Introductory Note: I have received no compensation for any of the following recommendations, all of which we have used for many years.
Living far from any store means that any rural or remote property owner relies on supplies on hand. Some of our least expensive purchases have been worth their weight in gold because we use them over and over, or in a variety of ways, or because they specialize in a way that no other item can do as well.
I have purposely not included obviously important items, like matches or an axe, that anyone should know. Here, I just wanted to illuminate some of the “unsung” products in the categories of attire, home, yard, tools, and communications devices
ATTIRE
In Alaska, we have a saying: “There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.”
· * Silk head/neck gaiter: $20 Light and small, they really warm up head, face, and neck and are easily stashed in a pocket.
· * Ice cleats: $40 We wear them over our boots when our snow paths are icy, often. Since falling accounts for 1/3 of all injurious trips to the emergency room for people under 65 (and ½ over that age), these purchases have surely saved us pain and expense many times over.
· * Mosquito head net: $3 Mosquitoes do not bother me much but they torture my husband. They are light, cheap, easy to store, and an alternative to chemical sprays.
· * Rubber boots: $10 All summer long, I live in what are considered to be “one time only” concrete boots. They are firm enough that they slip on and off quickly, with no hands, as I go in and out of my cabin a gazillion times per day, and they protect my lower pant legs from damp foliage and prickers. They last about two years. For their step-in and out convenience, I actually prefer them to XTRATUFFs. However, XTRATUFFs are longer-lasting and lighter-weight.
HOME
· * Mosquito netting over the bed $20
· * Battery powered bug swatters that look like tennis racquets $16 (entertaining as well as satisfyingly effective)
· * Toilet seat that fits over a generic 5 gallon bucket: $13 (to avoid midnight trips to the outhouse)
· * Plastic/bamboo blinds for porch shade: $25 for 10 ftw x 6 ft long. Living without powered heat and cooling, we move in and out of sunny, breezy, or cool spots for comfort. These simple shades have enhanced the “outdoor room” of our front porch, summer and winter, and keep sun from hitting the log walls of the cabin. The string pulls broke about the 6th year but we restrung them.
· * Mason jars: About a dollar each, I use these sturdy glass jars not just for canning and storing food but also for other items, like toiletries and craft supplies. They are stronger than regular glass jars. I recommend the wide mouth jars for easy pouring/access, rather than the narrow mouth jars. They come in cup, pint, and quart sizes. About 3/4 of mine are quart-sized.
Fake hornet nests: 3 for $9 to $12. (Your yard and picnic will be much more pleasant. For several years, we have hung them in greenhouses and wood corrals and outside many of our buildings, under eaves. Hornets can fly 200 feet and are territorial, so anything within this range deters not only them but also yellow jackets and other wasps, which they hunt! A win/win for humans.
TOOLS
* Moisture meter: $40 We use this every time we haul logs back from the woods for firewood to separate dry logs we can use right away and damp ones that need to age a year. Readers in humid locations would find other uses for it, too. They have two prongs that stick out front to meaure moisture.
* Infrared thermometer: $40 We use this speedy device every day to measure the temperature of our outdoor soaking tub, and also when we make beer, and other cooking.
· * Ice spade: $40 We use it not only to pry ice off decks and stairs and to prod for overflow sandwiched between the ice and snow on the lake, but also as an occasional pry bar, for example, to wiggle our plane’s skis loose.
· * Snow roof rake: $40 Looking more like a shallow and wide shovel than a rake, this extendable tool protects our shallower roofs (such as the greenhouse) from too much snow weight which could collapse a valued building (depending on density, a cubic foot of snow can weigh 20 lbs).
· * Diamond/steel blade sharpener: $20 Better than any electric knife sharpener (which I promptly donated). Dull tools and knives are ineffective and dangerous.
· * Chain and claw “grabbers”: $10 To lift logs from the ground without having to bend down.
· * Heavy duty 5-6 gal plastic jugs for water: $20 The tall, thinner ones are easier to carry and store than the short chunky ones that bang against one’s leg. We position these by the burn barrels, the chicken coop, and in the cabin in winter to top off the hot tub water level and wash water in case the line from the well pipe freezes.
· * Every cheap replacement part we ever bought in advance of a problem, especially anything rubber or plastic, which degrades fast in our winter temperatures: rubber gaskets, electric male plugs for A/C electrical equipment, drive belts, weed whacker string, pressure cooker gaskets, generator pull cords.
· * Lots of five gallon buckets: $5 We use these for everything: weeding, harvesting, watering, commodes (see above), storing food, ash, tinder, tools. NEVER ENOUGH OF THESE
· * Propane powered flame thrower: $20 + propane Let’s face it: there are times when a match just won’t do. Ours attach to both a 1 lb propane can for close ignition and a 20 lb propane can with a long hose attachment for bonfires.
· * Flagging tape: $5 For marking dead trees for cutting the following winter, marking trails, discouraging animals or people from low wires/branches, finding tiny saplings after the ferns and weeds cover them, laying out dimensions of future structures, distinguishing packages, revealing wind movement, and, when hunting: marking blood trails on grasses and plants.
· * Sturdy plastic sleds (best with vertical, high sides): $50 We use these in both summer and winter to haul groceries from the plane, wood to the house and tub, rabbit poop and hay around the gardens, weeds or herbs and vegetables that I collect. These are just about the only plastic products that have NOT degraded within three years. In fact, they have lasted now for 10!
· * Pocket knife or multi-tool: $50: Handy almost every day for numerous projects.
GARDEN/YARD
· * Every seed packet suitable to my USDA planting zone that I have ever bought: $1-5 for dozens, hundreds, or thousands of seeds, depending on plant. I am particularly enthusiastic about perennial flowers, herbs, and vegetables that produce year after year. Note: seeds degrade in a few years, and storage conditions matter. Seed prices have clearly risen in recent years.
· * Passive net drying racks for preserving herbs and flowers: $10 – 30 depending on size.
· * Every Perennial berry plant and fruit tree sapling that I have bought suitable to our location. $5-50 3 years later, lots of fruit.
– _- A soil thermometer. Several purchases were worthless. Keep trying. $12
* Bright red paint to color tool handles so I do not lose the wooden tools the same color as birch leaves and mulched soil.
* aquarium aerators to add oxygen to compost tea solutions. $20
COMMUNICATION DEVICES
· * Walkie-talkies: $50. We use these EVERY DAY to communicate as we go about our tasks throughout our property: a moose or bear sighting, time for dinner, two person tasks in two different locations.
· * APRS.org Free. For safety, I can monitor my husband’s vehicle positions (plane or snowmachine) on the Internet after we have entered them into the system.
· * Ham radio: (Prices vary by quality and vendor. These are samples on Amazon). BaoFeng: dual band/dual watch/dual PPT launch key: $26 (works with APRS) The ham radio test costs $15 and training materials are free and on-line). Once you have this set up, you can listen to emergency response traffic relating to regional wildfires, floods, etc. Useful.
· * Short wave antenna kit: $26 , string it between trees. Buy a used short wave radio
Over the years, we have spent too much money on purchases that were inappropriate or inadequate. Here, I salute the ones that yielded outsized benefits for their costs.
I am sure that every homeowner has his or her favorite list of “can’t do without” items. I would like to read them! I hope you will respond with your own lists of the “best” purchases under $50 favored by SurvivalBlog readers in other climates!
JWR Adds: Just e-mail me your suggestions, and I will post them to the Snippets. Please try to avoid mentioning any products made in mainland China.
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Mrs. Alaska’s decade-plus blog about off-grid life in remote Alaska is at www.alaskauu1.blogspot.com