Preparing Your Emergency Storage

Emergency survival preparation can vary a lot from situation to situation, depending on what is being prepared for, and who is doing the preparing. There are some essentials that work across the board, however, and there are also many unique items that can help any situation out. Read on for five unique items that would make any emergency situation safer and easier for you and your family.

Zip Ties and Cable Ties

• Incredibly useful and hardy ties primarily used by electricians for securing cables together, zip/cable ties can perform in so many other ways. They are excellent fasteners and although they can only be used once, they last pretty much permanently, and can stand up to the elements. You can use them to build shelter out of a tarp with grommets, or to secure stakes and poles together. They are an excellent, small, and lightweight thing to throw into your repair kit.

 Survival Bandana 

• Another unique item with many uses. Survival Bandanas can be used not only on your head for warmth or as protection from sunburn, they can be worn around the neck for warmth or as a sweatband in the heat. They can also, however, be used in a medical situation as a bandage or cleaning implement, or as a sling or tourniquet. Highly versatile, keeping several around your kit are a must-have.

Washboard

• Regardless of how dire the emergency that you might end up in is, you will need to at some point keep clean. It is important in the psychological aspect of staying human. Washboards are surprisingly effective at cleaning even the toughest stains. They are inexpensive, lightweight, and easy to use and keep around.

Feminine Products

• These are excellent for wound management. Even the military uses them to treat and clean bullet wounds. Tampons fit into a bullet wound and expand as they absorb blood to fill the hole and keep it plugged until it can be treated properly. Pads can help staunch heavy bleeding. Keep several in your extended medical kit, and stockpile more than a few to have when in need. (Editor’s Note: I highly recommend using Olaes or Israeli Bandages in you kits so you are able to treat all wounds with proper dressing. Tampons are good in an emergency but they are not sterilized.)

UV Water Purification Pen

• This is an item that is a relatively recent addition to camping/outdoors/survival situations because of its modernity. It is highly useful and compact “pen” with a light bulb inside, which when immersed into water, purifies it through the action of UV light which kills all bacteria and viruses. Water is vital for survival, and this pen is the perfect addition (either as primary or back-up water purification system) to ensure that you and your loved ones have enough drinking water. While this high-quality product can be costly to your wallet, search online for the product and consider using available Brownells coupons at Discountrue.com to help you save money.

Emergency situations can only be manageable with proper thought given to preparation. By obtaining these items, you will be more prepared than the average person to meet the struggles of emergency survival.

Why Pocket Knives are Important for Everyday Carry

You never know when a pocket knife will come in handy. In a worst case scenario, you’ll be carrying it around in your pocket, without using it much besides opening a box or cutting some duct tape every few weeks. But in the best case scenario, you could save someone’s life. All of a sudden, it seems worth it to take a light weight pocket knife around with you at all times, doesn’t it? When most people hear “pocket knife” they see a weapon and they instantly think about self-defense. Who wouldn’t want to protect their families and themselves? But beyond self-defense, pocket knives have multiple uses. If you’re not already carrying a pocket knife with you at all times, the following reasons might change your mind.

Eating food

• Ever went hiking and couldn’t cut up an apple or split a sandwich with someone? You won’t go through that again if you carry around a knife pocket. When it comes to food, pocket knives are invaluable. They’ll help you cut up cheese or prepare food on the go. Not to mention that they will come in handy when someone places a plastic knife in front of you that is supposed to help you cut your steak. Nothing is more frustrating that being handed a butter knife that is virtually useless. A sharp pocket knife will spare you the hassle and enable you to properly enjoy your meal. Pocket knives even double as a fork when you’re really in a pinch for cutlery.

Making fire

• Getting a fire started with your bare hands can be pretty daunting. But when you have a pocket knife, the task seems more manageable. You’ll realize that pocket knives are important when you are in a rural area and you’re struggling to find tinder for a fire. The tool will come in handy and rescue you from a chilly night and a cold dinner. Cutting up dead branches and chopping dry wood will seem like a piece of cake.

Comes in handy

• Everyone would have come across at least one situation when a pocket knife would’ve been extremely handy: cutting a blister pack, opening an envelope, helping an animal who was trapped in a wire tangle, tightening a couple of loose screws or prying open a stubborn phone case. If you didn’t recognize yourself in any of the above mentioned situations, feel free to learn from the mistakes of the rest of us. You don’t need to go camping to slide this tool into your pocket. It’s bound to make itself useful in various situations from cutting strings, doing some work in the garden or opening unrelenting boxes or packaging.

