Make a Leaf Blanket using our Slider Bug Net

Description

Normally we don't think of using a bug net in the fall, but our Slider Bug Net which is made for use with our PSS poncho when set up as a hammock, can be used to hold enough leaves to make a very cozy blanket filled with dry leaves or grass.

Slider Bug Net Link http://wildernessinnovation.com/?p=2546

PSS Link http://wildernessinnovation.com/?p=1935

Tags: Blanket,emergency blanket,survival gear,survival supplies,bug net

Video Transcription

he's using the bow there kind of like a leaf rake and it's actually reasonably effective way to do things we just get them a nice a nice line there and it will rake that together into a pile that works works really nicely and it's reasonably quick whistle I might as well make it fun I mean oh yeah and so now you can see this Steve and I have started pile leaves that we'll use to fill the bug net now one thing to be aware of that I learned the very first time I made a shelter where I raked up leaves especially really about West in the Great Basin country and kind of when you look back in here the leaves you see here are just a thin coating of leaves it's not like in some parts of the country where the leaves are this thick and it's you can rake them up in just a few minutes so it's a little more work for us so what you do is the bug net has they chose the orange one because you have a good contrast of color so there's the big end of it to head in this is the foot in and on the bug net you have a drawstring on each side so all we want to do is pull that drawstring down tight so it seals off the foot in so now now we take this thing and we just start filling it up with leaves out of our pile and now they won't come out of the foot in and that will allow us to fill this whole thing in they like

and the nice thing the other nice thing about using a bug net like this you know a lot of times if you're gathering leaves you may have to rake them onto a tarp from somewhere and drag them over to where you're at I can take the bug net wherever the leaves are then carry it back to wherever I'm sleeping so they get some portability to it so we'll continue with this and show you what we wind up with oh ho ho Merry Christmas resilience we can move this where we need you to collect Molly they want to get this I'm thinking about to get this like fairly full because once we start getting a blanket we're going to get some sealing of the leaves but I want to have as much loft as as possible over the top of these so we're going to we're going to pack this in pretty good we'll just do the last last little bit that's all we got to do them put that stuff in there

and you don't have to worry about this bug netting too much I mean obviously you could tear it it's possible but the bug net we buy is a top quality nylon mesh so it's actually pretty strong it's not a cheap inexpensive bug net so I'm not worried about doing this with it so now we'll take this over to where my sleeping areas and we'll put this over the top of me and see what it does all right so I'm going to do is you know use that ground cloth here I had snapped up of the front row we didn't snap that so I got up just in case okay so I got some moist ground underneath I don't you know wind up getting my clothes down for wet from it so our Poncho's make a very nice ground clock they are made out of tarp materials so now what I'm going to do is my fleece liner here I'm just going to lay that down as just some padding now if I wanted to I could pile up some pile of leaves underneath of this tarp or this poncho and then lay on top of that which I could I just tell you you can do it you can do if you want then you could have a little padding underneath padding and installation yeah yeah cuz I have done before with our tarts where I piled boughs or whatever maybe about this thick then you can take these tabs if you want to stake down your corners that'll hold leaves or battled with it underneath there then you could lay even if then if you even didn't have a fleece or somebody just lay right there maybe good so now we'll get the leaf blanket over here and put that in place dry leaves it screams of the light but they cut a little weight too so now what I'll do this string right here is a Nestle there's loops inside of here on the top where you can give you that as a hammock you can string stuff up inside let's throw that in there but I'm using this drawstring now to draw that down you know use my cord lock so now the leaves are trapped inside of there and I doubt to worry about them falling all over the night when I'm sleeping so let me get this essentially been dragging it a little bit they can tell a lot of the leaves it's kind of shifted down here to the foot so I'm going to kind of flip that up a little to throw a little more that way and then let's see what happens I want to get inside of there I'm going to be - a pillow so don't don't worry about that right now so like this I can see I'm kind of kicking my new boo bit that's kind of making it shift around so that way now this bundle leaves is pretty well sealed on the bottom you know it's pretty good I can actually feel a good bit of heat on my chest area once I put this leaf blanket down so it may not be the perfect solution but if you're out you're really in a bind it's another way you can use the bug net to possibly save your life so here's a bug dead as a blanket that's a great way to go hahaha yeah you got to do what you got to do to stay alive and that would be a good option absolutely and I would think you know I getting under do you think you can kind of what could you see from what I was doing well you can see you know that that as you spend some time you can kind of push your body up into it and maybe even a little less full or take some time to compact this a little bit so that there is some space for it to form around your body a little better that's what I wasn't sure of is like you know how full we need to fill it I wanted to have plenty maybe what I'll do pop it down a little first pack it down ago because that's one thing about that's one thing about dry leaves is they will impact a great deal they're compact a lot oh yeah I can see how that would keep you warm you are desperate to stay warm this could certainly do the job for you yeah I mean if I look if I look from your chest area up there's probably 14 to 16 inches of loft on top of you yeah then you know you got dry leaves there's a lot of air trapped in there yeah so I'd say this would be something you'd play with and depending on your body size and makeup you might fill it with less leaves so that it drapes on you a little better conform to your shape a little better yeah we kind of we kind of overfilled it yeah because a lot of times I've worked with leaves it seems like they compact so much I just expected it would compact more rub kind of Cocoon in there yeah I'll bet probably as a as full as it is once you wiggle a little bit yeah that probably will be right there yes but that is that is one massive blanket right there so you imagine if you had bowels or something underneath here to insulate the bottom yeah throw that over the top oh yeah here in Fat City

