First, It has prob­a­bly been a week since my last post.  So much for a post a day.  I was trav­el­ing this past week on busi­ness, and it was a busy week.

Today we are going to talk about hygiene, nav­i­ga­tion, and fire mak­ing prod­ucts to keep in your car in your pre­pared­ness kit.  Here is the com­men­tary:

As for Hygiene prod­ucts I keep them in a zip-lock back in my assault pack int he trunk of my truck.  Nev­er under esti­mate the psy­cho­log­i­cal pow­er of Hygiene.  Think about how you feel exit­ing a show­er after a long day of doing yard work after a long Sat­ur­day after­noon.  You feel refreshed and clean.  Well, the same con­cept applies after hik­ing sev­er­al miles with a pack on your back, set­ting up camp, for­ag­ing for food, start­ing a fire, and set­tling into a makeshift chair or seat next to the fire.  If you can clean your­self up a lit­tle, you can make your­self both phys­i­cal­ly and psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly, and both are VERY impor­tant for your sur­vival.  Here is what I car­ry in trav­el ver­sions:

• Antibac­te­r­i­al Purel
• Soap
  • Liq­uid or a bar will do
  • Dish soap from the kitchen in a small plas­tic bot­tle
• Tooth­paste and a Tooth­brush
• Floss
• Deoder­ant
• Fin­ger­nail and Toe­nail clipers
• Hat (base­ball cap and a win­ter hat)
• Small hand tow­el and a wash­cloth.

Many of the items includ­ed in the Hygiene por­tion of my kit serve more than one pur­pose.  For instance, the Purel Antibac­te­r­i­al lotion is 60% iso­propyl alco­hol, and acts as a gel accel­er­a­tor if you light it.  It burns a hot blue flame and can help you start a fire if you need to, floss dou­bles as fish­ing line or to bind, the hand tow­el can be an impro­vised sling, etc…

Navigation

Well, admit­ted­ly, nav­i­ga­tion or ori­en­teer­ing is one of my weak­est skills.    How­ev­er, I this is what I use, as well as con­tin­ue to try and learn about ori­en­teer­ing tech­niques to help keep me from get­ting lost or that will help me to get to my des­ti­na­tion even­tu­al­ly.  Here is what I keep in my kit:

• Two com­pass­es.  Why do I keep two com­pass­es in my kit.  First, I have been lost in the woods before.  That weird pan­icky feel­ing that comes over you when you are not in con­trol of the sit­u­a­tion caus­es you to ques­tion what you know.  It has been proven that when peo­ple are lost and pan­icked they will ques­tion the valid­i­ty of their com­pass.  When they do, they are fur­ther lost.  That said, I keep two because I can pull them both out simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, and if they are both point­ing north, then I am psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly put at ease and feel bet­ter about my deci­sion to go in a par­tic­u­lar direc­tion.
• Whis­tle.  Some­thing prefer­ably with­out a ball.  If you have some­thing with a ball and the ball falls out of your whis­tle, it becomes worth­less.  You might as well throw it away.
• A non-break­able sig­nal mir­ror.
• Alu­minum foil — not only can you cook with it, but it is reflec­tive…

Fire

I keep a bit of redun­dan­cy when I keep fire mak­ing equip­ment.  I do this again for a cou­ple of rea­sons.  First, fire in the bush is your friend.  Fire keeps you warm, cooks for you, keeps the wild ani­mals away, and psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly makes you feel more at home and com­fort­able.  Here is what I keep in my kit:

• Home made water­proof strike any­where match­es
• Lighter
• Cot­ton balls/dryer lint
• Mag­ne­sium stick starter
• Fire Steel
• Mag­ni­fy­ing Glass

I think redun­dan­cy when think­ing about fire mak­ing.  I want to be assured that if I need to stay warm and com­fort­able i can get a fire start­ed…

Well, that’s all for now.  Next post will be around com­fort sup­plies.