Life threatening situations

• There is the possibility you might come across an accident or undergo one yourself. In case someone is seriously injured, the first step is to identify the bleeding and do everything you can to stop it. However, it can be difficult to go through layers of clothes so you can reach the wound. A knife pocket is going to prove extremely useful in this kind of situations when another man’s life is hanging from a thread and time is of the essence. Pocket knives can save your life in various other scenarios. They can help you cut through a seat belt in case you are trapped in a car after an accident.

Criteria for choosing good pocket knives

• Blade length and overall length – the ideal blade will be under three inches. Make a note to check up on your state’s regulations regarding knives and any restrictions.

• Blade type – there’s no shortage of blades out there to choose from, but you’ll want to go for something that is easy to control and offers versatility for everything you have in mind. The type of blade that fits the bill is the drop point. A great all-purpose blade, drop points feel comfortable and are affordable.

• Price – keep in mind that not everything that shines is gold. It’s not impossible to find pocket knives that are not going to burn a whole in your pocket, but still deliver excellent quality and a durable build.

Brand – there are many no-name brands out there coming out with pocket knives that could only last you a month with average use. A quick Google search before making the investment will spare you the hassle of ordering a lemon. There are various trustworthy brands on the market that offer durable and reliable pocket knives at affordable prices: Buck, Case, Columbia River Knife and Spyderco, just to name a few.

$944,143,000,000: Social Security Administration Spending Hit Record in FY2015; $6,345 For Every American With a Job

By Terence P. Jeffrey | November 9, 2015 | 5:28 PM EST 

(CNSNews.com) - Spending by the Social Security Administration--which includes payments for Social Security and disability benefits as well as Supplemental Security Income payments and the administrative costs for these programs--hit a record $944,143,000,000 in fiscal 2015, according to data published by the U.S. Treasury.

Even in constant 2015 dollars (with adjustments made using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator), that was up $33,748,280,000 from the $910,394,720,000 the Social Security Administration spent in fiscal 2014.

As of September, there were 59,737,817 beneficiaries getting Social Security or disability benefits, according to the SSA. At the same time, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 148,800,000 people who had either a full- or part-time job in the United States. That means there were only 2.49 people with jobs for each of the 59,737,817 Social Security and disability beneficiaries.

At the same time, there were only 121,839,000 people with full-time jobs in the United States in September, according to BLS. Those 121,839,000 full-time job holders equaled about 2.04 for each of the 59,737,817 people getting Social Security or disability benefits.

 

The $944,143,000,000 spent by the Social Security Administration in fiscal 2015 equaled about $6,345 for each of the 148,800,000 persons in the country with a job as of September. It equaled about $7,749 for each of the 121,839,000 people with a full-time job.

The $944,143,000,000 that the Social Security Administration spent in fiscal 2015 was also $381,637,000,000 (or about 68 percent) more than the $562,506,000,000 that the Treasury says the government spent on the Department of Defense and military programs during the year.

In Table 5 of the Monthly Treasury Statement for September, the Treasury itemized the various elements that led to the $944,143,000,000 in total spending by the Social Security Administration in fiscal 2015.

These included $733,716,000,000 in benefits payments from the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, plus $3,505,000,000 in payments to cover administrative expenses for that fund and $4,258,000,000 in payments to the Railroad Retirement Account.

They also included $143,009,000,000 in disability benefit payments, $2,881,000,000 in payments for administrative expenses for the disability trust fund, and another $419,000,000 in payments to the Railroad Retirement Account.

The Social Security Administration’s expenditures also included $58,901,000,000 for the Supplemental Security Income Program.

“SSI, which went into effect in 1974, is a need-based program that provides cash payments assuring a minimum income for aged, blind, or disabled individuals who have very limited income and assets,” says the Congressional Research Service. “This program is often referred to as a ‘program of last resort’ since individuals who apply for benefits are also required to apply for all other benefits to which they may be entitled (such as Social Security retirement or disability benefits, pensions, or unemployment benefits).6 Although the SSI program is administered by SSA, it is funded through general revenues—not payroll taxes.”

