12 Tips for Living Out of Your Car

If you need knowledge, read a book.  If you want to really know something, experience is the best teacher.  My advice for anyone reading this is to try living in a car or van for a week or two.  There isn’t anything better to wring out your survival kit than practical use.

Here are some tips from my own experiences.

image by thomas riboulet

Add a flip-up roof vent to the van, if that’s what you have.  Heating/cooking with propane produces water as a byproduct.  The vent will get rid of the  interior water buildup .  It will also exhaust hot air in the warmer parts of the year.  A solar powered fan in the vent is even better.

Solar film on the windows keeps things private, but you need a blackout curtain to keep light from being seen at night.  I used a denim tube and lined it with high density foam, hung from wire springs on both the top and bottom of the tube curtain.  The curtain needs to cover the whole window.  It provides a bit of insulation, too.

Never park in the same place twice in the same week.  Stay away from other parkers in your same situation.  Parking around a 24-hour biz is better than residential areas.  Apartment complexes offer a degree of stealth street parking due to the high turnover of tenants and friends, NOT in their parking lot, however!  Same for 24-hour grocery stores.

Sometimes your employer will let you park behind the biz if you’re a good employee and they want to help you out.  That’s always a personal call that depends on the boss’s personality and the particular job.  Sometimes it’s better the boss doesn’t know your situation.

Rent a mini-storage cubicle with 24-hour access for your spill-over and items that might be stolen from your vehicle.  If you’re a customer, you have bathroom privileges.

A health club membership is the golden ticket for street living.  You can shower, steam, and work out, too.  Municipal indoor pools are good, too.  Learn to bathe in a sink, as in sponge baths.  Always clean up your mess!

A private mailbox that provides a street address (not a Post Office box) makes you look more like someone with a real address.  This comes into play for drivers licenses, state ID cards, car insurance, job applications, etc.

A pay-as-you-go cell phone provides a telephone for job calls and if you need emergency services.

Try to find an apartment manager job if you have good people skills and some simple maintenance experience.  The local Apartment Association may offer training so you can get that job.  Once you’re in, you’re in for life.  They like peeps that have experience, so this is the route in.  Much easier if you’re a couple.  Mini-storage management is even better.  Usually small buildings only trade an apartment and light housekeeping duties for your time.  You will need to work part-time to pay the bills.

A portable CD player with a radio is very handy for entertainment and news.

Most libraries have computer access.  If you have a wireless laptop, then those businesses that let you surf on their wi-fi connection for a cup of coffee are helpful, too.

Always dress and act middle class or better.  The way you look determines how the police will handle you when they come calling.  That’s when, not if.

Don’t think you are depression proof.  Plan ahead for  hard times and practice.  You won’t be disappointed.  Living hand to mouth eventually gives you a can-do attitude that can be a life saver.  Even if you have to give up your home, you will still have one.

This advice came from webbee, over on Survivalist Boards  who granted his permission to re-post it here.  You and I may never have to live in our vehicles, but this advice is helpful for evacuations or if you’re ever stranded somewhere without funds for a hotel. 

See also:

Even If You Aren’t Living In A Car, You Need To Read These Terrific Survival Tips!

Getting Started With Dumpster Diving

Want more survival information like this?

The post 12 Tips for Living Out of Your Car by The Survival Mom appeared first on The Survival Mom. Be sure to check it out!

Don’t Fall for the Prepper Fantasy

Written by Pat Henry on The Prepper Journal.

There are so many thoughts and beliefs around what our own personal TEOTWAWKI reality will look like. Every prepper I talk to about any subject has their own take on what will happen, when it will happen, how bad it will get and in what order the chaos will or won’t descend into their world. I think that is natural and shows how we each have our own thoughts and creativity. Often these different perspectives are helpful to me by making me consider other points of view that maybe I had overlooked.

Each prepper has to take the facts as we see them and apply our own set of experiences, bias and guiding principles to any potential outcomes we foresee. Nobody can tell the future, so the best we have is history, combined with some individual common sense that hopefully leans on lessons from real history to tell us what to prepare for and guide us toward what we might expect. What each of us is actually faced with may be exactly what we anticipated, or it could be completely different. The trick is to not let a surprise do you in.

