Burning Bright: Construction of a Tin Can Lantern

Last week we finished up our compass series and I said we would be talking about candles. This week I have prepared a craft relevant to this subject that is very important bushcraft, and, it is relatively cheap to make. This week, we will be making tin can lanterns. Now this has many uses for bushcraft and I am basically going to make my sales pitch for why I think Candle should be one of the C's. In addition to providing heat, it also provides lighting. When I did my camp with items from just the first 5 C's, there would times I would want to be reading, but I was completely at the mercy of the sun. The sun would set around 7-8 pm and with 8 hours of sleep that would have me waking up at 4 am, which is not great. With a lantern I could read, write, twist cord, sharpen arrows, construct a trap, or basically anything that I could do to prepare for camp the next day even after the sun goes down. Instead of building a campfire for light and expending all that fuel, a lantern provides enough light while using little fuel. Just wax, tallow, or any lipid substance.

The first item we need to make our tin can lanterns is a tin can. Specifically a can with a sealed top, not one of the "pop top" cans. The walls of these are weaker and they will split when you fill them up and freeze them, but we'll get to that later. The other thing is corn. Corn is not a mushy vegetable and won't get stuck when we cut a hole in the bottom to drain out what's inside. Mushy vegetable like peas  will get stuck and are a mess to clean out. You will need a hammer and nail, some type of snips to cut the can with (I got mine at Walmart and paid $5-7 for a pack of 3), a bowl to catch the corn, and a towel to protect your work space.

The first step is to use the hammer and nail to poke holes in the bottom of the can in the shape of a circle. We will then use the snips to cut out that circle shape, and drain the contents of the can into the bowl. An important thing to note here is that you should not consume the food that comes out of the can. There is a possibility that a piece of metal could have gotten in and contaminated the food. Please, do not eat this food. The next thing we are going to do is fill the can with water and freeze it for 24 hours. By freezing water inside the can, the ice braces it so that the can does not dent when you hit the nail into it. To make your design, your are going to poke holes and make  a sort of "connect the dots" image. You won't be able to get much detail, but what you can do is use bigger holes for the main points of the image, and use smaller holes to guide the eye and fill out the image a bit more. There are two ways you can do this. I actually drew out a star and traced the image over the can by making holes, but I wasn't too pleased with the outcome. This time, I am going to free hand.

After making your design (I made the Viking rune for fire, light, etc. "Kenaz") I am going to go on either side of my design near the top of the can and make a hole on each side. This is going to be where I put the bell of my lantern. The next thing we want to do is create an opening for the candle. You can create a circle or a square; I am going to make a square because it is easier to make the square safe in my opinion. On the opposite side of the can as your design, you're going to find the middle of the two bell holes you just made, and make a hole near the BOTTOM of the can. I am then going to measure 3/4" to the left and poke a hole, and 3/4" to the right and poke a hole. This gives me a line about 1 1/2" long. The reason I have picked this length is because that is the size of candle I am going to use. I will then measure 1 1/2" up from the corners and create my square.

To melt the ice quickly, I simply place it in the sink and run hot water over the can for about five minutes. Now I can cut out the shape of the square we just outlined with the snips. Now I am going to take some steps to make the lantern safer to handle so I don't get cut on the jagged metal.  You could use a file to file down the sharp points, but I am going to use duct tape. The duct tape will heat up with a candle lit inside the lantern, but it will still stick. Plus, even if it does eventually melt away, if I have a kit made up of the 10 C's of Survivability, repairs are no problem. To make the bell I have taken a metal clothes hanger and cut a section of it about 20" long. Take one end of the clothes hanger and feed it through the two bell holes you made at the top of your can. Line them up at the top and slowly begin to fold the ends over each other. You really need to do this slowly because the hanger will crack. Once the ends are folded over, I like to wrap them in duct tape to, again, keep the ends from scratching or cutting my hand. And again if the tape were to come off repairs are easily and quickly made in the field.

And with that our lantern is finished. Just another word of warning when your lantern is lit, do not
touch the can above the top of the square as it will heat up quickly and it does get pretty hot. These lanterns are cheap and very easy to make. You can make them this way or find other methods that work for you, either way, I definitely recommend these. Next week we will be talking about flashlights, the "electronic candle." You won't want to miss it. As always feel free to comment by clicking the comment link at the end of the blog, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

me.

Beads You Can Count On: Making Ranger Beads to Aid With Navigation

Last week we talked about binoculars which are a best friend to the compass and did some survival drills with them at our local park. This week, we are going to be making a craft that is going to help us keep pace a little better on the trail, and that craft comes in the form of ranger beads. I will be showing you how to make these, as well as making ranger beads entirely out of paracord, and talking about the different kinds of ranger beads you might encounter. Lastly we'll be heading to a local walking track where I will be practicing with my ranger beads and trying to learn my pace. Let's get started.

What are ranger/pace beads? They are beads on a piece of paracord, or string, whichever you prefer, and you move the beads up once you have gone a certain distance to keep track of how far you have walked. I actually have two sets of ranger beads, one is set up to mark kilometers, and the other is set to mark miles. We will be going over the kilometer beads first because this is the one most people prefer, and are also the true ranger beads because they go by clicks. On the bottom set you have 9 beads that represent 100 meters each. After you have walked 100 meters, you will push up a bead until you have pushed up all 9 beads, which is 900 meters. Once you reach 1000 meters, you will then push up one of the 4 beads on the top set, which is one click. You will then reset your bottom set of 9 beads and start over. The mile beads are set up similarly except you have 6 on one leg, and 7 on the other. The set of 7 beads represent 1/16 of a mile each. once you have reached 8/16 of a mile and have no more beads, you move up one of your 6 beads which represents 1/2 a mile each.


