THE BEGINNING COVID19 SURVIVAL STOCKPILE CONSUMABLE

Adventure Tips #1

2 person tent fitted us perfectly. Had to use footprint on such rocky terrain 

This article below was taken from http://sectionhiker.com/10-backpacking-gear-myths/

Below are my comments in RED

Vaseline for Outdoor

Vaseline aka Petroleum Jelly, to many novice campers they mostly think of only one usage, fire starter such as cotton ball coated Vaseline. Below I will cover on my usage, frankly there are tons of usage but these are some of it how I have used Vaseline.  

Emergency Kit

This kit is basically a First Aid, Repair and Survival Kit that I have put together. Every once in a while this kit will be revamp or improve. Those days I used to have 3 different kits in each pack, now I have all in one. I have used smaller Ziploc bags so that the items can be properly organised. 

Do not under estimate this setup and every outdoor person including parents with kids should have one, a must have item for any trip. Personally this kit have helped us many times, in India during black out, in an off-road training accident when pain killer was useful. Daughter MTB accident and the bandages came in handy. In Thailand when Son had a fever and the kit had assisted and many other more incidents before.

EDC Everyday Carry

I have been carrying EDC for awhile since back in 2000 due to my work. Even when I am travelling, MTB or hiking, I will have the EDC with me at all times. Hated the idea that I kept forgetting to carry item when needed it especially when you place items in pants pocket. Sometimes the items in the pocket simply feels too uncomfortable.  

These days I have narrowed down the EDC just to a simple pouches from Flyye and DIY nylon webbing. At times I would still use the MagForce OCTA Versipack. It rather a comfortable pack, the only problem I encountered using it when driving, I needed constantly remove it from my hip. Also on backpacking trips I cannot carry it on the hip, the fully loaded backpack is in the way. However for day hike or biking, this is the best. 

High Calcium in Mountain Water

During the last Morakot Typhoon Disaster which me and my bike group gave a helping hand, I noticed there were handful of Aboriginal evacuees had kidney problems and mostly were related with kidney stones at first especially the elderly. 

First thing came to my mind was the water. Why I said that, years ago I had ordered 30 bottles of 25lts Evian Mineral Water (French) for my vessel and later my Captain complained that it was no good. I investigated and found there was high deposit of calcium on the water dispenser. 

4 years ago while camping in one of Mioali camp ground. The owner had tapped the mountain water to his water dispenser and I saw the same calcium built up on the water dispenser. Mountain water do contain high Calcium especially our mountains in Taiwan. I have seen dried up river with white streak residue left over on the river bed, I tasted and it was salty and sour, my thought they were Calcium Chloride...not a Chemist but that what we learnt in school.   

Our body needs Calcium however excessive intake will cause problems such as Parathyriod Disease. As an outdoor camper who uses water source from the mountain, I decided to do some research on this matter and came up with a stunning information that the government was aware of this problem. Here was the quote 

"The relationship between death from cerebrovascular disease and the levels of magnesium and calcium in drinking water was examined using an ecological design. The study area consisted of 227 municipalities in Taiwan. Data on the levels of magnesium and calcium in drinking water have been collected from the Taiwan Water Supply Corporation (TWSC). These levels of magnesium and calcium were compared using the standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) for cerebrovascular disease (1981-1990). A statistically significant inverse relationship was present between cerebrovascular mortality and levels of both magnesium and calcium after adjusting for urbanization index. After adjustment for calcium levels in drinking water and urbanization index, the weighted multivariate-adjusted regression coefficient indicated a decrease of 0.248 in the standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) for every 100 mg/L increase in magnesium levels in drinking water. The results from this study strengthen the hypothesis that magnesium in drinking water helps to prevent death from cerebrovascular disease."

Last night I decided to change my shower head as it had some clogs. While replacing the shower head I found the clogs were caused by Calcium deposit. Same thing I found on my running water tap. So my question is there still too much Calcium in our current household water supply. I really do not know but the quantity found last night was not more than the campsite in Miaoli. 

As for drinking water, we have an inbuilt household water filter system which we hope it will reduce the calcium in the water. As for outdoor, we will still stick to water filtration even the water is clean. Our household drinking water is mostly boiled after filtration and as for outdoor, we try to do the same otherwise consume in lesser quantity after filtration. 

Water can be the source of life but also a slow death. This is a science beyond my comprehend to know what water is safe to drink but will do the best to reduce harm later. 

PS if your authority says the water from the tap is safe to drink, do not believe them fully. It might be safe to drink after the treatment plant but when the water have to flow miles and miles of ageing  pipe lines which might have corroded in some areas and comes flowing down your tap....you decide if you need to filter it. 

Outdoor Fireplace

Camping outdoor is fun when you can build your own fireplace however in Taiwan most camp sites do not allow this and all National Parks are prohibited from making a fire. Creating a fireplace do give some senses of outdoor comfort, security and light. When there is no ready available light source, human tends to gather around a fireplace. That makes wild camping fun. 

There are few rules and tricks I would implored when making a fire. Normally I will make a fire pit or create a fire pit wall, this will prevent the fire from spreading to the surrounding and also assist to make the fire burn better. 

