I personally do the flame test, if it burns, it probably has enough alcohol in it to do what it needs to. I also suggest caution and to burn it on a surface instead of your hand.

I have one of the duel Fuel GasOne burners, it does run off one pound propane, and can run the larger 20 gallon cans, but we don’t feel comfortable using those. It’s nice having dual fuel that way because up until maybe a year ago, we couldn’t actually find the insertable butane mini cans. We have used propane before  during a random power outage while we were making dinner. It really feels like a standard stove top during use. I like alcohol stoves because they’re cheap and fun to make. Capillary hoop stoves, penny cans, fancy feast style stoves, open felt, there’s a lot of ways to make them. I have a fancy feast style stove in my travel bag, so if it gets stolen, I’m not out much money. I would like to get one of the backpacking style isobutane stoves, mostly for fun, but as mentioned in the thread, they aren’t always ideal for the extreme cold. Denatured alcohol is also useful for cleaning some things, I recently used it to removed thermal paste from some old computer cooling components. I think at this point, you can really just pick your specifications and find something that’s reasonably close to your budget. There are plenty of reviews out there, but some stoves have been stopped being manufactured.

Those are neat! I didn’t know those were on the market now. I use butterfly closures, though in my experience, they usually can’t grab the skin well the first time, and might have to reapplied, but they’re extremely cheap through care well.

Went to a family event today and took a little travel bag with extra masks and bag and snacks in it and a small folding umbrella cuz it was raining quite a bit. It was very weird nobody else brought an umbrella, but I had two. It’s mostly to keep rain off my mask but I was pretty much dry even after a handful of trips to put food in the car. The extra bag in the bag we used to catch some other items, and having those reusable grocery bags helped get the huge amount of food we got in the car with little issue.

Newer soft stuff I’ve picked up is more sewing. I’ve done it before but only recently I’ve actually really fabricated some more refined things. I’ve been making my own bandanas out of muslin cloth cuz it’s thicker than the stuff at the store and probably has less chemicals in the dye, and feels much thicker. I’ve been using those and my tissue use, for my face at least has dropped down to like, maybe 3 or 4 a week. The boxes last infinitely longer, and while hand washing is a bit of a hassle, I like not having used tissues all over. I’m going to turn one of my worn out orange shirts into a pair of bandanas for my bug out bag, patch any other holes in it I don’t remember it having and they should work nicely. I’ve also been embroidering small holes on my pillow cover closed so it lasts a bit longer. Gluing pocket seams and belt loops back on on some of the pants I have too. I think another one would be getting a proper electric razor for face fit. Every time I use it, I’m still impressed about how well it does and it’s nice to grab a shave without having to deal with slightly longer stubble or having to wet things up. I do want to try my safety razor as well for my face, I sort of want to put one in my BOB so I don’t have to ever worry about batteries but maybe after I try it a few times I’ll know if I should or not.  

