Lots of food for thought here and some great ideas. Makes me want to look into any acreage again.

A couple of thoughts occurred to me. You are getting the septic tank emptied regularly; what would considerations be if in the long term that service was no longer available? Would you turn to composting toilets? For me, water is so scarce here that as much as I prefer a flushing toilet I keep coming back to a composting or vermiculture toilet as the best option.

Also, why are you personally not sure on doing broilers again? I've come to the conclusion myself that I probably wouldn't have purpose raised meat birds, as there are plenty of other sources that come with breeding animals anyway. Few people want male chickens and quail after all. However, I'm waffling now and I was wondering why you are not sure about raising them again.