Episode 220: Jay Legere

Thank you to today's sponsors!

- The Invasive Species Centre: Protecting Canada’s land and water from invasive species
- SAIL: The Ultimate Destination for your Outdoor Adventures
- J&B Cycle and Marine: Your Home for all things powersports, boats, and equipment
- Freedom Cruise Canada: Rent the boat, own the memories

- Anglers Leaderboard: Real-time AI angling platform where everyone is welcome, and every catch counts!

This week on Outdoor Journal Radio, we’re joined by Jay Legere, the YouTuber who quit the CBC to live in Canada’s most unforgiving environment.

After leaving behind a career in broadcasting, Jay turned his focus to documenting life in the North, cabin projects, harsh weather, remote builds, and the reality of figuring things out as he goes.

What makes Jay’s content stand out is the honesty. He is not pretending to be a polished expert with all the answers. He shows the mistakes, the problem-solving, the setbacks, and the wins that come with taking on cabin life in Northern Canada.

In this episode, we talk about his move from CBC to YouTube, working on remote cabins, surviving brutal northern conditions, dealing with wildlife, building an audience online, and what it actually takes to create a life and career in one of the toughest places in the country.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

This episode of Outdoor Journal Radio is brought to you in part by the Invasive Species Center, protecting Canada's land and water from invasive species. Freedom Cruise Canada, rent the boat, own the memories, and JMB Cycle a Marine, your home for all things power sports, boats, and equipment.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

More fun than a room full of wombats. Able to reach huge audiences with a single broadcast. Yes, it's the Updoor Journal Radio Show. Another exciting episode of the adventures of Updoor Journal Radio.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Thank you. Thank you. My goodness. A little bit more enthusiasm than normal today.

SPEAKER_04 1:16

Is it a different crowd? Yeah, a better crowd, eh? Nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Dean Dean, do you screen this audience uh and pre and prep them beforehand, or how does that work? The same people are always in. I don't understand it, but yeah, it's always the same guys. Uh welcome to the program. Uh wonderful show on hand for you. I'm excited personally because I think the guest today is really unique and interesting. Takes a whole different slant to uh producing YouTube product. Um his name is Jay uh and uh he is a an expert at being a non-expert at building things. So you learn all about him. He's uh he's building uh properties, uh cabins in the remote parts of Northwest Territory. He's a former uh CBC journalist and producer. We'll have to see if we were all there at CBC at the same time. I don't know how long he's been there. Um originally from Labrador. Labrador think about that. Originally from Labrador, now works in Northwest Territories. It's as rugged as you can get, man.

SPEAKER_04 2:19

Uh both places are that's right. Very rugged lifestyle from both, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Quit his job in uh 2024 to pursue full-time YouTubing. But the method that uh the subject line that he uses is is fascinating. I think makes it almost unique. I don't think I've heard of uh too many other folks um on YouTube that uh sort of present what he does in the manner that he does. So we'll find out more about him here uh shortly. I'd like to uh welcome uh Matt Simpson to the show today. Matt he is uh filling in for yes, yes. Nice filling in for uh Nick V. Nick E is away this afternoon on an uh emergency uh call from I don't know how you can have more emergency than work, but Nick seems to find ways.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

He gets himself into those situations.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Over there, Dean Taylor, as per usual, pushing all the buttons. Uh maybe you could push some different ones today. Yeah, no, I'm living in a nightmare. Yeah. Thank you. There you go. Was that Randy Savage? Yeah, it was it was CBC. Wasn't that a CBC done?

SPEAKER_03 3:28

No, it's the good in Canada. That's what they put on those like the political ads.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Okay, right, right, right, right. Uh, of course, uh flying uh on my wing here is Mr. Peter Bowman of the Fish and Canada show. Hey everybody, and I am Angelo Viola at your service. Wow, look at you, eh? He's servicing again. Fish and Canada store up and uh producing all kinds of sales.

SPEAKER_03 3:52

Yeah, I don't even know if we'll have anything in the store by the time this airs. It's it's going quick, isn't it? I think maybe not.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Yeah. I think maybe not.

SPEAKER_04 4:00

Because that's a good thing, right? For for Fishing Canada. Not so good for people to buy it.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

But you know, it kind of I I get concerned as a former retailer. I always get concerned when I when I see that. You know, you spend say six months uh putting a product out to the consumers at normal pricing, and it does okay, you know, it gets out, but then the minute you put the stuff on sale, they line up at the door. And I always wondered, am I doing something wrong?

SPEAKER_04 4:28

Look at the gas pumps, the Costco, for instance. Hey, it's five cents a liter or less. It's like you got a freaking lineup or a quarter mile. So I guess when you hear the word sale, it's kind of anyways.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Uh to Dean's point, if you don't want to be disappointed, folks, uh you better get to the store shop.fishingcanada.com or go to fishingcanada.com and just uh click on store at the top of the page and you'll get there. Uh stuff is running out quickly, and uh you don't want to be disappointed at those prices. Guys are grabbing five, six items, uh same thing in different colors.

SPEAKER_04 5:01

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Just because of the pricing.

SPEAKER_04 5:03

How long will it take now to get the new stuff in from the old stuff out?

SPEAKER_01 5:06

It's uh it's is there a planned date? Well, it there it's in production right now. Um I'm gonna think it's gonna be fairly seamless. By the time we get down to uh you know, one of this and one of that, the new stuff will be available. So uh I I think it's going to dovetail in quite nicely. Perfect. But you never know. You never know. Uh season 40 is nicely underway for it's the store manager, but he isn't here today. But he's not here today. And see, therein lies the problem. When the store manager's not here to answer questions about it.

SPEAKER_04 5:38

Another day of uh loss of revenue today.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Exactly. You know what I mean? The whole nine yards.

SPEAKER_04 5:41

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

We may boy we beat up on that kid.

SPEAKER_04 5:45

He's a bunching bag, he's a walking human bunching bag, let me tell you. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Uh season 40 is now airing on Global Television Network and all affiliated, affiliated other distribution vehicles that we use, including the Sportsman, uh, Sportsman's Channel and WFN World Fishing Network South of the Border. Eight o'clock Saturday mornings here in Canada nationally, except the left coast. Well, those folks get to sleep until 10 and 10:30, BC and Alberta, respectively. And uh we air four times on Sportsman's Channel. Not sure exactly what those days are, but I do know they fall between Sunday and Saturday sometimes.

SPEAKER_04 6:25

Does it have a day at the end of the word? It has a Y at the end of the word.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

And same with WFN in the U.S. Except for WFN, I do know for a fact that we are primetime Friday night, 8 p.m. 8 p.m. Friday night. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 6:38

I think 6 30 is our our sportsman channel, uh kind of primetime p.m. as well on Wednesdays. So wow. Yeah, we're getting a big time now, buddy. We're in the middle. Yes, sir, remind me.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Listener feedback, Mr. Bowman. What are yours?

SPEAKER_04 6:51

Yeah. In response to our Fly versus Gear YouTube clip. Wow, there's lots of uh responses to that one coming up lately. Great episode. At Vinny45-70 via YouTube. Uh I'm a conventional guy, so a fish conventional fishing guy myself. So fly versus gear. He's a conventional gear fisherman. Right. Uh I'm a conventional guy myself. Even tend to stick to a spinning reel because I fish with live bait and it does everything I need it to do.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Funny how we're transitioning in that whole spinning versus casting. I remember like up until the oh mid-70s, I would say.

SPEAKER_04 7:34

Oh, knucklebusters. Yeah. They didn't even go in pre-school. They reeled backwards. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

And then all of a sudden, in the in the you know, 82, 83, you started hearing about these bait casting reels. You know, it took level winding to a whole different level. Yeah. And all of a sudden, we all gave up our spinning gear for these baitcasters.

SPEAKER_04 7:58

Guys like Roland Martin, Bill Dance, Jimmy Houston, those guys popularized it in tournaments, right? They said there's a reason we're using this, and this is the reason why. Go heavier, heavier, and all that stuff, and it made sense at the time. So yeah, but you're right.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

We all bought into that. We drank Kool-Aid on that one. Oh, no. Now we're kind of transitioning back the other way. I mean, there's a lot of guys will tell you that that they would prefer to use a spinning uh uh a series of spinning rods and reels over bait casting any day of the w of the week on a boat. So it allows them to do different things. I think a combination of both, you know, if we keep going back to the golf scenario, the golf bag scenario, you need every club. Yep. You need every club. Now, some of the clubs you might only use once or twice a week. Yeah. Right? But you have to have them for that one.

SPEAKER_04 8:46

I say we only have to use your putter once or twice a week, right? It means you chip them in every time. Short games.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

I'd like to play it all putting. Like the little uh putter, putting it on the colour. Putt putt golf.

SPEAKER_04 8:55

Yeah, exactly. Okay, he says uh uh spinning does everything he needs to do, but fly fishing is fun. If you only fly fish, it's a lifestyle. It's like playing golf with blades. We were talking about this earlier, but bladed clubs being the professional grade of a bladed iron. Like a uh a blade would be as thin as this phone right here and very unforgiving. You hit it perfect and that shot goes perfect. You can shape your shot a little better with it, et cetera, et cetera. Most of the time.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

So is it better for distance? Is that the deal of it?

SPEAKER_04 9:23

No, not necessarily.

SPEAKER_03 9:24

If you hit it perfect, it's better for everything, I'd say.

