Prepping with Condoms

It seems that Scott and I are running into some of the same idea generators. Last month he wrote a piece about the multiple uses of condoms, and I found an article about how they are used for various non-traditional purposes in a third-world country this week. I'll see if I can elaborate on that and add to his post.

Materials
First, I need to point out that condoms come in a variety of materials now. Since so many people are sensitive or allergic to natural latex (the most common material for making condoms for many years), there are now several options on the market. I first ran into this about 15 years ago while discussing birth control with a younger friend who is acutely allergic to latex. She was looking for an alternative and I did some research for her, finding several brands that offer natural (usually made from the intestines of sheep) and non-latex plastic (polyurethane or polyisoprene) versions.

Natural Condoms

This is the oldest type of condom, dating back to the early Roman Empire.

• Will not stretch very much and may have a narrower section or draw-string near the opening to help it stay put when used in its intended manner. 
• Being made of a layer of animal gut, they are also not completely water-tight.
• While helpful at preventing pregnancy, they will not stop the spread of STDs nor will they hold water for very long. 

Non-Latex Plastic Condoms

• Polyisoprene is made by taking natural latex and reformulating it to exclude the chemicals that trigger latex allergies. 
• Polyurethane is made from petroleum.
• Both are water-tight plastics, but don't have the elasticity of latex. 
• They won't expand to near the size of a latex condom, so their carrying capacity is greatly reduced. 

Non-Lubricated
Secondly, we are specifying non-lubricated condoms for a reason. The condoms you'll find in most drug stores are lubricated with a non-petroleum (latex will dissolve in petroleum-based lubes), often “dry” lubricant that may be laced with a spermicide as a back-up form of birth control. The most common lubricant/spermicide I've seen in my research is nonoxynol-9 (N-9), a non-ionic surfactant (soap) which shortens the shelf-life of the condom. I haven't found any major side-effects to N-9, but you may not want it in contact with food or water because it is a detergent and will affect taste.

For the purposes of prepping, we'll stick to the more common (and much cheaper) latex condoms.*

Uses
Scott mentioned using a condom to protect electronics from moisture. This is an old stage-hand trick that has been used for decades; musicians and performers tend to sweat a lot on stage and electronic microphones don't like water, so it has been standard practice to wrap the electronics in a condom. Amazon even sells condom-like covers* specifically for this purpose, about $0.11 apiece in bulk.

Inflating a condom like a balloon will show you how much they can actually stretch. If you've never tried it, you'll be surprised at how much they can expand. The article I read mentioned fishermen using them as floats to carry their lines away from shore to get the baited hooks out where the bigger fish are. I know we've covered jug-fishing here before, and condoms would serve the same purpose as an empty milk/bleach jug.

If you've ever picked up a nail in a car tire, you may have seen the guys at the repair shop use a tire plug to fix the hole without taking the tire off of the rim. This is a quick and cheap solution, but it won't last as long as a patch placed on the inside of the tire, nor will it work if you have an antique with tube-style tires. This is a subject for a complete article on its own, but the simple procedure is:

1. Remove the nail
2. Clean the hole
3. Insert the plug
4. Air up the tire

For a small hole, a latex condom will suffice. Use a wooden dowel or rounded metal rod to get it into the hole; the rubber of the tire should spread enough to allow insertion, then snap back to original size around the condom, sealing the hole. Folding the condom will add thickness if you have a good-sized nail hole.

If you know anything about wine-making, you know that you need to use an air-lock to allow gasses formed during fermentation to escape while keeping outside air away from the fermenting juice. Sticking a condom over the (open) neck of a jug will cause the condom to expand as the gasses are produced. When the condom deflates, you know the fermentation is complete.

Being very elastic and water-tight, condoms can also be used to cover an open can or jar of food if there is no lid available. Opening a jar of something that will take a few days to consume (like jam or peanut butter) and losing the lid usually means that the food gets contaminated or spoils rapidly.


For something that is cheap and easy to store, the common condom is a multi-purpose prepping supply that is limited in its usefulness only by your imagination. Think about it for a while, and when you finish giggling, let us know what uses you can come up with.

Improvised Self-Defense Weapons, part 2

On Monday, Scott wrote about using things close at hand as makeshift weapons. This brought to mind a series of books that I read a long time ago, and still have packed away somewhere.

Back in the days before terrorism became a viable excuse for banning books and declaring certain information “forbidden”, we had access to books (the internet hadn't been created yet) that would scare most people today. Paladin Press published books that you couldn't find in most book stores, and they would ship to anyone with the money to buy. Authors like Ragnar Benson described the practical uses of high explosives and how to make them, Kurt Saxon had a series of books titled The Poor Man'sJames Bond that covered improvised weapons and a lot of chemistry, and The Anarchist Cookbook was still available. I once met a man at a gun show who was selling a set of books that he had written; he was a microbiologist who had been screwed by the system so thoroughly that he wanted to see it fall apart. His books covered, in great detail, how to create and use various chemical and biological weapons using household equipment. The FBI spent years shutting him down, but his books are still out there. Ah, the good old days.

