But how about a nice way to build a simple, portable stove? Because we all know that when winter really hits around here, simple ways to heat and good are of utmost importance. And I wanted something that was an actual stove (with chimney) that was nicer than the truly survival ones you make from #10 cans. Behold, the ammo-can stove:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Buying a dedicated camper, pop-up tent, RV would be nice, but they are generally more than I want to spend, are single purpose and often require separate registration here in Utah. I often find a need for a small utility trailer for hauling mulch, compost, etc. and here in Utah, smaller trailers under a certain weight and size don’t need to be registered. When I obtained an old home built utility trailer recently, I decided to jump head first into a home built adventure trailer build.

The trailer I started with appears to be completely home built using a ’50′s Chevy truck axle and springs with thick angle iron completing the frame. The sides were made of weathered wood and close inspection showed that the wood sides was only attached to the frame with four bolts. I quickly removed these four bolts and the floors to get the frame down to bare essentials.

Once to this state, I sandblasted the frame to ensure that the rust present was only surface rust. Once this was confirmed, the trailer was off to my friendly neighborhood welding specialist at Horvath Hot Rods just down the road in Spanish Fork. Joe and I worked together to determine the side height, tail gate configuration and rack design.

I also ordered my ARB Roof Top Tent and Annex from Cruiser Outfitters around this time. While Roof Top Tents are generally meant to mount to the roof of a 4×4 vehicle, they work well mounted to trailers too. An added bonus with mounting it on a trailer is that you can also unhook the trailer to drive around without needing to pack up the tent. Roof Top Tents contain a thick foam padded mattress and get you up off the ground away from dirt and critters. They set up by unfolding and take about 10 minutes to get completely set up. Putting them away is about the same. The rack system we designed for the trailer allows the tent to deployed at about about 4 1/2 feet tall with the rack lowered or at 6′ 2″ with it raised. Raising the tent also allow the Annex to be attached which provides a large area for changing, getting things out of the weather or extra sleeping space.

After about a week, the trailer was nearly ready, just in time for a camping trip over Independence Day weekend. The trailer at this point lacked a few features before I could call it complete, but was ready to be used for a simple camp ground camping trip.

The trailer worked great on the trip, hauling everything we needed for the long weekend and providing a comfortable sleeping area.

Once back home, I was finally able to find some fenders which had proven hard to source. I took the trailer back in to Joe Horvath and he mounted the fenders, built in some steps for the fenders, moved the spare tire to one side, built a Cooler rack and moved the propane carrier. I also added an ARB awning to add some shade.

Then we were off to Montana for a week of camping. Again, the trailer proved to be a great place to sleep. I’ve added some LED lights from Ikea that provide a ton of light in the tent and as soon as I solve some issues with the switch will get the wiring affixed more permanently. Once I have that and a few more things buttoned up, we’ll store the trailer in the garage, loaded up with our camping gear, some food, water, etc. so we can be off and camping in minutes, providing a larger scale 96 hour + kit for the whole family.

Below are some pictures of the build process. Please let me know what you think.

100% cotton jersey fabric

I had some basic directions to go off of, but had never made it myself, so here’s how the first round went.  I got some 100% cotton fabric–I used jersey fabric (an old T shirt) and cut it into approximately 2″ squares.  Mine was kind of a natural color, but you could probably use any color you have, just avoid screen-printed designs, etc.  I cut the ribbing off from the neck and sleeve ends as well as the seams.  You just want the fabric.

Next, I got a metal can–I used an old cookie tin.  I punched a vent hole in the can lid with a hammer and nail.  You can use whatever metal can you have–I’ve seen it done with smaller tins as well as cleaned out food cans with foil for a lid.

