Cold Feet - 8 Tips for Using Our Survival Blankets

Description

Tips on how to best use our Survival Blankets (PSB)

Contents Locations-

1-Keeping Feet Warm 1:05

2-Layering the Blanket 4:46

3-When it's cold breathe inside the blanket 6:08

4-The best way to cover the blanket when needed 8:17

5-How to tell if the ground is too damp for the blanket 10:57

6-Can a ground cloth be used with the blanket? 13:43

7-How does it work wearing clothes to bed? 15:48

8-Using blanket as a Wrap or Cloak 19:11

Check out all our Made In USA gear at http://wildernessinnovation.com

Tags: Survival Blanket,cold feet,ground cloth,synthetic clothing,moisture control,layering,sleep in clothes,camping,outdoors,hunting

Video Transcription

aperi peacock herewith will Otis innovation I want to give a few tips on using our personal survival blankets and a big shout out huge huge thanks to all of our customers we have we have sold way more blankets in the last the last few months that we've ever sold it's insane it's crazy thank you thank you thank you so much for buying our blankets and so many people are enjoying them and loving them these blankets are good to use as a supplement to something else you've already got or you can use them standalone now you can combine multiple blankets together to add even more comfort it's all kinds of things you can do blankets are really flexible but I want to show you some things today that will help all particularly let's say you're a person who like myself tends to get cold feet easily out camping so let me show you why you can help alleviate that with the blanket but let me pull the blanket out of here now this one is this one's made out of hits this is a large PS BL and it's coyote on one side and its Realtree extra on the other we have quite a few color options that you can choose from so one thing to note is that every blanket comes with two of these shock cords and those shock cords were primarily intended to when you want to use this blanket as a wrap to wrap around you to make kind of a cocoon if you're using one of our punches as a hammock so they stretch shock cord got a cord lock on the end right there and so you can so you could put it around there I'll show you how we do it anyway so I just keep those in my in my bag let me let me set this thing up and show you how we can help keep our feet warm when we're camping okay so first of all when your feet your feet usually but if your feet tend to get cold they need more insulation than the rest of your body so here's a quick way to do it to give more insulation in your foot than anywhere else just take your blanket you fold it in half like normal well you can fall a lot of times I fold mine in thirds and have one layer under me two over or one under me two over so you can do that but anyway so what we want to do is fold it in half again and then fold that up over there okay so now I just doubled the amount of insulation for my feet now during the night you don't want that to all come apart on you so take one of these shock cords right here and go right at the right at the bottom just just a few inches up about a hand span up I say from from the bottom of the blanket zip that up there okay then you can free maneuver it or whatever so this does two things this keeps the but keeps me from sliding at the bottom and it also helps to keep it keeps this thing folded down here so I maintain these these two layers under me two layers well I got two layers all around me now when I do this down in my foot area up to about my knees so that right there make a huge difference in in helping to keep your feet warm so even I mean just just doing this on the bottom so your feet don't slide out that can make a huge difference by itself because that's one thing in a blanket sometimes you wind up your feet wind up coming out the bottom if you're not careful and then they get cold so even even if you don't fold it over like this just using those core those shock cords that come with your blanket can help keep your feet warm just by keeping it closed off but do it like this we double our insulation around our feet so that's huge right there that's huge big deal okay now here's another thing right here so I've got my feet in here double layer of insulation around my feet and up here up into here even now up here on my chest and this depends on how big a person you are if you're a smaller person you can actually layer over a little more than a larger person could but even myself so right now I have one layer under me two layers over me a lot of times that makes a big difference in in your comfort level especially you see there are quite a few dry leaves around here so I could easily I could pretty easily get myself a layer about a foot thick of leaves underneath me so I wouldn't need as much underneath me as on top of me and I actually I even feel fairly warm under me right now with just what little leaves there are there so that makes a makes a huge difference right there a big difference and so that's one way you can add a great deal to your comfort level is by putting two layers over you and having the one layer underneath you

being all the way inside the blanket that makes a tremendous difference in your warmth in your comfort level so so here's the here's what everybody kind of wonders about is thinking that all the way inside here you're breathing inside here you're going to get everything wet and clammy