If you are walking with the mile marker beads, you will be able to count 3 and just about half of a fourth mile. If you are walking with the kilometer beads, you will be able to count 4 and just about a 5th kilometer. Either way, both sets are made up of 13 beads total. If I wanted to convert my kilometer beads into mile beads, I simply undo the knot separating the two sets of beads, move two up from the set of 9 into the set of 4, and I now have a set of 7 and a set of 6. I will then re-tie the knot, being careful to leave an even amount of space and not tying it too tight so that I can't undo it later.

Now I used wooden beads for mine, but you can use regular beads if you like. My problem is, I don't especially like the beads. I notice that they tend to slip, some of them in particular are really bad for it. I wanted to make a set that wouldn't slip and I didn't want to have to worry about buying more beads. I got the idea from a video (How To Tie Paracord Ranger Beads Method 1) and the guy actually tied his paracord into beads and attached them that way. I went in a bit of a different direction with it. I simply took strips of paracord and tied them into a normal overhand knot. They slide well along the paracord they are tied off to, and they actually hold in place really well where I slide them. For my paracord ranger beads I have a set of 6, a set of 7, and a third set of 4 that I'll talk about here in a minute. Whether you have 4 and 9 or 6 and 7, you will sometimes find a set of 4 beads at the bottom called forester beads. The forester beads are meant to keep track of every 20 meters OR 22 yards. Sometimes when you walk through the woods your pace may be uneven due to the terrain, so you can use the forester beads to mark those distances. Once you move up all four forester beads, you can move up your first 1/16 of a mile marker, or your first 100 meter marker.

Let's talk about how to make one of your own. First take your length of paracord and tie a loop into the top of it. This loop serves as your means of tying it to your pack, belt, walking stick, etc. To make a loop fold your paracord over, give yourself some distance, and tie it off. Now, I like to use two different colors of paracord for this, but now I am going to start adding the strips that will be my counters. to do this, I wrap a new color of paracord around the original that we just tied a loop in, tie an overhand knot, dress it as tight as I can, and then cut it as close as possible to the knot with a knife or scissors. You will repeat tying off the strips of paracord until you had 13 beads total. Then you could separate them however you wanted, and tie a knot off between them. The next thing we need to do is some prevention to keep the ends from fraying. What I have done is taken a lit candle and held the ends of

the paracord I cut close to the flame. You do not actually have to get it into the flame or catch it on fire. If you do, just blow it out gently, no harm done. You just want to melt down the edges of the mantle and the inner string. This will keep the paracord from fraying and falling apart so you get the most use out of your ranger beads.

Our next mission is to head to our local walking track and use the ranger beads to get my pace put in. I have with me on my walk my ranger beads, a pedometer, and a paper that tells me how many steps I need to take to complete 1/16 of a mile depending on my stride. Your stride is the distance you  clear within 2 steps. Based on this, it should take me 83 steps to walk 1/16 of a mile.

After pushing up all of my forester beads I am now ready to push up my first 1/16 of a mile bead. Now it looks like I'm off this first time and was going a bit too fast so I'll try again. The problem I had was that the steps I was counting and the pedometer were not syncing up. When I should have been 1/12 of a mile in, my pedometer said I was 1/10 of a mile in. So what I tried next was resetting everything on the pedometer and trying again while watching the pedometer. Based on the pedometer it took me about 125 steps to clear the 1/16 of a mile. If I divide that into 5 for the forester beads, I'm looking at moving up a bead every 25 steps so that is something I will have to keep in mind. When I began my nature walk I counted 25 steps, moved a forester bead, and repeated that process. The trail I walked was supposed to be about 1.2 miles. At the end I think I may have been a bit overzealous. I had 1 6/16 of a mile and 44 yards. Overall my pace may still need some work to get it accurate.

It is now that time again where we add another item to our pack. This week isn't very difficult as the paracord ranger beads as the only item I used. I'm simply going to attach this to a loop that is on the right shoulder strap of my pack because I am right handed. The only problem I had was the loosening of the paracord strips. I myself am not too worried about it as I can just tighten them down, melt them in to place, or if worse comes to worse I can just replace it even in the field. Next week we will be doing a review of an all in one option, you don't want to miss it. As always feel free to comment, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

I Will Survive: Comparing the Survival Water Bottle to My EDC Kit

Last week we finished building our EDC Kit and we talked about the three characteristics we want our gear to have: familiarity, compactibility, and re-usability. We packed away all of our stuff into a fanny pack as well. We valued this kit to be about $57, however I only spent $10 on my kit for the fanny pack. The rest of my gear I already had lying around the house. I did not buy gear for this kit. This week we are doing the review. That’s right, this week we will be comparing the survival water bottle to my EDC kit.

First let’s get into the survival water bottle and see what we are getting for $20. The water bottle itself is a 1000 ml. plastic water bottle with a red carabiner attached to it. I have some black 550 paracord at the top of the water bottle, one bandage (the card says there were supposed to be three),

an aluminum carabiner with a compass and an LED flashlight. It also comes with a tiny pocket knife with a tiny nail file. The next item I remove is an orange safety whistle, and a floating compass with a container that stores matches, however, no matches were provided. The last few items are a survival blanket that reflects up to 90% body heat, an emergency poncho which I can see from the package is very thin and will not last long, (I may be able to fly it like a tarp), and an emergency sewing kit with a button and a latch pin. I am not satisfied with what I have for $20. I do not feel that it meets the criteria of 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. My final note is that repacking the bottle was extremely difficult and all of my gear was crammed back inside.

