This post deserves a huge upvote from Curie! At least for the amount of information you shared in here! Many years ago I was tempted to go live off the grid somewhere in a country with a milder climate than Canada, but not as hot as the tropics as I knew that growing food was going to be a hassle.
My first idea was to go see Jacques' Fresco houses in the Venus project in Florida and see if it was something I could have done. Then I looked into earthships and lately the domes and the adobe houses. I read as much as I could on permaculture and whatever I could find on living off the grid, though I never took the step because somewhere in between moving to Ecuador my health went down the drain. Later on I found I had Lyme disease. I might have given up on being a pioneer due to my Lyme, but my heart still enjoys reading from others' experiences. Thank you for a wonderful post!