EDC: Get yourself a good water bottle

What’s the big deal? Just buy a bottle of water on the go, right? Well, no.
First, even if you mostly move around in urban areas and can buy bottles of water whenever you feel the need, this can become a pretty wasteful habit. Wasteful regarding waste of money, money that could be put to good use elsewhere, wasteful also regarding the environment. I’m no tree-hugger, but I can see how regularly buying disposable containers is a pretty wasteful thing to do.
I consider water to be one of the most critical yet most often overlooked EDC components. Basically everything else people EDC, knives, guns, flashlights, even wallet and mobile phones, you could honestly get by without for several hours, even several days and not die. The same cannot be said about water. You will need water in the next few hours. In our permissive environment, we simply lost perspective of how precious a resource it truly is. But you need water. You need to drink it, you need it to clean wounds, wash your face after a disaster, wash debris out of your eyes or soak a hat or rag to cool down or prepare a tea or coffee when cold.
Then there’s the container. A good water bottle is much stronger than those disposable ones. It can be refilled time and again for many years. With the right container you could even cook safely in it. When aboriginal societies in some isolated parts of the world are exposed to modern technologies, one of the things that amazes them the most and they themselves find the most useful is a container that can withstand fire and isn’t brittle or fragile like their clay or wooden containers. For those that are forced to survive in the wilderness for extended periods of time, several decades even, containers that they can both cook and carry liquids in are the thing they miss the most.
Choosing the Right Water bottle
As some of you already know, I recently relocated from Ireland to the south of Spain. During that transition a thing that got left behind was my water bottle. During those last few days everything was this whirlwind of preparations and at the last minute I just didn’t have any room for it. In hindsight I could have tried to get in along with my carry-on luggage, but given how tight airplane regulations are I decided to just leave the heavily dented steel bottle and just get a new one later on. Oh, did I regret that decision!
Not a day had gone by that I wish I had my old Klean Kanteen with me. I got by refilling used water bottles but it sure was a pitiful replacement. I walked into several outdoor stores but none had the kind of bottle I was looking for. Either the design wasn’t right, or the bottle wasn’t marked as BPA free. I saw a few SIGG water bottles but after seeing first-hand how the interior liner chipped and peeled off into a toxic gunk I wasn’t going to buy one of those again. Some of the bottles out there were aluminium with no liner of any kind. Those you want to avoid as much as the SIGGs.
I ended up ordering three types of bottles online. A generic steel water bottle, Nalgene and Klean Kateen. The cheap generic one had no markings and the cap said nothing about being BPA free. The Klean Kanteen and the Nalgene, these last two are the ones I most definitely recommend.
Nalgene

Nalgene Wide Mouth Bottle (Clear, 1-Pint) $8.62
Nalgene water bottles are rightfully one of the most popular options. They are light but durable. Even though they are made of plastic, the material is much thicker than an ordinary water bottle and you can immediately tell when you pick one up that these bottles made in USA can take a beating. They are reasonably priced as well, making it easier to buy several for kits and different family members. My advice would be to buy clear transparent ones. These allow you to use sunlight to treat water with UV (SODIS). 6hs of direct sunlight can kill harmful bacteria according to the World Health Organization.
Klean Kanteen

Klean Kanteen Classic 27-Ounce Stainless Steel Bottle With Loop Cap $17.75

These are my preferred bottles. Its steel, not likely to break, and it simply doesn’t degrade like plastic as years go by. For getting bumped around in my EDC bag or my kid’s school bag this is the way to go. You can heat them as much as you want for sterilizing, if necessary you could even boil water or cook in it in an emergency. Long dessert spoons can usually fit through the models with wide mouths, opening several new options for EDC or minimalistic backpacking. The sport cap works better than most of the other similar designs I’ve seen. So far it does not leak, but I still prefer the classic loop cap which is BPA free and extremely durable. I was happy with the 18oz model but now in a warmer region I went with a 27 oz model. It still fits nicely in most of my bags and I have enough water for the day even in warmer days.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

Why you should get a Second Passport. NOW.

