...but then it's always a fine line.

I'd worry less about trading in on the retirement, and more about eating day to day.  Farming sounds like a really nice hobby, but I'd hate to make a living off of it.  My dad used to have some buddies from western Massachusetts, but definitely the sorts that successfully avoided factory jobs, one was a cabinetmaker, I think, and could pass for a real musician.  The othe guy basically made do with this and that.  I think you can find a way in the right area--esp. if you buy the place cash. 

Selling the piano sounds retarded.

(You can consider this an advertisement for Western MA, especially great for creative types--trees, hardly any people, and a trusty nexus of New York rubes constantly cruising through willing to pay any dollar for artsy kitsch.) 

And anyway, what's the alternative?  Be held in place by a million strings, whoring ourselves for a mortgage?  Half of the rest of us fantasize about being able to make those choices.