Char cloth cooking tin

Cut cloth in the tin

I put the cut up fabric squares in the tin, put the lid on, and put the can on my grill on low and let it cook.  You definitely want to do this outside–burning fabric doesn’t smell all that good.  My instructions said to cook it until it stopped smoking.  I had the tin fairly full, and cooked it close to 3 hours before I decided to turn it off.  It never smoked a lot.  When it cooled, I opened the can and only the bottom 3-4 layers were black, the rest of the fabric was brown.

I turned the pile over and put it back on the grill on Medium this time and cooked it another close to 3 hours.  This time it was all black when it was finished.  However, it didn’t catch a spark very well.  I could light it with a flame, or an occasional large spark, but it was very frustrating to work with.  Nothing like the char cloth I’d had before that a friend of ours made from terry cloth (old towel).

Cooked jersey char cloth

So I put it back on the grill again, this time I only filled the can about 1/3 full and cooked it on high another 3 hours or so.  Now it was a little more fragile and easy to tear (as char cloth generally is), but it still didn’t catch spark well.  I had no more ideas to make it better, so I decided to start over.

Cotton monks' cloth (quarter for scale) and smaller cooking tin

The second and far better batch of char cloth I made started with 100% cotton monk’s cloth I got at Walmart.  Notice the loose weave and air holes.  Those made a huge difference.  I cut it a little smaller this time–about 1 1/2 inch square as 2″ was a little larger than necessary.  There is some shrinkage as it cooks, but not that much.  I wanted to see if it would work straight from the store without washing the fabric first, so I only cut 5 squares of it.

I put it in a smaller tin which also got the hammer/nail air vent in the lid.

Feeling like I’d spent enough of my grill gas on this project, I opted to do this round real mountain man style and build a fire and toss the tin in the fire.  I pretty well buried it–it’s in there somewhere.

Real mountain man char cloth cooking method

It did not cook long in the fire–maybe 15 minutes (of course it was in a smaller tin than the first round, but I’m guessing even a large tin wouldn’t take 9 hours in the fire).  I couldn’t tell when it stopped smoking since it was in a fire with all the rest of the smoke, so I just guessed at when to pull it out.  It wouldn’t matter if it stayed in there until the fire burned out as long as no sparks got in the airhole and caught all the fabric on fire in the meantime.

Cooked monk's cloth char cloth

I fished it out, let it cool, and opened it to nicely blackened monk’s cloth.

This second round of char cloth lights up with minimal spark from a firestarter or flint/steel.  It is more fragile than the jersey char cloth, but works much better.  I’ll have to post on flint/steel firestarting another time :)

Char cloth burning

So, to recap, to make better char cloth, start with a 100% cotton fabric with texture and a fairly loose weave.  Use a fire pit if you can to save on gas.  Cooking on higher heat and cooking a smaller batch help speed up cooking time.  Happy firestarting!

I will  I stumbled across this DIY project recently for storing 55 gal. water barrels horizontally. The biggest drawback of standard upright water barrels is getting the water out when needed. This generally involves either a siphon or a hand pump. Storing the barrels horizontally and adding a spigot to one of the caps makes using the barrels much more convenient. You’ll also be more likely to exchange the water every six months since it will be easier to do.

Here’s the website I found this project on and here are the instructions you’ll need (same pdf as you’ll find on the other website).

Since I have 5 water barrels I decided to make a six barrel holder instead of the two barrel holder you see in the picture. This allows me to store more in less space than before and now I have an incentive to add another barrel. I’ll share the changes I made to the design and what I learned to make this project as easy as possible. Since this is basically a box, you should be able to complete this project in a few hours. For me it took a little longer because I also cleaned or rather my kids cleaned the water barrels, I had to dig through random boards to find what would fit the project and I ended up stopping before completing the project and finishing on another day.

It was  time to exchange the water in my barrels so this project came at a perfect time. I also had wood lying around so I was only missing the spigots.

The first task was to empty the water out of the barrels using a garden hose for a siphon. I had two going at once to speed this up as it takes a little while. I let my 10 year old boy suck on the hose to start the water siphoning. I was surprised since he didn’t seem to suck very hard but the water still came. It takes a lot less suction than I imagined, even with a long hose.

