WISE COMPANY 5-Day Survival Backpack review

Let me start off by stating any equipment or supplies are better than none. I rather be in a bad situation and have this backpack than find myself standing there empty handed. (Yes this is my "say something nice" statement before I write things some people might not like.)

As I started to really educate myself on the realities of emergency preparedness a few things stood out to me. One of which was the prepackage emergency bags or backpacks. What could be better than a bag all ready to go? All you would have to do is grab the bag and go! Man, that would be great!

I came across a sale on this item and decided to purchase one. The idea was to see what the bag could do by touching, feeling and using what the bag came with. Ordering the bag was simple and it came exactly when they said it would. Just for the record this cost me less than a hundred dollars, I think! I can't find the receipt right now, DUH!

First thing I noticed was the bag claims to hold food, water, first aid and warmth for five days if you read what is written the way most people read things.

Looking at the placard attached on the backpack one would think you are ready to deal with tornados, hurricanes, wildfires and floods just by having this bag! What could be better? Even the smaller print makes it seem as if this is what I need to be ready in the event of an emergency. This bag comes with 32 servings of gourmet entrees! Water, a stove, not any cup but a stainless steel cup, flashlight, survival whistle thing, matches, blanket, emergency poncho and even a set of playing cards! If they can put a set of playing cards in the bag the bag must be really loaded for a bad day! The 42 piece first aid and hygiene kit will come in handy if you have to survive out of this bag!

This morning I opened up the box the bag came in and was kind of like a kid at christmas! I couldn't wait to see what I could learn from this bag. They managed to get five days worth of supplies for one person into a rather small bag and I wanted to learn how. 

The bag is about the size you would buy for an elementary school child. There are pockets and straps all over the bag which gives you options for packing gear. The material is a really thin type, the straps  are not padded and do not seem to be made for any long periods of use. Inside the bag I found three bundles of supplies. As you can see one was filled with water packets, one with food stuff and the third had equipment.

Let's start with the water supply provided. You see these packets being sold as emergency supplies. One might think from the presentation of the bag five pouches of water would equal enough water for five days. After all the bag is labeled as a "5-DAY SURVIVAL BACKPACK".

The amount of water in each is 4.227 fl oz. or 125ml. "Well how much water is that? Must be enough if they are saying this bag will last you five days?" Let me see if I can put this in prospective for you. I emptied one of these packets into a regular sized glass from the kitchen, looking forward to a nice glass of water while I went through the rest of the bag.

Obviously I was disappointed at what the pouch held. Good thing I was not really thirsty, you know like after surviving a tornado or running for my life from a forest fire. This is some hard core rationing for even the hardest ones of us out there if this is all the water you get for one day! How about a few more visuals to help you.





















That is all the water included in one of these pouches, half a drink glass or martini glass. No the pouch is not filled with liquor for either of these! Which might be a good selling point or marketing scheme to another company. "We got booze for your emergency kit!"

There is no way you are going to be doing much physical activity if these are supposed to be consumed one a day, for five days. Of course the bag also comes with water purification tablets. Issue is the bag does not come with anything I can use to hold the water in I want to treat? This was really the first WTF moment I had with this bag. If you are going to say this bag is a 'grab and run' or a bag you can use to survive for five days you might want to include items needed to utilize the supplies you put in the bag. Otherwise what is the point of putting items into the bag I can not use? Would suck to be standing next to a stream with no way of filtering water. And no the stainless steel cup does not allow you to follow the directions provided for the water purification tablets...........

The water purification tablets and other supplies were contained in a separate plastic bag from the water. Five tablets and their directions are located in the lower left section of the photo. The directions state to transfer the water from one container to another. Containers not provided in the bag... The plastic bag also contained a medical kit, matches and other items.

I am not sure what was supposed to be hygiene items in this bag or advertised '42 piece first aid and hygiene kit'. There are some tissues provided, the kind and size to blow your nose and I really hope they do not expect you to use those on your rear. But you should have enough q-tips to keep your ears clean for five days. Unless you get a small scrap or cut this first aid kit is almost useless.

