Prepper: John Adrain, an inventor in the Pacific Northwest
Scenario: Chaos after any widespread apocalypse
“I think it’s good common sense to be prepared for the unexpected.” Bugging out is his last resort. He doesn’t understand a bugging out plan with clogged roads and being unable to travel. He does have a law enforcement style SUV with a weapons slot inside.
Goal: Turn his home into a technological fortress to protect his have’s from the have not’s. The terrain of where his home is 
located is the first line of security. He has a pivot gate made for military installations that can stop a 10 ton truck going 50 mph. A Beowulf rifle is his next line of defense. It can whoop up on concrete blocks. He tries it out through a car door and it is quite effective.
For looters on foot, he has 12 HD cameras that can be monitored from home or his smart phone. John has a recognition software camera at the front door. His windows are coated with a shatterproof tint called embassy tint. Fact: Homes with security systems are three times less likely to be broken into than those without. If intruders get through all of that, he’s got some more in store. A contraption that renders his home uninhabitable, they’ll get a blast with pepper spray.
John has 2 years of food and 5,000 gallons of water on hand. Security is his number one priority. He has a bed bunker safe which is hard to remove from the house. “If you’re going to prep and have all kinds of things but anybody can take them, what’s the point of prepping? You might as well just stack $100 outside on a bench.” 
John’s security team feels he’s too comfortable at the home and needs to consider bugging out. They’re going to test him with an attack. Will he be willing to bail if necessary? He was.
Expert Prepper’s Assessment: 16 months of food. He wasn’t counting on it to last forever. Need back up supply of water. Supplementary rain catchment system.
Scale rating: Food, shelter, water, security and X-factor score 80 out of 100 with 16 months initial survival time. John says that 16 months is better than one month. He appreciates the assessment and plans to make more improvements.
I liked John. You can tell he thinks through every angle and adds practicality to his goals. The home is beautiful and he has the means and experts to help him maintain his lifestyle. If the shit hits the fan, I’m going to John’s! Next, we meet a prepper whose pockets aren’t as deep as John’s.
Prepper: Jeff Bushaw, married with 2 kids, lives in Vancouver, Washington. “Shoe String Prepper” 
Scenario: Yellowstone Super Volcano
There’s an active super volcano 800 miles from his home. If it erupts, the damage would be like 1,000 Hiroshima bombs going off every second. Jeff thinks entire cities of people would be lost immediately.
The ash clouds could block the sun and cover cities. Food shortage would be an issue.
Over the past 4 years, he has been stock piling food at an undisclosed location and has about a year’s worth. He has a ten-year toilet paper supply because he got a good deal and it’s a luxury item that could be used for trade or barter. He takes his teen son to a storage unit auctions to find things they can use or barter. First aid items, guns, etc. He won a locker for $500. They find arrows, a camouflage rifle, medical things. His son plans to be a prepper too.
Jeff is also taking flying lessons as a means of bugging out. This flight ends in an emergency landing, a planned one. The pilot turns 
off the power so Jeff can see how to land on a flat surface in an emergency.
Expert Prepper’s Assessment: Water storage is inadequate and he needs a way to purify it. No way to re-supply food. He needs to store seeds and grow his own food. Jeff’s interested in that idea.
Scale rating: Food, shelter, water, security and X-factor score 57 out of 100. 6 months initial survival time.
Update: Jeff made big changes. They moved to a 3 acre property that has fresh water and a barn for food storage.
The Yellowstone Volcano has blown three times in the past 2.1 million years, which is one in every 6-800,000 years. The last eruption was 640,000 years ago. Scientists give it a 1 in 730,000 chance of erupting in any given year, if it even happens again.
Jeff seemed fine enough, but with the scientific predictions, I think he’s taking this way overboard, especially to move for something that is not likely to happen. The plane part confused me as with volcanic ash, what the hell will you be flying into with no air traffic control? The plane is so tiny, none of their food and water preps could load on there with four people. They could only fly south. My tip would be to move far away from the volcano if that’s the scenario that has been eating at you for four years. Florida? Virginia?
Prepper team: Allen and Franco, SW Missouri. Allen is a veteran prepper and electrical engineer who has spent $30,000 and 30 
years prepping for doomsday. The crazy people are the ones who don’t prep, he thinks.
Franco, a master electrician. Prepping for 3 years and has spent over $20,000.
Scenario: Allen: Preparing for the economic decline of the United States economy.
Franco: Preparing for the rise of food costs, food shortages, corruption of our food supply through big business. AKA: Anarchy in both of their minds. Neither wants to bug out of their homes. They’ve made a food production system using aquaponics. Fish and plants are grown together. The fish waste is pumped into grow beds that the plants use as fertilizer. The plants use the nitrates and filter the water, which is sent back to the fish tanks. A complete circle. This is some big time system. Very cool. There’s a a lot of work with this system, but they can feed a family for two years. Aquaponics uses 95% less water than traditional farming.
Franco spends 30 hours a week working on his aquaponics greenhouse system. Each man has their own system but run them a bit differently. Their competition is heating up, more so in a friendly manner, and they’ve added another component to their food system. Maggots for Allen and Red wigglers for Franco. Both can help the fish and be protein within themselves.
Allen’s family think he’s obsessed and a bit eccentric. 
Expert Prepper’s Assessment: Allen: Great asset with plenty of stored food. Supplement it with rabbits and chickens. Sufficient water supply, but it needs to be mobile. (Allen says his family is not having the rabbits and chickens talk. I don’t blame them.)
Franco: Good water collection, but need back up sources. He lacks weapons and tactical training, which is needed to protect home and food storage. He doesn’t believe in weapons. Isn’t the prepping hallmark protecting your family, food and investment?
Scale rating (Allen) : Food, shelter, water, security and X-factor score 77 out of 100. 15 months initial survival time
Scale rating (Franco) : Food, shelter, water, security and X-factor score 49 out of 100. 4 months initial survival time. Allen wins!
Experts do not expect the use of genetically modified foods to cause sharp increases in food costs leading to a food crisis or a complete societal breakdown over this in the Unites States.
The aquaponics system is a good thing and a way to change the problems that come with genetically modified foods. As a prepping tool? Not so sure. You cannot bug out with it and it would be easy for someone to destroy the system in minutes. The knowledge and skill would be more of a post-apocalyptic asset. The show didn’t bring up Allen’s security so I’m assuming he just didn’t want to go there. I could tell his family just lets him roam his greenhouse. His daughter thinks it’s a bit crazy and that nothing is going to happen, as she zipped off in her red convertible. His wife was probably counting the ways they could have spent 30 years and $30,000 that would actually matter in the long run. If he were teaching others and setting up systems for people, maybe the family would come around.
All in all, this was a good episode. I watch the storage auction shows, but hadn’t thought about the items in there being an asset beyond reselling. The aquaponics is something anyone can do and use for everyday life. John’s home will be my new vacation spot. Any fool that would want to take that place on deserves what they get. Who says money doesn’t buy happiness?
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