But building and maintaining are going to be hell because I know exactly zero about those.
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.
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)
https://youtu.be/fCcLhdLaxnM?si=fy4D20GyFenA4cqo
But it's a 100X easier to just buy the materials.
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...