Let's focus on the food stuff provided in the bag. Water and food would probable be the two top items of concern if you were suddenly stranded on a roof top or stuck up a tree during a flood. You know a flood like the one pictured on the placard. Water all the way to the roof tops of homes.

Six pouches of food items is provided. I am not sure but the items seemed to have just been randomly thrown into the plastic bag and tied off. Not sure why I think this just my impression of how the package was packed. Pasta, beans & rice, tortilla soup, two types of cereal and whey milk....... These are supposed to last five days.......

Here are the directions printed on the food pouch. Yeah, about that 3.5 cups of water, where do I get that? This is an emergency bag, bag implies the situation is bad enough I have had to leave or other wise can not use the comforts of my home. Isn't electricity one of the first things to go out? Followed by gas? I know in California if the Big One hit we can expect an interruption to the electricity and gas supplied to our homes. Guess that would leave you with option three, using an emergency heat source. They did provide me with one in the bag! I'll try that but first;

We have covered this in other post, you need at least 1200 calories to stay alive and over 2000 if you are being active. Total calories in this food pouch 1040? Guess this is what you get to eat for one day. Once you prepare the food plan on eating it right than because there is nothing provided to save your uneaten food with. If you manage to find 4 cups of water I guess you also can find a Tupperware bowl or something else to store your cooked food in.

For some reason milk was included but no other drink choices (should have included alcohol). Of course some how they figure I have procured water which was not provided to make the milk. Milk, really?

Having opened the box right before lunch time I decided to try and prepare a meal from this bag. I quickly found out I would need items not included in my 5-day survival backpack. Water, water in an amount not provided in the bag was the first thing I needed, along with a way to measure the amount of water in order to follow the directions.

Four cups is a lot of water to carry around in a measuring cup........ sarcasm intended. Next I took the items outside to cook up my lunch utilizing the items in the bag.

Took me a minute to figure out how to open the "stove". And just so you know I picked the tortilla soup for lunch, I really like tortilla soup.

Took four of my twenty matches to start one of my four fuel tabs. Wait, I got four fuel tabs in a 5-DAY SURVIVAL BAG? Twenty minus four, minus four, minus four, minus four leaves me four other matches to use for five days? Well maybe it does not take four matches each time to light the fuel cubes?

Found out my stainless steel cup does not fit on my portable stove....... Which means I had to find another way to heat up my 4 cups of water.......

I had to find an old pan in the cupboard. Did not want to get in trouble for using one of the new ones. I guess if a disaster struck and I had to utilize this bag finding a pan would not be a big deal. Especially since I already found a measuring cup, along with extra water.

The water never reach boiling as the direction wanted.

The fuel cube ran out of flame before the water boiled. I decided to just keep trying to make lunch and not use another of the three remaining fuel cubes.

Well the next thing I found out I needed was a spoon and a lid to follow the directions on the package. Really, not a single piece of this kit can help me eat the food I am trying to make? I guess if already found water, measuring cup, pan, a lid for the pan, there should not be any issue finding eating utensils.

Following the directions I ended up with this. A pan filled with flavored water sitting on top of uncooked rice. If there is any tortillas in here, you know to make it tortilla soup, I could not find them.

Well not wanting to waste food I took the "soup" inside the house. You know the house which I might have to leave carrying this 5-day survival backpack. I utilized the gas stove, which is lite via electricity and this bag of tortilla chips to try and salvage the meal. After ten minutes on the stove and the addition of the tortillas to the tortilla soup I had a decent lunch!

In all fairness I will report the soup was decent, even had extra I might take to work with me.

After the attempt at lunch I did not even try to test out anything else from the bag. I figured the quality of the the other items and thought put into the planning of this bag was determined already.

Why am I being rather negative in this review? Because I hope everyone reading this will understand a few things from this.

One, you are responsible for you! People will package and sell anything someone else will buy but at the end of the day they will not be relying on the items to survive.

