My bedroll kit

My bedroll kit

Having a bedroll is very traditional way of camping and in fact can be used on its own.

A bedroll can be as big as you want sometimes containing a small mattress and pillow or as small as you want sometimes only containing a blanket.  There is no wrong way to do it.

To me a bedroll is your shelter kit.  Everything you need to set up camp should be in your bedroll.

My bedroll contains. From top to bottom

Two tent poles

Underwear  (socks, underwear, shirt, vest, bra)

Military poncho

Cotton blanket

Wool blanket

Military poncho 

This set up is based of my needs and built on my past experiences and tested.

Improvements  that I see would be;

 a small tarp  -  to either replace  or add to the kit

a hammock   -  this would increase the functionality of his kit. St Lucia is a mountainous island and so more often than not natural land is not flat making sleeping on the ground a great task though not impossible

better straps  - I  use two belts to secure my bedroll and latch it to my bag using cordage . Dedicated straps that could possible also be used carry it without the bag as well as being used along with my lbe.

My kit for camp when I thought i was going for two weeks. Pouch on the extreme right contains all accessories for my uniforms. Every cadet should have one as it keeps you from forgetting pieces of your uniform and getting booked. LBE suspenders and belt were worn to camp all pouches are on the inside except canteens.

 Tested out for SLCC annual cadet camp 2017. 

Instead staying on camp full time I could only stay the weekends and night. it safe to say whenever I'm not at work i was on camp. having a bedroll let customize my bag to the different periods of time spent on camp. that along with my canteen, mess kit and uniform were the constants of my pack. 

pro and cons of having a bedroll 

Cons

• external to your pack
• gets big and bulky real quick
• packing up requires a lot of space
• some skill in knots is needed

Pros

• saves time when packing
• easy to use as soon as possible
• completely customisable
• can be carried without a pack or with LBE
• external from your pack

Tips for making a good bedroll

• will there be rain, mud and anything to protect your stuff from the elements
• is comfort an issue
• what type of shelter do you plan on making
• what size do you want your bedroll
• where are you going to mount it.
• test it at home before use

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And remember survival is not a choice but a right earned at birth.

Be the Wolf!

Water

So with water making up 70% of the world and almost the same in your body it goes without saying how important it is. Lack of water leads to thirst(no shirt Sherlock) dehydration and confusion to name a few off the top my head. The point is that without water you won't be able to function both mentally and psychically.



There are several points to cover we are dealing with water;
1. Collection
2. Storage
3. Filtration
4. Purification
5. Taste

 

Collection ;  So lets start with collection. Collection is how you attain the water itself. Now this may sound easy but just think of the amount of faith you put in buy water and water coming from your pipes at home.
Do you know how to source water from closed pipes like the ones at businesses like KFC or closed stand pipes. What if the water was coming from an area to small for whatever container you have? Questions like these often make us realize how much we rely on  modern conveniences and fail to think of all the angles.
My suggestions are a four way key, some clear tubing, a funnel and condoms.




Storage;  Storage goes into how you hold large amounts of water at your base or while traveling if need be. It would make little sense if you on had on metal canteen that you have to refill every time you get thirsty. Not only are wasting time and effort but you are also putting yourself in unnecessary danger depending on the situation. In a survival situation three days is not the amount of time you have to drink water. You are working and as such you are losing that water just as quickly in those situations one day might already bring your journey to and end.
My suggestions are collapsible buckets 5l+ and a hydration bladder and pack.



Filtration;  For filtration while it is relatively easy to accomplish, without the necessary stuff if could prove to be impossible. Filtration is basically removing all the foreign substances that I are not microbial.
My suggestions are a cotton bandana, plastic bottle, rubber bands and a small shovel.



Purification;  This is basically making the water safe to drink. Free of any bacteria and other things that can make you ill. Ideally boil the water.
My suggestions are metal canteen, fire kit and purification tablets.



Taste;  This is water makes disgusting water taste better. so any drink mix whether its juice or tea or  even energy drink mix.
My suggestions are Turbo or Koolaid (juice), Nescafe (coffee), powdered milk, strawberry Nessquick (tea) and Powerade/Gatorade (energy drink mix).



I always recommend making individual kits and then adding it to your main bag. With these tips you should be ready for any water related incidents not covering storing water storage at your home or BOL.

Leave a comment if your enjoyed it.

Share with your friends.

And remember survival is not a choice but a right earned at birth.

Be the Wolf!

Fire

Fire being one of the most important parts of survival.