SPEAKER_04 9:27

If you hit it perfect, perfect, dead center, there's a sweet spot in that club, and it's very small. Okay, let me ask you to hit that spot.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

If if you took a pro, yes, like this guy never misses a shot, and he used a blade and measured the not only distance but accuracy of that shot, and then have used what would be a conventional replacement for a blade, whatever the normal forgiving clubs, nowadays forgiving clubs, right? Will the blade outperform? Now he's a professional and he's gonna hit it perfectly. Will the blade outperform the regular club every time?

SPEAKER_03 10:03

I would say so.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

He'd have more control over the ball.

SPEAKER_04 10:06

He's gonna be control, not don't worry about distance so much. Worried about, let's say it's a seven-iron. She's gonna shape that. I want to draw that into there for a reason. I want to fade it into there for a reason. He can do both turns of this, he can hook it if he wants a real duck hook he can make it. Probably, yeah, I would think so. It's said to be, anyways, eh, Dean? Yeah, yeah. And Matt and Matt. Yeah. So and but for what for us to hit him, Dean plays blades.

SPEAKER_03 10:31

I play them and I'm terrible. You and I to hit him. Why the hell do you use them? I I got him handed like handled around from a guy who deserves to be playing them, and now I use them. Exactly. I don't deserve it.

SPEAKER_04 10:42

Mike uh what's born, Mike Bourne. He probably plays blades, you know like that. But for you and I to hit a man to go to the driving range and hit him, they would a little reservoir.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

But I don't even know why you put yourself on the same level as me.

SPEAKER_04 10:53

Okay, well, but I couldn't hit the blades. There's you and then there's me. I couldn't hit the blades. Like, and but it hurts their hands even. You know, when you hit it wrong, which is not perfect sweet spot, it's just you feel it right through your hands. Doesn't hurt, but you feel you know it's wrong. Yeah, you know what I mean? When you hit it right, it's going, I didn't even feel that. But that's one in a hundred swings, sort of thing, you know. So anyway, so he says uh it's like using blades as an amateur. It's stupid, it's stupid. I'll cut uh it'll cost you some strokes. Can I say that? No, I can't. But F word, does it feel good when you stripe one? There, there you go. It feels good to that one in a hundred.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

That one in a hundred. I love it. And that's why you would use it, right? I love that. Vinny, you're the man, buddy. Thank you, Vinny. That was awesome. Uh, conservation corner, of course, uh brought to you by the good folks at Invasive Species Center. Uh, if you haven't heard, it means you've never listened to this program. So let's make an assumption from somebody out there that has not listened to this program, and therefore, we're gonna fill that person in uh by saying or asking, did you know that your favorite species of sport fish could be at risk? Look at you, eh?

SPEAKER_04 11:58

Back to the script. Well, every once in a while we have to make it we haven't done that in a long time.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Uh grass carp, one of our four species, the not our the four species of invasive carps, were originally brought into the U.S. to control unwanted aquatic plants. And I uh remember it's funny, eh? Because I remember when this when the dam first started springing a leak in this whole situation. We were just starting on radio back then on uh on uh Rogers uh uh it wasn't even Rogers, on the fan 590. Right. And uh I remember the mainstream media talking about this, and it made it sound, and they were right in a sense, but it made it sound like the cage door had been left open and these monsters were getting out of on the Mississippi River. And they were basically uh a fish that was brought in to control vegetation in the lower Mississippi, and they were bought in from from over there, Asia somewhere, somewhere, and they did their job really well, except uh high waters, uh dikes that broke, uh dams that burst, whatever the case may be, they started getting out of their enclosures, and we found out pretty quick that uh not only could they survive and thrive out there, they did extremely well um in the open environment to the point where they started growing and expanding their territory from the south, they moved north. Next thing you know, I know it took about 10 years, but it seemed like it was overnight. They were knocking on the border saying, hello, uh, we're ready for the Great Lakes, right?

SPEAKER_04 13:31

So that's what we talk about when we uh we were they a question for you when you say they're brought in for controlling weeds, yeah, but they're in controlled environments. Are they controlling weeds in these controlled ponds only? That's the guy.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

From what I understand, these were enclosures. These the controlling of the weeds were in areas that were private enterprise that were using the water for other purposes. Okay. I don't know what those purposes would be, but for whatever reason, they needed to control the vegetation, they needed to eradicate the vegetation. So they brought these fish in, and sure as hell, I mean, this thing eats 40%, up to 40% of its own weight every day in vegetation. Yeah, so you can figure that one out pretty quick. You put a thousand of them in the in an area in a pond, right? Um, there's no weeds, for sure, right? And that's what happened. They did, and then that pond eventually somehow, etc. They got out into the uh lower Mississippi and all the way north. Uh, but anyways, they now are here. Uh when we started this campaign three years ago, I believe, it was sort of uh an awareness campaign, awareness that hey, this could happen, be on the lookout, here's what they look like. And when you went to uh this website, that's exactly what they would do is educate you on uh on the species. Well, now that message has changed drastically over the last 12 months, maybe 14 months, because uh we have not only DNA evidence, which we did early on in this campaign, but we now know for a fact that they're actually out in the swim. There have been uh 14, Dean, if I got that right, did we have reporting on this? Was there more than that now? Yeah. I know we had a specialist here one time, and the number 14 seemed to ring bell. Or 34. Anyways, regardless, enough that we need to now not be on guard, we need to be on a little bit more of a defense mission, I guess it would be. We need to see if we can get ourselves clear of them. The best way to do it is arm yourself with the information that's available uh at invasivecarp.ca. Invasivecarp.ca is the website. Go there, get all the info that you require this summer, spring, summer, fall, when you're out in the water, keep an eye out. And if you do spot one of these things, report it immediately. I don't think there's any I shouldn't say that. If you can catch it, that's a that's bonus. Yeah, if you can net it if you put a net under it somehow, or I don't even know how you would do it. But anyways, if you could catch them, that'd be great. Uh but I think just having uh the coordinates handed over to the MR uh would be enough to let them know that there's one in that area. So uh that's all uh there on invasivecarp.ca. Go there, learn more, and arm yourself with knowledge. You know it, sister. In the news brought to you by JB, your outdoor superstore, JB Cycle Marine, Ontario's largest boat, motor, trailer, package dealer, and that's Princecraft and Mercury boats and motors, by the way. Yes, sir. Uh customer driven since 1970. That's the place you need to be if you're looking for a rig, that's for sure, especially this time of year. This is it right now, isn't it? Yes, it is. This is it. Prime time, baby.

SPEAKER_04 16:52

Everybody's just getting excited up there now, uh kind of looking around at the boats and motors. That's fun. And we're working, speaking of looking around, we're working on ours.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

We're working on our own.

SPEAKER_04 17:03

Are we gonna do a show on that, by the way? Uh well, we're we're filming little tidbits of it, so it's gonna go on YouTube for sure.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

I think we should do a whole podcast on what we've done, what we're doing. Yeah, that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_04 17:13

We have uh we'll take bits and video grabs, video footage, and all that. Yeah, we do get people asking about that.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

So well, yeah, there is, and you know, as I as I was telling Pete the other day when we were back there working, you know, it's kind of odd that we get a brand new boat shipped to us, and then the first thing we do, we dismantle some of it and we put put put our own touch to it. But yeah, and it's not something that every angler should do or needs to do or will do, but in our particular case, we're kind of unique in that we work this is our office, right? That boat is where we spend uh a large portion of our year, and it's not just about fishing, but it's also acquiring the visuals for a fishing show, meaning cameras, sound equipment, camera people, technicians, etc. And they have requirements that we need to build into the boat. So when we rewire a boat, for example, it's not just for our own fishing purposes, although a lot of that does happen, but it's also for the crew that'll be uh fishing, uh shooting the fish in Canada show. Correct and mundo. You don't need to do that. But we will, you know, if we do an episode, we'll show you how to update. And I'm not just talking about Prince Craft, I think about most boat companies, uh, how to update some of the critical wiring that will be operating your electronics.

SPEAKER_04 18:28

Uh it's absolute necessity. That's easy for me to say. Very nicely done, Mr. Roller. Wow. Were you practicing? I was kind of working on my vocab a little bit there.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

JMBcycle.com is where you need to go if you're looking for a rig. What's in the news, buddy?

SPEAKER_04 18:45

The news. Scientists opened a 40-year-old can of salmon to find a surprising sign of ocean recovery. What the hell would open a 40 year old record? Who would save that, right? Scientists used decades-old canned salmon as data at a data source to study long-term ocean ecosystem changes. The samples included 178 cans of salmon from four species uh collected over a 42-year period from 1979 to 2021 in Alaska. Uh researchers counted Aniskid. Anisakid Anisokid. Yeah. Anisokid parasites, tiny worms. I like that better. Tiny tiny worms.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Let's go to the source. Found in the fish. Let's go to the source. Dean. Yeah. These tiny worms. Yeah. What are they called? These uh and saccid.

SPEAKER_03 19:31

Anisacid. Anisacid. I don't know this one. Hacky sack.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Anus kid.

SPEAKER_04 19:36

So he says they're anus kid.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

These tiny worms were found in the fish. Now, would that mean that these tiny worms were packaged in that can 40 years ago?

SPEAKER_03 19:47

Yeah, and apparently that's very common because they're killed in the process of canning. So they know that uh these will be in the fish, and people can't eat them, they're just dead. So if you've eaten canned salmon, you've eaten.

SPEAKER_04 20:01

We've probably eaten these little worms. Really?

SPEAKER_01 20:03

These tiny worms.