A sort of win, but I’ve recently been able to assemble a vehicle kit, it’s mostly a tire plug kit and socket set with extra bits to make changing and repairing tires easier, magnetic tray and extending magnet to grab bolts from under the car, glow sticks for marking the vehicle, shop rags and disposable gloves, screwdriver. We had to move some items my mom wanted, one being a office chair. We had the bag and I knew we’d be moving the chair so I brought the bag, which the socket set has just about every common size a car and household uses, and I was able to disassemble about 90 percent of the chair to get it to fit in the trunk of the car. One item I wanted to put in our travel bag was an umbrella, which definitely showed it’s usefulness during the chair thing,, as it was raining. We got a new one at the dollar store for like 7 dollars and it should do well enough.  I need to add some more things like tape and more zip ties to the bag, but I do feel more confident on road trips with it now, I could do a lot with it. One big win would be having medical info on hand, I don’t think I mentioned it in the forum but my mom had an infection on a toe and needed treatment. Initially it was a callous that had cracked, but with sub optimal footwear in hot weather, it blossomed into a MRSA infection in only a couple days. She asked me to look at it, since I’m the one with first aid training, and I saw red streaking. I wasn’t sure and tried to go looking it up online, but with how bad the internet is now for finding things, I referred back to stored PDF of “Where There Is No Doctor”. I was able to search the file and find something about wounds and saw the recommendation that with red streaking, higher echelon care is needed immediately. I had my mom call the podiatrist we know from my cousin’s issues, who is a pretty solid doctor, the next morning, and they squeezed her in that afternoon. We were able to start treatment that day, and after a few weeks of antibiotics, a month of healing, another month of stitches to keep the wound extra closed and some more antibiotics, her toe is still there and mostly healed.  I would say having the extra info on hand was extremely useful, and knowing the better doctors locally made a big difference. The others in similar specialties factually are hazards to the health of the community. Another small win piggybacking off that is stocking iodine swabs. The podiatrist was extremely happy to answer my detailed questions and helped me build a diabetic wound care kit for my mother, and using his suggestions I had a lot of the basics, like gauze, gloves, saline to wash wounds in lieu of fancier cleaning solutions,  tweezers, and iodosorb, an iodine based wound paste. One of the other things he suggested was iodine topical solution, Betadine,  and being the stickler I am, I opted for single use, individually packaged iodine swabs so I wouldn’t have to worry about spilling a cup of iodine solution or get more swabs or cups. They came in handy trimming one of her nails a few days before a check up, it was just deep enough to make it bleed, so i swabbed over it with the iodine, bandaged it and checked it every day. The doctor was pleased to see it and said it was a good job taking care of it. The swabs are fairly cheap from the medical supply place I order them from, about 0.30 USD, so I try to make it a point for us to use them often instead of not. I used them on my toes when I cut things deep, my mom used them on scratches she gets on her shins and we both heal up much faster and cleaner. 

These two videos might be up your alley, at least for thinking about it and might be a reason to keep a hank of paracord in your gear. Also search and rescue and fire departments, I think, use a technique called cribbing, where you lift objects up and then put wood or materials underneath to hold it in place, we used 2x4s and pry bars to lift those big cement barriers up a couple of feet in the air. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uoo1Sq-Cuc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8SMC-fDcXY

I think external lights do a lot of the lifting, the hard part is positioning them so you can actually see what’s happening but not placed so low they can be stolen. Next door, my aunt keeps buying solar motion activated lights, but because she only puts them on the ground, they keep getting stolen. They stole some other solar lights off the gutters of one of the less habitable houses on the property as well. I always wanted to go with a system that went through a router or hub without any IOT connections and solar area lights. The hard part was elevation, we have multiple sections of overlapping buildings, trees, foundations and walk ways, so it was very complicated to figure out, along with not having any windows on one side of the house and others being accessible in only a narrow angle.

Ah, with the hand gun, I need to practice with mine. You can create and solve a lot of issues by practicing dry firing, saves money on ammunition and gets you used to handling the firearm. There are a bunch of fancy training kits with lasers and targets, but regular dry firing can do just about all the work, outside of live firing. I think another thing I need to work on is just pure skill work, there are a few I do a lot because they’re easy because I do them a lot but there’s some I know I need and haven’t touched because I never use them.

Situational awareness is very helpful, there’s been handfuls of times keeping an eye out and checking where things are has really been helpful. Especially driving,people drive really bad now. I think while I’ve been decent at critical thinking, breaking problems down into actionable/reasonable solutions, I’ve gotten a bit better at it with prepping. Combining info from many places, identifying the important features and needs to be met has definitely gotten a lot more use and has had good effect when things happen. I’ve always carried a small everyday carry, usually just phone, knife, pen, now hand sanitizer, short cord length, a small mirror, magnifying card. I keep my house keys separate from my car keys so I have them if I lock myself out of the car at least.Could be more useful with a Swiss army knife or pliers multitool. Almost always have a flashlight even at home, it’s much more used than a knife, and most people still don’t carry them.  I used to bring a bag with me with a lot of equipment and it’s saved the day a few times, and kept basic tools in my school bag that’s also helped when I repaired equipment in the lab.I don’t go out as much so it’s been trimmed down to just pocket gear, but trips have a dedicated wait in place bag for hanging out in the car.  I’ve definitely developed a habit of refilling things: charging my lights when they get down to half, refilling water jugs when they’re out or used, daily water bottles at least before bed. Trying to keep gear reset right after use so it’s not sitting around unprepared. I would like to figure out or teach myself or whatever to organize things better. The pantry shelves we have are almost unusable and we loose bags of stuff all the time. I also want to put a shelf up just for mostly prepping gear, but getting things out of the way to get to that is an extreme event. Mostly organizing, my other stuff isn’t exactly accessible and everything is very haphazard. I would also like to in general, keep my executive function actually functioning, it would help in getting things done. Then organizing information. I know there’s a prepper list building app that’s like really cool but expensive, and I make a lot of lists in different places and have only so much cross referencing. I would also like to get moving again, but that falls under the executive function thing.

