Another month, another giant pile of crap in the mail as I try out new things. Here’s what’s cooking:
Instant Thai Tea
I don’t recall where I heard about this but apparently you can get instant Thai tea packets off of Amazon. Now that I’m back on the cooking wagon I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting drink mixes and this one seems like a winner. Testing it out at home it tastes great but doesn’t mix well in cold water (the label says to use hot water so this isn’t exactly a surprise).
Update: took this out for a spin on a trip to Pete Lake, this stuff is awesome. However, I made the mistake of boiling 2 cups of water before adding the mix and it took forever to cool (and I burnt my tongue pretty good figuring this out). Next time I need hot (not boiling) water I’ll just use a half ounce of alcohol and see how it goes.
Funnels and a Clotting Sponge
Two more goodies arrived in the mail today:
The first is a set of small clear plastic funnels to help with filling up my Vargo alcohol fuel bottle. I had originally bought a container of Klean Strip denatured alcohol from the local Ace Hardware to use with my Kojin stove but when it ran out I replaced it with fuel from the Crown brand when I was at REI. Problem is, the Klean Strip had a smaller opening and, if I recall correctly, something of a pour spout to help prevent spills. The Crown has a massive opening and no pour spout which makes filling the narrow-necked Vargo bottle a pain – lots of alcohol all over my countertop. So, I figured a small set of funnels would be helpful. I’m concerned that these are -too- small since the mouth is barely wider than the mouth of the bottle but we’ll see how it plays out in practice.
Update: these were waaaay too small. What was I thinking not even measuring the mouth of the Vargo bottle? It’s 5/8″. I’ve already ordered replacement funnels.
Update update: replacements arrived, second largest works great on the Vargo, but the stupid can still spills everywhere. Oh well, at least now I have a proper funnel.
The second is a quick-clotting sponge. I read a lot of r/ultralight and I’m particularly interested in the first-aid related threads whenever a doctor, EMT, firefighter, or similar professional chimes in with some real-world advice. A quick-clotting sponge has come up several times and has been on my wishlist for a few months but a recent thread prompted me to finally pull the trigger. This particular model uses a substance called Zeolite. I don’t carry much in the way of extra clothing and since my pants have an integrated belt I also don’t have anything that would make a decent tourniquet, so this seems like a reasonable first step to having something available to stop serious bleeding aside from manual pressure. Person B and I were just doing another round of gear closet cleanout this past weekend and she asked me whether I still wanted to hold onto an ancient pair of Outdoor Research accessory straps. I said yes and now I’m wondering if this would be something that’s worth taking along as a multi-use just-in-case item.
Vaseline
I read an article about how recent medical research shows that triple antibiotic ointments (Neosporin etc.) are no better than Vaseline at helping wounds heal. Vaseline can also be used to prevent and treat blisters and chafing, as a lip balm, and as a fire starter when combined with cotton balls. That’s a lot of uses for a single product, so I thought if I started bringing that I could ditch a bunch of first aid and lip balm products and replace them with just a tube of Vaseline.
Problem is, Vaseline comes in lots of sizes. At first I tried a 4-pack of 0.6 ounce tubes but these turned out to be gigantic. A few clicks later and I’m now the proud owner of a 3-pack of Vaseline Advanced Lip Therapy 0.35 ounce tubes which seem more reasonable for backpacking at only 13 grams per tube.
Update: brought the Vaseline to Pete Lake in lieu of antiseptic wipes (since you’re supposed to just flush wounds with water), triple-antibiotic jelly, and lip balm. Worked great on the lips, didn’t need it for anything else.