I live in Whitewater, about 30 miles north of the there. I hunt ducks, sporadically, in the Delta area. The place is an outdoorman's paradise.
Delta County has over 100 reservoirs, on the Grand Mesa.
In 30 minutes, from Delta, you can be at 10,000' and be in pines an Aspens.
If you want to farm and/or ranch, there is plenty of that in the area.
Delta is in the desert, high-desert, about 5,000' It is high enough up to take advantage of Grand Junction's winter inversion and can be warmer in the daytime that GJ. In the summer, it is cooler than GJ. It is an agricultural area as they get their water from the Gunnison and the Uncompahgre rivers. Except for following the Gunnison north, in every direction you go up, where there are elk and deer to hunt. BTW, you ain't gonna get rich in an Agricultural area.
There used to be pheasants in the area. I am not sure now. But, there is a place that you can pay to hunt pheasants on.
A big determinator on where you can live is how small of a town that you can tolerate.
Going east, you have Cedaredge, which is up in the mountains, a bit, and faces south (a good thing in the winter) and is a real nice area. Also nice little towns are Paonia, Hotchkiss and Crawford. There is a coal mine in the area.
About 20 miles farther south is Montrose. Montrose is about 30K and has a Walmart (which Delta has), Home Depot and is a bit larger.
If you can point me in the direction that you want info about, then I might be able to answer you questions.
I'd look at usajobs.gov for jobs w/the BLM, NPS and NF in Delta and Montrose.
What are you doing to make money now?
John 14:6