Hi all,

First of all, I'll introduce myself... This is my first post here. I really like the whole website. It's filled with objective, no-nonsense information. I appreciate that a lot. I'm a 29 y.o. self-employed survival instructor living in France. I'm not French, though. I was born in Belgium, and I grew-up in Quebec. I'm half Mi'gmak Indian (mother) and half European (father). I studied in archeology/anthropology, and then communications/web usability. I worked in that field for a while, but never really let go of the wilderness. The woods and the mountains are just the only places I really can call "home". I've been teaching survival for a few months now, and I'm still learning a lot about it every day. I really think this quest never ends <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Re the "use it or not" debate about the survival gear. The more I go, and the more I end up using my gear on a daily basis, while having a few key items in a back-up kit... and always using the oldest first. The things I use most often, anyways, are the most important pieces of gear, so having 2-3 of each is not an overkill.

The items that don't get used often, but that I still want to carry (mostly the first aid stuff, iodine pills, etc.) are checked periodically for expiration dates, etc. The rest is slowly but surely being considered useless, and just stays home.

Cheers,

David