Modern life has had a very successful way of drifting the unsuspecting away from the most basic and important knowledges needed for survival outside its trappings. As you say, hindsight and all that, I too wish I had taken some roads more than others. Lol, I started out life with intentions of living off the land, but it didn’t work out that way for one reason or another. Nonetheless I never lost my interest in the old way of doing things be it in wood or iron. It’s cool shit. If I may suggest one thing to you for your homestead to consider, it would be to procure a hit and miss engine. The more HP the better of course. Then go about building a belt drive line shaft to run machinery of all kinds. Getting harder to find the originals, but many modern machines/tools can easily converted to belt drive. Hit and miss engines can run off the shitiest of fuels including wood gas. You can run a generator or water pump with one as added bonus. Learn basic blacksmithing and acquire the basic tools for it as well. As important as books are, they are no good without the tooling required in many situations. Having the skills and equipment to build or make repairs in a no grid world makes you a very valuable person to trade and barter with. I’m root’n for you friend! Git’r did me lad!