Tag Archives: gear

Canning stuff

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I have all the things necessary for home canning, and I do occasionally engage in the practice. I don’t do it often because I don’t really have much need to…after all, I can always buy commercially canned vegetables and meats at pretty much any grocery. However, just because I can do something today doesn’t mean I’ll be able to do it tomorrow. Also, sometimes I cook stuff that I rather like (bunker gumbo ) and like to have some of it sitting on the shelf for a quick meal.  And, of course, when the wheels really fly off civilization and the electricity becomes a pleasant memory, I’ll have a whole freezerfull of meat that needs to suddenly be repackaged in a shelf stable manner. Canning lets me do that. And, if you’re the type with a big garden and good hunting skills, canning lets you put a lot of food away at very reasonable prices.

Anyway, I was in the local independent supermarket getting my lunch at work the other day and as I walked by the aisle where they keep the home canning stuff I saw these:

A couple cases of wide-mouth lids. And not that cheap Chinese-made crap that has been showing up on the market:

Seriously…if you’re willing to purchase this crap because it’s $2 cheaper than Ball or Kerr, you deserve the problems that are going to come from these things. From what I’ve read they don’t seal well, don’t hold seal well, are spotty in the application of adhesive, and tend to buckle. Sure, their availability may be better than Ball or Kerr, but if you have to throw away the food, or make three attempts to get a good seal, or worst of all, go into your pantry six months from now and find a jar of what looks like vomit, was it really worth the ‘savings’?

Being a good survivalist, I spoke to a few LMI and asked if they needed any lids. Why not? If the world is going to sink into another World War or Great Depression then I want those people to have every advantage possible. Short version: I want a world with more of them and less of everyone else. Brutal, but true.

One person mentioned that they hadn’t ‘gotten into’ canning yet. Picked a hell of a time to start, I told him. He said he was waiting for a course at the continuing education facility to be offered. Dude, it ain’t rocket science and time may 9or may not) be of the essence. So, for those of you who haven’t experienced the joy of filling your kitchen with heat and steam, here’s youre shopping list:

Information…don’t start a trip without a map. There are plenty of good books on the subject, the one I use and recommend is:

Read it, read it again, and then flip through it another time. Nothing magical about canning…anyone can do it. But spoiled food is dangerous ‘food’ and you really want to pay attention to what you’re doing,. It’s no different than reloading ammo in that regard…it isn’t difficult, but you do want to pay attention.

I like the pressure canning, which is necessary to can meat or any food that contains meat (sauces, stews, etc.). This is gonna be the most expensive part of the process. Just resign yourself to spending the money and know that this thing will literally last you the rest of your life. It doesn’t use a gasket so if you’re concerned about replacement part availability, this is a great choice. I use this particular model:

Yes, not cheap. But I’ve had mine for a long time and haven’t had a lick of trouble from it. This particular package comes with tools that you’ll want….lid lifter, jar lifter, spatula, food funnel, etc.  One-stop shopping. But this baby will let you can everything and in large quantities. Its big and heavy, so no glasstop ranges for this monster.

After that, its time for lids, jars, and bands. Most any hardware store (during normal times) will have them. You can’t have too many. Jars are reusable as long as they aren’t chipped at the mouth. Bands are reusable. Lids are not. Yes, some people reuse them. I don’t. Food poisoning is not worth trying to save $1 by reusing a lid or two. I don’t have the time to investigate every brand out there so I usually just stick to Ball as my first choice and then Kerr. Lots of people ‘inherit’ jars from grandma or some great aunt’s estate…thats fine but inspect them thoroughly for chips or damage.

All this stuff will fit in a large plastic tote that can sit on your basement shelving when you’re not using the canner. Find a great deal on meat? Can it. Neighbors had a bumper crop of tomatoes or something? Can ’em. Made a huge batch of vegetable beef soup and want the convenience of just heat-n-eat out of a jar? Fire up the canner.

As I said, I don’t do much gardening these days but I do hunt for bargains on meat. And when I do find a deal on meat canning it saves me freezer space, is convenient, and allows me to store a good bit of animal protein against whatever is coming. And if nothing happens? Well, it’ll still taste just fine and I’ll have saved a buncha cash.