well that doesn't happen in here because every single thing in this blanket is very breathable and everything wants to pass the moisture on out you're more humid inside the blanket then the air is outside and just by nature it wants to pull that moisture out of there we have nothing here to prevent that from happening and so it does let's say you're kind of bundled up except for your face here and you're breathing that cold air well what you're doing is you're sucking cold air into your warm body you're humidifying the air you're warming the air up so the air doesn't cold air doesn't damage your lungs then you're turning right back around after you've done all that and you're breathing the warm to moist air back out into the cold so what you're doing consistently all night long is you're trying to warm up the outside while the outside is trying to chill your body off so your your fighting kind of a losing battle I don't have any scientific proof or anything but just from my own experience I know that I I know that I get 15 degrees or more of benefit by being all the way inside the blanket so when you add that to whatever other factors you know that makes that makes quite a difference and how comfortable a person can be outside in the in the in the environment all right so some other some other things to keep in mind with using the blankets so remember the blankets are very breathable so you don't have to worry about being inside of them now there's two things sometimes because of wind or some kind of storm you may want to take one of our Poncho's or tarps and put it over top of the blanket to keep either the wind out or keep the elements from raining down or snowing down on you or whatever so if you want to do that why that's fine but there's two things to remember one thing is if the temperature if the temperature is below the freezing point you can lay a punch or a tarp directly on top of the blanket and it'll be just fine so what will happen with the moisture from your body is as it works its way up through the blanket it will hit that tarp or poncho which is waterproof and which is also cold because below freezing well that moisture will freeze to the tarp or poncho when you get up in the morning you just shake or brush it off and the moisture is gone the moisture has passed all the way through the blanket not a problem now if the temperature is above freezing then in that case you don't want the tarp or the poncho whatever using as your canopy or cover you don't want that touching the blanket it's not going to hurt it but the moisture because it's above freezing it will go hit that punch your tarp and it'll just collect there and it'll be sitting on the surface of the blanket and on the surface of your tarp or poncho so that will create a wet layer yeah it's not necessarily terrible but it's better if you can get your poncho or tarp a little bit above it so you have a little ventilation and that way the moisture can kind of dissipate into the atmosphere instead of collecting on there well now even if this thing does get wet

they kind of damp on the surface you can lay it on the bush when you get up in the morning layer it over a tree or something like that and the Sun you know a little bit of Sun or even a little breeze or whatever it'll soon dry it all out and so it's not a huge deal anyway but it's better to avoid that so I give you that little suggestion all right now let me give you another tip now you know I told you right at the beginning here that this ground around here is not something I would really worry about laying right on the surface of without any kind of ground cloth or anything like that under me using this blanket now how do you know whether you got too much moisture or not enough okay

well there's a couple things number one don't ever lay where the water is puddling up or going to puddle up I learned that the hard way about ten years ago it was rain kind of combination rain snow coming down on me and in the dark I shifted my location a little not realizing that I was actually in an area that was a slight depression so has water collected and ran in there I soon found I was actually laying in water so obviously you want to avoid that don't do what I did I've learned most everything I've learned by experience by the way now so so how damp can the ground be well this ground is this ground is fairly damp here if I see I get the camera up here close and we kind of shift the leaves out of the way here now you'll see that ground is it's it's damp

you know but here's the thing I cannot I can't squeeze no matter how hard I try I can't squeeze any water out of what's there so yeah it is a little damp but there's there's no saturation there so I'm not I could lay right on there I'm not really gonna pick up anything off of this but an end but in any event I would always say you know just because the blanket can possibly handle it doesn't mean you should always do it even I do because I'm testing stuff but you know hey anytime like around here like I say there's plenty of leaves that are laying on the surface to have been dried out by the Sun and the wind I mean you could easily in 10 minutes scrape a scrape a nice leaf mattress to lay on an end layer your blanket on top of that then you'd only have to worry about it plus the dry leaves will add some thermal insulation underneath you so they'll enhance the the use of the blanket

now here's one more thing to consider with the blanket and that is everybody thinks you need to use a ground cloth or something under it I I rarely I rarely rarely ever use anything underneath my blanket here's the deal if you use a tarp or something underneath your blanket and it gets like this blanket I've slept in the blanket in the in a light rain without anything over it and I've been fine but I wasn't if I had a ground cloth under me any water that runs or whatever is going to collect underneath the blanket into the tarp or the ground cloth so then you've turned your ground cloth into a bathtub so now you're guaranteed to get wet underneath so usually if you can be on the ground if it's a loose ground typically any moisture that comes is going to drain right out into the ground now

