I am fairly new to your blog, having been introduced by BulletProofMe.com [1]. I have enjoyed reading it every now and then, and have been preparing for quite some time now. So you can imagine, I have most if not all the things you are talking about EXCEPT the place outside the cities, but that is being worked on as I write this, and HOPEFULLY we will buy some land soon. Just looking for the right place.
Switching gears, I found some interesting information on Peak Oil [2], and why cheap oil is over forever. See the transcript available at: http://www.financialsense.com/fsn/BP/2005/1022.html [3] – Mel in Austin