The set of books that Scott's article reminded me of is titled Black Medicine.  The first book was subtitled The Dark Art of Death, followed by Weapons At Hand, Low Blows, and ending with Equalizers. Written by a medical doctor named N. Mashiro, the information is clear and concise. The books aren't very big, but they are full of information.

The Dark Art of Death covered the medical side of dealing damage to a human body: what parts of the body are the best targets and how to attack them. Since the object of the book is to stop a person, the author focuses on stopping the mechanics of the human body.

Weapons At Hand focuses on the parts of your body that make the best weapons as well as the myriad things around you that can be used as a weapon in a pinch. A few examples:

• Punching someone in the face is a bad idea, since skulls are hard and fingers are fairly fragile. Aim lower, for the throat.
• Anything with a cord attached can be swung to increase the speed and energy of the impact: Alarm clocks, telephones (the old ones), etc.
• Pens, pencils, anything that is harder than your hand will keep you from damaging yourself  if you poke with it rather than your finger. 
• There are a lot of things in spray cans that can be used as a weapon. Bug sprays work well; most of them are petroleum-based and will burn if needed. The insecticide is slow-acting, but will provide a second-level of damage.

Low Blows describes how to apply the information in the first two books in a fight. Mainly aimed at martial artists, some of the holds and blows are easy to practice and helpful in a fight.

The fourth book,  Equalizers, covers the use of more modern weapons, but I don't have a copy so I can't comment on the quality of the information. I would suggest looking around on some used-book sites for better prices ($200 for a paperback is insane).


I'm going to see if I can find my copies and re-read them, just to see how well the information has stood the test of time.

Prepping Uses for Trash & Plastic Shopping Bags

I've found so many uses for plastic bags over the years that they have become one of the things that I try to stockpile. I've seen the machinery required to make plastic bags, and that is a technology that takes a lot of infrastructure to sustain. Luckily, most plastic bags are still made from petroleum and they won't degrade or break down for decades, so supplies will last through short-term disasters.

Be sure to avoid the brands with insecticides and fragrances if you're going to use them for food, water, or close to your body, some of the chemicals they use are strong enough to make a person ill.

Here are a few of the uses I've found:

Trash Bags

Emergency Rain Gear

• Cut or tear a hole in the bottom of a trash bag and pull the bag over your head to make a quick rain poncho. I've outfitted a whole pack of Scouts this way for less than $5.
• Slogging through mud or rain? Put your feet inside a couple of bags and then put on your shoes/boots. Tie or tape the bags around your ankles and a few places up your leg and your feet will stay drier. Be aware, though, that since the bags are waterproof, they will also hold in the sweat from your feet, so you will eventually develop wet socks and possibly even a rash. Dry your feet and change your socks regularly!
• Draping a trash bag over your pack will keep the contents dry. Lining the pack with a trash bag before you load it works better, but you have to watch for sharp edges as you pack it.

Vapor Barrier

• If you are dealing with snow or heavy fog, putting a plastic bag between layers of clothes will keep the moisture from seeping through to your skin.
• It was common to use plastic bread bags as a liner inside winter boots when I was a kid (a long time ago), and trash bags will work just as well or better.

Solar Still

• Lokidude covered solar stills here. Having a plastic bag makes it easier to build one.
• You can also wrap plastic around plants or tree branches and gather the water that evaporates off them during the day. 

Covering Holes

• If you need to seal up a room to keep out dust, fallout, smoke, or fumes, a supply of trash bags and duct tape will make the job easier. I use industrial trash bags to seal up grain bins before fumigating them and they work great.
• Broken windows are a common occurrence after strong winds (tornadoes, hurricanes, etc.) and tape and trash bags will cover any size of window.
• If you use a window air conditioner, wrapping the outside of the unit in a plastic bag during the cold season is a good way to prevent drafts and conserve heat.

Shelter

• Slicing open a large trash bag will give you a sheet of plastic large enough to be used as a ground cloth under a sleeping bag. It won't last very long unless you use the heaviest bags available, but it will keep the dew from soaking your bag.
• Placing a bag or two over the top of your sleeping bag will trap heat, but also moisture, so be sure to air out your bag every day. A quick way to stay warmer is to place the foot of your sleeping bag inside a large trash bag before you crawl in. It'll keep your feet warmer while having the top half of the bag exposed will let some of the humidity out.
• If you're putting together a lean-to or debris hut, placing plastic bags on the roof will make it shed rain better. Bags added to the walls will cut the amount of wind that gets through.
• Wrapping a plastic bag around you will trap some of your body heat and will keep the wind from carrying it away. It's not quite as good as a Space Blanket, but it'll do in a pinch.
• Stuffing a couple of large bags full of leaves will make an insulating bed to keep you off of the ground and make sleep more comfortable. A bag stuffed full of clothes or leaves will also make a passable pillow, although you will probably want to cover it with a shirt as a pillowcase.