Two, there are no prepackaged one size fits all answers. If there was a company selling bags which could do this I would be adding a link and filling my garage with them!

Three, you get what you pay for. As I stated this bag did not cost me much (still can't find the receipt) but is almost a complete waste of resources. I literally could walk around the house, with maybe a trip to the dollar store and make a more useful bag than this one.

(trying to end on an upbeat note)

If you have nothing else this bag is a starting point from which you can build a far better 5-day survival backpack............

As Always,

Stay Safe!

Corsair Trainers

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.    
    

Financial planning - Cover as much as you can

This post will have different meaning to different people. Depending on what you already have or where you are at in life. Some of us might have a lot of money, some of us might not have any. Most of us are somewhere in between. When we talk about preparedness remember we are not talking about one subject here. We are not focused on the Zombie apocalypse or a meteor slamming into the planet. We are talking about covering your bases and making sure you and yours make it through whatever life throws at you! While we can talk about making fire, sawing through cement with dental floss and ajax, this has little use for most of us! Most of us are going to be faced with the loss of a job, broke down car, sick dog, localized natural disaster or an accident which puts us in a situation we need to make it through.

When we think about financial considerations and emergency preparedness we need to stick to "Keep It Simple Stupid". there is no way most of us can go out and buy everything we would need. Instead we need to focus on what we can do with what we got. All of us can improve our situation with whatever resources we have access to. Focus and self discipline are needed here to do this. Instead of buying a new pair of shoes or a third keg of beer put the resources you would use for these things towards your planning. In a simplistic model we need the following things;

Cash - to purchase what we need
Consumables - to keep from having to use the cash
Shelter - to store our cash, consumables and to keep us out of the elements

We need to make sure we have enough of each of these things. What is enough? Depends on where you are in your planning. For most of us having enough cash to pay our bills at the end of the week is all we have. If this is the case we need to work toward saving enough to pay our bills for a week even if the check does not come in as planned for some reason. Ideally we need to cut or spending down and live within our means! There is a strange sense of freedom when you have paid your bills off and owe no one! For this post let's say we save enough to cover our bills for a week.

Once we have money for week and have become used to saving, we can focus some of these resources toward the next item. Having the latest night vision/thermal/x-ray vision scope means nothing if you can not wipe your back side! Take the money you are saving by living within your means and focus this on buying extra amounts of things you use every week. Be it pasta, toothpaste, toilet paper or laundry soap. Focus toward having a weeks worth of these items in the home. Some of these might be simple, buying a large pack of toilet paper takes care of that item for a week... hopefully! Buy what you use and give yourself the cushion of a week's worth. This might get done faster than you think!

When you have a week's worth of items focus the resources toward providing cover or shelter for your family for a week. How much is your rent or mortgage payment for a week? Set aside this amount separate from the money you have set aside under the cash category. (yes the money can be in the same bank account! One earning you interest hopefully!) Once you have weeks worth of rent set aside you also have an emergency shelter fund if your family had to leave! The amount of a hotel room is hopefully less than what you pay for a weeks rent and now you have the money to afford a hotel room if you had to.

Now that weeks have passed with you focusing your resources, not spending needlessly and saving everywhere you can...... go out to eat or watch a movie or something your family enjoys! Do not go all crazy and spend everything you have saved!!! Just make sure you go out and do something to celebrate your accomplishment. You now have enough to help your family for week and odds are they, along with you, had to change spending habits to make this happen.

After the celebration start the process over again. Save cash to now give you two weeks. Buy consumables for two weeks. Save money to pay for shelter for two weeks.

Repeat this process until you have a month's worth of resources. Just think of all the issues you could deal with if you had a month's worth of money, food and rent! Once you have a months worth keep utilizing your resources to better your position. Put money away in a savings account, let it start making money you do not need to work for.

