Strapped in snowshoes, alone in the woods of Manitoba, and armed with a chainsaw, Gordon Daigneault had one way to survive: gather fuel to heat his dwelling.
When Daigneault bought a cabin in the woods in 2019, it had no power or water and could be reached only by manoeuvring a quad through trails or by hiking. The 42-year-old, who sports a great black beard and goes by the nickname Bushman Gord, has since given up big city life for his off-grid haven in Sandilands.
Though now he has power—gathered from the sun—to cook with and light his home and water running through pipes to flush the toilet and take showers, heat depends entirely on his wood-gathering endeavours. It gets especially cold in winter in these parts—about an hour-and-a-half’s drive from Winnipeg—and wood fuel is the only way to warm up and keep the pipes from freezing….