It's nothing crazy and I certainly have no bunker, lol. (Though, that would be cool!) I don't even consider myself to be a "prepper". It's simply a matter of being a responsible adult and trying to maintain a reasonable level of preparedness for SHTF and other emergencies. To me that includes maintaining an inventory of food stuffs like the canned goods on those shelves and a few hundred pounds of of mylar-bagged rice, beans, flour, pasta, etc. on other shelves that will remain good for at least a couple of decades. I also keep a couple of freezers and two other refrigerator/freezers well stocked. In addition, I keep water filters and several cords of firewood to heat the house each year. Not that it takes a global incident or war to need such things. More realistically, it could be something as simple as a natural disaster, losing your job due to mass layoffs or an economic downturn, or getting sick or injured and no longer being able to work, but then you have a 6-12 month inventory of food to certainly survive well, or wood to keep the house warm, etc.
Case in point; When the BS Covid hysteria ramped into overdrive and people went out of their minds buying up toilet paper and the like, I'd already been maintaining a year's+ supply and didn't bat an eye about it. In fact, I shared many TP packs with neighbors who couldn't find any when they ran out, while at the same time, people who had been maintaining such supplies for years were suddenly being labeled as evil "hoarders". (The sudden hatred towards people like me was an interesting lesson, btw, and one I won't forget.) I also keep cases of bottled water, mostly as a matter of convenience, as well as 55-drums of water in the basement. The latter came in handy during a cold snap when our pipes burst one recent Christmas morning and I quickly had to shut off all the water to the house. Those drums provided us with enough water to wash dishes, flush toilets, and take sponge baths for several days until I could get a plumber out to perform repairs. Otherwise, we might have been among many others in our situation who fled and spent well north of $1K on hotel rooms and had to be out of their own homes! (That was another lesson learned and I've since installed shutoff valves to damn near every line in the house.)
I also have a gas generator that I've used exactly once to power the fridge/freezers when the power went out (a rare occurrence). I really want to buy a whole house emergency generator, but we don't lose power very often and the cost/benefit just hasn't quite jived for me. I also keep up to 50 gallons of ethanol free, stabilized fuel in Jerry cans, mostly to run our lawn equipment through the warmer seasons, but it's also a backup source in the shed if we'd need to get out of Dodge and cross several states.
As an American, maintaining a shit ton of guns and ammo, and practicing regularly to defend one's home and country are also a part of what I consider being a responsible adult, though I won't post pics to prevent our non-American friends who may not be able to comprehend that from having a coronary. I'm a firm believer in that YOU are your own first responder, which is why I also regularly take legal / self defense / first aid / traumatic first aid / Stop the Bleed classes, along with my kids, and have trauma kits and fire extinguishers staged in every vehicle and on every floor of the house..
I also believe it's extremely wise to maintain financial reserves and alternative sources of income, which we also do in the form of side gigs and buying / overhauling / owning rental properties. None of this is something that you do overnight, and it's a lot of work. It's just a part of your ethos that you work at over a lifetime to become as self-sufficient as possible. It's not about some crazy backwoods prepper TV show nonsense; but a mere matter of taking ownership and responsibility and destiny of your own life.
) that it was a factor in getting solar. Yesterday without warning they cut the water off (but I have large bottles of water in case) and many times our heating system has for one reason or another stopped working. So when the idea was floated about getting rid of our gas tank and joining the mains supplies I said no.
