January 2025 Provident Living News Family Evacuation Planning

Church of Jesus Christ Home Storage Centers (HSC) 2025 price list. https://youtu.be/qfa1GvcohHM?si=bd1thjQXkc7lXj5g

These prices went into effect on January 1, 2025. You can also find a HSC location nearest you by clicking on the same link, above. Be aware that every time something drastic happens like a big disaster or a war breaks out, people rush to the Home Storage Centers all at once and they quickly run out of stock. This happened in 2020 just before the lockdowns started. It took a couple months for them to resupply. You can buy in-person, or you can order these foods online and have them shipped to your home for only $6 shipping for the entire order. When ordering online with this link HERE: https://store.churchofjesuschrist.org/new-category/food-storage/food-storage/5637169327.c   each item comes in a case of 6 #10/1-gallon cans. For example, 6 wheat, 6 sugar etc.

 

Things to stock up on this month

Egg laying hens are still being culled by the hundreds of thousands because of bird flu. When even just one hen tests positive they cull the entire flock of many thousands. It can take close to a year for a large-scale egg farmers to replace those hens and for them to reach maturity. 16 million egg laying hens have been culled since December 2024. Officials are saying that the bird flu is now being passed onto cattle. No matter if we believe this narrative or not, it is still causing mass culling of cattle, including dairy cows. This leads to shortages and a big increase in prices of dairy products. Take the time NOW to stock-up on powdered milk and shelf-stable egg products. Eggs can be cracked open and frozen in ice cube trays. One can buy freeze-dried egg powder. You can also scramble eggs and then dehydrate them or freeze-dry them. The YouTube channel Rose Red Homestead has a couple different videos on preserving eggs. https://youtu.be/qfa1GvcohHM?si=bd1thjQXkc7lXj5g   If you have your own chickens, you can save fresh, clean, unwashed eggs by Water Glassing them. Here is a great video from Homesteading Family. https://youtu.be/bTlcCvvUjl0?si=FYnfkRbv7U9-nOJX I have used this method successfully for 3 years.

Powdered milk can be bought in #10 cans from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or you can buy it online at beprepared.com, Amazon and other Food Storage companies. Buy a little and try it out before you buy a lot at once. Morning Moos by Augason Farms is a popular milk. The chocolate milk is pretty good too. Many families prefer Nido Fortificado  brand milk found at Sam's Club and Costco. I have included recipes for preserving eggs three ways, and ideas for using powdered milk in my Cookbook. I still have copies available for local pick up in the Salt Lake Valley and we will ship. The book has 200 pages and I included a lot of food storage information in it as well as everyday recipes. It is $20/book. The order form link to see all the details and to place an order and how to pay is this link HERE: https://forms.gle/EHgo1EJZTYLE6sc9A

Other Books on these topics are Cookin' with dried eggs by PeggyLayton and Cookin' with powdered milk also by Peggy Layton.

 
Make your own citrus cleaner and dishwasher rinse aid to save money 

This is the perfect time of year to make your own citrus cleaner for very little money. Citrus fruits are in season and are at the cheapest price all year. All you need is white vinegar and citrus peels of any kind. This cleaner once strained, can be used on countertops, stove tops and as a dishwasher rinse aid. I buy 32oz Rinse Aid for $10. That is $10/quart or $40/gallon. I use about 1 quart of the Rinse Aid each month. That is $120 every year for 3 gallons! I just bought vinegar for $3/gallon. I can make a year's worth of Rinse Aid for just $9. I poured the vinegar into a clean bucket and as we eat oranges and other citrus fruits we put the peels in the vinegar. You can take some of this and put in a blender first if you want. Keep a lid on the bucket. After a minimum of 2 weeks, strain the peels out of the vinegar. Pour cleaner back into the vinegar bottle that you saved. Use as desired. 

Sources for Ivermectin for human use 

If you are interested in having Ivermectin in your home for personal use, it is now easy to find some. You can buy it online at https://ivermectin.com or you can add it to your prescriptions list from Home US - JASE Medical or https://jasemedical.com If you prefer to have an herbal version of Ivermectin, you can buy it from a friend of mine. Her name is Mickey and it is available on her website https://thehealersart.com Her contact information is on the website including her phone number. Call her to place your order or send an email to mickey@thehealersart.com. Store this dry herbal mix in a cool and dry place in the dark. The powder can be made into a tea or blended until fine and put into gelatin capsules. This can be taken to ward off illnesses or used only when sick. The herbs used are listed on her website.

Evacuation Planning for your family 

Does your family have an emergency evacuation plan? Do you know what you would grab first if you had to leave quickly? Do you know where your vital documents are? Does each person and pet in your home have a Go Bag? These are also called 72 hour or 96 hour Kits.

 #1 Sit down with your family and talk about realistic scenarios that could happen in your area. Discuss how those events would impact your home and place of work.

