Friday, November 30, 2012

Whoda Thunk, Part 2

And in the spirit of yesterday's post on the survival usages of the tampon, I give you this - again from our creative friends at Willow Haven Outdoor.

11 Ways A Condom Can Save Your Life: Multi-functional survival uses for a CONDOM.

November 28, 2012 By Creek 14 Comments

I’ve just come out of hibernation from writing another survival book (details to come soon). I really need a fun ‘creative’ and not too serious survival project. I figure since my SURVIVAL TAMPON post went over so well (did you know I was featured on the OFFICIAL TAMPAX FACEBOOK PAGE – my Mom was so proud) I would keep this project in the same spirit. Hope you enjoy.

Including CONDOMS in survival kits is not a new idea. People have been packing them in mini survival kits for as long as I can remember – using them primarily as an expandable WATER CONTAINER. Don’t worry, I’ll get into details later. While a little taboo, I’ll ask that you set aside any preconceived notions you might have about condoms. In this post, I’ll argue that as far as multi-functional survival uses are concerned, the condom offers an incredible BANG for your buck. Sorry – I couldn’t resist.

I’ll break down the many uses within each CORE SURVIVAL CATEGORY.

WATER

As I’ve mentioned, including condoms in survival kits is not a new idea. They make amazing compact water containers that can hold as much as 2 liters of water if handled properly. They are, after all, designed to be water tight. The elasticity of latex condoms is SHOCKING.

These little suckers will stretch to sizes that will surprise you. Check out how big this one got?

However, while it excels in elasticity, it lacks in durability. The thin latex walls are very susceptible to sharp objects and puncture. Especially when filled with water, the slightest prick (even from a blade of grass) will split it open almost instantly. Then, you’ve lost your water AND your container. No fear – there is a strategy for carrying water in a condom. The easiest I’ve found it to take off your sock and fill the condom inside of your sock. Not only does the sock provide stability but it also provides protection. It still needs to be coddled like a little baby but it’s not AS delicate. Other options are to wrap it in a t-shirt and even fill it inside a backpack or helmet. It helps to stretch the condom a little bit first – kind of like you do when getting ready to blow up a balloon. Condom balloon animals anyone?

A Condom is easier to fill when water is falling into it versus just sweeping it through the water. In nature, if you can find a little water fall or fast moving water it will make your life a lot easier. Tie the mouth of the condom off around a stick about the diameter of your thumb. This way, you can fairly easily untie it. Just knotting it off with no stick makes it very difficult to open back up again. You may need to use it over and over again so don’t rush it.

Just because you’ve collected and contained water doesn’t mean it’s OK to drink. Once your condom is full, you must now consider purification options. Boiling is not an option unless you have a metal container. But, maybe you have a metal container and you’re just using the the condom to transport MORE water from point A to point B. If so, great. If not, you can purify the water chemically with Iodine, Bleach (Chlorine) or store bought water purification tablets. Learn how to purify water with bleach in this POST I WROTE HERE. If you are packing condoms in a small survival kit, be sure to include a handful of purification tablets for a complete water purification system. Need some great water purification tablets? I sell some HERE for only $7.98. Stocking stuffer anyone? I can see it now, a box of condoms and some water purification tabs sticking out of a Christmas stocking. There’s something just not right about that picture.

FIRE

The most obvious way to use a condom to aid in survival fire is to protect DRY fire tinder. Just because the weather is great NOW doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way. Finding dry fire tinder in wet and rainy conditions can be very difficult. Protecting dry fire tinder during inclement weather is very easy – when you have a condom. Simply stuff the condom with your best tinder and tuck it away for a rainy day. No rocket science here.

One condom even protects this entire bracket fungus – which contains a load of excellent natural tinder.

