Mountain House Review Part 2: Freeze Dried Food

Hello everyone! Here's part 2 of the Mountain House freeze Dried Food Pouch review. Apologies for the delay. The audio track for the original footage I recorded a few weeks ago was barely audible & I havent had the chance to re-record till today. so here goes:

The preparation for this is pretty straightforward. Boil water (3/4 cup for this one), pour in pouch after removing the oxygen pack, stir, and seal back up. Let it sit for about 10 minutes then serve.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this as far as flavor goes but it was surprisingly tasty - not in a stale, been sitting around forever kind of tasty. It was pretty good.

I've tasted three different entrees so far and I like all of them. This kind of food supply would be beneficial for campers / hikers / RVers / Van dwellers / road trippers or just to have around the house for general preparedness reasons. I would even recommend this for people / families that go on road trips. I know with my family, we get sick and tired of eating the same thing when traveling so I think I'm going to have to take a box of these for our next trip.
It definitely wouldn't hurt to have a few of these in your pantry. It doesn't take up much room at all and the price for each pouch is reasonable.

Disclosure: Nitro-Pak did supply a few of these for review but this is not a paid advertisement meaning I did not receive cash compensation to do this review. I try to be fair and objective with any reviews I do because I'm a consumer too. I like to seek out reviews before I commit to a product and I would want bloggers & vloggers out there to do the same that way I know for sure if the product is worth purchasing or not. There, now that's out of the way. =)

Many thanks to Nitro-Pak for the samples.

Ultralight Backpacking Stove, Stand and Adapter (Gear Review)

Hello everyone, here's my latest vid of some camping / hiking / backpacking equipment I picked up and used quite a bit this past summer.

The ultralight burner stove

Weight: In orange case: 4.0 oz.

              Burner only: 3.2 oz

Purchase price was less than $15

Pros: Very light, comes in a case, easy to use, quite sturdy, affordable price, compact size

Con: The pin that adjusts the flame can come off, it reattaches back with no problem but just make sue it/s snug and secure before you even attach it to a flammable canister.

Three leg stand and adapter

Weight: 2.9 oz

Puchase price was less than $10

Pros: Light, very sturdy, affordable, compact size

Cons: None

I used this primarily for our road trip this past summer. I had it set up on the ground, on a table, and a countertop. i never had any issues with it being too wobbly. It was quite convenient to have in the truck and doesn't take up much space at all.

Overall, I'm very happy with the products. Hope this helps with your purchasing decision.

CardSharp Credit Card Folding Knife (Budget EDC)

This is a quick look at the Cardshark folding knife. Purchased this for less than $10 on sale.

Some things I like about it:
Lightweight - weighs ~14gms
Fits perfectly in your wallet due to its credit card size dimensions.
Durable (so far) - I've carried this around in my wallet/pocket and so far no damage done to it.
Easy & safe to use - it has a lock for the blade so it doesn't accidentally flip on the open position. It turns into a knife in 4 motions - unlock safety, flip blade, fold smaller portion, fold large portion over that which clicks it into place.
Price (see above) - good for the budget conscious.

Some things I don't like about it:
There's only one actually - The final fold of the large portion to the smaller one doesn't always stay in place. After a couple of times, it pops open so you end up having to readjust your grip on the handle to keep it locked.

Here's a caveat: This knife might be awkward to handle for those who have really big hands.

For what it is, it's not too bad of an investment as far as having a knife with you for general purpose only.

IKEA Cook Set (Budget Camping Gear Under $10)

 

For this video I wanted to share this great find from IKEA - a stainless steel 4-piece of cookset that can easily be integrated into anyone's camping gear. As I've mentioned on the vid, we were originally there to purchase a bookshelf for our ever-growing collection of books (we found one for a great price by the way).

I also picked up a utensil caddy that I've seen in various DIY sites and vids used as a wood stove/ fire pit. Not bad for $5.99. They did have a shorter version of the same caddy but I went with the taller piece.

I've made it a habit to seek out items that may be used or repurposed as camping/outdoors gear whenever I'm at a shop. You just never know where you'll find something useful with a matching low cost to boot.

I'll be testing both items out hopefully soon to see how it holds up and will post the results here and on YouTube, of course.

Dirt Cheap Preps: LED Clip-On Light

Hello everyone. Been awhile since I posted any new prep related vids or blog posts. Here's the latest one.

These LED clip-on lights are less than a couple of bucks a piece. I have several of them in stock. It's small enough to keep in your glove compartment or carry around with you but it's also good to have in stock since it doesn't take up too much space.

As an urban newbie prepper, I always talk about space being very limited. Each addition really has to be multifunctional or doesn't take up too much space.

For such a small little device, this LED clip-on light is not only versatile but also very bright. Usually when you buy clip-on things, the clip part fails because it doesn't have much of a grip.

These lights however are pretty secure once you clip them on to the brim of your hat or your shirt/jacket. The battery for it is just your standard watch batteries. Another positive with this particular item is that it pivots around so it is adjustable which give you a bit more flexibility.

I've used this light as a booklight as well. Although my prepper library is mostly digital, we do have a large collection of print books so on occasion this clips on nicely on a book cover.

It just goes to show you don't have to spend a whole lot of money to have some emergency temp lighting. Always good to diversify what you have.

A lot of my viewers in YouTube are budget conscious (as they should be) so I try to review things that they can easily pick up. Good rule to have for newbie preppers: keep things simple and budget friendly.

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Site updates:

The tech editions of my YouTube channel have been a nice change of pace but I do have a lot of new articles/vids/reviews I'd like to put up. I have several prep vids already on standby. I actually have more equipment to review, specifically knives. There's also book reviews forthcoming.

As for the site itself: Some additional changes I was planning on implementing is put on hold for now for lack of time.

The site has reached over 50,000 views. Many thanks for all the support!