 #2 What are the most important things that you want to take with you if you have to leave quickly. Most people agree that those things would be People, Pets and Papers. You can also add photos.

 #3 Make a list of those things from above and make a plan now for who would grab what and write down what you need to do NOW to make it so a quick get-away would go smooth.

 #4 People: Make sure each person knows how to exit the house in the dark. Practice how to escape a house fire with your children. Make sure each person knows where the Go Bags are and that they need to grab one! Make sure each person knows where the meet-up place will be. That could be by the mailbox, or at a certain neighbor's home. Do you also have a meet-up place that is outside of your neighborhood? Does each person know that address?  Have a list of close friends and family with their contact information in your emergency kit so you can contact them in an evacuation.

 #5 Pets: If you have animals, be sure to assemble a Go-bag for each animal. Each small pet should have its own carrier. We bought used carriers on Marketplace. We also assembled a kit for our cats and dogs that include collapsable bowls for food and water, and extra leashes. We also have a small bag of food in the kit. That will need to be rotated out or used each year. We keep our kit inside an extra carrier. You can also use a storage tote. Keep these items all together as well.  If you have farm animals, how would you get them out of danger in the fastest manner? Where would you take them? Do your large animals like horses have a microchip or an easily identifiable tag on a halter? Some people take a sharpie marker and write the owner's name and phone number on a hoof. In an extreme situation, you may just have to let them loose so they can run from danger. In this case you can see why a microchip for a horse will be very important. Each pet should also have physical ID tags on them and have a Microchip that is current on them. If you are not sure if their microchip is current and working, simply take it to your vet or animal control and ask them to scan it so you know for sure. If you do not have a copy of a current rabies vaccine, you will need to get a copy or have it scanned on your thumb drive and include that with your important papers. Shelters most often will not let your animal stay there if there is no proof of a rabies vaccine. Have a list of shelters in your area that may be used if evacuating.

 #6 Papers: I suggest putting your Vital Papers or documents in a LARGE, ZIPPERED, 3-RING BINDER. These are often used by High School Students. To the binder, add SHEET PROTECTORS and a couple ZIPPERED PENCIL POUCHES.

While you are shopping, also be sure to buy an inexpensive LANYARD,  THUMB DRIVE, and KEY HOOK for each person in the home. Lanyards and key hooks, like the picture below, are sold wherever keys are made and sold.   Look for the kind of thumb drive that has a small hole in it to hang it onto something. You will see why further down the page. 

Start to gather the most important papers first, (this part will take multiple sessions to get it all done.) I would also SCAN each of those papers, so you have a digital back up in addition to the original papers. Include a list of your commonly used websites with logins and passwords. In a highly stressful time, you may not be able to remember all of them. Be sure to have a physical photo of the whole family together AND individual pictures of each person. Put the photos in the binder in sheet protectors. 

Buy a thumb drive for each family member. Upload a copy of all of those documents and pictures onto EACH thumb drive. Give each family member, even kids, a thumb drive and put one on each lanyard. It is very important that each family member have all the same information in case you get separated. After Hurricane Katrina, many children were separated from their family. It took several months for many of them to be reunited as the kids often did not have identification and did not know their parent's names, addresses and they were too young to have a way to help the Red Cross find the parents. Photos will also be vital for you to prove that the kids belong to you. 

Lanyards should be kept in a nightstand or with your Go-Bags. When leaving, put lanyard around your neck. To each lanyard, attach a Nite-Ize Brand S Biner Key Hook. See the photo below.  Each little hook can lock into place, so you do not have things fall off. You will put the thumb drive on one hook and will be able to attach other useful things to the other hooks. Those things can be a mini flashlight, a compass, chap stick, small sunscreen and other helpful things such as a Coleman lantern igniter shown below. Practice using this lighter. This lighter has been recommended by someone who has helped in shelters after disasters. Most shelter workers do not know what it is and will not confiscate it. They WILL confiscate things like matches and knives.  If and when you do go to a shelter, take your Go Bags with you!  Some people do not realize that the shelters only give you a roof and walls and a place to sleep.  You will want and need the items in your bag. 

Use the pencil pouches to hold bulky things like passports, paper maps, cash in small bills and spare keys. Depending on the disaster, you may not have cell service. You will need to have detailed paper maps of your area. You can find these at some gas stations, at Barnes and Noble bookstores and on Amazon. Old photos like family history photos can be scanned and they can be saved on a CD or hard drive saved at a separate location like at work or a family member's home.

 If you have enough time to evacuate, add other items to your list that you would want to take with you. I found a great print out at www.totallyready.com and there are print outs on Etsy that you can use for evacuation planning. My favorite plan gives you a list of things to take if you only have 5 minutes. There is another list for if you have 15 minutes. And yet another list if you have 30 minutes or more. You can also create your own list. Prioritize the most important things and then add things as time allows. PRINT your lists out and put in a sheet protector and tape to the back of your front and back doors. Then get busy saving your documents and assembling your Go-Bags.