Ferfal,
Thanks so much for your books and blog. They are very helpful for us. We've been implementing what we've learned.
Your article about having two passports http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2015/04/whats-best-passport-and-why-should-you.html strikes me as good common sense. My wife was born in Canada and is now a naturalized American citizen. Most of her relatives continue to live in Canada, despite the election last week, making Canada our #1 international bug-out prospect. We're retired and don't plan to travel to exotic or dangerous locales so dangers and benefits during travel are secondary for us. One of her Canadian cousins is a banker; another is a bishop. Last year, the banker cousin said we could open a Canadian bank account.
After some thought and research, she now resists seeking a Canadian passport because she's concerned that seeking a Canadian passport might cause some people, somewhere, in the American government to hold this against us and cause damage to us later. I agree with her that there are likely some people out there like that but we have no idea how many. I've been active politically albeit at a low level. I've published some articles in print and on the internet that I'm sure are stored somewhere in government archives.
Given your experience and research, what do you think about this concern? What would be your estimate of the benefit/risk ratio of her seeking a Canadian passport? If she does apply, would there be any benefit or disadvantage in applying under her maiden, pre-marriage name?
One of our flags is the "just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me" flag.
-Bob

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Hello Bob, thank you for your email and your kind words. I’m glad you find my work useful.
I would get the Canadian passport. The risk/benefit ratio is clear to me. There’s thousands of good, law abiding Americans with dual citizenship going about their business every day and they are not any less American for it. Also, there’s little chance Canadian citizenship will raise any flags. Maybe dual citizenship with some of the more volatile countries in Middle East and such would be more suspicious. As for the benefits you already mentioned opening an account in Canada, that’s on its own a big asset for financial preparedness, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg when you start exploring the possibilities a second passport offers.
“But Ferfal, you and your nonsense. Starting fires with chopsticks, hunting bears with arrows made of Coke glass bottles. That’s what survivalism is all about!”
Maybe in Reality TV shows it is, but not in the actual harsh world out there.
The world is changing around us in ways few people fully understand. From a practical, modern survival perspective, few things are as valuable and as important as a second passport during certain worst case scenarios. I’ve mentioned many times how a gun, passport and money are the three main items to have. If forced to get rid of one I’d get rid of the gun first. With a passport and enough money I can get another gun anyway. Now if forced to drop a second item, I’d rather not have money than lose my European citizenship.
Think of it this way: The cheapest passport in some God forsaken island costs about $250.000. An actually good passport that grants you EU citizenship will cost no less than $1.57 million a pop. That’s per passport, so for the average family of fours its over 6 million bucks! And trust me, there’s people out there that happily pay for it. Now the question is, why? For the very wealthy person, it of course has clear benefits both for living in Europe but also investing as citizens. But what about the average Joe? Average Joe can also make great use of a EU passport. I’m one myself and my citizenship is the last thing I’d give up.
“But Ferfal, Europe? No American in his right mind would move there…”
First, yes, many have. Second, to that I just say you never know. You never know if one day relocating to Europe, or Canada would be in your best interest. The world can change so much in just a few years. There’s just no telling what your personal situation will be like ten years from now, let alone what the world will be like. There’s people that have received life-saving medical treatment for free which otherwise they simply couldn’t afford, thanks to the EU. There’s millions that move all over Europe for employment. Right now with the refugee crisis, hundreds of thousands are looking for a country to take them in. For those that already had citizenship, their only concern would have been getting there before things fell apart too bad.
If passports are literally worth millions of dollars, its just a crime not to get yours if possible. I’ll say it again: You just never now. You don’t know if you want/have to emigrate one day, or if maybe your children or grandchildren will. (That would be my case, it was my grandfather that got me my passport) You don’t know if they may want to study abroad, or get a degree in a world class university for a fraction of what it costs back in U.S.
If you have Irish, Spanish, Italian or any other ancestry, its well worth looking into. These things take time, years, that’s why few people bother but trust me one day you (or your grandchildren) will thank you for it.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

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“The Modern Survival Manual" #1 Best Seller

Folks, my book “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse”, made it yet again to #1 Best Seller in Disaster Relief today in Amazon.
I just wanted to thank all of you for your support. You guys are fantastic.
If you haven’t picked a copy yet consider doing so. I’m confident it’s a useful survival manual for these trying times and most of the urban survival strategies regarding economic collapse, inflation, security, self-defense and practical preparedness are applicable both before and after SHTF.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
FerFAL

Do you need a community to Survive when SHTF?