Of course there is more to making your money work for instead of you working just to make money. The subject is to much to cover here on this post. The point here being to utilize your financial resources to better your family's ability to deal with emergencies which will come up in life. Remember the new dress or UFC fight you do not buy gives you resources which you can utilize for other purposes.

As Always,

Stay Safe.

Building a tiled roof hut

I had to share this! This fella makes very interesting videos. They way he uses the environment around him is amazing!! Of course for some people these things are common knowledge yet for most of us we have no idea how to build anything like this. Make sure and read the description he gives of the video. The build took 108 days!! He also points out all the tools he uses are from previous videos. So please do not think this is something you could do in a weekend!!!!

Enjoy the video!

As Always,

Stay Safe!!

Fire - make it safe

Fire, one of the greatest inventions or utilization of natural resources ever!!! With it we can heat ourselves, cook food, keep the dark at bay and gives us an excuse to sit around with friends and loved ones!!! Fire is something most of us take for granted on a daily basis. We turn on the stove or put food in the oven and eat when the food is ready. Heck some of us might just use a microwave or drive through a restaurant to get our cooked food. Most of us really do not know how to make a fire, feed a fire or cook over a fire. We kind of take for granted the clicking noise the stove makes and the flame which pops up.

The internet is filled with videos of how to build a fire from scratch, utilizing the most primitive methods possible. Something you rarely see is how long it really took to learn how to make the fire, how many times the person failed before they mastered the method. Learning these skills is important and something we should all try to learn. They also seem to never show the fire builder clearing an area or prepping an area to safely build the fire.

Now learning to properly build, light and feed a fire is a very important skill to have and every one of us should take the time to learn how to do it. What we are going to discuss for a moment is safety when you are making and using open flames! If we are faced with an emergency or just building a fire to enjoy with our friends and families we need to be safe while we are doing this.

Not taking a moment to properly clear an area, contain the fire and having the ability to quickly put out the fire can take a bad situation and make the situation much worse. Imagine your family huddled in an abandoned building. Your children are cold and you struggle to make a fire to warm them. In your haste you pile rubbish in the corner and light it. Of course now you feel better as you run around to add fuel to the flames, knowing at the very least your children will not be cold in a few minutes. The situation might suck but at least you will be warm. Yes we all can see where this is going! The curtains by the window catch fire or the wall behind your fire catches fire or the fire gets so large the ceiling catches fire and in the end you and your family are back outside in the elements. Of course you will have a fire for while….. At least until the building burns down.

Fires get out of control all the time. Someone leaves a candle unattended, a spark jumps from a fire place or the cook lets the grease catch fire in the kitchen. Any time we are dealing with flames we need to make sure the area around the flame is clear of anything which could catch fire. We need to have a way to put the fire out quickly if the flames start to become uncontrollable. We need to keep in mind the fire has a mind of its own. Ask a fireman, flames are creatures in their own right and have a mind of their own.

Build a fire on the ground, as in dirt not the covered floor of a house. Build a fire on concrete or cement, not on tiles. Build a fire in a container, a metal bin or surrounded by rocks. Maybe you can find cement blocks to surround the fire with? Place a bucket of sand or dirt near the fire. A fire extinguisher is a better idea.

On the weekend or during an emergency safely managing a fire is something we all need to take into account. The simple mistake of not doing this could compound a bad situation or simply ruin a family gathering. Take the time when using flames to look at what you are doing with safety in mind. The house you save could be your own!!!

As Always,

Stay Safe!!!

Emergency shelter - elements

When we discuss shelter during an emergency we need to focus on what is the purpose of the shelter? Shelter during an emergency serves a purpose, the purpose being to separate us from the elements. This is really the only purpose of shelter, to put layers between us and what Mother Nature has in mind.

This could be us seeking shelter from a tornado in a tornado shelter or seeking high ground from a flood. Remember we need to put something between us and the elements. In most cases this is a temporary situation but one which could cause us issues if we do not take proactive and positive actions during the situation. Elements will kill you! Nature does not care about you. Wind does not care if it saps the heat from your body, rain does not care if you did not pack properly and the sun does not care if you have no shade or air conditioning.

