Do It yourself MRE Drink Mix and more!

This post was inspired by K over at http://planningandforesight.blogspot.com/  Every week it seems, he reviews MRE's  and I was paging thru his back posts today about them. I noticed the price tag on the MRE drink mixes and then got thinking about how the Grey Knight likes these little Wylers packets to mix into his water at work.

 Now last time we bought these several months ago I was shocked at the price. Was roughly 3.50 for a box of 8 of these, which makes 16 8 oz servings. However at Aldi, I got this container of drink mix for less than 2.00 for 60 8 oz servings.

So quick math just to give myself a headache...
 .21 a serving for the Wylers
 .03 a serving for the cheap Aldi brand

Now we all know, carrying around a container of drink mix while hiking, camping, bugging out, etc takes up alot of room in any pack. How about a easy way to tote these around?

The bright yellow package with all the fancy labeling is of course the Wylers package.

The other one is mine. Here's how you do it. It's very simple and can be adapted to hold instant coffee, powdered creamers, any dried beverage mix.

First off you get ahold of some clear straws. One straw gets cut in half. This half will hold your individual serving.

You will need a candle, any one will do and a pair of needle nose pliers. Pinch the straw between the pliers at the end leaving a small tail to it. Hold this tail over your candle to heat seal the plastic from the straw... like so...

 Pour 3/4 tsp of the drink mix in (may need all of the straw for things like coffee etc.) This is a tedious job, something to do while watching tv or a movie or such.  Heat seal the other end and you are good to rock. You could probably fit 50 of these or more in a qt ziplock bag. Just throw in a pair of nail clippers to open the end of your homemade drink straw and add to your water.

It's Happened ....TSHTF

As I mentioned we will be leaving for ten days this week. We orginally were going to take Bear with us, but fortunes changed and we have decided to put him in doggie training camp for the 10 days to work on his manners. I think this will greatly reduce my stress level and allow me to get more done around here. So we dropped Bear off today and The Grey Knight just came in with a funny story!

(We have two rescue cats named Jethro and Horatio)

Jethro: OMG, it's happened!!
Horatio: What?
Jethro: First the dog disappeared! Then the humans disappeared!! The shit has hit the fan!!

Jethro: We need to load up our bug out bags! You grab the cat food! I will get the bottles of water!

Jethro: OMG! I just remembered we can't bug out!! OH NO!!
Horatio: Why not?

Jethro: We can't open the door! I have no thumbs!!!!

Spoiled Rotten

Someone is spoiled rotten around here and it's not me!

He loves his new cooling pool. Though he was unsure about it at first. It quickly became the comedy sitcom of the neighborhood with neighbors coming out of their houses to watch Bear frolick in the pool. If you throw something that sinks in, he has to get it out of the pool, and he puts his whole face in and blows bubbles! The pool is good to stand and go around in circles for about a half hour then it becomes a game of tug of war to move the pool around the yard finally spilling it and then running around with the pool in his jaws like he won a prize or something.

Finally got Bears pack done and we have taken it for a test walk. He doesn't seem to mind having it on once he realizes that we are going for a walk.  Wasn't to much of a pain to construct even with the hand sewing.

We used a extra large dog harness and a set of Coleman ATV bags (19 bucks at Walmart).

Place the bag on table with bag openings to the table, then lay the harness in the postion that it would sit on the dog (this is the hard part making sure that nothing is tangled) The coleman bag has a circle hole in the center and this lines up perfectly with the dog's leash hitch on the harness. Pin into place and then tack with a hand sewing, making sure to use strong thread as this will see alot of wear and tear.  I went over some places with the sewing machine just to give it added strength.

And there you have a dog bug out bag or a dog walk backpack for less than 20 bucks (if you already have the harness.

Will try to get pictures this weekend of it on the dog.