What kind of jobs can I do from home instead of resuming regular employment?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m currently unemployed. I’ve recently bought an old farmhouse and 14 acres out in the country, making it an hour drive into Nashville if I want to work there. There are smaller towns in between, of course, but these smaller towns don’t have a lot in the way of available employment. My mortgage isn’t a great deal, and once my other house sells (that’s right - two houses, no income) I’ll be able to put a good bit extra down on the principal if I choose. My wants and needs are pretty simple. I have 4 dogs and a horse (and myself) which like to be fed on a regular basis. I have dial-up internet. I have a 10-year old truck that gets 26 miles to the gallon. I go to the movies about twice a month and eat out very moderately about the same. My mortgage (PITI) is about $600/month. My professional experience is as a credit manager, although I am also a certified paralegel. At my last job I taught myself Cognos, a database query language, and became good enough at it that I became the query writing for our area and even the Database Administrator would refer questions from other departments to me. I really enjoyed doing that.

Some of the things I’ve considered doing are taking in a few extra horses to board. I could probably pull in $75 - $100/month per horse for pasture board, more if I want to do stall board. I’m 15 minutes from the local college and I’ve thought about converting the upstairs (two large rooms) to a suite and taking in a renter or college student. I don’t know how I’d like sharing my home, though. If I invested money in the equipment I might be able to mow hay and sell it, but that’s hot, hard work. I really enjoyed my query language work - it appeals to my logical mind, but I don’t know if I could freelance that. I love all kinds of animals and would love to do something related to that.

Any suggestions? Feel free to ask any questions about my background, likes and dislikes, etc.

FTR - I’m a 43 year old woman. (Prostitution is out)

StG

2

There’s a job I’ve heard about and might have pursued if only the schools were in this state: Scopist. Apparently they correct courtroom transcripts because the court reporters can never get everything as right as they want it, for obvious reasons. It can be done online, I believe. It just occurred to me because you mentioned paralegal experience.

3

Honeybees?

I jsut thought of this becasue there was an interesting article in my sunday paper about farmers making money on “gourmet” honey. They even “rent out” hives to other farmers and orchards so their crops/trees get well-pollenated.

The hives do have to be trucked around at varous times during the year, it seems.

But the work is periodic/occasional, remunerative under the right circumstances, and since you have a lot of land (and there’s more open space around you, I presume), it might work.