Freestyle Friday: YouTubers that I enjoy

There are hundreds of extremely talented content producers laboring away.  YouTube has provided a platform not only to share content, but also to monetize that content. The feeds with 1,000,000 or more subscribers, most likely are earning a full time living from it. It can't be easy. But many produce wonderful content. 

I watch less and less commercial television. With over 100 channels to choose from, there is often little that I am interested in. Why do they call it the travel channel, if it is mostly ghost hunting? Why did the Food Network become an endless stream of poorly conceived cooking competitions and game shows? 

Here are a few of favorites from independent producers: 

https://www.youtube.com/@ThePethericks

Billy is a British guy, partnered with a French woman and two delightful children, living in a small town in France. They own a Chateau, and are renovating a Convent. Most of the content is about the renovation process. He posts about five times a week. 

https://www.youtube.com/@escapetoruralfrance

Dan is another Brit, living in rural France. He is divorced (in the last couple of years) with a couple of kids. He started about two years ago, rescuing a burned out Chateau, when he started there were literally trees growing inside the shell that had suffered a devastating fire 40 years before. With just a handful of people working, the progress has been amazing. He posts four or five times a week, with a couple of breaks a year when he travels with his children. 

https://www.youtube.com/@Brianslifeinfrance

Brian is an Irish guy, living in rural France.  Brian's Life in France is a spin off from Escape to Rural France. When Brian first bought his little farm in France, he hired Dan to help rebuild fences on the farm. For the last year and a half, Brian has been working for Dan helping to rebuild the Chateau. When not working on the Chateau he fiddles around on his farm, and explores the wonders of France, hop in the car and let's go. He posts 2 to 5 times a week, depending on the work schedule at the Chateau. 

https://www.youtube.com/@GlenAndFriendsCooking

Glen and Friends Cooking is based near Toronto, Canada. Glen has a background in commercial video production and about ten years ago, he started making videos for YouTube.  He collects cookbooks, and does research. He build a kitchen studio behind his home. When he finishes each recipe, his charming wife appears and taste tests the results along with him. I love his style of working, his understanding that there is no one correct way. He cooks by technique not chemistry formula. He posts a couple of times a week, and also has an aviation channel and a cocktails channel.  I heard about him by reading a blog. 

https://www.youtube.com/@PrintmakingwithEugene

Printmaking with Eugene is based in Singapore. I am exploring linocut printing, something I have not done in 45 years. This is a relatively new and small channel. He posts about once a week, the videos are about 10 minutes long. His style and work is very peaceful. He is a little soft spoken, you may need to turn the volume up. 

https://www.youtube.com/@rewildingjude

Rewilding Jude is based in Rural Scotland. After his parents died, he decided to make bold choices and live his life his way, and that included buying a fixer upper in the Scottish Highlands, planting a big garden, keeping chickens, learning new ways to make things with his own hands. He posts nearly every weekend, one 20-30 minute video. Give him a watch. There is more to the story of the talented and brave young man. 

https://www.youtube.com/@ChateauPoseidon

Chateau Poseidon is two Canadian guys, starting work on a Chateau in rural France. This channel is new this year. The channel started with their move from Vancouver, and arrival at their new home in France. The first project has been rebuilding the gardener's house to live in while starting on the massive neglected Chateau. They are cute, and very talented. They post once a week, again in the 20-30 minute range. 

These are channels that I have found that have good story telling, editing, production, that move forward with intelligence.