First of all, sorry for the very long delay on the sleeping bag report. I was caught up in a whole bunch of travel back and forth to california and a rash of calls and training at the fire department thus recreational use of the computer was limited.
First the sleeping bags.
They are totally "sterile" as in there's no branding on them at all. They are very, very light, 100% holofil, they pack down tight into a little stuff sack that has several straps. They are unused and really, really warm. They are so easy to deal with that I can leave them in a backpack and just have them with me for an unexpected overnight.
Definitely the best $40 I've ever spent at Countycomm (who never dissapoint!)
We did a 3 day excursion with the family, which I treat as a test of our 72 hour kit, to a degree - we're in a hotel, but we try to go "independent" on food and water. Since we eat almost entirely organic and all that we often bring our own food for hotelstays anyway, so I bring the cooking gear with us to check the kit.
First of all, I've abandoned the esbit stove in favor of a tiny Butane stove (a Glowmaster) because the esbit fuel STINKS to high heaven and my wife hated it. It took forever to cook stuff on it, but it will still be with my for a BOB.
The butane stove ROCKED, it's too bad you can't get them anymore. Here's where I got mine:
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/cb/cb.asp?a=124233 We cooked three meals a day on it, and used what feels like about 1/4 of a butane can (those lighter filler sizes). it's clean, quiet, LIGHT (18 Oz) and a delight to use.
We also dropped our aluminium cookware in favor of a stainless steel pot and enameled bowels. The aluminium (like the titanium we tried) gave the food an off flavor, not to mention the health risks from aluminium, so we're back to the heavier, but better, stainless.
As far as food went, we used our 72 hour kit - the food was in need of rotation anyway. First thing we noticed is that much of the food in our kit was low-fat vegetarain fare - not that we're vegetarians, it just worked out that way. Well, we need more fat in our diet, like cheese and such, so that was lacking. Our first "give in" was we bought some cheese for the kids to eat.
Water is always the pain in the ass factor. I used to haul water in a 7 gallon container, but that was both heavy and created a "single point of failure" for water supply - a leaky water supply is a former water supply.
We've tried collapsable containers, platypus pouches and any number of other things, including Nalgene bottles and in the end, we have settled in on 2 liter soda battles that once contained seltzer. I've found these to be as tough as can be, they impart no odor or flavor to the water, the caps don't leak and you can freeze the bottles and they survive just fine. Oh, and they are basically free, which is nice.
However, water is water, which is heavy, and so on our second "give in" we used hotel water for sanitation. I think a bucket full of poop in the hotel room was not really necessary for the whole experiment. However, it is important to note that we would not have had enough water for more than an occasional sponge bath had the water been off (as might have been the case in a power failure).
The last "give in" was not really a give in at all, it was a total screwup that in a real emergency would have been an issue. At some point we ran out of diapers. With a 13 month old girl, insufficient water for sanitation (which rules out cloth) you need to pack enough diapers, which are bulky. For three days, we're talking 6 diapers a day (at the VERY LEAST). Now, we had a great stash of diapers in the van, it's not like we didn't have any, but the game was if it's not in the two bags, we don't have it. Well, I packed NO diapers at all - and then when I stashed a supply, it took up so much room that the basic configuration of the bags needed to be changed, and I still didn't really have enough room. The 72 hour kit was supposed to fit in two medium bags, but now I have to either add a small backpack for the baby or get a bigger bag. I think I"ll go with the backpack.
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