- 10 lb sugar
- 1 box salt

What to do this week

Did you manage to do your check up in Week 7? Obviously we don’t need to tell you to take care of your health. While it’s difficult to maintain “peak physical condition”, it’s important that you are in good shape.

If you don’t do any regular exercise, now’s a good time to start. One easy exercise is actually walking. Sure, it’s not an aggresive, macho type of exercise, but it works, it’s low impact and you can do it anywhere.

This is a book you can use : Walk Away the Pounds: The Breakthrough 6-Week Program That Helps You Burn Fat, Tone Muscle, and Feel Great Without Dieting. It’s probably not something you want to show it public, but it contains a lot of good tips and advice.

That’s it! Remember to save $1 a day, and we’ll see you next week.

It’s been a few years since I bought a “new” LED flashlight. My current Every Day Carry flashlight is still the Fenix E01. The E01 sits in my jeans pocket most of the time, and I use it almost every day. It’s a great little light and weighs almost nothing. However, it is lacking in the power department. I looked around for a more powerful light, and finally decided on a Quark Mini AA from 4Sevens.

Initially, I was aiming for the $70 titanium version of this light. After thinking it over, I decided to save $30 and get the “regular” $39 version instead.

Here are some unboxing and comparison photos of the Quark Mini AA.  Click on the images for larger photos.  I’ll post up a proper review once I’ve had more hands-on time with this LED flashlight.

The Quark mini AA came in a box, covered in a white cardboard sleeve.

The black box looks like it holds some jewelry or a high end watch.

Inside, we can see the Quark mini AA flashlight and one AA Duracell battery.

Close up of the Quark mini AA. Note the aggressive knurling on the body.

The front view of the Quark mini AA, showing the CREE XP-G R5 LED.

The accessories that came with the Quark mini AA : lanyard and a spare O-ring.

The Quark mini AA in comparison with the Fenix E01. The Fenix E01 uses the AAA battery.

Here’s the Quark mini AA next to my EDC blade, the Victorinox Cadet Swiss Army Knife.

- 4 cans tuna
- 4 boxes macaroni and cheese

What to do this week

Do you know how to cook? After a while, you’ll get bored of eating the same ol’ canned tuna. And soon you’ll run out of mac’n'cheese too. You’ll have noticed that we are buying multiple sets of wheat, honey, salt and powdered milk. There’s a reason for that. With just these four ingredients, you can create quite a number of different dishes. I know you probably don’t need another cookbook, but one worth investing in is Buy Passport to Survival. There are 110 recipes in this unique cookbook, and most of them need only these 4 items as ingredients.

I’d advise practicing cooking as often as you can — you don’t want to wait until the end of the world until you realise that your cooking sucks!

Buy Passport to Survival: Four Foods and More to Use and Store.

That’s it! Remember to save $1 a day, and we’ll see you next week.

His gear :

iPhone 3GS 16GB in an Oakley case.
Specops T.H.E wallet.
Rat Cutlery Izula with sharpened jimping on top.
Buck Mayo Waimea.
Paracord Bracelet.
Marathon JSAR on a Sinn U1 strap.
Casio G-shock Frogman MIRB.
Nitecore D10 R2 SP in camo with a tritium insert.
Keys with a tritium keychain and Fenix E01 and a Lacie I’makey 16GB pendrive.
Zippo heavy armor case with a Z-plus insert.

About The Survivalist #5 : The Web by Jerry Ahern

John Thomas Rourke, M.D., ex-CIA Covert Operations Officer, weapons expert, and survival authority, has accomplished one of his goals—he’s helped his young friend Paul Rubinstein locate his parents. Now, Rourke’s search for his own family must continue, hampered by severe storms raging along the Eastern Seaboard caused by the earthquakes which destroyed Florida.

Rourke picks up his relentless quest, avoiding the Russian troops searching for the missing data on the enigmatic Eden Project ,and rides into the most bizarre situation he’s discovered since the Night of the War.
Life in the Tennessee mountain village is all too normal, seemingly unaffected by the war. It is there that John Thomas Rourke finds himself in the middle of a mass suicide pact… and is expected to participate!

While battles rage and blizzards roar, Rourke fights to escape. He must go on—he is The Survivalist.

Approximate Running Time: 4 hours

Buy The Survivalist # 5 : The Web by Jerry Ahern

Download The Survivalist #5 : The Web by Jerry Ahern
For sampling purposes only

The Survivalist #5 Part1
The Survivalist #5 Part2
The Survivalist #5 Part3
The Survivalist #5 Part4

It’s been a while since I owned a multitool. The first multitool I owned was a SwissTool. I had to sell it when times were tough, and now I regret it. I have not thought about purchasing a multitool in a while, but I’ve been intrigued by the lightweight Leatherman Freestyle. In the end, I decided that the Freestyle was too minimalist for me (being essentially just a pair of pliers with a blade) and went for its older brother, the slightly bigger Skeletool.