First Aid

• Large plastic bags are handy for holding contaminated items, whether they be blood, body fluids, chemical contamination, or fallout.
• Tie two opposing corners together and you have a make-shift sling for a broken arm.
• Sucking chest wounds are one of the things covered in more advanced first-aid classes, and you need an air-tight material to seal them.

Plastic Shopping Bags
If you don't have trash bags handy, the ubiquitous grocery store bags are free and often pile up in kitchens. They are known as “T-shirt bags” because they resemble a sleeveless T-shirt (AKA wife beater) when they are flat. While not as large, they do have several uses for preppers.

Cordage

• Cutting a plastic bag into strips and twisting or weaving them together into twine is simple and makes a surprisingly strong cord. You can never have enough cordage.

First Aid

• Like trash bags, grocery bags can be used to seal chest wounds and are also small enough to be twisted into something like rope that can be used as an emergency tourniquet.
• Being smaller than trash bags, grocery bags are just right to use as air-sickness bags.
• Filled with ice and tied shut, I've used plastic bags to take down the swelling from minor strains and sprains.

Sanitation

• Using a plastic bag as a bucket liner is a simple way to create a portable toilet.
• If you don't have gloves handy, putting a plastic bag over your hands will let you handle nasty things and keep your hands clean. Everybody that has had to pick up behind their dog knows this trick, but you can also use it for isolating yourself from blood-borne pathogens while rendering aid.

Backpacking

• Keep wet clothes separate from dry ones in your pack by putting them in a plastic bag before stowing them. This is also a good idea for dirty or wet footwear inside a pack, although I prefer to use my boot laces to tie the spares to the outside of my pack so they can dry.
• I've often put a bar of soap inside a plastic bag before sticking it back in my pack, just to keep it from getting into my food and all over my clothes.
• Cutting strips of plastic off of a bag makes cheap, easily visible trail markers that can be tied to trees or fences. These strips are also handy for making quick field-expedient repairs (see cordage above).

Carrying Things

• They are designed to carry stuff, so why not use them that way? If you're out foraging for food, a dozen plastic bags will fit in a pocket until needed.
• If you're trading or bartering, having bags on hand makes carrying stuff home a lot easier.
• If you are handing out supplies to people after a disaster, having the supplies prepackaged in plastic bags makes the process a lot smoother.
• As long as there are no holes, you can carry a couple of quarts of water in a common bag. Double it up if you're worried about the weight tearing the seams.

Plastic bags are easy to find outside of California and have a long shelf-life and many uses, so why wouldn't you have a supply on hand? For those of you who live in areas that have banned the use of plastic bags, they are availableon Amazon if you want to thumb your nose at the busy-bodies who think they're in charge. $30 for a thousand is pretty cheap and should last a long time.

Unconventional Chainsaw Oils

Fall is coming, with winter close behind. That means cutting firewood is on the schedule again -- whenever the weather gives me a break from the temperatures in the high 90s and humidity of 60% or more, that is.

I got to spend last Sunday cutting firewood and clearing some unwanted cedar trees, and it was nice to get out in the woods again. Since I'm always looking for a back-up plan or just another way to do something, I did some digging into the oils a chainsaw uses.

2-Stroke Oil

Most chainsaws are powered by a 2-stroke engine that requires a fuel/oil mix. 2-stroke engines don't have an oil pan or internal lubrication system; the moving parts are lubricated by the fuel/oil mix passing over them on the way to the piston. Common mix ratios of gasoline:oil vary from 32:1 to 50:1, and there are many commercially available, petroleum-based oils to choose from. 

Using more oil is always preferable to using too little. If you normally mix your fuel at 40:1, don't be afraid of using 32:1; it may smoke a bit more, but won't harm the engine. Going overboard on the oil will thicken the mix up to a point where modern carburetors won't pump it, but it won't harm anything. 

My personal choice is OPTI-2, because I like the added fuel stabilizer and the simple packaging. Each pack makes one gallon and they fit in my saw case better than bottles... and there's less to carry back out as trash, too.

What happens if I can't find any 2-stroke oil and I really need to use a chainsaw? The only substitute for modern engines I have been able to find is castor oil. Pressed from castor beans and sold as a massage oil and beauty aid, castor oil is at least as expensive as petroleum-based oils. Castor oil will work in chainsaws for extended periods, but it may leave behind a layer of varnish on internal parts.