The “SSI Annual Statistical Report, 2014,” published last month by the Social Security Administration, said there were 8,335,704 SSI recipients in 2014. That was down from 8,363,477 in 2013, but up from the 8,262,877 there were in 2012.

In October, the first month of fiscal 2016, the number of Social Security and disability beneficiaries climbed by 94,763, rising from 59,737,817 to 59,832,580.

The 59,832,580 beneficiaries in October included 39,968,311 retired workers, 2,330,148 spouses of retired workers, 641,654 children of retired workers, 6,077,209 survivors of deceased workers, 8,922,858 disabled workers, 143,164 spouses of disabled workers, and 1,749,236 children of disabled workers. 

Next financial crash is coming – and before we've fixed flaws from last one

 The International Monetary Fund’s managing director, Christine Lagarde speaks last week about the world financial situation. Photograph: Getty Images

Heather Stewart

Wednesday 7 October 2015 10.01 EDTLast modified on Sunday 8 November 2015 11.11 EST

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MF global stability report makes for a sobering read, saying sustainable recovery has failed to materialized and cheap money has led to bubbles and debt

The next financial crisis is coming, it’s a just a matter of time – and we haven’t finished fixing the flaws in the global system that were so brutally exposed by the last one.

That is the message from the International Monetary Fund’s latest Global Financial Stability report, which will make sobering reading for the finance ministers and central bankers gathered in Lima, Peru, for its annual meeting.

Risk of global financial crash has increased, warns IMF

Read more

Massive monetary policy stimulus has rekindled growth in developed economies since the deep recession that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008; but what the IMF calls the “handover” to a more sustainable recovery – without the extra prop of ultra-low borrowing costs – has so far failed to materialise.

Meanwhile, the cheap money created to rescue the developed economies has flooded out into emerging markets, inflating asset bubbles, and encouraging companies and governments to take advantage of unusually low borrowing costs and load up on debt.

“Balance sheets have become stretched thinner in many emerging market companies and banks. These firms have become more susceptible to financial stress,” the IMF says.

Meanwhile, the failure to patch up the international financial system after the last crash, by ensuring that banks in emerging markets hold enough capital, and constraining risky borrowing, for example, means that a new Lehman Brothers-type shock could spark another global panic.

“Shocks may originate in advanced or emerging markets and, combined with unaddressed system vulnerabilities, could lead to a global asset market disruption and a sudden drying up of market liquidity in many asset classes,” the IMF says, warning that some markets appear to be “brittle”.

So as the US Federal Reserve lays the groundwork for a return to peacetime interest rates, from the emergency levels of the past seven years, financial markets face what the IMF calls an “unprecedented adjustment”; and the world looks woefully underprepared.

The IMF’s warning echoes a chorus of others. The Bank of England’s chief economist, Andy Haldane, has argued that the world is entering the latest episode of a “three-part crisis trilogy”. Unctad, the UN’s trade and development arm, would like to see advanced economies boost public spending to offset the downturn in emerging economies. The Bank for International Settlementsbelieves interest rates have been too low for too long, encouraging too much risk-taking in financial markets. All of them fear that the global financial system is primed for a crisis.

The IMF has not given up hope of what it calls a “successful normalisation” – it lays out a series of conditions that would need to be met, from a successful rebalancing of growth in China, to “safeguarding against market illiquidity” in financial markets.

Yet the failure of the world’s policymakers to get to grips with the shortcomings of the international financial system over the past seven years, despite the long shadow cast by Lehman and its aftermath, suggests that any measures enacted now are likely to be too little, too late. The message many may take home from Lima is, “batten down the hatches”.

White House Prepares for EMP That Would “Wipe Out Power, Render Cellphones and Internet Useless”

Every prepper knows about the possibility – even eventuality – of an EMP attack, and most have taken some basic precautions.

Washington and the powers that be know about the threat of an EMP, too, of course, which could come from a powerful solar flare or more dramatically from a foreign enemy.

Nearly everyone admits that such an event would take out the grid, and leave the mass population without power, food, water and other essential services, triggering riots, chaos and mass death within days and weeks.

A number of people in Congress, Homeland Security, the Pentagon and now the White House are strategizing for the big one, and war gaming out how to protect their critical infrastructure, and perhaps salvage mainstream society as well.