what do you do if it's a little more moist than that you just don't have any alternative well pile up leaves like this or or you could lay some sticks on the ground crisscross them a little bit to give you a little bit of distance off the ground then throw a bunch of leaves on top of that or something just to cushion the cushion the the feel of the branches or whatever and then anything that happens to come down is going to just drain off drain through everything drain down to the ground and soak you in or runoff so I very rarely use a ground cloth I mean you're free to do it just remember the caveat that a ground cloth can become a swimming pool if it if you have a situation arise where it can collect water so that's something to think about there now another thing to think about is some people will ask about well what about what about what what clothing like I'm often wearing my clothing in my blanket many many times I'm doing that just because quite often I'm testing things every time I'm out camping I'm trying something out so oftentimes I've got to get up and down or in and out a time or two or three maybe in the night if I'm checking something or whatever so for me it's a convenience by not having to keep putting my clothes on and taking them off

now now that said what's the best clothing to wear if you're wearing clothing and you're going to wear it inside the system well ideally you want to be wearing clothing that's similar to the system like I've got Levi's on here and those are a hundred percent cotton those would not be necessarily advisable because they can retain moisture and once they get wet and damp and so that sort of thing it's hard to dry them out so I I'm not I'm hardly ever wearing any Levi's when I'm camping I'm usually wearing a 60-40 cloth or something sixty percent polyester forty percent cotton or or a poly car poly nylon or something like that so I've got a good bit of synthetic fabric all those work pretty well inside of here and even if they get damp I've found that if I have my like my my regular pants that you see me wearing when I'm out camping even if they get wet I can get in here with them wet they will actually dry through the system because that moisture will be driven off by my body heat it'll be driven right through the blanket I've actually gone to bed with with wet or damp pants and have them be virtually well they're dry in the morning you can't squeeze anything out you can't see anything I mean they're virtually dry so that is always a nice thing now another thing to think about clothing-wise also is I've found actually which I seldom do this because of the nature of what I'm doing all the time but I found that you're actually you're actually warmer inside here if you take your clothing off if you get your skin right next to the blanket it's actually warmer than wearing clothing because the the blanket has better insulating value than most of your clothing does so if you're wearing some clothing you're wearing something that has less insulation than the blanket so you're kind of you know hey it's that kind of self defeating in a sort of you know it's off the tire I'll take my clothing off and just lay it inside the blanket next to me or whatever and and but uh but I found one time when I got absolutely soaking wet that I got in the blanket and just stripped stripped right down naked inside the blanket and I was so much warmer when I did that besides the fact that they could wrap around me and sit on a rock or sit under a tree or whatever they can also I can also put the blanket all the way around me like this and I can even walk around what time I got stranded out it I was unprepared and I didn't have all the right clothing did around me even over my head

I took a parachute cord and tied around my waist or kind of underneath my arms and so it kind of helped hold it in place and I walked for like two miles like that so one of the nice things about the blanket then it can turn into a coat or whatever oh you can't use it however you need to use it you know if you need to sit out like this and whatever and you know you got to keep an eye out or be a lookout or whatever or are you just watching for something whatever you got to sit out for a little bit wrap the blanket out yet let it help you keep you warm it'll really do the trick it's amazing and it's one of the things I like about our survival blankets his are very very very versatile you're not taking something with you that you only use to sleep in at night you can use it you know at other times you can use it in other ways so take some gear with you that's multi-purpose you know my years of of using this type of system this kind of product and that since about the mid 1980s so it's been quite a while I've never really I've never found anything that I that I that I think handles moisture better than this blanket does and so even though you may have other things that use from time to time the blanket could always be a mainstay with you now I would say as a means to handle tough tough situations when you're dealing with some more serious moisture type problems the blanket can handle those with ease typically so it makes it a nice it makes it a nice thing and it's a comfortable deal to have with you so I hope this little videos helped love us helped you to get some ideas and if you've already got a blanket from us and us more ways you can use it if we're if you've ordered a blanket more process of making one for you which we've got we have so many orders it's insane so we're busy busy busy making stuff and anyway you know when you get your blanket you can you'll be happy with this video you have some more ideas to try it with and try it out and say that you think and I'm sure you'll like it it's a very very nice product and I love it man I'm telling you I really love the blankets so take care of be safe have a good time in the outdoors enjoy it man it's great

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