Wow! You certainly sound ambitious!! As has been mentioned, you will need to do the little stuff so the big things can take place. Physical labor takes much time! Your growing seasons can be quite demanding, and things MUST be done in time, on time, so the later results can happen. Like garden preparation, seeding or putting out plants. If you wait, the window is closing, results are not as good. There are times you just cannot do what needs doing on time. ESPECIALLY if you are alone, no family members to help. My suggestion would be to check out the Master Gardener Program, see if there is a local branch that puts on classes. Taking their program really opened my eyes to doing things systematically, how so many things affect each other, regarding your final results. Locally, the MG works thru the State Extension Service, should be listed under State then Master Gardeners if you check. Your Land Grant University manages the Ag programs and farming related things. Hawaii is small, not sure who would be the University. You can learn as you wait to get your land. I would second getting PRODUCTIVE land, rather than just cheap land. Even in small acreages, you can have flat and rolling, mixed areas. Heck we have wooded areas on our 14 acres! All the animals you name, will be grazing, they are BETTER animals with some exertion going up and down hilly ground. How MUCH EXPERIENCE do you have with these animals and their care? Even with sheds, not barn with stalls, you will need to check them for injury, do regular upkeep work like hoof trimming, grooming, so you can make sure they don't have problems. For me, that means DAILY handling. You don't see cuts or soreness, if you don't lead the animal in to groom him and find problems. You need to really LOOK at them, not just a passing glance every day or so. The sheer varieties you name is overwhelming. I would have a difficult time keeping up with just animals, and no other work you have named! You will need secure fencing to contain those animals. Some like the deer, may have special laws on upkeep, you don't know about. Here, they have needed TB testing yearly, with clean results so you can sell the extras. Birds named may have issues with staying home and predators. Some just are not bright, hurt themselves, like Peacocks who fly into things. Swans can be NASTY, need to often be kept apart from smaller fowl so they don't kill them. Swan defending his area, can break your leg with a wing hit! Hawks are not picking on you, but do go for easy food sources like chickens. Shooting them will get you in BIG trouble. Buying and then losing birds is a huge money drain. The wooley animals named will need shearing yearly, and a market to get rid of the wool. You could shear yourself, but it is hard with many animals. Cost money to hire shearing done for you. Are you going to buy special sheep that take the heat well? Not sure how well the Llama and Alpaca will do in such heat, even sheared. Market for selling babies, show animals is down, not as much demand now. Each species has it's own demands for housing, feeding, vet care. That is a LOT of information just for one species! We got cattle last winter, the learning curve is SHARP, costs add up fast. Horses can be complicated, as can sheep. Feed is NOT interchangable! Goats are EXTREMELY creative, hard to keep penned if you have poor fences. The trees sound quite interesting in their variety, will they survive in MS weather? Have to say Bamboo can be EXTREMELY invasive, take over your whole farm. Check the varieties you plan to purchase, make provisions for keeping it contained. I have seen some places where the bamboo has escaped, it just crowds everything else out FAST. Some kinds get tall as trees, kind of creepy walking thru such a woods. Just looks "wrong". A tree plantation needs good fencing as well, our deer eat everything in cold seasons! Some of the trees named are slow growing, are they just for interest? You may not live long enough to see a return on wood sales. You should develop a business plan type idea for your farm. Start with the long term things first, like tree planting. Yes they need fencing, maybe watering in dry times. Need to keep the ground mowed so trees are not crowded out. When they get bigger you could graze animals under them. Land needs a good well, maybe two, so you have water. Pond is nice, but not essential to start. You can always have one dug out. Pond could be a mosquito problem too, stagnant water if it is only filled from rainfall. My thinking here, is that with you in service or Reserves, you may not have TIME to do more than watch the trees grow when you are home. Animals take LOTS of time. Reserves might get called up, then who cares for the livestock? Even dogs and cats have had problems finding homes if Military owners have to leave NEXT WEEK. Re-enlisting is not good for livestock. You could take huge losses if you needed to dump your animls. No mention of family who would stay home to care for the place on a daily basis, so probably better not to invest in livestock. Having a dream place is wonderful, but jumping in whole hog, everything at once is poor planning. What will you do for regular income? Have to have cash money for some things, like taxes and gasoline. You will NEED farm equipment to run acreage, with or without animals. I admire folks who are so self-sufficient, but it is exhausting. They work all day long, and it never gets any