I think a lot of people have a best case scenario view in their minds of how the world is going to end and how they will fare through the upheaval. I call this the Prepper Fantasy. I don’t mean fantasy in the sense that preppers wish for events like this, but if something bad is going to happen, this is what they view as maybe the more ideal scenario. It goes a little something like this.

1. There is a global EMP or Financial Collapse or Pandemic that kills 90% of the world’s population in about 1 year.
2. The Prepper will have plenty of supplies and survival seeds to keep them alive. The garden will be started right after the catastrophe and they will hunt and fish for food all day long because they no longer have a 9-5 job to go to. They also have guns and plenty of ammo to keep the bad guys out of the house.
3. After the huge die off, the prepper will begin the task of rebuilding society with some incredibly talented friends (doctors, ex Special Forces, nuclear engineers, etc.) They will be able to barter for just about anything they need either with supplies they have or goods they are able to produce. The lack of money or banks won’t impact them.
4. This New World will be populated only with people who were smart, good-looking and tough enough to have survived through the bad times and we will be so much better off. Oh, and all of the women will wear leather bras and very tight pants. And they will have Ninja skills too.

Sounds like the outline of a movie plot doesn’t it? One of the many problems I see with this view is the timeline itself. While a global pandemic could make the rounds of the planet in under a year (see Spanish Influenza) there would need to be a lot of other things that fall nicely into place for this Prepper Fantasy to work out.

Contrary to what Hollywood would have you think; I don’t believe this is what the average woman who has lived through near starvation would look like. I like a toned stomach as much as the next person, but C’Mon! Will all the clothes vanish immediately too?

For one, you would have to be incredibly lucky and everyone else who came up against you – to include hunger, disease and accidents, would have to be equally unlucky. In addition, you would also need to completely discount any form of government in the world. You would also need to overpower any and every opposition force (including governments) or be able to hide indefinitely all the while surviving.

What if they held a riot and nobody showed up?

I have often wondered about the fall of society and in our present day and age how a government could keep 318 million people in check during a collapse. We expect that when things get bad it will play out just like it always has around the world and even here on smaller scales with places like Ferguson and Baltimore most recently. There will be riots and the police will show up to keep the order. Arrests will be made and eventually, if things get bad enough our politicians would step in and urge some redress of our grievances. That is how government works, right? People complain so we create new laws.

The police will keep things from getting too violent and the firemen will put out the burning buildings and overturned police cars and the clean-up can begin at some point. There will be speeches and rallies and this will all be broadcast on the news.

But what if it isn’t?

What if there is some event that causes people to riot and the police don’t appear? What if the fire trucks don’t roll down the street to put out the shops that have been set ablaze? What if all of the buildings and shops are looted, people are killed, the mob simply takes over and nobody stops them? What if government doesn’t step in at all for some reason and we burn our own country down? What if we kill off 80% of the population fighting amongst ourselves and the government sits back and gives us “room to destroy” – to let it all happen without stepping in? What if nobody took your guns, because they wanted you to use them to kill your neighbors so they didn’t have to?

Well, we could all march on Washington and demand to be heard! We could storm the capital and crash the gates at the white house. What if nobody was occupying those buildings anymore?

How do you control 320 million people?

I think there are only a few realistic ways you can control that many people. (warning, gross over simplification ahead) The first and easiest is fear. Fear will make perfectly sane people do irrational things. You will give up your freedoms, your privacy, your rights, your property and dignity for a little safety. It has happened over and over again throughout the years and I would argue it has been going on here since 9/11. You can control people with fear. If they are afraid of something or someone and you offer them protection, they will do just about anything you say.

The other way to control people is through force. This would be harder to do in my opinion without a full scale war because it relies on the people being controlled to go along quietly. That gets back to fear. You would use the fear of death in a war to get people to give up their freedom to you.

