Looking towards the future...

So my birthday was back on the 15th.. I'm 38 now.  Feeling like life is quickly slipping away (Yes I realize I'm not THAT old) I need to spend more time working toward my goal of homesteading life.

I want to live out in the sticks, I want a small farm with pigs, cows and the like.  First stop though is which state to aim for.  After living in Michigan for 4 years now I can say that I don't want to stay here.  I realize the past few winters have been rougher than average.. but down here in the LP it's way too flat for our tastes.  The UP was an initial thought but with so many parts averaging over 100 inches of snow per year that's just.. wow.. a lot of snow.

Plus it's so cloudy during the winter that I don't think a green house would fair well. It's the environment primarily.

So my sights are set on either Montana or Idaho.  Most of Idaho is considered a 'high desert', low rainfall in most areas so growing crops would be a little more difficult without free flowing water nearby.
Montana I think is going to be the best place.  Rugged, beautiful, nice climate year round and land is still fairly cheap  Land where you'd want to live, is not cheap. Land within 30 minutes of a decent town/city is not cheap.  Of course the job market is rather bland which means I'd have to get creative to keep some income flowing.
Which brings up the second goal in terms of difficulty.. revenue.

I'm still thinking on that.