Little House on the Prairie

I'm reading the Little House on the Prairie books. It seems to me they lived a precarious existance. Every year it was a struggle to put aside enough food for the winter. If they didn't put aside enough food, they starved. On the other hand, they probably would have felt that we live a precarious existance. After all, if the trucks don't show up at the supermarket for 3 days running, a city of a million people will go hungry.