This is without an existing line. Having access to NG is like me having access to a class V rapid water line. It's contingent on whats already there. So without either of those, why dismiss solar or wind? Both can be used to at least SOME degree no matter where you live in the United States (except northern Alaska and fuck those weirdos).
Then I must be VERY out of date because the conversion of a propane tank to use NG was not only super complicated, but also in the "out of the realm of most Americans" budget range. This is including things like fault tolerance for blowouts, leak detection and just general electrical maintenance. Propane (which you need a supplier for unless you are somehow compressing your own gas) is a delivered service. Not sustainable.
My father was an Irish Jew raised in Mississippi.
Which is why I revised all my stuff to be more QoL friendly and focus on the short term survival. As I said if you can live a few months you can just use other people's shit. I also already know how to produce fuel as I have done it. I might not have bankrolled it but I built it and maintained it and we ran several hundred gallons of it through 2 fords back in the Obama fuel scare days because the guy wanted to prepare and well just had fuck you money and wanted to learn the process.
If you can reliably do fuel from corn you would be king shit once people start coming out of their caves.
Biggest issue by far is having enough corn and sugar. Sugar beets is probably the best option but you'd need acres both both planted, maintained and harvested along with some other crops just to reliably fuel one vehicle that can go out and forage for other things like medical supplies, survival items and provide security. While it would also provide some medial use and so forth as well you are now talking about dozens of people. It's a never ending cycle. The more "life" you want the more people you need which is more mouths to take care of and feed.
Stuff like that would be very valuable. I know a body shop guy that is a blacksmith as his off hours hobby. He makes decent swords and armors and shit. He used to do it for SCA now it is just a hobby. Another guy I know loads all this ammo and works with brass and metals. I never done that, but much like after a month of making ethanol these are things everyone around you would learn quickly and it no longer is a useful advantage knowledge wise as everyone would possess those skills. You need to be a decent human as well and offer talents in addition to skills to survive. Some know it all better than you attitude wouldn't survive long at all, no matter how great they think they are. Having skills and talents are nice, survival not guaranteed. Loud mouth egomanics will be recycled into a usable byproduct and fertilizer.
Gee thanks. Just what I always wanted. A radioactive iPhone.
It's not important what we do with your things in death, but how you slept in life.
I'd totally do the water wheel if I had a good river and land. You'd want to divert and dam with a runoff so you could handle high water conditions and have some leeway on low water conditions and you'd have endless generators with all the parked alternators everywhere no longer in use. Up and running in a day with almost no cost! Plus you could use the divert pond for trout and skinny dipping with the mangled ladies wandering up looking for grub.
Don't prepare for doomsday. Too many variables and too much cost. Prep for disaster/short term and if it is a doomsday, you are well on your way. Don't be the guy with a full underground bunker and 15 years of food and water that gets hit with the nuke in the first 5 minutes.
Raid your state's Fish and Game yards for screw traps. Portable, easy in and out, catches fish, and would be fairly trivial to American Inventor rig it to an alternator.
