The Nantucket series books by  S. M. Stirling are some great reading. I have all three of them. The guy has done a great job with them. I think any person with a survivalist interest would like these books.   
The character with the machine shop is based on a guy who is a regular on a list that I read - Only Machine shop that WAS on Nantucket.  A year or 2 back, he got fed up with the cost of living, and moved to Maine