First off let me start by saying that reading your blog has been a very refreshing change of pace. Often most blogs on survivalism also come with crazy white supremacist or anti-government rhetoric, theres also a lot of what I like to call "lone rangers" building bunkers, stockpiling ammo, food, water...
And these things are very advisable but one thing I see them doing is isolating themselves from neighbours who might actually be helpful to be on good terms with.
I am from rural Montana and for some reason this region attracts a very large number of anti-social bunker dwellers and militia types who I feel quite frankly arent just preparing for disaster, but are praying for one.
I am a marine infantryman and have spent considerable time in war zones, disaster areas, and places where mob-rule, drug lords, or organized crime are the closest thing to law that people have. This idea of the rugged individual standing atop a pile of MREs and ammo in a heroic last stand seems to be a distinctively american one.
Ive been in many firefights, armed stand offs, even spent 6 hours being hunted by a sniper once. I can say that none of the things I have survived, nor locals ive seen surviving did so soley because of their ruggedly individualistic defiance and personal grit. I lived because I had a unit of good men I could trust watching my back as I watched thiers and most locals were very self reliant, but they were always networking with each other for the things they couldnt make or get by themselves.
Things like
"help me dig this well and I will help you fix your car"
"If we hear shooting at your house we will come if you will do the same for us"
"If anyone sees the rebels coming everyone call everyone else"
"We can all pool money for a set of solar panels to charge our batteries"
In one case where our patrol was mistaken as hostile I actually saw a 12 year old boy initiate a "phone tree" which was able to evacuate a village of 2,000 people in 20 minutes, an hour later all villages in that valley had sought refuge in the surrounding mountains, they finally emerged when we convinced them we werent there for hostile purposes.
I think it is a very good idea to address community as a survival strategy, because I can and do tell a lot of these lone rangers my experiences in combat and hostile environments "It doesnt matter how good a shot you are or how many guns you have buried in your back yard, if 15 people decide they are coming into your house the best you can do on your own is run, or die for a pile of food and ammo"
Im not saying people and thier neighbours need to go full vigilante, but maybe setting up a watch, a community fall back area, or early warning phone or hand held radio system could be a much more sound tactic than re-enacting their favourite rambo movie.
-Tom

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Hello Tom,
These days everyone with a keyboard and internet connection is a survival expert, so that kind of misconception is pretty common. People think they’ll be safe because they live far from cities, that an economic collapse won’t affect them because they grow their own food (guess, they never heard about people losing their farm to the bank) or that they’ll never need to evacuate their home “because we already live in our bug out location” (which by definition is impossible, given that a BOL is where you go when your primary residence is compromised). The thing is, people think these things but they’ve never actually had to try them for real. They think this or that will work out a certain way “when SHTF”, but they’ve never seen what happens when SHTF for real nor have they seriously researched the topic.
The kind of personality you describe is very common in our community. In most cases its people that have problems socializing, they just don’t like people and they rationalize their personal preferences by convincing themselves that isolation is in some way a wise preparedness strategy. Of course, as you correctly state, that’s not the case.
Being isolated and being on your own only makes you an easier target. Even if you fortify your position so as to not be a “soft” target, being a lonely tough nut only means no one will hear you when you crack. If anyone has managed to make the solo bunker idea work, its simply because they never had to actually put it through a real large scale disaster. It will not work long term with severe crime and social unrest. Its like my 7 year old’s cardboard and tape spaceship: It’s a fantastic spaceship as long as you don’t actually use it as one.
Within a socioeconomic collapse, which is the area I have the most experience with, I can assure you that you’ll need all the help you can get. With finding employment, with getting some help with the house and kids when you’re studying or working and just not around and you definitely need help regarding crime, everything from neighbours watching after one another, to hiring security or organizing a neighbourhood watch.
Having said all this, you will not always get the help that you need. Expect to be disappointed. A lot. In fact 9 out of 10 people will not be there for you when SHTF in spite of what they promised earlier. I have a handful of real friends, that have invited me and my family to stay at their home for as long as I need it and actually meant it, a friend that would literally catch a bullet for me, and I’ve met people that have let me down even with the smallest favour. A person I though was a friend did just that when I asked for a small favour. He got back to me the following day explaining he couldn’t do what I asked, but if I was ever caught in a mountain in the middle of a snow storm he would gladly drive up there to save me. We don’t get to pick the kind of help we need, that’s kind of the nature of a situation which involves asking for a favour. My advice would be to see if you can count on people for small things first, something that maybe isn’t a big deal and you could easily take care of yourself, but still ask just to see if your friendship is real or not and if you can count with that person. If they don’t come through for the little things you then don’t expect them to be there when SHTF bad.
When there’s considerable socioeconomic unrest, then there’s other factors to keep in mind. Maybe some people maybe CANT help you, even if they want, because they have their own problems and are already way over their heads. Then again, some people may pleasantly surprise you, maybe people you never expected much of. You just have to put yourself out there and make friends, make connections, test them and see what you’re working with for real when the chips are down.
When SHTF, you’ll need all the help you can get and so will the people around you. Given that in most cases people will not be as dependable as we’d like, all the more reason to work harder at it, build and strengthen those relationships with friends, family and neighbours.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.