...another note. We are rather accustomed to storing extra provisions, being at over 9,000 feet (> 3,000 meters elevation). The roads from the large cities do close, at times, and electric power does also fail for a day or two during some winter storms. Most neighbors here are also more helpful to any suffering personal misfortunes (donating food, providing small jobs,...even speaking for the incompetent but harmless, when they get themselves into a little trouble with the law). Most people here own firearms (bear overpopulation and the like) but are highly unlikely to threaten each other with them.
> We are rather accustomed to storing extra provisions, being at over 9,000 feet (> 3,000 meters elevation).
Have you ever seen the Popular Mechanics Shop Notes books? They are incredible! First produced during the Depression and running for many years as an annual thereafter, “Shop Notes” is sorta like the “Farmer’s Almanack” for Real Men.
(I like the “Farmer’s Almanack”, too...)
They were chock-full of stuff that you could build: from shop machinery to Christmas toys, as well as farming/gardening tips — the sort of stuff that would be useful to know during The Great Depression if you were trying to subsist.
Long out-of-print, they have been reproduced and are available from an outfit called “Lee Valley” in Canada. Which is also where you can buy the very finest tools available on this planet. (really!)
http://www.leevalley.com/home.aspx
Their website is excellent: but their printed catalogs are works-of-art, the sort of thing you’d be happy to keep on your bookshelf.
There ya go! I hope that’s useful info: I swear by my copies.