>>>I'm neither city folk nor country folk - basic suburbian. Actually, we live near farmland, but just a few miles from a large town.
>>
>>Suburban is city folk. Nice try, city boy. ;)
>
>Have you ever lived or worked for a significant amount of time (say, more than a month) off the grid?

There was this time a few years back when we lost power for over a week due to some jackass joyriding a utility truck. ;)

I see a similar thing happened recently in NY.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/08/27/bucket-truck-brings-down-power-lines-in-elmont/

Since cellphones came along it's tougher to be truly "off the grid", however, we still have some property in the Sierra's where cell coverage does not exist. When I was growing up there were times that we would go to the mountains for a couple weeks or a month. No phone, no electricity not even a generator, nothing. I don't get up there as often as I would like.

Before my time, our family used to run the cattle and spend the entire summer in the Sierras. My cousin was the last to do it around 5 years ago.