Has everybody verified that any local groundwater they pull will be fresh water, as opposed to salt water or brackish water?
While I can pull water all year round from a source about 1/4 mile away, it's brackish at best. This means I will have to remove the salt as well as any contaminates.
While distilling is relatively easy and removes both salt and contaminates, it requires a heat source, meaning using precious fuel reserved for cooking and heating.
A desalinator will take care of this via reverse osmosis, wherein the water is passed through a special membrane which will not let the salt pass. The only problem is that it takes a fair amount of pressure to do this. Most desalinators are power driven, either 120v or 12v. However, Katadyn makes hand operated units in a couple sizes.
They are not cheap.
One is on the short list to be acquired.