" We're in a pretty rural area and appropriately prepared for defense. "
Sorry -- didn't mean to sound like I was making fun of you, personally....
This is the "nightmare scenario" that keeps me awake nights -- very few people have thought things through to realize how close we are to the edge, civilizational-collapse-wise.
And the scary thing is that this collapse can be triggered by any number of things which could upset a pretty precariously balanced equilibrium...
I'm probably one of those few. I also read "Collapse" by Jared Diamond.