Jim, I'm sorry you took my short addition to your thread the wrong way. The comment about the desert rat in Kentucky was just teasing you a little. I probably should have put a or such after it. My only assumption is that you might think it was funny. I always thought a pack rat was someone who had an over abundance of stuff like hardware stashed "just in case" like my neighbor. Here in Southern California, I have only heard of people like me being called desert rats. I'm 55 and have many winter months in the desert, including Death Valley and all over the Mojave just to name a few spots. Summer I try to avoid the desert. Even the high desert in California, like Edwards AFB, is just not that pleasant that time of year.

Anyway, my real addition to this thread is the second paragraph in my previous post. I've seen more than one person trying to show how to get water out of a cactus when we are nearing the end of the dry season. Even putting the cuttings into a survival still did not generate much water for the work that went into it. The snakes and creepy crawlies don't really bother me. In fact, the snakes are good eating if roasted nicely over coals.

Other than using your head, because that's the best tool you have, I guess I am not real sure what you are after. Seems to me that in the desert, being water wise and avoiding over heating is very important. Lots of people die in our desert every year, a fair number of them with some water left in their canteen. I believe its a similar situation along the Arizona border.