in worst case scenario, is 66.1 or 66.7 miles depending on which mapping system I use to check the distance. First thing you might notice is my bag does not have everything you could possible need in it and you would be right! My bag has room to add things and somethings I might take out if I felt no need for them. The point is I have the items on hand to use should something come up. I also plan on incorporating my Every Day Carry (EDC), Bail Out Bag (BOB), other items in my truck and anything around me to help me get home. For me the odds of driving through the Sahara Desert, Alaskan tundra, Detroit or some other area void of resources is slim. Again bags need to be tailored to the environment you most likely will find yourself in.

Not everything I plan on using lives inside the bag. There is just not enough room inside the bag. This is how the items live in the turck. I do not want someone to look into the truck and see a fully packed bag with pouches and attachments all over the place. Instead this stuff looks like a bunch of "stuff" just sitting in the back.

Remember worst case you have to walk home during an emergency. A pair of broken in boots is the best choice for footwear. Keeping them on the outside yet attached to the bag saves space on the inside of the bag for other items and makes sure they are there if you pull the bag out!The waterproof bag contains extra clothing and items to use if the weather is cold. Remember the bag is tailored to the area, heavy winter items are not usually needed to deal with the weather here. The rolled up bedroll can easily be strapped to the bag and also works to cover up young ones when they fall asleep in the truck on long drives. Adding this to a “ranger roll” is living the high life for an old grunt!

These next items cover emergency medical issues, water filtration, fire starting, knowledge and you can never have enough hand sanitizer!! The medical kit would be strapped on to the outside of the bag and can handle simple cuts to gunshot wounds. There is a water filter straw, with the directions attached and some iodine, with directions written on it. I try to leave directions with items because you never know who you might be with during an emergency. Sure you know how to use the equipment but does your better half or the girl from the office you are walking home with? The SAS survival book is also included because there really is no way to know everything unless all you do is training for emergencies and survival every day!!!

The next group of items covers medication, sanitation, extra lighting and some food issues. Hard candy is a great thing to have with you. It gives you the sugar rush and can calm upset children. A can opener is a must! Last thing you want is to have a can of food and no way to open it!!!

Next come another medical bag which contains items for blisters, sprains and other injuries like these. Not life threatening but things you need to address to keep moving. A pair of binoculars, something not everyone needs, this is a item I choose to carry. Cooking gear; small stove which does not require gas, some pots, inside of which is some food items. The last item is a pack cover/rain cover I can put over the entire pack. Why? Because if it is raining I want my stuff to stay dry and I also want to conceal the ‘military’ look of the bag if need be.

I choice this bag for the way it can open up and lay flat as you can see by this photo. Very easy to get to what you want when a bag opens like this. Included in this picture is a pair of gloves and a N-95 mask. Essential if you are in an emergency with rubble and dust. The mask is also good for biological, flu, situations. There is also a plastic water bottle with duct tape and para cord wrapped around the bottle. Neat trick I picked up and not my own idea!!! You can also see several MRE's, poncho and poncho liner.

Last picture shows several water purification systems, roll of duct tape and some garbage bags. I do not plan on carrying a lot of water on me so I have to be able to make what I find safe to drink. Again this is fitting the bag to you!

The key to this bag is to have resources on hand I can use should something happen. Do not over load yourself! I plan on moving quickly and a heavy bag filled with everything for any situation would just slow me down. Once you pack a bag take a walk with it. Try walking two or more miles with all your equipment. Be honest with yourself and see if you could really carry what you have packed. If you can not........ adjust the gear and/or work on your physical abilities. Remember the bag is to help you get home not run into the woods and live for the next twenty years!!!

As Always,

Be Safe!!!

Bail Out Bag (BOB)

“Bail Out Bag, what in the world is that?” I can hear the question being asked as you read the title of the post, this is term most folks might have never heard of before. In a nut shell this is what you grab if you have to get out of your vehicle quickly and might not be able to immediately return to the vehicle. Ideally this bag would have inside of it items to support yourself for a short amount of time if you suddenly had to bail out of your vehicle.

