Try looking up permaculture and biodynamic farming as well - some of the practices/ideas are pretty far out, but I like the basic tenets - that the land, soil, water, plants and animals are all part of a web that is and must be interconnected for any part to do well. There are magazines - ranging from homesteading ones to active working farmers - try Backwoods, Grit, Back Home, Acres USA, Progressive Farmer (I think that's the title), Mother Earth News and a few others, oriented toward small operations, either with an eye to self-sufficiency or producing for sale. Try any number of the publications from Back Home or Storey Publications to get an idea for raising livestock, living, farming on a small scale. If your chosen area publishes a farmer's/market bulletin, get hold of copies and see what is being sold at what prices. Talk to restaurants, etc., and see what they want, then figure out if you can grow it in the quantities and for a price that will allow you to make a profit - some things are in short supply because they are very hard to grow in bulk! Bear in mind that, while you won't necessarily need a large acreage, depending on your operations, you will HAVE to have good water and soil. And the water you will need for as long as you are there - so a good well or excellent spring, and not a lot of building plans in the area for the near future that might run down the water table will be a plus - look at the water situation in Raleigh, NC for a BAD example to stay away from. Granted, droughts are under no-one's control, but... Look at the weather, climate, etc. in the area you want to move to, and then go there and start asking questions - there are microclimates that are warmer and that are colder than the norm in all areas. The nat'l weather service did put out a book with the average temperatures, rain/precipitation, humidity, wind, etc., for each month for the past 10 years, so get a copy of the most recent edition and look at the patterns. Things ARE changing, but you can see trends and patterns. Spend time in the possible areas, a week or more and more than once, and don't just talk to realtors - they may not know the answers - so talk to the farmers and the people who live there. County co-operative extension agents can be founts of information. Think of your market - if you have to drive more than 2 hours to get to your market(s), more often than once or twice a week, you will need to factor in the costs of gas (which won't be getting cheaper) into your profit margins. If you can have something that people will come get, you have less in the way of transport costs, but you will have to figure in the time it takes to deal with the customer(s), and the interruption of other jobs. If the production of "after-market", processed things is in your plans, check local regulations about slaughtering and selling meat or eggs, about value added products like jams and jellies, what is needed or not in the way of facilities - some areas have a central facility for processing crops that is open to the community, and some, you can use facilities that aren't then being used, such as churches in the mid-week. Enough, you don't need overload. As you can see, there's a lot to think about and decide before you ever buy land, for life-style and location, size, etc., etc., etc.

I think my question is pretty clear: You have offered your place for sale to some potential farmer. You have not named a price, said how many acres, soil type, water resources, etc. You have said a rental income of 32k justifies buying your place and trying to make a living farming it. There is no way to know that without knowing at least the answers to the questions above. In most parts of the eastern US the market value of land makes trying to "make a living" by selling farm produce is an impossibility. It's all fine if one bought the place years ago when it was much less valuable in relative terms, and/or paid off the mortgage if there was one by doing some occupation much more remunerative than farming, or most workable of all, inherited the land. Buying land these days, most places, to live by farming is not feasible. The result will be a big loss of time/labor and any money invested.

Thank you very much for nice comments. Vettin, Deuil de Dr Reynaud is doing great, but I do have to spray it. It is very similar to Mme Isaac Perier, which I also grow, but more vigorous for me. Could be just a difference between two particular plants. Fragrance is to die for and the blooms are huge. Some repeat, if you water it regularly. As with most long cane bourbons, for better plant health and bloom production the canes that flowered need to be removed next spring. It mostly bloos on 1-2 year old canes. Older wood became non productive and gets a lot of dieback. Most of these roses are 6-7 year old, some younger, some older. I add new roses every year and give away roses every year, so it is difficult to keep track of rose age for me. No special feed program, just fertilize in spring with some organics (city leaf compost) and a handful of 10-10-10. Some years I do additional feed in summer, with whatever I have on hand, alfalfa pellets, rose tone or 10-10-10. But this does not happen every year. My soil is read clay, quite heavy, you probably can make bricks from it :( As for prunning, I really do nothing special. The main thing is I don't think that pruning can harm roses. There is a lot of sentiment on this forum that pruning somehow is not beneficial. I just don't buy it. All my roses (old european oncbloomers, teas, chinas, hybrid musks, moderns, shrubs, rugosas, get winter/spring pruning to self supporting wood. I don't wait until they mature and start from their first spring, even if it was a band planted last summer. I believe that pruning for structure should start from young age. In my climate it works. It also worked for me when I lived in CT, KY and back in Europe. I remove twiggy growth and shorten canes, approx 1/2, sometimes more. Olga

I have really enjoyed this tread, have never laughed so much. Reminds me of that old acres of diamonds story where a landowner sells his farm to finance his global search for diamonds and ends up broke and homeless while the person who bought his farm discovers that it is awash with millions of dollars of crude oil or something of that effect. The moral of the story may be that many of us are sitting on acres of diamonds so to speak but are so motivated for a geographical change or the pursuit of some elusive but unattainable dream that we do not recognize the treasures that are beneath our very feet or underneath our very nose. reminds me also of the french movie Jean De Florrante, (ca'nt remember exactly how to spell it,) where a man inherits a farm in the countryside of France and kills himself trying to make a living off of it while being sabotaged by his father who is trying to steal the farm away from his son in order to give it to his mentally retarded nephew, because neither father nor son know who each other are until after the death of the son at which time the father discovers that he has killed his true son and has thus ruined his acres of diamonds so to speak. The poster sounds like that they could be a front man for a group of Amish people who quietly buy up thousands of acres of prime farmland that is poised to increase even further in value in the near future, but I doubt it, sounds more like someone from Japan or somewhere representing a bunch of businessmen or something, who knows, but very funny tread. thanks, Barry