I let my boy clean the barrels while I gathered the tools and hunted down boards. I also read through the instructions, decided which changes I’d like to make and then calculated my board quantity and lengths for cutting.

Suggestions/Changes I Made
Main changes I made were to add an inch on each side of the barrels since these barrels sit outside and I wanted to allow for expansion. I also calculated the changes I would need to make this 2 barrel rack into a 6 barrel rack.

Here are the instructions you’ll need as a reference for the board letters below (same link as above).

In the diagram the boards labeled E (skids) are not necessary and you can cross them off your list.

You decide whether to use boards labeled C for cross braces or use the boards labeled F. Using both is overkill.

I used 2 x 6′s instead of 2 x 4′s for boards labeled A since my rack is three barrels high instead of two. I also cut the first notch in A 6″ up so that I would have more room to connect a hose to the bottom barrel without kinking the hose. This also allowed me to use all 90° hose bibs (spigots) instead of using 45° angled hose bibs on the bottom barrels.

To make a double wide rack as I did, just double boards B & D. OK, technically you double the length and subtract 1 1/2 inches. CAUTION: you must be more exact in your measuring and cutting out the notches in A for the cross boards B as you now are lining up three points of contact instead of just two.

I decided to eliminate the curved plywood boards D and instead used the cutouts from A, cutting them into wedges. If I had to do this part again I would make two identical wedges by cutting straight from corner to corner of the cutout. I saw these wedges right as I was preparing to cut out the plywood and this idea worked wonderfully.  I would do it this way again but it is not as finished or attractive as using the plywood boards to keep the barrels from rolling.

Make sure you drill a hole through the wedges first or you’ll split them with the screws.  I placed the wedges about 7 1/4″ from the vertical supports A but your measurement may vary depending on the shape of the wedge. Also, I widened my supports by an inch on each side of the barrels for expansion so my veritical supports A are further away.

Ok, so I made lots of changes to the original design but I’m happy with the result and I now have a much more convenient and compact storage rack for my water barrels. I also have room to add one more barrel to the rack. I guess this is an example of resourcefulness as I didn’t purchase anything to build this rack.  I only used what I had on hand and my only expenses will be replacing the drill bit I broke and the spigots.

Assembly
You will want a helper to hold boards in place as you screw everything together.  I found it easiest to assemble the front and back sections on the ground or on a flat, level surface.

Follow the order on the instructions eliminating step #6 (the skids) and do either step #5 or #7 but not both as discussed above.

I didn’t encounter any difficulties in putting everything together. The only addition to the instructions would be to make sure the notches in A are facing outward and not towards the center of the rack.

I used some pretty hefty 3 1/2″ screws to put everything together and pre-drilled holes before screwing each of the boards together.

Hose Bibs
I found 3/4″ Celon Hose Bibs for $3.29 online (half the websites spell it Bibb the other half Bib). As I am currently seeking employment I opted not to purchase the hose bibs just yet and to install these the next time I rotate the water in these barrels.

Used Barrels
I picked these barrels up for $20 each a few years back. They were filled with juice concentrate previously and were really a pain to wash out since you can’t get to the bottoms to scraper them out. If you have a pressure washer it might be easier. Since I saw clean, new barrles for $45 just a few weeks ago at macey’s, it is probably not worth saving a few dollars buying used barrels unless you are seriously strapped for cash.

Conclusion
It has been a week now since I finished this project and the rack is still standing :-) Since each filled barrel weighs about 450 lbs. this rack is holding 2,250 lbs. total. I’m very happy with how it turned out and would highly recommend this project to anyone who has 55 gallon water barrels. If you don’t have any water storage currently then consider the storage options in last month’s water storage group buy which are very convenient. If you decide to build a horizontal rack then please share your experience in the comments below.

