Fire = primitive electricity = EDC

[tomahawk67]

Whenever you drive an RV into a campground you will have water and electric hookups. (In most established campgrounds.)
If you can have those two things(as well as shelter) then you're basic needs are mostly met.

I started thinking. About 200 years ago when there was no electricity and fire was the their only primitive electricity because it provided cooked food, warmth, protection, and illumination how did they live so well back then, when now we are like spoiled crybabies who take every modern convenience for granted. You wlak in a room and flip a switch for light. We have it easy compared to primitive cultures.

I started thinking what would be my 2 most important things to carry with me everyday in case we lost electricity for weeks from a hurricane, earthquake or tornado?

I would carry:
1. Fire = this is primitive electricity
2. Knife = use as a tool to protect, build shelter, or skin game.

I would have to find a water source which is abundant during a storm or hurricane. Use my t-shirt to filter water and boil water to purify it.

What is your 2 most important EDC's?

[crashdive123]

Not that I disagree with your items, but why limit yourself to two? - or are you talking about carrying while away from your home/shelter location? Having been through a few hurricanes, typhoons and their aftermath - a firearm was a necessary thing. Packs of dogs, looters - that sort of thing.

[hunter63]

Maybe a container for that water boiling?

[tomahawk67]

Old Mountain man saying, The more ya know, the less ya have to carry.

That is the idea.

Why do I carry only 2 items? Weight issues. I hate carrying around a EDC brick in my pocket. I want to strip it down to lighter basic essentials.
Fire provides a lot of those needs as well as a knife. Hence, a tiny bic lighter and a pocket knife.

[crashdive123]

I guess I'm not following your intent. You said

2 most important things to carry with me everyday in case we lost electricity for weeks from a hurricane, earthquake or tornado?

and for that means I am still either living in my home, or in another location nearby if it was destroyed.

This tool might help you define your scenario so that you receive responses that are more meaningful to you. http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...rio-Check-List

[crashdive123]

Oh, and I don't necessarily agree with the Old Mountain Man saying. For me - the more you know, the more you know what you need to carry.

[tsitenha]

Like Crash says but different "the more you know more you can do with what you carry"

[gryffynklm]

Like tsitenha and crash said!!!!!

[kyratshooter]

Or the alternative;

If you can't carry it, get a bigger truck!

I have seen Crash's truck and pictures of Hunter's, they ain't fooling nobody!

Then there's me. I bring a tent, forget the tent poles. What do I do?

Get out the other tent!

As far as the "primitive electricity" and knife goes, they live on my keychain. Then there is the pocket knife and the other lighter, and the lockblade knife in the other pocket, and the money clip, which is also a knife....

I reached for my pocket knife the other day and did not have it. Almost went into a panic. It took me a while to remember that I had two other blades withing reach. I carry them as habit and forget I have them.

Do not be deceived about the capabilities of your newly discovered "primitive electricity". It will not do everything real electricity will do. The juice flowing through the lines is what is responsible for the greatest advancements of technology in human history.

The human condition had not changed markedly since the discovery of iron in 1200bc, then they learned how to make electrons flow. After 3,000 years of relitive uniformity we instantly changed communication, transportation, created climate controlled shelters and even changed the length of the day.

Do not be surprised if one day history renames this era, that began only 100 years ago, as the electrical age, following the stone age, copper age, bronze age and iron age.

[Rick]

I was born in the stone age. I'm just hoping to make it through to the ageless age.

[kyratshooter]

I was born in the stone age. I'm just hoping to make it through to the ageless age.

I often watch the classic TV channel. All those detective shows from the 60s and 70s. It is real strange watching the people hunt for a pay phone (or even remind me that pay phones existed) or remind oneself that Perry Mason was the only person in the U.S. with a phone in his car in 1960!

I can remember listening to the police scanner and having the dispatcher order an officer to find a land line for a private conversaton with HQ.

Remember those words your parents spoke when trying to find you, "There were no phones where you were?" Now it's "Why did you turn your phone off?"

I now have friends that will not go "camping" unless they have electrical hookups and at least two 20 pound propane tanks to handle all the goodies.

We used to have to police our reenactment group for using the wrong shoes, eyewear, cookware, Now we just feel we have accomplished something if we can keep them off their phones during demonstrations or when the public is in camp! Nothign irritates me more than being at an event with a 1760 locked time frame and hearing cell phones ringing in half the tents or looking up and seeing a guy that looks like Ben Franklin talking to his sock thinking it is OK as long as no one can see the phone. A frekin' Maxwell Smart moment!

