Hi!  I'm a military spouse.  My dh has been in the AF for 17 years.  Techinically he's stationed at Langley AFB in Hampton.   He's in Afghanistan right now and was in Kuqwait last year.  The children and I stayed at Langley for the first year, but it was not working out for us.  So…..we moved the children and I to our property here in WV a year and a half ago.  When dh is stateside(which has not been much over the last couple of years) we see him at least every other weekend.  We are hoping he will get stationed closer (Wright Patt) when he returns next Nov.  If not, then we all will most likely move with him. 

Are you in contact with anyone in Hampton that can give you good information about where to live and such? 

We love our little place here in the hills of WV.

We bought it as a future place to retire to while we lived in Oh.  We thought, due to family medical reasons, we'd be staying in Oh for his last six or more years.  AF had other ideas and moved us to Langley.  Oh. was too far of a weekend commute for dh so we decided to move the family into the cabin.  It was originally built for a hunting cabin, so we are still bringing it up to "code".  This spring we're getting new windows.  This summer the garage should be finished.  We'll have a bedroom suite above the garage.  That will give us a bit more room.  Under 800 sq. ft. starts to get a bit small after a while.  However, the hills are worth it!  So is being able to have chickens and plans to add more animals -as soon as their is another adult on the property with me.

It's good you have friends in the area.  I have one friend who is a Navy wife.  She lives in Newport News.  I was surprised she was on that side of the water.  hehehe  Her dh is often out to sea and so they bought a house near family.

We weren't across the water like you will be in Chesapeake.  You will be able to find a larger piece of land out that way. I always enjoyed getting out into the country while living there.

These are a couple of places I'd get meat and/or milk from:

http://www.hollygrovefarm.com/      (milk and beef)

http://www.fullquiverfarm.com/…..      (eggs, turkey, pork, chicken, etc.)

I also enjoyed the Farmer's Market at James River.  It'll probably be too far normally for you, but it's a great little place to go during the summer.  We'd go in the morning and purchase what we needed.  Then we'd let the children play in the water.

There's places you can go pick your own berries and such, so even if you can't grow your own you'll be able to find plenty to put up.