#2When you’re shopping for solar landscape lights, concentrate your search on the ones that use AA batteries. You can then let these lights do double duty. Use some of them to provide light in your home at night and others to charge your own rechargeable AA batteries. As with any solar-powered system, it does most of the work for you. Just let it sit in the sun all day long and it will provide you with needed power through the night.

#3The solar lights should be installed outside in such a way that it is easy to take them down to bring indoors after dark. Some solar landscape lights incorporate some sort of stake that is driven into the ground. Those work well if you put them into large pots of soil on the patio or deck as they’ll be easy to pull from the dirt and bring inside. Otherwise, look for solar lights that hang on fence posts, like the one pictured. They easily lift from the post to be brought indoors.

MILK JUG LANTERN

Headlamps are possibly even more useful than flashlights. Gone are the days when headlamps were heavy and hot. Today, they use LED bulbs and small batteries. As a result, they are lighter and brighter than ever. However, there are times when you don’t really need a bright light shining in front of you, but instead you just need some ambient light in the room. Oil lanterns are great for that purpose, but you can achieve the same effect quickly if you have an old milk jug.

MATERIALS

LED headlamp

Plastic milk jug

#1Make sure the milk jug is empty and clean. Fill the jug with water, then wrap the headlamp strap around the jug so the lamp portion faces into the jug. Turn on the headlamp and away you go.

#2The opaqueness of the jug combined with the water is what allows for such a cool, glowing effect.

SURVIVAL KITS

Fair warning: Building survival kits can be rather addictive. It is quite fun to figure out different ways to provide for your basic needs, all with an eye toward reducing size, weight, and cost of the kit’s components.

At the most basic level, a survival kit is a portable assemblage of items that will meet basic needs during a crisis.

In this section, we’re going to talk about three basic kits. Keep in mind, though, that your kits don’t have to look exactly like the ones illustrated. In fact, if they do, you’ve made a critical error in judgment. The kits shown in the next several pages were designed specifically for me. They take into account my skill sets, budget, and overall situation. Your kits should be customized for your individual needs and abilities.

There are several categories of needs that any survival kit should satisfy. Depending upon the size of the kit, it might not be possible to cover all of the categories, of course. That’s when it is time to prioritize.

Categories of needs:

Water

Food

Shelter

Medical

Fire

Hygiene

Navigation

Light

Signaling

Of these nine categories, the most important ones in the majority of survival scenarios are shelter, fire, and signaling. Hypothermia is a very real danger, even in mild weather conditions. Therefore, it is important to get out of the elements and stay warm. Having something with you for signaling is also desirable. Anything you can do to help rescuers find you will work in your favor.

Naturally, the exact situation at hand will dictate what needs to happen after you’ve gotten out of the rain or snow. If you’re injured, addressing your wounds will take priority over signaling for help. However, if there’s a helicopter immediately overhead, getting the pilot’s attention would trump putting a bandage on your blistered foot.

A number of great books have been written on the subject of survival kits. Two that I particularly recommend are Build the Perfect Survival Kit (2nd Edition) by John D. McCann and Build the Perfect Bug Out Bag by Creek Stewart.

ALTOIDS TIN SURVIVAL KIT

I have to be honest with you, I’m not a big fan of mini kits. They do serve a purpose, thus the inclusion of one in this book. The problem is, they can offer a false sense of security. The purpose of a mini kit like this one is to allow you to easily carry a small amount of survival gear pretty much anywhere. It isn’t a pack you’ll have to lug around or a heavy belt pouch. The mini kit fits in your pocket and is often no larger than a thick wallet.

The kit we’re illustrating here is one using an Altoids tin as the container. I’ve seen kits as small as a prescription pill bottle, too. Obviously, you can’t carry a ton of stuff in these mini kits, so you need to focus on the absolute bare essentials. Your selection of gear should also take your own skills and circumstances into account. No two kits should ever be absolutely identical.

IN MY ALTOIDS TIN SURVIVAL KIT, I HAVE:

A small folding knife

LED flashlight

Adhesive bandages

Signal whistle

Pouch of medications (ibuprofen, caffeine, antidiarrheal)

Small brown vial containing water purification tablets

Small butane lighter

Button compass

#1Not very much at all in the way of supplies, but with this kit I can signal for help, treat water to make it potable, light a fire, take care of stomach upset, and, using the knife, make additional tools or assemble a primitive shelter for the night.

#2I would never consider this kit to be my primary tool for survival, though. It is kept in my pocket as a backup to a larger kit that I’d hopefully have with me.

WORKPLACE EMERGENCY KIT

Disasters can strike at any time and in any place. The crisis need not be some sort of major, life-changing calamity either. It could be as simple as a bad storm leaving you stranded at work for the night. Here’s the thing, folks. Few people would truly relish the idea of spending a single minute more at work than is absolutely necessary. But if it were a choice between spending the night at my desk or in a ditch, I’d be curling up in my office chair.

The Workplace Emergency Kit isn’t designed to meet your every need for days on end. It is meant to get you through a night or so, that’s it. The kit is small enough to fit under a desk or in a locker without any trouble. It would be best to store the kit at work, rather than just in your trunk. That way, you won’t have to worry about forgetting it at home or transporting it back and forth all the time.

With this kit, the focus isn’t so much on pure survival as it is on making you comfortable for the evening. After all, odds are you’ll have a roof over your head and you won’t be worried about people rescuing you. With that in mind, here are my recommendations for the workplace emergency kit.

FLASHLIGHT. If the power were to go out, you’d definitely want a light, if for nothing else than to help you navigate to and from the bathroom. The flashlight doesn’t need to be exceptionally expensive, but it should be durable. Face it, you will drop it at least once or twice. You want it to be robust enough that it won’t fall apart after it hits the floor accidentally. Streamlight makes a pretty nifty flashlight that charges from a USB port on your computer. You could leave it plugged in to charge every day, then grab it when you need it. Otherwise, keep an extra set of the appropriate batteries for your flashlight in your kit.