I just finished reading this very thought provocing article about Paul Kaiser and his Singing Frog 8 acre farm near Sebastopol (Nor Cal wine country).  Singing Frogs looks a lot like my vision for our place:

We’re getting ready to build another hoophouse, although we’re hoping for more of a walapini (in ground).   I’m not sure how far down we can get due to the CALICHE everywhere on our property, but it sure would be nice to be able to avoid the huge temperature swings that are apparently a problem even in Sebastopol.  Paul Kaiser mentions 50 degree differences and we can easily have 60 or even 70 degree differences between day time highs and night time lows in our hoophouse.
I’m sure glad we finally got compost going and hopefully will be ready for chickens in a month or two, at the most.