Evolving from Fenix 12 to 12 v2.0

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So the term “EDC”, as you know, has become the handy prepper acronym for ‘Everyday Carry”. It’s also used as a noun in interrogatives, such as “Hey man, show us your EDC” which is an invitation for every swingin’ johnson to dump his pockets on the bunk and display magazines, ammo, knives, watches, multitools, pens, flux capicators, or whatever they think they need to have on them at every moment of every day.

Theres only a handful of things that I keep in my pockets – wallet, flashlight, pocketknife. And, surprisingly, the flashlight gets quite a bit of use. So, imagine my annoyance when I discovered that I somehow lost my Fenix E11. Not a big problem since they now make the E12 which is virtually identical. Put when I went to Amazon to replace the E12 I pulled out of storage, I discovered that the E12 is also now history. Instead it has been replaced with the E12 V2.0. So..I hit the buy button.

Here’s the skinny on the E11 and E12 line of little AA-batt flashlights. For the money, I like these a lot. I’d like a SureFire even more but given that I just lost my last E11 I’m reluctant to spend $200 on a flashlight that has a higher than 50% probablity of winding up lost and rolling around  on the floor at CostCo.

I got the new E12 V2.0 yesterday and it is as handy as my older ones, but has some differences. It is slightly narrower in diameter than the older ones, although the emitter section is of the same diameter. It is also noticeably shorter, which Im not sure I like. The shorter length makes it hard to hold in your fist and operate with the thumb. But, the more compact design is welcomed by my pockets. Biggest difference is that the tailcap switch has three modes…low, med, high..which means if you want a small task light for reading menu’s in a restaurant of finding your dropped wallet in a darkened theater you can do so without lighting up the area like a movie set. Also, theres a very welcome and remarkably clever belt clip that allows you to orient the light up or down when you carry it.

Price is about the same..$27~ so no real change there. My experience has been that these are excellent little flashlights for everyday pocket carry. Pretty unobtrusive, puts out a good amount of light, pretty bombproof, run on easily acquired AA batts, and have features that make them more useful than 3-for-$5 pocket lights you find at Horror Fraught..I mean, Harbor Freight.

YMMV, of course, but if you’re looking for a solid performing little pocket life that can withstand alot of abuse and won’t break thebank, this might be worth looking at for you.

Video – Jerry Cans: The True Secret Weapon of WWII

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I fully recognize that there have been , since WW2, advancements in design, materials, and manufacturing process. It is not unreasonable to believe that there would be a better designed, better made alternative to the NATO-style (or Euro-style) fuel cans. Certainly there are devotees of the Scepter cans, and I’m sure they have their strengths, but I’ve been using the metal NATO-style cans for 20+ years and I have a difficult time thinking that a plastic can, even a super heavy-duty one, like the Scepter is going to be as leak-proof and as durable.

These last few posts have been about fuel because, well, I’ve got it on the brain since I watched it jump almost twenty cents in a day. And watched what it did to my monthly fuel budget. (Man, I could sure go for some $2 gas and some mean tweets right now.)

Anyway, although I’ve posted about history of these types of cans before, I thought this video might be interesting for those of you out there who weren’t aware of the interesting history of these gems.

Pretty cold

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I’m an advocate of ‘stay with the vehicle’ for those times when you wind up, for whatever reason, unable to proceed any further…could be snow, vehicle malfunction, bad gas, whatever…if you’re in the middle of nowhere and your vehicle cannot proceed the thing to do is stay with the vehicle. Don’t believe me? Search the blog using the tag ‘strandings’ and read what comes up.

Staying with the vehicle is easier if you have the necessary gear, and I like to think I keep the vehicle stocked with the necessary gear. So, when its 0-degrees out and the wind is howling, is that surplus military sleeping bag really going to keep you from losing toes, ears, fingers , and nose to frostbite? Assuming you survive?

Let’s find out.

I keep a military sleep system in the vehicle year-round. Its an okay system and the price is right – free at most military standdowns. I have a half dozen in storage. Are they actually warm down to 0 degrees? Well, last night was at zero so I decided to test it out. I rolled out the GI sleeping mat, laid out the sleep system..inner bag, out bag, bivvy sack…stripped down to socks, shorts and a t-shirt, and climbed in. First off all, that transition of several seconds from ‘fully dressed while standing outside in 0 degree weather’ to ‘partially dressed but huddled in a sleeping bag’ was…intense. Once in the bag it was huddle in a ball until things warmed up. And then….not bad. I basically cinched everything up so my nose and mouth poked through the hood of the bag and left it at that. I’m not going to say it was toasty, but it was warm enough I could fall asleep and it was, without a doubt, warm enough that I wouldnt lose body parts to frostbite.

