Testing, Testing

I'm pretty much in flat-out Confidence Camp prep mode. I did a few other things this morning.

About the most hard-core survival skill we are going to learn is how to make a solar still. I have tried a couple in the past three days. I wanted to find out how well they worked with a smaller hole than "recommended." And, as it turned out, I got to find out how well they worked when there wasn't very much sun.

I did the first one in some badly contaminated soil. The theory is that it's a still- in other words, it distills water and gives you clean water.

This site still reeks of oil, even 45 years after the oil storage tanks have been removed. The water was clean, no odor or taste, but with a little bit of soil that trickled in that could be filtered out with just a bandana. Got over a cup of water in a day.

Then I tried another with an even smaller hole, but in cleaner dirt.

You can see the condensation on the underside of the plastic.

Got the same amount of water in less time. Winner!

Cathy came over and we set up my screen house. Thinking it could be shelter in light rain, or too much sun (not a likely scenario according to long-range forecasts).

It collapses in wind too easily. But I might try to add some extra guy lines. I think we'll just go on the deck or inside if rain becomes serious.

We did a couple other small things, and pretty much finished the gear packs. There are a couple of tiny items to go in them yet. L-R: notebooks with info (I'm still working on those pages), gear packs, emergency packs.

Tomorrow is a group hike that is a fairly long drive. So much for getting much done other than that tomorrow.

It's been either too wet or cold to stain the picnic tables. We did a couple other small tasks. But it's coming together, and it won't take that long to stain the tables.

See Mostly Confidence Camp Prep