About a month ago I set out to answer the question, "What is the best place in the US for a prepper to move to if they want to homestead?"

I originally built my model around the basics: climate, water, food, security, cost of living and strategic distance. Unfortunately, my proxy for "food" was cropland, which incorrectly boosted places like Kansas and Iowa to the top of the list.

I've refined my ranking factors, and I would love your feedback on if you think this is the right.

• 17% Climate Stability - How hard natural hazards hit here and how far the temperature has moved from its 20th-century baseline.
• 17% Water - Whether water is here. Rainfall normals, or delivered irrigation.
• 17% Homestead Capacity - Whether a household on five to fifty acres could feed, heat and shelter itself here, and whether the law lets it. Forest cover for firewood and game, operations running one to nine head of cattle, growing season, and the state legal latitude over your own land: water doctrine, building-code adoption, food freedom and right-to-farm.
• 13% Social Stability - Net migration, social vulnerability, and crime rates.
• 10% Solar Potential - Annual solar irradiance.
• 7% Affordability - What it actually costs to live here: the annual cost of owning the median house (mortgage, property tax and homeowners insurance combined) alongside median rent. Lower cost areas score higher.
• 7% Privacy - Documented surveillance device density, the surveillance programs local agencies are recorded to run, exposure to the 100-mile border zone, and state legal protections.
• 7% Livability - Employment, primary care access, educational attainment, and household broadband.
• 7% Strategic Distance - Distance from publicly documented strategic sites and nuclear power stations, weighted by what each one is: ICBM launch facilities and command sites count for far more than a port or a refinery.

Overall Best States to Homestead

1. Tennessee
2. Alabama
3. Missouri
4. Maine
5. Indiana
6. Illinois
7. Georgia
8. Kentucky
9. Vermont
10. Kansas

Overall Best County to Homestead: (Carroll County, VA breakdown)

• Climate Stability - 67/100
• Water - 69/100
• Social Stability - 69/100
• Solar Potential - 33/100
• Homestead Capacity - 87/100
• Affordability - 86/100
• Privacy - 82/100
• Livability - 52/100
• Strategic Distance - 92/100

This list feels pretty much better to me.
Tenn. and the Ozarks are well represented. Maine surprised me a bit being so far north. West Virginia is pulled down from social instability and livability. Virginia has a lot of military targets and popular centers.

Would you say this list is accurate, or is something being overlooked?

What type of plywood is the best and cost effective to board up windows for extreme weather and vandalism protection? What thickness? What is better installing them on the inside or on the outside?

Hi, for water, should I filter first then boil, or boil first then filter if I intend to also filter out heavy metals, pfas, etc.?

For instance, after using a sawyer gravity setup, I would like to get rid of any potential heavy metals, taste, etc. and use e.g. a brita pitcher filter. And then the last stage would be to boil that water if needed.

What is the correct sequence for filtering and boiling, and what is your "maxed out" plan for water purification?

Please share your thoughts and plans,

Thanks!

I've had this stuck in my mind for a while now. I've seen so many videos of tours of bunkers, whether it be an "affordable" bunker for the family or a gigantic repurposed missile silo designed for multiple families. In these videos, I'll see some crazy ideas for entertainment. A gigantic underground pool (obviously overkill), a basketball court, etc. Or tamer ideas like board/card games. But I've never seen someone get really into how they would stay entertained long term.

I'm big into physical media and I think that if you're in a bunker long term, with power, and a decent amount of space, physical media could be well thought out to accommodate for the time spent not entertained for months.

DVDs, Blu-rays, and CDs are compact and don't take up much space. You could have a massive library of games, movies, and music all in one standard size tote. If it were me I would pick games that have long single player campaigns that can be played offline. There's plenty of games that take 50+ hours to complete. Having 365 individually sleeved DVDs is probably overkill, but it doesn't take up much space and you can always rewatch a movie in a year. The best part is that all these formats can all be played on a PS3.

I stumbled across a (regrettably AI) video on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/oboMubceGN8?is=8bkApD4J89-8aQHR

Basically they are suggesting a strategic ice reserve, as opposed to large power bank, to keep a refrigerator / freezer cold during a power outage.

It's an interesting concept.

I could see it being more useful for a disaster you can see coming (ie. Hurricane). I doubt I could justify a small chest freezer of ice running indefinitely. But I'm curious to hear thoughts!

Only prep items I currently have are what I already own for normal use (lights, batteries, batteries for a couple tool platforms and tri fuel generator as we have natural gas)

Looking to get a solution for water storage. I’m in hot humid Florida and garage is just about the only space I have for it. I’m aware that cans can pop in the heat.