While I was cocooned in the bag, I used my phone to entertain myself and see what the official weather was.. -1 with winds around 12-15mph. And there were gusts that I could feel rippling across the bivvy sack, which did a nice job of being windproof.

I suspected that the military sleep system would be adequate and it was. This was laying on the ground in an unprotected and open area. Used in a vehicle, which would offer some material benefits in terms of protection from the weather, the MSS should be pretty much ideal. Better bags out there? Absolutely..but the MSS come out cheap enough that you can have a couple in a vehicle and not break the bank.

Drawbacks? A tad snug. Bulky as hell, but since it’s just sitting in the truckbox that isn’t really an issue. but, more importantly, experiments like these give me faith in a piece of gear and thats got quite a value all on its own.

So, if all you keep in your rig is a couple blankets, or, worse, a ‘space blanket’, I invite you to wait for a nice, clear, bitterly cold night and try them out for a few hours. Its the kinds of experiment that costs nothing but can pay off some big dividends…especially next time you get stuck in your vehicle in the dead of winter.

Case musings

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Someone asked me how I store all those magazines.

Answer: The same way I store anything that I feel is important, worth protecting, and might be in storage for a long time: in a hard, airtight, watertight, crushproof container.

For 99% of the things I put in the Deep Sleep, the container of choice is either a genuine GI ammo can of some kind, or a Pelican (or similar brand/quality) case.

Good, quality, name-brand, effective, just-what-the-doctor-ordered cases are not cheap. Only you know how much risk you’re willing to take to save a few dollars. Will the plastic ammo can from Harbor Freight store gear just as well as a GI ammo can? Maybe. If it’s just going to sit on the shelf in your basement for the next twenty years then all it has to do is sit there, quietly waiting in the dark for that one day when life changes in an exciting new way. And that is when the extra bucks you paid makes a difference. When you grab the can off the shelf, swing it around as you run up the stairs with it, it bounces off the doorway as you grab your backpack with your other hand. You run out the door and it’s five inches of snow and freezing rain as you literally toss the ammo can in the back of the truck into a pile of slushy snow and ice. Then its a two hour drive over bumpy roads until you get to your safe place. Then you drag your gear out of the truck, some of it falls and hits the ground, some bounces off other gear, and some just gets none-too-gently shoved into a corner of the room. Now, your headset radios, battery chargers, cables, batteries, and other gear were in those cans… which would you rather have used to store those items – the $7.50 harbor Freight made-in-China plastic “GI” ammo cans or the $65 Pelican case?

Everything I put away for the future is put away because I have concerns about those things being unavailable in the future. Maybe they are unavailable due to price..or legislative action…or simple supply/demand variations…the reason doesn’t really matter; all that matters is that this particular item is now unavailable and whatever ones I have are the only ones I’m gonna have. So…I don’t mind spending the extra money for what I feel is a heightened level of protection.

Of course, not everything requires a super-high level of protection. A Glock magazine can get dropped, bounced off the concrete, get wet/snowy/dusty/dirty and survive just fine thank you very much. Not the same story for a radio. Or your medical gear. Or your other critical-and-somewhat-fragile gear.

Only you know what is and is not important enough to you to warrant the expense of high-end protection. It’s very subjective. Personally, my opinion is that anything worth putting away for the uncertain future is worth protecting as much as possible so it’s there when I need.

You’re going to have to do some math in your head. If the Made-in-China case affords you 75% the protection of the Pelican or Hardigg case is that 25% difference in protection worth the difference in price? Does the 80/20 rule apply here? As a friend of mine said when I complained about the cost of a motorcycle helmet, “Whats your head worth?”

It seems ridiculous to spend as much on a protective case as you did on the item that you are protecting, but, again, whats it worth to you to have exactly what you need, when you need it, in perfect working condition?

