Has anyone else, besides Doug, read Cody Lundin's book? If so, what do you think about it?

Being fairly new to this, I like the book a lot. He does a nice job explaining how important it is to have your wits about you, to keep your body temperature regulated, and he gives a great description of his recommended short-term (72 hrs) survival kit.

Most of the recommended kit items mesh very well with what I've read in ETS and other placed, but ...

One of my bits of confusion is why he has so many different shelter-like components. He includes an emergency space blanket, a heavier duty space blanket, and two 55 gallon trash liners. Initially that seems pretty redundant. I suppose the idea here is similar to that for fire equipment - have at least three redundant methods of shelter??

Also, Cody clearly recommends use of tincture of iodine as a low cost chemical treatment for water, but Doug seems to prefer the chorine based chemical treatments. What are your preferences?? My plan is to swap out the condoms for some resealable Gerber baby bottle liners.

There are several items on Doug's list that are not on Cody's, such as a needle (great for use with the floss), safety pins, fishing gear, survival saw, aluminum foil, and others.

Finally, besides Dougs PSK, where in the heck does one purchase a plastic fresnel lens?????

If you haven't read his list, here is a link to an article that includes the list:

The Wisdom of Abo Dude

As the title of the book suggests, maintaining your body temperature is the highest priority. Shelter is good for preventing both hypo and hyperthermia, thus the redundancy. Personally, I like to spread the redundancy amongst different parts of my packing. I've put disposable ponchos in my fanny pack and my wife's purse, 2 pocket shelters and 2 lightweight space blankets in the small section of my PSK, a tube tent in the big section, and some garbage bags in the first aid kit. If I only get one piece of luggage out of the plane, then I've got some shelter.

I ordered an assortment of fresnel lenses from here:

http://www.3dlens.com/

It's a taiwan company, so shipping is rather slow- I haven't gotten it yet, but it's only been a week. I ordered 2 each of the various thinner sizes. I'll decide which to pack when I get it. One nice thing about fresnel lenses is you can easily cut it down to size if it's too big. I'll cut one to the size of my PSK and put it on the bottom, and another one to the size of my 3x5 signal mirror and store it with that. An extra CC size will go in my wallet. It seems like a lot, but they don't take much space. If it took much space I wouldn't bother with redundancy for a fire-method that sucks when you need it- If it's sunny out, who the heck needs a fire?

Barnes and Noble Book Stores and some Walmarts carry fresnel lenses.

I actually met Cody a year ago during filming of a survival show and he is the real deal. He walks the walk and knows his stuff.

Iodine is getting a bad wrap lately here and elsewhere. Fact is its been used for decades with no problems other than people allergic to it or with health issues it reacts to.

It was never meant to be a long term solution but meant only as a temporary means to purify ie:2 weeks or less. With those guidelines it works fine and is effective.

Redundancy is the name of the game when using semi flimsy and perishable emergency gear. The heavy space blanket will make an excellent shelter roof while you can crawl into the garbage bags underneath. I do not like the space blanket except for first aid as part of a hypothermia wrap system. The space blanket bag is a better idea.

I like the gerber bottle bags and carry them in my bigger kit but they have 2 drawbacks. A) they take up way too much space for my altoids EDC kit B) you need to carry 6 of them to carry and great amount of water.

Because of this I will still keep 3 repackaged and shrink wrapped condoms in my altoids kit and use the gerber bags in my bigger kit only.

Fresnel lenses are a fancy name for a plastic magnifying lense.

You can go to any Staples or Office Depot and find a thin plastic 8.5x11 sheet of magnifying plastic for reading. Look for it in the magnifying glasses and office tools section. It costs about $7-9 and can be cut to any size. I outfitted 6 kits with one sheet and made different sized lenses.

Flip

In a long forgotten Road and Track article, the author graphed the tracks of several F1 drivers through a infamous turn at the Nuerburing (sp). Each one was different, and they all navigated it safely within a miniscule timeframe. Survival instruction,lists and philosophies are much the same. None is exactly the same, all will probably get you through. For specifics, review Doug's article on chemical purification for the pros and cons of Iodine. Cody likes gear that is cheap and compact. I once carried space blankets, garbage bags etc. Then I acquired a single substantial dedicated nylon tarp. One permanent item replaced several disposables. It cost more in the short run, but simplified my carry and meshed with my personal consumer ethics. Again, Cody's list and my junk will both work. Thats the fun part of this, sifting the information and adapting it all to your needs; actual and philosophical. <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> I managed to put my first MGA coupe into a sideways drift on Stunt Road in L.A. after reading that article. Never tried THAT again, but I sure looked good with my Jim Clark driving gloves and first moustache carefully copied from a photo of Graham Hill <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

I bought one of these magnifiers at the pharmacy, near the reading glasses.
The next day, I happened to go to my insurance agent, and they were giving them away.
The free magnifier came in a retractable sleeve, with the agents info printed on the outside. That one stays in the PSK.

Most any book store will have Fresnel lense magnifiers. I know for sure that Waldenbooks has the "pocket" sized ones. Also, try Target, in the office supplies.

Troy

First off, Cody likes tincture of iodine because it is the least expensive form of Iodine water treatment available to the average person. If that is high on your list of priorities, go for it, but for iodine I prefer either Potable Aqua or Polar Pure. More expensive, but less potential mess, weight and more convenient, IMHO. Not exactly. I prefer Katadyn's Micropur MP1 because it will kill nasties, such as cryptosporidium, that iodine won't It is a chlorine dioxide treatment, which really isn't chlorine in the conventional sense, which is unfortunately confusing for anyone not a chemist. I prefer iodine over conventional chlorine treatments.

The one I'd like to know about (ref: the magazine article) is the one he wears around his neck. It looks remarkably like the Boker picnic set, but probably has all sorts of useful items.

Nowhere in the article is there a description-just a notation by the author that that is what it is.
(sigh)

#1) I generally just read the posts on this site... Good info since I moved from the Beer Capital (Milwaukee) to the 3rd worst traffic pattern in the USA (Washington DC area) and it's occasional bouts with hurricanes (last year).

#2) Fresnel Lenses can be gotten at most any book store, but I know of a great place for picking up "unusual" stuff back in Milwaukee. It's called American Science & Surplus (www.sciplus.com) and they got all kinds of fun stuff there, and quite a few items that would be really good in a PSK,

The OGRE