A good portion of my place was cleared and the fence-line pushed back about 3 years ago. Put In new fences around the whole place but left them inside of the clearing and away from the trees around the edges about 30 feet so I could clip around the outside of the pasture and wouldn't have to worry about limbs and trees taking down the fences.
Took a lot of burning, grading, and rock picking to clean up around that and still have more to do but I have thought ever since I started that I would do something with the buffer zone around the pasture for some kind of future income. I landed on an Idea for part of it last year and purchased a thousand Christmas tree seeds and propagated them myself. They will be big enough to plant next fall. Call it a hobby if you want, but I get a good deal of satisfaction and relaxation out of starting plants from seeds, in about 4 years it will begin to pay me back, 3 if I sell to nurseries. I could have bought the seedlings and gotten return much faster but wouldn't have been near as satisfied with the results.
Firewood is another thing that I have done, sold rocks, and repaired wooden things for people, I was a carpenter/woodworker in my first life. Still love it as long as I can do it on my terms. And one last thing that I absolutely refuse to turn into a job is wood sculptures with a chain saw or anything else I can find to get the results I picture in my mind. I haven't sold any in a while, have given many away, but I will retire from my day job one day and will start selling them. For now they are littered around family and friends places, and the ranch.
