Awesome.

I escaped Califonia a year ago, and now planning my escape from the suburbs. Hydro would be great for off-grid, but it can be seasonal as you well know. I work in electrical generation and distribution, so building whatever sort of system is well within scope. My GF is definitely on board with off-grid, but I think electricity would be necessary.

Even if you don't have enough "head" for hydro, you might have enough to power a "hydraulic ram" that can pump water up to a storage tank. When i was a kid we had two running on our local creek. One was a 1" that ran 24/7 to keep a 5k gallon tank full and another was a 2-1/2" sized unit that would pump gravity irrigation water if the creek was running full enough.

6' of head will raise about 1/4th of the water passing through it up 40 feet or so.

I'd do just fine without power. I have all the essentials for survival (food, water, fuel, warm clothes, cash, and firearms). I don't have a generator, but I don't feel like I need one, either. The only thing I would miss is quick access to news and information via the Internet. But as long as my basic needs are being taken care of, I can live with that first world problem.