SPEAKER_04 20:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Like when I have when the countess makes her lovely salmon salads, it tastes so good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:09

Yeah, lots of little extra worm in there just in case you flavor.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

But apparently that's that's a positive sign. Oh. Because I was surprised by reading this that I I assume when I read the headline that there'd be a red like there'd be less parasites now. So they're saying, oh, the the ecosystem's healthier, but it's actually the opposite. The more parasites, the healthier the food chain is, apparently. Because there's more fish, which promotes more parasites, which you know it's just a like a cycle. So they've they've actually found more parasites in chum and uh in chum and pink pink and pinks, and then the the levels have been pretty stable with coho and sockeye, which when you think about which which species are doing better right now, that does kind of that does kind of line up.

SPEAKER_04 20:59

So when you're buying you can salmon, you look for coho and sockeye, you get lesser of the evil, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

Is that yeah, but if you want to be supporting a healthy ecosystem, you should look for more parasites.

SPEAKER_04 21:09

What the hell is that all about? Well, no, your support the support has already happened when they can that. So that's that's already happened. So you don't have to buy that anymore. You can let that one rot and get the get the God. It doesn't rot obviously after 42 years.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

Does any of this study tell us that it's okay to eat 40-year-old canned salmon at all? I don't know about that. I don't think I I would not recommend doing that.

SPEAKER_04 21:31

You know what, guys, it's the same. Who do I mean they talk about organic vegetables, so let's talk about non-organically grown vegetables. What are we eating out there that we don't really you know what I mean? You don't we don't know.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

No idea. You've never you have no idea.

SPEAKER_04 21:44

It could be everything we eat could be something tainted like these worms here.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Well, I don't know whether I remember telling this story on here or not, but I will. At one point, at one point when I was a kid, uh my brother Reno and I there was The fish and chip shop not far from home. And I think it was Reno. But anyways, he got a job there. One of us got a job there. I think it was him. And his sole job and this is like a regular fish and chip place where you go and order halibut with chips or paddock or whatever. Whatever pollock. Anyways, his only job, and he would go there after school for three hours every day. And his sole job was to cut the worms out of the fish.

SPEAKER_04 22:32

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

And he used to tell me about it. Big long white worms, almost like tapeworms. And he'd have to he'd have to cut the the you know, the owner showed him how to find them and then pulled them out and then make sure you cut it and get the head out. And and I is and I find that bizarre. And I told somebody about that years and years later in the food industry, and it was like he was like, Yeah, yeah, so what? Of course, of course you'd cut the worms out. What? Do you want them to feed worms?

SPEAKER_04 22:59

Isn't that why they uh freeze sushi beforehand? Yeah. Flash freezing sushi to kill those worms.

SPEAKER_03 23:04

Yeah, but the worms are still in there. So you're eating worms.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

Just eating a frozen worm there, yeah. Well, you don't want to lose all that weight when they go to speaking of weight. Have you seen the the uh meat industry taking a walloping right now about their weights on their packages?

SPEAKER_04 23:16

Oh, I saw I saw that a while ago. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

And of course, we did that expose years ago on the uh packaged fish. That's right, in the radio industry that was doing similar things and worse because they were mislabeling it, you know, calling something uh halibut when in fact it was tilapia or whatever, you know.

SPEAKER_04 23:36

Now now Buddy's selling gas at the pumps with water in it. You saw that one too going on, son of a bitch.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

What the hell is going on? It's a madhouse. Oh my god. Anyways, uh it's a fascinating article. It's up right now on fishingcanada.com. You do want to read it because there is a lot of uh meat uh in this one that you might want to see that's how you use that button, buddy.

SPEAKER_04 23:58

And you can go to our mobile site, which Matt made so pretty now, too, right? Right. So nice and easy to navigate, too.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

You can. You can read it on your phone. You can actually, for the first time, read this stuff on your phone. All available at fishing time. I don't know why I'm laughing because I paid a guy 20 years ago to have that. Oh my god. Anyways, uh all available at fishingcanada.com, the uh gateway, the very portal to your next fishing adventure. And how long has it been since I've used that? Yeah. Now I should have gotten that thank you.

SPEAKER_04 24:30

Well, that's more for a funny. That wouldn't be that would be something uh a bunch of bullshit, maybe, or something like that. There's a bunch of bullshit. There we go.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

Speaking of which, fan question of the week comes to us from Colin Merrick via email.

SPEAKER_04 24:43

Or Colin's gonna be offended that you said that.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

No, and I don't blame him.

SPEAKER_03 24:46

Is this one of those ones, Dean? This is one of those ones that do not qualify. Oh, do not qualify. It's the same people every time. We can't reward the same people every week, so I dip into the emails every now and then.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

All right. Good. Uh he sent it via email. And uh he says, Hey guys, I saw the boat build you posted on Instagram, and it got me thinking. Well, I'm thinking right now, did we post something on Instagram?

SPEAKER_04 25:10

We put uh we put a picture of the uh the electrical system there. We said, Okay, getting ready for uh for the next uh build here coming up, guys and girls.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

So uh how much electrical or uh technical uh expertise uh does one actually need to take something like that on? I've been uh tempted to try it on my own boat, but I'd basically be learning as I go from YouTube and trial uh and error. Now, before we answer that, our guest coming on a little bit later on in the program is the perfect example of uh somebody who for a change is not an expert on YouTube, uh, and he will tell you so, and he does things from the ground up just like you would. But you're saying you go to YouTube to find out from the experts on uh basics or even uh advanced wiring on a boat. I'd be leery, a little bit leery about doing stuff like that. Uh you go on to say, is that realistic or am I asking for trouble? First of all, there are people who can and there are people who cannot. It's it's pretty simple stuff. If you are you have the type of mentality or aptitude to be able to think simple, logical. If not, it can be a dog's breakfast real quick and get out of hand and and and become nasty. Uh all I think about is popping the hood on FNC1 every once in a while.

SPEAKER_04 26:39

Oh boy, there's some wiring under there. You remember the guy that we had do that? Yeah, he was a car wiring expert, right? A DC expert, yeah, or whatever like that.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

So in a case like that, I would say no, but the stuff that we do, it's pretty basic stuff. We're we're in essence on um our fish in Canada boats, the the biggest change that we make to them is the wiring that will be powering the electronics part of the boat. You know, the the flashers, the sonars, the the uh life scopes, the all of those items. We do put on a separate system because most boat manufacturers just quite frankly uh don't build the boats, taking into account all of the new technology and the amount of technology that guys are putting on.

SPEAKER_04 27:28

That's exactly what it is. It's not maybe the technology, it's just the amount of graph. Our Prince Graft, for instance, is it's built for a graph or a fish finder in the front and a fish finder on the dash. That's what it's built for, really. You know, and wired up for that.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

And you can use that with standard wiring that comes on a boat. There's nothing wrong with that.

SPEAKER_04 27:44

For sure. For sure. But when you get into the bigger graphs, like we're running multiple 12-inch units, uh, maybe a 16 this year. Four of these, you know, they start to draw power. You got to add two live scope units on top of that, they start to draw power too. So all of a sudden, the wiring that's in a boat is not gonna work. I guarantee you, it is not gonna work. And more, what will happen? So, so number one, your the normal tendency or normal way they're wired up is into the house battery. So the starting battery. That battery runs your motor, it runs all your pumps, it runs everything in your boat already, right? So, and it's uh it's built to to charge with the alternator on that motor, it'll charge that battery back up. Again, most people buy a small battery, they want to save a bunch of money, so they buy the smallest battery they can get that they get away with, and then you know, nor in normal days it it works. When you start running all these graphs at the same time, which we do a lot of times, when the motor is not running, it's not charging, the the uh alternator is not doing anything, all of a sudden, all these graphs, all this live scope, all this stuff is drawing more power, more power. With the wiring you have in your boat, it's tiny, tiny wiring in there. It's it's just draining that battery severely, quickly and severely. So we up the biggest thing is upsizing your wire. You have to rewire the whole boat with ample, proper wire size, right? So, and that stuff, like like we were talking, you you can find that all on YouTube. There's no doubt about it. Look for you know the amp draw, the amp rating of uh 10 AD AWG wire, American wire gauge wire, stuff like that. You can learn it all. There's so much you can learn on it. But let me just say that DC is very different than AC. So if you're in a house electrician, uh you know, a regular electrician, AC electrician, DC is a lot different than AC. It really is. It's not it's not as difficult once you learn it. It's like, oh my god, like the answer, it's simple. It's simple as hell once you learn how to do it. But it was it was an intimidation factor with me. I was when I first started doing this, I thought, okay, I'm an electrician. Why can't I figure this stuff out? Why can't I figure it out? And it's because I was maybe overcomplicating things or whatever, but it ends up being simple. But it it just, yeah. Use YouTube, use whatever you can to figure it out. Mo anybody here watching can do this. If you put your mind to it and take some time, take your time and do it proper, you can do it. It's not a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

But it's there are companies that offer that service, they're not they're not cheap, they're very expensive. But for somebody who is not handy at all or or cannot get their head around wiring, you don't want to mess with it. Because let me tell you something. In as much as 12 volts is not as intimidating to most folks as say normal current in your home, let me tell you, it can give you uh devastating results if you do screw it up. I mean burn your boat, too. Especially 36 volts if you mess around with 36 volts. It's a good spark off that sounds. You could you could melt your boat. Yeah, quite simple. You could melt your boat. Remember when you melt melt the wiring harness, you can melt your boat. So if you're not comfortable, I would not hire somebody. Jack does it.

SPEAKER_04 30:55

They have a company, a separate company.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

There's lots of marinas now that offer that service. Yeah, they're probably all getting into it now.

SPEAKER_04 31:02

Selling the graphs, they're selling all this stuff. By the way, we can wire it up for you.

