Don't get discouraged. Don't get discouraged. Don't get discouraged.

So as I think I mentioned once before, turns out being a farmer can only be done if you first struck it rich in some other job. I have been researching lavender and olive trees like a madman, and I keep coming up to the same wall: either will cost roughly $100,000 to start. Call me crazy, but for some reason in this whole adventure, I never actually considered that starting a tiny farm could cost so much. And, due to the rules of dear ol' Mother Nature, there are no profits for a few years at the start. Shit. So how the hell does anyone become a farmer? It's so bizzarre to me to think about how expensive it is to live like a freaking peasant! Each round of property searches takes us a little further away from any kind of town, because that is the acreage we can actually afford. Ok, we're fine with that. We just better never run out of anything because the closest store will be a broke-down Quick-y-Mart that only sells cigarettes and Bud Light. I can deal with a Bud Light breakfast as long as I have my farm to tend. But Bud Light and 4 acres of barren land? Screw that.
We are heading up to the Paso Robles area (I'm calling it that but in all honestly, where we can afford is way, WAY east of Paso) again this weekend to look at 5 acres and meet with some lavender and olive tree farmers, but I already know the story: without tens of thousands of benjamins, all I can farm are my own dreams.
And maybe buy one chicken. But without buying a coop for it, it will be dead the first night. Nevermind. No chicken.