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Outfitting a basic firstaid kit The following items should be considered when outfitting a basic first-aid kit: 1 elastic-roll bandage Aspirin or ibuprofen Adhesive tape Alcohol swabs Antacid Antihistamine Antiseptic ointment Adhesive bandages, assorted sizes Bug repellent Bulb irrigating syringe Butterfly bandages Chemical...

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Freeze-Drying food at homeFreeze-Drying food at home You probably don't have a good vacuum chamber at home, but you almost certainly have a refrigerator. If you don't mind waiting a week you can experiment with freeze drying at home using your freezer. For this experiment you will need a tray, preferably one that is perforated. If you have something like a cake-cooling...

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Food Storage In The HomeFood Storage In The Home WHO SHOULD HAVE A FOOD STORAGE PROGRAM? We never know what emergency may befall us during which we may not be able to obtain food or drink. The emergency may be loss of job or inability to work due to accident or illness. This may result in a situation where financial resources to purchase food would not be available...

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Companion PlantingCompanion Planting The following is a list of vegetable and herbs which grow well together and protect one another from insect attack. Many herbs are natural insect repellents that can keep your garden bug free and reduce or eliminate the need for potentially harmful pesticides. By using Companion Planting, many gardeners are discovering...

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CachingCaching What is "caching"? Simply, it is hiding a quantity of supplies that you might need in the future. Speaking as a person who has placed numerous caches under many different circumstances, this method is the best. Some things to be aware of : My caches are made of either 6" or 8" diameter SDR35 PVC pipe (it is a bit...

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Make Your Own Babywipes

Category : Equipment

3095909128_ecb5b1fdcaYou can make your own baby wipes. You can use something like paper towels if you just want to control what’s on the wipe and for budget reasons.

Or use cloth baby wipes (which can be washed along with your diapers).
When you use homemade baby wipes recipes you can either make your wipes solution in a bottle or put it right in the wipes container.
If you put it directly into the container your wipes are ready to go as soon as you need them. You may need to change your wipes every day using this method if you find they smell musty.
If you want to put the solution into a small bottle find an inexpensive spray bottle. You can find small ones in the health and beauty section of most drug stores or beauty supply stores. When you need to wipe your baby wet your cloth wipe with warm water and then give a spritz or two of your wipes solution.
You can keep a small container with a tight-fitting lid filled partway with water at your changing station if it is not near a sink. Then have your wipes stacked up and your wipes solution next to the water container at the changing table.

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Camping Bag Preparations

Category : Communications, Equipment, First Aid, Food, General Info, Shelter, Water

I am preparing for a camping trip in the next month or so. This is going to be a primitive camping trip with at least 2, maybe 4 people in Ocala National Forest. This is to be 4 days, with nothing but what we have on our backs. Right now we’re getting gear together to work on practicing skills, enjoying the weather..etc. I’ve been camping with these guys before, but generally its on a defined camp site, within short walk if any walk at all to a freshwater spigot, toilets, parking..etc.  This time we just want to go out further into the sticks. Right now we’re looking at a couple different trails, the smallest one being 8 miles, but the longest one being something like 24 miles.

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Minnesota National Guard Counter Sniper School – Sniper Training

Category : General Info

sniper2You have one shot, one scoped sight, one compressed controlled breath, one squeeze of a honed trigger.  In twenty one-hundredths of a second, you will be either a “hero” who saved an innocent life or an incompetent who caused the death of a helpless hostage.  Fellow officers, department officials and city administrators await the sound of your rifle.  Possibly, the entire Nation sits riveted to television sets for news of the outcome.  Life or death, success or failure, is only one
sensitive squeeze away.
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Kunapajala – A Liquid Organic Manure of Antiquity

Category : Equipment, Food, General Info

seaweed-extract-powder-250x250The dictionary meaning of the Sanskrit word kunapa is “smelling like a dead body, stinking”. The manure kunapambu or kunapajala (jala=water), which was prepared and used since the ancient times in India, was appropriately named
because it involved fermentation of the animal remains, such as flesh, marrow, etc. Documented references to kunapajala are found in two possibly contemporary documents, viz., Vrikshayurveda by Surapala, who possibly lived around 1000 AD in eastern India and Lokopakara compiled by a poet Chavundaraya in 1025 AD in Karnataka in southern India. While Chavundaraya did not give details of preparation, he suggests use of kunapajala in several situations for improving tree growth, flowering, and fruiting. In Vrikshayurveda of Surapala, we find the following verses (Sadhale, 1996).

