Your Preparation Station

Curious about cooking with the sun? Read this…

Donna — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:18:04 +0000

I just love teaching the Solar Cooking class that is on the docket for Saturday. Cooking with the sun is not only economical, but also resourceful! If you were to be without power – how would you cook? Propane is not great for long storage, wood can be wet and even if you have those on hand – they are both consumable, not easily renewable power sources.

The sun is (Lord Willing) a renewable source of energy on which we can usually rely most days. Why not harness it to do something we usually do most days – cook! We can also use the sun to stretch those other power sources to be more readily available when the sun may not be (on a cloudy day or at night).

In my class I compare the difference between a home-made pizza box solar cooker, another solar cooker (which I do not carry) and the Global Sun Oven - and now I get to share about the NEW All AMERICAN Sun Oven with some really great features specific to our American cookware and more.

The improvements and new features make this like my very own grown up ‘easy bake oven’ (I’ve said that a lot – because it’s more fun than work!)

I have an interview with the Executive President of Global Sun Ovens International, Paul Munsen that airs the evening after class. You can listen to that interview and get even more info: HERE

Sun Ovens are so easy to use and such fun!

If you’re reading this blog – we would like to offer you a discount for a limited time on either of the Sun Oven Options we carry (Global Sun Oven OR All American Sun Oven).

Just put the code YPSBLOG in at check out and save $10 on any purchase of a Sun Oven (shipping is included for free) … as our way saying ‘Thank you!’ and our hope that you too will enjoy this versatile alternative cooking option!

Please connect with us on Facebook!

Donna — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:17:19 +0000

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!

Update on Our Preparedness Adventure – Long, cold, lonely winter lessons

Donna — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:02:50 +0000

Little Darlin’… it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter.

Little Darlin’… it feels like years since it’s been here…

I actually do find myself singing that Beatles song when the sun peaks through now. But it is mostly to remind me that this season does indeed pass and to make the best of it and actually enJOY it while it lasts. We’ve looked out our window from the breakfast table to swirling flakes and four foot icicles that hang from the roof and enjoyed the quietness that falls over the land. It just appears that it’s happened far more often than we thought it would this winter.

Does anyone else think that this winter has been unusually long?

Our first snow fall in Western North Carolina hit as the storm Sandy pummeled the East Coast the end of October 2012. That was one of the earliest snow falls for the area. Snow and ice have seemed more frequent this year than in recent years past. Then a few days ago, on the ‘first day of spring’, we got another blanket of snow and ice with only a two day reprieve in between. We are now sitting on our fifth day under about 8 inches of snow. Unless the vehicle is a four wheel drive – it’s not leaving our land. The roads are icy and dangerous until this stuff thaws. All total thus far this winter has been a REAL winter for about 5 months now.

Winter specific lessons and alterations to this new mountain life

There have been many ‘ah-ha’ moments the last month of this winter-that-never-seems-to-end that I’ve found quite interesting to realize. Of course since we’ve moved – much of life has not been ‘typical suburbia’ – which is FINE by me, however; the winter weather and snow does add it’s own twist to the lessons I”m learning along the way. Please do keep in mind, part of our life is to learn to ‘make do’ rather than ‘go get’ so some of these things may seem a bit unorthodox.

A few winter lessons I’ve learned since moving to our once ‘bug-out cabin’ turned homestead home:

Uh. Duh. Always have plenty of food and clean water on hand. Not a new lesson, but one that is worth repeating.
Low ceilings are AWESOME! They allow whatever heating you are using (wood fireplace, oil heaters, gas logs, etc) to bring a room (or rooms) to a comfortable ambient temperature within virtually minutes!
The thin plastic window covering sold in home improvement stores really does work to keep cold drafts from coming through old windows. Mind you, I’ve been told that ‘bubble wrap’ works better because it traps any heat from the sun inside the bubbles but – 1) there’s not been much sun anyway and 2) if I don’t see OUTSIDE…someone’s gonna have to peel me out from under the carpet…I’ll just ooze into it and rot there if I can’t see outside.
No galoshes? No problem! Plastic grocery bags tie over the shoes to make the morning trek to the chicken coupe, jeep or mailbox. They easily untie and store by the door for the next jaunt in the snow.
Washing clothing by hand. The laundry mat is far away. Not only is ‘wash day’ hindered when one relies upon getting to the nearest coin laundry but cannot get out of the drive way but trudging through the snow to load the car makes this chore a little more annoying. Thus enter hand washing in the sink! (: It’s actually fun!
Clothes dry inside just fine! They may be a little slower or a little more ‘crunchy’ due to the cold – but they do dry. We strung a zig-zag of hooks which we string a retractable line across for those hand washed items to dry. Zig-zagging it gives more linear footage than a straight line, thus we can dry more items.
Radiator-type heaters are a multipurpose item. Is a hand washed item not dry in time or a pair of shows not warm enough? Put the shoes or the not quite dry item over your radiator type heat for a SHORT while. This does dry small items fast and heat the bottom of shoes that may have sat on the porch. WARNING…you MUST keep an eye on this and not forget. Put a timer on your body if you tend to ‘walk off’ or get busy and forget things.

I know there are more little winter lessons I’ve learned. These just tend to top the more frequently used and oddity list (o: I’m not complaining mind you, I’m just hoping for a season change so that this session of lessons can be over and we can move into some warmer weather lessons.

Until then, I hum the following in hopeful anticipation…..

Little Darlin’ …I feel that ice is slowly melting.
Little Darlin’… it seems like years since it’s been clear…

…. Here comes the sun…here comes the sun…And I say… it’s all right!