The Daily Mail reports:

The U.S. government are preparing for a catastrophic solar flare which could wipe out power across the world for months.

[…]

The massive electromagnetic pulse (EMP) from solar flares could wipe out power grids, bringing an end to modern civilization as we know it as cellphones, credit cards and the internet were rendered useless.

In the U.S, alone researchers estimate the cost on the fragile economy would be up to $2.6 trillion, according to a 2008 National Academy of Sciences study.

The report warned that power outages after an extreme solar storm could last months or even longer if it wiped out the transformers.

A catastrophic solar storm came terrifyingly close in 2012… With scientists predicting a 12 per cent chance that one could hit by 2022, the White House is preparing a contingency plan.

Perhaps the real reason the White House is preparing is to guard against the growing tensions with Russiaand China, both of whom have been testing some new EMP weapons and other sophisticated gadgets. Any nation or terrorist group with a nuke could potentially also set off an EMP.

Then again, it could be the equally threatening potential for a massive and “catastrophic” solar flare to render electromagnetic pulse damage.

They know something is coming… and so do you. Are you as ready as you could be?

DIY Flat First Aid / Flat Trauma Kit

DIY Flat First Aid / Flat Trauma Kit

“Ok You-Tubers, today’s video is going to be DIY Flat First Aid and/or trauma kits. As you can see these are the flat first aid or trauma kits. See how flat they are? Alright so, I got the idea from a company, which I am going to post the link and company’s name on the screen right now. They came up with these for combat troops over seas. Alright so, what they did was they gave each, they designed for each troop to hide these under their chest plate. Under their armor plate and such. Right so, if they get shot, hurt or injured they are able to pull this out from behind the chest plate and start treating the wounded. I thought that was an awesome idea hell why not do something similar for civilians such as myself right and pass it along to others. So I sat there and took a food saver bag and piled in a lot of medical supplies, not a lot but enough for 2 people. This one is actually for one. So I piled medical supplies in there and took it to the food saver and sucked all the air out and got it thinner than I thought I was gonna get it which is pretty good. So now, if you belong to a patriot group or militia, I like using the words militia but not in a bad way. So these things can go behind your chest plate and this is just for one person.”

“If you design it and you put in what you want and how you want to set it up, its completely up to you, this is just a sample. So for preppers, this can go into your bug out bag, your camping bag whatever you want and it takes up very little room. Now, in comparison to this..this is a comprehensive first aid kit, with a little more supplies in it but can only treat 3 people. So now these two together treat 3 and this treats three. Look how bulky this is. So you wanna save room, you make your own flat trauma kits or first aid kits.”

“In here you have triple antibiotics which you can get the thin, single serving gel packs that you can also put in here. You can take and add those Tylenol single serving packs. You can also put em in here as well. I didn’t put any band aids in here but you can put band aids in here. so there’s a lot of things, even a CPR mask can go in one of these and get it pretty thin. Which I’m gonna try next, a CPR kit.”

“So as you can see this thing is pretty bulky and it takes up a lot of room if you put it in your bag, if you don’t put this in your bag and you marry it to your armor or your vest it’s bulky and sticks out, if you have to lay down on top of it its a pain in the ass. Even if you put it on your side its still in the way of getting to your weapons. So its all how its designed. Even if your left handed it gets in he way of maybe reaching for a clip or something cause its just bulky.”

“Alright so that’s just an option. This, here, again this is a two person first aid kit and this is a one person. So go with two persons first. 4×4 gauze wrap. Back here you have what is that called conclusive dress for bullet holes and things like that. And here you have a surgical dress you should actually have two in here and not one because surgical dress takes a lot to stop the bleeding or slow it down. IF you don’t have this. If you have this then you don’t have to use to much to stop or slow the bleeding down. So that’s a two person trauma/first aid kit. This is just a one person first aid kit which you may need two. Oh, by the way this has a set of gloves in here to. So you see the gloves here, surgical dressings, this is regular gauze and this should be two 4×4 in here and some wound sealer or stopper blood right here.”