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BUYING EXPLOSIVES AND PROPELLANTS

Category : Equipment, General Info

Almost any city or town of reasonable size has a gun store and one or more pharmacies. These are two of the places that potential terrorists visit in order to purchase explosive material.  All that one has to do is know something about the non- explosive uses of the materials.  Black powder, for example, is used in blackpowder firearms.  It comes in varying “grades”, with each different grade being a slightly different size.  The grade of black powder depends on what the calibre of the gun that it is used in; a fine grade of powder could burn too fast in the wrong caliber weapon.  The rule is: the smaller the grade, the faster the burn rate of the powder.

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Wilderness survival techniques and tips

Category : Equipment, General Info

Survival equipmentGeneralized awareness of the skills needed to survive in a wilderness situation. Whether you are simply going camping at a commercial campground, taking a short hike, or backpacking into a pristine wilderness area… be prepared. Never
leave to chance those few articles that may become lifesavers. Above all, always let someone know your itinerary and the time you plan to return. The following is a list of items that should be included in a basic survival kit:

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U.S. Army Survival Manual Requirements for Health

Category : Communications, Equipment, First Aid, Food, General Info, Shelter, Water

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To survive, you need water and food. You must also have and apply high personal hygiene standards.

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U.S. Army Manual on the Psychology of Survival

Category : Equipment, General Info

Psychology4aIt takes much more than the knowledge and skills to build shelters, get food, make fires, and travel without the aid of standard navigational devices to live successfully through a survival situation. Some people with little or no survival training have managed to survive life-threatening circumstances. Some people with survival training have not used their skills and died. A key ingredient in any survival situation is the mental attitude of the individual(s) involved. Having survival skills is important; having the will to survive is essential. Without a desk to survive, acquired skills serve little purpose and invaluable knowledge goes to waste. There is a psychology to survival. The soldier in a survival environment faces many stresses that ultimately impact on his mind. These stresses can produce thoughts and emotions that, if poorly understood, can transform a confident, well-trained soldier into an indecisive, ineffective individual with questionable ability to survive. Thus, every soldier must be aware of and be able to recognize those stresses commonly associated with survival. Additionally, it is imperative that soldiers be aware of their reactions to the wide variety of stresses associated with survival. This chapter will identify and explain the nature of stress, the stresses of survival, and those internal reactions soldiers will naturally experience when faced with the stresses of a real-world survival situation. The knowledge you, the soldier, gain from this chapter and other chapters in this manual, will prepare you to come through the toughest times alive.
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Disaster Medical Operations

Category : Equipment, First Aid

Most disasters are relatively unexpected, endanger lives and health, and overwhelm existing emergency resources.  These elements lead to some basic assumptions about disaster medical operations:

The number of victims will exceed local capacity for treatment.

Survivors will assist others.  They will do whatever they know how to do, although it cannot be assumed that most people know lifesaving first aid or post-disaster survival techniques.

The American College of Surgeons has described three phases of death due to trauma:

Phase 1.  Death within minutes due to overwhelming and irreversible damage to vital organs.

 Phase 2.  Death within several hours due to excessive bleeding.

Phase 3.  Death in several days or weeks due to infection or multiple-system failure (i.e., not from the injury per se).

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BASE CAMP HYGIENE AND HEALTH

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Category : Equipment, First Aid, General Info

jackies-16-300x225Consistent efforts to maintain a high standard of hygiene will contribute to a lower incidence of gastrointestinal problems and prevent the loss of working person-hours during an expedition. “Be obsessional about camp hygiene.” Routine in camp life pays great dividends and responsibility for hygiene, cleaning and safety chores may have to be organized by a strict rota to ensure that standards are maintained throughout the project.

If you cannot help in the choice of a site for base camp, you should at least be aware of its characteristics and therefore any risks and hazards it presents. In planning the layout of the camp, particular attention should be given to the following:

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