All the messages about water bags, urine, etc. brought to mind this old trick for scavenging water in a real survival situation, much better than drinking your urine. You can make a solar still to get fresh, distilled water with nothing more than a plastic bag and a few rocks and a hole in the ground, plus vegetable matter or some other source of water. I realized that if you had to, you could turn your kayak into a solar still (or three, using the fore and aft compartments) if there wasn't a good place to dig a hole, or if you needed to move it around to stay in the sun. The vegetable matter goes in the hole, inside the plastic bag. Water evaporates and is distilled onto the inside upper surface of the plastic. The top of the bag is made into a tentlike surface where water condenses and drips to the low point of the plastic. Two ways I have seen suggested for constructing this low point: 1. (this is the one you'd use for a kayak adaptation, using your spray skirt to hold the plastic bag over the cockpit, filling the cockpit with leaves or even seawater) Put a rock in the middle of the plastic cover so it becomes the low point of the plastic, and a cup inside the hole to catch the drops of distilled water that fall from the plastic under the rock. 2. If the bag is big enough, make a trench or moat around the hole and use a stick to make the bag stand up like a tent. Hold the outer edge of plastic at the moat using rocks. Water will roll down to the outer edge and into the trench. Drink only the water that is in the trench around the outside. You should make it at an angle, so any water in the trench flows down to a single drinking basin, which is where you'd put your seal for easy access. clear plastic works better than opaque plastic for a solar still. You'll also collect more water if a portion of the plastic is shaded or otherwise passively cooled, making a condenser. For example, a stick covered with leaves will both cool the plastic locally to attract water and create a flow path for the drops to follow. The water will have some flavors, since you'll also be distilling a few esters and alcohols from the plant material, but if you are careful to keep organic matter out of the cup and the condensing surfaces, the only bacteria or salt in the water will come from your hands or the air. It would be more appealing than pee, and better for you. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Mark, according to your instructions you could also destille your urine:)) Btw, I haven't heard about drinking your urine but gurgeling with it in the case of an infection! snip> >You can make a solar still to get fresh, distilled water >with nothing more >than a plastic bag and a few rocks and a hole in the ground, >constructing this low point: .......... >The water will have some flavors, since you'll also be >distilling a few >esters and alcohols from the plant material, but if you are >careful to keep >organic matter out of the cup and the condensing surfaces, >the only bacteria >or salt in the water will come from your hands or the air. >It would be more >appealing than pee, and better for you. <snip... *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Yes, you can distill your urine that way, but I think you will get a lot more "off" flavors that way too. If it was me, I'd find leaves that smelled the tastiest and use them first. On the subject of dog licks, I sometimes let my dog lick my cuts. Originally because he seemed to like doing it, and it was comforting, but eventually because I found it made it hurt less. I use Neosporin, polysporin and similar ointments all the time, but now and then when I forget and a cut starts hurting, a good dog licking seems to help. At the very least it makes me happy, which seems to be his goal in life :) > From: Heike_Robinson_at_lakeland.cc.oh.us > Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] water, solar still > > Mark, according to your instructions you could also destille > your urine:)) *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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