I’ve been prepping for 35 of my 56 years. I was introduced to the concept by my older brother, and bought for first rural retreat at age 21.  I lost interest for quite a few years, but joined my first prepping forum about 20 years ago and have been actively prepping ever since. Sometimes I go through periods when I think all this effort is wasted, as I’ve never needed to use my preps. I was using  prepping forums to keep me motivated until covid arrived, and then everything got real. 

I believe it does use a bit of energy, but if a cargo ship can manage it…

The tank in the photo is 15,000 litres. I have 5 others, 2 x 5000 litres, 1 x 3000 litres and 2 x 1000 litres. After I build a house of the property in the photo  a main tank of 110,000 litres will be installed. 

I turned off 2 minutes into the video. Either false information or this guy is seriously misinformed. All that sea water is easily converted into freshwater. We do it here in Australia, large ocean going ships do it. Wherever it rains you have a supply of free fresh water, simply by installing a tank. Just like mine:

13 months ago wildfires took out the power grid for a large section of coast just south of me.  Complete towns without any electricity, just when they were full of Christmas/New Year holiday makers. Many people just filled up on fuel or groceries and left without paying, because they didn’t carry cash.  I think this was a wake up call to everyone, govt included, about how vulnerable a cashless society is.  The blackmarket runs on cash, and not only for illegal items. Lots of the building trade is still done by cash here in Australia. That’s not going to change, regardless of what government wants. There will always be people willing to accept cash. The only issue is how to get more when you run out. You need something to sell. 

I once had a bull terrier dog run aggressively at me. I had time to get my aerosol can of dog repellent out, which uses citrus instead of pepper. Dogs hate citrus apparently. 3 times this dog charged at me, 3 times I sprayed him in the face, and 3 times the dog ran up and down the grass footpath trying to rub the spray off his face. The dog then gave up and ran away.  Dog was very lucky we can’t get a ccw here in Australia,  or it would have got a 125gr hollowpoint from my glock 17. I love dogs, but have zero tolerance for any animal that thinks it can attack a human without provocation. 

My criteria when I bought my acreage (40 acres) was water, water and water. Water is life, especially when you want to grow your own food. Secondary criteria were enough land to grow food to sustain my family if required, no near neighbours, avenues of escape if overrun, and price. I got everything I wanted. The only negative was several miles of private road to access my property, that passes through several other properties. I have guaranteed legal access, but trying to get the other parties to contribute to road maintenance can be difficult. 

I have a bugout plan for my family, but that’s because I have a retreat to bug out to.  Basically if bugout is required, I load up my 4wd and trailer, and the wife, I and 1 adult child head up to a meeting spot on the edge of the freeway to await my son and his partner in tbeir 4wd, who live further north. We then travel south along the freeway through rural land for 2hrs, when we stop to rendevous with my daughter, grandson and another son, in another awd vehicle. We then continue south for another 90 minutes, through more rural land, until we arrive at the retreat. Very little urban area to travel through, but we are well equipped to deal with any problems.  In the event of a total loss of communication, my children are capable enough to get to the retreat on their own. They know where the keys are buried, and the retreat is reasonably well stocked. 

Roving bands of thieves?  You need to dominate your area, so that the thieves give up or relocate.  Form a neighbourhood watch network with an armed rapid response team.  Bands of thieves are easy to spot, a group of people breaking into a house and carting away valuables sort of sticks out. Encourage  them to go elsewhere.

One of these perhaps: This was my daughter’s horse (went to the big grass paddock in the sky, aged 30).  

My cars get the scheduled maintenance, sometimes by my mechanic, sometimes by myself. Both are in perfect working condition (my 4wd only 3 years old). In a shtf event I consider my car to be expendable, all it needs to do is drive the 200 miles to my retreat. Anything more than that is a bonus. 

The tool is just a generic brand from ebay. Very similar to this: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Emergency-Safety-Hammer-Glass-Breaker-Tool-Belt-Car-Bus-Cutter-2-in-1-Window/254795975796 I’m sure you could find something on US Ebay. Those straps holding the fire extinguisher are part of the mounting unit it comes supplied with. 

