camp ideas

So I've been wanting to get a bit more social with my prepping and thought it might be nice to arrange a camping skill-share, where we could get together, make camp, share some ideas and knowledge and practice some skills and test out gear. In thinking about this I got to thinking about skills and ideas for discussion topics.  My thoughts around it revolved around the bug-out decision and what could or would be needed in those situations. 

So here is my brainstorming list of ideas around topics to cover both philosophical topics surrounding TEOTWAWKI scenarios and situations where wilderness bug-outs might be beneficial, and also covering skills and techniques I feel might be worth sharing for a SHTF situation.

 The idea would be to put into practice some of the skills and preps people have gathered and learn new ways of doing things in a relaxed, pressure-free environment.

I don't claim to be super knowledgeable or skilled but I think it would be a valuable experience and a great way to socialize mindsets as well as test out gear. 

To bug in or bug out

- when (depending on the event, there may or may not be a warning, sheltering in -place may be advantageous) (traffic, unrest, martial law, fuel restrictions, road clearance, security)
- how (on foot, in a vehicle, daytime, night-time, overt or covert)

- trigger points (depends on the situation, essential services, social markers (rioting, mobs, looting)

- prep (depending on the situation there may be time to do last minute preps (storm proofing windows, shopping, water storage)

- Where:

Should the decision come to bug-out, one of the first thoughts I think worth discussing was that of site selection. Given the variety of threats that could trigger a bug-out, such choices would need to be suitable for the situation at hand.

As I see it, a site selection depends on four basic elements: 

- access (can you hike to it, does it have road access, do you need ladders, ropes or a boat to reach it?)

- resources (food,  water, firewood, materiale on site)

- physical security (distance, isolation, cliffs, dense forest, rivers, fences, buildings, walls)
- obscurity (is it a commonly known or popular location, does it get plentiful visitors in normal times)

Having settled on a bug-out location and making it there, you are faced with some choices around camp layout that will need to be considered, these apply to any camping situation.

- shelter

- wind

- local hazards (rivers, cliffs, marshes, wildlife)

- areas (sleeping / cooking / fire / toiletries / craft)

- distance to water 

Shelter building. Depending on your situation and expected duration of your stay you may need to take into consideration a variety of elements such seasonal weather and both convenience and comfort. Do you need to build  a log cabin to winter in or stilt house to monsoon in?

- natural

- salvage

- portable

Foraging: Bugging out is usually a limiting idea when it comes to resources. There will be only so many meals you can pack and take with you ,and after that you'll have to fend or yourself. 

- bush food

- salvage (neighboring residences / "abandoned" towns, risks of venturing out)

- hunting

- caching

- farming (crops  & livestock)

Fire craft: Cooking, water purifying, heat, light, craft and security. Fire brings all thee things and there are fewer things that say "survival" more than being able  to start and maintain a fire. But it can be dangerous, time and energy consumptive (fire wood is hard work to chop and haul)

-stoves

- bow drill

- fire steel/ flint / Ferrocerium

- smokeless buried

- fuel (harvesting and storing)

Water: essential for life, for crops, for hygiene and  sometimes remarkably difficult to come across.

- sand charcoal filter

- evaporation still/plant harvest

- streams, billabongs, springs, rain harvest

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

-My Country, Poem by Dorothea Mackeller

Food: Ok ,so, you've got your crates of MRE, your boxes of ramen and cans of beans, and lugged it a ll out to your bug-out location. Now you have to eat it. as a limited resource you want to ensure you waste as little as possible, maximise caloric content and avoid meal-fatigue. 

- - cooking/food/MRE's/rations

- - storage

- - hobo stew

Camp craft: There are all manner of skills to learn and things to make to improve camp living. Some are purely outdoors skills, others are wilderness survival and others just useful.

