I live about as much off the grid as is possible but I know people who take it to a much higher extreme than I do. I know people that almost seem to be willing the end of civilization and have become "preppers" with massive stores of non-perishable food, a seeming bunker in their basements, and the ability to grow their own food on their own land is paramount in their lives. Of course guns are a big part of the preparation as well and I am very prepared as far as that is concerned.
I see nothing wrong with this and I wish I was better at it than I am. Unfortunately I just don't have that much of a green thumb and try as I may, my vegetable garden is always kind of lacking. I can grow the stuff that everyone is capable of growing such as tomatoes, potatoes, and pumpkins, but they harvest is always a bit lacking and especially with the pumpkins, it seems as though the plants grow to extreme size before they ever bear any sort of edible output.
I'm just not good at it and at least for now, I am not all that worried about it.
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When I see images of people who are proper preppers I am very impressed, especially if they grew a lot of the food themselves. The designs on some of these things are very impressive and I sincerely hope that we do not get to a point where these sorts of things are necessary. You have to admit though, they are pretty damn cool.
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Most average preppers, two of who live in my county, have a tube of some sort underground with air filtration systems, some form of water storage and collection system, and a bunch of storage area for food and drinking water. The more advanced ones have some sort of electrical system as well and all of them have very strong doors to prevent entrance. Then there are some truly amazing and a bit crazy ones like this luxury bunker in Georgia that is for sale for $18 million.
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I have a hard time believing that you are actually going to be capable of surviving if this is the sort of bunker that you require for comfort
The non-perishable meals that I have found for sale and purchased some of actually aren't that bad. It's not like yo would choose to eat this if you had an alternative but they have managed to make them palatable. I'm quite certain it would be delicious if the alternative was to eat nothing.
For now I haven't built anything that would be considered something that you could live in indefinitely. The only thing I have done with my basement is to reinforce the one and only door, have very strong bars on all the small windows and one room with stores the most important gear doesn't have any windows at all. The idea being that if need be, I could hole up in the one windowless room for probably weeks on end.
I don't have a lot of faith in government and for the most part I dislike all of it. I don't think that we are on the verge of societal collapse though. I think that a lot of people are going to be upset for a long time in regards to politics and that we are probably going to be divided about 50/50 for the rest of my life at least. I am prepared for the worst to some degree though and I hope that I don't have to use it.
In the meantime my location is remote enough that I probably wouldn't need to be too concerned about roaming marauders and if they did come my way, they better come packing heat and a lot of it because I am. That is the one aspect of my "bunker" that is not in any way lacking. Now I just need to get a bit better at the whole gathering of food aspect of things.
I am fascinated by this lifestyle even though I don't really think there is any instance where it is going to become necessary. I'll probably continue to stockpile canned goods with a long shelf life and perhaps work on a water system that doesn't need to be connected to the municipal grid in order to function. Other than that, if it gets worse than that, I suppose I'll last a few months to a year longer than most people. I'm not sure I would want to still be around if we all of a sudden needed to subside out of our bunkers for years at a time.