As I said, I’m a bit of an evil ‘yuppie survivalist’ so I spend the dollars for the Hardigg, the Pelican, the SKB cases. Or, if they’ll do the job, the virtually new genuine GI ammo cans. It’s just not worth it to me to go through the pain and labor of buying a piece of expensive top quality gear, house it in a POS knockoff plastic ammo can, and then have the lovely surprise of having that item absolutely not work when I need it most. At that moment the last thing I’m thinking is “Man, sure glad I saved thirty bucks by buying that cheap just-as-good-as-Pelican case.”

 

 

Mora

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It’s a not-a-secret in the preparedness community that the ‘Mora’ knives are, it seems, quite the bang-for-the-buck. They’re a no-frills sheath knife of simple materials, simple construction, and they apparently do knife-tasks pretty well.

I was curious to examine one and form my own opinion since a) I had never gotten to handle one and b) I’m always looking for an excuse to buy gear (which, really, is pretty much why this blog exists). So, I trundled off to Amazon and ordered a couple. Specifically, these::

I mean, for eighteen bucks, why not? As an aside, the Glock knives that I like for their affordability and ruggedness are twice the price.

So whaddya get for eighteen bucks? Well, I wouldn’t call it a survival knife, although like any edged instrument it can certainly be pressed into that service…whatever service that may be. It’s not something for breaking windows, prying open door jambs, hacking through doors, or that sort of thing like my BK&T stuff. But 99% of the time, my knife needs are…cut stuff, slice things, poke holes in things. And this knife looks like a good choice for that. I’d call it a ‘sportsmans knife’. It’s quite well suited for cleaning out fish and deer, campsite chores, and that sort of thing.

The internet will show people ‘testing’ knives by ‘batoning’ them…where they put a knife on the edge of a log and then hammer it down through the log to split it for kindling. I suppose that’s a test of durability or something. I think the best test is to simply use it and abuse if for a season or two and see what shakes loose. I’ll take it out this hunting season and see if I can disassmble Bambi with it. If it turns out to be a good piece of gear I’ll pick up a half dozen for keeping in storage. And if not…hey, its only eighteen bucks.

 

Water cans

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So right around Paratus, these arrived in the mail:

I’m not an expert on fire extinguishers, but I know that, once in a while, the solution to something burning is to simply douche it with a lot of water. Yeah, yeah, it’s a different story for electric, chemical, and oil fires, but for the candle-left-too-close-to-drapes sort of conflagration some H20 is just fine.

What I did not know is that these types of fire extinguishers have a bit of DIY features in that they are reusable and rechargeable by any idiot with an air compressor. And, as it turns out, this idiot has an air compressor.

All these things are are giant pressurized super (duper) soakers. You unscrew the top, fill with liquid of your choice (more on that later), seal it up, and hook up a pump to the valve and pressurize. Easy peasy.

What this means is that you can re-use these things and refill/recharge them yourself. So, if like me you have a curious mind, you can play with one and see what kind of range and output you can expect and then just refill/reharge it to it’s ready state.

Now, of course you are supposed to fill this thing with water. (Or, as I read somewhere, water and a tiny bit of dish soap to increase the ‘wetness’ of the water). But…what if you’ve a more creative bent? Can I fill this thing with kerosene and use it to quickly prep a place for immolation? Or as an impromptu flamethrower? Can I fill it with water and food coloring and write hurriedly nasty messages in the snow on City Hall’s lawn? Can I fill it with urine and quickly run the hose into the vent of the car of someone I don’t like and make a statement? There is…potential.

In actuality though, these will get filled and charged, and then relegated to strategic locations around the house ‘just in case’. What makes them postworthy is that, naive fool I am, I had no idea they were rechargeable by the user. For a surivivalist who may need to use one of these someday its a handy thing to be able to reuse it by just filling it with tap water and charging it with a bicycle pump.

So, there you have it…the ultimate water gun.

ETA: Very useful link from the comments

Water

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I hate hot weather. I mean, I really hate it. I love the dress code as women in this college town suddenly start running around in sundresses and sports bras (summer is only second to Halloween for ‘lets dress skimpily because its socially acceptable at this moment’) but that’s barely enough to make the discomfort of the heat worth it.

And, of course, when it’s hot ya gotta ‘hydrate’…or as we used to say in the less-woke days, ‘drink’.

