Stuff I Have Made

Not actually Erin.

Picture by KJ Photography

& is used with permission.

Hi everyone! I'm heading off to blogshoot in Tennessee right now, but I had enough time to prepare a visual blog post for all my loyal readers.













The iSHWASH Personal Eyewash System is something that I discovered in last August's Apocabox and I immediately put it in with my home medical gear. Then I realized that the moment I needed it would be precisely the wrong moment to go looking for a water bottle to use with it.

To address that problem, I decided to bundle the iSHWASH with a bottle of water. Of course, that meant taking the eye wash out of its package, and I wanted it to stay clean. This is what I came up with:



That's the eyewash device, assembled and ready for use, in a fresh ziploc baggie and rubber-banded to an unopened bottle of water.

Another hack I have made is adding a carry handle to the trauma kit on my Get Home Bag.

In this configuration, I can easily grab it off my GHB and carry it any distance, like I would do if I needed to help a victim of a car wreck, or if a shooting occurred at church or while shopping and I needed to get it from my car. The handle is wide enough that I can get all four fingers around it, and the foam adds both comfort and extra grip in case my hands are slick water, sweat, or blood.

In this configuration, the handle easily stows for storage and doesn't add to the height of the bag. And it's very easy to go from stored to portable mode: a quick upwards pull on the carabiner lifts it into handle formation.


Finally, this is a paracord bracelet I made with the buckles that came in this month's Apocabox. As you can see, it has a whistle (of dubious quality) and a compass (which is surprisingly good given its size and materials).

What's interesting about this buckle is that it also has a flint and steel built into it.

Of course, flint and still is rather useless without tinder, and so I integrated the Firecord -- 550 cord with what I think is a strand of waxed jute replacing the 8th cord -- that I got with my second Apocabox. Not only does this addition make sense with the flint and steel, but the red stripe on the nylon sheath nicely compliments the red ring around the compass.


That's all the prepping stuff that I've made lately. What about you? If you've built anything cool lately, leave a comment and post a picture of it!