Preparedness Tip Saturday

    This tip is very helpful in preparing for power outages. Refill clean soda bottles with water and keep them in your freezer. Not only will this lower your electric bill, but in the event of a power outage, the bottles will keep the temperature of your freezer down for longer. Also, if needed, the bottles can be thawed and the water used for drinking or hygiene. I would recommend boiling the water before using it as drinking water. 

ILBE Rucksack Dump

     Today, I just wanted to quickly show y'all what my pack looks like when it's fully packed. This was for a single overnight trip, with temps in the mid 20 degree range.

ILBE Packing List

Top row, Left to right:
1. Kelty Cosmic 20 Synthetic sleeping bag, inside of stuff sack. 

2. 2 closed cell foam pads rolled up, tied with a bit of string.

Gear in my ILBE rucksack for a winter overnighter.

Next row, Left to right: 

1. ILBE Pack lid. It contains my first aid kit, my Coast headlamp, homemade alcohol stove, and other tools.

2. Condor Water Bottle Carrier.
It contains a fire kit, a few emergency supplies, a buddy burner, Olicamp cup, homemade 1 quart Billy can, and 40 oz stainless steel water bottle.

4. Yellow poncho. It's a standard poncho. It works.

5. Molle Frag Grenade Pouch. It contains assorted survival supplies.

Bottom, Far left:

1. USMC ILBE Rucksack

Bottom, Right side:

1. Blue sack: My food bag. Contains all of my food, utensils, etc.

2. White sack: Homemade tyvek stuff sack, with a cheap 6x8 tarp inside.

3. Large red bag: Clothes bag. This contains all of the spare clothes that I might need. It always has extra socks, a warm hat, gloves, and thermals.

4. Green sack: Shelter kit. This is a stuff sack containing a 5'X6' ground cloth, 6 tent pegs, a ridgeline, and enough paracord to pitch my tarp shelter.

5. Small red bag: Personal hygiene kit. Contains toothbrush, babywipes, etc.

Not shown: Water. I took 1 gallon with me on this particular trip. That's 8 pounds right there. I have to get a water filter.

Pocket and belt contents. I had a knife, compass, and a few other things on my person. I will go into more detail on those items soon.

So, what do y'all carry for an overnighter? 

Thanks for reading guys! And if you enjoyed my writing, check out my new book:

Budget Bushcraft & Camping 

EDC Pockets: Kershaw Skyline Review

EDC Pockets: Kershaw Skyline Review

Here's a review I did a while ago on the Kershaw Skyline. I can't stress enough how great this knife is.

Preseason Excitement

Hey ya'll, I wanted to post something a little different this time. Trapping season starts here very soon, and I wrote up a brief write-up on how it feels once the season draws ever closer. Feel free to let me know what you think of the writing style.

Preseason

            It’s the middle of July, on a hot, humid morning. I’m headed to the hardware store. But I’m not crossing off things on honey-do list, nothing around the house needs fixed. The opening day of trapping season is in 93 days, and I’m getting supplies.

            I only have a short shopping list. Last week it was quick links and chain, this week I’m after rebar and washers. My swivels arrived in the mail a few days ago, and I’d like to prep my stakes by the end of the week, but I still haven’t even cut the PVC for my cubby hole sets. I still have a few dozen Conibears that need to be dyed, and a pile of footholds that need looked over to make sure no coyotes did any damage. This is the first year I’ll be using dog proof traps, so I need to setup and familiarize myself with them, especially since they’ve been sitting in the shed for a week. While I’m here, I might as well replace the pliers that are now at the bottom of a pond where I was scouting for muskrat last month. That pond had runs and tracks everywhere though, so I should probably pick up another dozen 110’s at the convention next month. That’ll be more traps to clean and dye, but I’m hitting muskrats hard this year. It will be worth it.

            Summer is always busy for me. It’s the trapping pre-season. It’s the time for scouting, prepping, tinkering, and planning. Some might find it a bit stressful to have so much to do, with a deadline that, I swear, comes sooner and sooner each year, but not me. I love everything about trapping, and making sure everything is ready by the end of October is exciting to me. With every task that I cross off of my to-do list, I feel relief. Not only because I have one less thing to worry about, but also because that means opening day is that much closer. With every trap dyed, every trail scouted, I get a little closer to getting back to what I love. As soon as I’m out on my line, checking and remaking sets, all of this work will have paid off. Of course, actually running the trap line involves just as much, if not more work, but that’s ok. It will be worth it. This is what we love.

            I suppose I’d better get busy, I’m nowhere near ready for the upcoming season, and my to-do list keeps growing. It sure is a nice day today, though, and I obviously need bait for those cubby hole sets, so I believe I’ll just go fishing...

         

. . . . . . . . . .

The Importance of a Flashlight in Your EDC

 My EDC gear. My usual light is the Fenix LD12, pictured far left.

 EDC, or Every Day Carry, is the practice of carrying on one's person items and tools of common usefulness. There are endless variations of tools to include in one's EDC based on personal preference and need; however, one of the most basic and most useful tool is the flashlight.