I am going to be testing the survival water bottle in the same location where I had my 3 Day Camp. I

am going to attempt to set up my shelter, start a fire, and boil water. Now, I am not going to spend all day out here trying to accomplish these tasks with this kit. If I hit a road block that I cannot overcome or at least overcome quickly, I am going to say the test is done. I am going to follow this same practice with my EDC kit as well. One flaw I am going to point out with the survival water bottle right away is that I had to dig a box of matches out of my car to add to the kit, because the kit itself did not provide them.

The first thing I did was use the paracord to suspend the plastic water bottle over the site where I am going to build my fire. I tied the paracord off to a tree, threw the length over a limb, tied a loop in it, and clipped the water bottle to the loop with the red carabiner. The goal is to get my water to boil by controlling my fire. Normally I would use a tripod to boil water, however  I do not believe I could cut down or carve one with the tools provided by this kit. This attempt failed

I used my matches to start my fire. If I had not supplied the matches I would have had absolutely no way to make fire. I could have added a lighter instead, however, the kit was designed to use matches. While setting up, the branch above me became over encumbered and fell out so I had to improvise and suspend the water bottle from a much less distance. I filled it up with 16.9 oz. of water so that it will be boiling the same amount as my EDC kit.

Unfortunately I was not able to get the water to boil. While trying to control my fire the water bottle began to melt and warp. Also the tripod type branch I was using was dry enough that it started to catch as well. I probably could have waited a little longer, but I was not satisfied with how things were going. If you don’t know how to boil water in a plastic bottle pre-emergency, you are not going to know how to do it in the actual survival situation. I’m ranking the bottle a D, not an F, because you cannot purify water in it, but it can hold a significant amount of water and that’s worth something.

For the shelter I decided to use the poncho as a moisture barrier and I used the survival blanket to wrap up in. It is very noisy and if I were to sleep like this I would definitely wake up any time I moved. Other than that it was kind of nice. I rank the shelter a C. If rain were to come I would be left completely out in the open. If I had a fire to sit next to it would be even better, however the blanket says to keep away from fire. I may even consider getting one of these for my EDC kit.

Now that we have finished testing out the survival water bottle, it is time to test out my EDC kit. Right away you will notice that there are things I can do with this kit that I couldn’t do with the other kit, and actually there is one thing that I could have done with the survival water bottle kit that I could have done, but chose not to. We will talk about why a little later.

I will be testing my EDC kit the same way I tested the survival water bottle according to the rule three hours without shelter, three days without water, and three weeks without food. My first order of business is to make a shelter. What I did was lash a branch horizontally to a tree with my bank line. Next I found some small rocks and folded them into the corners of my poncho, tied off the corner to keep them in place, and then tied the corners to the lashed branch. I took a long stick that was smaller in diameter to the one I lashed to the tree and used my 11-in-1 card to saw it in half. The stick was mostly greenwood so the 11-in-1 card had some difficulty getting the job done, but it did get the job done. Next I used my Camillus Seize to carve the two half pieces into tent stakes. I repeated the process with the stones in the bottom to corners of my poncho, attached them to the stakes, and then staked them into the ground. This results in my poncho being set up like I would my tarp.

The reason I did not do this with a survival blanket is because I was having so much trouble with the

survival water bottle kit, I just wanted to get any kind of shelter together. I absolutely think that the survival blanket could do this, and it is roughly the same size as my poncho so I think it would do it well. The only problem being with that kit, if I chose to make the survival blanket into a shelter, I would have nothing to cover up with at night. If you have a extra survival blanket in your kit I highly recommend that you try to do this. Unfortunately with the survival water bottle kit, I just don’t think it’s worth it.

With the assistance of my lovely wife, we did a weather test on the poncho. I sat underneath it with my moisture barrier, the black contractor bag I included in my kit and she prepared the water hose to spray down my shelter.  Now the water from the garden hose was a lot heavier than any rain I would typically experience, but it held up well and no water got in. The hood of the poncho faced downward and while it did move and buck with the water hitting it, it did not open up to let the water in.

Now I am going to test the abilities of the second contractor bag that I packed in my EDC kit. First I

can get into it and use it like a sleeping bag if needed. While standing the bag comes up to my arm pits, but lying down I can hunker down into it and it will retain my body heat fairly well. The next thing I am going to test is how well it holds water. I filled the bag up just enough for me to be able to lift it and also so it did not rip out the bottom of the bag. It held up well, I have plenty of contractor bag left to tie it off and store it, and all I have to do is untie it to get more water.

Speaking of water, now it is time for our boiling test. I am going to use the same amount of water as well as the same type of bottled water as I used in my previous boiling test to be fair in judging which boils better. I used my lighter in my combustion kit to light my tinder and get my fire started. After that it was just a matter of placing the metal water bottle into the fire without the plastic lid on top and waiting for it to boil.