Older engines (pre-1970) were designed to run at lower speeds and used common motor oil (non-detergent 30W) in the fuel/oil blend at ratios of 20:1 or more. While motor oil might work on newer engines, it will likely cause excessive wear and shorten the life of the engine. Vegetable oils are the same: they will work for a short time but are not going to give the lubrication that the engine needs.

2-stroke engines are used in such a wide variety of applications that it is hard to get useful information on oils and substitutes:

• RC (radio controlled) airplanes use tiny 2-stroke engines with a high-energy fuel. 
• Chainsaws and weedeaters use slightly larger engines and common gasoline. 
• Certain racing motorcycles use large 2-strokes, as do snowmobiles and personal watercraft. 

Each has a different range of speeds and loads on the engine, as well as differing levels of maintenance. Anecdotal evidence and personal biases tend to degrade any internet discussion into a “9mm vs. 45ACP” or “Ford vs. Chevy” type of argument.

Bar/Chain Oil

Chainsaws use a cutting chain that rides on a grooved bar. Since that is metal sliding over metal at high speeds, they need to be lubricated to ensure a useful lifespan. Commercial bar oil runs about $10-20 a gallon around here and is a thick, sticky oil designed to adhere to the chain and bar. Believe it or not, common rapeseed (canola) oil that you can buy in the grocery store has been tested and found to be a good substitute for petroleum-based bar oil. (Environmentalists got this research started by noticing that all of the oil being carried into the woods with chainsaws was being left in the woods; 2-stroke engines are “full-loss” lubricated, which means the oil used on the bar and in the engine was being “dumped” in the forests and that was just not acceptable to them.)

Europe being the mess it is, petroleum-based bar oils are now outlawed in Austria, and canola oils are the preferred substitute. Commercial blends here in the USA are more expensive than either grocery store canola oil or petroleum-based bar oil, but they are available. The US Forest Service published a Tech Tip article back in 1998 that covers the subject quite well. 

Another benefit of using canola oil as a bar/chain lube is that it doesn't stain the wood, so if you are using a chainsaw to make lumber or furniture you won't have the problem of oil stains. It also washes out of clothing easier, and doesn't irritate the skin like petroleum-based oils can.

Pre-Mixed Fuel

I have seen quart cans of premixed 2-stroke fuel on the store shelves, but the cost was always higher than what it would cost to mix my own. $10.00 per quart equals $40.00 a gallon, whereas I can buy a gallon of non-ethanol gasoline for less than $3.00 and add a $3.00 package of oil to it. The only advantage the premix has is that they don't use gas station gasoline, and their high-octane base doesn't break down like normal gasoline and they claim a shelf-life of several years. One quart of fuel will run my saw for about an hour of moderate cutting, so I may have to invest in a few just to put aside for emergencies. Paying ten bucks for something that normally cost about a buck and a half is going to be hard, though.

Having a back-up plan for as much of my life as I can is the main part of prepping for me. I don't like to rely on single point of failure systems, redundancy is a lot more comfortable.

Swamp Coolers

A few years ago, a young friend of mine moved to Southern California with her husband and new baby. The housing they were living in was fair, but when the air conditioner died in July, the landlord struggled to find someone to fix or replace it. Having been around babies in the Summer, I know how uncomfortable they are in the heat and how miserable that makes parents; she needed a way to cool at least one small room so her daughter could have a place to sleep comfortably.

I did some research and found several sets of plans for a home-made swamp cooler that she could afford to put together for less than $50 and were enough to cool a small room. It worked well enough and long enough to get them through until the AC got fixed, and her husband ended up making a few for neighbors with the same problem. While this wasn't a true “emergency”, it's still an example of how a bit of knowledge and some simple skills can make rough times easier to get through.

What is a Swamp Cooler? 

It's a way to cool air using the evaporation of water and a fan. They're simple, easy to make, and quite energy efficient, but they don't work everywhere, especially in areas of high humidity.

Swamp coolers work by passing air through a mesh or media that is kept wet. Using the same principle that your body uses to cool itself by sweating, the water evaporates and carries excess heat with it. In the time of the Pharaohs they used slaves with fans to move air past containers of water or wetted blankets hung over doorways, so it's not new technology. 

Water is an odd chemical from a lot of standpoints, but the one aspect that makes swamp coolers work is its high latent heat of  evaporation (enthalpy of vaporization). Put into layman's terms, water requires a lot more energy to convert from liquid to vapor than most other common chemicals -- on the order of three times more energy than ethyl (grain) alcohol and six times more than a lot of hydrocarbons. This means that if we can get water to evaporate, it will carry away a lot of heat.

