The great land down under :) it is exciting and intimidating and I understand as I'm in the same boat (never owned property before)
If your little brother was anything like you I'm sure he would have excelled in the field. There was alot of downtime but when the moment called we all had to pull together. I miss it sometimes.
Washington is right on the American/Canadian border is that right? I've been watching a guy on YouTube building a cabin around that area (I believe it's in Canada though it would have similar bushland?) Called "my self reliance" and I love it
I'm looking for several acres to run a few head of cattle on at the moment :)