easier. Seems like they just get worn out before their time. We have horses, the heifer, get lambs in summer for 4-H and the freezer. Heifer is for sale, we got another horse so I need the grazing again. We are not fancy, but not patchwork either. Horses need daily handling, stalls cleaned, feeding with hay in winter. It adds up. Pastures need mowing to keep weeds down, improve grazing. I learned that in my Master Gardener class! My pastures are 1000% improved over "let the animals eat all the grass down" thinking. The horses graze now all summer, rotate the paddocks, no extra hay feeding even in dry August. Before, pasture was gone by July with no mowing. Cutting makes grasses grow MORE, grass is soft and edible, not dry and seedy. I now fertilize and disk the pasture, which improves grass growth too. Lambs have purchase price invested, grown on pasture grass, so meat is quite inexpensive. Daughter sells her 4-H animals, gets a good profit margin there for her school fund. Also did well with her Prospect Beef calf, though expenses were higher from us not knowing things to manage him better. Learning costs, but we didn't lose him like other beginner 4-H folks did with their calves! Lost money there, with dead calves. She still turned a profit, but not as good as the lamb investment/return project. Horses are just an expense, we enjoy them. Never make any money on them, just have great family times. Heifer was another idea, going to raise a calf to eat or sell, keep the fields grazed. Not much to feed her. That project is going when she sells. I don't have room for a bull and SURE don't want to keep one. AI sounds easy, but is not actually true. A friend has a bull and is keeping her for us while she is bred. Husband found a filly while heifer was gone, purchased her. Now heifer needs selling or we will be overcrowded. Have to see how that goes. Heifer is a Dexter, small breed about 700#, stands about 36-44" tall. Ours is the taller model, 42". They are a bit easier on the land, less hoof weight tearing things up, less feed needed and smaller finished weight for steers. So steers are ready in about 12 months, not longer time of larger breeds. Dexters do need dehorning, though polled is available if you hunt for them. I won't have horned cattle because of the danger of getting impaled. She has been a nice heifer, and I would recommend the breed. Like any other cattle, you have to train them. If they are handled daily is best for keeping them tamed down. She leads, loads, ties, gets groomed, comes when called for nightly stalling. But handling takes time, which seems to be short if you have lots of work on a farm. Your business plan will need money amounts for each project as you go along. Machinery investments. Old and used can work if you are mechanical, but maybe newer if you are not a fixer person. Learning mechanical skills could be something you do before getting the farm. College classes on that are easy to find. We paid to have our fence installed. We have high tensile wire, which many folks hate. Our installer put it in according to the manufacturer specs, 8 strands for horses, insulated on 4 strands for electric fencer, springs for tension, driven posts with double braced posts at each corner, all gates 14ft wide. Fence has been EXCELLENT for many years. Paying for install, was cheaper than just buying posts and material for woven wire and our own labor!! I LOVE my fence, animals stay home, no one breaks in. I would certainly pay for high-tensile again. Upkeep is weed whacking to keep it clean for fencer, putting a staple back up now and again. Sure you can do things cheap, but you end up redoing later. Lots of 2-3-4 strand tensile around here and you hear about the damaged animals, how dangerous high tensile wire is!! Well they cheaped out and didn't do things to spec, so fence is NOT to blame, builder is. Animals WILL reach thru wide spaced wires, WILL walk thru non-electric fencing, and then the damage starts. Cheap construction usually cost you later. You will need some sort of lockable building to keep tools, machines in. Check out costs for packages, garage or sheds are not too hard to assemble. But you need the costs to put down on your plan, to be prepared for when you reach that step. Planning your steps will give you a better view of the big picture near the finish with house and living on the land. Working with just land, no animals, you would be able to walk away if called up. No rush decisions because you will be gone in a week. And you can start saving money, planning for loans if needed to continue each step. Time spend learning, is a great investment. We can relate our experiences, but unfortunately, some things you have to learn by doing. I don't know any apprentice programs for farmer start ups! Do you know any crafts that would provide cash? Some places crafts can sell well, others, not so much. Apprenticing with a master craftsman, could gain those skills for you. Sorry this got so long, just hate to see folks beating their heads against the wall. Like me, with calf. "How hard can feeding a bottle baby be? EVERYONE does it, no problem daughter! I have fed bottle babies before (after being handed the bottle and returning it). We can do that". I was REALLY wrong there, should have been better prepared. Cost money to the Vet, worry, calf suffered for it. He came out OK, but it was needless because I could have gained knowledge ahead, not after buying.