About the Author…

Donna Miller is the wife of almost 28 years to the love of her life Joseph, the mother of three home-school graduates and has one daughter-in-law.

She is the hostess of the radio show “Your Preparation Station”. She and her husband are the Organizers of WNC Preparedness Group in Asheville, NC. She is an Adjunct Instructor for Frontier Christian University. She teaches local classes & ladies retreats for people to learn hands-on lost skills. She has been a both guest and host on internet and broadcast radio talk-shows and in television interviews. She is a teacher, author, sought-after speaker and trainer.

She and her husband are the owners of Millers Grain House and the Always Ready Store, the founders of PREPARE Magazine and offer preparedness and simple living tips through Your Preparation Station website.

Radio Interview: Dehydrating 101

Donna — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 22:55:45 +0000

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…

——

Update on Our Preparedness Adventure – A New Chapter

Donna — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 17:16:15 +0000

It seems like we’ve been on the journey of Preparedness for a lot longer than it’s been ‘popular’ (Is it actually popular or just a new niche/fad? Hmmm)…but the truth of it all is that this journey is just that – a journey, an adventure - not a prize to be won or a finished accomplishment to be achieved.

Years ago when we started looking at how we hoped to develop this more self-sustaining lifestyle, we had no idea of the myriad of areas of life it would touch. We found aspects of life that preparedness affects and is affected by that are far beyond food storage or living off grid.

A new chapter has opened for us as we continue our preparedness adventure. It’s now an adventure even more than just a journey for us. We have an empty nest now and have moved to a home much smaller and simpler (it was originally a bug out location) and are adjusting to a prepared life in a new environment. What worked in one living space, doesn’t work in this new one. Amenities are at a minimal and peace and quiet are in abundance.

Join me for a visit as I ‘bring you up to speed’ this episode of my regular Saturday radio show: Your Preparation Station

Do NOT call me a “Prepper”!

Donna — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 16:07:54 +0000

It’s been coming.

It’s now here and in your face.

My husband for-saw this warped public perception coming a few years ago.

The word “prepper” has now become synonyms with the actions of those who live on the very farthest out reaches of the fringe of this ‘supposedly new’ movement. We are fully in the throws of a stereo-typed label and it is going to be dangerous for all involved if we don’t get grip on things. If those of sound mind and stable resolve don’t become more vocal in some areas and LESS vocal in others, we are doing the preparedness community at large a dis-service.

Don’t call me a “Prepper”. By the media platitudes I am not.

We don’t teach my children that “all is lost” and we should prepare for doomsday.
We don’t keep an arsenal of ARs and ammo out the wazoo readily available for any unstable family member to grab.
We don’t hoard food.
We don’t shoot first and ask if you needed help later.
We don’t pull innocent children off a bus down to a ‘bunker’.
We don’t practice eating bugs, drinking our own urine or wearing gas masks.
We do not believe in zombies or even care to use that term.
We are not mentally unstable or bent on proving conspiracy theories.
We are NOT anti-all-government, anti-American or anti-social.

They can call me something else … if they must rubber stamp people on their foreheads, to make themselves feel better about themselves. But based on what is being touted to ‘define’ a ‘prepper’… no thanks. That shoe doesn’t fit any more now that someone else has been wearing it.

We want to be as self-sufficient/self-reliant as possible for a multiple number of reasons. Some of those reasons are: economical, ecological, spiritual, societal and to avoid being a tax on the current emergency systems that must meet the needs of OTHERS first.

If the current hand writing on the wall shows that life may change for our future, then all we’re doing is preparing to make that adjustment with as much grace and ease for ourselves, our friends and loved ones as possible.

This Saturday’s Episode of Your Preparation Station is an up-close and personal ‘rant’ between my friend Lynette and I about this new ‘slant’ on being called a ‘Prepper’ and what we can DO and what we should STOP doing about this negative misconception. We must become pro-active.

Step 1- Downsizing

Donna — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:01:44 +0000

When we began working on our ‘bug out’ cabin, we were not sure if it was to be a legitimate place to head to in case of emergency or if we were making ready for a slower transition. Now we know and there are several steps on this journey. We want to take you along with us as we make this transition.

He promised he’d tell the family when ‘it was time’ if we were to make that move more permanently rather than ready the cabin for ‘some day’. The clarity that ‘it was time’ came in early December 2012. So we wondered what were the steps.

Since the place we were in was over 3000 square feet (that did include a large garage and basement) and the cabin was only 900 square feet, we knew our first step: Downsizing.

We had done this before. Not so voluntarily. So we had a little idea of what to do.

Our sofa along with many other furniture items would not fit. Craigslist here we come. We had far too many clothes for the closet space. Goodwill and consignment shops helped clear those items which liquidate some cash flow for cabin repairs (oh, yes, look for those posts to come!) or provide a tax write off as a donation.

Our step of downsizing is not unlike the story of many who have taken this course because of foreclosure or job loss, but we have been there on that side of this before and have learned many lessons we will NOT repeat during this adventure that we’ve actually chosen to downsize our lifestyle and possessions by 2/3 of what own. There is joy in this journey and better ways to go about it without feeling ‘loss’.

If you’d like to listen to this show, you’ll hear what we learned last time and won’t repeat this time.

Sponsored by The Wondermill

Tonight, on Your Preparation Station, Donna Miller is joined by Lynette from Preppingonabudget.com.

Is “Downsizing” on your mind this New Year? Listen as Lynette and I hope to take some for the sting our of that topic while we share our own personal experiences with it.

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