For all of the ladies out there you have a giant head start on the men. Almost everything you would need in a BOB you carry in your purse. Well if you carry one of those big purses. Men this is stuff we might have in the car or truck but odds are it is spread out throughout the vehicle and there is no way for us to gather all of these items and bail out quickly. We want to be able to grab the bag and maybe one or two other items very quickly and leave the vehicle.

Bailing out of the truck or other vehicle is something I have had to do a few times. Most of these incidents were after car wrecks on the freeway. Think of what you would need if your car broke down in the middle of the road and you needed to get away from it with no ability to us any items or supplies you might have in the vehicle. Any bag you put together needs to be customized to you, your surroundings and give you flexibility to deal with fluid situations. The bag in this blog is customized to me and my daily situation. Does it cover every situation you could face? No and it is not designed or meant to do this. This bag gives me tools to work with when something happens and operates as my EVERYDAY BAG.

Just a plain bag, nothing which scream 'TACTICAL' or 'ZOMBIE HUNTER'. The idea is to just blend in when the need to arises which means having a bag you can go anywhere with without drawing to much attention. I live near the coast and the bag is a 'surfer' bag. Nothing which looks out of place in my area I spend most of my time. (By the way, I cannot surf to save my life!) Also from a distance the bag looks just like any other book bag and I try to keep it this way. This allows me to bring the bag with me everywhere I go and not attract unwanted attention. If I covered the bag with motivation patches or stickers I would stick out like a sore thumb. I also fly with this bag and only have to alter what the bag is carrying slightly to make it through security at the airport. Remember customize the bag to your environment, needs and the task at hand.

In one of the outside pockets I carry my wallet when it is not on my person. This way it is not sitting in the center console when I have to get out of the truck. Along with the wallet is another form of Identification and a few other items of I.D. I do not want pictures of on the internet, work stuff. Inside the ziplock is address and directions to the in-laws house and a few others items.

Next pocket holds some emergency medical stuff and a spare knife incase I do not have my normal EDC knife on me at the time. The knife in the photo used to be the my everyday knife.

The upper outside pocket, which is lined with fleece, holds my sunglasses. Also inside the pocket are a paracord bracelet and some extra money. A lighter also lives in the ziplock.

Several of the other outside pockets are empty but a GPS and a way to power my electronic devices live in two of the pockets.

A solar charging system (which I highly recommend) and a few extra items live in one inner pocket.

The main compartment holds items I use all the time and some which are kept there just for emergencies.Rain gear and gear to stay warm take up the most room. The weather out here rarely gets colder than what I handle with a jacket, gloves and a watch cap. Some of the other items are medicine tailored to me, rain pants, hat, back up flashlight, cordage and a Life Straw. My favorite nut mix and some dried fruit is hiding in the bag somewhere also. There are a few other items which come and go depending on what I have planned that day.

I live in an urban/suburban area and my bag reflexes this. There is no need for me to carry fishing gear, hunting gear or a complete armory. Short of the apocalypse there are stores, hotels and restaurants all along the routes I travel on a regular basis. Also I need to keep the bag light, to combine with and enhance my everyday carry items I keep on me. There are other versions or concepts of Bail Out Bags, each designed to the situation those folks are faced with.

As Always,

Stay Safe!!!!

Get home bag, building one

When we start to put stuff together we need to focus on the purpose of what we are putting together. For this posting we are going to focus on a “Get Home Bag”. What is it? This is bag you will store stuff in which will help you get home if you suddenly find yourself in a situation where you are doing some walking or using a different means of transportation home. The idea is to give you things to help you get home. Not to run off into the woods and live until the emergency has pasted or to fight off the alien invasion. We want to be able to utilize what we carry with us every day, with what we have in this bag and add any resources around us to do one thing, GET HOME!!!!

This might be a different way of looking at the problem than some of us are used to. In most cases you start to do research on what this situation calls for and people will give you a long list of items you are supposed to pack in order to survive. As you will see the bag I will be using for this post is not really full of items in fact some might say it is short a lot of items. Remember what the bag is for, getting home.

What is our first priority when getting home, speed? If we are carrying twenty to thirty pounds of supplies on our backs we are not going to be able to move very fast. Being honest for a moment how many of us have carried this type of weight on our backs recently? I would wager few and if you have done it recently I Hope you are agreeing with me on weight slowing you down.

