We were able to to both retire early - my husband at 58 (from Shell Oil) and me at 59 (Nursing Professor).

I bought a Mig welder and a bunch of tools and suicided the doors on my Ford Ranger, shaved the door handles, sunk some different taillights into the back, ported the intake, custom built an exhaust, modified this, customized that. 

I actually work for an oil and gas exploration company now in Houston.

My husbands dream is to join the fire department full time (he's volunteer) so i'd love to make enough money plus more to get him out of the oil field and doing what he loves.

I think you are dead on point to look east, but you may not have to go much past east bay or even Central Valley to find something that pencils out (and possibly less oil price sensitive)..

Oil went down a bit as commodities usually go down as money becomes more expensive.But what about real estate prices?

I'm a civil working full time for an oil and gas sub.

Do you change your own oil?  

Do you have to explicitly tell them not to pour fry oil down the drains?

The only snake-oil salesmen who are real is the ones that will get you by the hand and show you how it is done.Joe Gore