Another thing that I want to show you my kit can do is make char cloth. The Altoids tin that is also

the container for my combustion kit can also be used to make char cloth in. Now I didn’t have any cloth packed in my EDC kit so what I did was cut a strip out of the bottom of my T-shirt, placed it in the Altoids tin, closed it, and put it in the fire. It’s as simple as that. Now I can make char cloth while I am waiting for my water to boil, which it did! To remove it safely from the fire, I used my bank line and a small stick to make a toggle, carefully slid the stick into the bottle, and lifted it gently out of the fire to cool. The char cloth actually turned out very nice as well. It blackened well and there were no white spots. Unfortunately the inside of the Altoids tin charred up pretty badly as well so I can no longer use it as a signaling device.

For my final thought, I like to think it is pretty obvious which kit is the winner, but we will still go ahead and break it down. Overall I was very pleased with the fanny pack, more so than I thought I would be. Everything I needed was at my hip and was easy to retrieve. The water bottle just did not have what you needed to survive in my opinion. I ranked the combustion kit in the survival water with a D, because I had to provide my own matches and in that kit that was the one and only way provided to make fire. For cover I ranked it a C because of the survival blanket, but I think there could have been more options in the way of cover. I gave the container a D, because I could not boil or purify water in it. It's saving grace was that I could hold a large amount of water in it. I gave the cutting tool an F, as it was pitiful. It isn't the smallest knife I have ever had, but it was definitely the worst knife I have ever had. I gave the cordage a C. It did it's job, however, I had 33ft. of  550 paracord in the bottle, yet in my kit I had 60 ft. of bank line that was much more compact. Moving on to my kit, I felt it performed above and beyond. My poncho worked very well as a cover, and I was even concerned it would rip but didn't. The contractor bags served their purpose as a moisture barrier and even held up to the task of having extra jobs, so to my cover I give an A+. My combustion kit had a rocky start, but I did have multiple ways of making fire and even created a fourth way to make fire while testing the kit so I give it an A. My container did it's job boiling water and my cordage did a fantastic job setting up my camp. I even had plenty left over. The Camillus Seize performed well in the field. I used it to clean up branches and carve stakes with ease. The 11-in-1 card had a rough start, but it did its job in the end. The final results are the Survival Water Bottle overall is ranked D, and the Fanny Pack EDC Kit is ranked A, at the lowest, maybe a B.

Next week we will be picking up where we left off two series ago. David Canterbury first started off with the 5 C's of Survivability, later he added an additional 5, which in total became the 10 C's of Survivability. We will be beginning next week with Compass. It will also be our first on location video. Make sure you don't miss out! As always feel free to comment, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

Getting Cozy Outdoors: Common Items for Sleeping in Nature

When going out to bushcraft for a night or two, I am often asked. “What do I need to bring?” To me this is too open ended. Different people like different things, and people have different needs to be met. Sometime even the environment could make a difference or the climate. Instead of asking, "What do I need to bring?" ask “What do I need to fight?” The two biggest enemies to getting a good night’s sleep outdoors is the cold ground and maintaining your core body temperature.

When talking about ground cover, David Canterbury says in Bushcraft 101 on page 106, “Any ground pad must be thick enough when compressed to battle the effects of conduction (equalization of ground temperature to the body, causing heat loss)”

If you’ve ever noticed, heat tends to disperse to try and warm everything around it. You can see this when you put a hot pot on a counter top or a trivet. The heat from the pot disperses into whatever it is sitting on. The same goes for your body temperature when you lie on the cold ground. Anything that you cover your body with will trap your body heat. This is why you wear long johns in the field or long sleeves in the winter. These clothing items keep your body heat trapped in. On the contrary, this is why we wear short sleeved clothing items in warmer weather so our body heat can escape and we don’t become overheated. Your body also needs to be inclined. There are a couple of ways you can accomplish this such as resting your head on your pack or on your arms. In other words, your head needs to be going uphill, not downhill, or lying at 180 degrees. Another important factor in maintaining body temperature is a good shelter. We talked in a previous blog about pitching a tarp as a shelter, and if pitched a particular way, it will protect from the elements as well as trap your radiating body heat inside.

In nature you can make debris beds made of leaves and straw. The material compressed should be about 4’’ thick (or the size of your fist) to prevent your body heat from seeping into the ground. You could use a pile of rocks or a bundle of sticks to incline your head. The main thing is you want it to be as smooth as possible. You could even take the rocks or sticks and place leaves or straw over top of them to make it more comfortable to rest your head on. Debris shelters are built so small and compact. The smaller the area that is on the inside of your shelter, the better it catches your body heat. Another way you could build a raised bed, is by using long branches or a hammock to get your body off of the ground. It is also important to build a big enough fire to heat your shelter and prevent loss of your core body temperature. However, since we know that we are going outdoors, we can prepare ourselves by bringing some items along so we don’t have to worry about trying to do this the natural way.

The first item that I like to take into the field is a simple inflatable pool float. I like these because they can be packed completely flat, can provide you with a pillow, can be inflated manually and there is no need to carry a pump, I purchased mine at Walmart for about $5. David Canterbury also said on the same page as the quote above, that he does not approve of these as they are susceptible to punctures. However, I believe that if you take the time to clear your site, then you won’t have any issues with setting these up.

Last week I talked about one of the only advantages tents have over tarps is that they have a floor. Not a great floor, but a floor. However, while you are camping with a tarp you can also have a floor. By using the 55 gallon contractor black garbage bags. These are about 8’ x 4’ and can serve as an extra moisture barrier so you do not have to lie on the cold ground or ruin your wool blanket. These can also be used to store debris in to make a browse bag bed. I like to carry two; this gives me 64 square feet of flooring for my tarp. These cost $10 for a pack of 17 bags. These can be purchased at Walmart where you typically find your garbage bags.