One thing I brought up in the Discord server, was an electric travel razor in an electrical kit. For people that can grow long facial hair, it directly impacts the seal of N95/kn95/kf94 masks. Recent study suggested that above a certain length, the mask can let through air and won’t be as effective. So a AA operated travel razor seems like a smart option. It was also suggested that just the cheap but sufficient disposable safety razors would work. I did recently see a video that had a pre built bag that had a small travel size pouch of shaving cream and I have an idea where to get it. There’s always so many small things for kits, I think another would be those sliver grippers tweezers. The Swiss army knife ones are decent but the sliver grippers are definitely a step up.

Across the border from you in NM, I also have rechargeable fans for in the house. In my travel bag for summer, I was going to put some plastic dollar store hand fans in, along with a cotton mesh veil. With the low humidity, soaking the mesh veil, it creates a portable swamp cooler effect. Mix it with the fans and it will make you shiver. Planning to wet it and throw it over the 2.5 gallon water jug we’re going to take with us on trips.   It definitely helped my mom deal with the heat last summer, either laying on it or just draping it over legs. Much more effective than an instant ice pack for treating heat issues in the arid regions. Bandana also can work, but it’s not as effective. The cooling vest is extremely expensive but should last years and I think it’s a much better option in high humidity places

“There is a “high risk of biological hazard” in Sudan’s capital Khartoum after one of the warring parties seized a laboratory holding measles and cholera pathogens and other hazardous materials, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.” https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/un-humanitarian-office-reduces-sudan-operations-due-fighting-2023-04-25/

I second the US M65 field jackets. Also a big fan of the ALICE large ruck sack, 3 day assault bags, 2 quart canteens, the camouflage clothing can be moderately useful and the funky US ACU is cheap since they phased out to multicam. Buying military gear that’s intended for military use but just like, new instead of used or previously issued I think is important with stuff like boots, they’re very easy to get factory seconds or weirdly worn pairs, you want new of those. Nomex flight gloves are also somewhat cheap and a lot of folks like them because of the fire resistance but only moderate dexterity loss. Canteen cups and stoves are common as well, military boonie hats are much cheaper than some production hats. Ammo cans are always useful, same with new water jugs. I do want a poncho and maybe a military tarp but prices are weird. I liked Cheaper Than Dirt, bought various things from them over the years. Used to like sportsmans guide but they had a discount code at one point that made me think differently. EBay is usually a good source as, but you have to be very thorough looking at pictures and descriptions to be sure you’re getting what you want in the right condition.