The condom ITSELF also makes excellent fire tinder. With an open flame such as a match or cigarette lighter, a latex condom will ignite almost instantaneously and burn furiously for several minutes – allowing you plenty of time to build your fire. Below is a quick video I shot to demonstrate how well a latex condom burns:

But what if you don’t have an ignition source? Fire requires 3 elements: IGNITION SOURCE (HEAT), FUEL and OXYGEN. If you don’t have matches or a ferro rod, then I guess you can fill the condom with water and use it as a magnifying glass on a sunny day like this guy did:

Anyone ever tried this? It’s fall here in Indiana and the sun isn’t hot enough this time of year to make it work but you can guarantee next summer I’ll try it. But, I’m not going to let NO SUN stop me from getting a fire by using a condom so I resorted to a more primitive method – the thumb loop hand drill. The hand drill is probably the hardest of all primitive fire starting methods. Without practice, it can be very difficult to get the right combination of pressure and spindle speed to generate enough heat to create an ember. However, thumb loops really help facilitate this process. Thumb loops allow the user to apply more pressure on the spindle and also spin their hands in pretty much one place. Below is a video of how I used condom thumb loops to help generate a coal with a hand drill set.

I also used a handful of condoms as a engine for a traditional Bow Drill Fire Set. Notice in the video below that the condom engine replaces the typical BOW in BOW Drill. I call this the CONDOM DRILL FIRE by FRICTION SET:

Any other ways you can think of to start a fire using a condom?

FOOD

Seriously, how can a condom provide you with survival food? In more ways than you might think actually…

I’m a huge fan of sling shots. I’ve been working on a small game hunting post featuring sling shots for several months and this was the perfect opportunity to test out an idea I had – the Condom Small Game Hunter Sling Shot. Sounds funny, right? Condoms aren’t that much different from the latex bands that come stock with most small game hunting sling shots. Remember, your ability to improvise is your most valuable survival skill!

I started my build with a natural tree fork.

After a little detailing and carving I ended up with a nice little pocket sized Sling Shot Frame.

Next, I used 3 condoms on each fork to provide the force necessary to kill small game. I put the condoms inside each other with a little wad of cattail fuzz at the bottom and used duct tape to hold each condom band on the frame. The wad of cattail fuzz prevents the condoms from pulling out of the duct tape.

I decided rather than launch imperfect rocks with a leather pouch, I would use a loop of bank line as a anchor point to nock a hand-carved mini dart. I wrapped the other end of the condoms around the loop of bank line and again duct taped it in place.

Below is a maple branch I used to carve some of the mini dart projectiles.

As you can see, some of the darts are tipped with a Honey Locust thorn using Pine Pitch. It’s not necessary, but I’m really digging how deadly these darts look, aren’t you? To see how I make an all natural Pine Pitch Glue, read THIS POST.

Those are some sick looking little arrows aren’t they? I know what you’re thinking. Cool looking sling-shot, but there’s no way you can actually kill small game with it in a survival scenario. Oh, ye of little faith.

In the 1 minute video below, you can see the condom sling shot in action.

FIRST AID

Worse case scenario, a condom can be used as a crude rubber glove while dealing with any first aid related issues. It will protect the wound from your nasty hands as well as protect you from the wound if you’re dealing with someone else.

MISCELLANEOUS

Protect Your Muzzel

I’ve heard 1st hand accounts from soldiers who’ve attended courses at Willow Haven that they used condoms to protect their rifles while serving in the Middle East. They would cover the muzzle of their rifle to prevent sand/mud/water from getting inside – very simple and effective.

Fishing Bobber

While there are many natural options for a fishing bobber, a make-shift condom bobber is pretty darn effective. I’ve found that rather than just tying off an air bubble in the condom, it works a little better if you stuff in some cattail fluff (called ‘cattail down’) instead. Cattail down is naturally buoyant and also water-resistant so it’s the perfect bobber filling. Did you know that life-jackets used to be filled with cattail down before synthetic materials were invented? You may need to know that if you ever want to construct a survival life-jacket! The cattail down adds a little weight to prevent your bobber from just blowing around in the wind.

Companionship

Anyone ever seen CAST AWAY with Tom Hanks? Remember his little buddy WILSON? I’ve got a survival companion too. I just call him Lil’ Cody. He debuted in the sling shot video above when I put a mini-arrow through his face. He’ll keep you company when you are alone, starving and freezing in the woods while trying to make a Condom Sling Shot.

I have to say, I did feel a little pressure to perform when he was watching me carve out the Condom Hand Drill set below. I always do better in front of an audience anyway. I think there’s something to this “WILSON” idea.