SPEAKER_01 31:05

Here's the thing I don't understand about anglers. We're funny, we're a funny lot. We'll spend hundreds and and thousands, and you may there's not enough things that we can spend our money on if it makes sense to us, i.e. lures. There's no maximum that you if a lure works and you want it, you'll buy it. If you have to sell your dog and mortgage the house, you'll buy it. But there's other things that we chince out on. For example, flotation devices. If I had a dollar for every person that said, geez, I'd like those uh those real comfortable self-inflating vests that you guys wear all the time, I'd love one of those. But oh my cow, they're like 150 bucks, 200 bucks, 300 bucks. And I think, wow, this guy probably just blew-reels. Yeah, he just blew, you know, $2,500 on a rod and reel package. He's got $50 in line. But when it comes to a comfortable flotation device, oh my god, I can't spend that kind of money. Well, anglers are funny that way because in the case of rewiring your boat, the reason you need to rewire your boat if you're going to rewire it is because you've probably got about $20,000 worth of electronics on that boat that didn't belong there. When the manufacturer made that boat, he didn't build it with $20,000 worth of electronics in mind. So you got $20,000 in the electronics, and that's by the way, on the low end. And now you you take it in to get it rewired, and you know, the guy says, Well, that's gonna be about $3,000. Holy metro. That's true. The old whistling gopher. Oh my god, I got whistling gopher. There's no way I'm gonna spend, well, you just spent 20, 25, 30 grand buying the stuff. Now for another three, uh, you're not gonna get it done. Yeah. If you're not handy, I certainly wouldn't tackle it as my first marine wiring job.

SPEAKER_04 32:59

Not a job as extensive as that right behind the end, right there, that's for sure. But a couple of graphs you could, you know, yeah, take it on. It's an interesting project, so you can take it on.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

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SPEAKER_01 34:05

All right, our special guest for the day, uh Jay Legier, as we mentioned at the top of the program, a former news reporter/slash producer, uh, originally from Labrador, moved to the Northwest Territories. Wow, that's a that's a good move, isn't it? From Lava Road to the Northwest Territories. Started as a part-time YouTuber, uh, quit his job in 2024 to pursue full-time. And now he's uh in the YouTube world, he is the guy uh when it comes to restoring cabins and living off the grid and all that stuff. Uh welcome to the program, Jay.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.

SPEAKER_01 34:38

Uh I have to be honest with you, I have not seen your product, although uh you come highly recommended uh from several people. And uh, as soon as we get off this, I'm going to join. I watched some this morning.

SPEAKER_04 34:51

Yeah, beforehand. It's really good. Really good contact. Well done, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 34:55

I just watched you guys for the first time last night, so we're good.

SPEAKER_05 34:58

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

Who are these guys? I love it. That's awesome. So how are you? Just a quick, just a quick thing. Yeah. I am a Labradorian at heart, and that's where I grew up. My 400 beers are in Labrador. Originally from Moncton. Ah. So it's a quick stay there, but I am a Labradorian at heart. So I think we're fair to say originally from Labrador. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:21

Well, I think uh, you know, Labrador, Moncton, and Northwest Territory. Safe to say that you are living the life that most of us would dream of in any one of those areas, by the way, any one of those territories, but uh especially NW2. You're you're now in uh in Yellowknife.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

That's correct, yeah. I live in Yellowknife.

SPEAKER_04 35:41

We were just there uh not that long ago, last year, the uh two seasons ago. We love we've we've been there throughout our career of uh Fish in Canada. We've been uh to uh to actually Yellowknife uh a few times for sure. We've even fished at Yellowknife River, you know, the river that comes right in there and had outstanding pike fishing in there. So pike all over the place.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

I took my daughter fishing uh last summer. I'm not uh I I don't have a lot of experience fishing, but uh we went down to the river there and there's like a little dock and first cast, man, the pike was right away. I look like a pro. I look like a pro. I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

So normally when we have uh YouTubers on that are into what you do, they're they're homesteaders, they're folks that uh pull the plug uh from the grid, they want to just get away from the rest of the world, they get a little piece of land somewhere, and they just start building from the ground up with their hands with very limited tools and knowledge on how to do the build and and just live off the land. Your case is totally different. That's what intrigues me about you. So maybe before we start, you can tell folks exactly what it is that you do.

SPEAKER_02 36:51

Okay, so my case is different because I don't live off grid, right? And I'm very clear about that with the channel. I uh I visit the cabin, right? It's like it's my getaway, and I've always wanted my cabin to remain that. Um growing up, my buddies had cabins, and getting to go to the cabin like once a month was very special. It's a very special thing. So I still maintain that with this channel. I'm at my home right now in my basement, and I'll be going back to the cabin uh well, one of my cabins tomorrow, uh, one of my cabin projects, and then my main cabin, I'll go back to it next week. So every time I walk in, it kind of feels special. You know what I mean? And uh so I'm not a homesteader, but I am out there uh trying to make a go of it, uh, being very self-sufficient while I'm out there doing everything on my own and trying to build up these uh well, one is a dilapidated cabin project, just trying to build it up, um, tear it down, build it up, and see if I can do it. And essentially I'm just documenting that on YouTube. Can I build up a cabin? Can I tear down a cabin? And uh sometimes I don't know. I just don't know when I go into it.

SPEAKER_04 38:05

And uh that one cabin you got there, man. That does that's a nasty one that you gotta tear it all down. You said on your video, right? You have to tear it all down and and start from scratch, basically.

SPEAKER_02 38:15

Wow. Well, there's one cabin I'm doing, it's uh it's uh I call it the rotten cabin or the blue cabin. Yeah, that's the one I said. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and that that thing is rough. It's really rough, and it's uh it's over 30 years old, and the family that owned it gave up on it. And uh essentially it started falling to the ground and falling apart. And the the guy who sold it to me called it a dump cabin when I went out to visit it last year, but this time last year, built from dump parts. And uh so 30 years later, you know, it needs to go right back to the dump. Yeah, it's it's mouse infested and um it's it's gross. So I'm going through a whole demolition project now on that one, and uh, I need to build a cabin close by, not in the exact same spot where that cabin is, but close by. Uh and so I have like a three-year window to get that done because I'm leasing the property. And when I took over the lease, I had to indicate to them that yes, I would tear down this rotten cabin and build a new cabin within three years. Now, hopefully they'll extend me because they're gonna see that I am working my butt off out there all by myself, tearing this thing down on my snowmobile back and forth, lugging loads of garbage and roof and mouse infested insulation. If they see I'm trying, I think they'll let me go a little bit longer. But yeah, I have three years to tear that one down and build up the other.

SPEAKER_04 39:41

Why did they give you a time limit like that? Why does it have to be three years?

SPEAKER_02 39:44

Because uh, I think they just I have to uh meet the expectations that come with taking over the lease. And if I said, Yeah, I'll I'll take care of this, Kevin. Don't worry about it. I I know it needs to come down. You guys are telling me that it needs to come down, it's rotten. We don't want it on the property anymore. And if I just decided, uh, you know what, I'm just gonna live in that thing anyway, right? And just make do and live in it and not do any work, they'll come back to me in three years and say, Hey man, we gave you three years to to figure this out, and really you're just partying in a rotten cabin out in the middle of the woods, so that's not good enough for us. Yeah. So they they if they give me a timeline that puts pressure on me to get it done.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

That's a good point. What's the end goal, Jay? What's the end goal for for doing something like that? I mean, there's a million opportunities for you if you want to be uh occasionally off the grid and go out and you know get dirt under your nails and all there's a million opportunities out there for you to do something a little less rustic than what you're undertaking right now. Well, I think what's the end goal?

SPEAKER_02 40:48

I have other projects on the channel that are way less rustic than that. The whole thing is when I started my channel 10 years ago, I called it Learning as I Go in Northern Canada. And uh that still holds true today. Like even the video I put up yesterday. There's a lot of me learning while I'm um, you know, making the video and working on my main cabin. I have a main cabin. It's nice, it's cozy, it's easy to access in the winter. It's not easy to access in the summer, but it's easy to access in the winter. It's about 30 kilometers from my home. And uh nice big wood stove in there. I've got a little loft. And when I first got it, it was pretty rough. So I was I was like, okay, I'm gonna see if I can build an extension. How do I do it? I don't know how to do that. I didn't even know what a post was, a joist, a poist, as you can hear, right? I didn't know any of that stuff. And so I just told people I don't know what I'm doing. I'm gonna try to figure it out as I go along and I'm gonna record everything. So the end goal is to just keep at um what I'm doing and learning. I wouldn't say there's an ultimate end goal. The goal is just to keep learning. If I'm as long as I'm learning on the channel, I can make content. That's the way I see it.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

Yeah, and and I think it's fascinating because I'm sure that the majority of your viewers are kind of in the same position and they're living through you to see to see if they could learn how to do some of this stuff, right? Because obviously, if it's not a um it's not a slick uh building project, I'm sure there's a lot of stuff that you're inventing as you go along, which is fantastic because as a viewer who's maybe not that familiar with the building process, it can you know inspire them and spur them on to maybe fixing that old shed they've got in the backyard with basic tools, right?

SPEAKER_02 42:39

You know, I there are a lot of people out there who say, Dan, I'm learning a lot from you, and my husband wants to go get a circular saw now. And you know, like uh I'm so happy that we're getting tools in the house and we're watching you and we're trying it ourselves. But there are a lot of people who are either know it all or they really know it all. And um they let me they let me have it in the comments, which is great. The best comments are those that come from the individual that says, Look, I've been doing this for 40 years, and you might want to try this, Jay. Love your channel. Yeah, here's an idea here's an idea. And when you're using that circular saw, did you know like there's a little lever you can just like do this and you can lift up, and that allows for you to cut thicker pieces of wood? When I first started using my circular saw, I didn't know that. I just the thing came and I was like, it is what it is. That's right. Why can't I get through this two by four? Why can't I get through this two by four? And so I get these lovely comments from people who've been doing it forever. And they um they don't judge me because I'm clear. Yeah, yeah, exactly. What is wrong with this thing? It's you. You gotta you gotta do this.