Has any stored aluminum cans or bottles of water to get by instead of having to rotate or treat every 6-12 months? Is that a thing?

Are there any resources available to block off a basement from the upstairs? I'm mainly thinking about blocking out radiation if I need to retreat to my basement.

I keep seeing ads for expensive underground bunkers that you can buy, and I was just thinking, how are these any different from just going down into the basement? If there is a tornado, or if there is a power outage that makes the house too hot or cold, or even a really bad windstorm, I would just go down into the basement. And if I needed to hide from someone, there are places in the basement for that too.

Going to my “local” Costco (2.5 hours from me) for the second time. My first trip I was mostly overwhelmed by everything they had. I have a pretty decent supply on hand of food and essentials, but I’m looking to pad my preps a little on this trip with about a $500 budget. Do you all have any advice about stuff you think gets overlooked at the Warehouse and I should pick up? Basically any things that aren’t beans and rice (although I will definitely get some of those too 😂)

Hello! Im getting back into prepping and would like to know if i need to do the whole mylar+buckets+oxygen absorbers etc. process if I'm only planning on my supplies to last 3-5 years max from today?

In essence I do not need my supplies, e.g. rice to last 5+ years. Just 3-5 years and I'll be rotating.

In this case do I still need to vacuum seal, use food grade buckets, etc.?

Please advise. Thanks!

Over the past few years, I have built up a considerable amount of preps, dual diesel generators, 15 kWp of solar with battery storage, a reverse osmosis system with additional UV filtration, and enough food for my family for two years.

I even have a fully equipped fallout shelter in the coal cellar of an old school that I rented, fitted with a Swiss NBC filtration system. Two Geiger counters inside and a third one outside, connected to a computer in the shelter. Dosimeters for everyone.

But the one thing I wasn't prepared for was realizing that the worst day of my life wouldn't be something a shelter could protect me from.

I spent so much time maintaining all of this that I didn't notice my daughter's symptoms developing. We took her to all the required medical checkups, but I keep thinking that I could have read between the lines and realized that something wasn't right.

Nele passed away on February 23, 2026.

My wife left me three months later.

My fortress is empty now.

I've just sold my last generator and donated most of my food supplies.

What I'm trying to say is, be prepared, but enjoy your life while you still can. I can't stop thinking about how much time I spent on all of this, time I could have spent with her.

And thank you, HazmatsMan, for being such a great help with the plans for my fallout shelter a few years ago.

Starting to prep food, got my Mylar bags & o2 absorbers and slowly working on that. However, I have no water stored. Not even a single bottle, I feel so overwhelmed and behind when it comes to water, I’ll eat bugs if I have too, but water worries me sooo much.

Best buckets please for storing water or storage in general? For long term. Also, any water with bleach would be okay? Tap water, rainwater, bottled water? I’m kinda confused about where the water would come from and when or when not to use bleach in it? Also with long term, if we open it, should we still purify it again when we drink it? Or just use to flush toilets, garden, bathe etc.

Thanks a bunch

Hello, I’m a first time mum to an almost six month old and live in Scotland. Summer has come to an end and we’re moving into autumn but winter is on my mind. We don’t often have weather extremes especially by the coast. The worst of our winter tends to be a few inches of snow tbh.

But now I have a little one in tow I’m feeling a bit more apprehension. We keep enough supplies in the home to keep us all (including our cat!) comfortable for a few weeks in case of illness/covid style lockdowns but I have a sudden anxiety about what to keep in the car.

We took a trip to our nearest city the other day which is only an hour away but our baby’s bottle warmer battery died so it was an uncomfortable hour long drive home with a hungry baby, I felt awful. It got me thinking, what if we were stuck in traffic for a long period of time, what if the weather stranded us away from home, it’s all unlikely but not a risk I’m willing to take with my child.

So please, I’ll take any advice on what to keep in our car. I always keep jump cables, a torch, some painkillers and bottled water but I know there’s much more I could be prepped with. I’m sleep deprived so please assume I’m forgetting the obvious lol

For rifle shooters who want to practice dry firing or building shooting positions, but do not have the ability to get out to the range as much as you'd like, you can make an indoor optical training aid for around $25 that will allow you to practice dry firing and lets you use your rifle scope at all magnifications.

Drill a hole 1/3 of the diameter of the objective lens of your scope into the center of the dust cover on the objective lens end. Purchase a +.25 diopter or a +.50 diopter lens that will fit inside the diamater of the dust cover. Tape or glue the +.25 or +.50 diopter to the inside of the dust cover. Print copies of the MDT dry fire practice targets out, and you are now ready to practice.