Each bag needs to be personalized to the person and the situation they could be faced with. In this case the bag was put together for;
1) A women over the legal drinking age ………. We’ll leave it at that, I like sleeping in the house!!
2) Good looking but not a marathon runner……….
3) Needs to travel about 33 miles from work to home. MapQuest says this trip can be made in 12 hours and 1 minute walking. For our purposes this translates into a trip of around 3 days at 10 miles a day. Sure folks can move faster than this but we want to plan for the worst and hope for the best!!!!
4) In an absolute worst case scenario she is caught in this situation with two children, one in kindergarten and one a toddler.

Obviously we do not want to weight her down with 20 pounds of gear she may or may not “need”. We should define what “Need” is at this point. “Need” in this case is only items which can get you home. We do not need her to carry around a shovel to dig ‘cat holes’ with but we should make sure she has some TP to take of that situation with! We do not “Need” her to pack a tent and sleeping bag but we should make sure she has something she can use to separate herself from the elements.

The most expensive part of putting something together in most cases is the bag. Before you go out and buy a bag look around the house and try to repurpose a bag. This can be anything you can store and carry stuff in. This does not even have to be a backpack, if nothing else take some grocery bags double them up and put some stuff in!!!! If you are going to buy a bag keep in mind what the bag is for. You do not need to buy the latest high speed, tactical, super cool, bug out to the woods and live like a mountain man bag!!! You need something which is going to get you home from the furthest distance you usually travel.

Any type of bag can work. The green one in the photo was the bag I used the first time I put stuff together. In the following photos I will show what is in the bag which lives in the back of her car right now today. I took it out and took these pictures.

Nothing fancy, just a plain black bag. Given her training and life experience we do not want her walking home with some “Tactical Cool” bag which will either scream “I got supplies you might need come get them!” or “I am a navy SEAL/Ranger/Jason Bourne type and I am a threat to you!”. We want her to blend in and just be ignored on the walk home!

In the outside pocket tools she can hang around her neck or put in her pocket. We cover signaling and tools with what is attached to the string. Inside of the Ziplock we add shelter with a emergency blanket, being able to move with a dust mask and a book of information which could come in handy.

Pocket in from there we got some motivation!!! Hard candies last a long time.

Next pocket covers shelter, sanitation, lighting, water purification and minor first aid. The iodine can be used to purify water and first aid, note the directions to purify water are written on the iodine.

Next pocket covers virus issue with a better mask (the other one can be used or given to someone else), minor medical issues, tool to cover issues the other tools might not cover, gloves to help make your way through rubble or add warmth and a solar charging system which comes with a light and can be used to keep flashlights working.

Close u[p of the solar charger. I highly recommend these!!!

In the main pocket we cover basic food stuff, cooking, transporting water, an advanced water purifying system, advanced first aid and added shelter.

We also cover clothing in the main pocket with some extra socks, shirt, pants and some thermal bottoms carried in a waterproof bag.

The first aid kit carried in the bag is also personalized to what the training of the person carrying the bag. There are items to take care of everything from a sprained ankle to a major cut. What is not included is a surgical kit, IV kit or other items the carrier would not know how to use!!!!

Sure I can upgrade what is in the bag! The idea was to give her items right now!! Not after the next pay check or I get my taxes back, but right now!!! A lot of stuff in the bag has been repurposed from stuff I took out of my bag and items which were around the house. Having something today is better than getting cuaght short when you need something!!!! If she takes what is in the bag, combines it with what she has in her purse, baby bag and resources around her she should be able to put together what she needs to get home.

Couple items I did not take photos of, tennis shoes, the fire starting kit inside of the cooking kit and the googles which I could not find!!!!! Someone is in trouble!!!!

As always,

Stay Safe!!!

Get'in Home - nothing more important

For almost any situation we might discuss the overriding desire for everyone is to ‘get home’. Does not matter if the situation is a broken down car, earthquake or alien invasion we all just want to get home. Everyone has the place they call “home” be it where you live now or grandma’s house we all have the place we consider home. For most of us this where we put our heads down at night but everyone’s situation is different.

