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Morton idoized salt, kelp tablets from local healthfood stores...no need for KI pills unless TSHTF. Taking those pills incorrectly will cause more harm than good. They are supposed to be taken before exposure, not after.
Most multivitamins also contain KI in moderate dosages.
Why didn't I think of that? That oversight will be corrected very soon.
Most decent compasses (one's that you can reset your declination) already have a small magnifier on them, and almost all of these also have a mirror too.
Morton idoized salt, kelp tablets from local healthfood stores...no need for KI pills unless TSHTF. Taking those pills incorrectly will cause more harm than good. They are supposed to be taken before exposure, not after.
Here's what I found about using Morton salt>
Q.
Would ingestion of iodized, common table salt be effective in a nuclear accident if KI pills are not available?
A.
The daily dose of potassium iodide (KI) for thyroid blocking is 130 mg per day for up to two weeks. This equates to 96 mg of iodine (I). Iodized salt contains about 0.085 mg of KI per gram of salt (according to the Morton Salt Company). To get the I equivalent of a 130 mg KI pill would require the ingestion of 1,529 grams of salt which would most likely be fatal. According to research by Health Physicist Ken Miller, Hershey Medical Center, a person can get a blocking dose of iodine by painting 8 ml of either tincture of iodine or providone iodine (betadine) scrub on the forearm daily.
William Kirk, PhD, CHP
Pennsylvania Bureau of Radiation Protection
Here is a website:
[url=http://hps.org/hpspublications/radiationfactsheets.html]Radiation Fact Sheets[/url]
hand-crank radio
batteries
flashlight and candles
fire starter (old fashioned I am ... flint and steel)
an acetylene torch
steel hunter's knife
sleeping bag x2 (one for me and the wife)
tent
pillow x2 (one for me and the wife)
gun and ammo (nothing big, just enough for defense from other people)
first aid (iodine liquid to double as radiation protection ... swab it on skin so it absorbs it, bandages, splints, GPS locator)
water (25 liters)
In the event of a major event (terrorist release of deadly disease, like marburg virus or smallpox, dirty bomb, major power interruption for more than 3 days, flu pandemic, total economic collapse, etc) we have grab and go philosophy since we live in a very populated area in an apartment.
In the event that we need to "bug-in" (ie. survive nuclear blast and fallout, flu pandemic overruns us, food shortages, or major political events), we have the above supplies where we can easily bug out given the chance, or rely on them in case we need them.
Another thing that is valuable are friends. I have lifelong friends who I can meet up and form a band if we need to stick together to form a cohesive unit if necessary. I have friends in nearly every corner and in some other countries as well. The hinterland of Canada is beautiful and know some folks there.
Finally, and this can't be stressed enough, is PEOPLE SKILLS. Humans are a social animal and can only survive in a group for sustainable periods of time. We wouldn't be around today if we were able to survive alone. You WILL need to barter, you WILL need to communicate, you WILL need to be able to form groups of friends you can rely on and trust, and you WILL need to be able to project you or your group's ability to contribute to a collection of folks in the even of major societal collapse (i.e. second Civil War in the USA). If you're not a people person, LEARN how to overcome that shortcoming.
Mac, what is touch wood? All I could find is it's a type of wood. How are you using it that it makes a hot glow?
I can give you the latin name, but if you live where it says, you don't have any. It grows as a fungus on several hard wood trees, one my best is paper birch. It will kill the tree, but if you harvest like I do, you can take some , not all and come back years later, and harvest again.
Once harvested it needs time to dry. I can't just go bust off the fungas and use it as is, but all it needs is to be dry. Then with a 18th century flint and steel, basicly a file is the steel, but mine are in other shapes, and a flint, real flink, chert, which I know you have as white flint, yuou can strike sparks onto the fungus and it will catch and hold a spreading ember in red hot glowing rings. Once lit, you can't put it out.
We might work a deal White flint for some fungus. This stuff isn't easy to come by. A company that sell is is Jas Townsend, a store for historical re-enactors on line and in camps.
I can get cherts right here, but they are not as high quality as stone in your state.
More on the fungus: I use it to warm other people who get cold. Placing a burning hunk in a ait tight tin, is like a hand/foot warmer of yore'.
Water will put it out, but then ya gotta dry it again.....
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