Prudent Prepping: Summer is Here

The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Now we concentrate on what to do in, and how to plan for, the long term via Prudent Prepping.

It has topped 80 every day since Friday here, and that means it's time for me to swap out all my cold weather gear for warm and look at any food or other items that might be old.

I'm lucky that my territory is much smaller than before and no bridge crossings are involved, so the food I pack is much less. This reduces the weight involved, which reduces the stress for the distance I might have to travel on foot to one very long day getting home.

Beat the Heat
The consumables in my BOB are affected by heat, and even with 40% of my time spent close to the San Francisco Bay, temperatures in my truck still are too high for me to keep things there for too long.                                      

All of my normal supplies (LifeStraw, flashlight, notebook, pen and pencil, etc.) are staying. What is changing are some of the items shown above.

• Two cans of chicken are being swapped out for fresh ones.
• Two packages of pre-cooked brown rice likewise swapped .
• Batteries (in my new case!) are stored outside the flashlight now.
• Poncho and the emergency blanket stay. It gets foggy near the coast in the summer, and the blanket can be a nice, bright orange beacon.
• A tube of hydrocortizone and triple antibiotic were replaced, due to age.
• My coffee and favorite seasonings stay fresh, due to being rotated into my lunch supplies.

A New Item
Since all of my friends use a Sawyer Water filter, I purchased this with my REI Member Rebate:
 
Sawyer Filtration Accessory Pack
From the REI page:

• Includes two 32 oz. reusable squeeze pouches to use as backups or additional reservoirs 
• Fast Fill Adapters let you fill your hydration pack directly from the Squeeze or Mini Filter 
• In-Line Adapters turn your Squeeze filter into an in-line system on a hydration pack 
• The Cleaning Coupling is a new adapter that allows you to backwash your Squeeze Filter with a plastic bottle

The two extra pouches are handy as extra water storage or as replacements for a damaged pouch, and the adapter which allows the Sawyer filter to attach to a Camelback (or similar bladder) is the main reason for my purchase.

The Takeaway

• Pay attention to what you store in the heat: Food and medicines can go bad fast when stored over 90F 
• The saying 'two is one and one is none' is very obvious when talking about your way to get, store, and filter your water.

The Recap

• Sawyer Filter Accessory Pack, $19.95 from REI  (paid from my rebate) Also available from Amazon for $24.99 plus $5.25 shipping.
• Nothing else was purchased this week.

Just a reminder: if you plan on buying anything through Amazon, please consider using our referral link. When you do, a portion of the sale comes back here to help keep this site running! 

If you have comments, suggestions or corrections, please post them so we all can learn. And remember, Some Is Always Better Than None!

NOTE: All items tested were purchased by me. No products have been loaned in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.