Think of the place you call “Home”, you're going to have to narrow it down a bit by adding in distance. Why? Because if you live in Florida but consider ‘home’ to be a place in Oregon this distance is too much for what we are talking about here. Let’s then figure out how far away you are from home on a regular basis. Most people live within 20 miles of where they work and for the most part we do not travel further than 20 miles from the house on a regular basis. Of course everyone is different and you might not fit into the average. I know I don’t, I’m 60+ miles from home at work five days a week. Let’s use the 20 miles as a base line.

When we do the planning for this we are going to want to do this on the “cheap”; sure the internet is full of list of items you “need” to get home and you can spend hours filling a pack with things you “need”. What do we really need to get home? Remember we are talking about getting home not fighting of the zombie hordes or restarting society from scratch. For almost all of us this means the worst case scenario is something has happened and we got to walk home. Think about this for a moment, you are going to have to put one foot in front of the other till you reach your doorstep.

For most of us this is not going to happen, we can call friends or family to pick us up, take a cab, ride a bus or find some other means of transportation. Yet there is a chance each of us could face this situation, be it from a natural or manmade emergency, so let’s plan for the worst and hope for a easier solution. When was the last time you walked three miles, five miles, ten miles or the twenty miles we are going to use for this? Let’s all be honest with ourselves, you do not have to tell anyone else, we haven’t walked that far in a long time or maybe we have never walked that far!

On average most people walk about 3 miles an hour, if we have to cover 20 miles that’s…… let me find the calculator……. I would take us roughly 6 hours of steady walking to make the 20 miles! Odds are we are not going to able to walk for 6 hours straight. This means we have to plan for the worst case scenario. 20 miles = 2 days of walking. “WHAT? It would not take me that long!”. I can hear you yelling at me already. Remember worst case, anything else is a good day. If we divide the walk up into two days, to allow for obstacles or other delays we only have to walk for roughly three hours both days. This gives us plenty of time to deal with anything coming up, does not really tax us physically and gives our family a longer time frame before they begin to worry. If we tell our loved ones 2 days and we make it home in 1 they have not even started to really worry and we are home already, win – win!!!!

What do we “NEED” to get home with? Remember we are focused on getting ourselves home and nothing else. First thing we need is something to put our items in. Almost all of us have an old backpack, knapsack, bag from a store, gym bag or some other container we can put stuff in. If you ride a bus, train or vanpool to work you can find a container and store these items at work. The idea is to find something you already have and repurpose the item.

Once we have a container then we need to go through the closet and find our old pair of shoes or boots we tossed in the back. Old sneakers with the holes in them or work boots we left in the garage are great for this! What we want is something we can wear which is already ‘broke in’ Those dress shoes or especially high heels you wear everyday are not made for walking this far in!!! If you cannot walk due to poor footwear, you are not going to get home.

Go back to the closet, this time look for the old jacket or hoodie you do not wear anymore. Try to find something which will keep the weather at bay and help keep you warm. If you live in an area where it snows find something appropriate to the climate (I suggest moving hahaha). While you’re in there also find some old pants to roll up and put in the bag. Before you roll the pants up put a tee shirt, underwear and some thick socks on top of the pants and roll them all up together. You now have a change of clothes in case your normal work attire is high heels, knee length skirt and blouse. Remember these clothes need to be loose, comfortable and durable. Now is not the time to be fashionable!

Now let’s break out some Ziploc bags, I love these things! In one toss a few dollars and a couple dollars in change. The amount of money to put in the bag? Twenty dollars or so; enough money to buy lunch and most definitely enough to buy a few bottles of water. In another bag toss in a lighter or two. In another put your old driver’s license or another form of picture ID along with a copy of your medical insurance card. If you want throw all of these items into one bag and put these in your get home bag. The reasons for these items? You want to be able to start a fire if you need to, buy things if you cannot use your credit or debit card and be able to check into a hospital if need be. Writing important numbers down on a piece of paper or card and putting this with your ID is also a good idea. Find an old flashlight, put some batteries in a Ziploc and toss those in the bag.

For most of us these items are going to be enough to help get us home and not weight us down as we try to get home. If you live somewhere there are no stores for miles you are going to want to modify what you pack into the bag. For us city and suburban dwellers we are still going to have access to things we need along the way. This means we do not need to carry five gallons of water with us but we do need some change to buy a bottle of water before we set off.