I get such a kick out of your writing style, Frank! :-) It was just the ticket for today, which happens to be windy as all get-out, cold, and every joint and bone in my body is protesting quite loudly! I'm pretty crippled today. I just wish the barometric pressure would sit still for a moment or two! It wouldn't be a cure all, but it would definitely help! I've spent the majority of this morning hibernating, and searching online, using the The Orchid Mall listings, and I actually came up with a few sellers who have Bl. Richard Mueller crosses! I found about 4 or 5 different crosses... I was impressed! Well... you can always do what I did... I filled the window sill, then expanded the sill, then put in 2 large shelving units on either side of the alcove, added a couple of tall plant stands and tables, and then installed supplemental lighting to help out through winter! Yes, it's stuffed to the gills with plant material, but I love it! Anyone driving by would think I'm lit up for airport night ops, the lights are so bright! I run them a total of about 16 or 18 hours a day. Broke is my middle name... so I can only spend a few dollars here, or a few dollars there on plant material... and sometimes no dollars. If I save my pennies over winter, I will have enough by spring to get a few orchids. I've got a change jar... it's kinda empty at the moment. ;-) We're what you'd call 'in a low income bracket', but money doesn't buy happiness, so climbing that ladder of ambitious greed never did it for me. I accomplished what I set out to accomplish in life, and that's what's important to me. Of course, it does put a bit of a damper on my plant collecting, but I get there... a little at a time. :-) I've purchased from Edens Blooms before... they offer some unusual bulbed items from time to time, and I've always been happy with my purchases. The other places you mention I haven't heard of... but I'm off to check them out! The 2 Clivia plants I have were gifts... they're the more common orange and a yellow... both very nice! I was gifted with some pink Zephyranthes, and they grew so nicely that I opted to get some other colors. I'm waiting for some white one to flower, and I have a few other types in pinks and a yellow. I'm not sure any plant is worth $600 dollars of beautiful! The way I figure it, you can get a whole lot of lovely for about $25 to $30... which seems fair to me. If I spend $600 on anything, it better come with a lot of options and a remote control! ;-) Since getting into the old fashioned rose business, I've not been able to make up my mind as to a favorite flower color. Between everything we grow here, there are so many wonderful shapes, textures, colors, scents and everything else... who can make up their mind?! There are a few varieties that stand out in my mind as having all the qualities I admire in a rose... but they're different colors. I would have to say that green blooms and coffee colored blooms are more eye catching... but anything in bloom is beautiful! Well... here's me going off to surf for orchids... thanks for the suggestions, Frank! You know... you could always start out slow... allow yourself one nice orchid. Then hold off until next year for a second... hey, it might work! It depends how disciplined you are, and how many dollars you can afford to spend! ;-) Enjoy your afternoon!

Skybird, thanks for your reply. I, too, had to remove a ton of river rock last year when I started my gardening. I didn't do it all myself, but it was a lot of work. I just retired in '05, so am enjoying what gardening I've done, but sometimes I get in a little deep, I think, and don't really know what I'm doing. I may take up your suggestion and start encroaching on my grass. It is so fun, though, to see the beautiful flowers. I want to plant a couple of mini roses this spring and have ordered The Fairy. I am going to have to put my big herb pots on the grass, I think. They used to be on the rock. I can't be without basil, parsley, chives, dill, and lemon thyme. Happy spring to you, too, Marlene

Beautiful job! I don't know if you have time to go back to the fabric store. If so, get the same fabric and smush it up. See how it will hang. You might only see small parts of the fabric or things you're not especially interested in seeing. Though I really love ikat (I might be in the very minority here), I think of them as more of a trendy fabric even though it's been around for thousands of years. The floral is pretty and it reminds me of the fabric in your living room on the ottomans you like. Though, it does have a modern look to it. But to me (hoping you don't super love it) it doesn't do your room justice. The monkey one is really more traditional to me and I like it a little better. And, from your posts, you run more contemporary. How about a paisley? I have a fabric that I picked out (I won't be offended if you hate it) that I finally ordered. I think it would be pretty in your room, too. I like that it's a linen, so you get more texture. And, it picks up the colors you have in your room. I guess it's an updated jacobean fabric. I thought it was just a floral. I learned it from the gurus here. :) Here are a couple more- just quickly looked on their site. I can't load up the rest. Sorry. They have a paisley that I thought would be pretty. http://www.fschumacher.com/search/ProductDetail.aspx?sku=174800 As a rule (supposedly), you're supposed to have the bottom third the second fabric. At least, that is how I was told. I prefer curtains to romans or shades. Normally, i'd put a roman or a grass shade underneath, but you'd lose the top windows due to the shade. So, I vote no on those. I wouldn't cover up the top windows at all. So, just a vote for curtains. And, I vote for figuring out which fabric you love the most and going off of the colors in there. :) You won't be happy if it's not right! Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: hot house- spark.