The best way to maintain your heat in the field is to use a wool blanket. They hold insulation better and are even somewhat water resistant. They could even be used as an emergency shelter, but wrapping up in them works best. The biggest downside to wool blankets is that they can overheat you if you are not careful. You can often find U.S. army and military blankets at military surplus stores; either the brick and mortar or online stores. Amazon often carries these items as well, although it is hard to find one that is over 70/30 (meaning 70% wool). I purchases both of mine on Amazon

for about $30 each.

As we talked about earlier, keeping your head inclined is very important. In the field I always bring a pillow case. This can be used as a haversack, kindling pouch, or just a dump bag, and of course you can just use it as a pillow. In case I can’t find a suitable debris in the wild, I like to use a child’s arm floaties as an inflatable pillow. You can find one pack of two floaties is only $1 at Walmart and I simply inflate them and pile them into the pillowcase to be used as a pillow.

Finally, my 8’x8’ tarp, along with 6 tent stakes and a 12’ section of paracord folded in half with me. With all of these materials I will be able to erect a tarp shelter with any setup that I choose. For this blog we will continue to use the plow point setup that we talked about in the last blog. Click here to check it out.

One of the first challenges I found in Bushcraft when I was first starting out was finding a way to carry out all of my sleeping materials. There are many different ways to organize your gear, but for this blog we will be talking about the bedroll. Bedrolls can be tricky so following these steps should help. David Caterbury talks about it in Bushcraft 101 on page 22. To begin I lay my tarp out as flat as possible and section it out into thirds; this will be important later. Next, I lay my blanket into the middle third of the tarp.

 I had to fold my blanket in half to get it to fit as well as folding in the sides. Next, I layered in my pool inflatable, my two contractor bags, my pillow and all four of the arm floats. I also added at one end the 6 tent stakes. Now fold in the other two thirds of the tarp into the middle so they overlap the gear in the center. Next lay your 12’ of rope folded in half on one end of the tarp. You will then begin to roll the tarp with this in the middle; make sure it does not come out. Once you get close to the other side, fold the open end in on itself to prevent moisture from getting in to the precious gear on the inside. Once you have your bedroll completed, you want to take the loop end of the bedroll, and have the other end on the opposite side loop through it. Pulling it together and tying a simple knot will suffice. You’re almost done! What I like to do is to take a piece of paracord about 3’ long and tie a loop into one end, then, pulling the other in through the loop and cinch down the tarp to prevent it from becoming unraveled.

In the field I basically reverse the processes. Untie everything and make sure you keep up with your cordage. Pull the wool blanket off the tarp and onto the ground and set up your tarp in any configuration you choose. Use your 12’ of paracord as a ridge line or anything else you might need to complete your setup. Next, unfold the two contractor bags and place them as the floor of your tarp. Next, it may take you a little time, but you can begin to set up your bedding by inflating your inflatable pool float. Place the wool blanket on it and fold it in half. This will allow you to wrap up in the wool blanket later when you need to. After this you can address the pillows by either filling your pillow case with debris or inflating your arm floaties. This took me about 30 minutes to get everything set up how I wanted, the longest part being inflating the floats.

That is the end for this blog. In a variety of Dave Canterbury videos he talks about how, "A sign of a great woodsmen is their ability to sleep good in the woods." I hope that this blog can help you achieve that. Next week we will be ending this series with a review of a pocket tent. You wont want to miss it. As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

A Shelter With All the Trimmings: Turning Rectangular Tarp into a Square Tarp

There is nothing like the great outdoors. The fresh air, open sky, nature sounds, and sun rays. However, on the other side of the coin there is nothing as bad as the great outdoors. Rainstorms, high winds, blizzards, aggressive wildlife, even those sun rays can turn into a problem after a while. It is times like these when we “seek shelter”.

Now what is shelter? The Webster Dictionary defines it as “something that covers or affords protection.” About what common sense would tell you. Shelter is also considered the first priority with the Wilderness Survival Rules of 3, only after air. Shelter is so ingrained into to us that even as children we like to build forts inside the house. Even something as simple as a patio umbrella is a type of shelter, for those pesky sun rays.

Although, not all shelters are made the same, History shows us this. First we had the cavemen who lived in, well, caves. The good side is they don’t require any energy to set up. Most can keep you dry from rain and possibly wind-shielded. Although very basic, they aren’t too bad, the biggest downside is that no two are the same which means you can’t really have a standard. Also they are very bad to heat with a fire because of the size.

From there the most common would be thatch roof huts, these would mostly keep the sun off of you in the coastal areas and the rain from coming down. Plus the thatching would keep it from overheating and allow some airflow. The downside is that it would have to be replaced often. Plus it wouldn’t be very structurally strong.

A little more inland and closer toward the equator, you find clay made houses. The adobe or wattle & daub is a staple of the area. Building a house from ground can have advantages and disadvantages. To start with they can control ventilation and drafts better and can be assembled with only sticks and mud. Even a fire can be used inside. Disadvantages are that the roof can be a little poor in my opinion, plus it can take a lot of material, time, and energy to make this work. Primitive Technology: Wattle and Daub Hut has a great example of this.