The sticky point is getting that water to evaporate, which brings us to another term: Dew Point. If you get your weather forecast from the radio or TV you probably don't see the dew point listed, but it will be in all aviation forecasts and most of the internet weather sites. Dew point is the temperature at which the humidity already in the air will start to condense (100% relative humidity), creating fog and dew. Aviators need this information to avoid flying into fog, which is why it is part of a METAR (Meteorological Aerodrome Report).

Swamp coolers can cool air down to almost the dew point, but never below it. That means that if you live in an area like mine where the relative humidity runs 50-80% in the Summer, causing dew points of 75-80° F, the best output from a swamp cooler (or cooling tower) is going to be 80-85° F. That's not much help for staying comfortable, but usable in industrial settings. Those of you who live in more arid climates, where relative humidity tends to stay under 20% will see more cooling since the dew point will be under 50 ° F. Sorry Florida, swamp coolers don't work well in actual swamps. Don't I know it! -- Erin)

Here's a chart of dew points at various temperatures and humidity levels:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dewpoint-RH.svg 

How Do You Make One?

The simple DIY version I found for my friend was a 5 gallon bucket with a foam pad for the wetted media, a 12V DC fan from a dead computer case, and a small solar water fountain pump from Harbor freight. Full instructions are found here, but the concept is simple:

1. Mount a fan or two in the lid of the bucket, blowing air into the bucket. 
2. Cut vent holes in the sides of the bucket, as many as you want. 
3. Line the bucket with a fibrous mesh (humidifier filters work best).
4. Place a pump in the bottom of the bucket and connect a hose to the top of the mesh 
5. Add water, usually 2 but no more than 3 gallons. 
6. Turn on the power.

The pump moves water over the fiber mesh while the fan is blowing air through it. As the water evaporates, it cools the air coming out of the vent holes. Expect to go through a few gallons of water every day. so make sure you've got the extra water available. It doesn't have to be potable water, but the cleaner it is, the longer your filter mesh will last and the fewer problems you'll have with impurities getting volatilized and spread around your living areas.

Use your imagination to replace parts you may not have. 

• Wood chips or shavings (think pet bedding) or loose straw will hold water while allowing air flow, so long as you don't pack them too tight. 
• A towel or piece of blanket held up with bent coat hangers will hold water. 
• 12V DC fans are easy to find; if you don't have a computer cooling fan around, look for an automobile blower fan in a junkyard or check out one of the larger truck stops for a 12V DC fan. 
• Plastic trash cans can replace the bucket, 
• Solar power is a good option because you'll need the cooler most when the sun is shining.

Knowing how something works is the first step to making it work.

Thermo-Electric Generators

One of the regulars on our Facebook page posted a short video from the BBC showing a way to charge your cell phone or other small electronic device from a home-made device added to a clay firebox or stove. There was some interest in how this device worked, so I took a closer look at the video to try to figure out which method they were using.

For those who can't or haven't seen the video:

• The generator is two metal plates, about 4 inches square, bolted together, with three pieces of rebar welded to one of the plates (the fire side) and a square metal box (about 2x2x6 inches) filled with water welded to the other plate.
• The generator is inserted into a hole in the side of a fired clay cook stove that is burning wood.
• The captions on the video mention that the fire creates a heat differential in the metal rods sticking into the fire to “create” electricity. This is incorrect. The metal rods are there to provide more surface area in the flames.
• There is a pair of twisted wires coming from the middle of the metal plates, indicating that some part of it came from a factory.
• There is a white substance between the two plates, probably conductive paste as is used on computer heat-sinks.
• The wires are run directly to a cell phone and an LED flashlight, which means it is putting out around 5 volts of DC power.
• Since there are commercial versions of this on sale in America (Powerpot and similar), this was something designed for use by people with little to no money.

All of these points lead me to believe that they are using a Seebeck junction (sometimes called a Peltier junction) placed between two locally-fabricated pieces of steel.

Thermo-Electric Junctions
A Seebeck junction is a sandwich of dissimilar materials that will generate electricity when placed between a hot surface and a relatively cold surface. As the heat moves from the hot area to the cold area, electrons are knocked off of the material, creating an electrical flow. If you reverse the conditions and push electricity into the junction, one side will get hot and the other side will get cold.

Solid-state coolers are normally called Peltier junctions, while the thermoelectric generators are called Seebeck junctions even through they are the same thing.

Seebeck thermoelectric generators are not terribly effective -- about 5% efficiency -- but they are perfect for use in waste heat reclamation when placed in the exhaust or combustion chamber of wood-fired heaters.

Seebeck generators are fairly easy and cheap to buy. Since the main uses involve the Peltier (cooling) function, it can be hard to get (and understand) good data on the amount of energy you'd be able to get out of a given module, but I'll give it a try.

In Practice

Amazon has a cheap one if you want to try making electricity from fire. A bit over 1.5 inches square, it weighs less than an ounce and costs less than $10.00,  making it perfect for experimenting.

