It will NOT "purify" the water though.

Purification typically requires chemicals or UV.

Gary, what do you mean by "53 gravel"?

While getting our meds at Wally world today I picked up a couple things.

I got a box of Wetfire tinder tabs and a Sawyer mini filter. Been wanting both of them for some time now just hadn't seen them there before.

I remember back in 1986, Pauline and I where coming back from a family reunion that her aunt had put on in Winnipeg
Dugouts are a fairly common water source in the prairies
We stopped at this restaurant in the middle of nowhere Saskatchewan
I ordered soup and when I took my first taste
All that came to my mind was mouldy duck feet

That water needed to go through some charcoal

I have two portable water filters
My lifestraw and and older model Pur backpackers filter

I have a underground river running under my bug out area so water is no issue. (yes i have a hand pump) It also has 2 rivers running on 2 edges of the property if push comes to shove.

as for food I have a fully stocked pantry with enough long term foods for a couple of years and a garden to grow more plus wild critters and a beef farm next door that I could acquire a cow or two. (owners pay farm hands to run it and live 100 miles away)

No back to ammo and firearms LOL

I am really contemplating getting one of these
http://www.henryrifles.com/rifles/mares-leg/
Or
http://www.rossiusa.com/product-list.cfm?category=17

We can't carry a pistol up here in the woods but unlike the USA, these are classified as rifles up here

However if I get one of them then my new quad rifle will be delayed at least a year

Bathroom renovations and new back patio will come before either

"Fifty threes" is a size of gravel. Your quarry man would understand.

If I'm reading this correctly you wouldn't have to worry about being hungry in my area, because rustlers would be shot on site. People in my small corner of the world work REALLY hard at carving out an existence on the land and don't take lightly even the mention of this sort of thing.

A couple of farmers were talking about this very topic at the Farmer's Market this morning.

One old timer was complaining about how "super market shoppers" think the countryside is the "land of milk and honey" and available for "pickin" when times are lean. He added "they sleep in, work in AC, and buy imported food at a store owned by someone who lives a 100 miles away but think they can just socialize our farms because they're too lazy to work sun up till sun down in the rain, snow, sleet and blazing sun and too stupid to grow their own".

We heard him say (as we were leaving) ...

"I'll shot the first sum $&@^% I find trying to steal from my land - and leave lie as a warnin' to everyone else".

I 100% agree with him.

We work ourselves to the point of collapse daily just to see the weather, or insects, or predators eat our food down to the ground . It's a constant battle.

We've poured all of our money into trying to start a farm and it is an ongoing challenge to pay for "everything else".

We get ridiculed by our urbanite relatives that think wearing flip flops and paying $5 for a beer in their local bar is how "civilized" people live (will eating GMO GARBAGE).

No, I wouldn't ask those farm hands for a steer and I surely would not try to steal one if I were you.