Kathryn,
All good advice about protecting your future rights to production with multiple leases however, since you are the surface owner, and living out of state you may have the surface leased, and since water is lifes blood in your area, your biggest problem may be in the language of the oil and gas lease as it has to do with water rights given to the oil and gas lessee. East of the Colorado mountains, water is much more precious than oil or gas exploration and it can only belong to the surface owner. I always exclude water rights from oil and gas leases where my client is also the surface owner.