I have a sport vest similar to one of theirs in regards to so many pockets, and while it has the zip off sleeves, it isn’t quite so sleek. I do think that extra pockets are good, but I feel like the excessive pockets turns into the same issue you get with a bigger back pack: you have room and are compelled to fill every nook and cranny with extra gear. Like one of the previews on their site they have a couple of people pulling entire tablets out of the vest which is fun but is it practical? There is a point where gear in pockets would more easily be carried in a backpack or other non clothing method. Practically, I see full fabric vests as more useful during cooler weather, and the tablet thing especially useful in sub zero temps where you need to keep a device working by keeping it warm with body heat. I don’t exactly see the benefit of cargo clothes over just a backpack, especially in hot weather. I personally know my own EDC really only needs two front pockets and one back pocket for phone, even in the tiny pockets of women’s pantsand if I needed some degree of expansion, I can still manage some tools tossed in the back.  I could sort of see the application for extra survival gear, but a bag still beats that hands down in most applications. There’s things like the wazoo belt and hat that have pockets for ferro rods and a bunch of other basic survival items, but with clothing in mind, where would the vest overcome something like a fanny pack or sling bag? I have seen some people go directly to vests for their gear which works for them, and I’ve seen recommendations for putting everything into a vest for flying so you can just take it off and put the entire thing in the scanner instead of having to empty all pockets and scramble to get out of the way afterwards. One place I would see it very useful is in airplanes and vehicles. During one of the Delta force operations back in the 80s, operation eagle claw, the operators had customized M65 field jackets with ammunition, radios, batteries, rope, drag handles and various other field items and they weighed somewhere in the 60 pound range. They carried in water jugs but didn’t use any backpacks. I think that choice helped some get out of the airplane when things went badly, and I think most military pilots still use vests. I think I’d have to try it, but with those, uh, generous prices, it would definitely be easier to just stitch, or as I’ve done in the past to a jacket, use fabric glue to attach a fabric to create a pocket inside that wasn’t factory. I watched a video about how regular military types would also mod field jackets to hide money, compass and important documents. Vests are pretty nifty, but I think it depends on who’s wearing it and the applications

CDC warns doctors to watch for Marburg virus amid outbreaks in two African nations https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/06/health/cdc-alert-marburg/index.html

April chat nights are on the 7th and the 21st at 6pm PST/9pm EST

Sun had a coronal mass ejection similar to the past Carrington event; it was on the other side of the sun, at least. Holy Mackerel!! 🤩🤯This was a huge and fast event from the other side of the Sun. 🌞An extremely fast and rare CME, 3000 km/s, 6.7 Mega mph. As fast if not faster than the fastest CME like the famous Carrington Event.Could be the big one for the cycle but we have to wait! 🧐😎 pic.twitter.com/RXtnIrPEjV — Dr. C. Alex Young (@TheSunToday) March 13, 2023

I think this is a solid guide. I think the only thing that’s not ideal to do is tap the pins out with a punch: there’s a chance of deforming the head of the threads and the threads themselves. It’s usually recommended to just thread the nut side on after loosening, then tap the entire nut instead. Protects the threads and gives you a larger target. Could always put it in a vice the same way as well with a block of wood on the other side with a hole drilled into it. I’m also of the opinion that people always want their old saws to be mirror polished. They don’t really need to be, the darker metal is actually a durable and stable rust that keeps the rest of the metal from turning into orange rust. As long as it’s smooth and the set is correct, it doesn’t need to be mirror polished. That’s probably one of the few things I wished I had known when working over the saws, chisels  and hand planes I’ve restored, out would’ve saved me a lot of sanding. Tossing the brass and any other fittings into vinegar will clean them up very nicely and won’t be abrasive. Soapy water also works on the plate for sanding. For the handle, they usually have that really crunchy varnish. Card scrapers with a dull burr, which many traditional wood workers should have, or old utility blades with A 90 degree edge, remove it quickly without clogging up or digging in like a knife edge does.  Works great on the flat spots but can quickly round edges if care not taken. You did cite Paul Sellers, he’s a fantastic resource for using these things and he has a video on using a punch for setting finer toothed saws. Saw sets can be hard to find sometimes, I only recently picked one up helping some family friends clean out a house, so knowing how to use a punch is helpful. I love restoring and using old hand tools, if it wasn’t for the pandemic, I’d absolutely be out there thrifting tools far more than before. I’m definitely going to try that Disston guide for my saws, maybe I can get more specific than “it’s from 100 years ago”. There are some modern budget hand tools out there, but they are definitely not made the same way.

“March 3 (Reuters) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday it was issuing a health alert advisory to notify clinics and public health officials to be watchful after a case of measles was confirmed at a large gathering in Kentucky.  On Feb. 24, the Kentucky Department for Public Health identified a confirmed case of measles in an unvaccinated individual with a history of recent international travel, the CDC said.  While infected, the individual attended a large religious gathering on Feb. 17–18, with an estimated 20,000 people there from other states and countries, the national agency said.” https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-cdc-issues-advisory-after-confirmed-measles-case-kentucky-2023-03-03/