You really are skilled with this stuff. What part of the country did you grow up in? Your background sounds very interesting.
When I was born we lived on a small farm in a tiny log cabin at Vida OR. After my dad's death in a motorcycle/log truck accident we moved with new stepdad to Ozan AR. The first stepdad met an untimely death there and with the second new stepdad we moved to a second log cabin in the hills out of Isom KY. At the time, still about 1962, off the grid was a way of life even for a lot of folks in the town. There was electricity but nothing else, and we did have the cabin electrified and also installed indoor plumbing. The people in town didn't even have indoor plumbing. We had chickens and hogs for our use (after the first winter when we had nothing but what could be hunted) and a milk cow plus a lot of green beans, and stepdad dug coal for a living. He also logged the property using a pair of mules.
Time and circumstances brought us back to Oregon and we spent most of my youth at places in & around Florence OR. My favorite again was the farm up the river where again we had chickens by the hundred and occasionally hand raised calves for auction.
But then and there the only work was in lumber & plywood mills and I didn't want to do that - so I came to Eugene and have worked in the heavy construction & logging equipment business for those 30 years. Presently I'm trying to put together a deal with a major parts manufacturer where I will be a North American rep in their product support operation. That’ll be a job I can do from anywhere and if & when that happens I WILL be going back to the farm somewhere. Probably in Oregon, but for sure in a more conservative area. Might then try something we never did before, organic free range chickens, if there continues to be a market for them.