These are few things I would carried out when making a fire

• Gather wood of different sizes and sort them out
• Clear all dried leave or grass around the fire pit
• Dig a hole so that you can cover it with soil when it is over. This is a LNT (Leave No Trace) method.
• or create a fire pit wall, this method is the best. It makes the fire burns better and let other campers to reuse the same pit instead of burning elsewhere and everywhere. Best done at river camping so when the tides comes, it will wash off the ashes
• Never use wet rocks to make the wall, the wet rock will explode and hurt someone.
• If all burning is not possible, buy the kind of BBQ set on the pics below. One of the best portable BBQ set design

Survival Darts

After testing out few different kinds of DIY darts, finally settled for one simple method to make it. These darts are normally used with Blowpipe a native hunting tools which is still used around the world. The hunting gear is easy to fashion out, you can use a copper pipe, bamboo or anything that is straight and hollow. The pipe diameter should not be too wide. Blowpipe effectiveness should be at least 1.2m long. However you can try out different length to test it out. The current Blowpipe tested was using Bubble Tea straws, length 60 cm and effective range of 10 metres.

I have other intention that is to construct a compress air gun that can have a range 40 to 50 metres. Still on the drawing board. 

In my survival kit, I have a roll of duct tape and some nails. I carry nails just in case needed to peg the tent down on a tent wooden platform. I can use the nails to make a hunting tool. Now I found that I can make darts with it in matter of seconds.

I first started out making the dart using bamboo skewer and cigarette bud. It did take quite sometime to make one dart. Next I tried using Post-it and nail, it too took sometime but much faster than the bamboo dart. Finally duct tape and nail, it took seconds to have one ready. View the photos below how it was done.  

After testing out all the darts, the Post-it and Duct tape nail darts were more accurate and it sank into the carton box deeper. Maybe is because of the cone shape design which have lesser drag.

Survival At Sea

Formosa Plastic Tanker was under my management

First it was Hong Kong, then Philippines follow by Vietnam and now Phuket sea accidents, all these were caused by human error. On the road we can still control our own fate but out at sea, our lives are in the hands of the crews. 

I have been in the Marine Industry since 16 years old, it has been 28 years now. I have seen many kind of accidents. Proper trainings and knowledge are very crucial, every once a month the crews would  carried out drills such as man over board, fire drills etc. 

Being a Naval Instructor before, my drills were tough, I gave my trainees the toughest and most realistic drills till I was warned by my Superior. Few years after I left the Navy, met up with some Bruneian Officers and they thanked me for giving them the best lessons in their whole career. Some became Safety Officers from my guidance. 

I will share some knowledge on survival at sea. Sea survival is rather complex and there are many areas to cover. I will keep it simple and share what you need to know. 

Topics 

• Identifying Vessels
• Safety Plan Location
• Life Saving Gears
• Personal Safety Gears 
• Sea Survival 

71 Into the Fire

This is an excellent true account movie about 71 students camping in a school and defended till the end. Without them, there might not be a South Korea today. If you felt Black Hawk Down was good, this is even better. Find time and enjoy this excellent movie. 

Kowtow to these brave young souls 

Road Survival

she was our lady rider, only 1.5m tall and owns a Harley Davidson 883 Sportser that give you the orgasm through it's vibration. I meant the bike... This pic was my bike

From my last posting on Personal Road Safety Awareness, today's News 2 school girls on a  scooter accident resulting in one death. Now the Government is proposing to have 50cc doing practical lessons for exam. I totally agreed with this idea. I am concerned because I do not wish to see these untrained idiotic riders on the road and causing accidents to my family members or friends. 

On this related research in 2007 on Taiwan's Traffic accident, the age group between 15-24 was the highest and motors bikes were one of the highest numbers in the accident. Why was it so?? Answer is there, no proper training and kids at those age are very careless. You can find the PDF info Here.

Outdoor Lifestyle

One thing in my life I was very glad is that I have inspired all my family members to adapt to my life style. I have shared with them ideas and outdoor plannings. Those days my Son would suggest "can we go off-road biking in Mandai". An eight year old gave me this suggestion?!! What did I do to inspire him? 

I have taught my partner from a trolley bag tourist to become a backpacker. It made outdoor activities much fun. In a way I still have to be the Point Man, planning, navigating and looking out for their safety. All these can be done if you do your homework correctly. 

Do not give excuses to yourself, you are old or do not have the energy or time etc. You are still the Master of the house or your home, it's you yourself how you want your family to be. Either you do it or screw it.    

Com'on...city life simply sux, only the beggars would appreciate. Most of us are city dwellers, haven't you seen enough? Eaten the finest? Dun bring your city life style to outdoor, you simply kill the sense of teaching your family members about outdoor life style. 

Snow Peak, Toothpick or any dick...this is not the way you teach camping to your family members. Camping is not about having the best gears, if you say is for gathering than I have nothing to say...I will challenge anyone to have the cheapest DIY camping gears and in a way it still teaches the family about camping. Name your price and I will see to it.