- travois building

-navigation

travois building
cleaning/ hygiene/ latrine
canoeing/fishing

first aid
sharpening tool/knife

signaling
gadgets

rope, knots, cordage, nets

Security: having arrived at your site, you'll want to establish a perimeter and put some kind of security in place, if the situation calls for it, based on the level of threats expected, you may need to deploy all manner of security to protect your location, your supplies and yourselves.  

traps / tripline alarms / noisemakers

- light/noise discipline

- snares, traps and static defense

- hiking/stealth

- tracking/stalking

  

 

The 5 c's of survival - combustion/cordage/ containers/ cover/cutting tool

Camp stuff aside, there's the whole "when is enough's enough", when to pack up and big out or board up and bug in. Some scenarios are better for bug-in vs bug out and would take some debating to determine what constitutes what kind of risks or benefits. 

Situations leading to a bug-out.

- social collapse: fabric of society in tatters, no law, no services, reliant on pre-established community goodwill if it exists. 

- economic collapse: mass unemployment and poverty, starvation and resource scarcity. law and order stretched thin, but government still operates in some capacity. Profiteering rampant. Currency irrelevant. 

- governmental collapse: formal government dissolved essential services operate on volunteer basis only. Free market economy continues but currency may be unstable .

- natural disaster: devastating and dangerous. depending on the nature of the event the damage may be narrow or widespread, limited or long term.

- - floods

- - dust bowl

- - fires (bushfire, urban wildfire, pipeline / refinery )

- - mega storms (hurricane, typhoon, tornado)

- - geological (earthquake, volcanic, impact events)

- disease  / plague

climate change: I don't need a 16 year old Swede to shame me into being concerned. Climate change could lead to a variety of cascading disasters.

- global warming

- - sea levels coastal shifts inland

- - droughts

- weather patterns

- - flooding

-- EL nino, La Nina

- - crop failures

- armada storms ( if one butterfly flapping its wings can cause a hurricane, imagine a whole swarm or an armada of butterflies and the storm they might create (thanks Peter F Hamilton))

water supply

- Drought

- -domestic water restrictions

- -crop  failures

- - bee pollination collapse

solar flare / increase (Circuitry Man) the day star is an angry friend and can do us harm in more ways than sunburn and drought. A burp of the sun could drop us back to the steam age and we lack the infrastructure to support it.

- grid down infrastructure failure, comms out

- emp

- radiation

- heat

Yellowstone super-volcano

Pacific Rim ring of fire eruptions/quakes

- ash

- tsunami

- plate shift

- reactor meltdowns

polar flip: i'm not convinced this one is really an issue worth listing as a disaster, rather a significant inconvenience and nuisance. 

- navigation

- Van Allen belt holes

power / fuel ( no oil, coal):  Fuel crisis might dramatically cut transportation, distribution and essential services. prices may skyrocket to compensate or they may simply halt

- electrical power grid down

-- water and sewage pumping cut / digital economy / comms

-- transportation / food distribution

international terrorism

- local infrastructure disruption

domestic terrorism :social unrest and instability, cultural shifts and revolutionary. All are disruptive and might warrant  a"get out of Dodge"  to avoid being caught up in or being on the wrong end of.

- religious extremism

- jihad vs crusade

- hate crimes/race war

plague: global Pandemics, sweeping through countries , killing or incapacitating people could lead to infrastructure and societal collapse as well as the direct threat of infection.

- Spanish flu

- red flu ( the Last Ship)

- crop blight (Interstellar)
- livestock blight

war: woah, woah, woah, what is it good for? Not property values that's for sure. Time to Wolveriene's out!

- invasion

- thermonuclear fallout

Crazy Supernatural disaster: I'm not going to shirk from addressing the very dear threats to the movie-going preppers lists even if it's not a credible threat. Worth it for fireside discussion with  a few drinks at the very least.

- zombies

- aliens

- trifids

- kaiju

Would some kind of camping trip with workshops appeal? If you're in my geographical region and would like to hang out do drop me a line. We'll chop some wood and char some food, rig some traps and get our hands dirty.

Wish Lust - Survival Hardware - Baccy Pouch

In  a departure from my usual kind of review item I wanted to show some love for one of my co-authors for Breach Bang Clear , David "Norseman" Williams. Norseman has a very popular YouTube channel that I am very fond of.  

As well as tutoring in outdoors skills, Norseman is also an accomplished smith and leatherworker. His small businesses  Survival Hardware LLC - makes Hard tools for hard times. Based in Idaho, USA.

