Sunday 27 November 2016

A G.O.O.D. Firepit Design

The Keyhole Firepit. A very good design for both survival and long-term outdoor pursuits.

This design allows for an open burning area to convert firewood to coals that are better suited for cooking meals. 

This is the basic design. It has a deeper firepit at one end and a shallow bed for coals that can be used with either a cooking grill or a spit. The spit rod can also be used to suspend a coffee pot or water bucket. You can never have too much hot water at the ready.

This design can be upgraded by adding another arm to the fire that is made of rock/stone, brick or even clay/mud; to create an oven to bake pizza, bread or even cakes. Like the coal bed, the oven would be fed coals from the firepit as required to maintain the correct temperature.

The largest advantage of a firepit designed like this, is it is always on and always making coals. So, you do not have to waste 45+ minutes every mealtime burning down your fire into a cooking fire. It is much easier to control the heat when dealing with coals than trying to cook with flame.

May this give you a few more ideas about fire!

V.A.M.

Sunday 13 November 2016

My Patriot Supply - A G.O.O.D. Source for Food on the Run


72 Hour Kit from My Patriot Supply
Time for a new product to share with all of you. I have recently purchased and sampled the 72 Hour Kit from My Patriot Supply (72 Hour Kit ). The kit costs $24.95 USD + shipping. My order totaled $47.85 for the goods with another $36.50 for shipping. 

My order arrived in about 7 days, it was probably in town sooner than that, but my local postie seems to only deliver parcel every-other-day. The outer packaging was compact enough to have the parcel left in the onsite mailbox parcel compartment. That was good, no trip to the Post Office.

The inner contents were also well packaged. The 72 Hour Kit has a heavy polymer pouch that is mylar lined and has a re-sealable zippered top. Inside were four smaller pouches. All as tough as the 72 Hour pouch, also zipper-topped and re-sealable. These four pouches were: Granny's Home Style Potato  Soup; Traveler's Stew; Blue Ribbon Creamy Chicken Rice and Liberty Bell Potato Cheddar Soup. Each pouch makes four servings. To date I have sampled Granny's Home Style Potato Soup.

First let me review the meal we (my family & I) sampled. Meal prep was straight forward and simple. Water and contents of the pouch into a sauce pan, bring to boil and then simmer on low heat for 15 - 20 minutes. The end product was hearty and very tasty. For the three of us - two adults and a teenager, it was more food than we could eat at one sitting. My wife had the leftover serving for lunch the next day. I would definitely purchase this product again.....and for the record I am not a soup person, I usually find most soups to be too watery. 

Lesson learned and strategy to share. This soup could have been "cut" with more water to feed more mouths.....I am not sure but the 5 cups of water could have been 6 or maybe 7 cups of water to start. Or, to look at this another way, half of the pouch of soup mix could have been made with 3 cups of water with minimal notice to those eating. This is important if you are on the run. That means this 72 hour kit could be stretched to 96 hours?? 108 hours?? Here is my suggested use of this 72 hour kit....add instant oatmeal packages - 1x package per person per day for breakfasts. So, for my family that would be 9x packages of oatmeal to fortify the 72 hours kit to get 3 full days of food. Now, if we play with servings and meal-times.....Eat breakfast and a late afternoon meal.......half the four meal pouches in the 72 hour kit.......add oatmeal packages (x24).......and the 72 hour kit would feed us in an emergency for 8 days or 192 hours. This would not be luxury survival, but the meals would be hot and just enough to get us through for a week or so. 

This type of thinking and planning may not work for you and your family, but you may have to try something similar. A family unit of four persons will probably benefit the most from the packaging used by My Patriot Supply. Shipping is probably the largest stumbling point for those of us living outside the USA. But, that is the case with  most businesses South of the Border. 

In closing I want to say, you have to store food you will actually eat. You need to rotate the food you store. And when the stored food needs to be eaten so it does not go bad.....you will want food you want to eat. So far, the products from My Patriot Supply are packaged for long-term storage, whether its seeds or food. The quality of the food I have sampled is as good, if not better, than the stuff we buy at the grocery store on a weekly basis. The fact that many of the food stuffs at My Patriot Supply can last 20 to 25 years is outstanding. Tastes good, good for you and lasts a very long time. Win-win-win. So, if you are looking for a starting place for your food stocks for your BOV, BOL or BOB; do not overlook My Patriot Supply. 

Stay prepared, stay ready!

V.A.M.