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...PUBMAQ&dur=593

[hunter63]

That's like seeing wedding bands on half on Spartacus's slave army........

I still try to abide with the "The more you know the less you have to carry"........with the qualifier...Unless you want to.

[lucznik]

Whenever you drive an RV into a campground you will have water and electric hookups. (In most established campgrounds.)If you can have those two things(as well as shelter) then you're basic needs are mostly met.

Well, THERE'S your problem. Stop "camping" in an RV park and get out and do the real thing.

I started thinking. About 200 years ago when there was no electricity and fire was the their only primitive electricity because it provided cooked food, warmth, protection, and illumination how did they live so well back then...

I think you are over-romanticizing the lifestyle people "back then" lived. Don't feel bad though, because lots of people do it. Reality is just too mundane.

Most of these people spent lives of total drudgery doing dirty, unhealthy, and often dangerous work trying to eek out a bare subsistence-level existence. Many never traveled more than a few miles from their homes their whole lives. They lived unsanitary lives in squalid conditions, suffered from exposure and from cruel diseases (many of which we have thankfully all but eradicated today). Even those lucky enough to avoid outright disease suffered from dental problems, poor medical care, and injuries that had no hope of truly healing. They had many, many children because they knew that many (if not most) would die in infancy and those who did survive to "adulthood" died very young, often the result of malnutrition if not straight up starvation. It might be fun to play at primitive reenactments but, you truly wouldn't have wanted to live back then.

Old Mountain man saying, The more ya know, the less ya have to carry.

No offense to Hunter63's tagline intended ('cause I know him to be a straight-up guy) but; REAL Mountain Men took a whole lot more than most people seem to realize when they went into the wilderness. They would have at least one, and usually 2 or more horses (or better yet, mules) to carry their gear and to pack out the hides they hoped to trap and later sell. The idea of a Mountain Man just wandering around the woods for months on end carrying nothing but what he could hang on his belt or around his neck is pure fiction.

[jcullen24]

Create a BOB.
A Bug Out Bag can be as simple as a school Back-Pack with essentials.
I always have a Fire-Stick, Compass, and Swiss Army Knife(SAK) on my key chain.
Bic Lighters Fail.
2 Books, Foragers Harvest, and the SAS Survival Guide.

[SARKY]

You know, with my bio-lite stove, I make a fire and produce electricity!

[Seniorman]

LUCZNIK - " ... but; REAL Mountain Men took a whole lot more than most people seem to realize when they went into the wilderness. They would have at least one, and usually 2 or more horses (or better yet, mules) to carry their gear and to pack out the hides they hoped to trap and later sell. The idea of a Mountain Man just wandering around the woods for months on end carrying nothing but what he could hang on his belt or around his neck is pure fiction."

You're 100% correct.

Anyone who thinks the "mountain men," or fur trappers just went out with a couple things on their belts and "lots of knowledge," is dealing in romanticized fantasy.

Read "The Lewis & Clark Journals," by Bernard DeVoto." They were very experienced outdoorsmen, took hundreds of pounds of gear and equipment with them ... and at times, almost starved to death.

Read "Letters and Notes On the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of The North American Indians," by George Catlin, who lived among various Indian tribes for eight years. He speaks of the hardships of the various Indian tribes for a myriad of reasons, even though they were the consumate "outdoor survivalists." As soon as the white traders arrived with steel knives, axes, arrow points and lance points, tin pots and steel awls, trade guns, powder, lead, etc., etc., etc., the Indians quickly adopted them for their greater utility.

Just think what Jedediah Smith would have given for an AR 15, and a couple or three extra magazines.

If authentic fiction of that era is your pleasure, read "The Big Sky," by A.B. Gutherie, Jr. Also read "Carry The Wind" and its sequel, "Borderlords," by Terry C. Johnston. Not only did the authors do "book research" but "out in the field" research which went into those fine books on the fur trapper era. You'll see how hard it was, and how the mountain men carried far more than a couple or three items and "lots of knowledge." They were also highly dependent on the supplies from the annual rendezvous. Without those resupplies, they could not last the coming season.

I'll take good equipment along with my knowledge and enjoy the outdoors. I do not go out to suffer. I go out to have fun.

S.M.