Insect Repellent

黑金剛 photos from National Science Council of Taiwan

Summer is here and almost over, so when you were outdoor, what was the worst insect you encountered in Taiwan... Mosquitoes? Flies? Hornets?....No...No, our worst encounter was 小黑蚊 (xiao hei wen) aka 黑金剛 (hei jin gang) up in Nantou County. These insects will sting you but you will only notice after they done so, you might feel the itch for weeks or even months and later a scar. So far I have not encountered any in Southern part of Taiwan. Now back to the topic, what is the best insect repellent?

Battery Survival

To common people, many think when the vehicle battery is flat, we can jump start and all is OK. But many do not know that when the vehicle battery voltage falls below 11.9V at anytime, the battery is deteriorating. At this point of time charging the battery will not help to regain back it original health, you are probably using the battery 75% or less capacity and in no time the battery have to be renewed. 

I have just received a Pulse Battery Charger and trying it out, I really hope this new tech can help us save money and the environment. I got it because our BOV battery is constantly flat and we suspected the battery life span is deteriorating. Also we have 3 numbers of 12V batteries to maintain.

The reason why till now we did not know this new technology even my electrical professor relative who is teaching in a University is simply because this technology will bring down the big boys just like free energy and the oil companies. Example Nikola Tesla and JP Morgan.

The truth...if one day we do not have oil but we have batteries with pro-long life. We still can live in the same comfort zone. The problem with batteries, they have a life span, so I do hope my new gadget I can save my batteries and prolong their life span. We are still in the test stage, will update later.

The above photo is what we called a Baghdad Battery dated more than 2000 years ago. If people those days had used these batteries and today after 2000 years we are doing the same, shouldn't we be more concerned about batteries in our lives. Today we are using all kinds of batteries to fit our comfort zone. 

In my book of survival especially with our BOV, today's world is not about oil but batteries, no oil we can still cycle and batteries will still provide lightings and many household stuff using an Inverter to convert it to 110V or 220V. We can use wind turbine, solar or Sterling engine to charge these batteries or some other methods. This is another high tech way of harvesting free energy worth considering and prepare ourselves when the melt down comes...new Terranova.

Hobo Fishing Kit

Hobo Fishing Kit is a simple kit that can be made from anything that is cylindrical in shape. First came across this kit was through Ray Mears's Youtube who is exceptionally well verse in Survival and Bush Craft.  

Fishing and crabing were used to be my hobbies, catching the catch of the day and sharing with family members but for the last decade, I had neglected these hobbies. I am not a Pro Angler but just doing it for fun. So far my biggest catch was a salt water Catfish 1.2 metres long and that was 20yrs ago. Before moving to Taiwan, I had to give up my expensive Dawa fishing rod and reel. That was a big mistake, should have brought along during the migration. 

Buying fish in the market of Taiwan is really expensive, I really do not understand as this is a nation depends on fishing for revenue. Coming from a non-fishing nation we used to pay 3 fish steaks for NT200 and here I only get one steak for the price.   

So now, I might just start this hobby again. I have decided to DIY a lightweight Hobo Fishing Kit that is small enough to fit in a pants pocket or day pack. Idea is not for game fishing but if we do come across any lake or calm sea in any of our trip, hopefully one day we can get something out of this kit. 

Building the Habo Fishing Kit

Scavenging items from my current fishing kit and DIY few items such as a straw floater and artificial lure using the inner strand of a Paracord, will try it out on survival suitation hopefully it works. The cylindrical container used  was from a medical capsule container. 

CRKT Doug Ritter RSK MK5 Mini Fixed Blade

Mini Fixed Blade? What are you seriously going to do with it? Can this little fella do a lot? First impression,  I thought this would be a better ladies knife otherwise a great survival kit knife. 

Formosan Survival Knife

Formosan aboriginal knife has been part of aboriginal symbol and status. A certain head of the tribe would owned a very unique knife and another hunting knife. The original aboriginal hunting knives were longer and varies from tribe to tribe because those early days almost every tribe members were head hunters. Some of the knives come with a hallow steel handle which can be transformed into a spear. Today these knives are no longer used for head hunting however they are still made and use by many. 

EDC Hard Case

Affordable hard case for sensitive storage while outdoor. Do not expect Pelican Case quality but decent enough for protective storage. One factor that we like is it organise and everything is accessible easily unlike zipper pouches. The 4-point securing clips make it easy to open and close the case. We do not rate this waterproof but definitely if it falls in the water, it will float. Also the weight is much lighter than zipper pouch. 

Magnesium Fire Steel Rod

Recently we placed a bulk order for the Magnesium Fire Steel and to our surprised it was a different kind of fire steel was sent to us, comparing to the fire steel we had before, it was much lighter and it did not contained much magnesium. We also found out there were a few sellers on the internet offering the wrong info on the fire steel. So beware of those cheap deals.

Petzl e+LITE

Petzl e+LITE, the "e" stands for "emergency" is designed for use in any situation. It is ultra-lightweight, comes in a hard case and can easily be stored with its batteries in a backpack, jacket or emergency kit up to 10 years. It provides white or red lighting in continuous or blinking mode and can easily be attached with its elastic band and clip.