Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!So, according to reports HERE in the Daily Fail, Bidet, when asked about his bribery scheme, he laughed and walked away without comment:
The fucking arrogance of these fuckers.
They know they’re never going to be held to account
We know the same
Dammit.
Did you know we essentially went to war with Great Britain (The American Revolution) over what amounted to about $60k in money?
How faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar we have fallen.
Over $60k our Founders ‘nutted up’ and curbstomped (eventually) the single. largest. DotMil. in existence at the time.
Now? We sit, anesthetized on cheap booze and TikTok vidyas.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
Hard to not get discouraged Aye?
So
Besides the obvious cancer named “Biden” that’s infesting the Body Politic of the world, I’ma going to riff on something a bit new… call it Prep Orientation.
The case in point: WATER
Shit you literally cannot live without.
Now… Me and water have a love hate relationshit. I lern’t much to my horror, that I needed a 3 to 1 mix to stay alive in Iraq. More on that mix in a minute… Being a big sweaty hardworking motherfucker meant I tended to be a heat casualty pretty quickly IF I didn’t insure proper hydration. I -was- a HeatCat as we call it back at Ft Campbell in my misspent yoot as an Infantryman… I missed the memo apparently, and woke up after a 12 mile roadmarch where I fell the fuck out. I don’t remember to be honest.
Woke up in the Hospital, 4 bags, two in each arm, and a heart monitor hooked up. Told I was that close to a Heat STROKE but the medic who got to me saved my life.
As I aged up, I found out in Iraq (my first HeatCat episode there) that I needed to make sure for every 3 liters of pure water I sucked down, that I put a liter of Gatorade in me, as I was washing all the needed salts and electrolytes out of me. They also told me to dose up on my critical vitamins, which I still do to this day.
But yeah, Water
Learn how much you need. I dig they say “One Gallon Per Person, Per Day”.
Sure… fucking great if you’re up in the cooler non-heat-stroke climates. Pretty sure Art Sido from Dissident Thoughts doesn’t need a half of what I require in Florida on the day-to-day.
Then again, maybe he does.
It’s all an individual thing.
TOTALLY True
Can Confirm, except for the last part on the far right.
Usually BEFORE you get to the full-on “Vermont Maple Syrup” piss color, most -normal- folks have fallen the fuck out. And the far left? Man, I (pardon the pun) aim to have my shit clear as a bell like when I’ve been swilling beer all night.
Of course water-poisoning… whatever the science term is for it is real, and you definitely don’t want to overdo it. I recall some split who did a radio contest and died of that shit… “Wee for a Wii” or something… drank waaay too mucho Aqua, and cashed in.
BUT
Now that we’ve established the whole “water is good”
One needs clean water to stay healthy.
Hence my inclusion of a LifeStraw water bottle… and wow… looks like they changed things… Mine:
Stainless Steel 1 Liter bottle with integrated filter system.
NO WONDER I got a deal on the price… they changed it… I paid like $29.99. The ‘new model’?:
On sale…
For $51.96
Now, yeah, pricey and no, I didn’t know they were changing the make model. The new one has that removable cover, which to me? Me No Likey. Unless it was ‘dummy corded’ to the main bottle? Shit like that gets lost…quickly in cases like me. Mine? The ‘nipple/straw’ folds up and down. Never saw any bad reviews, so not sure. Thankfully they didn’t change the filter. I have 2x spares, plus a full 6 pack of the charcoal filters to take the funk out of the taste of the water.
SO it -does- work. Tested mine and man, no complaints.
Water is key to survival.
Here at the house (and we have to refill a bunch of them, now that I’m thinking about it) I have 18-5 Gallon jugs on hand. That’s 90 gallons of potable.
30 days worth, not including the Sausage Princess and the Asshole Cat.
But the LifeStraw isn’t my -only- filter.
I managed to, many many many years ago get a Katadyn Pocket Filter.
NOT the cheap one either.
I paid $200 fedbux for it when I first learned about them and oh Holy Hells! Damn… I looked it up, and the current price for the damned thing on the Zon:
Sweet Jeebus!
I think I bought mine in 1999? When I was worried about Y2K.
Literally a 50% increase in 20 years +/-
Wow. Thankfully, I’ve only test run mine a few times.
I used it on the fish pond that’s in the back yard and so ubiquitous here in Florida. Made the water just fine, although tasteless. Good for about 15000 Gallons
Which is also why in my ‘water preps’ I have some BIG assed bags of like 400 multi-flavored packs of Kool Aid and big jugs of Tang (‘member that?) and Gatorade.
