A few years ago, Ken and Kathy Robbins were growing uneasy with life in Denver, and started to look for a change.

Mrs. Robbins was a native of the Colorado and Mr. Robbins was a Columbus, Ohio, transplant who had moved to Denver via Phoenix in 1971. He was an architectural draftsman for an engineering firm in Denver, while she worked in marketing.

"Denver is busy, expensive, growing and dry," said Mr. Robbins, 69. "The city, which gets an average of 16 inches of rain each year, is running low on water. By contrast, southwestern Pennsylvania averages about 50 inches of the wet stuff each year."

Because the couple thought Pennsylvania "sounded neat," they began contacting realtors in the state and eventually toured most of the Keystone State looking for an inexpensive property with sizable acreage.

"Dollar for dollar, Pennsylvania seems the best for what you can get," said Mr. Robbins.

After looking at close to 40 properties in Greene and Washington counties, the couple got a call from a real-estate agent telling them about a house on 12.7 acres in Hopewell about 5 miles from Washington. One look at the place in June 2006, and they signed the contract the same day.

"It was the right price, the right size, and the lay of the land was perfect," said Mrs. Robbins, 52. Now they are juggling two enterprises they started after making the move.

Calling themselves dreamers, the couple hopes to be able to make money off their land. They've already planted three different areas, for an herb garden and separate sections for corn and vegetables. They also tend a vineyard planted with 22 Concord grape vines.

"We'd rather pull things out of the ground than mow it," said Mr. Robbins.

When they first moved to the farm, all the machinery they had to work with was a 20-inch power mower. Since then, they've purchased a tiller, garden tractor, riding mower and Trim and Mow for brush.

Drawing on his background as an architectural draftsman, Mr. Robbins has sketched out the entire property with future allotments for an orchard of apple and peach trees, a section for growing Christmas trees, a berry patch, a chicken enclosure, bee hives and a possible alpaca barn.

The couple's lives got more complicated Oct. 1, when they bought the inventory of close to 80,000 books from a business and opened Bounce Back Books, a used book store at 241 S. Main St. The name references recycled hardbacks and paperbacks.

Every shelf in the store is filled floor to ceiling, and the basement is full of box after box of books, some of which haven't yet been opened. The couple has been going through the cartons for the past eight months, looking for titles people have asked for and picking out those with the best content and best condition for stocking on their shelves, sorted in one of about 50 categories.

"We want to make this a really great bookstore, but are struggling retailers with no experience in the business," said Mr. Robbins. "We don't know what else to do to improve the business, other than what we've already done."

One of their ideas was to sell over the Internet at www.abebooks.com. Currently, they have about 500 books listed, which can be accessed by title and bookseller, Bounce Back Books.

Running a farm and bookstore simultaneously is a bit difficult. Early risers by nature, the Robbinses start their farm chores at 6 a.m. and have cut back on the number of hours they spend in the bookstore.

"Neither of us have any experience in farming or retail," said Mr. Robbins, who's still optimistic about both ventures. "What we do have experience in is throwing away money and not getting it back."

For more information, directions and hours of operation for Bounce Back Books, phone 724-222-6657.