“This, this is what I carry. I haven’t looked at this thing since I started carrying this. Down side. The down side to this is once you break the seal its hard to repackage again. Now you use items in here you can always roll it up and stuff it back where you had it and that’ll keep it closed but the downside to that is if you don’t put it back and put it in your bag it can open back up and the stuff can just fall out. Where as this, you just zipper it closed. Upside to these it saves a lot of room. As you can see, it saves a hell of a lot of room and its pretty straight forward and fast to use. So you decide how you want, you rip this open, preferably because its tough I would use a knife, cut it open and pull out the exact items you need. Where as something like this, even if you have it set up a certain way you still have to dig through it somewhat to get to the or what you need. I usually put the 4×4 gauze a little deeper in and you have to dig through it to get to it. Not a lot of digging but none the less its still digging where i can just open this up, pull out the gauze and be done with it, pull out the blood stopper and be done with it. So that’s the upside to this. The upside to this is that you know exactly where everything is and you could probably treat three maybe up to four people with this. This treats three. You can add another one person it still doesn’t take up as much room as this. Man this must be, it might be five of these to one of these. Alright so now if you packed five of the three people, it would treat fifteen people and save a hell of a lot of room. But again guys, its just an idea, its something to pass on. If you like it great, if you don’t you can curse me out in the comments there. There is enough trolls in the world to do that.”

“So also, most important I found this book yesterday and thumbed through it for a second and had to get it. Its Wilderness and Travel Medicine, a comprehensive guide. See how small it is. It has EVERY advice you would need while out in the wilderness, camping bugging out or whatever your gonna do for a first aid or even some trauma care in here. The book is by Adventure Medical kit. It cost $16.00. It’s updated by Dr. Eric Weiss. Like I said I just grabbed it yesterday and thumbed through it. I thought it was an awesome book a lot of stuff I leaned as an EMT and I wouldn’t of thought of being out in the woods. This is a fourth edition. Its been updated 4 times. So that is a book to get if your going to start a trauma kit or first aid kit. This book should defiantly be in there with it.”

“Anyway, thank you for watching, this is The Angry Prepper and I am going to be doing more videos this year. Excuse my absence last year and no updates I have just been really busy. Alright, thank you guys.”

What you need to know about storing seeds

Most preppers already know that it is vital to have an ample supply of stored food and water on hand. It is equally important to keep and maintain a healthy seed bank precisely because the food supply may become disrupted, and it will be necessary to grow your own emergency food. Properly implemented, a good seed bank can provide for a lifetime of food.

Below are 5 tips on implementing and maintaining a good seed bank as part of your emergency preparedness and the importance of storing seeds:

Tip 1 – Understanding the Function of Seeds

Even an inexperienced gardener knows that seeds go in the ground, and from there plants will grow, but it’s worth taking a moment to understand the purpose of seeds from a plant’s perspective.

Every year, each plant will produce seeds, essentially the offspring or “children”, to be propagated during the next cycle into new variants of the plant. Seeds might be produced by the plant during spring, summer, fall, or even winter sometimes, but all (non-tropical) seeds are designed to blossom and grow in the spring.

Therefore, the vital function of any prepper’s seed bank is to “trick” seeds into thinking that it is winter, so the seeds stay in their dormant phase. Spring is a time for warmth, light, and wetness, while winter is a time for darkness, cold, and dryness. Your first goal in maintaining a personal seed bank is to keep seeds away from heat, light sources, and moisture.

Tip 2 – Open-pollinated, Non-hybridized, and Non-GMO

It’s a sad fact that many of the fruits and vegetables we eat today are not as nature intended, and their seeds are often designed to be sterile and therefore useless in the future if you try to grow a garden from them.

When buying seeds for your seed bank, always buy non-hybridized and non-GMO seeds to ensure that you’re getting a healthy, heirloom variant that will grow as nature intended. Seeds that are open pollinated are versatile enough to be pollinated by a wide variety of insects, or even by hand, if necessary.

Tip 3 – Seeds for Growing and Saving

Take a look at the foods you enjoy eating, and then buy seeds that will grow those plants. A critical part of long term food storage is buying enough seeds that you can grow a year’s supply of your favorite plants.

One important function of your seed bank is to grow enough plants that some can be harvested primarily for their seeds, known as saving seeds. There are special techniques for how to extract, dry, and safely store seeds, so be sure to budget enough seeds in your seed bank to grow plants for the purpose of saving seeds.

