for your perusal

http://willowhavenoutdoor.com/featured-w...-survival-uses/

Hopefully I'm wrong but it doesn't sound great for this missing family. The couple and four little kids have been missing for 24 hours now, and the temps reportedly have been down under -20 F. No mention of what supplies they were carrying or how they were dressed. If they stayed with their Jeep and had warm clothing this will might just be a story to they tell about a close call. Hopefully they were prepared for an overnight stay.

Usually I have to settle for getting something novel and useless from my family, as they are not inclined to proffer anything in a gendre I could use, despite the many years I've confided my expertise to them. So I've accumulated ties, cheap hand tools, throw away flashlights, and bottle openers.

This year my wife suggested I get on her account at Amazon and stuff her cart with items I would like. Then she can pick the things she wants to get for me, without having to vet them first. I reciprocated the idea, and suggested she share the notion with our children.

I have been informed that everything I put in her cart has been ordered.

I've never been one for surprises. So knowing what I am getting for Christmas, especially since I also know now it will things I actually desire, is a pleasant, if not wholly materialistic, experience.

Life has just become one order of magnitude easier.

While cleaning out my vintage minivan, I ran across some Clif bars which I had stored under the front sat and opened one. It was noticeably drier than normal, obviously losing moisture due to the frequent high daily temperatures in the interior. As the deterioration of the trim of this vehicle will attest, it was typically parked in the open, exposed to the blazing SoCal sun. The bar was edible, but I would have preferred a nice cup of tea in which I could have dunked the bar to restore moisture. The bar had a sell by date of June, 2002. Had it been stored in better conditions, I doubt it would have been noticeably altered at all.

Any other experiences with archaeological Clif Bars?

Just watched the Dual Survival 3, "Meltdown" episode. In the beginning Cody and Joe have found a backpack in the African desert, where they are stranded this time, with some semi-random stuff, including a couple of full beer cans. They both argued that beer (24 oz of precious water! and also a great source of calories!) must be discarded immediately, as alcohol is diuretic and would only help with dehydration. Isn't that just a plain stupid move in the dry desert?

In fact, it seems to me, that this show is too often becoming quite misleading. In the same episode, Joe is bravely walking over the chest deep creek, which is possibly infested with alligators, instead of simply swimming on the surface, which is almost 100% safe in such rivers, as crocs are watching for animal legs.