Literally the only things stopping you from doing this are money (to buy a rural lot somewhere, tools, a truck and so forth) and time. You can learn most of your skills with YouTube and practise, not kidding. Thanks to YouTube, we renovated a borderline crappy house, built outbuildings, landscaped, etc. with essentially no construction experience. I am still kind of amazed by this.

I know someone from the internet that ended her 20 year relationship and went with someone else that she's known for at least that long too, they decided to buy a plot of land and build their homestead from scratch. They're struggling though because everything costs a lot of money and time, like buying an old bulldozer that of course needs a lot of repairs and work. They were hoping to have a cabin up before winter but due to all the setbacks they're forced to rent something for over the winter now. They also have a baby on the way.

idgi, I kinda get the drive for homesteading, but at the same time it's a luxury lifestyle choice. That said, they chose the hard way and build their own stuff from locally sourced wood, instead of buying a plot of land with a cabin already on it.

Personally I wouldn't mind retreating into the woods for a couple of weeks, but at the moment I like home comforts too.

I'll add, there are also databases of home improvement projects available through your local library. That way you can fully evaluate the YouTube video to see if the creator is wildly unsafe or something.

Hey what would I search / ask to find this? Thanks.

I think the main database is home improvement source. Again, your local public library should prove access to that with their subscription to ebsco.

Yeah, it's half money and time and half kid.

A more realistic option is to just buy a chalet in a relatively remote area so I have access to some sort of plumbing system. But then again it's tough to find a stable remote job and a good school for my kid. (Again money can probably solve both)

Watch this series, you'll be able to do anything.

https://youtu.be/fCcLhdLaxnM?si=fy4D20GyFenA4cqo

But it's a 100X easier to just buy the materials.

It was fascinating to discover a similar channel from (presumably, or at least, as he claims to be) a russian lawyer who does this as a hobby, and very successfuly so: https://www.youtube.com/@adekvate/videos

In Norway they have a bunch of chalets like that, the key is to build and stock them in the summer. Don't pull a Chris McCandless, but plenty of people have survived the arctic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy-4NxJRxNQ

It boggles my mind that people don't read Chris McCandless' story and notice that in his previous adventures, he'd also fucked up, but always got bailed out by other people. Then he got the brilliant idea of going someplace where there were no other people...

I think that was a big draw. Being dependent on his dad whom he grew to hate was a big push to his adventures, and he just wanted to be able to try himself against nature. People kept bailing him out, so he could never get the answer of whether or not he could really survive on his own.

It's unfortunate that most of the easily inhabitable world is inhabited, so you have to go to desert or very cold places where the chance of survival is so low.

If there was real untamed wilderness in Southern California, he'd probably still be alive. Or he would have just push on to a harder survival experience...

I know plenty of people doing exactly that in the Yukon. Head up and spend a few years in Whitehorse. You’ll meet good people who can teach you what you need to know. Changed my life for sure.

Did you write more about it somewhere ?

I have the odd post about it on theroadchoseme.com