The +.25 diopter works between 10 - 12 feet, and the +.50 diopter allows you to practice between 5 - 7 feet. Some additional lighting may be needed on the target due to the smaller objective opening on the rifle scope.

This summer we have had some strong storms in my region. After a brutal storm about a month ago I started to actually organize my preps.

Using AI I created an inventory, and a manual database linked to the pdf manuals of all my major appliances, and gear, as well as common replacement parts. For all of my supplies I separated into proper dollar store totes and labelled them ect. I then sat with my wife and asked the AI agent to create a family emergency plan for common issues around my region. It covered all the basics, through a 45 min Q&A session my wife and I then had a pretty strong plan.

I then asked it to rate my inventory against the likely emergencies. Over the next month I worked to close those gaps and update the documentation accordingly. I included step by step instructions for some tasks like failing over the electrical, turning on and off the well, ect.

Then the storms hit. As soon as we got the first alert we started to follow the plan. Set everything up and escalated accordingly to the updates we heard and saw. We rode out the storms with no hiccups. The few gaps we did find were quick updates. “Close the gate going to the basement to keep the dog downstairs” and “Turn on exterior lights”

I will be honest I found getting the gear fun and was a bit of a cosplayer. The planning is where I lacked. Now that I leveraged a tool it has helped me focus in on gaps, create a weekly, monthly and annual schedule for maintenance and reviews. I am going to be building a competency matrix and ensuring that my schedule takes into account training and skill development.

Has anyone else leveraged AI to help harden their preps? If so how?

This has been on my mind for ages, if you had the options of purchasing…
Commercial walk in deep freezer/fridge
Shipping containers
Metal campers/rv
Commercial wide propane tanks
Storage sheds
(or other similar easy to access pre-made shelter-like objects)

Edit: this is a hypothetical scenario lol, I play a lot of apocalyptic games and it’s just on my mind

If getting a custom bunker or underground shelter wasn’t an option, what “unique” object would you bury and DIY a shelter with?

I bought a fancy LED rechargeable one, but the dern thing doesn’t work unless it’s constantly on the charger. Waste of money. Most flashlights recommended on Amazon are suspiciously inexpensive. I’m fine with rechargeable but old-fashioned battery powered would be great too.

So my wife just found out she's pregnant (woohoo!) We also live in the south eastern US where we have very hot summers.

I'm worried about possible grid/infrastructure attacks or data centers causing brown/ black outs in our area. It gets HOT y'all. My worst nightmare is having an overheating or hypothermic baby that I can't do anything for.

We're renting our house so I can't go adding solar to the roof or a whole home backup system. I'm thinking about buying a window A/C unit and a jackery or ecoflow solar "generator" (battery pack). Given the situations that concern me, I don't want to rely on gas or propane being available either. My top choice right now is the ecoflow delta 3 pro, but I've read a lot of really bad reviews.

Everywhere I look it seems like any solar/ battery solution isn't great and the best thing to do it build my own. Are there any off the shelf solutions that don't suck given what I'm looking to do?

I currently live full time in a class b van. Promaster 3500. It’s off grid (solar and propane) been in it a year now. Just had alot of bad luck last year between family members passing, bankruptcy, my parents house burning down, and then multiple job losses. So I found this camper for 27k. Put some money down on it, and I have a little over a year left til it’s paid off.

My question is kind of strange.

I’m hitting a point where I’m burning out of vanlife. Mostly cus I’m a glorified homeless person. All my mail goes to my parents back home in another state 600 miles away, while I work away.

I make roughly 40k a year, maybe 50 with overtime.

Socially I’m tired of being in a big camper van that exposes me. And screams someone lives in that. It’s a cool van but I feel like an outsider at work. Coworkers joke with me about it a lot.. I hop from parking lot to parking lot and shower at gyms but also it forces me to work out. My life if basically work and home.. or well.. the van.

I’ve got maybe a months worth of dry food saved up in here. Maybe 2 weeksish of water. 3 if I used my sinks and showers water as a storage. I can’t stock much else though, and honestly I’m wanting to move to an apartment.

But I just can’t mentally bring myself to break away from the van. I’m terrified of a financial collapse and losing my job and needing to get home, or becoming homeless again and then being in a car. My parents are in their 60s and 70s. I’m 40 and care less about my well being and more that I can help them if I need.