The easiest way to control people is to amuse them. Keep them distracted and focused on other things besides how they are being treated, or how crappy their life is. For this to work you need a highly evolved media and entertainment industry which we have in spades; a reduction in the awareness of civics and common sense of the masses which, unfortunately, we also have plenty of.

I for one don’t believe that the people in power are going to give anything up willingly but they will still need to control the population. Right now, control isn’t an issue because for all intents and purposes, everything is fine. Sure we have record unemployment but there are still people working. You have your smart phones even if they are paid for by the government. You have cable TV and you can go to WalMart and buy your groceries on the modern-day equivalent of food stamps as you watch reality TV all night long on-demand and post updates to your Facebook page.

But what happens when that all goes away?

Preppers assume that at some point it will. The electricity will go off, people will riot and get angry and we will march on Washington to demand a change. Once our government sees we have had enough they will completely see the error of their ways. Then they will step down willingly and let better people – people who think like we do, assume control.

Do you really see that happening?

Who needs us anyway?

Our country doesn’t manufacture anything anymore. We the people aren’t needed to keep the wheels of commerce moving in a large sense. We aren’t vital to the war effort. We just exist to buy things and pay taxes to bail out the banks (who no longer need our money but will take it anyway) and conduct wars on foreign lands (that the people don’t agree with). I don’t think we are viewed as necessary in the eyes of some.

Modern day Eugenics proponents say that our population needs to be wiped out for the greater good. John P. Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy wrote in the book, Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment ,”To provide a high quality of life for all, there must be fewer people.” If fewer people is actually the goal of some of the “experts” in society, wouldn’t it behoove them to take steps to ensure that goal is achieved? Some could say that plan is already well on its way and I agree, but getting back to the prepper fantasy; do you think Government is going to simply disappear overnight because you don’t like what they are doing? Do you think nobody is going to maintain power and control at the highest levels? That simply doesn’t happen in history.

I am personally not expecting a big SHTF event to happen where in only days; I will pull out the stops, armor up and begin watching the streets for tricked out buses full of mutant zombies to come rolling into town looking for the last can of gas. Even if there is a global financial collapse, people will still be going to work, maybe not me or you. Mortgages will still be due even if people can’t pay them, grocery stores will still get food, even if there are riots and shortages. It may not completely come crashing down for everyone at the same time.

So, do your prepper plans anticipate a different kind of collapse that isn’t in line with the generic prepper fantasy? Can you live through a slow decline into oblivion? One that doesn’t happen overnight, but over a decade? When our country turns into a third world hell hole in slow motion, will you still be prepared for that?

Preppers should have a plan. The easiest scenarios to plan for, in my mind anyway, are catastrophes well down the road – like Mad Max where you know it’s time to bug out because the evidence is unmistakable. We assume the crisis will happen overnight, but I don’t think it will be like Hollywood. It will take a long time to build all of those souped up hot rods… and the costumes you will have to create. That will take some time too.

I don’t think we will wake up one day to zombies and I don’t think governments will crumble over the span of a few weeks no matter what happens with the financial markets. There may not be a huge showdown or revolution in the streets. We may all just fade away very slowly.

Are you prepared for that?

The post Don’t Fall for the Prepper Fantasy appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

Cherry Tree Diseases: Tips On Treating Cherry Diseases

By Teo Spengler When a cherry tree looks sick, a wise gardener wastes no time in trying to figure out what is wrong. Many cherry tree diseases get worse if untreated, and some can even prove lethal. Fortunately, it usually isn’t too hard to diagnose the problem. The common cherry tree diseases have recognizable symptoms. Read on to learn more about cherry tree problems and the best methods of treating diseases of cherry trees. Cherry Tree Problems Common cherry tree problems include rot, spot and knot diseases. Trees can also get blight, canker and powdery mildew. Root and crown rot diseases result from a fungus-like organism that is present in most soils. It only infects the tree if the moisture level of the soil is very high, like when the tree grows in standing water. Symptoms of rot diseases include slowed growth, discolored leaves that wilt quickly in hot weather,

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Introducing My Paint Saint

Do you ever watch that show, Shark Tank? Love it! Don't you see some of the ideas on that show and smack yourself and say, "why didn't I think of that?"