Sorry for the delay in reply, missed your comment. We don’t really get algae because very little sunlight penetrates the tank. Tanks can be drained and cleaned but it’s dangerous. Not sure why, there must be a build up of some sort of dangerous gas. They last many years without cleaning. Here’s a better photo of one of my tanks:

I screwed mine onto the transmission hump in the back seat. Not really reachable from the drivers seat, especially if trapped after an accident. The tool next to the extinguisher usually sits right beside the driver (I moved it for the photo only), it has a metal point for smashing glass and a built in blade for cutting seatbelts.  Not relevant to the question asked in this thread, but I also carry, behind the rear seat, 2 pure wool blankets (for warmth and bushfire), a puncture repair kit, mini air compressor, snatch strap, first aid kit. In the centre console is a lithium battery jump starting kit. 

I live here, in south east Australia. No hurricanes (we call them cyclones), tornados or snow,  just the odd hail storm and heavy rain. The ocean is full of fish, and that escarpement is teeming with deer.  Less than 10% of residents own firearms, and very few of those (perhaps 150 out of a population of 400,000) own handguns. So I’m better tooled up than almost everyone. Civil unrest here would be much more civil than in the USA.  This impacts my preps because bugging in is a viable option, even though I own two rural retreats. The biggest problem is working out what equipment I keep at mynretreat, and what I keep at home in case I bug in. 

I’ve used it several times. It works well but needs several passes to get the flour fine enough. Each pass only takes a minute or two per hopper. 

My headlamp is for general chores and moving around camp at night, the last thing we want is to step on a deadly snake in the dark, but the pen light is for finer work and has a red filter if I need to be more discreet and to save my night vision. I got it as a thankyou from an C-130 loadmaster, who had 7 or 8 tours of Afghan, it’s a very rugged little unit that fits nicely in a pistol mag pouch.  That tarp does a good job keeping the rain out, although horizontal rain would slip under it in the setup shown in the photo. I have it pre-strung with paracord, with knots every couple of inches to make putting it up a very fast, simple process. If heavy rain is expected I dig a little trench along the side to redirect runoff away from my sleeping mat. These hootchies can be joined with others to make a larger shelter if required. The are in use with our army. 

I take a more long term view towards food shortages. Empty supermarket shelves caused by storms or pandemic are short term events, but a growing global population and major change to our weather patterns might cause more long term food shortages, especially for those on lower incomes. China has anticipated this, and has been buying up food production in other countries for years. That food goes straight to the Chinese market, creating shortages or higher prices in the country of production. For example, China recently banned the import of Australian lobster for political reasons, causing a large increase in availability, and a 50% price drop, in Australia. This shows that Australians are already paying much higher prices because much of our production goes straight to China. Many of us already can’t afford to regularly buy what were once our staples, like beef and lamb.  My response to this was to put the infrastructure in place to produce some of my own food. That infrastructure includes rural land,  including a 10 acre cleared paddock with permanent river frontage, water transfer pump, water tanks, gardening tools, a hand crank grain mill, a seed collection, food dehydrator, guaranteed access to adjacent hunting lands etc. 

I don’t have a bugout bag as such, but I do have a pack I use when hunting in the bush for up to a week long duration. It would serve as a BOB if necessary. No contents photo but here’s a contents list: Backpack, sleeping bag, bivvy bag, hootchie (waterproof tarp), IFAK, katadyn water filter, 2 x 2l water bottles, multi tool, kyzlar fighting knife, small diamond sharpening stone, fire starter kit (flint, vaseline balls, lighter), headlamp, laser range finder 8x magnification), foam sleeping mat, army ration packs, small gas cooker, cups canteen, toiletry pack (toothbrush, toothpaste, toilet paper), small penlight with clear and coloured lens (the type military loadmasters use), gloves, giggle hat, spare batteries. Firearm and spare ammo.  I think thats it. Here’s a pic of my camp setup, spent a week like this, even as a 50 year old,  even in the rain:

Christmas for me is about taking the opportunity to spend quality time with family, and exchange gifts to show each other we care. We should probably do it a lot more than once a year.