Ok, so what did I miss? What other survival uses for a condom can YOU think of? And, what’s NEXT? What is another product we can brainstorm for survival functions?

Remember, it’s not IF but WHEN,

Creek

PS – Buy non-lubricated & no spermicide condoms.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Whoda Thunk?

From Willow Haven Outdoor, a fabulous resource for preparedness and survival skills.

Yes, that’s a Tampon in my mouth : The Swiss Army Survival Tampon : 7 Survival Uses

March 27, 2012 By Creek 36 Comments

Do me a favor for the next 5 minutes. Try to forget everything you know about a TAMPON. I know, it’s hard. But pretend that this is the first time you have ever seen or heard of the item below and it is a new survival product on the market: the Tactical Adventure Medical Preparedness Outdoors Necessity (T.A.M.P.O.N.)

All kidding aside, a TAMPON really does have a ton of uses to a survivor. One could even argue to include a couple in your survival kit. Ultimately, I’ll let you be the judge.

Before I get into the details of this post, a brief history of the tampon might surprise you.

The tampon is actually regulated in the US by the Food & Drug Administration as a Class II Medical Device. The word ‘tampon’ is a derivative of the French word tampion which means “a piece of cloth to stop a hole”. My research indicates that tampons were used as early as the 19th century as battle dressings to plug bullet holes. It wasn’t until later that they were used as a feminine product. There are even accounts of tampons being used as wound plugs in modern warfare. A friend of mine told me that it’s not uncommon for Army Medics to carry tampons in their med kits. Tampons are sterile and come very well packaged in their own water proof container. This only adds to their survival utility.

I’ve high-lighted a few survival uses below:

TAMPON Survival Use # 1: Medical Bandage

Not only are these little tactical bandages packaged in a waterproof sleeve, but they are designed to be ultra absorbent – making them the perfect first aid bandage. They can be taped or tied over a wound as an improvised dressing. And, as I’ve already mentioned, they can be used to plug a bullet hole until more detailed medical attention can be administered. Accounts of this use date back to World War I. Many items in modern society were first developed as a facet of military research – tampons being a prime example. The internet being another. The list goes on and on.

TAMPON Survival Use # 2: Crude Water Filter

Another excellent tampon survival use is as a Crude Water Filter. While it will not filter out biological, chemical or heavy metal threats, it can certainly be used to filter out sediments and floating particulates. This would be considered a 1st Phase Filter and can drastically increase the life and efficacy of your main water filter. You can also use a filter like this before boiling to filter out larger particulates. In this example, I’ve pushed a tampon into the neck of an empty water bottle. I poked a small hole in the cap and then poured in dirty water to filter through the tampon and into the container below.

The water dripped out nearly crystal clear.

TAMPON Survival Use # 3: Fire Tinder

Nearly everyone knows that cotton makes an excellent fire tinder. When the dry cotton fibers of a tampon are pulled apart and hit with a spark or flame it will burst into a nice steady fire. If you’ve done the right amount of fire prep-work you can easily split 1 tampon into 3 or 4 fire starting tinder bundles. Add in some chap-stick or petroleum jelly and you’ve got an even better fire starting tinder.

TAMPON Survival Use # 4: Crude Survival Straw Filter

Yes, I have a tampon in my mouth – don’t laugh. As a last ditch water filter, you can make an improvised Survival Straw from the plastic housing and cotton from a tampon. As you can see in the photos below, just tear off a bit of the cotton and stuff it into the plastic housing. I find it better to leave a little bit sticking out to make the housing pieces wedge tightly together.

Again, this filter will not PURIFY your water by removing biological, chemical or heavy metal threats but it will filter out sediments and particulates. This would be a last ditch effort if no methods of water purification were available.

TAMPON Survival use # 5: Wick for Improvised Candle

In the photo above I used the string on a tampon as a wick in an improvised candle which I made from rendered animal fat and a fresh water mussel shell I found down by the creek at Willow Haven. After the string soaked up some of the fat, this candle burned solid for 20 minutes while I took the photos and still had plenty of wick left. Pine sap would have also worked as a fuel.