As well as knives and sheathes, wallets and one such piece is this, the hand crafted Baccy pouch.
 Handmade from rugged pull-up type leather that will give you an appealing aged look.

The cowhide is lightweight, yet very durable, as it is chrome tanned.

The Baccy Pouch is designed as a tobacco pouch, has two generous pockets inside, one to keep your loose tobacco in and your smoking accruments in the other. 

 

Now, I'm not  a smoker and I'm not promoting or endorsing it , but I am an avid tea drinker and I figure this would be a good way of keeping my tea in good order, dry and in one spot. I envisage keeping bags and/or loose leaf tea in one pouch and strainers in the other.

The pouch rolls up and is secured with a leather strap.  It is hand stitched with medium weight, 

4 ply twisted and waxed polyester thread. This pouch should be very long lasting and provide a rustic, aesthetically pleasing storage for all your dried consumables.

 

Movie Reviews : Pandemic, Hell, Ravenous

I took the two weeks after Easter off work to be home over the school holidays. I managed to squeeze some apocalyptic movies into my allotted couch potato time when impressionable eyes were elsewhere. I promptly lost this post...   Here's what I thought:

Title:  Pandemic
Year: 2016
Director: John Suits
Origin: USA
Mood: Grim
Style: dark First Person Shooter, suspenseful
Apocalypse Type: Zombie plague
Apocalypse Level: Almost absolute. Total social breakdown.
Antagonists: Cannibalistic bite-infecting fast zombies
Protagonists: mixed military civilian Search & Rescue crew
Outcome: Grim.

CDC doctor embedded with a military refuge in LA is sent out on a Search and Rescue mission to extract the team send to a school supposedly full of survivors. Its established her family live in LA and she suspects are still alive. The 5 stages of infection are established: 1) Flu like 2)debilitating bronchitis 3)aggressive and conscious 4) death-like coma 5) fast hyper aggressive zombie. Infection is spread by exposure and bites. S&R crews equipped with biohazard suits including suit radios and helmet cams with green screen night-vision option. Teams include a medical specialist, a driver, a shotgun equipped gunner and a red-shirt navigator.

It is established that a vaccine is available to combat a Level 1 infection but is in limited supply and only available for the Dr. The crew is expendable. A “field infection test” gun is available to determine if survivors are infected. The Crew is sent out in a modified school-bus to retrieve the previous crew and any survivors from the school and along the way are attacked by swarms of Level 1-3 infected, including a honey-pot roadside trap. Combat is handled via FPS style helmet-cam vision which is a decided improvement over hand-held “found footage” handy-cam shakey-cam styles often used in the genre.

Relegated to foot travel and separated, the team struggles to make it back to the compound alive, battling the infected with improvised weapons, the crew locates the Dr’s daughter and eventually make it back to the compound in a scavenged ambulance with heavy casualties. An enjoyable if predictable zombie plague movie with some nice hooks, and not too many “close the damn door” stupid movie trope survivor errors. The medical science may have been flakey and the crew certainly wasn’t a front line unit, but they weren’t pitched as one either but it was a realistic enough “get it done” movie.



Title:  Hell
Year: 2011
Director: Tim Fehlbaum
Origin: German-Swiss
Mood: Grim, Gitty  dystopian escape and evacuation road-tip
Style: stark and bleak
Apocalypse Type: Environmental disaster. Drought, famine, scorched Earth
Apocalypse Level: Almost absolute. Total social breakdown. Near total Biosphere destruction
Antagonists: the Sun, other survivors and scavengers
Protagonists: family of survivors
Outcome: Grim.

Final Thoughts: get some effective hand weapons that you can use!

An upswing in solar activity has blasted the Earth, baking the surface, evaporating water leading to widespread drought, famine and death. In typical Mad Max style, survivors scour the wasteland for food, fuel and water in a cramped and stuffed station-wagon with bars on the windows. Goggles and dust masks are all the rage. Desperate survivors battle lone hermits for petrol station supplies and we get an idea that exposure to the sun leads to 2^nd and 3^rd degree burns and blindness rapidly. Some excellent post-apoc scavenging in the checking of toilet tanks and hydronic radiators for good water! Poor personal security movie-tropes made me yell at the screen.