SPEAKER_01 43:48

Yeah, yeah. Have you ever hurt yourself doing that stuff?

SPEAKER_02 43:51

You know, I only hurt myself once, I don't know if you guys can just gonna be hard to show. And this is really minor.

SPEAKER_01 43:57

Yeah, I see it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

There we go. It's like the reverse thing. It's minor. It's stung. Uh impact driver going in. And it happened like two weeks ago. And I just missed it and straight to the thumb. Nice. I don't know if you've ever done that before, but I got a few comments. People saying that they've done that multiple times. So yeah, I got a nice black spot growing in my thumbnail now. Yeah. That's the only injury. Oh, and I whacked my head last year when I was trying to uh move a gigantic boulder with a uh I had a two by six, and I was trying to like get some leverage and move a gigantic boulder on the property. And unfortunately I didn't have that part on camera, but that thing slipped right down on top of that. So those are the two injuries. Those are the two injuries.

SPEAKER_04 44:42

So you've had zero uh up until this time, you had zero building experience, like building projects, carpentry, stuff like that. You really didn't have any nothing. Zero. Wow. And you were you were with C B C.

SPEAKER_02 44:56

What did you do with C B C or reporter?

SPEAKER_04 44:57

Reporter, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:58

So when I was with the CBC, I started off as a videographer, and then I ended up being a video journalist, and then I was a television producer, then I I produced a morning show, and then I ended up being assignment, and then I ended as the senior producer of video for CBC North. And uh after 19 years, I decided to pull the plug on that and get into this. Okay. But back to the um the zero experience, I had nothing. And um it all started with this canvas tent with metal poles, right? So I ordered it from the canvas tent shop, and it was like a $2,500 investment. I knew I wanted to do it because I had done tenting previously in my life when I lived in Nunavut. And um so I get this thing and I set it up and I start putting it on YouTube, and the tent was too big and freezing, freezing cold, snow floor, right? So I was just frozen all the time. My first overnighter, it must have, it was like minus 48, and it must have been minus 25 inside the tent. I'm trying to stay as warm as possible.

SPEAKER_05 46:10

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 46:11

And so I knew I need to make a change. So I sold that one, and I ordered myself a 10 by 12, and I thought, I wonder if I can build a frame instead of having this metal frame and put it on some sort of floor. So I found some old pallets around town and brought them out and started, you know, working with lumber for the first time ever. I didn't know how to use a handsaw.

SPEAKER_00 46:35

Like I know how to use handsaw.

SPEAKER_02 46:36

I know how to go back and forth, but I didn't know that you should have like the piece of wood hanging over something so you can cut and it'll drop.

SPEAKER_01 46:45

I was I had I was cutting wood right in the middle of two different things and it was jamming and you're that guy on the cartoons that we used to watch as kids when he's up there cutting the limb off the tree. He's on the wrong side of the limb when he's gonna be.

SPEAKER_02 46:56

He falls with the limb, right? I'm falling, I'm falling down.

SPEAKER_01 47:02

Wow, that is fascinating. That you would have the wherewithal to even attempt this. Yeah, that's the part that's amazing to me. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. It's like uh it just blows my mind, and good on you for doing it. I mean, fantastic. How um uh family man?

SPEAKER_02 47:19

I have uh two daughters and an ex-wife. Nice, and uh I have two daughters, and a new uh well, not I've been with uh Crystal, who's on the channel from time to time, and Puffy, my dog. Uh we've been together for seven or eight years now.

SPEAKER_01 47:34

How did the reason I'm asking you, how do the kids fit into this? How do they view dad? They don't, they don't really.

SPEAKER_02 47:41

They've been on a couple of videos, but for the most part, it's not in their interest. It's not in their interest, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:47

I'll tell you something. I said I noticed today when you just said the the word puffy, and I noticed you're in Northwest Territories, the home of a timber wolves, home of bears. Oh, and uh are you ever afraid a little puffy might get out there and uh run around the cabin and not come back come back?

SPEAKER_02 48:01

You know, I am, and actually I talked about that in my uh my latest video, um my April 19th video. Yeah. So uh I I started getting into firearms a little more in the last few years while I'm out there, because as you know, in the Northwest Territories, like it is Bear City. Black Bear City. They are all over the place, they're everywhere, they're rummaging through cabins, and uh, they'll go right into the city. Um so I was a bear spray guy for a long time, and I still always have bear spray on. I feel like that is for me the best first line of defense. Like if I see a bear, I I have that. I don't have to where's my gun? Because I'm not always gonna have my gun on me when I'm using a circular saw, but if I have my bear spray, that's something, right? So I talked about how the rifle and the bear spray are really important, especially with puppy. No kidding. Because he's he's a tough little guy, he's a miniature poodle, he's about 19, 18, 19 pounds. He's a tough little guy and he loves being outside and he runs around like crazy. But when he goes out and I can't hear him, I'm like, man, did a bear get him? You know, so yeah, yeah, I I think about that. Yeah, you should. But I have not, I've never encountered a bear in the wild. I'm I'm sure my time is coming because I spend so much time in the woods. Like I'm in the woods three days a week at least, right?

SPEAKER_01 49:23

Yeah, and so you know, I think what people don't understand about bears is that they would rather not see you. And in a case like yours, you're probably you know enough, just enough about protecting yourself from bears just to keep them away, and that is making a lot of noise. Don't try and sneak up and and and spook bears. That's when trouble happens, right? But in your case, if you're up there working and rummaging around and doing your thing, they they would rather go a mile around you to than the could you know have a confrontation, unless, of course, there's a baby involved, a cub involved, or there's hunger involved, and you've got food. Food hunger, yeah. Food. I think about food a lot. Yeah, I think about food a lot at the cabin.

SPEAKER_04 50:04

Yeah, when I watched Jay's video this morning, I he had he had this bear spray, he had bear bangers, he had a 12 gauge on his back, he like he was ready to walk through that wall.

SPEAKER_02 50:14

I that might have been the first video when I walked out to the blue cabin. Yeah, that's what it was. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I was prepared because when I when I talked to the guy who uh I got the property from, he had two pretty wild bear encounters, like one where a bear had to s uh stalk them uh on the whole entire walk, him and his family. And um the other one was there was a bear in the cabin when they arrived. So I just uh really started to think about that. And that hike is 45 minutes to an hour, and it's five kilometers straight through the deepest woods, man. Like it's it's not an easy hike. It's not an easy hike, and so I'm constantly like, all right, is there one around? Right?

SPEAKER_01 50:56

Yeah, yeah, it's uh it's it's something you uh you become accustomed to uh when you've been out there long enough.

SPEAKER_02 51:04

Oh, I'm I am more comfortable. Well at first I didn't even want to do my first overnighter because I was scared of bears, and now I've I don't I've slept out there hundreds and hundreds of nights, and I'm just I'm always alone, right? So I feel comfortable out in the woods for sure.

SPEAKER_01 51:16

How many projects have you got on the go? Three.

SPEAKER_02 51:19

I've got the main cabin and I've got the rotten cabin, and I uh Chrisville has property in Nova Scotia, and so uh we're gonna try to develop that. And so we have this yurt that we set up last fall, and we're gonna use the yurt as like a base camp for working her property over the years. That's the plan, anyway. And hopefully it it uh equates to some sort of retirement home build on the channel, and then I can turn off YouTube eventually, you know?

SPEAKER_01 51:57

Wow. So the whole YouTube thing, was that designed just purely by accident, or was this a business match or did you did you sit down and map it all out and figure out how you could, I mean, let's face it, it's not everybody that has the opportunity to eke out a living uh by going out and banging on things that you know, putting things together without any background and building, like your your story, if you wrote this out in a book, man, somebody would look at that and say, whoa, this is not gonna work. Clearly, they would they'd be wrong.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

I was told it's not gonna work a lot.

SPEAKER_01 52:32

Clearly, they'd be ready because it does. So I'm curious, was the YouTube thing an afterthought? Was it the catalyst that got you into this? Like, what what was it that got you into this?

SPEAKER_02 52:43

Okay, so um I have uh a buddy named Alan Gafenko, and he had a channel, and uh it was all about him snowmobiling. And this is like 10, 15 years ago. I love that channel. Now I just watched him snowmobile around, and then I got a snowmobile when I I lived in Labrador uh 10, 10, 15 years ago. I was living there for a few years. I was working the morning show there, and I got a snowmobile and I made a snowmobile video. This is my snowmobile. Very basic. That was on a different channel that I lost a password to, so I had to create this new channel. Uh so it was fun. I got 20,000 views. I was like, holy smokes, 20,000 views. And then when I decided I would do more like snowmobiling, going out, setting up a tent. I did not get 20,000 views, I can tell you that. Did not. And I was getting 500, a thousand slogan. But passion. I just weren't really wanted to be out in the woods on a snowmobile and recording it. And um that 20,000 definitely, you know, it it definitely got me uh interested in seeing if I could do it again. And then eventually I had this video that just blew up. And uh I remember it got like 80,000 the first week. I was like, whoa, this is happening, man. 80,000 the first week. I was very excited about that, and then the next video after it was like back to normal 4,000, 5,000 views.

SPEAKER_01 54:11

Yeah, was this a snowmobiling video?

