might aswell link to some of my posts in my Agrarian "Derp" Skies topic
http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/agrarian-derp-skies.43377/#post-591838
http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/agrarian-derp-skies.43377/#post-592632
do note, these were written before the HQM was released, so it's a bit outdated
a few more things I realized while playing, hammer you gravel/sand ore to have a small chance of getting more pulverized/dust ore.
you can pulverize dust ores like if you're pulverizing a normal ore, so you'll get the bonus dusts aswell, like ferruous from iron
throw you fishing rod upwards while standing in water, this way you can even fish in a 1x1 pond
don't bother creating large grass areas to start spawning animals, instead use 9 arrows in a crafting grid to craft 1 chicken spawn egg.
an egg surrounded by either wool, pink wool, leather or fishing rods create sheep, pig, cow and squid spawning eggs
go to the nether, quickly catch an imp in a safari net, and run back to the overworld, this is the fastest way of getting leather so you can make a cow spawn egg.
other option for getting leather is smelting fish in a crucible furnace. the best fish for this is cod, as you can fish cod without having to breed them, and they produce quite alot of fish oil.
you can use reactant dynamo with a grinder to make an automatic mob farm. the dynamo can run off mob essence and gunpowder, producing more power then what's needed by the grinder.
gelid and liquid glowstone can produce glowstone blocks. for more information on how to do this, click this link
http://www.reddit.com/r/feedthebeast/comments/22jw4s/an_average_of_18000_glowstone_blocks_per_hour/
get carrot seeds as a quest reward and craft yourself a juicer. this way you can make yourself juice, which heals 1 drumstick each. this way you don't have to constantly smelt your food.
use sewage in a sewage boiler to get resources like sand, dirt, soul sand or mycelium. it also produces alot of clay which you can use.
if you want a toggleable nether portal, use a drawbridge to deploy 1 obsidian that's part of the portal, this way you don't need to mine the obsidian yourself
when you need rain early on, don't sleep at night, as it'll drastically decrease the chance for rain
if you need alot of string, start a sheep farm with a rancher, you can pulverize the wool into string
you can use microblocks with lighting. for example you can place a torch in the floor, and place a microblock ontop, this way you can light up your island without seeing all the torches around
start a simple 9x9 dark room that's 3 high when you start out, this way you don't need to build a big mob spawner and you've a chance of spawning endermen. don't forget to build this dark room away from your island, otherwise mobs won't spawn
if you put a barrel in a dark cobblestone area and fill it with water the barrel can slowly create mossy cobblestone, which you can use on your tinker tools to get repair, this way you'll use up less resources and need to repair your tool less often, thus increasing the chance of losing your time by repairing it too often
there's alot more to write down, but I guess this will do for now