That's pretty cool. Is there anywhere you can have a small house with a couple acres or more for cheap and still be within 30 minutes of Boulder?
Land east of Boulder a ways (30 minutes+) can be affordable. Land < 30 minutes from Boulder in the North and East directions can get _very_ expensive. Lots of land west of Boulder in the mountains that can be built on too, but it's also expensive and can be pretty rough regarding roads, fires, floods (as we learned last year), etc....
6 acres of land IN Boulder with one house, water rights, and agricultural zoning has been for sale for a few years for $5m. One of the last parcels like it in the city. Will probably sell soon though for redevelopment.
EDIT: Regarding "cheap" being a subjective term. The neighborhood I rent in is < 10 minutes by bike to downtown and has mostly 1/8th acre single-family-home lots. Recently rebuilt houses with more 2000+ sq. ft. on these lots sell for ~$1m+. There is a lot of money being spent to live in the area.
Fort Collins is another university town but with a lower national profile than Boulder, which again can be a good or bad thing.
Also there's a lot of stuff in Erie and Lafayette which are both fairly close and less expensive. In a Zillow search I found some 4 bedroom houses in Lafayette with an acre in the $400k region, a 20 min drive from being in town.