The Outdoor Adventure Giving you tips, tricks & recommendations to help make adventuring in the Outdoors fun, safe & exciting for you and your kids.
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| My wife’s Neck Cooler |
It isn’t carroted, clotted, or carotted. It’s Carotid. It doesn’t have anything to with bugs bunny or how much your husband saved on that ring, it just carries blood to your head. Well, oxygenated blood, and i guess that makes it important. In fact if you want to prevent your body from overheating, better than pouring water on your head, you should cool down that artery.
Thats why it feels good to put a wet cloth on your neck. It doesn’t just ease sunburn, it cools down the blood that enters your head. And that can save your life.
The worst enemy in summer is heatstroke. That’s when your temperature reaches more than 40.6 degrees. It can kill you. You don’t want to mess around with heatstroke, so always keep your body temperature regulated, keep drinking water and don’t over exercise in the heat.
To help, why not make a neck warmer to keep your neck cool for long periods of time. My mum actually brought this neck cooler to my attention. It uses is silica gel in a small kneck scarf that you soak in water.
Here is the how to:
Things you need:
- Cotton cloth about 1 meter/yard long and 5 inches wide.
- 1/2 tsp of silica gel
- sewing machine or needle and thread
What to do with them.
- Fold the material in half (inside out) to make it only 2.5″ wide (but still a meter long).
- Sew one end shut.
- sew along whole length of the open side.
- turn the fabrica inside out like a sock so that the pattern is clearly visible.
- 1/3 of the length in, measuring from the sewn end, sew at least twice along the width of the cloth. This will create the start of the silica pouch.
- Pour in the 1/2 tsp of silica gel down the open end of the scarf.
- 1/3 of the length, measuring from the open end, sew at least twice along the width of the cloth. This will close the silica pouch.
- Sew the open end closed.
Soak in water for 1 – 2 hours or until the silica has filled the pouch. Then tie it around your neck. It will stay moist and cool for hours. Then, when your done, dry it out in the sun and save it for next time.
Beware: Don’t eat the silica gel. While silica gel is not actually toxic, it is sometimes combined with toxic chemicals. Read the wiki.