In the heydey of 70’s and 80’s survivalism your water toter of choice was the GI canteen. Plastic ones were just starting to turn up and you most likely had a metal one that could have been carried by grandpa in WW2 or Uncle Billy in ” ‘Nam “…(Why do people shorten it to ‘Nam’? Why not ‘Viet’?..”Yeah, we served together in Viet back in ’68”)  They were durable but they were loud and sometimes leaked at the seams.

As the 80’s rolled in, we got basically the exact same canteen but now made of green plastic. With an NBC cap. An improvement? Depends on who you ask. Some folks didnt like that youy couldnt heat up the plastic canteens.

Fast forward a bit more and the Middle Easy is now where the action is. ‘Hydration bladders’ are the thing…basically a giant IV bag and tubing. Convenient? Yes. Carries a lot of water? Yes. Bulky? Yes. But, no two ways about it, its a handy way to drink on the go.

For the survivalist who isn’t fetishicizing military gear, the ubiquitous Nalgene bottle, with it’s amazing aftermarket accessory support, really comes pretty close to being Numbah One choice. The accessories available make the Nalgene bottle the AR-15 of water storage – modular, adaptable, and cheap.

Another alternative that I highly recommend are the collapsible Nalgene/Platypus ‘water bottles’. These are basically hydration bladders that are used by themselves as drink containers. Their huge advantage is that a) when empty you can roll them up to take up virtually no space in your gear and b) as you drink from them you can squeeze out the air so there is no sloshing noise like you’d get from a half-filled canteen. Big improvement.

And, interestingly, splitting the difference..the guys at Nalgene make a version of the GI canteen that comes pretty close to replacing the GI model, but with the convenience of lighter weight and transparency. Nalgene also makes a bladder-like product that uses the same screw-on lids as the rigid Nalgene bottles…which means that you can use all your accessory lids with it. Handy.

My preference? For static places like in the vehicle or at a temporary base, I like the 64 oz/ 2 L. size large bottles. For day-to-day use I like the regular rigid 32 oz, bottles. However, for tromping around in the boonies, I prefer the .5L or 1.0L Platypus for its stealthy properties and space-saving potential.

Another nice thing about the Nalgene and Platypus is that its extremely convenient to fill them about 1/3 of the way up and then freeze them. Once frozen, fill the rest of the container with water and go about your day. Very refreshing.

As an aside, the water I keep in the vehicle is store-bought bottled water. Why? Because those little plastic bottles are darn near impervious, cheap, and handy. They freeze/thaw without damage, and are handy to throw in a pocket if needed. In the summer, when i travel, I don’t screw around..I throw a 5-gallon water jug in one of the gas can racks in addition to the usual on-board water supply. I don’t mind being hungry for a day or two, but nobody likes being thirsty for a day.

Whatever you choose for your preferred water-carrying container, get a bunch of them. More than you think you’ll need. I’ve a collection of Nalgene bottles that must number almost a dozen. Theyre cheap and work perfect for their given task…why wouldn you have extras?

How’d that shoulderbag search go?

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Well, funny you should ask…I narrowed it down to two candidates and, being a bit of a gear queer, ordered them both. First one to show up today was the Emdom. Expensive? Oh yes*, but on first blush I have to admit…it’s got some interesting design features. I’ll be banging it around for the next week and see how I like it. It’s a bit heavy on the ‘tactical’ side of things…more of a tactical bag than a ‘wandering the boonies’ bag. But we shall see.

The other one I ordered was this guy. I like the looks of it, we’ll see how it’s utility stacks up.

There are two roles I’m looking to fill. One, is a smaller, handier, version of my Bag O’ Tricks. Something that lends itself to a bit more ‘everyday use’ without looking like Burt Gummer. The other role is as a bag for any activity in the boonies. Fishing, hunting, hiking, geocaching, etc…something to carry the Ten Essentials, a jacket, water, food, compass, FAK, and the usual stuff. But a smaller kit than my hunting pack.

So far, the Emdom is pretty sweet. I need to load it up and give it a good workout. Stay tuned.

 

* = Expensive gear is, often, worth it. I’m not one of these survivalists who craps on people who buy ‘expensive yuppie survivalist gear’ because a) I can afford it and b) just because you want to take pride in poverty doesn’t mean I have to.