In the American plains or steppes of Central Asia we find tepees and yurts, respectively. Constructed of animal skins and log poles, these shelters were great for the plains Indians and their nomadic ways. Following the buffalo as they did, they needed shelters that could move around without making new ones every time. They were able to put these up and down in an hour. Also they could have a cooking fire in them and be lived in year round. The biggest disadvantage that I’ve heard comes from Dave Canterbury on his journal of the yurt. He talked about how they needed conveyance to use them because they did have a lot of weight. You would need a horse or ATV to move the parts around, plus the long poles would prevent you from setting it up in a non plains area. Dave Canterbury has lived in both of these. You can find their playlist on "Wildernessoutfitters" as "Diary of the Tipi" and "Journal of the Yurt"

Lastly in the high latitudes we find log cabins or log shelters. These are often still used by modern homesteaders or hunters for their simplicity and ease of being taken from the surrounding area with only special joints and tar. This provides the most insulation from all the other materials and even adds a floor to help with conduction insulation. A fire can be placed inside for warmth and cooking. Even a second floor can be placed for storage or sleeping area. The disadvantage is again time, energy, and resources. You could possibly have to pull material from quite a ways away from the building site.     

Now you can’t just carry around a log cabin in your back pocket at all times, but there are other ways to get your shelter needs combining all of these traits from above. Most camps were made with oil cloth or canvas back in the early days of America. Most reenactors like to use these and bushcrafters do too. However with the advancement in the oil based products, tarps can be a much better fit. The weight stays about the same, they don’t need reapplications of water protection, and they are pretty cheap. The disadvantage is that square covers are better than rectangles because there are more set ups or configuration you can do, but that another blog.

You can spend a lot of time trying to find tarps in this size. However I’ll save ya some time. You can’t find them, at least currently. And when you do they won’t be cheap. However y’all know I’m not gonna leave you out in the wind. It took me some time, but I think I figured out how to turn the Walmart rectangle tarps into a square tarp.

Okay I know it doesn’t sound that hard or complicated, but I have never seen anyone else do it. If all you have available to you is one of these blue tarps then it’s best to work with it. Now I’m sure someone could just read this part and say ok run off and get a tarp and do this, but keep reading on, there are a few tips you need first. To start remember square, a square tarp will serve you better in the long term no matter what due to the amount of set ups, it can perform. On the flip side rectangles can do some and maybe give you some added length however, anything a rectangle can do and square can do better. So when buying a tarp pay attention to size. Now talking about size, between 6-10 feet is the limits with 7 being the sweet spot and 8 being the runner up.

So don’t pick up that cheap 6’ x 8’ but instead 8’ x 10’. Now, next is the quality. I chose the cheap blue one to test. It could probably last about a year or two depending on use, but the brown ones you might even get 3 or 4 years out of them. I’ll be trying one of them someday but not in this blog.

So before you go and a buy your stuff also make sure you have the following. A pair of fabric scissors, you could probably work with something cheap but they cut better and smoother cut make the tarp look better. Next some sort of measuring stick, I used a cloth measuring tape. Better choices could’ve and should’ve been made. I would recommend a meter or yard stick. Also some sort of sharpie or marker will be needed to draw. A pencil or pen won’t cut it. Lastly some sort of lighter or open flame device. This will be needed to melt the new edge so that the material won’t rip or fray. After putting this much work in don’t skip this step. After that we’ll want to put grommets in it.You want the bigger ones and you can get this at Walmart too. Go with the metal ones. Lastly something that can help is some stakes to keep the tarp nice and tight, no mistakes.

As you are measuring it out, make sure you know that the 8’ side won’t be 8’ exact. You’ll want to get them as close as you can down to the inch if possible. The more accurate you are here, the more mistakes you can make during the cut and burn. After you have your 8’ side measured you’ll want to measure it on the 10’ side. I had some 4x4 lying around and I used that to keep my measurement line straight. But the yard stick would work well too. Now while measuring you want to make sure you have measured both side and made marks. Then in the middle and make a mark, then the middle between those as well.

In the end you should have 5 marks each with about 2’ of space. After your marks, connect them with the straightest lines possible. The yard stick will come in hand at this point. Measure again and prepare for the cut.

Now on to the cutting, cutting it like you would fabric is the best way; again the reason for recommending the fabric scissors. Cutting it with snips makes it more uneven than slide cutting. Also you could stake it out at this point to really get that crisp edge, but it will lose its tightness as you cut. Afterwards move on to the burning. The key is to not actually touch the flame to it but close enough to singe the material. You could do this real well with a soldering iron, but I didn’t think of this until after I did it. any mistake can be fixed with a little duct tape or cargo tape.

Once complete, mark out the spots for your new grommets. I like to mark the spot with an x. You want to make sure that there is enough material there that it won’t tear out. The location for each should mirror the other side. If you have to move it a little due to problem spots with the tarp that’s fine, an inch or two should not make much of a difference. The most important are the two that will go in the corners. I like to cut the x just enough that the grommets come through but are still tight. The seal it.

 I hope this helps you all save some time and money. While you maybe able to find a square tarp online, with this tutorial you can take your survival into your own hands. Next week will be going over some tarp set ups, I mentioned before. And I'll show you some simple knots to tie them all together. Trust me you won't want to miss out. As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

Bake, Boil, and Fry. Oh My!: Testing Mess Kits for Bush Cooking Needs

Now that I’ve shown you my homemade kit, Click Here if you missed it, it needs to be tested. Now typically I would just record its bare stats and that would be enough to know which of my packs it would be going into, or would allow me to know what capabilities it would have before entering the field. However, to give more of a balanced review we will be measuring it alongside others that you could easily purchase at Walmart or Amazon on the cheap. Now, why these: Well not only are they the only other type of kits I currently own, they vary enough to allow me to see where my custom kit will fall into place. Before I break down my experiments with this gear I must state the following:

“I am not being paid to endorse this item. I paid for it with my own money under my own volition. My review is genuine and accounts are from my, and mine alone, experiences with this item.”

