Oliver Bradley

That was a great write up. I really enjoyed reading it.

All the comments have been really helpful and interesting. A few points I hadn't thought of and a few confirmations of things which I hoped were the case. I will probably be posting to ask questions about various building stuff in the near future but will definitely update this once I have got somewhere..
Thanks all.

Thanks for the welcome. Finding this forum has been very helpful already in terms of links and general info.
I have spent some time in the area I am thinking to move to. Visiting is always different to living though I guess. I have moved a lot of times in my life (I am from England originally) but it has always been to different cities. I have been living in Dallas for the last 5 years and have enough work that I could do while living a couple of hours away from there. I am also thinking of moving to a totally new area, possibly the northwest but that is where it might be trickier in terms of work as I would need to start over. I don't think I am overly ambitious in terms of farming. I realise that I will need to be able to support myself by other means.
I saw the Growfood.org link yesterday which looks very interesting. Has anyone on here done an internship at a farm? It does seem like it might be a good way to learn some skills and test the waters a little bit for myself (and family)

Jay and Tyler. Thank you both for taking the time to comment.
Jay, that does definitely help. It sounds amazing. The thing that appeals to me the most (apart from the obvious natural attraction) is what you said about how people act.

This may seem like quite a wide question but I would be very interested to hear some of your thoughts.
I have always lived in small towns or big cities. I am looking into getting some land (possibly in N Texas) to build a house and learn how to grow stuff.
I have always thought about doing it. When I was younger I was too worried about being isolated and somehow missing out on exciting things..
I am 38 now with two young kids. I am a carpenter and will be building a shop to work out of but may also be looking for work (I wonder how hard that would be out of a densely populated area?)