Downed power pylon over-road made for an excellent improv road-block and ambush point, but removing it was not when I would have chosen to teach my child-survivor how to drive. Good scavenge the flipped wreck scene gave an opportunity to “split the party” as well as a chance for a piss-break to establish the adult female got her period and was not-pregnant, contraception being an issue often overlooked in survival movies.  

Raiders kidnap the child and in the ensuing pursuit the male survivor badly breaks his ankle. Taking shelter in a mountain side rail tunnel the female lead sets off alone to rescue her sister and “get help”. She encounters survivors who operate a farm and discover they are cannibals, escaping a “marry-in or get eaten” proposal, the ensuing flight through open ground sheds some of the “sun is a murder ball” tension built up earlier.

The survivors take shelter in a cave in which they find a ready source of water. Survival looks bleak but possible.

Final Thoughts: better married to a cannibal than served to one as dinner

Title:  Ravenous ( Fr. Les Affamés)
Year: 2017
Director: Robin Aubert
Origin: Fernch Canadian
Mood: Suspenseful, realistic setting
Style: believable escape and evacuation road-trip
Apocalypse Type: Infectious Zombie plague
Apocalypse Level: Almost absolute. Total social breakdown. Zombie swarms
Antagonists: Cannibalistic bite-infecting fast zombies
Protagonists: family of survivors with kids
Outcome: Grim.

In the woods in rural Quebec a farmstead is holding out against the zombies by being vigilant, quiet and risk-adverse. Two adult male friends patrol in a pickup truck until lone is lost. The survivor finds a bound woman with a suspicious bite mark who claims it was a dog not zombie. He befriends her and takes her with him. They encounter   a small girl and take her in.  Returning to the farmhouse they encounter a group of zombies building towers out of trash in a peculiar ritual. They accidentally alert the swarm of their presence and their flight leads the swarm to their farmstead. Instead of barricading and bugging-in the opt to bug-out and go cross country to a cold-war bunker they are aware of.

Taking limited supplies from the dwindling larder of the farmstead the survivors make a harrowing flight through woodlands relying on bush-craft and stealth to avoid roaming zombies and other hazards. Good use of hand weapons ( machete and hatchets) to avoid the noisy pump-action shotgun. They escape detection by mimicking the zombies carrying items to the ritual piles and eventually make it to the bunker only to discover its been stripped bare of resources. A note suggesting  a direction to search for more survivors is discovered before the swam arrives and decimates the survivors. (They didn’t close the bunker either).

Final thoughts and lessons: They should have bugged-in where they could. A stocked trap-door cellar would probably have been secure against fast-but dumb zombie swarms.

Review: ITW - Tac-Toggle

Continuing on my theme of cordage, I bring you the ITW Tac-Toggle. Toggles being one of the more ancient button options available to us it'as no surprise that the sharp eyes and nimble hands behind ITW have taken it from antler-tip, bone and stick into the realms of ballistic nylon.

So, what is it? A taper ended cylinder, with moulded-in notches and two holes in a recessed channel. All up it's just 1 1/2" (40mm) long and 6mm x 8mm thick. The holes are sized to accommodate paracord, but it's a snug fit and I found that melting a cut end to taper it to facilitate feeding it through. Thinner cord feeds without any issue and can even be pinched and fed through as a loop to fit to a strung line "on the bight".

As a line ending stopper on paracord, it's just a matter of feeding the line through both holes and feeding it back into itself.  This forms a very sturdy lock and uses very little cord, less than a stopper-knot for sure. The looped cord lays in the recess and holds the toggle perpendicular to the cord. 

As a stopper, the perpendicular end-knot only makes a sturdy gripping point between the fingers held in a fist, but also as an anchor. The width of the Toggle makes it very suitable for holding items in place through PALS/MOLLE channels. Feeding it in is as simple as turning the toggle 90 degrees and slipping it down through the channels. It is snag free and quick to deploy and detach whilst simultaneously being a sturdy attachment system without needing to tie paracord into the MOLLE directly.

