30 Days of Light

   

   To have 30 days of light from one lantern...yeah right.  No...seriously, 30 days of LED illumination from 3 'D' size batteries.  The eGear 30 Day Lantern is impressive, with three different power settings it can be as bright or as dim as you need it. 

Bear Grylls Survival Gear

    So...yeah, please don't be mad...we missed Weapons Wednesday.  So, in its place here is Fundamentals Friday!  We'll be looking at Bear Grylls gear.  This guy is pretty crazy, I thoroughly enjoy his show (even though he has a camera crew).  He has participated in some insane survival situations and captured them for all of us to enjoy.  Due to his huge success he has been lucky enough to get some great sponsers that use his name to sell some pretty great gear.  The two biggest names are Gerber and Craghoppers.

Batteries Not Required...

     Batteries this and plug in that...majority of what we use requires a power source of some kind to keep it operational as well as convenient.  When it comes to light, many of us just flick a switch or click on a button and walah...light! (is that how you spell walah?)  What do you do when there is no power?  Batteries only last so long unless you can recharge them (cough...solar panels...cough).  But, for thousands of years candles, in some shape or form, have been a source for illumination.

Leatherman Skeletool

 

     Yeah, I know, its 'another' multi-tool; but when traveling lite you need something that can tackle tough jobs while remaining small.  The Leatherman Skeletool weighs in at a mere 5 ounces and it has multiple tools and ways of carrying it.  Tools include a knife blade (1/2 serrated), pliers w/ wire cutter, bottle opener, 1x flat head bit w/ two different sizes and 1x philips bit w/ two different sizes. You can carry it by the carabiner clip or by the pocket clip. They are also very modestly priced at around $40.
      I've personally had one for a little over 5 years and its never left my pocket.  The one time the bit holder spring stopped working I called up Leatherman, sent them my old one, and they sent me a new one.  Their 25 year warranty is amazing.  So buy one today carry for the good times and carry it for the bad...I'm sure the blade could slice off a few Zombie ears for your trophy necklace (yes, that was a Walking Dead reference.  TKZ_out.

Hide and go BANG...

 
    When thinking of the Walking Dead guys...and girls, we constantly think of ourselves...how selfish. It seems we would constantly be in defense mode trying to hide and hole up somewhere 'safe'.  What if we swapped our play?  Switched the whole game around and took the offense?  What if the Zombies were afraid of Humans? (yes I know, that means their brains would work but go with me on this).  Our tactics would need to be calculated and intelligent.  Sniping seems to become a golden opportunity due to sound bouncing off of its landscape.  You may be in an urban environment or the wilderness, a sniper blends with his surroundings, never moving, barely breathing...I introduce you to the Ghillie suit.

Kobalt 150 Lumen Tactical Flashlight

    

    When the lights go off in a power outage what do you do?...Grab a flashlight.  When you're in a tent in a field or sleeping in a tree and you hear some undead walking around...what do you grab?  Weapon should be your answer, but you also need LIGHT!  I have a strong feeling we will be featuring dozens of various flashlights, head lamps and lanterns throughout the 50 or so years this blog will be around, but tonight I want to talk about one I own and use all the time; the Kobalt 150 Lumen Compact Flashlight .  

Safe, clean drinking water.

If you find yourself in a situation (specifically a zombie apocalypse) where the drinking water is questionable, you have several options when it comes to making your water safe and clean.  There are water filtration systems, purification tablets, UV lights and the old stand-by... boiling it.  All of these options work and all have there place.  So here's a quick primer on making water safe to drink.

Solar Powered... err... Power

Xantrex XPower Powerpack Solar 400

As I had mentioned in my last post, when the "you know what" hits the fan, all I'm worried about it is how I will charge my iPhone… and iPad… and camera… and, well you get the picture.  When it comes to portable power, I love solar.  It's free, it's clean and it's always available… except at night… and when it's overcast. 

Last August, Hurricane Irene hit New Jersey and caused quite a bit of damage.  While I do realize that this was a tiny event compared to say a Katrina or Hurricane Andrew, this was still a big storm for New Jersey standards. About 9pm on Saturday night (August 27th), before the real heavy winds kicked up we lost our power.  Boom!  That quick we found ourselves in the dark… really dark.  There were no street lights, no moonlight, nothing but complete darkness.  Of course we had flashlights and candles ready, but we weren't prepared for three days of it… or were we? (of course we were.)