As a long time follower of Sharon Astyk’s blog, Casaubon's Book, I naturally picked up a couple of her books to read.  In Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home Front, the main focus is on the effects of peak oil, and how our world is going to change when the supply of oil can no longer meet the demand, as many experts predict could be happening as we speak.While it may be a bit doom and gloom to some, the principles of this book can be applied to any type of emergency or even directly to the economic crisis we are facing today.  As we learn to live on less because of unemployment, pay cuts or furloughs, we would do well to begin supplying more of our own needs.

From growing our own food to learning how to reuse and repair what we have, skills in self-sufficiency are always helpful to have.  Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home Front explores the types of skills and knowledge we can make use of in a world where cars and commerce are declining due to lack of oil.

You can use the principles in this book to better prepare your home and family against any kind of emergency, be it a job loss, lengthy illness or other unforeseen circumstance that affects your ability to provide income or food to your family.  Getting out of debt, learning useful skills and weaning ourselves away from oil dependence can only help us out in the long run.