We ditched our cable TV a year or so ago and have never looked back! YouTube is where we landed. We pay for a premium subscription to avoid the commercials. Here are my favourite channels these days:

Camping with Steve! Steve Wallis is a Canadian treasure. Just a normal dude with a hankering for some stealth camping, adventure, gold mining, boating, and fun, in all the seasons! He’s had some unthinkable losses along the way, and somehow keeps going. As a bonus, he doesn’t take sponsorships, so his videos are genuine, and his gear is usually from Canadian Tire! I’ve watched Steve stealth camp in the back of a dump truck parked along the highway, start campfires in so many interesting ways, try new camping recipes (and not always succeed), turn a school bus into an off-road camper (to ease his bearanoia), float down rivers on things he’s made, and even sleep overnight in the middle of a round-a-bout! He is always camping or hunkering down somewhere, cooking some great camp food, and shares a cheer with the view over a “step two” (a beer).

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Cabin River Outdoors – Shawn bought 41 acres in the backwoods of British Columbia and decided to leave his job and give a remote life a try! He is an incredibly hard worker, but really didn’t set himself up for an easy life. He has to hike many kilometers in from the road, then cross a river to get to the spot where he chose to build his cabin! Every week he shares what he’s been up to. Usually fixing one of his old machines (SUV, snowmobile, ATV, boat motor, generator) that broke. Or figuring out how to get things from the road to his cabin (plywood isn’t that easy to transport!) to continue to build a bigger cabin. Nothing comes easy, but he has his carpentry skills and a work ethic to tackle every problem, so far! This is the guy who has inspired some of my recent soups!

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Vice Grip Garage – Every week I look forward to watching whatever Derek will post on Friday night. Usually he’s flown somewhere far from his Tennessee home to get a vehicle that hasn’t been used in 20+ years that he is going to get started and drive home. It is always interesting and entertaining, even when the videos are 2-3 hours! I really enjoy the troubleshooting aspect of it, and the fact that he’s cool and calm and just plugs away fixing things until the engine “barks off”. I enjoy the road trip aspect of the show too, when he’s going through small American towns, stopping at gas stations, and little shops along the way. He’s got another channel, Vice Grip Lodge, where he features videos around his farm, giving new life to old farm equipment. This guy must work more than anyone else on YouTube.

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Jay Legere – Jay is over in the Yellowknife area of the Northwest Territories. He used to post about his adventures in his canvas tents in the winter, and now he’s upgraded to a cabin on a land lease. He is working on building an addition to his cabin, and without any carpentry skills, he is learning as he goes, sharing the process, sharing his learning, and learning from the comments, all while smiling and laughing (his laugh is contagious). He has to drive the ice road to get from where he lives in the city out to his off-grid cabin in the winter, or boat across a couple of lakes in the summer. He also highlights some delicious cooking in his wood stove oven.

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Caroline Girvan – I am working through Caroline’s Iron series these days. It’s a workout you can do at home (if you have some dumbbells and a mat). I spent much of last year with the team of personal trainers on James Smith’s workout app, but I was up to 50-minute workouts that didn’t target one portion of my body and the recovery time I needed after each long work was limiting how many workouts I could get in each week. I learned about Caroline from my cousin Meaghen a few years ago and dabbled here and there, but now I’m pushing through Iron and doing well! Today will be the 19th one. I like them because they are short (30-40 minutes), precisely target one thing, so you can train a different thing the next day, and she lifts super heavy (she’s wildly strong!). I feel stronger and feel better about myself, so let’s go!

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Are there any YouTube channels you’d recommend we check out?