This may sound weird, when you are forced to find emergency shelter think or imitate the homeless. What? Yes, think what you have seen homeless people do. I do not mean the homeless guy passed out on the sidewalk laying there at the mercy of the elements. Think of the homeless person you see with what could be termed a “mobile home”. The one who obviously been in the situation for a while and has adapted to their situation. They use the environment around them. They improvise with what most of us would consider garbage but they follow some rules even if they do not understand they are.

First thing they do is deal with the major element. If it is windy, move to the side of a building which is away from the wind. Sun beating down on a hot day; use the shadow of a building to protect yourself from the sun. A doorway protects you on three sides from the elements simply by the construction of the entry. Dealing with the major element affecting your life is the first thing you have to do when figuring out shelter during an emergency.

Once you are out of the rain or have strung something up to keep the sun off of you then you can improve your shelter. In an emergency situation you should work to improve your position. Never just sit and wait for help or whatever. Always work to improve your position.

Again think of the homeless. What do they all seem to do when sleeping? They put something between themselves and the ground. Anyone who has ever done some camping will understand why. The ground is hard and does not care! Also the ground will suck heat from your body. They may not ‘know’ what they are doing but the homeless are stopping or trying to stop the transfer of heat from their bodies to the ground by placing cardboard or other items between themselves and the ground. If you have a choice between sitting on the bare ground and sitting on some discarded milk crates, sit on the crates! Heck, make a couch out of several crates and knit a blanket while you figure out what to do next.

Blankets, what do they do? They keep the wind, the air off of your body, which stops the air from stealing the heat from your body. Because the air does not care if you are cold the air does what it does regardless if you exist or not. Blankets also keep your heat in. Allows you to utilize the heat your own body generates to keep you warm! Once you have separation from the ground and the air you have made your shelter. This can be simply wrapping you in a blanket. You have separated yourself from the elements, which could care less about you or your situation.

Now we can discuss all sorts of shelters we could make in the wilds of the jungle or in the forest of Siberia but, yes there is always a ‘but’, each of us live in different environments and to discuss one environment only would leave us lacking if we found ourselves in a different environment. Instead we will keep thinking the way of a homeless person. This gives us guidelines we can use anywhere.

Cardboard, we have all seen homeless people using cardboard for shelter. A piece might be between them and the ground. Maybe they have utilized the whole box to curl up in. What are they doing with the cardboard? They are putting another layer between themselves and the elements. These added layers allows your layers to work better at keeping you warm and dry by each layer only having to work a little at keeping you warm and dry. If you curl up in a cardboard box your jacket no longer has to keep the rain off of you while also trying to keep your body warm. The box keeps the rain off while your jacket keeps you warm. If your blanket stays dry the blanket will do the job of keeping you warm. This is the purpose of most emergency shelters you can learn about. The shelter is to keep the elements off of you.

Do the homeless construct large shelters? No, why? Because the less area you have the less area you have to heat. The larger your house the harder it is to heat and cool. In an emergency a smaller shelter is much more useful than a large one. Your body heat can heat a tent or cardboard box and in an emergency every bit of heat could make the difference. If you have a candle with you a small shelter can be heated by a single candle. Of course we must be extremely careful when utilizing heat in any shelter! You can easily burn your hut down and find yourself standing out in the elements.

Think of your shelter building as adding layers. Each layer helps the underlying layer. A tarp strung up over your cardboard hut keeps the rain off your cardboard. Your cardboard hut is not wet; the card board is dry and can keep the wind at bay. The card board is dry which means your blanket is dry and the blanket can help keep you warm. With a dry blanket your clothes stay dry which means you can stay warm. Each one of these layers helps your body to regulate its own temperature and keeps you alive.

The next time you see a homeless person’s shelter take a moment and appreciate what they have done. This person may have issues but they have adapted to their situation and are living. Something you should keep in mind if you ever end up in an emergency situation.

As Always,

Stay Safe!!!