It’s also important to understand how plants propagate, and that some, such as onions, garlic, and potatoes, are not grown from seeds but from re-planting cuttings from the original mother plant.

Tip 4 – Self-Pollinating Seeds

Depending on your projections for the future, it may be difficult to find pollinating insects like bees to help your plants grow. Many preppers therefore choose to store up seeds for self-pollinating plants, which can grow on their own without external help.

Excellent self-pollinating seeds include: chicory, peas, lettuce, mustard, endive, beans, and tomatoes.

Tip 5 – Storage and Orthodox Seeds

When building up your seed bank, it’s important to understand exactly how to store seeds, and which varieties can last for longer periods of time.

The term “orthodox” refers to seeds that can be dried and frozen for years, kept in any ordinary home freezer. Some of the most popular varieties of orthodox seeds are: peas, corn, and tomatoes, but approximately 80% of all plant seeds are considered to be orthodox. Even without a freezer, all plant seeds must be kept in a cool, dry, place out of direct contact with the sun or light sources.

The hardest seeds to store are those of tropical plants like coconuts, coffee, tea, mangoes, and papayas, as they are designed for a year-round hot climate and must be planted immediately or very soon after the plant produces them.

5 Best Uses for Duct Tape in a Crisis

Anyone who understands the value of multi-purpose items realizes how important duct tape is. In fact, most people would be hard pressed to come up with another item that can serve as many purposes as duct tape does.

Much more challenging than providing a comprehensive list of duct tape usages is narrowing that list down to the five best uses for this incredible tool in a crisis situation. Everyone’s top five list would be different, depending on a variety of factors including the weather, the type of clothing you have in your bug-out bag and the specific tools to which you have access.

For this particular top five list, I’m going to stick with the duct tape uses that just about anyone could take advantage of during an emergency situation. It’s very possible you’ve already used a couple of them, and maybe you’ve heard or thought about a couple others. Hopefully, there will be at least one for which you’ll find yourself saying, “I’ve never considered that.”

Duct Tape Origins

There are several different opinions regarding how and why duct tape was created, including one that says it was formed for the purpose of sealing air ducts. Some credit Johnson & Johnson for first developing this versatile item during the 1940s – in response to a U.S. military request – for the purpose of sealing boxes of ammunition in order to keep moisture out.

Regardless, duct tape quickly became popular. Since then it has taken on different forms, functions and colors, and can now be found in homes and supply kits, as well as among hunting, fishing and camping gear.

OK, now for my top five duct tape uses in a crisis:

Clothing – Following a disaster that causes you to bug out, you’re probably going to have to spend a significant amount of time in the outdoors. The weather will be a big factor here, but regardless of the temperature, you will need to be protected from the elements. Any number of clothing items – footwear, gloves and even visors – can wear out quickly, but you can layer and form duct tape to fashion temporary versions of one or more of them.

First-Aid – Even with hiking boots or walking shoes, you’re probably going to get blisters when you’re traveling on uneven terrain in the wilderness. Duct tape is an ideal tool for holding a cotton ball or sterile cloth over an infected area to help it heal faster. There is also a good chance that you will roll an ankle or sprain a wrist in the wild, so you need to have duct tape available for tightly wrapping it. You could even use duct tape to form a sling for an arm injury.

Patching – Repair work with duct tape can take a variety of forms. It’s often needed as a short-term fix for leaks in buckets, water bottles, boats, hoses and fan belts, as well as holes in sleeping bags and clothing items. Duct tape can be used to splint a broken or cracked tent pole or fishing pole, and can even be utilized to keep a loose window in place when applied in a crisscross pattern. Even if the window breaks, the tape could keep dangerous shards of glass from falling.

Cordage – Wet clothes are usually nothing more than an inconvenience, but in the wilderness they can be a death sentence. With duct tape, you can form a clothesline that will enable you to suspend those wet clothes over a fire, taking advantage of the wind and heat. Duct tape can serve additional cordage purposes when you twist and weave it into a strong and durable makeshift rope.

Insulation – Your hands and feet can get cold in the wild, even if you’re wearing boots and gloves. Insulate boots and gloves with duct tape, especially in areas where they may be ventilated or cracked, to keep your extremities warmer. Speaking of which, you can use duct tape directly on your skin to help prevent frostbite. Losing a little dead skin and hair is better than losing toes or fingers.