The first posted video on our channel, ever, was how to light a fire with a water bottle. At the time, we lived in this tiny basement apartment we were renting.  It was 2008 and YouTube was a new platform that some people were using, but it certainly was not the go to like it is now. 

None of us had any concept of how it would change and then shape the world as it does now. That was where it all started… in that tiny basement apartment where we lived from 2008-2011.  The unknowing groundwork was being laid for all the experiments that would become the first videos on TKOR. 

It was there where we discovered Kip Kay and learned he was making money on YouTube.  We didn’t know how, just that he was.  On this new and seemingly magical platform, we watched Charlie the Unicorn (Grant watched this multiple times and laughed every time). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsGYh8AacgY&ab_channel=FilmCow.

We watched Double Rainbow all the Way (This became a favorite phrase of ours that we would laugh about). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX0D4oZwCsA&ab_channel=schmoyoho.

We also watched The Duck Song.  It was the favorite of our toddler.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtN1YnoL46Q&ab_channel=forrestfire101. It was a totally new world to turn on your computer and see the creative work of just normal folks.

To watch the budding of new stars from everyday life was just blossoming.  We hunkered down as Grant liked to say and spent our time working, saving money and playing.  These were our 3 objectives during this time. 

For us, our plan was to wait out the real estate bubble so we could afford our first home. This was before YouTube would explode, then it did.  During this time, Grant played.  For his play time, he’d spend hours outside our apartment.  

During these summer hours, he was getting sunburned and staring at the sunlight filtered through that first water bottle experiment.  He tested, retested and perfected his method of using the conical curve of the water bottle to direct the sun onto a paper or dry leaf.  

He created flames.  That became what would be the first “project” video.  But it would be sometime before it would be released on YouTube as what you all saw.  During this time, Grant was a commercial airline pilot.  During those long flights, his mind would fly right along with the airplane.

He dreamed up many of the things he wanted to experiment on.  In fact, now that he’s gone and there is no danger of being prosecuted for this one… a little secret not many know is that he used a water bottle to light a small flicker of a flame in the cockpit of the airplane he was flying.  

Let’s just say, if the FCC knew that he started a fire in his airplane with a water bottle, he may not have been a pilot any more.  He didn’t tell and neither did his co-pilots.  I assure you as stupid as that was, he was very cautious and put it right out.  

He did really care very deeply for the safety of his passengers.  Sorry to give you visions of pilots doing things they shouldn’t.  It was the connection to proof of concept that was for him, that insatiable desire to create… flames in this instance. 

In our little basement apartment he made ozone. I don’t remember exactly how this was done, but it consisted of a whole lot of glass beer bottles filled with water and connected with some kind of conductive material.  

Then the power came to it and the most intense sound would begin.  Within a few moments it would start to smell like rain.  He gloried in the sound and the results.  There was always a huge smile on his face when someone knocked on the door to make sure everyone was ok. 

We may have been the most interesting and/or controversial tenants they ever had or will have.  A time for all of us that will never be forgotten. It will always be remembered with smiles as I look back to recall memories that rocked our world. 

It was where every moment was questioned while it was happening.  This little basement apartment, where he spent all his free time experimenting if he wasn’t flying.  That apartment is where the real beginnings of TKOR started.  

He spent those 2 years there tinkering, learning, playing, experimenting and finding his way through all the projects that would become vidoes over the next 10 years.  And those 10 years would be the last 10 years of his life.  He gave those 10 years to you.  

He made TKOR his lasting and final gift. He gave it everything.  This was the time when all we did was look to our future. We planned for it and placed every step into position to set us up for a successful future.  

When I think back on that time, it was magical for me too.  We were just at the beginning of our marriage. We had one beautiful boy and while we lived there we made another one.  That time in that basement rented apartment would create a life we never expected. 

When we left there; we had each other, our sweet baby boys, a lot of experimenting and the knowledge that it gave us.  It would only be ours for a moment before it all ended. Not his legacy; but us, our marriage and his presence in TKOR. 

It was too soon to see all that go, but I’m grateful for what’s left for us. I’m grateful for our boys. I also treasure his face, his excitement and his voice in every one of those videos he made for you, starting with one little flame. 

OG Video: 

Start a Fire With a Water Bottle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwQJ-3pZfwc&ab_channel=TKOR