You know, you could get 50 to 500x that bounty (usable for charity or your own dark purposes) if you just called up a contact looking to work with or hire a gainfully employed programmer/engineer and recommended good ol' Silas, whom you've come to know and love.
Some paths of least resistance being avoided here...
I'd definitely be interested in that kind of position, please pass my name along. (er, my real one)
As for pay/benefits, I currently make about 2x the median income for the area (with health coverage), which would be hard to replicate for a big city. I'd want about 1.5x to justify the move. (As another datapoint, I make about 50% of the typical home price, but homes are cheap here.) I have a lot of savings I can draw down so I don't need a steady paycheck -- contract/piecework type employment is fine.
Agree with jsalvatier's reply. Also, I think you could do a referral for 3M positions outside of MN. I probably wouldn't mind MN, if there were a tribe there, except maybe the distance from family. (I actually slightly prefer coldness and sweat easily from heat even when not tired, although maybe that's a thyroid issue I should resolve.)
Meh, you wouldn't know it from all the people passing up this easy money.