What started out as a great Wednesday shortly turned into a bloody mess. The short version of the story is that Shelly, aka the Survival Husband, decided to touch up his bald head with a dull razor blade. What happened next was a scrape about one and a half inches long and a half-inch wide. Who would have thought that so much blood could pour out of such a small wound.
I grabbed some gauze to soak up what I could, then dabbed on some boo-boo stick followed by miracle slave. While he held a clean piece of gauze in place, I grabbed the first aid kit and used a chunk of 1″ stretch wrap bandage aka “Vet Wrap” to hold the gauze in place. Although he looked like a dork for the rest of the day, the bleeding stopped and we were able to remove the makeshift bandage at bedtime.
Whether it was his great healing powers, or the essential oils in the Boo-Boo stick and salve, by the next morning, there was barely a scar.
When all was said and done, he got a harsh scolding for using a dull razor blade. There is absolutely no excuse for that since sharpening your own razor blades only takes a minute or two and is a cinch. All you need is a scrap of old denim. Although I have written about this in the past, here is a refresher, lest you forgot.
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How to Sharpen Razor Blades for the Long Term
1. Clean your razor in a little cup of soapy water. Let it sit for awhile so that all of the old goo and gunk float away.
I sprayed some of my Tea Tree Wonderful in a glass and let the razor soak for about an hour. I could not believe the crud that came loose!
2. Dry your razor by shaking away then excess moisture then wiping it off with a towel (or in my case, a microfiber cloth).
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3. Going in the opposite of your normal shaving direction, run the razor across some blue jean material about 20 times. This is called stropping. Remember, you want to run the shaver backwards!
That’s it . I told you this was easy!
Need the recipe for Boo-Boo Stick? You can find it here: Make Your Own Healing Boo-Boo Stick.
Side note: I realize I have been a slacker when it comes to DIY projects so this weekend I plan to make some DIY air freshener for those time I do not want to use a diffuser and also some DIY insect repellent. As is my usual style, I will only post the results if they prove successful.
Backdoor Survival Mail Bag & Reader Tips
Ann sent me an email asking about bulk food packaging:
Can I use my vacuum seal bags to seal dry goods, pint size, then seal them in a gallon size Mylar bag that will have the oxygen remover?
Will that work or do I need to use the oxygen removers in my vacuum bags that will be sealed in the Mylar? Looking for a 25 year seal if at all possible doing this.
Here is my response. For those of you wondering the same thing, I hope you find my response helpful.
If it were me, I would vacuum seal the dry goods as you normally do then seal the smaller bags in a larger Mylar bag with a single oxygen absorber. If you happen to remove one of the smaller bags for use during an emergency, you could simply add a new oxygen absorber and reseal the Mylar.
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This keeps things simple and does the job. Sounds like you have a good handle on things.
Speaking of food storage, DM Walsh offers the following tip for preventing rodents from chewing through your food storage buckets:
The trick with plastic buckets is to pack your food in Mylar bags and then store those bags in the plastic buckets.
Mice won’t chew into buckets that don’t smell like food, and sealed Mylar bags don’t smell anything like food to them. Yes, technically you can just put food in Mylar then put it on a shelf, but the buckets add a lot of puncture protection in case things start crashing down during an earthquake or similar event.