Why do it with household products?  There are a couple answers to this.  First, thriftiness kind of goes with prepping – or maybe it’s more like stretching our dollars since we spend SO MANY of them on preps!  By buying large quantities of the base products for sanitization we’re also getting the base products for several other important preps – namely medical.  If we get large quantities of the base stuff, we can put off determining their use based on our needs.  We can also save money this way – buying bulk amounts of hand sanitizer is more expensive than buying bulk amounts of the ingredients for it!  For some there is also a question of whether harsh additives have been added to their sanitizer that they do not want.  By making it ourselves, we can be sure of what is going into it.  Besides, prepping is all about self-reliance, right?!

Sanitizer Spray

You can kill most any germs, without leaving a dangerous residue, with a binary spray.  White Vinegar and 3% Hydrogen Peroxide both kill germs.  Simply fill one spray bottle with white vinegar and another with hydrogen peroxide.  Spray whatever you need sanitized with one, then with the other.  Individually these two kill large numbers of germs, combined they function as well as or better than commercial sanitizing spray.

NEVER NEVER mix them both into the same bottle though – this will create Peracetic Acid – which is useless to clean with, is corrosive, and can hurt you!

You could also fill a third bottle with bleach and zap something with all 3 of them if you wanted to be REALLY sure you had killed everything possible.  But the bleach will discolor things and is potentially harmful if ingested.

So, for sanitizer spray store:

• White Vinegar
• 3% Hydrogen Peroxide
• Unscented Bleach (if desired)

If you notice in that list, those items can be used for several other things as well!  Here are some links for further reading on this.

Hand Sanitizing Gel

This has been an interesting experiment and learning experience.  I set out a couple days ago to figure out how to make hand sanitizer at home.  With an immune fragile child in our home, we sanitize a LOT!  After doing copious amounts of research and extended experimentation last night, I believe I have found a reliable and effective way to make hand sanitizer at home.  First, some background:

To be effective, hand sanitizers MUST contain a minimum of 60% alcohol by concentration.  Alcohol kills germs by dessication, meaning that it dries them out through rapid evaporation.  A lower concentration of alcohol results in not having enough alcohol to rapidly evaporate and dry out the microbes on your hands.  There are many recipes on the internet that result in an over-dilluted mixture which will prove to be very ineffective at killing germs.  Here are two really good articles to read on this: One from the New York Times and one from the CDC.

The recipe and method we have come up with for Do-It-Yourself home-made hand sanitizing gel is as follows:

• 5 cups 91% Isopropyl Alcohol
• 2 cups 100% pure Aloe Gel

Notice that the ingredients for this are also useful for lots of other things?

This results in an alcohol concentration of roughly 63% (being more precise requires using tenths of a cup in measurement).  You can add essential oils as desired for scent.  There are some essential oils that add germ killing ability such as tea tree oil but I have no idea what the diluted effectiveness would be or what quantity you would need them in.

Making Hand Sanitizer Gel at Home

A Pictorial

Start by measuring out your Aloe into a mixing bowl.

Add in your alcohol

Mix at high speed – we found it works best to have a cute Cancer Chic run the mixer for you :)

Mix for several minutes, the solution will begin to gel

The aeration of the mixture is extremely important to getting the consistency correct.  You should she bubbles all throughout the mixture.

The end mixture is thicker than water, but not extremely thick.

Once you’ve gotten the mixture to gel and achieve a constant consistency, you can pour it into containers for storage and use.

So with a potential pandemic from the swine flu and the resulting potential quarantine, with the need to have sanitizer in your EDC, BOB and 72 Hour kits, make sure you have plenty of these base components stored so you can use them as needed!  I suggest storing the base components and using sanitization as a great way to rotate these items.  Peroxide, bleach and alcohol all have couple year shelf lives, using them as regular household cleaners is a great way to keep them fresh!  (Look for our upcoming post on lots more uses for vinegar and peroxide!)