Another way to feed cord into the two holes not as a stopper but along its length, such that the toggle lays parallel along the line and sits in place allowing the toggle to act as a hitching point for other lengths of cord. Pulling a length of line through the holes gives you loop of cord to hang things off, a series of these would give you a daisy chain of attachment points for all manner of gear. 

Simply having a toggle at the end of a line can also enhance the pull capability of cordage, with an improved grip on a toggle between the fingers over a knot or just bare cord. good for dressing lashings, hauling loads or compressing bundles. 

So, as well as securing things to to PALS/MOLLE  and acting as a tie-off point or tensioner on  guy line, I use one of the toggles to secure my wallet. I run a length of paracord from my  Hazard 4 Loader harness and have previously just used a stopper knot to secure it through a hole in the middle of the bill-fold section. I replaced the stopper knot with a Tac-Toggle and my wallet has neither slipped loose nor become dislodged. It also means I have a spare toggle in my EDC in case I need to work some cordage. It also wouldn't look out of place

All in all for a small piece of kit I'm impressed. It brings form and function, and the simple elegance of an ancient device in a modern format it brings  a lot to the table.

Fit two and you've got anchorage for a bow drill, or grips for hauling a sled up a hill. Fit one to a line and feed through a button hole for an unobtrusive  "deep carry" for a SERE kit like the Oscar Delta SPD . 

Review: NiteIze - CamJam

I love cordage and carabiners, and always keep an eye out for new systems. One such was coming up in my social media feeds were the CamJam Cord Tightener from NiteIze Innovation. The device is simple enough. a High-Density plastic hook, with a sping-wire gated closure, a cord feed hole, and a built-in toothed cam for binding and locking the cord under tension.  This particular version of the Cam-Jam is suited to 1/16th' (2mm) to 3/16th" (5mm) cordage and its feed hole is sized to accommodate this.  It weighs only a slight 1.69oz (16.00g) and measures 2.70" (68.57mm) x 1.35" (34.30mm ) x 0.58" (15.34mm).  The cam is a tear-drop shaped piece of the same material as the rest of the clip. It has a hollow on the underside which friction lock onto a knob on the body of the clip. A tensioning bar at the rear of the clip fits into a ridge on the back of the cam, presses the cam into the body.

 

On the "back-side" of the clip where the cord feed hole (the "eye") comes out has a channel to guide the cord "downwards" away from the clip. this ensures the standing end of the cord is held in parallel with the cam. This, in turn, maintains pressure on the cam, reducing lateral slippage on the working end.  This is important as the teeth of the cam are not especially aggressive nor is the tensioning bar especially tight.

The CamJam works by having anchored cord fed through the hole and passed beside the cam where the hole is, the clip end can the be clipped onto whatever it's being fixed to. The working end of the cord can be pulled taught through the eye and "set" with the cam. 

NiteIze recommends fitting some kind of stopper-knot on the working end. and I think some kind of hitch on the bright is the best way to go, to prevent total failure, should the cam-slip. Which it does, quite a bit.

One thing I found was that the Cam Jam did assist in belaying the line in order for me to set a more secure knot in place, such as a hitch on a bight or a truckers hitch. The "eye " and feed channel feature are useful regardless of the reliability of the cam and the spring wire clip of the carabiner might be light-duty but the whole unit is. It's not climbing rated, which means you don't want to put your life on the line with it.  

Have a bundle of firewood to haul? have a tarp or tent fly to secure? This should do the job. Need to lash the escape ship to a pier? Get a heftier tool. 

The CamJam Cord Tightener features the strong plastic body of a carabiner combined with a locking cam mechanism for a knot-free way to tighten, tension, and secure light loads. The CamJam can be clipped to fixed anchor points and the cam mechanism will lock cord in place with the desired amount of tension.   There is a smaller version of the Cam Jam, the CamJam Mini is meant to be used with cord 1.8mm - 3mm. Which is to say, dummy cord, hootchie cord  and guy lines and only weighs 0.18oz | 5.00gand measuring only  a slight 1.75" (44.60mm)x 0.90" (22.63mm) x 0.37"(9.50mm) but smaller and lighter doesn't really equate to stronger and chunkier, though the smaller cam does bite quite well on the paracord.

