Making Fire Starting Wafer Candles

The next project in my Heat and Light series is Making Fire Starting Wafers out of reclaimed materials mostly available at home.  These wafer candles don’t have the same burn time (but it’s plenty long enough to get a fire going) as the egg carton candles but they have a much smaller footprint.  This project will again be familiar to most Boy Scouts and long term Preppers and Outdoorsmen.  However, the purpose of this series is to get back to basics and review how to generate light and heat with common household projects. As has been mentioned in the comments on the other posts in this series, you can use old candles or other wax sources instead of the new bars of paraffin I use in the demonstration.

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Making Fire Starting Candles

Continuing my series on Light and Heat, today I’m going to talk about making Fire Starting Candles.  There are a variety of ways to do this, today we’re going to cover using cardboard egg cartons and dryer lint or cotton balls.  This particular project will likely already be familiar to experienced Preppers and Boy Scouts.  This post is aimed at those new to prepping who have never been exposed to this kind of thing.

Being able to start a fire is absolutely critical in many potential situations.  It can literally mean the difference between life and death.  Knowing many ways to be able to start a fire is an essential survival skill, practicing and maintaining those skills is just as essential.  Continue reading “Making Fire Starting Candles”

Making Tallow Candles

One of the things that frustrates me in Preparedness is that many of the texts and resources out there don’t adequately cover “Pioneer Skills”.  That is to say, they present material lists and instructions that include things that are only available via modern-day manufacturing methods.  Often times what I’m looking for is how do I make something out of nothing – nothing being the great abundance that nature provides us with!  This is very true when it comes to activities like candle, cheese and soap making.  I want to know how to do it in a true collapse or long term survival scenario. Continue reading “Making Tallow Candles”

Discount on Utah Concealed Carry Permits

If you’ve been waiting/wanting to get your Utah Concealed Carry License, here’s a great opportunity for you!

During my hiatus from blogging regularly (which has come to an end by the way, expect to see a lot more from me) I spent a lot of time in training.  I learned lots of new skills and got certified in several things.  One of those was becoming certified to teach the Utah Concealed Carry License course.  Continue reading “Discount on Utah Concealed Carry Permits”

Bouncing The Bugs Away

Mosquito bloodfed
Mosquito bloodfed by eyeweed, on Flickr

In a group camping situation, I’m “That Guy”.  You know, the one everybody is thankful is around because all the bugs seem to be biting him.  For some reason I tend to get singled out for the airborne attack, and with my allergic nature, I tend to get largest bumps you’ve ever seen.  So I’m always on the lookout for something to improve my chances in the wild, battling the vampiric forces of the bugs.

With that said, I was quite happy to see this bit of research on the Medical Today site: Scientists Prove Fabric Softener Sheets Fend Off Insect Pests

In my search for more weapons in the battle against the bite, I’d heard of people suggesting using drying sheets with some success; now there appears to be some scientific proof to this case.  According to the study:

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