yeah that would definitely keep you warm all right in the head in the segment of video that Steve and I shot how you saw we filled the we filled the bug net all the way clear full 100% now today I feel that about half full so it's less loft but it spreads out farther so it gives me a little more coverage so you know you can

you can work it you know however so you can workout however you want you can have like right now I got about four or five inches of loft on top I could I got about four or five inches of loft on top if I put a little bit more leaves in it maybe three quarters fall or something like that I still have a pretty wide coverage as far as a blanket and I'd have even more loft now I can feel it's a side that cold out here it's about thirty thirty thirty two degrees right now but I can just from crawling in here right now my legs and my lower body I can already feel that considerable amount of warmth as my body heat is contained in these dry leaves and so I just wanted to show you just another option I know when I got home and looked at the other video the Steven I did and filling it I wanted to see us like filled all the way up you know but which is doable but to do that situation I'd really want to probably scoop some leaves into the site of where I laid down as well but feeling a little less full like half full like it is now or three-quarters full I'd still have a pretty nice wide cover as far as you know the size of my blanket and and I would you know and then I'd still have a pretty good amount of loft so I've got four or five inches of dry leaves in here that's a considerable amount of insulation considering you know how much air is trapped in all these in all the leaves that everything so anyway this perry peacock wilderness innovation just a little addendum to other video just to show you what it looks like if you feel your bug net your slider bug net with with a little bit Leslie so you're not you know

quite as full and I can kind of distribute them around or whatever and look if you have a little bit more full y-you know you you're not going to get quite as much shifting of the leaves because they can't really go very far because it's reasonably full so you know in a situation I'm in right now this would be this existed do me pretty well it was a little colder then I might want to fill it probably 3/4 full something like that and get so on when I'm under here I've got a little bit more loft but I really I'm really feeling a lot of warmth in here just with this blanket over the top of me and so anyway aperi peacock willing salvation have a great day enjoy your time the outdoors make multiple use out of all the gear you have like we're showing you we're here with this bug net one of the nice things about this using a bug debt to collect leaves is well get a car if you could drag your tarp around but and I can collect them into here into the budget very easily and I can just carry it with me wherever very easily but you know if your dragging leads to a to an area where you've got a tarp setup or something going to pile them in there if for some reason you need to move your site to another location it's going to be tough to move all those leaves when you got them in the bug net you just pick up the whole affair and carry it off to wherever you're going just want to show you if you have one person working on gathering leaves you can just go along with the put your bow-bow leaf rake or whatever like that and rake up you know little piles every so often and then just bring your bug net over there and what I do is I just put my the bottom of the bug net down there on the ground so I've spread between my legs I here on the ground that holds the bottom down and I hold this part up so I got kind of a triangle and then I can very quickly and easily keep all these leaves in today put them on there on in there that's very very easy to hear and then I just move on to my next location and get another arm load shove them in there and pretty soon you got a you got a bug net full of leaves

everybody everybody third full so talk to another little pile over here over there then when you're all done you just loosen your drawstring open it up like this we're gonna have a nice pile for the kids to play in I like you to meet my good friend leaf here Eriksson you know what did it take a Steve ten minutes to rake these maybe yeah maybe at the moment too bad really no not at all

and that's not bad we're in this country here where the leaf cover is pretty thin yeah if you impart a country that has a lot of leaf this is easy yeah oh you're

mcalary's yeah that's much better than just trying to burrow yourself into a pile and hope that it stays on top of you yeah I've tried that it doesn't work very well well thanks for helping out Steve it's kind of fun to mess around with yeah and uh you know Steve and I both like to do the same kind of things we love to get out we love to try all kind of ridiculous things or whatever and some things are stupid and some things work I think this is probably a keeper right here yeah I think so I think that could definitely save your life so so anyway so this is Perry peacock and Steve Despain and I just out here have a little fun you know look up his great stoves a firebox and you know look us up at Wilderness innovation we both love to get out here and tinker around so have a great time be safe and enjoy your time outdoors