Adding to my EDC

EDC is one of those acronyms that gets casually thrown around by hard-core prepper/survivalist types. It took me a bit to figure out exactly what it stood for. So, for the newbies like me out there: EDC stands for Every Day Carry. It is comprised of useful, preparedness-oriented items that you take with you everywhere. If you read blogs like M.D. Creekmore's The Survivalist Blog, you'll find there is much debate about what should be in your EDC, from food to firestarting supplies to weaponry. I'm often curious as to how some of these guys with huge lists of EDC items tote it all around. Do they walk around with strangely bulging pockets? Do they carry it in a backpack?
  

Camo is optional!

Well, every woman I know, prepper or not, already has an EDC. We call it a purse and they contain a variety of items necessary for feminine survival. Mine tends to collect little girls' hairbows, Cheerios, and ballpoint pens. I kid you not, the last time I cleaned out my purse it had 17 pens. I decided it was high time that I upgrade my EDC. Unfortunately that did not mean that I got a new purse. ;)

 A List of EDC Contents for My Fellow Harried Homemakers:

1. A fully charged cell phone. I don't use my cell phone very often, so I'm guilty of turning in on, sticking it in the bottom of my purse, and forgetting about it. More often than not, my batteries are low. I need to get better about keeping it charged up.
2. Cash and coins. Once upon a time I got stuck in a parking garage because I didn't have any cash on hand to pay the unsympathetic parking attendant. Ironically, this happened on the same day I took a tour of a Federal Reserve bank where I had been literally surrounded by money. I learned the hard way that it is wise to have both some cash and coins with me at all times. 
3. First Aid Kit. Click here to read about what's in the first aid kit I carry in my purse.
4. A Swiss Army knife or other multi-tool. I selected a Leatherman Squirt PS4 Keychain Toolbecause it was little, cute, and would go on my key chain. Plus, it came in blue, my favorite color.

This is teeny-tiny - just over 2 inches long - and very lightweight

Lots of handy tools

This is not the knife you want to have if you're fighting off grizzly bears in the wilderness. If you're fighting off grizzly bears in the wilderness, why are you toting around a purse, anyway?

5. Flashlight. I bought a Photon Freedom LED Keychain Micro-Lightand I'm super-pleased with it. It is small and inobtrusively fits on my keychain. According to the company, its beam is visible for a mile. It is definitely bright and you can even set it to continuously signal an SOS.

6. Victorinox Swisscard Lite Pocket Tool There is some overlap between this and my other EDC items, but I had to have it. It is just too cool!

This little card is full of surprises.

It holds a ballpoint pen, letter opener, straight pen, tweezers, scissors, and a screwdriver. The card has an LED light, magnifying lens, and can be used as a ruler.

And it will fit easily into a credit card slot in your wallet. Since I don't use credit cards anymore, I had plenty of room for one of these.

There is so much more I could add to the list, such as a firesteel, paracord, and a compass. I think this is a practical list and a good start for any woman's EDC.


What is in your EDC? What are your "must have" items that you carry in your purse? (Or "murse", for my male readers!)

Month Seven in Review and Month Eight Preps

Month Seven:

This month of my Prepping Plan featured a few bumps, namely on the grain mill front.

I bought a lot of food storage-related items this month. I have another 100 lbs of beans, 90 lb of wheat, and lots of odds and ends like drink mix. My food storage buckets seem to have multiplied all of a sudden. I wasn't aware that I had this many.

Buckets galore but we need so many more

I also bought a couple of packs of Can Organizers, which made neat work of one of my cabinets. I learned how to can meat and found out it wasn't so scary after all. I also made a first aid kit out of an Altoids tin for my purse.

Tall, dark, and handsome

Month Eight Preps:

I feel a lot of pressure to complete my food storage ASAP because the specter of high inflation looms ever larger, so next month will also be focused on that area. If I can get rid of some of the junk in my storage room, I plan on buying a nifty Shelf Reliance shelving system. It should really help maintain FIFO (first in, first out) when it comes to my canned goods. I also plan on buying a few more items to fill my shiny new shelves.

The weird thing about these Shelf Reliance organizers is that they don't come with a shelf across the top. That's too much space to waste so I'm going to figure out what kind of wood I need to buy and get Hubby Dear to cut a piece to serve as a shelf.

I also plan on getting a P-Touch labeler so that I can create neatly printed labels for all my storage containers. I've always wanted one of those, so I'm pretty excited about that purchase. That's it for Month Eight.

Do you have any preps planned for next month?

Coming Soon: 2010 in Review and Goals for 2011

A Mommy Must: A First Aid Kit for My Purse

There have been several times that I have wished that I had a mini first aid kit with me. The instance I remember most vividly was the time that Mini Me scraped most of her epidermis at the over-priced parent trap that is Sesame Place. I tried to clean her up as best I could, but wasn't very successful in stopping the bleeding (or the screaming, for that matter). Thankfully, a kind stranger handed me a couple of bandaids, saying, "I'm a teacher and so I'm always prepared with a first aid kit." It dawned on me then that a first aid kit would be a pretty smart thing to put in my purse.

That incident happened in July 2009. I made my first aid kit today. What can I say? I'm a slow learner.

This first aid kit is NOT meant for wilderness survival situations. It is NOT meant to get your family through TEOTWAWKI. I have a more extensive first aid kit in my car and even more first aid materials at home. This is a small, light kit that will easily fit in a purse and cover the minor first aid situations moms face on a regular basis.

I had read about people creating first aid or survival kits and putting them inside Altoids tins.

I thought that was a great idea. An Altoids tin is fairly strong, holds a bit, and will certainly fit in any purse I carry.

Contents:

1. Medication dosage instructions printed on card stock. 
2. Band-aids in several sizes
3. Alcohol Wipes
4. Tweezers
5. Dermabond. This is basically sterile Super Glue and is useful for closing some types of cuts.
6. A couple of packets of triple antibiotic ointment
7. Individually packaged medications, including: Children's Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, Pepcid Complete, Tylenol, Advil, Benedryl and Aspirin.

I tried to come up with the easiest, most space-efficient way of packaging each medicine separately. I found these baggies in the crafting section of Wal-Mart.

They are 2" x 3" in size. 1" x 2" would have been even better, but this was the smallest I could find. I labelled each baggie, rolled it up, and stuck it in the Altoids tin with everything else.

I originally had some cough drops that I wanted to put in the tin, too, but unfortunately they didn't quite fit.

Viola! Whether Hubby Dear gets heartburn or Mini Me has another one of her klutz-capades, I'm prepared. Mostly.