How do I start.....? Farming Part 1

I have lived an almost bi-polar-ish life, looking at the big picture.  I grew up in the city, lived in a tiny neighborhood lot my whole life.  Dabbled in backyard gardening in high school and even dreamed of someday having my own tiny neighborhood lot that I could totally commit to gardening.  I met  my amazing husband in college who had spent several years in his childhood on 10 acres.  He dreamed of living on some land, and I thought, what the hey, that would give me more room for my dream garden (with the picket fence, perfectly weeded garden, etc).  Well, dreams aside, we were broke newlyweds.  We lived on a tiny plot with an 80 year old house for our starter home.  We had a small garden that produced well, but an 80 year old house and a new baby (R) didn't leave much time for play.
Fast forward to moving back to our home state on a little bigger plot.  But with a baby, there's no room for a garden.  The entire yard must be baby-proofed.  We did put a few vegetables in the front flower bed after we dug up thousands of canna bulbs, but that's about it.
Then, we got the itch.  You know what I'm talking about.  This deep longing in your soul that you may never have known existed, or it may have been pushed back for so long that you didn't think it would ever happen.  That dream.  Well, Mr. P and I really wanted to move to the country.  Our princess loved being outside, but living on a busy street didn't leave much room for her.  We longed to have space and privacy and a 'simpler' way of life.  So we started house-shopping.  More like window-shopping than actual serious looking.  But we found our 'dream' house.  5 acres with semi-close neighbors and a nice-sized house.  It wasn't perfect, but it worked for us.
Now, I've been doing this for almost 2 1/2 years, and I feel like I can offer some advice (and I get asked quite often).
So here are some pieces of advice for those that are interested in farming on any level (In no particular order):
1.  START SMALL.  Don't think that if a minimum order of chicks is 25, you should get 25 (or more!).  Find someone to split the order with or find a local hatchery.  More is not better.  The learning curve is steep when you're starting out, and financially it's better to maybe lose 5 birds versus 20 birds because you had a hole in your fence to let the neighbors' oh-so-cute fluffy dog through that can wipe out your entire flock in 30 minutes.  If you're looking at any type of livestock or small stock, get the minimum amount required (chickens 5-10- HENS (no boys), goats, sheep 2; cows 1, but 2 is better) and start there.  Learn the ins and outs of taking care of the animal before setting lofty goals of being a breeder or the like.

Part 2 tomorrow :)