To earn some bonus points and if you got room, toss an MRE or camping meal into the bag. Maybe a poncho, Leatherman tool or a knife and if you really want to like yourself later some paracord. Just remember you are going to carry what you pack so do not go overboard!!!!! Of course we can upgrade our pack later, heck you can go all “lightweight super hiker” if you want when you have the money. For right now we are just trying to put something together which will help us tomorrow.

Please keep in mind what the purpose of this bag is, to get you home! Of course we can add things to the bag. There are tons of things we could add, water filters, fishing gear, compass and all sorts of other items. If you “need” these items to cover the distance you have to travel then do so. We do not want to add anything we do not need and if you pack a lot of stuff you realize you do not need later, dump the stuff or give it to someone else who might need it during a situation. Our goal is to get home and nothing else!

As Always,

Stay Safe!!!

First aid starter kit

We all need a general purpose first aid kit we can use to build upward from. The concept is for each of us to have medical supplies to take care of minor issues and be able to start treating major issues until help can arrive. We need to be able to take care of the most common issues, splinters, minor cuts, scrapes and burns. These are easy to treat if we have supplies on hand. In some situations these minor issues can become major issues if we do not take care of them properly.

107 Piece Outdoor First Aid Kit

This goes for around $15.00 on Amazon and is a great kit to get you started. Almost every minor situation can be handled with what is included in the kit. Here is what the kit includes;
(20) 3/4"x3" Adhesive plastic bandages (10) 3/4"x3" Fabric bandages (5) 1"x3" Fabric bandages (2) Knuckle fabric bandages (2) Fingertip fabric bandages (2) 2"x4" Elbow & knee plastic bandages (10) 3/8"x1-1/2" Junior plastic bandages (2) Butterfly wound closures (4) 2"x2" Gauze dressing pads (2) 3"x3" Gauze dressing pads (1) 5"x9" Trauma pad (1) 2" Conforming gauze roll bandage (2) Aspirin tablets (2) Ibuprofen tablets (2) Extra-strength non-aspirin tablets (6) Alcohol cleansing pads (6) BZK antiseptic towelettes (2) Antibiotic ointment packs (2) Insect sting relief pads (2) First aid/burn cream packs (1) 1/2"x5 yd. First aid tape roll (1) Sunscreen pack (1) Lip ointment pack (1) 2"x2" Moleskin square (1) 6"x11/16" Finger splint (1) Medium #2 safety pin (10) 3" Cotton tipped applicators (1) 4-1/2" Scissors, nickel plated (1) 4" Tweezers, plastic (2) Exam quality vinyl gloves (1) First aid guide Kit dimensions: 7-3/4"x5"x2-1/8"

Add a few items to this kit and we will be heading in the right direction;
Pain and fever medicines, such as aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen. (Note: Do not give children and teenagers aspirin, because it has been related to a potentially serious disease called Reye's syndrome in children younger than 18 years of age.)
Antihistamine (one brand name: Benadryl) to treat allergies and swelling
Decongestants to treat nasal congestion
Anti-nausea medicine to treat motion sickness and other types of nausea
Anti-diarrhea medicine
Antacid to treat upset stomach
Laxative to treat constipation
Bottle of iodine
Bottle of hydrogen peroxide
Bottle of calamine lotion
Neosporin

With this kit you can clean, cover and treat most issues we might have. These items will also give you something to work with as you are waiting for an ambulance or driving to the hospital.

When you start putting together a kit I suggest you do not include anything you are not trained to use! If you do not know how to insert a chest tube I suggest you do not include one. This way you do not think about trying to do something which could hurt someone. Keep your kit to your level of training. Then go out and get some training to allow you to expand your kit and help those around you more!!!! There are plenty of places to go pick up a class or two. If you have not had a class on basic first aid and CPR I strongly suggest you take one.

At the end of the day you can have all the equipment in the world but if you are not trained on how to use the equipment...... you have wasted resources and your time.

I want to thank 'Cat' for his help with this one. Everyone should have other people they can turn to for information and help on things. Cat is my go to guy for medical issues and anything Irish!!!!!!!! As always;

Stay Safe!!!