A flashlight's main purpose is obvious: to provide light when needed. Although this isn't the only task a flashlight can perform, it is the most common and most useful. For those who begin to carry a flashlight on a daily basis, the need to have one at all times becomes quickly apparent.

Of course the most frequent time to use a flashlight is at night. The uses are almost endless dependent on environment. In a city setting, a source of light can be a tool of safety, illuminating dangers that may be easily hidden in the urban landscape. In a more rural setting, one may find a flashlight even more valuable in the absence of streetlights and other sources of artificial light. They can be used from the simplest task of keeping one's footing in the dark to looking for something dropped in the night.

But the obvious usefulness of a flashlight at night shouldn't overshadow it's other functions. In the day it can be used in low lighting indoors: locating items under furniture or navigating basements, attics or other unlit rooms.

One final thing to note about flashlights is that in some models, providing light isn't the only function. Various features can include strobe, laser pointers, UV, SOS and more, making a flashlight a vital everyday tool to keep on one's person.


By: Nicole Halterman

My Unexpectedly Brief Trip to Forbes State Forest

     Howdy Ya'll!

     I just wanted to share my recent trip to Forbes State Forest. Forbes is separated into 15 tracts of land, with the one I explored being in Southwest Pennsylvania. It offers lots of opportunities: hunting, fishing, trapping, primitive camping, and fires are allowed during appropriate times.

     I had planned on arriving around 7:45 am and hiking for 2 hours or so, before setting up camp to lounge for a few hours. The forecast called for a 20 percent chance of rain, so I assumed I had a good shot at several hours of woods time.

     This is what greeted me when I arrived. Coal used to be huge in this area, and there are old iron furnaces like this scattered around. They're quite large and double as an emergency rain shelter, which is an important fact later in our adventure.



     

     An old sign at the start of the "trail." This shows how historical this area is. Also, by trail, I mean a slight opening in the trees that lasted for 10 yards. After that, it turned into a jungle.




    

     After about 45 minutes of bush whacking, I found a suitable place to lay my pack, and set up my lounging area for the next few hours. 


     

     Basic fire prep. I prepared my match sized, pencil sized, thumb sized kindling and some fuel wood. My Mora Companion made short work of the dead wood. In short order, I had my fire going, ready to have a well deserved cup of coffee. I took out my phone to snap a photo of the fire... and thunder. 
     Ok, no big deal. I am always prepared. I knew I could get my tarp shelter set up and be fine. In the 5 seconds it took me to figure out where to set up, it started drizzling. Within the 2 minutes it took me to take out my poncho and decide if I should stay or go, the rain started pouring. 

     The 45 minute hike in turned into a miserable hour long, soaking wet hike out. I stopped at the furnace for about 15 minutes to dry off before heading to my car. I drove home, wet, chilly and with no shoes because the were soaked. But I loved it. You just gotta get out, brother.

Thanks for reading guys! And if you enjoyed my writing, check out my new book:

Budget Bushcraft & Camping







    

DIY Nesting Crawfish Traps

DIY Nesting Crawfish Traps

            There are two things that I can say for certain. Live minnows make great bait, and crawfish are delicious. Trapping either of the two is quite simple, and I can’t understand why it’s not a more popular hobby. Most people have seen the homemade traps made out of plastic soda bottles. These traps work quite well, but to trap a lot of crawfish, you must use a lot of traps. Carrying a lot of loose bottle traps can be cumbersome and annoying. These easy to make traps nest inside each other allowing you to carry three traps, along with the necessary bait and tackle, in a package the size of a two liter bottle.

 Materials Needed:           

 2 Liter Soda Bottle

1.25 Liter Soda Bottle

20 Ounce Soda Bottle

Knife

Small amount of wire, I used paperclips

Bait: Small cans of cat food work well.

Line: Bank line, Paracord, etc

Pliers or Wire Cutters

Marker

First, start by cutting off the top portion of each soda bottle. Start the cut near where the bottle starts to taper. Try to make the cut as straight as possible. Scissors may help. Next, place the top half of the bottle inside the bottom half as shown in the picture.

Make two small marks about an inch apart on each side of each half of the bottle. The top and bottom half should each have 4 marks total.

Next use your knife, or hole punch or drill if you prefer, to drill out a small hole where each mark is. Cut the wire into sections a few inches long. You will need two pieces of wire per bottle, so six pieces total. Now, make sure the holes one the bottle halves line up properly, and wire the halves together using the holes you drilled. That’s it! The traps are finished.

To transport easily, just place the bank line, bait, etc. into the smallest bottle. Then just nest the bottles inside of each other. Use the wire ties to hold the largest bottle together, and you now have 3 traps that pack into a small package.  

Part two of this article is coming soon, showing the best ways to use these traps, the best baits to select, etc.

                                     

Thanks for reading guys! And if you enjoyed my writing, check out my new books:

Budget Bushcraft & Camping
 

            By: Tyler Clay