 And with that, let’s look at some questions.

As with any good test we decided the best course would be to question what we are looking for in a cooking kit. Besides the common baking, boiling, and frying, we were also concerned with volume. No more and no less than a quart is preferred. Stability; it’s important that it is able to cook on a fire without falling over and spilling water onto said fire. This eliminated round-bottomed bowls from the test. Speed; we were hoping to find an ideal configuration to optimize processing (baking/boiling/frying) time. Serve-ability; sometimes it’s nice to be able to serve your meal as opposed to eating it out of the pot that it was cooked in. This isn’t very important, but we are trying to see what all we can get out of each kit. Compact-ability; we really want the best gear we can get and store it in the smallest space possible. Storage-ability; we want to be able to add other items into the kit so we can store more things. This may be confused with compact-ability, however with this we are looking to see what we can store inside the kit rather than storing the kit itself. We will be conducting the test comparing only the materials used here without any base to compare them to. This means that only the pots in question will be compared only to each other. We will be using a 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd system and finding the average for statistics for each pot.

 Let us get to the lineup:

Mess Kit A                           

Ozark Trail 3 Piece Stainless Steel Cookware Set

5 3/4 inch wide   5     inch deep pot holding 5 cups

4 7/8 inch wide   4 ¾ inch deep pot holding 7 cups

A lid that fits both pots with a folding knob

Folding handles

Included by me -- A plastic cup with measurement

Initial impressions: Likely not good for baking or frying, but the optimal choice for boiling. Contents appear to be even or greater to Kit B, but there is not really anything to serve up food with. It appears that it would be stable in a cooking environment. There is opportunities for Storage-ability, however, not much in the way of Compact-ability.

Mess Kit B                                           

Coleman 5 piece aluminum mess kit:

One plate measuring 5 ¾ inch bottom with 1 ½ inch walls

Securing handle to lock all the pieces together

Another plate the same size except it can turn the securing handle in to a frying pan handle

Small pot that holds close to 2 cups more like 1 ¾

Metal cup with measurement markers

Initial impressions: This kit appears to be optimal for frying and baking, however, at first glance does not appear that it could do much in the way of boiling. Its volume appears to be adequate and it appears sturdy enough to stand up in a cooking environment. There are dishes to serve up the food with all stored within the kit itself. It is also compact so it could slide right into your pack.

Mess Kit C        

My custom kit:

9 inch wide 2 inch walls round cake pan

8 ¾ inch wide and 3 inch walls that hold 60oz (6 cups is better than full pot)

4 ½ inch wide and 1 ½ inch wall cup that is 7oz (close enough to a cup to be used for measuring)

Vice grip pliers

Initial impressions: This kit seems adequate for baking and boiling, but with no apparent handle frying appears to be difficult. It is similar, but a bit larger than B so it likely has a higher volume. With its larger size it may be a bit more unstable in a cooking environment, however this presents more opportunities for Storage-ability. It is slightly larger than pot B, but is still flat so Compact-ability still does not appear to present an issue.

To test these, I have decided to use the camp stove “Peak 1” made by Coleman. The test would be better if I could’ve used a campfire for each, however I wanted to make sure the performance was as equal across all the different kits and tests. The Stove will allow me to keep the heat source an independent variable from the different mess kits which will be my dependent variables. That’s science son, now let’s start the test.

Boiling Test

For the first test we timed how long it took to boil water. For the test we filled each pot with 2 cups of water then placed it on the burner and timed it till the water came to a rolling boil.

Mess Kit A: The kit had two different pots so both were boiled. About 7:05 minutes for both. The time came back a couple seconds apart. I chalked this up to human error with the stop watch. Some problematic elements that we discovered were that the lid began to shake the closer the pot got to boiling, there is no way to hang this pot up unlike Pot B, and also during this test both pots seemed to have balance issues, however nothing came of it.

Mess Kit B: The pot in this kit was made closer to what a typical pot looks like, however it’s smaller size limits the amount of water that can be boiled. We went with 1 ¾ cups over 2. I was afraid of over boiling and made this call. It came to a boil in 5:49 minutes. Beside it small size no other problems we noted during the test.

Mess Kit C:  Since the boiling apparatus in this kit is large dog bowl with a flat bottom gave this pot the most stability. However during the test it took 8:50 minutes to achieve a rolling boil. This was about 2 minutes longer than Mess Kit A and 3 minutes longer than Mess Kit B. Other problems were that the lid (round cake tin) was hard to remove during the boiling process as I checked and releasing the vice grips from the pot during the test made me nervous.

Overall: we found that Mess Kit B’s pot even though it was smaller worked the best. Followed by Mess Kit A and then Mess Kit C.

Frying Test

After completing the first test, we wanted to look at each kit’s ability to fry. For our testing medium, we used a slice of bologna and a ½’ cube of Crisco. For all three kits we allowed the Crisco to melt before adding the bologna and spread it around the frying surface. We then timed it to see how long it took to get a nice seared crust without overly burning the bologna slice.

Mess Kit A: We had to improvise with this kit and use the larger of the two pots as a frying pan. The pot was deep which made it challenging to flip the bologna and the actual surface which we fried on was so small the bologna barely fit, overall it took about 3:15 minutes. We wanted to experiment with the lid, however it has no walls to be used as a frying device.

