Surviving the Outdoors

Safety, Heat, Water, Food, Medical, Lights, Sanitation

     When you say “emergency lighting”, I recon most people visualize the lights over doorways at the local Wal-Mart.

     Here we are only concerned with hand held lighting.  Battery powered flashlights should be found in every home.  We have at least 10 in our home at various locations around the house.

     What I really want to talk about is the latest iteration of hand held lighting… “light sticks” or “glow sticks”  These are made of 2 liquids enclosed in a long, strong plastic pouch (think “Slim Jim”).  The first liquid is poured into the pouch.  The other liquid is sealed in a very thin glass vial and dropped into the pouch with the first liquid.  The pouch is then sealed.  To activate, bend the pouch until the glass vial breaks and shake vigorously to mix the liquids.  The warmer the temperature the brighter the light, and the shorter the light output.  The time span on most is 8-12 hours.  Eight hours is at a warm temperature, and 12 hours is at a cooler temperature with a lesser light.  These sticks are light weight and quite affordable at about $1.00 each.