Glad everyone is well! Anne is spot on: knowledge and level headedness trumps kit every time. My first aid kit contains:
-- bandana (also used for a slew of other things, I've yet to use it for first aid in a real situation -- pocket knife -- Pipe ashes or pine needle dust with spit for disinfectant and coagulant. My daughters have been knows to come to me and say "Emergency pipe time, Papa!" for whatever scrape they have (nothing serious yet). Spit in the ashes, mix, apply. Stings like crazy then good as new. (not for use with free flowing or gashed open trauma -- for those it's compression and bandage and get to aid. -- Trees and shrubs make ready splints and tourniquets combined with a bandana or two. The reality is that unless you carry a trauma ambulance with you, the best you can do is triage until the trauma ambulance arrives. It really doesn't take much more than knowledge to accomplish that. I've had wilderness medical training to whatever the level below EMT is (20+ years ago). Everything I learned to do can be done with the above supplies and creativity. You are right: prevention is your biggest and best defense. Learn how to use a hatchet or axe safely. Always be aware of where momentum and ricochet will take the blade if you miss, and don't have any living thing in that path. Take a quality course in bushcraft to learn if you need to (or there are plenty of YouTube videos out there). Simple and easy is the best course 99.9% of the time. People like Bret Bear make a living focusing on the .1% and going way more complicated than is necessary. Lost in the woods? Find a stream, head down hill. Carry a signal mirror. Easy peasy. With abandon, Patrick -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
