Sunday August 27, 2006
Location: Yellowknife
N62' 27'58.2"
W114' 20'47.3"

Life is beautiful. Last Thursday after posting my blog I set myself up to leave Yellowknife. You see, I came here with a pre-set plan: get in, and get out! Time to move South, you’ve been in the North long enough I told myself. But soon after I first arrived, I met Alex Beaudin and Matthew Grogono at the local artists market. Matthew invited me out for a boat ride and a chance to see his houseboat (Yellowknife has a beautiful houseboat community) while Alex, also a filmmaker, talked about his current projects, his involvement in the local film coop WAMP and we also discussed swapping some DV footage for our respective works. Matthew is also the founder of the Yellowknife Glass Recyclers Co-op Limited where he and other members like Alex turn old bottles into beautiful glasses, vases, bowls and whatever else they can think of. Houseboats, filmmaking and recycled glass art… but I still insisted I was leaving.

Thursday rolled around and I still hadn’t got around to the boat ride or the footage swap, so, before hitting the road, I figured it would be nice to pop into the Yellowknife Glass Recyclers Co-op for a visit. Here, parked in the shop/studio driveway my van decided she wasn’t going anywhere. My glow plugs, that have been acting funny for a few weeks, had finally ceased to work and she just wouldn’t start. It was almost comical, because I had been talking earlier with Matthew, how I was leaving unless I received a sign to tell me to stay… ask and ye shall receive.

Luckily for me Matthew wears many hats, one of which is mechanical guru. It seems I had broken down in the right place, we would fix the problem, but first, a boat ride around houseboat bay.

There’s something so appealing about these houseboats, offshore floating in their own reality. There’s something magical to living out on the water, rising and falling with the rhythms of Great Slave Lake, and knowing that if anyone wants to come out and see you, they need a canoe and a paddle. But I think the mild isolation is just a part of it. The other part is the fact that these homes are very low energy, and with the exception of propane, are completely off the grid. All of the houseboats are equipped with solar panels providing the energy for basic lighting and propane for cooking and refrigeration. In contrast to my last blog, it’s places like this that give me hope for a better future. What would our world look like if everyone treated their home like a houseboat. I can guarantee we wouldn’t leave the lights on, and I’m fairly sure that when you have to physically bring out the garbage you bring in, you become much more conscious of what you buy into. I’m sure it’s not a perfect world out there on the water, but my feelings are, it’s a step in the right direction. Either way, it's an alternative perspective to our standard North American housing model. It makes me rethink the large spacious home built upon cheap energy, opting instead for a simpler living, so that others may simply live.

It’s nice to see people using their creative potential to make the world a better place… Although I’m very critical of where I see most of our society headed, I also understand that it all comes down to our individual choices and creativity. If we were to apply ourselves seriously, the potential is endless.

Peace,
d

PS, the van is running fine again.. thanks to Matthew for his guidance.

Here is the YGR Co-op Studio and some of their work,