Your Preparation Station
If you want to stay up to date with new shows, training webinars and what is going on now that we’ve moved to the bug-out location as a permanent home – please consider connecting with us on Facebook by hitting the “LIKE” button on the page: http://www.Facebook.com/YourPreparationStation
I’d like to think I keep up this blog pretty good, but to be honest, well not as well as I’d like. So Facebook is a good alternative to fill in the gaps and help us stay connected.
Other Facebook pages you may also be interested in connecting to are:
Looking forward to seeing your Facebook face, hearing your comments and staying connected!
Best Blessings and enJOY the journey!
The weather is cold and spring has barely peaked out of the snow. It may seem too early to think of what you’re going to do with the bounties of the harvest. Yet, that time of year is coming up soon. You may be an avid gardener or a bargain hunter in the meat, dairy and produce isle or a combination of both and wondering how is the best way to store you’re surplus. Enter – Dehydrating.
Like many things with food preservation, it is often shrouded in questions that may stunt you into thinking you can’t do this for your self at home. It is surprisingly easy and is a wonderful way to save what is in the refrigerator before heading out on a trip.
In the upcoming radio interview, I talk with a friend of mine who helps to inspire folks to take this journey and use their dehydrator to round out their preps. She has used her own dehydrated meals on the trail and teaches classes that inspire others that they can do it too!
If you’re reading this prior to the show’s air date – simply click the link below next to the red radio and set a reminder – but if you’re reading this after March 23, 2013 – then follow the link to listen to the recording. During the show, I give out a code to save on a dehydrator of your choice - the code is “KIMSCLASS “. We wanted to work together to help you get started.
I hope you enjoy THIS SHOW…
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What term suits your family’s preparedness plan better? Bugging Out (high tailing it out of Dodge to a safe haven) or Bugging In (hunkering down with what you have on hand and making the best of it while fortified where you are).
What about bugging out and bugging in? What would that look like?
For us it means heading to the place we would have once used to escape to and turning it into our more permanent option. Some things we will be doing may seem far fetched, but to us it will mean when things take a drastic turn, we will barely have a speed bump.
Here are some things we will be doing as we bug out to bug in:
- Simplifying now, voluntarily.
- Selling off 90% of our ‘belongings’.
- Finding more livestock.
- Building alternative power options.
- Readying the soil for a year round garden.
- Practicing intentionally frugal choices.
- Learning skills and trades vs. hiring others (when we can).
- Drastically cutting our dependance on gasoline.
- Many more…
We hope you’ll join our journey as we post most of it up on our YouTube Channel.
We’d love to have you join us in the journey!
The painful phrase “I told you so” is one I hate to use. Unless it is being said to someone who has already heeded some other advice we gave out early this year (January to be precise) which was “Stock up on food NOW because after the first half of the year, we suspect staples will reach a record high.”
Well, if you heeded that advice, then you’re not bothered by the “told you so” statement and it is not offensive. In fact, if you acted upon your ability to stock up you probably told people it would be this way as well.
The unfortunate part is many people have not done so.
The current agricultural climate, due to the worst drought since 1956, has pushed many commodities such as corn, wheat, soybeans and the like to record high prices. And there is no cap in sight as yet.
Don’t take our word for it. Seriously do your own research to see how this will affect the food prices in the later half of the year.
Rather than focus on all that is wrong, if you act fast – we would like to offer some solutions:
- BULK FOODS – HURRY before prices rise again – Deadline is July 21, 2012
The prices are currently still low. The agricultural hike has not yet hit as of THIS order, but will the next.
Use the code: THXMGH to get 5% off AND Free Shipping.
Use the code: JULY CLEARANCE and get an additional 15% off your entire order
- GROW FOOD NOW
Even if it’s in a pail or pot on the front porch or balcony of an apartment, start learning these skills to grow SOMETHING.
