Interesting thread.
My wife and I have sort of homesteaded since we fled the city in '88. The land wasn't free but we managed to buy a square mile (640 acres)in Manitoba, Canada for (Can)$30K (less than $50 an acre) 80km north of the provincial capital. It's no use for farming or gardening, so I discovered (rocks, two fingers of soil, late frosts in spring and early in fall, the deer and rabbits eat anything you try to grow). It's mostly aspen poplar woodland, some scrub oak, and lots of wetland with beaver. What we like is that this section has never been cleared for grazing or lumber. There are some parts where the bush is so thick I've not walked on them, and I bet no one has ever has.
We live simple, make everything from scratch, built the house and finished the ceiling and trim with poplar boards chainsawed from our tress, the kitchen cabinets too. Can't get tv (need a 60' tower to get above the trees). The only animals, other than the black bears, coyotes, wolves and birds, are our twenty-six arctic sled dogs in big runs. For them and us winter can't come soon enough!
Michael