Review: Danforce G1 Pro Modular flashlight

My love of flashlights is well documented and nothing new. I do however keep losing or breaking them, so I keep an eye out whenever I can for new exciting models. One such light was Kickstarted a while back by redoubtable gearsmiths Dan Force who offered the modular DanForce G1 Pro Flashlight. 

One big draw-card for me is the modularity and the accessories offered in this kit. These include:

• Weapons Rail Mount(not included in my pledge)
• Pressure Switch (not included in my pledge)
• Emergency Power Bank
• Tactical Pouch (not included in my pledge)
• Lantern Attachment
• Red & Green Light Filters
• Compass
• Bike Mount
• Protective Carrying Case
• 2× 3200 mAh High-Power Rechargeable Battery
• Fast Charger
• USB Cable
• Hand Strap
• Neck Strap

It's a lot of loot in one kit, that's for sure. So, the flashlight itself is milled from 6061 aluminium and in its "short" configuration weighs 220g and 275g in the "long" configuration.
The body of the light is  1 1/16" (27mm) wide, 1 3/4" (44mm) at the bezel and 10 3/4" (27cm)tall in the long and  7 1/2" (19cm) in the short. 

The difference between the two is the addition of a second battery segment, which is a conversion of the "Emergency Power Bank" component,  and attaching it to the light. The lens head unscrews from the primary battery component, as does the push button end cap. I'm not sure why  the head unscrews as it seems irrelevant as its threading only fits the primary battery segment, and is incompatible with the other parts.  The head houses a mighty CREE L2 LED panel behind an adjustable lens. The lens has a ratcheting twist action, with a loud click, and spreads the light out from a corridor filling long distance spot to a room filling or road illuminating lantern. The light is fitted with a broadly crenelated bezel, which is also replaceable (and accompanied by a spare)

 The Cree L2 emitter has a listed output of570+ lumens in the short configuration, and 1080 in the long, thanks to the combined charge of the  3200mAh 3.7v 18650 batteries, which in turn will power the light in high for 7-8 hours in single and 10-12 hours in double.

 A rotating ring behind the bezel unscrews to reveal a Micro-USB port that can be utilized to charge the battery. It features a blinking green and red LED indicator, green to indicate charging and red seems to indicate charge full. The light flashes once when hooked up to a power source.

Its possible to recharge the "Short" segment  from the extension segment by using its Power Bank end cap. The Power Bank end cap has a micro USB charging input and a red charging indicator as well as a standard USB-a output.The silicone dust over keeps your ports clear of crud.

As well as being able to charge the flashlights battery in its short configuration but can also be use to charge up other devices such as GPS units or phones. Being a separate unit means I can charge one battery as the other is in use which is handy. Especially as I like to keep multiple power generation sources available.

The G1 PRO is all about putting you in control, giving you six separate modes of operation, Featuring high, medium, low, SOS and strobe modes, as well as an eco-mode for when you need extended battery life in challenging situations. Each mode is accessed by clicking the power button on and off in succession to cycle through the modes.

One of the neat accessories is the lantern dome, an opaque cap that fits snugly over the bezel end turns the flashlight into a room illuminating lantern, perfect for power outages at home, in a tent or even just to scope out a dark car boot.

Unscrewing the bezel allows the fitting either of the two included colored plastic filters to project red or green light as needs be. The addition of a compass to the end-cap of the 

The rubber o-rings at each of the seams and the precision manufacture ar what rate the G1 its IPX04 rating (IPX4 – Protects from splashing water, no matter the direction). The bike mount allows clamping the G1 to handlebars to act as a very effective headlight.
The G1 light is bright and robust and the utility of the lens as well as the modular Power Bank components makes for a truly memorable unit

High power mode on wide lens setting.

