My purpose for writing this book was to show that a thinking person can not only survive, but live well in a world gone crazy. Live well, of course, meaning compared to most. I wanted to show that one didn't need Bill Gates's checkbook to build a place to survive. At the same time, one isn't going to do it on the change found in the couch cushions. It will take time and smart living. Rome wasn't built overnight, but it was pretty much destroyed about that fast.

Avoiding debt is the first rule. If you have oppressive student debt, I can't help you. If you have several credit cards maxed out, then you need more than my bit of advice. In this story, I placed food production at the top, I didn't add weapons and such till later for a reason.

Mostly, I hoped to make you think. I hope it does. We have some hard times coming, and time's short. I'm close to 80 years old, I've been thinking about this stuff since the early 1960s. I have almost everything I write about and have for years. I still have Y2K supplies.

I was told that when I opened my beans, there would be weevils in them. I said good, added protein!

Would I dump a five-gallon bucket of beans with weevils in it? Hell to the no! I ate snakes and monkeys in the Marines, and food from small green cans. A bug ain't gonna bother me. So, I hope you get an idea from this. If not, I failed...or, you already know it.

One nice note. if the whole thing goes tits up, those student loans, maxed-out credit cards, they will be gone. A nice thought to end on.