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  1. Ascobis

    First aid kit

    An instructor at a course for community emergency responders said that most people do nothing in an emergency and a goal of the course was to enable some people to act when necessary. One of the many useful topics of that course was how to mobilize bystanders to do what you tell them to do...
  2. Ascobis

    First aid kit

    Sanitary napkins and tampons don't leave bits of cotton behind. Both products are sterile. Both products are designed to absorb blood. Both products have the same medical characteristics as surgical sponges and compresses. What your lady friends know as a tampon was invented to ... wait for it...
  3. Ascobis

    What excites you about spring arriving?

    Stork day? <humor>Stark day is when Winter Is Coming, not going.</humor>
  4. Ascobis

    What excites you about spring arriving?

    I recieved a hammock bug net as a gift. This year I am looking forward to seeing the little bloodsuckers whining ouside the net while I say "neener neener" inside. The bug net will take the space now occupied by the underquilt. Above 25F: Put away the big pack with all the warm kit and bring...
  5. Ascobis

    Re-establishing the natural balance - UK

    The phrase is "charismatic megafauna". Alas, almost all 7 billion of us will resist the steps necessary to restore ecologic systems. The best we can hope to do is to save whatever patches we are able to protect. Yes, sometimes those patches are too small to survive as systems. Perhaps those...
  6. Ascobis

    Re-establishing the natural balance - Americas and Exotics

    My grand-uncle had a peach orchard. He added height to his 8-fence to make it 14-feet high. He walked back to the house, turned, and watched a deer jump over the new fence. He would have appreciated the slack-tape tip.
  7. Ascobis

    Catching rabbits humanely?

    Agreed. But it beats the alternative. Back on topic, might OP consider raising rabbits for food and fur? The creatures would be fed and safe until harvest and then a sharp whack on the back of the skull with a club and it's over. Put the pens over a carp pond, feed the bunnies your table...
  8. Ascobis

    Unexpected wood supply, unsplittable

    Long introduction, short question. This weekend I camped in a four-season no-vehicle area. Snow was forecast. I had packed a Whisperlite. At the trailhead I threw in my home-made sheet-metal stovelet just for fun (cf. Nimblewill Nomad) along with a hatchet and Bahco Laplander to feed it. I had...
  9. Ascobis

    Reading Glass Fire Lighting.

    I grew up in Arizona. Lighting a fire with a magnifying glass there is trivial. Now I live at 43 degrees North and all those skills developed burning innocent ants are of no avail. In defiance of solar geometry, I got a surplus Fresnel lens from an overhead projector. It works, but it won't fit...
  10. Ascobis

    The Joseph Method of Flint & Steel Fire Lighting.

    Doesn't everyone do it that way? I do like Keith's channel. Knock sparks downward and hope you don't hit your tin into the mud. Better to hold a bit of char atop the flint to catch the first spark and there it is, in your hand already, so you can put it straight into a bird's nest or use your...
  11. Ascobis

    Survival fishing kit - line - Request for Comments

    OP has a bankline kit...thanks for the reminder, will add it to the gear list.
  12. Ascobis

    Survival fishing kit - line - Request for Comments

    Scathe away. There are not many places in North America, south of 48 degrees or so, where survival food is an issue, for the reasons you mention. Water, oh, my goodness, yes. Food fishing, no. I hear that in Canada the fish fight each other to be the first on your hook. Besides, most Norte...
  13. Ascobis

    What simple trick?

    3x. Just sayin'.
  14. Ascobis

    Survival fishing kit - line - Request for Comments

    So very true. As I rock-climbed, so do I fish. Note to self: do not pull so hard when tightening knots in 4lb line. I have read that all modern hooks are made to dissolve in the fish's gut if the fish should break free.
  15. Ascobis

    Survival fishing kit - line - Request for Comments

    Consensus: braid. Second choice: 40 year old nylon. Thank you all for your contributions. I misstated info in my original post. I, too, have not seen Kevlar as a braided fishing line. I have seen Spectra braid. Does anyone else remember that scene from Jeremiah Johson where he was fishing...
  16. Ascobis

    Survival fishing kit - line - Request for Comments

    No, no, no, only the photos degrade. The color washes out so that by the 1940s it's almost all gone. By the early 1900s and late 1800s all the color fades. The fish you see in photos from those times are still caught, so the line is still good. (Thanks to Calvin and Hobbes for explaining this.)
  17. Ascobis

    Survival fishing kit - line - Request for Comments

    Here is my home-made version. A plastic spice bottle forms the reel.
  18. Ascobis

    Survival fishing kit - line - Request for Comments

    Greetings, A search for Fishing Survival Kevlar had no matches. I received a clever little laser-cut metal card, "Readyman" fishing, as a gift. Kevlar or Spectra line wrapped around the card seems the next reasonable step. Kevlar thread sold on a river in South America seems to have a maximum...