Here’s what you get with the Skeletool :

* 420HC Stainless Steel Clip Point Knife (outside accessible, one-hand opening)
* Needlenose Pliers
* Regular Pliers
* Wire Cutters
* Hard-wire Cutters
* Large Bit Driver (with 2 pairs of bits : Phillips #1 and #2 Bit, Screwdriver 3/16″ and 1/4″ Bit)
* Bottle Opener
* Carabiner Clip

All this in a form factor that’s 4 inches (10cm) long when closed, and weighs only 5oz (142g).

This photo shows all the functions of the Skeletool :

Buy Leatherman Skeletool Multitool here.

More photos of my Leatherman Skeletool :

The belt clip is removable.

Close up of the bit driver. The bits are double-ended, so you get 4 screwdrivers in total. You can purchase an additional Leatherman Bit Kit which adds a total of 42 different bits.

The Skeletool blade comes sharp out of the box. It’s a one-handed opening blade, accessible even when the tool is closed. Even though it’s not made out of the best steel available, the Skeletool blade is easy enough to sharpen and good enough for most cutting tasks. It’s a liner-lock system.

Close up of the blade.

This is where the spare bit is kept.

Overall Impressions

I’ve handled several Leatherman multi-tools before, but have only owned (and regularly used) the Leatherman Squirt. (Read my Leatherman Squirt multi-tool review). The Squirt was great for occasional light tasks, but was really too small to be really practical for anything else.

The Skeletool certainly has a unique look. While it’s certainly lighter compared to “full-size” multitools, it feels sturdy and strong. All the tools are easy to open — no user manuals needed to learn how to use this tool. I’ve used the blade to cut paper, cardboard, and tape. All were sliced with no problems. The hard wire cutters have cut just about every piece of plastic and metal wire I could find.

There are of course some compromises:
- The ergonomics are not ideal. It’s awkward to hold the knife when cutting.
- The screwdrivers won’t be able to reach deeply recessed screws.
- Some useful tools are not available. However, I do carry a Victorinox Swisscard Lite which adds tweezers and scissors to the mix

Overall, I’m quite satisfied with the Leatherman Skeletool. It now sits in my day bag (carried at work), always close by in case I need it. Here’s my (extended EDC) :

Fenix E01 AAA LED flashlight, Leatherman Skeletool multitool, Victorinox Cadet Swiss Army Knife

Buy Leatherman Skeletool Multitool here.

- 5 lb of honey. Yes, it’s difficult to buy 5lb of milk for $5 — try to get as much as you can.

What to do this week

We’ve entered the 3rd month in our Step by Step Survival series. Let’s take a look at what we have in our supply cache so far :
2 cans tuna fish
2 boxes salt
5 boxes of Macaroni and Cheese
8 cans tomato soup
3 cans mushroom soup
2.5 lb peanut butter
1 bottle vitamins
15 lb powdered milk
1 bottle aspirin (500 tablets)
100 lb container wheat
5 lb honey

That’s quite a lot, right? Not bad for a 9-week haul. Take the time this week to rearrange your supplies accordingly — make sure everything is stored properly.

That’s it! Remember to save $1 a day, and we’ll see you next week.

In a survival situation, you won’t have a lot of luxury or choice in terms of food.  How do you stretch out your meager supplies to the maximum?  Kristen Swensson from the Cheap Healthy Good blog (I like the name already)  has a great post about making healthy meals from one single chicken, with a budget of $25.

She managed to spread out the 7lb chicken over 5 days and 17 meals, each meal serving 2 people.  She made use of everything that was available in her pantry.

This is a great example of how frugality and a bit of ingenuity can help you along.  It’s all good in theory, but it’s always good to practice.  Good news : Swensson included recipes of all her meals, so you can try out yourself.

- 5 lb powdered milk. Yes, it’s difficult to buy 5lb of milk for $5 — try to get as much as you can.

What to do this week

Do you have a knife for EDC (every day carry)? A knife is useful in many situations. Some workplaces may frown on knives, but usually multitools or Swiss Army Knives are okay. If you start looking at Swiss Army knives (SAK), then you may feel overwhelmed — there are dozens of models. A good all-purpose SAK is the Victorinox Climber (around $15). It has a blade and scissors, plus many other little tools. My own EDC SAK is the Victorinox Cadet ($20).

Buy Victorinox Swiss Army Climber II Pocket Knife

That’s it! Remember to save $1 a day, and we’ll see you next week.

His Every Day Carry gear:

Maxpedition Spartan Wallet (olive drab / green)
Glock 22 handgun
Boker Armed Forces Tanto
Cold Steel Large Voyager Tanto
Cutco 1886 pocket knife
Gerber Clutch on the key ring
LG Voyager phone