Congratulations to you for your great attitude! My wife and I felt the same way when we built our ranch 22 years ago and still do today. The chief disadvantage of ranching is that ranching is restrictive....a rancher can't just load the truck and be gone for days at a time. And, as you well...
When we bought our ranch we built a front porch 76x12 and used composite flooring. This was 20 years ago and there has been no visible wear on the composite. A board of composite weights about twice as much as regular lumber. Yes, it is expensive but in the long run it turns out to be...
Mine include a Ruger 357 and 44 mag, a Marlin 30-30 and as far as varmints at close range goes, my Remington 870 in 410 works great. The truck pistol is a 38 special in snub nose.