Mess Kit B: This kit took 4:38 minutes to cook the bologna due to the issues we encountered while frying. The handle of the pan offset the balance on the burner of the Peak 1. I would like to add that this problem would be eliminated by cooking with it cooking irons or over a bed of coals or using a heavier food to counterbalance the handle.

Mess Kit C:  This kit continued to balance well and using vice grips as a removable handle made flipping the bologna a breeze. I did note that I did not use enough Crisco to account for the larger frying surface so there were issues with sticking in spots. The cook time was 4:00 even, a bit longer than Kit A, but a drastically better experience.

Overall: We found that Mess Kit C was best suited for frying due to its balance and manageability. Plus more space means more room for food. We believe Mess Kit A was at its limit with frying and were surprised that it could even do what it did. Kit B surprised us by being more difficult than expected to work with, however this is likely do to our experiments being done on the Peak 1.

(P.S. my wife ate all of the bologna.)

Baking Test

For the final test we wanted to see how well each kit could bake. Baking in the field allows you to produce food without having to expend any other energy in search of other local nutrients. Every ¼ cup of flour has 100 calories in it. Our bread mixture used during this experiment used one cup of self-rising flour and half a cup of water. This recipe could be altered as long as it maintained the two to one ratio. In addition, we added a pinch or two of flour, just enough to be able to work with the dough. It was not kneaded and all of the baking surfaces were greased with Crisco, about the same amount as before, but spread around the pan this time. We also flip the bread every 2-3 minutes to try and prevent sticking.

Mess Kit A: We used the larger pot to bake our bread in. There came an issue when flipping as we had to flip the bread into the smaller pot and then back again. Fortunately there was no sticking and the bread was finished in 12:53 minutes.

Mess Kit B: The biggest issue encountered with this kit was the handle slipping loose and removing the lid while flipping the container. There was also an issue with sticking as the bread became burnt on to one side of the pan and had to be scraped off. The cook time was 15:04 minutes.

Mess Kit C: In the future I would remember to include gloves with this kit as the only way to flip it was to use my fingertips to lift it off of the heat source and turn it over. Other than that the only problem was that we would find oil spots on the outside of the pan which is a potential fire hazard, however it was not an issue during testing. The bread finished baking in 12:35 minutes.

Overall: Kit C was the best choice for baking due to its faster cooking time, no sticking, and ease of flipping. Kit A surprised me once again, but due to the issue with flipping it came up short. Kit B could have done better, but there are some issues needing to be corrected which could set it apart significantly.

 

Other Test

Before we call a victor, there are a few other additional notes we are using to evaluate the

kits by. Volume: We chose Mess Kit A as number one because it has two pots, which each held a significant amount of liquid, followed by Mess Kit C, and lastly B.

Stability: Mess Kit C won out in stability as it never had a problem with wobbling or balance. B was next because it was reasonable stable when boiling, even though its handle when frying impacted its balance greatly. Mess Kit A had a constant wobble that could not be corrected.

Speed: Mess Kit A was overall the fastest when it came to cooking time. This could be because the metal was thinner allowing it to heat up easier. Next was Kit C which is made of a thicker metal, and Kit B typically took the longest or was neck and neck with Kit A.

Serve-ability: Kit B takes first place by leaps and bounds as it has an actual plate as part of the kit as well as a cup. Kit C followed behind due to the fact that you could serve with one pan while cooking with the other and there is room for a cup as well. Kit A comes in dead last as there is nothing to serve with, as well as little room to add a serving dish or a cup.

Compact-ability: We chose Kit B due to the fact that it lays flat and can just simply be placed in the bottom of your pack. Next was Kit C. Once again, it does lay flat, however it has more girth than Kit B. Kit A is very tall and wide and cannot lay flat causing it to take up a significant amount of room in your pack.

Storage-ability: We chose Kit C as being able to hold the most items due to the large area inside with only small tools currently occupying that space. Next we chose Kit B which is in some ways a smaller version of Kit C, Kind of where I got the idea from. Finally we found Kit A had the least amount of storage due to the fact that it is very tall and everything has to fit together like Russian nesting dolls.

FINALE

We find that Kit C either took first or second in all tests. It may not have always been the best choice, but it was always close enough to being the best without being unable to perform in any of the tests. It did not have a tendency to excel at one feature like Kit A with boiling or Kit B with frying, and then perform poorly in other tests like Kit A with baking and Kit B with boiling.

In closing, all of these kits can be the best kit for you depending on what you are looking

for. In starting this, I believed that Kit C would be the best overall and after these tests my hypothesis is now plausible. Does this mean the other kits are trash? NO! It just means that Kit C is the best kit for what I’m looking for. I like to bake, I like to fry, and I like to boil. So I want a kit that is going to be more versatile. I’m not looking for a kit that is going to be the best at boiling if it isn’t going to be able to do anything else. I would rather use the kit that is half way decent at boiling, but can be used for multiple purposes. This way I am not carrying around a different kit for every aspect of cooking in the bush. I also would like to point out that this is not a review of any of these kits, this was only a series of tests. To me a review is very in depth in revealing its pros and cons while focusing only on the subject matter. These tests focuses more on comparing the kits which gave me less time to spend with each kit which in turn makes me less comfortable saying whether a kit is good or not. That is why I can only give you the results of these tests. However, if you’re dying for a review, you won’t want to miss next week! As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.