But I don’t have much saved up. I’ve tried and could last maybe a month or so with savings that I have, but an apartment would suck up all that from a application and then a first and last months rent.

I know it’s a weird prepper question but I guess I’m asking, what would you do?

Should I suck it up and tolerate another year or so and save whatever I can like crazy. Just eating as cheap as a I can, storing what I can? Am I better off selling this van and getting out of the payments and into an apartment? Should I go crazy paying it off?

Or try and commit to a apartment where I work and just commute to my home state when I can?

How are y’all mentally handling the state of the economy and financial worries?

Ok, so I accept that firearms are a very pragmatic portion of prepping, and I've been putting them off, but recently moved to a more gun-ftiendly state. I got a ruger 10/22 and a glock 17, pretty happy with my basic setup.

I went to a gun event this weekend, amd there was a raffle. I joke that, if I need it I'll win it. Well now I'm the owner of a (as far as i can tell) decent 35mm thermal imaging rifle scope, and need a rifle to use it with.

Is there a general opinion on these scopes, when to use them? My options seem to be 5.56 AR, small cal hunting rifle, and maybe large cal hunting rifle,but thats technically a no-no. Oh and selling it and getting a regular scope/rifle

EDIT: two follow up question: 1) are there phrases and words i should use in the store when shopping for SHTF guns?

2) in the SHTF world, im very sensitive about not drawing attention to myself, and guns are loud how valid a concern is that? To what extent do people make suppressed/subsonic builds on what they have?

(top body edit)

LiFePO4s, which I'm referencing here since I run them, and are being utilized by many others for modern battery banks, are managed differently than lead acid.

(end top body edit)

Over the last year or so, been noticing a creeping drop in how long the batteries will keep things running. Finally pulled out a multimeter to check each 12V battery in the strings, and woof... Some big discrepancies. I balanced them when initially installing by charging each individual 12V battery, but things being the way they are, drifts happen when using them.

Each string can take a couple days between balancing then fully charging each string, and depending on how many strings you have, could take your battery backup offline a week or longer. I just picked up a balancer myself, but haven't had time to test it (so I can't give a product recommendation yet).

Here's a vid giving more info: 48V Battery Equalizer Explained: What It Is & Why You Need One!

Not my vid, and the product link in the description is a dead link, but there seems to be a good assortment of similar ones available on Amazon.

I needed an excuse to rebuild the battery shelf anyways. Figure no better time since they'll be taken offline!

As an edit, some other info I'm just finding: Looks like the best practice would be to get an active balancer and keep it permanently installed on each string after everything is balanced and brought online. With each one ranging from $50-$75, might be expensive if you have a lot of strings. Also, it looks like many of the active balancers on Amazon don't include in-line fuses for each lead, so it would be a good idea to put an in-line fuse on each line, just in case.

A second edit: Learning more as I go on, this time, about the upsides of having a cross-tie across the batteries. Adding the cross-tie would let me get away with having only one balancer to keep the entire bank balanced!

I have a home filtration system so trust my tap water, however I am wanting to get a water bottle
(mainly for my kids at school) that can filter out a wide range of nasties (we are in the UK) when the school refill them for their tapes, so I'm looking at getting them the lifestraw water bottles. Does anyone know if they are actually good are they just a bit of a gimmick?

I've recently been trying to expand into some alternative communication types in case of emergencies and for day-to- day use. These are all pretty cheap and easy options as I'm not quite ready to explore the HAM/VHF scene yet. I also just finished the book One Second After and it was a good reminder of how important communication and knowing what's happening is. Our brains go into some weird places when we don't know what's going on around us!

My friend gave me a pair of those tiny Baofeng mini walkie talkie BF-T1s that fit in a your back pocket. They aren't super powerful but are fine for short distances, and they also have regular FM radio we can tune into. We use them for communicating in the mountains when climbing too, so it's good that they're small and light.

I also recently got into MeshCore for some longer distance communications that don't rely on any centralised network operating. I've been using a SenseCAP T-1000 which is the size of a credit card so also good for in the mountains! I hope to contribute with a repeater at some point soon as well.

Finally, I have a Midland ER300 which I can tune into radio stations for emergency broadcast. It's a brick but only for emergencies. It uses Li-ion battery that I can charge with its built-in mini solar panel, a crank, or via USB. It also takes AA batteries, which I have stored as well.

One other thing that's important is to have a copy of your local emergency broadcast channels! I printed the frequencies for all the areas in the country (I live in a small country) and glued them to the back of the Midland, and I've also got them written down in the notes on my phone.

Is there anything else I could add to this?