TAMPON Survival Use # 6: Cordage

The string attached to a tampon is a cotton twisted cord typically made up of several 4-6″ pieces of twine. Though it’s not much, it is usable cordage. This amount of cordage could easily be used to make a Paiute Deadfall Trap.

I’m sure there are also numerous other uses for small amounts of quality cordage. For example, I also use this cordage in the next Survival Use below…

TAMPON Survival Use # 7: Blow Dart Fletching

The Blow Gun certainly has it’s place in survival history. From Native Americans to tribes in New Guinea, the Blow Gun and primitive darts have put food on the table for 1000s of years. They are silent and deadly hunting tools – especially for small game. Oftentimes, especially here in the US, natural cotton was used as Blow Dart Fletching. Thus, the cotton from a Tampon is a perfect candidate to make cotton fletched blow darts. I used the string on the tampon to lash it into place on this bamboo skewer.

Watch out BIRDS & LIZARDS – you may get shot by a tampon fletched blow dart! For a great article about how to make natural cotton fletched blow darts check out this page: http://sensiblesurvival.org/2011/05/14/make-a-cotton-fletched-blow-dart/

CONCLUSION

So what did you decide? In the kit or not in the kit? The only part of the tampon that I didn’t mention was the wrapper/packaging. What uses can you think of for it? Or, are there more uses that I didn’t mention….? Below are a couple shots of the wrapper.

If nothing else, this post is another lesson in the importance of looking at every day products through the eyes of a survivalist. Creativity and innovation are critical.

Remember, it’s not IF but WHEN,

Creek

PS – Was talking to another friend of mine yesterday, Bill Szabo, who happens to be a medic in the National Guard. He also confirmed that it’s common practice to include tampons in military field medic bags and confirmed that he has 2 in his medic kit for emergency use.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

DIY Waterer Heater for Chickens

The Chicken Chick authors an award winning blog on life with chickens, farm living, DIY projects and tons of related topics. She's Kathy Shea Mormino and her blog van be found at The Chicken Chick. The following is a DIY waterer heater, quite timely for many of us who are starting to have freezing temps. All credit for this post goes to Kathy Mormino.

NOV 15, 2011

Make a Cookie Tin Waterer Heater. Under $10, & 10 minutes in 3 steps!

Winter brings many challenges for the backyard chicken-keeper, and frozen water is chief among them. You can make your own waterer heater for use with either metal or plastic waterers. It will cost less than $10, cost pennies to run and you can complete the project in under ten minutes.

We had record-breaking, sub-zero temperatures for long periods of time in 2010 here in Connectictut and my waterers never iced over the way they used to without these heaters. It doesn't seem as though a humble, 40 watt lightbulb should be able to produce enough warmth to keep the water in a plastic waterer from icing over, but remarkably, it does!

Supplies needed:

10", metal cookie tin (available at most dollar & thrift stores & likely in your garage or basement)
lamp assembly kit (available at all hardware, big box and home improvement centers OR buy a thrift store/tag sale lamp and take it apart)
40 watt, incandescent light bulb
Drill with 3/8" drill bit

10" cookie tins can be purchased for $1 or less (or full of cookies for about $5!)

Lamp assembly parts.

Instructions:
1. Drill two holes in the cookie tin adjacent to each other. String the lamp assembly plug through one hole and the threaded, lamp stem through the other as shown below.

2. Tighten the screw on the stem of the lamp assembly and screw in the light bulb. Viola!

TO USE:

Put the top on the cookie tin and place the tin on a cinder block either inside the coop or outside in the run. Plug into a GFI outlet. Place metal or plastic waterer on top of the water heater when freezing temperatures are anticipated. Disconnect when not in use or use a ThermoCube to regulate power based upon temperature.

When I made my first cookie tin water heater, I found it difficult to believe that this device, which barely felt warm to the touch, could possibly do the intended job. I was only convinced the first frigid morning I went out into the run and found no ice ring to chip out of the waterer. You may have to try it to believe it too.

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This post is shared with: The Original Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop @Deborah Jean's Dandelion House, The Backyard Farming Connection, Down Home Blog Hop, Homestead Barn Hop @The Prairie Homestead, The Country Homemaker Hop

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