SPEAKER_02 54:14

It was me sleeping in a tent for the first time. Okay, okay. Yeah. And then eventually I really just started to focus on being better at making the videos. I had like I told you guys I was with the CBC, I was a videographer. I was a news guy, right? Like very formulaic. Here's a clip, here's a character, here's a clip, here's the reporter. Two minutes and ten seconds, you know, boom. Let's go. And that's all I did. And when I got into YouTube, I thought it needed to be really raw and not as polished. I don't know why. I just had it in my head, it can't be polished. And uh once I started to polish, then things really started to pick up and people started to notice like, oh man, your time lapses are beautiful, it's looking very cinematic. And the views started coming. And I I think I was around 25,000 subs. I was maybe two and a half years in, three years in with this channel, and I I thought, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna monetize and see what happens. I monetized, and um it it was decent. It was decent. I was still working at the CBC full time. I was doing this, so I would work Monday to Friday, and then I would race to my cabin Friday evening, come back Saturday afternoon, do an overnighter, edit all day Sunday. For back then I was doing Monday mornings, and I would have my video come out Monday morning, and it would come out while I was back at the CBC. I did that for seven days a week for a long time. And because it's things started picking up. I was getting extra money right from YouTube, and I just wanted to go and go and go. And I stopped thinking about the CBC. I really did. I had an important job there. I stopped thinking about it, and I was nonstop thinking about YouTube. That's I how am I gonna do this? What can I do? How do I work that tool? It was like nonstop in my mind, and then eventually I realized that if I put in constant work, kept it polished, kept it honest. If I was super authentic that this could work for me, and uh I put in my resignation two years ago this month. And wow, yeah, it's so it's two years now. I've been full-time YouTube. Congratulations. Good for you.

SPEAKER_01 56:27

Yeah, congratulations. Well, you know, consistency is the key to that whole thing, right? Uh obviously, aside from what what's making it work. You have to be committed and dedicated, and obviously uh that pays for itself if you do. Not that everybody that's committed and dedicated can put out a product that will draw millions of people, by the way. You also have to have the character, which you clearly do.

SPEAKER_04 56:48

He's got experience, he's got film experience with CBC news and all that kind of stuff. It's gotta help.

SPEAKER_01 56:53

But I also think your catch is kind of interesting. I think the allure, the the fun stuff with you is learning on the job. I think that's fascinating. You learn I think of it in our industry, if a guy started a channel where he well, let's say Jade decides to start another channel and he says he doesn't know anything about fishing, but he's gonna go and put up a fishing channel. I think that'd be fascinating to watch somebody from scratch going through trial and error trying to figure out which end of the rod is is is the one he's supposed to be holding.

SPEAKER_04 57:28

I'll tell you that. You can learn with the fish.

SPEAKER_01 57:30

But I think that's a a great little we'll call it gimmick, whatever you want to call it, but I think it's really cool because today people can connect with that. Most of your audience can connect with the fact that you don't know that little lever on the back of the saws so that you can cut across that two by four. They want to know that. And and that's that's what makes this thing fascinating. I mean, it's good good for you, man. And it's unique because everybody else, as you know, that's in your lane, they're all out there as experts, in the sense that they've lived off the land, they know how to do this, and they know which you know, pine needle to eat and which one they don't. You come at it from a whole different perspective. And I I think that's fascinating, man. Good for you.

SPEAKER_02 58:15

I uh I think there was a moment for me where I decided to embrace it. I uh because I I had I was a tent channel at first. I was right, I was canvas tent, and I had these other tents that I would set up. And I the colder the better. That's when I got all my views. If it's minus 50 and I'm in a tent, because you know the Northwest Territories can be very, very cold. Uh, you know, that was my bread and butter. Freezing in a tent was my bread and butter. And um I was I was setting up uh a bunch of really beautiful shots of me going out and taking some old birch off of a tree that was ready to be peeled. And so it's just like, how cinematic can I make this look? Because all these other channels have these perfect fire starting scenes, and I uh get back and I have all my birch and I crumble it up and I light it and it lights, and I put all my wood in on top and I hit stop record because I'm ready, I have to move on to something else. Fire goes out, and I said, Man, I gotta start that fire. I'm not going back out in the trees for all the the birch. So I grabbed a little uh extra flame fire starter. You can get them at Canadian Tire. I love those things. Yeah, but lit that up, put it in, turn on the camera, and admitted what happened. And I laughed about it. And I was like, man, that was nice. That was nice to just laugh about that and just to admit that all that stuff you guys saw me do. Forget it. Uh it didn't it didn't work out, so now I'm I'm relying on Canadian Tire to get me through. That's awesome. And I felt I felt relief. Yeah.

unknown 59:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:57

It was nice. And I was like, man, there's something there. Even if it doesn't amount to views, I I felt good about that. And I just kept doing it and doing it and doing it. And I don't know how to do this, I don't know how to do that. I'm not sure what's gonna happen here. But how do I do this thing? And and I would say, I can Google this if I want, but what's the fun in that? So if you guys want to help me out in the comments, let's go for it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:18

Perfect. Do you connect with the audience regularly? Do you do you communicate with them? Do you respond? How does how does that go?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:25

So sometimes like I can get a lot of comments. Yeah. A lot, right? Like a thousand comments on a video or whatever. So it's an impossibility, right? I can wake up because my videos go up five o'clock every Sunday morning, my time, which would be seven Eastern. And I can wake up at 7:30 or 8, and there's 300 comments there waiting for me. And that's just gonna go, you know, throughout the day, it'll be up to 500 by the end of the day. And I can't keep up with that. That's a lot. So I will peruse, I'll go through them. If there's some people there that have been with me from the beginning, I'll give them a shout-out every once in a while, or I'll say thank you. That's a really good, but I can't. It's a lot of comments to read. That's a full day.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:07

Yeah. Oh, for sure. For sure. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:10

But if I see something, I'll I'll go, oh, I'm gonna do that. And then I'll do it in an upcoming video, and I'll thank the person. I'll say, Hey, I forget who you were, but you know who you are. You told me I could do this. I'm gonna try it. And then I'll try it. I'm like, you're right. So people love that, right? People love that they are being recognized, but I can't recognize everybody. When I first started, I could reply to every single comment because there'd be 25 or 30 on a video. And so, um, yeah, I I try to um communicate with the audience as much as possible. That's you know comfortable for me and you know recognizes them.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:52

This episode is brought to you by Anglers Leaderboard and its Spot Mapper feature. Spot Mapper connects your catch data to your spots, allowing you to view your catch history. With Spot Mapper, your locations stay completely private, only you can access them. So your favorite spots stay your secret. Learn more at Anglersleaderboard.com.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:13

Good for you. Before you say that, Ange, we'll go back to Ange when he's talking about a guy learning to fish on a YouTube channel or whatever, you know, and showing that. Basically, you did that though. I watched one of your videos today. I I typed in fishing on your channel, and it went to you in the boat with the rod about that big of a spinning rod out there and the friggin' spoon and pike, and he was and he admitted right then and there. He says, uh, I gotta learn how to handle fish and everything like that. So are you on Lake uh on uh slave?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:40

Are you a great slave or uh well yellow and I trade on Great Slave Lake? I um one of the cabins I'm on, I'm not gonna say the exact lake because around here the people who are on my lake know I'm there and know I make YouTube videos. But uh the lake I'm on is uh some pike and trout if you're in the very specific spot. Right. Very specific time of the day. Um a lake over, it's better fishing. Great slave lake, it's like I mean, you guys fished it.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:10

Yeah. Yeah, no kidding.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:12

So yeah, but uh actually, do you uh know Ryan Gregory? Yes, we do. Yeah, he worked for Angelo. He worked for Angelo years ago. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so if you go to my channel whenever you have time, type in insane ice trip. Uh Ryan, I reached out to Ryan because I know Ryan and said, Ryan, man, you gotta teach me how to fish. I don't know what I'm doing out here. So we went out, and that was an adventure because we got struck with a crazy uh windstorm on day two. Um his side by side broke down in the middle of like it was it was a good video. But we pulled up uh some nice burbit. Yeah, we pulled up some bourbot, and he was teaching me. I mean, that guy is like he lives fishing every day. He wakes up, he's fishing.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:58

He's he's as keen as they get, yeah, for sure. And good, very good at it.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:03

How are you? How's your angling skills now? Are you uh you need to get a pike for this?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:07

They're not they're not anything. Like I can go outside of my cabin and I've got a an ugly stick, yeah, and I can bring in a pike like maybe like that. Yeah, do you eat just down the way on my lake? I can bring in a pike probably like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:24

So do you cook them up? Yeah, you you eat pike?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:28

Pike's delicious. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:31

So you've learned how to fillet them properly?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:33

I've tried, like even um this past summer when I was uh with my daughter and we got some pike. I wasn't filming it. I said to her, This is gonna be slimy fish. I said, It's gonna be slimy coming out of this water. And so we we caught two nice sized fish. We brought them back to the house, and then uh, you know, the Y-bone and all that sort of stuff. And me, like I'm not very good at holding on to the skin and getting my my knife underneath there, and just you know, pulling that apart. Yeah. Trout, I love you know dealing with trout. As easy as possible.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:09

Well, there's less work involved, right? You could just cut them, gut them, and and knead them, but uh pike, you have to do a little more. The the uh knife that you use has a lot to do with you being able to fillet the skin off the fish. A lot of people don't realize that. But that that fillet knife is is a precise instrument. The better it is and the better you use it, the easier that that skin just flies off. But it's gotta be sharp and it's gotta be flexible, and it's gotta be the right fillet knife. If you're using a regular knife.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:37