Remember, we are here to help, to train and encourage, to uplift and share what we’ve learned and found. Please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Not long ago, I had the opportunity to visit with a new prepping friend who had come to one of our Ladie’s Weekend Retreats. She and I chatted and enjoyed talking about all the self-sustaining lessons we had learned and sharing ideas to help each other prepare in peace. We were loading her small four-wheel drive with her bulk order and just enjoying the beginning of spring.
She shared with me that she had recently been able to secure a location to move to that was a bit further out of town. At this delight, she made preparations to make the move. Being a single mother, she was offered help from some of her co-workers. A very nice gesture. She accepted. This lead to one face to face encounter with a question that is often asked/implied about prepping.
While moving, she was confronted by a fellow work peer about her food and having to move all of it. To hear her talk, she felt she barely had a couple month’s of the basics on hand for she and her elementary age child, so it was not an exorbitant amount of food. But after seeing a few bags of grain and other staples, she was faced with the question: “Why all this food? Are you HOARDING?” She had to come up with a viable answer on the spot and felt like she had been accused of taking food out of the mouths of others.
The truth is, the definition of hoarding does not have a negative connotation at all. The verb “hoard” makes no differentiation about the use of items stored. Dictionary dot com simply defines the verb as this: ” HOARD verb (used with object) – to accumulate for preservation, future use, etc., in a hidden or carefully guarded place. (ie: to hoard food during a shortage). “ No where in the definition of hoarding does it denote the intended USE of the items preserved for the future.
Preppers are not taking food out of the mouths of people now nor are they creating a shortage of toilet paper or gasoline. To be maligned with a negative connotation in the word ‘hoarding’ is completely uncalled for.
So if someone uses that word with you while you are trying to encourage others to live a preparedness lifestyle or they get wind that you are prepping, do not despair. They obviously don’t really know that hoarding is not negative by definition. On the contrary, your ‘hoarding’ may be what saves them in the future!
If you get called ‘stingy’, well, now there may be the need for a heart-check before you settle with that label.
By now you know me well enough that when it comes to food storage, I am not a big fan of ‘cheap food’, but I a also not fan of expensive food either.
Some people feel as though they have to get shelves and shelves of food that is quick and easy to fix in case of an emergency. These would be cheap foods with preservatives and artificial colors and a shelf life of a rock. Other people think they need to get the ready-to-eat meals (MREs) that are simply the ‘add water’ foods. Most MREs are far from healthy with high salt and fat content, and designed for combat caloric intake which most of us are not going to be in. They are often quite pricey as well. Why are folks so quick to pay the price of quality and higher cost simply convenience?
Having the skill to use real food will help your health now and in an emergency, when you and your family don’t need to also be battling poor nutritional sustenance at the same time as stress.
Here are some ideas for stretching your budget while buying real food for storage :
Coupons – This can be a simple start to saving on one purchase so that you can buy more the next time. There are FREE sites on the internet for finding out your deals. One trick is to use a coupon when your store runs a sale at the same time.
Buy one get one (free or half price) – Instead of just getting one at half price, use one store the other. This way you know you will eat what you’ve stored.
Find the scratch & dent or almost out of date section - Usually these items are found at the ends of some longer isles in the grocery store. Some items are still in great condition. It is still a good idea to stay away from dented cans. Meats that are fast approaching the ‘sell by’ date are often tagged differently or located at a different part of the refrigerated isle. Use or freeze the meat as soon as you get them home.
Cook from scratch - Often single ingredients stretch further due to the variety of ways you can use them vs. a one box mix food that can only be that food. When cooking from scratch, one item can be used multiple ways with the cost per use being drastically cheaper than if it were an ingredient in a box mix.
Look for an alternative that costs less. For example, buy the store brand of an item. Often the same exact growers, packaging facility grew and labeled a big named brand as the store brand. If it’s a storage can rotation system that costs over $200 that has you down, there is a less expensive (and in my opinion much more versatile) option here
There are many ways to stock up your real food storage, long term workable pantry and not break the budget. Just getting started is important. You’ll be happy you had even a little food storage on hand as prices continue to increase.