Unlit testing conditions, suburban street

High power mode, lens in tight focus

High power mode, lens in tight focus, square emission clear

Review: BioFuture wipes

My friends at EcoFuture have taken the bold leap  to launch a Kickstarter campaign for one of their new products and its something I thought I should share. EcoFuture have always looked for ecologically friendly solutions for cleaning, health and hygiene.  From body and foot sprays to water purification and household cleaners. Before you scoff at the domesticty of this remind yourself how little fun a bout of gastro or swamp-ass is on the trail. Even the most salty operators need to poop now and then. If you're on the trail ans have to drop one off, the last thing you want is to be hiking on without a good wipe. Having comfortable wipes can be a real morale booster, but you also don't want to be leaving wads of long-life paper or fabric wipes (even in shallow latrines). This is where something like the BioFuture Baby All Natural wipes comes into its own.

These wipes are made from a  truly flushable and biodegradable material, made from all natural, sustainably sourced plant based fiber - (and are certified as such by the Forest Stewardship Council  ) The wipes are suitable for domestic use, aircraft in-cabin use, and safe for municpal sewer systems. They will not harm wildlife.


HRIPT skin patch testing was performed and the wipes can make the hypoallergenic claim, safe for baby bums and crusty mountain men ( who may or may not also be crusty). Get clean without giving away your position with heavy floral scents.

Being fully biodegradable makes them a logical choice for those on local septic systems or composting toilets. Part of why the folks at EcoFuture are thrilled to offer parents an alternative to wipes made with harmful ingredients and preservatives is that as well as the fabric of the wipes themselves, the patented formula is nutraceutical (food) grade.) , will not harm our waterways or wildlife. Given a lack of harsh preservatives you might question their longevity, but following extensive laboratory testing and the product has shelf life of two years. Lightly scented and fresh feeling on the skin, and in combination with the soft and resilient fabric I've manged to give myself a dry-bath all over. Having nice clean toes can be such  a relief after a couple of days hiking and camping (Change your socks!) and really helped me battle camp-funk.

The wipes themselves measure 21cm x 14cm and are interleaved in the plastic packet for easy withdrawal one after another. There are 40 wipes per packet.  The packet itself had both a hard sealing flap and a soft closing flap to seal in the moisture of the cleansing and preservation solution. I compared these wipes to a standard brand, which had a slightly different size (32cm x 17cm) but I found this made very little appreciable difference when using them.  I found slightly smaller BioFuture wipes withdrew from  the packet easier, with less chance of  a double-up on wipe withdrawal, leading to less waste. I also found that the BioFuture wipes were more resilient and less prone to tear or fray, which means more wiping and scrubbing per sheet (and less likely to tear through and poop your wiping hand) something any nappy-changing parent or stubble faced-lout will appreciate.

Additionally Eco Future are working towards making a completely zero waste product. At present there is no alternative for the outer packaging that will keep the contents moist and withstand heated ovens for stability testing. They do want this to happen and are working towards creating this packaging technology!

I'm very  excited to let you know that their Kickstarter campaign is now live.

Home-Font: campfire Chocolate cake oranges

cooking examples (source unknown)

I like camping, mostly for the campfire cooking options. There's a certain magic to smoking woodfire and sizzling cast-iron leading to a picnic style al fresco dinner. I do a mean pot of chili and a spit-roasted ham is favorite. However for the sweeter-toothed amoungst us a dessert option presents a potential problem. There is a trick to getting foil -wrapped potatoes done evenly and not overly charcoaled, but if you can mange that, you might want to give this a try: Chocolate cake! Be the envy of all your neighbors and blow the "smores" people away.

It is possible to cook chocolate cake in cast-iron dutch oven, they have a habit of sticking and burning quite easily. A number of years ago I stumbled upon the idea of baking cake in the hollowed out shells of oranges. They are delicious and easy!

What you need: a sachet of instant chocolate cake mix (needn't be anything fancy)

cooking examples (source unknown)

components required for the cake mix (typically: eggs, oil)
aluminium foil (for wrapping)
bag of oranges (I prefer Valencia over naval)

1) cut the tops off the oranges, retain.
2) gut the oranges, Jack-o'lantern pumpkin style, retain.
3) remove extra pith bits from the pulp. Macerate pulp with a folk.
4) mix chocolate cake mix, substituting water/milk for macerated orange.
5) fill empty orange shells 3/4 with chocolate mix.
6) cap oranges with retained tops.

campfire cooked by the author

7) cover with foil

8) place in coals
9) let cook for 25-30 minutes, turn 2-3 times.

