It sounds like you have a well defined vision of what you are looking for in a homestead. I live on a hundred acre extended family homestead in New England, and from what you've described the northeastern united states would be a solid bet be it upstate New York, rural Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine.
The main advantages of the northeast are as you have already described, most of the region is covered in both hardwood and evergreen forest depending on local climate and altitude. Additionally, there is abundant precipitation year round (although this can ruin more than one lovely summer day...) so there is ample surface and ground water, which also makes water harvesting and its associated headaches in drier parts of the world a relative non-issue. Also, being a temperate region we have four distinct seasons with winter temperatures as low as -30F to occasional summer highs above 100F!
Expert advice right there! Helping each other, thats what makes life great!
Thanks @newenglandsavage. I honestly thought hard about NE coast but thought that it might actually be too expensive to get land there (being near New York etc). I always equated New Hampshire as being where the rich go for holidays? Too much TV?
When I'm able to catch games I'm a Patriots fan too :)
Yes land up here can certainly get a little pricey depending on where you way be looking. New Hampshire is not quite what you've seen in the movies haha, up here we call it the "south of the north", and it's actually a pretty awesome state to live an off-the-grid lifestyle as they have very few laws regarding rights to farm, water access, firearms, and much more. Just remember the states motto is "live free or die"!
Well, we're forming the plan. We're working towards buying the house we're renting as we get a discount on it, then we have to live here for 5 years or sell it back with the discount.
We're hoping to own it outright in those 5 years or as close to it as we can then take the plunge and buy some land :)
40 isn't too old to start homesteading right? :)
Absolutely not! Its never to late to live better!