Thursday, December 27, 2007

How To Make A Ghillie Suit

If you plan to make a ghillie suit, you will need supplies, time, effort, and patience. Depending on the purpose of the suit, as well as the quality and longevity you want from the finished product, you may spend many hours preparing, making, and seasoning it before you can put it to use. When a ghillie suit is made from scratch, these tasks can take as many as 100 hours to complete. For a small cost, however, you can buy most of the materials you need to put your camouflage together more quickly and easily. A third option is to buy a ghillie suit that is pre-made and ready to wear.

A ghillie suit starts with a foundation, usually a battle dress uniform (BDU) comprising pants and jacket, a flight suit, or simply an old pair of coveralls. If you improvise your own foundation suit by using such garments as old coveralls, make sure they are first washed with a detergent that has no scented chemicals added. When you need your ghillie suit to provide cover only from the waist up, leaving your legs free for movement, you can plan to make a net poncho covered with ghillie material rather than a full suit.

Dedicated people who are determined to make their own ghillie suits from scratch need to buy burlap in preparation for the most time-consuming and tedious part of the operation. This involves dyeing the burlap to various shades ranging from medium green to brown, cutting it into strips, and sewing the strips onto the foundation suit with the ends of the higher strips overlapping the attachment points of the lower strips by about half an inch to provide coverage. Alternatively, you can first sew and glue netting to the foundation suit, then attach the dyed burlap strips or jute twine to the netting. Be careful not to finish with blocks of strips in similar coloring, as this will defeat the aim of using the ghillie suit to merge into the background.

The dye colors should be chosen to blend in with the area where you will be wearing your ghillie suit. You can also increase the authentic look by taking the suit to the area and rolling it around in the local vegetation, or by adding some of the vegetation to the strips on the netting or the suit. Keep in mind, however, when making your ghillie suit, that burlap is hot and heavy. If you add too much to it, you may find it difficult to move as quickly as you may need, as well as being uncomfortable, particularly in hot weather.

You can omit the dyeing and cutting, but still have a hand in the making of your ghillie suit by buying a ghillie kit that includes all the materials you need, as well as assembly instructions. These can be ordered in the custom color combination you want or bought in available patterns, and can take from five to 10 hours to complete by hand. If time is a factor, a pre-made ghillie suit costs more than a kit, but saves time and effort.

When making your own ghillie suit, you need to remember that Hessian and burlap are highly inflammable and take appropriate precautions to treat it. This need should not apply to the ghillie suits and kits available for purchase, because they are usually treated with fire retardants before you buy them or are made of fire resistant materials. They are also often made of materials that are lighter and cooler than burlap, making them more comfortable, if less traditional, than the type of ghillie suit you would make yourself.

Tyler is a manager at Ghillie-Suit.net. The company features a wide selection of ghillie suits and ghillie kits for hunting, paintball, and the military.

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7 Common Diabetes Myths

There is a great deal of misinformation surrounding diabetes and here are 7 common diabetes myths:

1. Diabetics cannot eat candy or chocolate. There is no reason at all why diabetics should not eat candy and chocolate, and indeed cakes and sweet desserts, providing these are eaten in moderation and are just one element of a normal healthy diet plan.

2. eating too much sugar can cause diabetes. Despite the fact that the causes of diabetes are not completely understood, it is known that excessive sugar consumption is not one of them. This said, eating too much sugar could well lead to an individual gaining excessive weight, which is certainly a factor in increasing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. It is however not the sugar but the excess weight that you are carrying that may trigger diabetes.

3. diabetes is contagious. There is no truth in this at all. It is thought however that diabetes sufferers have a genetic predisposition to the disease and that it may be triggered by such things as viruses and drugs, including antibiotics. It is possible therefore that contracting a common illness, or treating that illness with antibiotics, could lead to the onset of diabetes.

4. diabetes sufferers are required to eat a special diabetic diet. So called "diabetic" versions of some foods which are commonly sold in health food stores are nothing more than a marketing ploy. Diabetics should simply eat a normal balanced diet which is low in fat and which contains moderate levels of both salt and sugar.

5. Diabetics should only eat very small amounts of carbohydrate. Carbohydrates, which are found in a range of foods including beans, bread, cereals, pasta and rice and from which the body gets much of the glucose required for energy, are an important part of our diet, whether we are diabetic or not. They also contain much of our essential fiber intake. The secret for diabetics is simply to ensure that carbohydrates are balanced with other foods and that portions are kept to a reasonable size.

6. diabetes sufferers are prone to catching colds and flu. There is no evidence to show that people with diabetes are any more or less likely than anybody else to catch a cold or flu. Diabetics must however try their best to avoid such illnesses (for example by having an annual flue shot) because illnesses of this nature can interfere with levels of blood sugar, and thus make the management of diabetes more difficult.

7. Taking insulin can lead to high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries. Early tests suggested that insulin may play a role in triggering processes associated with the development of hardened arteries but this have proved to be incorrect and there is no evidence that insulin causes either high blood pressure or hardening of the arteries.

The list of myths associated with diabetes of course goes on and on, but the 7 listed here are possibly the most commonly heard and, in time, will hopefully be put firmly to rest.

For more information on all aspects of diabetes including such things as the cause of diabetes and diabetes treatment please visit Diabetes-Treatment-And-Cure.com

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