Greetings from San Diego, soon to be New Hampshire

Hi, me and my wife, are originally from the Northeast. We moved down to San Diego for about 3 years, had a child. Now he is about 17 months old, and we are planning a move back to the northeast. We should be moving back within a matter of months and settling back into that area to be with family for a while, but it is only one step of life. We are open in the future to moving around.

I have had a growing interest in homesteading, although I'm very new to the idea. I have many talents including music and art, but also have a knack for building things and being creative with raw materials and being and overall fixer-upper, and do well building mechanical things. I have little knowledge about gardening, hunting, trapping, and fishing, so I would like to grow my knowledge and experience in these areas. I understand these are essentials in homesteading and I have a while before we're ready to make the jump, if we ever do. Our family is from the northeast (around the NH/MA boarder) and I have been contemplating the idea of homesteading in Maine given the cost of inexpensive rural land. However, even though growing up in the NE, the long winters are pretty intimidating, especially in light of homesteading. I am open to new ideas if anyone has wisdom in this area. I'm generally unfamiliar with much of the culture of anything in the US outside the coastal cultures. I have always had a strong attraction to the southwestern desert and mountain regions, especially in Arizona, but the diverse landscape of New Mexico and Colorado intrigue me as well, and am wondering if anyone in the south to middle great divide region has much experience with this lifestyle.

I know I'm going from one corner of the country to the other, and also experiencing interest with land in between, but if anything seems to ring a bell or if you have a word or two of advice, I would appreciate any I can get as a starter in this area. I will also continue to look around this site to see what's here. Thank you all and good day.