Land Search Continues - for what purpose?

It's been a long couple of days. The Kid and I went out property hunting again yesterday, and although I fell in love with one place, it had no carpet and I'm quite sure our mortgage broker would have laughed in our face!

We're looking again tomorrow, with Hubby, especially at a 39 acre property out in the boonies. It's priced just a tad more than we want to spend, but all that land! And a house that looks nice, with several outbuildings (at least, according to the pictures). Keep your fingers crossed! Can you imagine how many nut and fruit trees and berry brambles we could grow there?!?!

Here's a thought: 39 acres is a lot larger than what we originally thought we would have. How would we get around a property that size? I don't really want horses and I'm pretty sure a bike wouldn't go well over the prairie-type terrain.

As to what we'd do with 39 agres... like I said above, we'd plant a whole lot more fruit and nut trees, and berry brambles and bushes. I don't plan to farm on a large scale because that would mean we'd need to buy equipment that would run on gas, and that wouldn't exactly reduce our carbon footprint. Plus that's not really self-reliant, unless we strike oil! We'd keep the originally-planned number of goats and chickens, but we wonder what else we could do with all that space? Perhaps something to help us pay the mortgage... like a u-pick-it pumpkin patch? Would people drive 30 minutes from east Denver to pick pumpkins in the Fall? Or apples? Or a u-pick-it walnuts or chestnuts or almonds? Do people even pick nuts in a u-pick-it place? Plus it would 3-5 years before the first harvest. Or maybe create a labyrinth and a meditation garden for people to visit.... but I really like my privacy. And wouldn't that and any u-pick-it ideas require larger home owner's insurance because of the visitors?

I'm disabled so I can't do too much physically. That's why I like the idea of trees.

Perhaps I could grow lots of loofas to dry and sell over the internet? Or grow willow trees and weave baskets to sell? (wait, my carpal tunnel wouldn't allow me to do too many).

Or should I get back to writing how-to books for homesteading skills and recipes?

Suggestions?

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Made goat ricotta cheese yesterday. OMG - easy AND delicious! I NEED GOATS!

I had my dentist appointment this morning. I hate those. Sorry, but I'm a huge chicken when it comes to my mouth. Unfortunately she found two fillings that need redoing, and a crown that seems to not be holding. Ugh. Have our cleaning appointments this coming Monday, and who knows when the repair work will need to be done. Oh, and the Kid needs braces! Again, argh.

Kid is testing end of 7th grade this week. He got an "A" for math on Monday, and a "C" for Language Arts on Tuesday. He has a half hour to finish his Social Studies test. Oh, what fun.

I guess that's it for now. I'll post tomorrow night how our visit to the 39 acre property goes.