These entrepreneurs/inventors come on the show and try to talk 5 millionaires into investing in their fabulous ideas, so that they can get their brilliant products in consumer's hands. Getting products off the ground is not an easy task and there are a lot of brilliant ideas that don't make it. Today, I'm showing you one that is trying to get off the ground and I do think it's a pretty great idea.

The post Introducing My Paint Saint appeared first on Southern Hospitality.

Planting Forsythia Hedges: Tips On Using Forsythia As A Hedge

By Teo Spengler Forsythia (Forsythia spp.) offer brilliant yellow blossoms that usually appear in very early spring, but sometimes as early as January. If you plan on using forsythia as a hedge, it is important to plant them correctly. To successfully create this type of hedge, you’ll need to know how and when to trim a forsythia hedge. Read on for information on planting forsythia hedges and forsythia hedge pruning. Using Forsythia as a Hedge Planting forsythia hedges requires appropriate spacing of the plants and regular pruning. If you want a more natural look, space the plants several yards apart and allow them, over time, to partially fill in the spaces between. If you want a sheared, formal hedge, leave less space between the forsythia shrubs. When you are planning forsythia hedge spacing, take into account the mature height and spread of your species of forsythia. Border forsythia, for instance,

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Bullets for Barter: Good Idea or Disaster Waiting to Happen?

Written by Pat Henry on The Prepper Journal.

So many articles have been written on the subject of bartering for preppers from many different viewpoints. Bartering is seen by many as the natural method people will use in order to conduct commerce when the grid goes down. If the economy collapses, as some fear and our money supply disappears, people will go back to trading goods or services they have for goods and services others have. It makes sense on the face of it, but I personally don’t think we will be quickly setting up shops outside our homes and offering our wares for a long time – possibly decades after any hypothetical collapse.

In a true collapse I can certainly see the importance of bartering after SHTF. I think to facilitate bartering, it makes sense to have some items you can trade although I tend to believe the time it will take for society to first, right the ship after something as cataclysmic as a collapse could be measured in years. Most, if not all of the average prepper’s survival supplies would be gone by the time Bartertown was set up. By the time rules were established, even informally for trade you likely wouldn’t have anything left to trade anyone.

This goes down the same path as storing precious metals. I think if we have a functioning banking system after a collapse you will possibly have a place you can take your precious metals and cash them in for the local currency. I do not think you will, any time soon, sit down with your neighbor and trade him a few silver coins for a horse or a new suit. Not at least until your neighbor can take that silver somewhere and get something else of value for it. The problem I see with precious metals is that nobody will know what they are worth and everyone holding precious metals will assume they are more valuable than they truly are. Not to mention how hard it is to make change from Gold or Silver Coins. Sure there are smaller denominations, but do you have any? Will the person you are trading with have any?

Do bullets make good bartering items?

All of my preconceived notions on Bartering aside, I am writing this post today because I have heard at least one other blogger and possibly some of the commenters on our site say words to the effect of “Don’t barter Ammo because it could be used against you”. I starting thinking about that concern and wondered if I had it all wrong before. I personally have recommended ammo as a good bartering item and now there was someone who says they have a ton of experience telling me that what I was thinking was wrong.

It isn’t like I know everything, so I starting considering that perhaps this blogger was right and that I shouldn’t plan on bartering ammo in the first place but the more I thought about it, the more I feel convinced that you should be no less safe bartering ammo than you are bartering a carton of cigarettes.

I think the default position of how bullets for barter or some other items like liquor or tobacco products, is a riskier proposition neglects a few other key points to consider that I wanted to share with the readers of the Prepper Journal today.

