Shoes for my feet

Hello,
Does anybody have suggestions for shoes for a rural permaculture farm. My husband and I are working on establishing a food forest for his parents as our first customer for a permaculture site besides our house site that we are now renting out.
We live on his parents property while we do the install and we are setting up our tiny house right outside of the woods for our own food forest plot.

This valley has slight inclines, steep slopes, gravel, some mud pits in the North Georgia Mountains.

I normally wear my rain boots to tend to chickens, collecting materials around the property for the garden this year. I really wear them everywhere to do everything.

My boots have made hard callus' on the balls of my feet and make the tips of my toes raw feeling.

I'm open to any kind of shoe/boot that make for healthier feet and willing to pay $100-150 maybe &200 for my feet.

I enjoy wearing my barefoot merrell trail running shoes because my toes can stretch and aren't crammed in the shoe. They also help me keep a good posture and not stomp my heel.


Any recommendations or encouragement to go barefoot?

Crystal

I'm a barefoot believer, but not everyone is as happy with muddy feet as I am!

Next step up in protection is flip flops, then maybe five fingers shoes, then minimalist shoes

Moccasins is another route, mukluks for winter

My suggestion for tired/sore feet is sole inserts. (Dr.Shoal type things.)

You may need to use a half size larger boot/shoe, as some of those inserts are bulkier than others.
They can make an unbelievable difference if you are on your feet for hours on end.
They also can offer a little extra insulation between your feet and the cold, hard ground.

I used to work where I had to be on my feet 8 hours straight (on concrete floors).
Once I started using the inserts, I could feel a real difference at the end of the shift.
Thick, cushiony sox also help.

Rain/mud boots are all junk these days.

One rather frugal blogger I follow wss lamenting the same thing, ended up buying some very expensive aigle(?) Made in France boots. Still natural rubber so you can patch holes if you need to.

I am going to make tire sandals this year. I have too many rocks and thorns too walk barefoot all the time. I am still researching which design I want to try first.

I'm a barefoot proponent. Otherwise, as long as there isn't snow on the ground I'm probably wearing flip flops. This year we're moving to a property with thorny hawthorn and black locust, so I've got a bike tire I'm going to try to make some sandals with for a bit more protection. Also not sure on design yet.