A plastic half liter bottle. Its very rarely hot enough to worry about dehydration here but I like to have some just in case i get a tickle in my throat. I may carry an unopened bottle for 5 days but as soon as its opened the plastic gets noisy so I swap it out for a new unopened one.
I run boots 75%of the time, motorcycle inter tubes work great, cheap and replaceable. Good vid online for instructions. Best pair I’ve ever bought and still use on a large footed dog are Lewis vented dog boots. Both good options if taped on correctly.
I would go with the 10x. The 12x will be very hard to hold still, especially if you are spotting and stalking. I had a customer get the 12x out in Montana and then trade them for the 10x because the 12's were too much.
12x will be a little harder to aquire targets under 200 yards imo.