Introducting Cranmer:

and his sister Maggie:

As you can see, both of them need Nancy’s help!

And then there are my nearly-self-sufficient friends who live on a lake, grow their own vegetables and quinoa, compost their toilet (ewwww, but it works), chop down trees (don’t judge; it’s likely cleaner than your heat source) to heat their home (bear in mind our weather drops to -40C for days on end) and the latest? Bake their bread in this solar-energy contraption. The bread was fabulous, by the way.

I don’t really dare refer to myself as frugal in comparison.

THE SOLAR ENERGY OVEN

THE GREEN HOUSE (they also have an extensive outdoor garden)

WHAT SURELY MUST BE THE ONLY LOCALLY GROWN CANTALOUPE

HAND CUT AND CHOPPED. WHO NEEDS THE GYM?

EVERY CORNER OF THE HOUSE HAS A RAIN BARREL.

NOT SURE IF THIS IS USED. OBVIOUSLY NOT DURING MIDNIGHT SUN SEASON.

INDEED, IT IS!

I’ve mended my ways!

When I saw a baby mint plant at the local nursery (yes, we have one in Yellowknife) I knew I should probably buy it to regain my  self respect.

The northern light has nurtured it over the months.  Isn’t it gorgeous?

And does this not look refreshing?   Score one for the money coach; begone expensive bottled water!  And if anyone else has ideas or recipes (beyond Mojitos) for mint, I think I have more mint than I can handle if I use it for water alone).

In the Beginning
So to start things off, I got my personal belongings down to 50 things(excluding my professional gear). It actually was much easier than I thought it would be. Doing this purge has been one of the most liberating things I have ever done. It is comforting to know where everything is, and not to worry about “stuff” anymore. It has made me very conscious of what I will bring into my life next. I don’t know if I will always conform to this lifestyle but it has been a great personal experiment and experience.

Office Away
The next thing was to be anywhere but in an office. In the last year I have worked out of coffee shops, book stores, libraries and beaches. This has been a tremendous boon to my creativity and approach to work and projects.

Bye Bye TV
One of the greatest events has been getting rid of the TV. Now I only watch what I really want, when I want. So many people live there augmented life through TV. With the relatively short time we have here, to spend it being spoon fed information is not my idea of living life.

Regrets, I have some

• This is not an easy path at times, and I depend on Skype and email to retain my close friendships.
• Having a romantic relationship in this type of lifestyle is very hard, but the new friendships forged makes it all worthwhile.
• Loneliness is not something that visits me very often, but it can be lonely. Getting out and exploring my surrounding breaks it.

What can I not live without

• Digital Camera with which I shoot stills, HD video and time lapse
• Macbook Pro with which I edit my stills and video with.
• iphone Keeps me connected to friends, family and twitter.
• 2 TB backup Drive (Shit happen’s be ready for it)
• Swimming trunks…ya never know when you will find a good place to swim!

Benefits

• Having the freedom to pursue projects I believe in – such as being asked to film a Strawbale House-Raising for a family in Tennessee who lost everything in a Tornado.
• Learning and speaking another language, which makes me think differently and grow.
• Helping build a school in Mexico and what that does for the children, community and my karma.
• Realizing that no matter where we are people want to help. And that gives me hope and faith in humanity.

Money tips I’ve learned

• Always travel with two bank cards
• Find out which local bank is closest to you (some places are pretty remote.  I once had to travel 20 miles to the nearest bank!)
• Find out which day is payday for the local folks because the line-ups can be around the block on those days
• Get used to military men with machine guns standing in front of the banks
• Withdrawing cash internationally has fees attached.  Use a bank ATM though;  white-label machines have even higher fees
• Paypal is your friend.  I typically get paid in the local currency via paypal which then converts to Canadian and is deposited in my Canadian bank account.

Taylor Moore is a filmmaker, photographer and game developer. In 2011 he has lived in Chacala Mexico, Guanajuato Mexico, Summerland BC, Tonasket, WA and Yellowknife, NWT. He can be reached at www.pixelbuz.com or on twitter @pixeltrek

Mentors:

Everett Bogue
The guy who made me look at all of the things I don’t need.
Ashley Ambirge
One of the greatest new writers, and my secret agent muse.
Seth Godin
One of the greatest marketing writers ever. Linchpin has been a personal best read for me.
Tim Ferris
Four Hour Work Week Author and Fitness Guru.
Karol Gajda
He’s the guy who got me started on this path…damn you Karol. Walks the talk.
Tyler Tervooren
He is the master of Riskology. No messing with his success.

Summer’s here way up here in Yellowknife – boy is it ever - and I am determined to take in every summery experience possible.

So I hitched a lift with a friend and visited the local swimming hole of choice for locals. I haven’t been since I was a teenager in my pre-Vancouver life. It’s something alright. Unless you’re one of my BC readers (and even then, I’d only begrudgingly cede) , I bet you ain’t never swum at a place like this before. Keep scrolling below the fold, btw.