• Power output will vary with the difference in temperature between the two sides. The higher the difference in temperature (not the higher of actual temperatures), the higher the voltage and amperage that will be produced. This one has a maximum temperature of 150° C (302° F), so it would work with small wood fires or placed on the surface of a metal wood stove. 
• The cold side on the generator shown in the BBC video used a container of water to keep the temperature at 100° C (212° F). The hot side was the metal rods inserted into the flames, which in a wood fire is about 150° C (302° F). The difference is 150-100= 50° C. This is a small difference when looking at Seebeck generators. 
• Unfortunately, the seller doesn't give enough information to be able to estimate the power output. One of the buyers, however, mentioned getting around 7 volts DC by placing the hot side on a stove and the cold side on a ice pack.

A more expensive version can be found here.

• These modules can handle up to 350° C (662° F). 
• Wiring a few of these modules together to get the voltage you desire (around 5V for cell phones) would be the best route.
• Looking at the charts for a module the same size as the one from Amazon, a 50 degree differential would put out about 2.5V at a little more than 0.5A. Not bad for something the size of a pack of matches. 
• Wire two of them in series (connect positive of one to the negative of the other and draw power from the unused connections) and you'd have 5.0V at 0.5A. 
• To put those numbers in perspective, most older cell phone chargers (and USB 2.0 ports) are rated at 5V and 0.5A while the newer chargers are still 5V but 2.0A.

If you don't want to buy a module, you can find them in the common 12V coolers sold at Walmart, and most truck stops, and in high-end desktop computers (active cooling for the CPU-mounted between the chip and the cooling fins). Salvaging one and using it to make a generator would require a bit of knowledge of electricity and a way to determine which wire is positive and which is negative. Voltage output will vary according to the temperature difference between the hot and cold sides, so a cheap voltmeter would come in handy.

Thermo-electric junctions are interesting ways to generate small amounts of power from fire, something you'll probably already need in an emergency. Since there are no moving parts, maintenance is minimal and they're pretty fool-proof once assembled. I hope I was able to answer a few questions, but if you have more I will do my best to answer them. Feel free to leave comments here or on the Facebook page.

Taking Things

We can't always carry everything we're going to need. The possibility that something unexpected or unplanned will occur is very high, and your kit or bag may not contain what you'll need to get through the unexpected. If you're lucky and know where to look you may be able to find what you need, but is it OK to take it?

Ethics and morals vary between societies, and even within some societies. What is right or wrong can change depending on the current circumstances and the situation you find yourself in. The list below is based on current, American-style ethics and will be in descending order of “rightness” in anything other than life-and-death situations. If your life is on the line, there are no limits to what is “right” to take to sustain life. Taking more than that is frowned upon and may have consequences.

Wildlife and Wild Foods
Trapping, hunting, gathering nuts and berries, and fishing are good examples. Unless your local game warden is off his medications, harvesting food and furs from the environment around you will be the least “wrong” you can do. Private landowners may get protective of “their” wildlife, but public land and waters will are free to use until someone lays claim to them. Seasons and limits are designed to maintain the population of wildlife, but if it's “poaching” or starvation, I'd rather face the ticket for hunting out of season.

In a major catastrophe, the wildlife population may take a serious hit. Until/unless things return to something close to normal, don't expect to see as many edible animals roaming around -- you won't be the only one out there looking for food.

Trash or Debris 
Dumpster diving may be an option if you're looking for materials to make a shelter or fire with. Having walked along many miles of roadways and rail lines, I can attest to the wide variety of things that people will throw out of a moving vehicle. Sorting through trash pits near campsites can often unveil gear that is still usable, if a little stained or worn.

Things Lost or Discarded
Things found along the trail are fair game. If someone ahead of you has lightened their load by tossing out duplicates or unwanted items, there is no ethical problem with picking them up and using them. As an example, fishing line and lures tend to get snagged in trees near shore and most people will just cut the line and leave them hanging. After a bit of work, you could have a way to catch fish or at least a supply of fishing line (which has multiple uses).

Possessions of the Dead
This may sound a bit macabre, but the dead have no need for things. Clothing, food, tools, shelter, weapons, etc. aren't going to do them any good and may keep you alive. As long as there are no heirs or other claimants standing around, I would have no problem sorting through a dead person's belongings to see if there was anything I could use.

However, killing someone just for their possessions is a totally different issue, one that could only be justified in an individual's own mind. There could be times where it would be justified, but unless you're dealing with a Mad Max scenario, they would be rare.