It isn’t what you are bartering, it is how

The assumption I think many people on the Bullets are bad bartering items side of this argument make is that if someone knows you have ammo, they will barter for ammo, load their pistol, or other favorite SHTF weapon and point it right back at you. Now you are at their mercy since they have ammo and they will take everything you have and possibly rape your wife and children in front of you. Could that happen? Sure, it is possible, but if that is how you are conducting bartering then you aren’t very wise in my opinion. In fact, you probably wouldn’t have even survived long enough to make it to bartering if you were that clueless.

Maybe I am wrong, but I don’t see anything remotely resembling the open air market and free trade happening for many years after a collapse.

OK, so the hypothetical scenario is that we have just lived through The End of the World as we Know it. Banks closed a year ago, the government collapsed, several nukes went off somewhere in the country, but you haven’t been able to get reliable information for months. You are barely surviving because you had 2 years’ worth of supplies stored and have connected with 4 other families in a mutual assistance group. Your garden is constant work but is feeding you all nicely. The other members of the MAG have brought their own supplies and a modest homestead environment is allowing you all to live in semi-reasonable comfort and security.

Now, some stranger, maybe it is even someone you know comes to your fence. He just happens to have something you are looking for; a car battery. You place it on the multimeter and see that it still has some life in it so you ask what he is willing to trade for it. He says he will take a box of shotgun shells. Since you were a good prepper and stored up a generous supply of ammo before the collapse, this is a trade you can make and reason it is fair.

The element of risk comes into this equation from two places. First, the knowledge that you have ammunition could put you at risk from people who want more ammo and will try to take it by force. The second place is the trade you are considering right now with someone who plans to kill you with the ammo you are going to give him.

These aren’t wild stretches of imagination. I will readily concede there will be desperate people, but I think in this situation people will be just as desperate for food, medical supplies, tobacco, whiskey, livestock, basically anything of value. Sure, someone can’t’ turn around and kill you with a tomato, but if society has devolved so completely, every interaction and transaction is going to carry some amount of risk.

Don’t make bartering mistakes

I think if you have stored thousands of extra rounds of ammunition for the express purpose of bartering, that you would be a very fortunate person in the right circumstances. Of course, having a supply like that could invite someone to take it from you. Having the ammunition or the whiskey or the tobacco or toilet paper is only half of the problem. You have to set up the trade itself in a fair, safe way to ensure you aren’t taken advantage of. If you have any supplies, you will need to guard them even if you aren’t planning on using them for barter. The days of leaving the house for several hours without a guard would be over.

I would not go into any transaction like this without backup. Someone should be watching your back any time you make a trade like this. You will likely need more than one backup as someone will need to   stay with the person you are bartering with while you or someone else retrieves the ammunition that is hopefully hidden safely in your house or offsite somewhere.

The person you are bartering with should never see your supply nor know how much you have left. I think it might also be good to have someone observing from a higher vantage point, possibly hidden in the trees wearing a homemade Ghillie suite. If this sharpshooter saw the man trying to shoot you, they could step in from a couple hundred yards away and end the life of the man who was just trying to kill you.

I think bullets above almost all else would be highly valuable during a SHTF event. If you have more than you need, why not try to use them for barter? I believe with the right precautions, almost anything can be traded. Bullets immediately following a collapse will be more valuable than gold for preppers. By taking steps to ensure you don’t get taken advantage of, you can trade any extra stock you have, get things you need in return and possibly help someone live for another week.

What do you think?

The post Bullets for Barter: Good Idea or Disaster Waiting to Happen? appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

Bug Out Bag Water Filtration Options

Written by Pat Henry on The Prepper Journal.

A critical prep that you have to plan for including in your bug out bag is water. When I first got into prepping, I had people saying that they would carry all of the water they needed in their bug out bags. If you figure 3 gallons (1 gallon per person per day), that would simply not be wise or possible for most people for very long. Then I started seeing people say they would pack 3 liters of water. That’s better, but 3 big plastic bottles is almost 7 pounds, not to mention you must have space for them. Not the end of the world, but not insignificant either.