I don't know if I have the right one on the Canadian tire wooden handle guy.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:43

It's a good knife, it just has to be sharp. Very sharp. That knife you have will work, it's just gotta be sharp. So, yeah, yeah. Tell you what, I'll give you a tip. When you're holding that skin down to cut like that, just put a fork, stick a fork through the on a plywood or whatever. Oh, and that'll hold your uh skin. You don't have to touch anything, you just push the fork into the skin. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:00

I like that shout out on the channel this summer. If I get a pike, I'm gonna try that and I'm gonna I don't know who that guy was who told me how to do this. But if you're watching, thanks so much for the I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:12

We've also got a really good uh video on uh getting rid of the Y-bone on a pike, how to how to fillet a pike properly. And uh I'd highly recommend it so that next time you go out, it it it's not as difficult as most people think. Once you understand the principles and what you're doing, it's quite simple.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:32

So that's on our is that on everything, Dean? Or Instagram for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:36

It's everywhere, it's on our YouTube as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:37

Okay, it's well, how to fillet a pike. You'll see it. It's the guy is uh now it's not ever as easy as that guy shows us, but it's not like Angela says, it's not as hard as everybody thinks. That guy did a job, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:47

I've watched a few videos on that, and I really think like with everything, it's a practice thing. Oh, exactly. For sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:54

Absolutely. I still suck at it. I've cleaned 150 pike probably in my life, and I still suck at it.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:58

So yeah, you know, yeah. So how are you dealing with uh how much time goes into your day-to-day activities dealing with the YouTube machinery?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:09

That's a good question. Um I don't mind sleeping in. And uh but but I work late. I work into the evening.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:19

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:20

Which which I don't know why, I just I'm out filming, I like to film especially in the winter, in darkness. We get a lot of darkness up here anyway. And uh I like to film the northern lights and uh which I didn't do so much this year, but I I have a a record of I probably got like a hundred videos with northern lights on it. But um yeah, I like to work into the evening. So if I sleep in and then I start filming everything, and I work into the evening, and then I wake up the next morning, I do it again. This is the if I'm at the cabin, right? Usually on two to three days out there. Now the day before, like Sunday is my day off. Monday is getting my head ready for the week to come. Tuesday is often getting all of my supplies ready and my gear ready, um, getting my groceries, making sure I have all the tools I need, all the screws and nails and lumber that I need. Uh Wednesday I head out before noon. Usually I'm back by Friday. Um, and then on Saturday, it's a full day out.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:34

Full production day. Yeah.

unknown 1:08:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:37

So people don't realize that.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:39

I'm probably 40 hours a week.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:40

Yeah, people don't realize. You know, they watch these channels and they see, you know, somebody like you, uh, and they say, Man, look at this guy. Like, he's he an hour uh and he's got he's done. Like he goes out and he does this thing, and an hour later he's got this. Like, I gotta I gotta get into that. Boy, do they ever have a rude awakening, don't they, Jay?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:58

Oh yeah, yeah. And my videos are long, like, and I put a lot of detail into my videos. There are a lot of cuts. I used to be very slow paced, but I picked up the pace over the last year and a bit. Yeah, and uh I can I can edit I don't know, a 45-50-minute video with hundreds and hundreds of cuts, a thousand cuts. Um probably in nine, nine hours by the time I start to the time I'm hitting upload on YouTube. That's good. Yeah, that's really good.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:36

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:37

That's uh I had a lot of experience editing, right? I was a special editor with the CBC. Yeah, and speed, speed and deadlines, right? That really helps me because I know that if I don't make my deadline uh Sunday morning at 5 a.m., then I'm gonna hear it from people.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:52

Yeah, for sure. For sure. Hey, moving on to your area you're in now, Northwest Territories, and that. So we're in southern Ontario here right now, and our ice has come been completely gone for three weeks. And uh, what's your your lake out in front of your places right now? How much ice is still there right now, and how long will it last?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:09

All of it. All of the ice, all of the ice is there. No, and um, this has been the longest, coldest winter for a lot of people up here around you, yeah, for sure. Um we, I mean, just last Thursday and Friday it was minus 31. And so, yeah, very cold, long, brutally cold and long. Started early. I was on my snowmobile um early November, and I'm gonna be snowmobiling straight out of my uh driveway tomorrow to the teardown cabin, which is about 20 kilometers, straight across lakes with six feet of ice. But it's gonna happen really fast now because we're going above zero this week. Right. And normally when it happens, it's like it's like a lightning bolt. Boom, it's over. Really? Everything melts. Yeah, it happens really fast. The lakes take a while. Yeah, the lakes will take a while, but they'll take long before they're just too unsafe to even think about going on, whether it be a snowmobile, a side by side, or a truck. Because I can drive right up to my main cabin on an ice road right now. With cabin owners around there, they have plows, they plow ice roads to all the cabins. So I can just drive right up to my cabin. I would say in two weeks it's probably going to be coming to an end because of all the warm weather coming. Ice roads deteriorate so quickly, then it'll only be on my snowmobile. And then it's, you know, it's once they say it's uh the ice starts to candle, you know what that is when the ice starts to candle, it looks like kind of like white uh on top, um then you know it's dangerous.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:49

This is a dumb question, but do do people ice fish on Great Slave? There'd be too much ice. Right, right. That's where I was ice fishing. That's where I was ice fishing. How do you dig in six feet of ice?

SPEAKER_04 1:12:00

Yeah, lots of extensions. You get the extensions. Wow. Yeah, they're augers, dude. They're like me, the little guy and me, I couldn't reach the augers where they started, but they they extend it and then they take it apart, put it on the piece of it. Like an oil drive. Like an oil goes off. That's exactly what they do. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, they do it out there all the time. So that's I've seen Ryan Gregory pull lake trope that big a round out of the hole out of a hole. Like the 30, 35 pounders, like unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:25

Giant fish. Crazy, crazy environment, crazy environmental 55, minus 55 is the coldest you've uh experienced, by the way. I see that in my notes here.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:36

Out uh out at the cabin, minus 55 with the windshield would be it. Yeah, like we often get minus 42, and then the windshield would be in the minus 50s, right? Minus 55. And so that yeah, I would say that's pretty much the coldest. Um the thing is, is this winter Oh yeah, like 30 days of that. Right? Yeah, they're just and then it's like, oh, it's only minus 30 out. The windshield's only minus 41. You can feel it. Like I was there was one video recently. I'm walking with Crystal where with Puffy, and it had been insanely cold. It was minus 47 with the wind chill, and it felt it felt decent. It felt decent.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:19

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:20

Yeah, this winter was this winter was great. Last winter for the cold videos, I had maybe like one or two. This winter it was one after another. It's nonstop.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:30

Crazy environment. Um do you when you're starting a project, do you map it out? Do you do some kind of a drawing? Do you print stuff out and say, okay, I'm gonna this is gonna be 12 feet and then eight feet, and then I'm gonna have a little indent here, and I gotta like do you do you go through that process?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:50

Uh so I just I have started to, and the last two uh so I've I've built a shed. There's no drawings. How do you do that? How can you do that? It just you just think of, I mean, I I don't know how that thing is. It's it's decent. It's a it's a nice shed, it's working well, and I built an outhouse, the outhouse is sharp, the outhouse is nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:16

Oh, nice. You gotta have a good outhouse.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:19

Yeah, I have a good outhouse. And then I built a port, I built an extension. The extension is really nice. I did a great job in the extension, 12 by 12. Um, and I didn't draw it out. I got help from people back, oh me, you need to do this. Do you know what a jack stud is? Do you know what a king stud is? All these things. I don't know. I had no idea. And so I just started building, and then I would make mistakes and I'd be like, guys, I gotta go. Remember that thing I did two weeks ago? I gotta go fix that. I got I thought it was gonna be good enough. It's not good enough. We're gonna go back, we're gonna take you know that plywood out, and we're gonna fix in behind that plywood because it's not good enough. And uh then I built a porch, and then I built a deck for the porch. I built a deck in like minus 40 this winter, and that thing is I I'm really happy with that deck. And now I'm just starting to wrap up a utility room that I'm building on the main cabin. And uh yeah, so lots of things. So when it comes to drawings, the porch and the utility room are the only two where I actually use griddaper and be like, yeah, I need this, I need that, I need the jack, I need the king, I need my plate, all these things that you're and and I would follow it, and it would definitely help and speed things up for sure. It helps.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:38

One one nice thing about doing all this stuff where you do it is that you don't have a pesky inspector looking over your shoulder, making sure that you do it all right, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:46

He's not looking over my shoulder.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:47

Yeah, uh-oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:48

Uh-oh. No, so the inspector is interesting because I lease the land for the rotten cabin and my main cabin. And so I own the cabin, I don't own the land. Right. And so if I want to do anything on that land, if I want to build anything on the land, I need to get approval because the government owns the land. I'm just leasing it. It's just like if you're at home and you want to build a shed, right? You need to get permission to build a shed if it's a certain size, right? A certain permit.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:21

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:21

Right? It's the same thing. And so I needed to get permission for every single thing that I I've done. I I haven't had an inspector come by, but I do know that I mean, there's a guy I know where the inspector came by and said, Look, here is your plot of land. When you gave us a drawing, you said your cabin was going to be here, it's supposed to actually be over here. The guy had to move his whole cabin around a tree and put it in the exact spot where it was supposed to be because that's what he said he would do. So my utility room is six six by six, they know that. My porch is eight by eight, my uh shed is six by six, so they know every single thing I'm doing. If the instructor comes by and says, Man, your utility room is eight by eight. You said six by six, I could get in trouble for that. Because I've I mean they made guys move entire cabins.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:14

