[TrackerRat]

This is a great place to put your quick ideas. Anything from simple, cheap or some great ingenuity






for starters

Its very easy to hike when you have a walking stick. Easy durable solution, Ski poles!! Go to garage sales or thrift stores and swipe em up. Your arms can take some of the burden off of your legs. They are light weight and long lasting.

 

[Halfway]

Collect and attach baby carabiners to EVERYTHING. You'll need to hang that water bottle at sometime!

 

[The_Blob]

get more pockets, get clothes with lots or sew em' in yourself; sew oversized ones inside your coats/jackets

pockets are nice, they hold stuff

 

[Warrendee]

Simply Simple Ideas

A Tampax is a field expedient battle dressing.
They oughtta make this thread a sticky
W

 

[MrSfstk8d]

get more pockets, get clothes with lots or sew em' in yourself; sew oversized ones inside your coats/jackets

pockets are nice, they hold stuff

Carefull with where you PUT those pockets, and what you put in them. I can tell you from experience, putting the wrong load in a thigh pocket on a long ruck can chaffe rather uncomfortably.

Halfway, by baby carbines, do you mean the three inch carbiners you get at the dollar store? Or the plastic interlocking baby ring toys you can clip onto one another? I suppose either would hold a water bottle, lol. Each has their uses.

Oh, and NEVER put anything but water in your canteens. EVER!!!!!!!!!!! You'll never get the smell out (or the cleaners if you go that route), and if you forget it's there, you run serious risk of spoilage. If you want coffee, use a coffee cup.

Wrap half a box of Tampax around the end of a stout stick, wrap that in wire, soak the assembly in some fuel (kerosene good, gasoline, not so much). Light. Instant torch, runs quite a while. Just don't hold it over your head, as any drips will make a really cool sound as they burn on their way down. Make sure you're not what it lands on. Slower burning fuels are better. BTW, in my experience, deisel is TOO stable for this.

Good thread!!!

 

[Emerald]

If you do put something other than water in a canteen or stainless steel bottle-put in 1/2 cup of baking soda and fill with boiling water. Let it sit for at least 24 hours and then rinse-no more stinky canteen or SS water bottle.

 

[HarleyRider]

Every time you get something to eat at a drive-thru, be sure to ask for extra salt, pepper, sugar, powdered creamer, etc. You'd be amazed at how quickly these add up, and can save you quite a few bucks in the long run.

 

[MrSfstk8d]

Be careful where you store them too. They are like mouse magnets. Heaven forbid one of the packets in the case got broken, or the cashier had food mess on his/her hands.

 

[Clarice]

That's right HarleyRider, and they are so much lighter weight and easier to pack than a salt & pepper shaker. Seems we always have extra in the bag so I just keep a small snack size ziploc bag in the vehicle and stash them there. When I pack our lunches for fishing trips I add these in with the sandwich.

 

[TrackerRat]

Pack a bandanna, you can use it to keep the sun off your neck, the dust out of your mouth or the sweat out of your eyes. It can become a makeshift sling or used to stop the bleeding on severe wounds.

 

[TrackerRat]

I read in a book that if you lose power to your house you should put a tent up in the living room and sleep in it. It will hold heat in and keep you warmer.

 

[carolexan]

TrackerRat I recently puchased a new tent, as ours was done in. We put it up in the living room and slept there for the night. Both of DH and I are tall but it was a perfect fit for sleeping...:wave: good idea.

My simple idea is to be sure to wear comfortable shoes, boots etc and good quality socks. Be good to your feet.

 

[Doomskull]

Save alot of dryer lint in ziplock baggies. Makes great fire starting material. Plus steel wool and a nine volt battery to start the fire with.

 

[Warrendee]

Take a ten foot section of hemp rope, cut it into one-foot pieces. Shred each one foot piece, and stuff the shred in a 35mm film can, seal each, and keep them in your pack, butt pack, BOB, etc. with a flint striker, they are instant fire starters.

 

[ZoomZoom]

Lots of options on fire starters listed but I'll throw out one of my favorites. Take some cotton balls and swab them (relatively heavily) through Vaseline or other petroleum jelly and put in a ziplock bag. Pull one out when needed and light it. They light easily and burn a long time.

 

[Halfway]

Halfway, by baby carbines, do you mean the three inch carbiners you get at the dollar store? Or the plastic interlocking baby ring toys you can clip onto one another? I suppose either would hold a water bottle, lol. Each has their uses.

Good thread!!!

The cheap, non-rappel type carabiners such as the one's in the check out lanes on key rings and such. Always handy and can be easily clipped to bug out bags, tent poles, guy lines, clothes lines, etc.

And I agree...GREAT THREAD! You can get a lot of dryer lint into a 35mm plastic film container!

 

[JayJay]

Lots of options on fire starters listed but I'll throw out one of my favorites. Take some cotton balls and swab them (relatively heavily) through Vaseline or other petroleum jelly and put in a ziplock bag. Pull one out when needed and light it. They light easily and burn a long time.

I used rubbing alcohol with that technique ---works great.

 

[Emerald]

I have those little freeby containers of hand sanitizer in each vehicle and each of my bags and my little day hiker pack. There are lighters and back up match packs with each and every one of them... all you have to do is put a tiny squirt of that stuff on your tinder and light it and it burns wonderfully and is hard to blow out so works okay in a breeze. I have used it on purpose to test when starting fires out in our back yard and can say personally it works better than other things I have tried. Now if you had some dryer lint and put a dab on and lit it you would be golden.
I don't throw those bottle out when empty either... I buy the big bottle at the dollar store and refill them all about once a month if they need it.

I don't know about all weddings but the last few that I have been to have had the book matches with their names on them... at the end of the night while I was helping the family clean up(many of the weddings I have been to lately have all been family lol) they had three whole cartons left that were not even opened and they let me have one whole box. There were 100 packets in there... sure they all have a name and date on it, but they still work! So keep your eyes open. There are opportunities all around us.

 

[Frugal_Farmers]

Lots of options on fire starters listed but I'll throw out one of my favorites. Take some cotton balls and swab them (relatively heavily) through Vaseline or other petroleum jelly and put in a ziplock bag. Pull one out when needed and light it. They light easily and burn a long time.

Learned this tip years ago. We store ours in 33mm film canisters.

 

[Frugal_Farmers]

Its very easy to hike when you have a walking stick. Easy durable solution, Ski poles!! Go to garage sales or thrift stores and swipe em up. Your arms can take some of the burden off of your legs. They are light weight and long lasting.

Warp duct tape around your hiking pole (ski pole) and you have a ready source for emergencies.