One of the ideas I try to promote is to watch the weight on your bug out bags and not overload them. I recommend this for a lot of really simple reasons. If your Bug Out Bag is too heavy, it will hurt eventually. It might not hurt when you first take off walking, but it will eventually. In addition to rubbing you raw and potentially causing injury, you will be more off-balance and less able to quickly move. If you can’t move out of danger quickly enough, that bug out bag could get you killed. The better idea is to pack your bug out bag in a way that is as light as possible while still maintaining the essentials you need to survive for up to 72 hours. Don’t go minimalistic for the sake of making the scales proud, but you should look carefully at the overall weight.

Water, Food and ammo, possibly a tent are all great places to shed pounds from your bug out bag and today we are focusing on water. I have personally tried a few different water filtration methods and wanted to highlight the pluses and minuses for you today on the Prepper Journal as I see them. Hopefully this information you will make sure the bug out bag water filtration options you choose will work well for you if you ever need to use them.

In addition to being less heavy than simply carrying your water on you at all times, these bug out bag water filtration options will give you increased range and capabilities. Instead of being limited to only the water you are able to carry, it is easy to filter an extra liter or more from sources along your route. All the while, ensuring that the water you are drinking isn’t going to make you sick.

MSR MiniWorks EX Water Filter

This first filter I tested is one I have owned for years and up until recently used on my backpacking trips. The MSR MiniWorks EX is a great water filter that is activated by a manual pump. You simply connect the hose, stick that into the water and screw your Nalgene bottle or dromedary bag onto the bottom of the filter and start pumping. In just a few minutes the water from your  source will be pressed through the filtration system and with a little time, you will have a full bottle of clean water to drink. Filtering a standard Nalgene bottle like below probably took 3-4 minutes.

The MSR MiniWorks EX was my first backpacking water filtration. We loved it when we had to depend on it in the woods.

I would take these down to the river and fill up everyone’s water bottle as well as two 48 ounce bladders we had when we stopped. The bladders were to refill bottles and went toward coffee and reconstituting our freeze-dried food.

So, good and bad about this filter. First off, I like the fact that this is pretty simple to use and you don’t have to get down into the water to collect anything. The water tastes great and the pump has stood the test of time for the most part. I did have one pump stop working on my wife when we were on a backpacking trip. Fortunately, I had two filters so we had some redundancy built-in. Pumping does take you a little while and the pump isn’t the lightest or cheapest option. Once you return from your trip you need to clean the filter element, usually with a scrubbing pad to get the gunk off of it and let everything dry completely for a few days before you put it away.

MSR MiniWorks Features

• Ceramic/carbon Marathon™ EX element effectively removes bacteria and protozoa including giardia and cryptosporidia
• Also removes unpleasant tastes and odors caused by organic compounds, such as iodine, chlorine and pesticides
• Filter can be cleaned over and over for maximum field life with no tools required
• Bottom screws onto an MSR Dromedary® Bag or Nalgene® water bottle for easy operation (both sold separately)
• Easy dis-assembly lets you troubleshoot and maintain the MSR MiniWorks EX filter in the field

Weight: 14.6 ounces

Cost: $84 on Amazon.com

I also found this excellent review of the MSR MiniWorks EX from Black Owl Outdoors for those who like to watch videos.

Sawyer Mini

When I first tried out the Sawyer Mini I thought this was the best invention in the world at least from the standpoint of water filtration options for preppers. The filter was extremely lightweight, compact and could filter hundreds of thousands of gallons. The Sawyer Mini could be used as a straw to drink from a water bottle like the life straw or from the included squeeze bag that comes with it.

The cost, low-weight and ability to filter so much water is an incredible advantage, but using either the squeeze bag or a standard water bottle has some drawbacks in my opinion. You are still only filtering on demand unless you squeeze the water into another container and that isn’t always the most practical. One of the reasons I don’t think the LifeStraw is the best option for me in all cases.

You can use the included squeeze bag to collect water and the Sawyer will make it safe to drink.

