Dollar store medical kit

I finally found some time this weekend to get out and hit the dollar store.  I had been wanting to see what I could pick up there to start my own little medical kit.  I know there are a ton of different lists and articles stating what you should have but doing it frugally was what I was looking for.  I still have a lot to add to it but I figured that the items I picked up were a great start.  Here's the list:

Hand sanitizer
Gauze pads
Anti Diarrheal
Childrens Liquid Acetaminophen
Analgesic Gel
Bandaids
Gauze wrap
Aspirin
Wet wipes
Acetaminophen
Ibuprophen
Alcohol Pads
Lip balm
Can opener

It's definitely a start but still needs some work.  Tweezers come to mind but I don't know if I saw them in the store or not.  I would like to have a couple of these kits actually just in case so I might be making another trip back in the near future.  Dollar store here I come!!!

Tactical Pants

I decided that clothing was just as important as any gear that you might need out in the field so I went in search of pants, other than jeans, just for that occasion.  The great survival guru, Cody Lundin, always proclaims that cotton kills so my search was for pants that weren't just all cotton.  The ones that I went with for this experiment were all 65% polyester and 35% cotton.  I guess we couldn't get away from cotton all the way.  I ventured out to Amazon where I find myself doing most of my survival shopping and came across three different brand names that I figured would be a good fit.  My three choices were Blackhawk, 5.11 and Tru-Spec 24-7.  For the most part, all of the pants mimicked the Army summer BDU pants besides adding a few more pockets here or there.  The fit was the same on all three as well when it came to moving around.  I would like to say that the Blackhawk and 5.11 had a gusseted crotch area which supposedly gave me more room for doing Chuck Norris like movements (I can't do that by the way).  The Blackhawk and Tru-Spec did have an internal elastic waistband that gave a better appearance than the external (or normal style) elastic waistband on the 5.11's.  One option that I did appreciate was a silicon-like band inside the Blackhawk pants that assisted with keeping your shirt tucked in.  I thought that was pretty ingenious.  After trying out all the pants (in the comfort of my kitchen) I decided that the pants for me would be the Blackhawks.  With all the pants being similar in nature, the Blackhawks added just a few more bells and whistles that actually made sense instead of adding a feature that didn't (the 5.11's had a strap on the back that I couldn't figure out).  One thing I almost forgot was the pricing.  The Tru-Spec's were the cheapest at $39, the Blackhawk's came in next at $44 and the 5.11's were $48.  Check out the pics below.

Blackhawk

Tru-Spec

5.11

Sorry I didn't do a better job with the pics.  I thought they would magically get bigger when you clicked on them after they were published. 

Light my fire!!

I was looking for something to do yesterday and ultimately decided to burn up some extra kindling that had been in the garage for a couple years.  It was in a small wheelbarrow that could probably be used better elsewhere.  Someone was thoughtful enough to give me a cool little flint steel fire starter that I was interested in checking out.  A good friend let me in on the tip about rubbing petroleum jelly into cotton balls and using them for starting a fire.  He told me to keep a bunch in a ziplock bag in case of an emergency.  I arranged the kindling in our little firepit and placed the greased up cottonball on some dry leaves and after two strikes I had fire.  I took much pride in knowing that I was getting better at one of the basic survival skills that might come in handy in the future.