Soooo... What is everyone doing to get ready for winter? I'm currently tweaking my get home/bug out bag for the colder months. Anyone know if MRE's are okay to leave in a vehicle through the winter despite being frozen and thawed what with chinooks and all?
Tracking down some good wool blankets for the vehicles / BOB's
-20 sleeping bags are coming out of storage. hand and toe heat pads as well - Heat Factory
Zippo Hand Warmer with Replacement Burners
undergarments Polartec Power Dry. you can get them from MEC or such
Army Quilted Thermal Arctic tent booties
Winter tents and hammock come out of storage as well.
Individual Soldier Winter /artic MK 1 camo screens....1 per family member
everything else is what you would normally expect in boots, coats etc...
Adding an extra cord of wood to the supply.
Basically bugged out................ but getting the vehicles ready for winter with a sleeping bag and extra warm clothing and boots in each. Chains, shovel, jumper cables, candles, water, chocolate bars, granola bars, TP, etc. ....... you know the drill. Get stuck, need to be able to spend a comfortable night or two in remote areas.
Let no good deed go unpunished.
MRE's should be good, even if they are frozen, the instructions usually state to be careful handling frozen MRE's as they could break.
Rob
Cold and Flu supplies! It's a given that at some point every winter we'll all get sick and I will not feel well enough to go out and buy meds/fluids and other needed items (Kleenex, disinfectants etc). I know it sounds simple, but I LOVE being prepped for illness when it happens! We also rotate out food/water and clothing from BOB and GHBs. I have no idea about the MREs but I keep food in my car all winter, the thing is I just have a quick rotation because I worry about the freeze/thaw cycle. Basically my kids like to snack in the car so I always have 2 lunch boxes full of stuff for them, it's easy to keep it moving when you've got kids in them all the time!
Firewood, firewood and more firewood.
Even next years firewood.
_________________
Deep in the night you will look into the ever looming dark and despair, and think...
"Damn it, I should have listened to Crier.... that bastard is brilliantly gifted with "supernatural common sense."
Crier that's awesome. I don't know why but I have always felt a real sense of accomplishment after spending a day hauling and splitting firewood.
BM: the freeze/thaw cycle is what I was concerned about. It's for food I'll keep in my work truck so I'd like to have something I can keep in there for the winter just in case...
Some nice snow flurries today guys! Might be time to get your winter tires on before we actually get hit hard 🙂
glasshouse,
Military rations are of a high standard, they are edible even when exposed to the freeze/thaw cycle. This includes MRE's and IMP's. Edible and palatable are not the same. I have eaten some rations that have been exposed to, too many freeze/thaw cycles and they were not palatable, however, if hungry enough they would be edible.
An alternative for winters on the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies would be a home-made ration consisting of beef/bison/elk jerky, cup of soup, sesame snaps, trail mix bars, coffee/tea, chocolate bars - dark chocolate 50% or better, cans of nuts, hot chocolate packages, sugar, whitener, fruit leather, Kerr's hard candies and wet-wipes. Products in original packaging and then vaccuum sealed would probably work best in a vehicle. Of course, you need a supply of water in bottles that can handle the freeze/thaw cycle and a method of boiling said water.
Hope that helps,
Mountainman.
PS - Crybaby - nice woodwork!!
Nice woodpile CryBaby! And outdoor wood furnace too.......
I have my wood for this year inside, next year's stacked outside, and the year afters too
Soooo... What is everyone doing to get ready for winter?
moving my rain barrels with the water inside........well moving an empty one in then borrowing a pump to get the water inside 😳
glasshouse,
Military rations are of a high standard, they are edible even when exposed to the freeze/thaw cycle. This includes MRE's and IMP's. Edible and palatable are not the same. I have eaten some rations that have been exposed to, too many freeze/thaw cycles and they were not palatable, however, if hungry enough they would be edible.
An alternative for winters on the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies would be a home-made ration consisting of beef/bison/elk jerky, cup of soup, sesame snaps, trail mix bars, coffee/tea, chocolate bars - dark chocolate 50% or better, cans of nuts, hot chocolate packages, sugar, whitener, fruit leather, Kerr's hard candies and wet-wipes. Products in original packaging and then vaccuum sealed would probably work best in a vehicle. Of course, you need a supply of water in bottles that can handle the freeze/thaw cycle and a method of boiling said water.
Hope that helps,
Mountainman.
PS - Crybaby - nice woodwork!!
Thanks Mountainman, I am going to go the home-made route as you mentioned. Always good to spend money on stuff I know I like 🙂
I carry no water in the winter. Just a way to melt snow. Pot and stove. Seems simple enough but even that takes some practice. You can "burn" water.
Agreed water is "less" of a concern in the winter months and I could use the space for extra socks/gloves.
Snow is good providing its not yellow.