Sawyer Mini Features

• Hollow-fiber membrane offers a high flow rate; sip on the Mini like a straw and it filters the water while it’s on the way to your mouth
• Filter will also fit the threads on the included Sawyer 16 fl. oz. reusable pouch that you can fill at a lake or stream and then use to squeeze water through the filter
• 0.1-micron filter physically removes 99.99999% of all bacteria, such as salmonella, cholera and E.coli; removes 99.9999% of all protozoa, such as giardia and cryptosporidium
• Filter will also fit the threads on most bottles of water that you buy at a grocery store; can also be used as an inline filter (adapters and hoses not included)

Weight: 2 ounces

Cost: $20 on Amazon.com

I also found this review for perspective from Preparedmind 101

Polar Pure – Crystal Iodine Water Treatment

The third option I tried is Polar Pure. Polar Pure is a Crystal Iodine water treatment, not a filter. The bottle holds actual iodine crystals you might be able to see in the photo below. The process is for you to fill the bottle with water and let this sit for 1 hour. At the end of an hour you have something like concentrated iodine brine that you can use make almost any water safe to drink. There are simple to follow instructions on the bottle and even a hand-dandy gauge to tell you how many capfuls of the solution your water will need to be safe. The number depends upon the temperature of the water.

Polar Pure uses iodine crystals to disinfect water.

You pour the recommended capfuls into your 1 liter water bottle and let it stand for 20 minutes before drinking. When you are done, just fill the bottle up with water again and it will be ready for your next treatment in another hour. This relatively small bottle will last for up to 2,000 liters of water, although I don’t know who would count them. When the iodine crystals are gone, so is your ability to use this to make your water safe.

Iodine, unlike the micron water filters above can kill viruses. Giardia, mentioned above is caught by the water filters, but if you have something like hepatitis or polio in the water, the simple filtration method above won’t work. Now, the question becomes, do you have to worry about viruses in the water you are drinking or just organisms that can make you violently ill?

The Polar Pure bottle is one that I would carry with me as an extreme back up for highly questionable water. The science is good on making your water safe. Iodine has been used for a very long time, but the bottle is glass. You could be in trouble if this is all you have and it is broken. Additionally, iodine will make your water safe, but it won’t filter it out so if you pour yourself a big cup of slightly brown pond water and treat it with iodine, it will be perfectly safe for drinking – brown pond water. Filtering your water first through a handkerchief or something like coffee filters at a minimum would be better. Some people use Polar Pure plus another filter for the ultimate in safe water.

Weight: 5 ounces

Cost: $20 on Amazon.com

For those who want to see the polar pure in action, there is a good video from Provident-Living-Today.com

Platypus 2L GravityWorks Filter

The last item I tried out for my bug out bag water filtration decision process was a relatively new purchase. I had heard about the Platypus GravityWorks Filter system from one of the readers on the Prepper Journal when I was initially looking at the Sawyer answer to the same functionality. The Platypus was almost half the price so I decided to give this a try because it looked like the perfect solution to me.

Keeping the bags separated is easy with clear labels.

The Platypus 2L GravityWorks Filter is a two bag system. You have one bag for water collection and it is very simply labeled “Dirty”. Your dirty water goes in here and it has a wide opening at the top which works very similar to a zip loc bag. This wide opening allowed me to collect 2 liters of water from the creek very quickly and easily. You can see my test water isn’t a crystal clear glacier spring so the bag’s label was very appropriate.

The Platypus Bag system has a simple attachment system to hang your bag of water to be treated up on a tree, bumper or anything higher than the clean bag. Gravity does all the hard work.

Another nice feature were the connectors. The Platypus GravityWorks has a quick connect so you can collect your dirty water and either pack it out for filtration later or carry it back to camp. The filter element snaps in and you are ready to filter.

The Platypus filter element snaps into the reservoir quick connect and you are all set to filter water.

This system is fast. I only filled up about 1 liter but it was filtered in less than 2 minutes.

Once the filter is snapped in, the water will flow almost immediately. The tube running from the filter has a stopper that you can use to quickly pinch off the flow while you hook up the clean bag. As long as the bag of dirty water is higher than the clean bag, the appropriately named GravityWorks filter will take care of all your heavy lifting while beautiful clean water flows into your empty bladder.