THE SAFE(ISH) SWIMMING AREA. COOL AND CLEAN AND CLEAR WATERS.

I DIDN’T HAVE THE NERVE. WOULD YOU?

SAFE ISH BECAUSE JUST AROUND THE BEND, SUPER-CLOSE, IS THIS

OH. YOU WANTED A CLOSER LOOK? YOU GOT IT!

AND, SOMEONE TELL ME —–> OFF ONE OF THE TRIBUTARIES — IS THIS WHAT I THINK IT IS???

AND AFTER THE DRAMA, THIS VISTA:

Monday posts will be a personal praxis of contentment.
___________________________________

Don’t you love the feeling of sleeping in a cool room with just the right weight and warmth of a quality blanket? Yellowknife of all places is good-blanket worthy! This pure wool blanket was made in Canada by the MacAusland Woollen Mills in PEI. This family-owned business has been making blankets since 1932! Thanks to The Old Faithful Shop for introducing me. And as you can see by the last photo, a little friend also fully appreciates it too (and I indulge him).

On Sunday I popped by Yellowknife’s largest grocery store, to discover this:

and this:

Organic skim milk? I couldn’t get *any* milk!

And gas? This, via twitter:
LizHargreaves @tundrabunny just spreading Facebook gossip! @ekda1961 just posted that 1 station still has gas

Here’s what’s going on. There’s one road in and out of Yellowknife and that involves a ferry trip at about 3 hours outside of Yellowknife over an arm of the Great Slave Lake. Usually timing the phase between when it’s too icy to truck stuff over the ferry and when trucks can drive over the iceroad (yes, really) is down to a science. Stores and gas pumps stock up, and some food is chartered in. Usually within a short time, we’re all back on track. This year, mother nature caught us off guard. And we’re kinda stranded for a bit.

Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. But please. Send food.

ps: and of course (!) (of course!) I am in no way comparing this little quirk to places and people who truly have no food, either in an ongoing way or because of an emergency. In fact, why not pop by your local food bank to help folks for whom finding food is a true hardship.

A prospective tenant, in her 20s I’m guessing, could not give me a series of post-dated cheques because she did not have any. Full stop. No cheques. Never had had, either. And why would she? Our debit and credit cards, paypal, and ability to e-mail money or electronically transfer funds don’t leave much need for cheques anymore.

Cheques are a nuisance in my books. Receiving them necessitates a trip to a bank machine. (This is a compounded difficulty for me since there are no credit unions up here, so I have to save them up til my next trip down south.) Writing them means I need to ensure a supply on hand, plus keep tabs on which one has or has not cleared my account. Please, just let me click a button.

Having said all that, I hired a tradesperson today and have to admit I was rather touched. The company accepted my cheque on good faith, as opposed to many other places in my Vancouver years which required a certified cheque or scrutinizing all manner of ID before accepting one. Yellowknife is kinda nice that way – extending good faith on things (Once, a woman let me walk out of her shop with $20 worth of goods because I’d forgotten my wallet at home. Another time, a cashier personally paid for my $2 chocolate bar because I didn’t have cash on me and I hadn’t realized it was a cash-only shop. I guess she saw my desperate need for a chocolate fix! Yes, Yellowknife is awesome like that).

Do you ever use cheques any more? Does it drive you nuts, or is it just a part of life for you?
(A lite question on a Friday night. But your answers determine whether I’d ever purchase stock in Davis and Henderson. Just kidding.)

I was too young to know that the mines would some day run out of gold and they’d close. And like all of us, I would never have dreamed that a strike would become so tense that a union member would plant a bomb in Giant Mine and kill nine scab labourers – one of the largest murder investigations in RCMP history.

And. And. And: It certainly didn’t occur to me that the (US) owner of the mines would OOPS! declare bankruptcy and stick Canadians with the approx HALF-BILLION-DOLLAR clean-up (arsenic) bill.

And that’s just for Giant Mine. There’s also Colomac Mine and Tundra Mine. Oh, and that’s just in the NWT! There’s also Pamour Mine in Ontario, Hope Brook Mine in Newfoundland and Kerness Mine in B.C.

The owner (formerly known as Peggy Witte, now Margaret Kent) of the now-bankrupt mine, I see, is now CEO and President of a new mining company, Century Mining Corp. Interestingly, it looks like Century is up to some shenanigans this year in Quebec. I hear she has a second home in Hawaii.

There’s worse, folks. Much, much worse.

She’s baaaccccck: in addition to Century Mine, she owns Tamerlane Mine and just guess who’s mining in the NWT – Pine Point. They’re re-opening a portion of the Pine Point Zinc deposit. (We’re in good company. Tamerlane is also doing business in Peru.)

Dear us: Who is this Peggy Witte/Margaret Kent that not only does she leave us with nearly a HALF BILLION DOLLAR BILL, but now she’s allowed to have at us again?