Unguarded Possessions
Once you get to the “Without Rule of Law” stage of TEOTWAWKI, anything not nailed down becomes the property of whoever can carry it away. Before that point, you must be prepared to suffer the consequences of stealing someone's property. Taking refuge in an deserted cabin during a storm may be acceptable to the owner, but taking his car might not. If it is a life-and-death situation, I would prefer to be alive to deal with any possible repercussions.

Secured Possessions
This is theft, pure and simple. Breaking into something for the purpose of taking what is in there is only “right” when death is the only other option. Be aware that people who lock things up are often willing to defend their possessions with deadly force.

There is at least one other category that doesn't fit into the right-or-wrong scheme:

Charity

Swallowing your pride and accepting a handout may keep your belly full. It's not as common as it once was, but some people do have a sense of pride that prevents them from taking handouts. If you are such a person, offering a trade of work for food (or shelter, medicine, etc.) is the ethical thing to do.

Be wary of any “gift” that comes with strings attached (shelters that don't allow pets, etc.) because it has changed from charity to barter. If someone wants me to do or not do something in return for their “gift”, I'm going to look very closely at what else they are going to want. Refugee camps are notorious for having one-way doors, once you check in it takes a lot of work to get back out.

Prep? Me?

Why should “I” prep?

We hear this question often. It seems to be second only to “What do I need?”, and neither question has an easy answer.

Absent a disaster or wide-spread emergency, people need to be prepared for the daily possibilities that can throw them out of their normal routines and could threaten their lives or lifestyle.


Case in Point

Two women were driving several hundred miles to visit family a few states away. On the way back home, they decided to do some sight-seeing through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Since it was late April, winter was over and the weather was cool but normal for the area. As they were sight-seeing, they turned off the main road to see a lighthouse on Lake Superior. Their SUV got stuck in a snow bank far from civilization and it took 13 days for authorities to find them.

I know it may come as a shock to some who live in cities, but there are large swathes of the US that don't have cell phone towers or service. I live within 50 miles of two medium-sized cities, and there is a little town 15 miles from my house that just got a cell phone tower last Fall. Sitting in a deep valley, it was a handy place to go if you wanted to eat lunch/drink beer without the wife/boss being able to call. Those cell phone coverage maps you see in the commercials are always zoomed out to show the entire USA because that hides the pockets of little to no coverage.

It's 2015, and there are still wilderness areas that are not patrolled or even visited on a daily basis. It took an aerial search to find the stuck SUV, and once found it took a helicopter landing almost a mile away to get to them. Rescuers had to hike to where they were, and carried them back to the helicopter for evacuation with the aid of some recreational ATV riders who happened to be in the area.

Back to the two ladies: they were lucky in that they were sisters, in their 50s, and from Midwest states (NE and OK). They grew up without cell phones and GPS, so the lack of them wasn't as big a deal as it would be for someone raised in a city and in their 20s. They knew each other, their needs, and their capabilities. They were experienced with cold weather, so the below-freezing nights weren't foreign experiences.

How Did They Survive?

Water

They melted snow for water by placing it in bottles that they then put on the roof of the SUV to catch the sun. They were a little worried that the warming weather would melt all of the snow, leaving them with nothing to drink, but were rescued before that happened.

• If snow is your main source of drinking water, always melt it before consuming it. 
• Eating snow for moisture takes a lot of body heat, which then has to be replaced with calories from food. 
• Be aware that snow is only about 10% as dense as liquid water. 
• A five gallon bucket of snow will melt into about a half gallon of liquid.

Food

Eight boxes of Girl Scout Cookies, some candy, and some Cheese Puffs: not the most nutritionally balanced menu, but it was enough to keep them alive and not hungry all of the time. 

• It takes a bit longer than two weeks to actually starve to death, and the little amount of food that they had was enough to keep them going. 
• They tried to keep it to at least 500 calories per day, with a multi-vitamin supplement. That's not far from some rather severe diets I've seen people use to lose weight,

Shelter

Use what you have on hand. 

• They were traveling, so they had spare clothing with them. 
• They added layers until they were warm enough. 
• They stayed in their car at night, where their body heat could be conserved (and the bears couldn't get to them.)

Mindset
They knew they would be missed when they didn't show up at the next stop on their itinerary. 

• They stayed with the car. 
• A car makes a bigger target for searchers than a human body does. 
• They didn't waste (too much) energy. They knew that the car was stuck and they couldn't get it out. 
• They did walk during the daylight hours to leave signs where they thought people may see them. 
• They spent the time knitting and reading their Bible. They didn't give up.

Links

• KFAB interview
• OWH article
• Michigan news source

I try to avoid criticizing other people's preps (or lack thereof). What these two ladies went through was tough, and their lack of preparation made it tougher, but they survived. If it's stupid but it works, it's not stupid.

Gun Blog Church Cast #32

Well it's official. We've quit guns and started a church. Our first fundraiser is up and we're looking to raise $20 Million so we can buy ourselves the Holy Five Million Dollar Pilatus PC12 Single Engine Turbo Prop Aircraft manufactured with care in Switzerland. Please give generously.

