http://www.scribd.com/doc/3011764/Make-3-Survival-Kits-1-from-an-Altoids-Tin
Make a Survival Kit out of an Altoids Tin(and Two More Life-Saving DIY Projects)
The Pocket Kit
Fitting inside an altoids tin, this kit is easy to keep on hand at all times. This is ideal for anyone who wants to have the essential survival gear along each time they head into the field. Everything fits in the Altoids tin (above).
It fulfills all the component groups (see “Make Your Own, -last slide) except for shelter and protection, but add a survival blanket to your pocket and you’ll be covered.
Keep clicking through the following slides for details on all of this kit’s components.
Back when I was younger and we used to do a lot of family hiking, I put a pretty neat survival kit in our walking sticks. I made them with 1 1/4” pvc pipe and found some cast aluminum points that looked like a well point which was threaded - I cemented a pvc adapter for the same thread and screwed the point in. With that on one end and then filled them with everything from first aid kit to strike anywhere matches as well as water purification drops, a pocket knife and a string saw and 2 mil plastic sheet wrapped up really tight - amazing how much they hold. I wrapped some sport grip cushioned tape for a handle, drilled a hole through the top and put a lanyard through it which kept everything in as well as giving you a wrist strap.
That way, everyone had not only their own survival kit, but a very effective defense tool for bears, rowdies, etc. and it made hiking a lot more fun - pushing brambles aside, extra balance and so on.
My kids after grown took theirs with them and wife and I still have ours around somewhere.
I do not have experience with MRE’s, but have read of whole shipments sitting on the dock, spoiled, something about the seal on the package not being right and they spoiled.
I would rather store the water and cook the dehydrated foods and if it is that desperate, you can take a rock and pound the grains for those with out teeth and still eat them, or mix the pounded grain with fat, lard, oil, honey or what ever you can find, taste will not matter, when it is survival time.
When a company tells me they have the best, I don’t shop there, I want the users to tell me it is the best.
I know that even past its prime, the dehydrated in cans can be eaten, as I had to, when I first had to quit work, I had a Mormon friends old stuff that she sent to me to feed the burros and wild animals, I ate most of it, at 20 or more years old and the wheat still sprouted.
I shop only at Walton’s, for I know the quality of their service and products, fresh, most is less expensive and if they are not swamped in orders, the year that I had no one to shop for me and they were my grocery store, I would have my order here in a week or less.
There are other Freepers who feel the same about Walton’s.