Better you -like- the taste of whatever you’re pounding for sustenance. Otherwise it’s bland-bland tasting of treated/boiled water.
Not much fun in that
So, YMMV but I do most certainly suggest you make sure you have something that can purify –at least– a couple of hundred gallons of agua, lest you die horrifically.
More Later
Big Country
I hydrate even if not thirsty.
After the stroke and recovery I had blood in the urine for about a month which took some getting used to and so glad when it cleared up.
No one will be held accountable in the Peter Principle society, that will come externally and maybe even cosmic.
Everything that worked got chucked overboard for the faculty lounge but at least we can have gut busting laughs as the trains derail on time and the infrastructure collapses.
States will go their own way as the dollar goes Weimar wheelbarrow Zimbabwe wallpaper but no (not so) Great Reset without it.
A buddy gave me that Beast movie and it is time for an encore as it has the one Baldwin who can act!
After my training I swill back 2 Fat Tug IPAs before the water intake, it provides all the nutrients and electrolytes to recover. Pre- hump, I drink 2qts of water with a teaspoon of Himalayan salt mixed in.
We euphemistically call thing like Kool-Aid(R) and Tang(R) ‘flavor enhancers’, because flat water (from having much of the dissolved oxygen driven out of it by boiling), or ‘chemical flavor’ water (from chemical purifiers like iodine or chlorine) suck – and it’s a lot more enjoyable with some ‘flavor’ added.
You can help the flat ‘boiled’ water taste by spashing it back and forth between two containers to ‘aerate’ it, or in the case of too strong chlorine/iodine taste – let it sit out to let the excess ‘evaporate’.
Also:
Of course, YMMV, but I’d check the big containers of Tang/Kool Aid to make sure it hasn’t ‘caked’ due to high humidity in storage. I recently had a big-assed canister of Tang require a chisel to dig it out – and I just live in Maryland. I can’t imagine what it’d be like in FL, especially if the container had been opened much.
FWIW – the ‘caking’ can occur with Gatorade(R) powder, even though it’s *supposed* to have an anti-caking agent in it. Same for Tang & bulk Kool Aid.
As to the 3:1 ratio you mentioned, BCE – I just mix my Gatorade using 1/4 to 1/3 of what the recipe on the container says. If you drink it the wait it says to mix it – it has WAY too much sugar. I use the ‘does it taste salty’ rule of thumb. It it does, I’m probably hydrated/electrolyted OK. If not, I needed it.
I make sure I throw a oxygen absorber in… got a fucking HUGE bag of them… keep a GIANT (3lb one) that came with our 120mm shells for our M1’s in the gun safes. Never had a problem w/rust. Of course this requires a yearly 6 hour bake session in the toaster oven, but hey… been 15 years and they still work
That is a moisture gel pack. The O2 absorbers are sealed in plastic. You open them and throw in with your food before sealing. They are finely ground pure iron. Just waiting to rust and absorb O2.
Tribe is Key…They had it we don’t and until we do, we will continue to lose…
Flavor? Ya wimps. I never minded the iodine tablet flavor (weird I know, preferred it over the chlorine tabs though) and for electrolytes just use salt tabs (Salt Stick nowadays). Now that I’m getting older and carrying too much built in ruck (fat) I sweat more. I’ll add some Power Pack to the drinking water, 1/3 to 1/2 strength, while engaged in sweat inducing activity to maintain some electrolytes then hit the Salt Sticks after. If it’s summer (E. TN) and I can’t avoid doing outdoor work I’ll preload with a Salt Stick before as well as after. Back in the day was doing some winter backpacking (SE OH) and me and my bud started getting leg cramps. Took some salt tabs and water and cleared it right up. Never would have figured electrolyte loss in winter but it happens.
Had a Katadyn back in the late 70s, early 80s for backpacking. Loved it because you didn’t have to wait for the iodine to work. Bit heavy back then as that was before the pocket version. Always carried the iodine tablets as backup since they don’t weigh much or take up much room. Just might help with rad poisoning, never know.
as I don’t plan on going anywhere, I went with a big Berkley water filter. used to see them in Nato
“campsites” back in the 1970’s big white filters in them. now those old white filters you could scrub
with a green pad to get the funk off of them and they be good top go again. local water around here is
full of iron so the filters turn red with it. every year we have to scrub them down and they good again.
heat stroke is a bitch, saw quite a few guys drop out with it back at FT. POLK during basic and AIT
summer there was a stone bitch- no fucking a/c anywhere back then.
