Maybe try this one at home

The Herald has been gone almost three years. With nothing appearing to replace it I thought it would be timely to introduce some viewing tips.
Like we have all been doing for decades. You can watch a show made by a private company that hopes you will like it, allowing them to recoup their investment. You can watch something concocted by the national broadcaster, bureaucrats who use your money to make something they think you should watch. Or you can watch, for free on YouTube, a fabulous show made with youth, hard work, determination and love.
Skote Outdoors is a YouTube channel created by a young couple, Matt and Kelly, who have just bought a house on St. Joseph’s, a small island on Newfoundland’s southeast coast. They are building a homestead there and with a few cameras and an internet link they are happy to take you along for the ride. (I have been following Matt’s adventures on this channel for years – this is his newest and far and away the best).
They post weekly on YouTube. Maybe you like to unwind with a good murder mystery, or a Tom Cruise action thriller, or some other Hollywood confection. I am not criticizing these – I have watched them too. But I recommend you give these two young people a try. Slick? Urbane? Hip? Maybe not so much. But they are genuine, honest, and real.
I find them refreshing.
Three quarters of a century after the drastic and disastrous Newfoundland government resettlement program that saw so many people uprooted from their tightknit little communities and forced to move to larger centres, here are two young people resettling back.
Young and unburdened by the nonsense of the past, they see nothing but potential in their new home. They are building a life for themselves, and through YouTube and other social media, they are also building community. You should join.
The life they are pursuing is not the isolated life of the past, often etched with hardship, ignorance and grinding poverty. They are working to live on their own terms. Their issues are not those of yesteryear. In a recent episode they noted that although off grid, their Starlink internet hookup is a key energy requirement. They have a generator to power the connection with the outside world.
Like many older folks, I often see the world through the lens of what has passed; what I and others have been through. I try to break free of that baggage to hopefully see the future. I try to look forward without blinkers. Are these two part of that future?
They are living testimony to the notion that easy does not mean better. So many of us crave the conveniences of modern life. Endless hot water at the turn of the tap. Power in the walls. Easier access to huge grocery stores groaning with food – easier premade food that you only need to heat up. Easier transportation with cars you can start from your living room, driving from your heated garage to work with heated seats. Easy, yes – but better?
Nothing about their new life is easy. They attack every problem as a challenge. You see how hard they work, how many “conveniences” they do without, and the satisfaction it brings them. In fact, the only easy thing about them are their smiles.
Where they have settled is beautiful – rural Newfoundland at its best. Sweeping drone shots and video both outside and inside their cozy little home help make their broadcasts engaging, but it’s them you watch.
I am avoiding all the tired old-fashioned entertainment words like “stars.” They’re not stars, they are a hard-working optimistic young couple clearly enjoying both what they are doing and each other. Matt is a jack-of-all trades, always up for acquiring a new skill. Most episodes end with a song from Kelly – she is a talented singer-songwriter – and a Q&A from their comment section answering posts from folks all over the planet.
Is this the future of entertainment? Building online communities between people without an industry and all the garbage that can come with it? Not people making things to entertain you, but people communicating among themselves, people you can correspond with – not TV or movie stars or celebrities, but regular folk like you and I.
Matt and Kelly can be seen on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@skoteoutdoors
Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com