So why is it though you have to it's why is there a permit about uh getting a six by six shed or or something? It's a footprint. It's the footprint. Okay, but why?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:25

Because if it's ridiculous, then then things would get out of control, and we got a few. That's right, things will get out of control.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:31

I could just build and build and build, and then eventually they're gonna show up and say, You got a mansion on this property. You know that your footprint can only be so much. And so I asked for the utility room last summer, and they said yes, because you still have enough space left on your property for you to have that as part of your footprint.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:48

Now, the nice thing about what you do is you don't have to clear the land because it's already been cleared, right? That area where you're building was somebody already took the time and effort to clear it, or did you have to go in and do that as well?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:00

The main cabin, it was just a big clearing anyway. It's on a giant rock. All right. And um the teardown cabin, so a new rule has come into place. I shouldn't say it's new, but there's a rule. The leased property now has to be 35 meters back from the water line.

unknown 1:18:18

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:19

Right? So you get your square, you're looking at it on a map, and you're every square now is 35 meters back. You can see if you go online, all these little cabin plots. They're all 35 meters back. Previously, you could you can build like right down the water. So the teardown cabin is I would say seven feet from the water. So I I'm taking that down, and my cabin's got to go back 35 meters plus where I said I was gonna build it within that plot, if that makes any sense. So I'm going back probably 50 meters. Now here I have to clear, I have to clear those trees there, so I gotta clear them out.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:02

Now, here on in situations like that, if you maintain some part of that original structure, and I think it might be the foundation, might be the pilings, might be some part of it. Even though it's seven feet from the water, like you say, if you keep a certain uh percentage of that building, you can build onto it and still stay within that seven foot from, in your case, from the water's edge. But if you tear it down, once you tear it down, then now you have to rebuild it at 40 feet.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:35

But a lot of people And what's the what's the reasoning for uh 35 meters or whatever afterwards? Environment.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:42

Environmentally, you know, protecting uh why uh why uh water life with marshes.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:47

I don't know the exact reason, but that makes sense to me.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:49

Yeah, it's it's all about you know environmental protection, especially in these lakes here with spawning areas on the shorelines and stuff, if you start encroaching on that. But if it's already there, like you see some of these cottages, you know, and you say, how in the hell they ever get permission to build that? It's virtually right on the water. Chances are they had something there to start with.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:10

I've heard of people building cottages around a cottage. Exactly. The cottages inside them, they throw it out the door. Exactly. Holy shit.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:17

There are a lot of cabins here that um were built before this 35-meter rule, and they're they remain where they are, untouched by the government. They're grandfathered in, right? So you're allowed to stay there. There's one guy I know that has a shed, and he needs to fix his shed, and he wants to make it bigger and better. He is right on the water with his cabin, and he said, Hey guys, I want to fix my shed, and they said, 35 meters back. Whoa. So even there, okay. So if you're gonna start doing new things, right, they're gonna say you gotta pull back.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:58

Yeah, it sounds like maybe I could be wrong. It sounds like another gold rush on our hands here. The more you know people like yourself expose all of these wonderful opportunities, especially in NWT, who doesn't love the notion of someday owning a piece of that frontier, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:17

Yeah, but you gotta be willing to hike through the snow that's up to your waist, like they did in the Klondike over mountains, right? To get to the gold. And then once you get to the gold, sometimes the yank is more valuable than the gold, you know?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:30

So I'm just saying. I'm just saying. True enough. Anyways, it sounds uh absolutely out of this world, my friend. And uh you've done a great job so far. And the fact that you are learning on the job is is definitely what I think makes you a bit of a unicorn in this industry. Uh because as you know, YouTube has given birth to an awful lot of uh uh professional everything from you know plumbing to building to auto racing, you name it. Everybody is an expert on YouTube, and it's refreshing to see that your approach is totally different, and I think that's what makes it work for you. It's I love it, I think it's fantastic. All you're doing is sharing your growth and your learning experience with an audience, and and that's that's it, fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:22

And at the beginning, I did not want to show any of that, right? Like I mentioned earlier, I was really afraid to. I was really afraid to. And then once it started clicking for me and I was like, yeah, this is gonna be me, then and once I started to get projects, then it became a lot easier because before I had started to have all these projects, I call it manufacturing a video. Okay, I'm gonna go to my tent, I'm gonna cook a nice meal, I'm gonna live in the tent, I'm gonna shoot the I got to do something this week. What am I gonna do? Okay, I'm gonna go set up this tent. Now I got stuff to do. Right. I got stuff to learn and do. I gotta get out there and finish it. I'm on a deadline. So it's really it's a lot easier for me to film this now, learning as I go with these projects, because there are deadlines and there are there are things to do, so I might as well just record it.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:10

Uh it's a great channel. I loved it. I what I I'll watch more of it for sure. It was good. You're it's well done. You do a good job.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:16

And I'll be one of your subscribers, guarantee you, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:19

I'm gonna look, I'm gonna look. Hey, uh if you guys ever come back up. I was gonna say we wouldn't. Teach me the way. Teach me the way.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:28

I don't know how that'd be cool, actually. That'd be a great project for us to work on for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:33

Uh Jay, thank you so much for joining us and keep up the great work. Uh, I don't need to wish you good luck because uh I think the hard work and the intelligent work uh is going to uh trump that anyway. So uh keep it up, my friend.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:47

Thanks, Angelo. Thanks, Peter.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:48

See you care. Wow, that's fascinating.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:52

Cool, I love that. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:54

Absolutely fascinating. Take a totally different approach to things, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:23:58

And he's not just going out to Halliburton and Ontario and all that. He's he's out in the middle of the worst winter conditions you can possibly get. And summer.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:06

Could you could you get it how could you make it worse? How could you make the conditions worse than being in the the midst of NWT? Yeah, because in the middle of winter. How can you make it worse?

SPEAKER_04 1:24:17

Um Well, middle of summer with bugs. He has one video there, he's a 95 degree sunner uh summer day, and he's bugs are flying all around him there.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:28

I never thought of that. Yeah, so anyways, fascinating gentlemen. Uh, I highly recommend that you uh give him a bit of your time um and see if it's your cup of tea, because it's certainly not the most common thing you're gonna find on YouTube where a guy just bears his heart and tells you, hey, I don't know which end of this nail I need to be nailing into the wood. Yeah, yeah. Uh and it's refreshing. I really love it.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:52

Some uh one other unique thing he does on there uh uh that I just very quickly came across is that uh people are now sending him, he has license plates, old license plates up on his building. Now people are sending him subscribers are sending him uh Nebraska plates and uh New York plates and all that. Putting them all up on a shed, on a shit house, on the uh on the cottage, everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:12

It's we were at some place that had that too. I'm trying to remember in our travelers.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:16

Was that not I think it was NWT wasn't that little bar, that little uh on the wall? Yeah, the wildcat. I think that might have been it or something.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:24

It was just nothing but license place.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:26

Yeah, I think it was must be maybe it's an NWT thing, but it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:29

So anyways, uh look him up, Dean Work and folks. I never asked him. How do how can he find uh uh Jay Legier on YouTube?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:36

He's pretty easy to find. I think uh his videos are everywhere and he's blowing up now. If you're if you're in that space, he's probably on your homepage.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:44

So uh L-E-G-E-R-E. Jay Legier. Yep. I'm gonna be there. I'm gonna check him out for sure. Second, my my first subforeman of my life had that same last name, George Legier.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:56

Legere. Now, sometimes you pronounce that Legion.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:59

He's a damn good guy, too. George was awesome. And Roger could do. So there's two Frenchmen, right? And they were Frenchmen too. They were strong. And I was in a first first year apprentice, first job I ever had, 18 years old. And and uh and I had to get in uh at lunchtime. They needed a Euchre player. I said, hey, apprentice, get in here, play Euchre. No, not optional. No option. I didn't say no thanks. No, no, you're playing Euchre at lunchtime. Well, oh my God, did that get to do a shit show every day? And we're playing again. It was me and somebody else against the two Frenchmen like that, George and and and Roger. Holy jeez. And and I and don't ever bush him. You know, you bush him and when you're holding Trump, you're holding back your past path.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:36

You don't want to do that.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:37

I did that once, and that was the only time I ever did it again. But good times, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:43

Anyways, uh, check them out. Fascinating uh gentleman, uh great channel, uh, wonderful product, and the thing that dreams are made of for sure. Yeah. And I'm not kidding when I said that might start a whole new gold rush. Think how many people are sitting there thinking, hmm. I wonder if I could pull that off. It's not gonna cost me an arm and leg, right? Because those leases are especially if you sell real estate to get there, right? You know, yeah. So, anyways. Uh that are it, folks. Uh I'd like to uh say uh welcome aboard uh the latest member of the crew, uh Mr. Simpson over there. Wave to the camera, but Simpson. Yeah. I like it. Simpson uh filled in for Nick today. Did he screw up badly, Dean? No, it was great.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:25

Well, I think I haven't checked the footage yet. Nick was here earlier. Where is he? I want to be.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:32

I know. I know. I know I want his job. You want his job? I can give it to you. I have I have it within me.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:38

Okay, I want his hours. How's that? Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:44

Oh my god. Uh that are it on behalf of the whole crew, uh I want to uh uh thank you for joining us today, and uh we'll catch you next time around. Take care. This episode of Outdoor Journal Radio has been brought to you in part by the Invasive Species Center, protecting Canada's land and water from invasive species. Freedom Cruise Canada, rent the boat, own the memories. And JMB Cycle a Marine, your home for all things power sports, boats, and equipment.