do have a Katadyn Vario water filter system that I keep in the truck with a spare set of filters. got mine on sale
at the sportsman’s warehouse for 150 or so. the tablets suck, I remember them from back in the field days. what my dad used to do when in the woods was to dig a hole about 2 feet from the creek and let it fill up to get a drink. I thinking he used the soil to filter it- seem to work as I don’t ever remember him or me getting sick from it. but that was in the hills of eastern KY with clear running water.
if you have a few of those big 5 gallon water jugs, you can fill them up with clean water and set them in the sun to kill off any bugs/germs the filter might miss. I had mine sit out all day and the water was
okay. as far as taste goes, tang is good. do have a few of those “sports” drink packets for water bottles
haven’t tried one yet though. and there is the old saying, if you don’t have to piss, you not drinking enough water. most people never saw the piss chart I would bet. I would figure about 1/2 gallon a day for the dog at least. cats are a problem. one thing I used to get the cat to drink is the water from the canned chicken. he will drink all of it. same with the dog.
we have outside or feral cats around here that we feed. in turn they keep all of the mice/squirrels/critter away. well, dead. I find the body parts all over the place ! they drink rain water most of the time anywhere they find it. if you boil the water to drink, only fill the bottle half full and shake the hell out of it to put air back in the water to make it taste better
I think most of Pa’s water is full of iron. Need to change the well intake filter every month or else clothing starts look dirty. And that is with an acid neutralizer after the pressure tank but before the filter. As for alternative sources I really do not want to use any from the stream in the back as it passes through at least 4 Amish farms before it gets to me. Can watch Eframs cows in it from the kitchen., not to mention the creek chubs always seem to have strange growths on them as they get bigger than fingerlings.
Yes. Agua. Wasser (as Deutsche Muttie would say)
Had heat exhaustion. Had hydration sickness. Neither is fun. And learned a shit ton of things about limits and what needs carried in a pack and what to have on hand.
Ever since, I have oh so many ways of filtering/purifying/collecting/keeping water, also powders and mixes for nutrient loss. I even get good inexpensive filters and pass them out to good friends.
Water is life. Especially since we are big ugly bags of mostly water.
Big Berkey is the motherfucking king daddy! Best $500 bones I ever spent.
That aside, I kept this link handy….it was posted on WRSA awhile back, IIRC:
https://vs-training.com/2022/11/07/my-water-procurement-kit/
Born a desert rat, but at NTC almost ran out of water on a patrol. I always carried 2 canteens, but most guys only carried one. The only thing that kept us from having to abort our mission was that we came across one of our forward deployed ITV’s broken down and were able to refill canteens. Supply gave out 2 qt. canteens before we went, but our “Platoon Daddy” sold them to an Army surplus store. For some reason, he thought nobody would notice. “Platoon Daddy” wound up getting kicked out of the Army at 19 yrs. with a General Discharge. The other option he was given was court martial, loss of rank and dishonorable discharge.
Coconut water – the perfect hydration drink. You can even use it in an IV in an emergency.
I get little electrolyte packets for my canteens. One packet to one quart. Doesn’t taste too bad, but isn’t full of crap like Gatorade is.
Himalayan pink salt is good stuff, too. Something like 85 different minerals in it. I drink a cup of water with half a lime squeezed into it and 1/4 teaspoon of that Himalayan salt every morning before I have my first cup of coffee or eat anything. After I started that regimen, in only 1 week I noticed I had more energy and started working out with a kettlebell I’d let languish in the corner. I was told it would take 2 weeks before I noticed anything.
If you wanna see results of LifeStraws under a microscope:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEwN6mqviY0&t=245s
Start at 3:30-ish to skip the setup.
Whatever P-tabs you decide to carry, don’t get the bottled type. You’re gonna drop it and it’ll shatter or you’ll lose the cap. Hiking/backpacking places carry individual foil packed tabs. 50 of ‘em fit in a plastic Orbit stick chewing gum box. Eyedropper bottle, non breakable, filled with DISINFECTING, not laundry, bleach will treat a LOT of water. Drop or two per gallon. I buy the combat sized cans of drink powders at the usual suspects, then break it into 1 qt sized packets in little mylar bags. No math required, I can carry several gallons worth in a pocket & stores a lot longer. Same thing with instant coffee. Cuz bad coffee is always better than no coffee.
For drink flavor that isn’t so loaded down with sugar like Gatorade look into PUR tablets. Don’t let any drinking container you put flavor tabs or powder in sit, unless you like a goey mess you have to clean up later. One thing I learned standing in the hot sun doing firearms classes is to have some kind of snack handy for breaks, to give your stomach something to work on other than water. I like to use orange slices (the candy ones) and maybe some peanuts.
I don’t have enough water stored away, I need more, but man it is bulky.