It not a standalone piece of my kit. To me fire falls under "shelter" and "cooking".

If you had to choose three components of your full kit you shouldn't have to choose fire as one as it should be intertwined with other parts of your kit.

Fire has many uses the main ones are:

cooking -  cooking your food, boiling water and even smoking foods or the area

signalling - fire can be used to make a smoke signal or other types of signalling

shelter - shelter or warmth. fire can be used to keep you warm on those cold night and insome cases like winter it is the vital for life (winter/snow)

When thinking of building a fire kit it would be wise to keep the rule of threes in mind. 
You should try to cover these areas when thinking of starters;

•  Flame. - This is any device that you use a direct flame to start the fire. For example lighters, candles and matches.   #Start fire with fire.
• Spark. - This is a device that uses sparks in order to light a fire. For example fire steel or magnesium fire starter.   #Spark it.
• Random. - Things that you can use to start a fire that don't necessarily fall under normal categories. For example Magnifying glass, air pressure starter or even batteries.    #Let your imagination run wild.
• Primitive. - These are devices that you make and were made before modern civilization. They usually require lots of practice as they are not dependable if you skills aren't dependable. For example Bow drill, pump drill and hand drill.  #Rubbing sticks together.

    

The next thing are tinder or kindling.

Of course you can find these things out in the bush but sometimes everything may be wet or you in an urban environment where you cant find anything and you need options. 

• Natural. - First we have natural tinder which ca be found while out in the field. For example coconut husk, fat wood, dries grass, small twigs or punk wood.  #Feildcraft
• Home. - Then you items that are in your home that lend themselves to the struggle. For example cotton ball with petroleum jelly or even dryer lint.  #No place like home.
• Char. - These are things that you char yourself. Like char cloth or char wood or char natural fiber. #Always have that metal tin.
• Commercial. - Any and all commercial items as seen in the supermarket that are made for this task. For example Wet-fire, Live-fire, fire cord or tinder-quick. #just buy it

Also remember that tools are need as well for processing wood. 

• Axe/Hatchet
• Knife
• Folding saw

This you-tuber does a seris of 14 days of fire where each day he shows how to start a fire using one method. Here is day 1

And the fire module from the urban prepper (you tuber) - Fire Module

Leave a comment if your enjoyed it.

Share with your friends.

And remember survival is not a choice but a right earned at birth.

Be the Wolf!

Games

Now to start this new year with a light topic I will be giving a list of my top survival games that will help you in a survival situation. This list is in my own opinion and is not limited to these.
The reason for this is mainly to put you in the mindset of being in a survival situation and to get you thinking of ways in which you can start making a bad situation better.



   7 days to die
The reason for this game is its emphasis of resource gathering, reading books and time limits. The whole premise of the game is that every seven days you have a horde of zombies coming to attack you, this gives you a time limit to gather your resources, explore your area and come up with a plan of action. This also forces you consider whether you want to build a base or continue exploring (basically being a nomad). That is also one the things that you would need to consider in a real life situation. Not to mention some items are locked behind books meaning you have to read the book to know how to craft the item. And lastly there is farming and hunting to explore which is very cool though games cant really bring out this properly due to the timing since food normally takes months to grow.

Other games like this are;





Ark Survival Evolved and Ark Survival Scorched Earth  - Which is a dinosaur survival game (I'm not really into that)

ECO - A ecosystem oriented game where for every action you do like cut down a tree the ecosystem suffers so you need to replant and basically keep the planet alive.




Rust - Another survival resource oriented game what makes this one unique is that when you first begin you have to find a rock and use said rock to gather your supplies with I think is way better than punching a tree since in real life if your punch a tree the only thing your doing is hurting your hands. (stay safe kids)





  Survival  (android)
 A survival simulator where you try to find your way back to civilization all while catching food , keeping hydrated and warm. all in all it is a simple game but it keeps you on your toes and gets you in that mind-state (for some reason I keep dying of hypothermia).



These are not the only games that are good for this they are those that I have played last year and thought were great so here is a YouTube video of a guy counting down survival games.

top survival games

Leave a comment if your enjoyed it.

Share with your friends.

And remember survival is not a choice but a right earned at birth.

Be the Wolf!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year.

I was gonna write a post on setting goals for the new year but a friend of mine did such a good job that I am gonna put a link here.

Yes we will be going over this at a later date as goal setting is an important part of survival.

Getting right to the point i will be posting every Friday. (not exclusively though)

And remember survival is not a choice but a right earned at birth.

Be the Wolf!