• Reverends Adam and Sean execute their preaching duties flawlessly.
• Sister Erin Palette tells us all how to re-purpose all those wine and champagne bottles we've got lying around into useful self defense tools.
• Sister Nicki Kenyon explains the connection between money laundering and private jets.
• Brother Miguel Gonzalez, using his unparalleled fashion sense, tries his best to impart a sense of style on Sean.
• Brother Barron B. explains how with his help the GunBlog ChurchCast will have the finest digital security ever devised.
• And Brother Weer'd tells us about that enormous threat to truth, justice, and the American Way, the Anti-Private Jet activists.

All this and more, so don't forget to download, listen and subscribe. And tell a friend about us. And give us money, don't forget that either.

Can I get an AMEN?

Listen to the podcast here.
Show notes may be found here.

Prepping Items Found Around the Home

Not actually Erin.
Picture by KJ Photography
& is used with permission.

My "Prepping on a Budget" segment on Sean & Adam's Gun Blog Variety Cast seems to be doing well, so I figured readers might find it useful to have a post of all the preps I can think of which can be found around the house.

In the Garage

Duct Tape has a variety of uses, as anyone who's seen MacGyver will attest. But did you know it can also be used as tinder?

Trash Bags can be used for more than holding your trash. You can construct improvised shelters out of them, insulate yourself from the rain and cold, waterproof your feet, signal for help, etc.  I talk about their many uses on in Episode 3 of GBVC.

Ziploc Bags:  Why would you use these when you have trash bags?  Well, these are smaller, and so they're easier to work with if you're dealing with small, loose objects. Not only can you keep snacks in them, but they're useful for keeping tinder and kindling dry.  Also, if you have one of those Nalgene bottle survival kits and you need the bottle for water, what are you going to do with the stuff you dump out?  Put it all in a ziploc and you're golden.

Speaking of tinder, rub some Vaseline into cotton balls and you have fire-starting fuel that's practically waterproof. ChapStick also works for this, as it contains both wax and petrolatum.

The alcohol in a small bottle of Hand Sanitizer makes a dandy fire starter/accelerant, in addition to keeping your hands free from germs.

Disposable Lighters:  Since I'm on the subject of fire, let's talk about how to start one.  Skip the ferro rods and bow drills -- why not pick up a pack of Bics the next time you're at the grocery store? Small, cheap, and sturdy enough to be tossed into a pack, they're great for instantly starting a fire. Even when the lighter fluid runs out, you can still use the flint and steel to make sparks.

Bleach and an eye dropper: Chaplain Tim talked about this extensively in his excellent "Bleach For Water Purification" article.

Flashlight:  Pretty self-explanatory.  I prefer Maglites; the AA minis can fit in your pockets and EDC/Bug Out bags, and the larger D cell lights make dandy clubs if needed.

In the Kitchen

Manual Can Opener:  If you have canned food and you don't have an opener that doesn't require electricity or batteries, you're asking for trouble.  Get a manual opener from Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, or your grocery store.  If you want to keep an opener in every bug-out bag, get a pack of P-51 openers from Amazon.  My advice is to put them on bead chains so you can find them more easily, as smaller items want to shift to the bottom of packs.

Knife Sharpener: Even if it's a crappy kitchen knife sharpener, it's better than having dull knives. If you want something a bit more advanced, I recommend Lokidude's "Knife Maintenance 101" article.

Aluminum foil can be used to cook food even when the power is out. You can use it to line a box and make a solar oven. or you can wrap food in it and cook it directly on the coal/hot ashes.

Disposable aluminum foil pans can be used as pots to boil water.

Chewing Gum:  In addition to making your breath pleasant, getting a nasty taste out of your mouth, and making your teeth feel cleaner, chewing on gum will also help tame hunger pangs. In addition, the chewed residue can be formed while still moist and then left to dry into an improvised adhesive or plug.

In the Bathroom

Tampons & Maxi-pads:  They stop bleeding, right? Therefore you can use them on bullet wounds (tampons) and cuts/abrasions (pads). You can also use the cotton in a tampon as a sediment filter in a water bottle, or as tinder to start a fire.

Condoms:  Just go read this article to see how they can be used to store water (use the un-lubricated, non-spermicial ones for this), act as a tourniquet, and even become improvised gloves when dealing with biohazards like blood or vomit.

The mirror in a makeup compact can be used to look around corners, signal for help, and start fires.

Pantyhose can be used as a bag, or wound to create improvised bungee cordage.



Of course, this doesn't include all the regular things found in a home that can be of use in an emergency: blankets, towels, candles, first-aid kits, toilet paper, raincoats, etc.