Costco has 4 packs of lifestaraws for $40
https://www.costco.com/lifestraw-personal-water-filter-4-pack.product.100972598.html
At work they hand out this sqwincher brand electrolyte sticks, no sugar and doesn’t taste terrible
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sqwincher-ZERO-Qwik-Stik-Sugar-Free-Electrolyte-Powdered-Beverage-Mix-Assorted-Flavors-40-Sticks/382202116?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=101182432&adid=22222222223000000000&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=e&wl1=s&wl2=m&wl3=10352200394&wl4=pla-1103028060075&wl5=&wl6=&wl7=&wl10=Walmart&wl11=Online&wl12=382202116_10001201793&wl14=sqwincher&veh=sem&gclsrc=ds
I think what BC is describing, is hyponatremia: too much water and not enough electrolytes. So the body gets super-imbalanced.
(Marathon / long distance runners can sometimes have this happen.)
I like the little “fizzy tabs” that come on a tube, called NUUN. (Pron: “Noon”)
Just drop a tab in a glass of water, and it has the magnesium, potassium, and sodium in the right amounts (body weight of course varies).
But the flavor tab tastes good, and has less sugar than other drinks.
It stores really well, too. I have had NUUNin my preps for years. (Rotating them out cuz I use the tabs a lot in summer.)
“Skratch” brand powder is also really awesome to add to water. Made for endurance athletes during hard exercise.
Easy to buy zip-pack pouches, 3-4 at a time. Skratch also keeps well.
Hope this info helps folks out there. I use both of these during long, hard summer workouts.
I haven’t read BC in a few months, and am glad to see he is still kickin’!!
Sawyer makes a filter using the same tech used to make the filters for dialysis. Incredibly free flowing, back washable and Strong. Both chemical resistant and very hard to tear. Filtration at the micron level.
Never drink Gatorade exclusively. As BCE says, water to Gatorade, 3:1. My brother was working on a yard project all day in high heat drinking nothing but Gatorade, and no water. He spent the next two days in the hospital with brutal kidney stones and cardiac arrhythmia, both conditions he had never had before. Turns out heavy H2O depletion + lots of Gatorade = bad calcium/ potassium ratio juju = kidney stones and cardiac issues. Doctors said he was very lucky.
had kidney stones bad for a while. found a old time/style doc who told me to drink lemonaid
either fresh stuff or from juice is best he said. stay away from the powder stuff .
you do have to watch how much sugar you add too.
I think it was 3.5 cups of water to one cup of juice and 1/4 cup of sugar was what I ended up using
and drink 2-3 , 12oz cups a day. after a week of that, no more stones !!
these days I drink at least one 12 oz glass of crandberry juice per day.
kidneys are stage 3 they say. but my labs work is good, so I doing okay for the most part.
stay away from OTC pain meds ! they fucked my kidneys up big time.
taking 2 Alive’s and washing them with a few beers will trash your kidneys fast.
on real pain meds now. life is a little better.
Iffen you got a Costco membership they’ll occasionally run those big bags of Liquid IV for sale and that stuff works great if you dont want to mix up your own powder. Tucks away in canteen bags or nalgene holders great.
Maxpedition and plenty of clone gear makers make a nalgene bottle holder that will fit a nested stainless steel or titanium camp cup with a little pouch for whatever flavor of water treatment you prefer.
Finally dont overlook stores like REI. If you have a membership there, 24ish bucks for life, you can shop their garage sales. I got a nice MSR pump filter for pennies on the dollar when a customer returned it saying they didn’t like how it made the water taste.
Working a paving job for 5 days, I got home and started cramping up. Had so many different muscles wadding up, I had to pick the one that hurt the most to work out. Took me over an hour to get my boots off. Spent the next two days on nothing more than Tums, Gatorade and bananas. Was told I could have had severe pumper problems when my system was that far out of whack and that staying home and healing myself was a dumb ass thing to do.
Back in the day we put a teaspoon of baking soda in each canteen to give back the electrolytes that we sweated out in the tropics. Seemed to work. Although I have multiple filters my big investment was a reverse osmosis hand pump for salt water because we have a lot of that where I live. Like what they use on sailboats. Tastes like plastic but it not only removes salt but all bacteria and other critters. Don’t forget about SODIS. Clear plastic bag or glass jar whatever. Place non salt water in it after filtering through a t shirt to remove any particulate and let sit in the sun for 8 hours. Ultraviolet kills all the nasties.
If we want to be literal then it is 102% increase over 20 years (not 50%). It gives you an annualized averaged price increase of about 3.5% per annum over that period of time. Kind of standard.
Then delete this comment.