The rind and pith of the orange will protect the cake and steam it from the edges, whilst cooking the cake will "pop up" the cap, be careful not to rotate the cooking oranges so they open into the fire.

The end result should be a delightfully moist, orange skin oil infused chocolate cake in a warm cup you can hold in your hand and eat with a spoon! After stripping the foil away, the empty orange shell can just go into the fire.

Chocolate cake! That's nutrition

So, from very simple and quite portable ingredients you can make a delicious and uplifting dessert. Oranges keep well and are an excellent camping fruit, chocolate cake mix is light and packs easily. Thicker skinned and pith'd varieties work better for this method, as they act as sturdier and more ablative cook-pots.

You could also try cooking other things in orange cups, different cake, or a duck stew to finish off in oranges for a "duck a l'orange" type effect on the trail.

Review: MIG - SORD Mad-Stick holster

My mate Shane from Rhino Ropework (note: they've gone through a branding change recently, now trading as MIG (Mark's Innovative Gear) have teamed up with my friends over at SORD Australia to put together a line of pouches for the most excellent and useful MADSticks by Rhino Ropeworks. You'll recall the MAD Sticks are a compact solid breaching and pry bar, and be pleased to note that they've gone through some more design iterations and are even madder!

One aspect that Shane / Mark wanted to address, is their very pointyness, which even when looped through PALS/MOLLE, can jab and scrape, and the pen-clip type retaining clip sometimes just weren't up to the rugged outdoor needs of some folks, so he and SORD Australia have come up with this 1000d Cordura pouch. I experienced the need for this myself after months of carrying the MAD-Stick around in my fairly rugged Mystery Ranch 1DAP , the point worked its way through the Cordura nylon and stated to poke me in he sides as I walked. This I could mitigate by shifting it around but one time I picked the pack up and the MAD-Stick fell right out and nearly spiked me in the foot.

  As I'd rather not have this happen whilst out in public I had to retire it from my EDC until they good folks and MIG could set me up with a holster.

One did magically appear shortly after I got in touch with MIG, cudos to their customer service. So. The Holster. The MAD Stick is a 400mm (15.7") long, 12.7 mm (0.50" yeah, fifty cal!) length of 4140 high tensile tool steel,  and the SORD design suits it perfectly. Not too snug as to make drawing it an issue, not so loose as to let it rattle about.
The main opening flap is rimmed with hook and loop strips to secure the stick, and backed up with a webbing strap and a Fastex style clip to ad bomb-proof jump-safety to it. Nobody wants to accidentally catch a MAD-stick I assure you. The heavy 1000D Cordura lends itself nicely to giving the whole holster structure and it is heavily stitched throughout. inside the opening flap is a "pointy end down" indicator graphic, but the holster itself is ambivalent. a metal grommet in the bottom of the holster acts more as a drainage point than as a capture point for the spike.  I have also found the chisel end doesn't pull at the hook and loop closures as much as the spike end when doing vigorous runs.
Speaking of attachment:
The back side of the holster features two PALS/MOLLE straps with reinforced stiff panels and a terminal hook and loop strip closure.
Each strip is suitable for 3 rows of MOLLE attachment for a very sturdy fixture. You could strap it to the back of a plate carrier, to the side of a pack or even off the hip of a MOLlE equipped battle-belt such as the Platatac Bongo or SICC belts.

The black holster by itself is fairly innocuous looking but at 16" long it will stand out swinging on your hip. Not very Grey-man. The side-panels of my 1DAP are already pretty crowded so I stow the whole thing inside my pack, unsecured but safely wedged in now that I'm not worried about pointy ends jabbing though my pack. Check out the whole MIG range and new developments here: Now I can keep my totally legitimately useful / rescue tool handy without causing a public panic!
Well done Mark's Innovative Gear and the whole MIG Crew.