This system will hold 2 liters of water which I think gives you a lot of water for the average person. You can also just filter two liters, then collect two more liters of dirty water for later. You will be carrying four liters of water with you at all times. Two filtered and two that needs to be filtered.

Cleaning this system is as simple as lifting the clean water bag up over the dirty water bag and squeezing your clean water bag. You will see the dirty sediment flow back into the dirty bag and you know your filter is clean when that stops.

Platypus GravityWorks Filter Specs

• Easy, Pump-free filtering
• Fast! 1.5-liters per minute
• Weighs as little as 7.2 oz. (203 g)
• Ultra-Compact
• Meets all EPA & NSF guidelines for the removal of Bacteria and Protozoa, including Giardia, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Salmonella and Cholera

Weight: 7 ounces

Cost: $79 on Amazon.com

And I found this review from Outdoor Gear Lab that shows the larger 4 Liter system.

So What is the best bug out water filtration system?

This question isn’t something I can answer with a definitive statement that will stand for all time or in all situations, but I will share some of my thoughts. My idea of bugging out involves living possibly for some time in forested terrain. I plan to be on the move and I don’t want to slow down more than I have to for rest. Water is crucial for life so I don’t want to have to go to more trouble than is prudent to acquire it. Additionally, if I am strapping a pack on my back and walking out the door, I have to plan for being on my own so to speak for potentially much longer than 72 hours.

I have considered both caplets like the Portable Aqua Water Filter tablets and I even own some of them, but they last for a finite amount of time. The standard bottles will give you I think 25 quarts of water. With a hike for three days in the summer, enough for food and your bottle will quickly be cleaned out. It will go faster if you are sharing.

I had all of this clean, fresh tasting water in a little less than two minutes.

The LifeStraw product is one I just don’t think is practical. It is a great idea, don’t get me wrong, but I for one don’t want to be forced to stick my head in a puddle just to get a drink. I want to take giant gulps of water if I am thirsty and I want to be able to take water along with me. Sure you can fill up empty bottles and drink out of them with a LifeStraw, but I think there is a better option.

The MSR Filter pump has usually been a great filter, but because it is mechanical, I have had one give me troubles. I was able to repair it eventually, but that wasn’t a good sign. I should have back-ups anyway I know, but I would rather go with a more stable platform and the MSR is heavier than all of the other options I have tested.

What about boiling water? Sure you could do that, but you have to build a fire first and then boil your water, then let it cool down. Do you want to do all of that in the heat of summer? Even in winter, that fire might be nice, but to go through all that effort for drinking water seems like a fall back plan, not the first option.

Iodine crystals like Polar Pure seem to be the best option for killing viruses, but like I said, their bottle is glass. One slip out of your hands onto a rock will end your water filtration options for that bug out trip. Even if you don’t drop it, I prefer to drink water as soon as possible and wouldn’t want to remember to keep my iodine warm for effectiveness.  I think Polar Pure makes sense as a back up, but not the sole method of water filtration in a bug out scenario. For Backpacking trips Polar pure is a great idea. If you have the time to leisurely prepare your water, I think this is a good option.

The Sawyer as it is would probably be my second choice because of the weight and size. I would have to fill a large reservoir, something like the 48 ounce Naglene Bladders and rig up some way to squeeze filter a larger amount of water into my bottles. Not the best, but it is incredibly light and could get the job done.

What about items like the SteriPEN that use UV light to make water safe to drink? What about EMP? What if it breaks? What if you run out of batteries?

I think that for me the GravityWorks system from Platypus is the easiest and fastest way to collect water that will be clean and fresh tasting. With it’s fast flow rate, I can grab a 2 liter bag of water, hook up the filter and throw them both in my bag if needed and keep on going to a safe location. This seems to offer the most capacity with the fastest filtration time and easiest system to learn and remember. I can teach my kids how to use this in about 2 minutes which is about the same amount of time it takes to produce 2 liters of clean water.

That is my take on the best bug out water filtration options. What do you use?

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