According to recent news reports, some funny business was reported pertaining to public water sources in your area of the country. Fortunately no water was contaminated. Unfortunately, search efforts in multiple places were being made by unknowns 3 months BEFORE Trump bombed Iran this past February. So, sorry, they already have the ideas. I guess bombing their nuclear sites a year ago sparked that idea, and after a few months they were invading our air spaces.
In this day and age anyone who does not keep at least 3 gallons of water stored for every person at their home is a fool. I use old milk gallons, and empty them and refill once a year. If you live in a hot area you should store more water. Ordinarilly 1/2 gallon is enough drinking water a day, with a half gallon for face washing and minor cleaning, but in really hot weather??? There has been at least one water scare in my region when a major pipe broke somewhere, affecting several thousand people with a boil water warning. We also had some electrical outages. If both incidents were to occur at the same time, how would people with electric stoves boil their water? And those were just minor emergencies. Fortunately I also had some candles when my electricity went out at night.
We are looking into additional outdoor rain storage systems as I really get a LOT of use from my 35 gallon rain barrel. Even just a 1/2” of rain overfills that, channeled by a gutter system off the metal roof. In dire times that water could be boiled for cooking or drinking. I also keep gallon jugs of water on hand for us. As long as I can ‘flush & brush’ I’m a lot easier to get along with! Also, I have Army Training, so I have no problems digging either a Field Latrine or a cat hole just for me, LOL!
A similar system set up to catch rainwater off the greenhouse, located nearer the garden, would be ideal, too!
I’ve walked around The Manse and there are at least two spots where a system like this could be set up and you couldn’t see it from the front of the house:
https://modernnomadgear.com/diy-rainwater-harvesting-systems-off-grid-homes/
We do have a crystal clear 385 foot water well. And Beau keeps his plumbing license up to date. ;)
However, Priority One is a better generator. We lose power at least 3x a year and it’s usually something stupid - like a squirrel committing suicide. Plus, we are the LAST farm on the power line - we are at the end of a dead end road, so we’re never a priority to anyone - which is kind of the way we like it. ;) We also pester the power company quite often about the age and fading strength of our power poles. Again, we are LOW on their ‘replacement list’ and we live in a relatively poor county, so unless we want to pay for them ourselves...which they are MORE than happy to suggest...
You know, I thought this ‘Homesteading’ was going to be a heck of a lot easier, LOL!