All language subtitles for Life.Below.Zero.S04E05.Breaking.Through.720p.NF.WEB-DL.x264-KangMus_track3_eng

GLENN VILLENEUVE:
Caribou are one of the most
important animals to me

up in this country.

Most years, about half
the meat I eat is caribou.

I've been seeing caribou
down in this country
earlier in recent years,

and I'm wondering
if there might be
some around right now.

The biggest thing
about caribou,
you just can't count on them.

It's different every year.

Sometimes, there's not
a single caribou in the
country for months.

Knowledge of the animals
you're hunting

is a big part
of the equation.

It's important to understand
animals and their behaviour.

(MAKING MOOSE CALL)

When I'm hunting
moose in the fall,

I'll make a sound that
a moose makes with my voice,

and that'll call
the moose to me.

(MOOSE CALL)

That doesn't
work with caribou.

This time of year,
if there's caribou around,
I can't call a caribou to me.

I'm going to try
and sneak up on the caribou.

Approach him silently.

So I'm looking for
signs of caribou.

I'm listening for caribou.

Looking for tracks
in the snow.

You got to know
the animal you're after.

You got to understand it,

and you got to tailor
your approach to that animal.

A lot of times
caribou will travel
up kinda high on this ridge.

So I'm heading up here,
see if I can find any tracks,

see if I can possibly
find any caribou.

Snow is good for tracking.

If any caribou came through,
I should be able to
intercept their tracks.

Look at this, something
went through here.

What is this?

This is no caribou track.

(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)

See this?
The whole body's
dragging in the snow.

See these lines?

Those are the marks of quills.

That's a porcupine track,
but I gotta know
which way he's going

if I wanna catch up with him.

Porcupines are good eating.

Just by feeling the track
with my bare hand,

I can feel the details
of the paw print.

I can feel the bed
of the track,

which way it's angled.

Toes are always gonna be
lower than the heel when
they're travelling in snow.

Yeah.

That porcupine's
headed this way.

I'm going to try
and catch up with it.

I never know
what I'm gonna find.

I have to take advantage
of the opportunity.

I'm thinking mostly
about caribou,

but I never know
what I'm gonna find.

Whatever I find,
that I can take advantage of,
I take advantage of it.

I'm an opportunistic hunter.

If I hustle, I should be able
to catch up with it.

This is a pretty fresh track
right here.

It is very hungry country.
There aren't that
many animals around.

I have to take advantage
of whatever I can find.

CHIP HAILSTONE:
If you're not prepared,
you're not gonna score.

If you're not prepared,
you're probably not gonna
survive it.

Hey, puppy, puppy.

Today we're having a blizzard.

It's the first one
of the year.

We have real thin ice
and this isn't doing
our ice any good.

The ice isn't gonna thicken
with this crap on top,
and it's really warm out.

But it's really windy, too,
and it's really wet.

I need to get me a pole
that I can make into a handle
for an ice chisel.

Call 'em a "tuk" up here.

Ice is going to thicken.

It's just not
happening right now.

And I'm gonna
need that ice chisel.

I'm gonna need to go along
and test the ice as I go.

I'm also gonna need a way to
make a hole through the ice,

and really efficient way
of doing it is with
an Eskimo tuk.

It's got a nice weight to it.

It's a little heavier
than I want,

but it's gonna lose weight
when I skin it.

Since it's freeze-up,
and it's stormy and
nobody's going anywhere,

it's the time of year
to sit down and
get your tools made.

And here in the land
of ice and snow,
this is the tool for me.

If you want to get to fish,
you got to knock
a hole in the ice.

If I want to knock
a hole in the ice,
I need to have myself a tuk.

I'm stripping off
the bark right now.

I'm gonna take off
the lumps, bumps,
the slivers, and the knots.

We're going to dark winter.
We have thin ice.

We have limited daylight.

And it's time to prepare
ourselves for when
the sunshine comes back,

but the deep cold is here.

Not going on any ice
until I can have a look
at how thick it is.

This right here, not only
will it be the thing that I
would use crossing the ice,

tuk -ing ahead of me,
but should I break through,

I have a stick I can put
sideways in my hole

and use to get
myself out with.

NARRATOR:
For the Hailstones,

Arctic waterways provide
vital transportation
and fish for consumption.

But they can be
extremely dangerous.

(ICE CREAKING)

And a misstep on thin ice
could be fatal.

If you live out
in the country like we do,

you end up using
one of these quite a bit,

and they don't make
them in stores.

They make cheap imitations,
but nobody makes a good one.

And if you want the best,
you just do it yourself.

This is the time of year,
while the ice is thin,
to make my ice chisel.

So when it gets thick here in
a couple days, I can go put
this baby to use.

This needs to be done before
I can go out on the ice.

If I don't have this
to test the ice,

then I won't know
what I'm walking on,

and I'm taking a big chance.

I'm just about done here.

This is what I'll use
as I walk ahead of me,

to see if this'll
plunge to the ice
ahead of me.

If this will go through the
ice, I'll go through the ice.

If this doesn't go through the
ice after a good hefty thump,

then it's safe ice to walk on.

And you can't buy
this in a store.

No, it's something you just
gotta make yourself
if you want to have the best.

And, uh, if I don't have much,
I might as well have the best.

JESSIE HOLMES:
It's in your best interest
to not underestimate

the dangers out here.

(DOGS BARKING AND HOWLING)

Zeus, Thor, you want to go
haul some wood?

Getting my dogs watered here
and then I'm gonna go get my
harnesses and lines set up.

Take the dogs out on a run,
out in the flats.

Finally, winter's setting in.
We're having ideal conditions
with a nice snow pack.

So I'll be conditioning
my dog team while
I'm going out with a purpose,

and I need to get some wood
around here because
it's starting to run slim

on the immediate
amount of wood that
I've had stocked up.

Your safe haven is the
woodpile for living up
here in the winter.

Got to have wood to make
warm food for the dogs
and to warm my cabin

so I can have a safe place
to come home to.

Wood's a huge commodity
to me out here.

We're not talking
like a little pile of wood.

I need, like, stacks of wood.

Yeah, these dogs love to run,

so when you get to
hooking them up,

they get all
crazy and excited. Whoa!

These dogs ain't gonna
wait around no longer.
They're ready to go.

I love to hear the dogs
barking and screaming
and howling.

That means
they're ready to go.
They're feeling good.

You ready guys? Whoo!

I build on that attitude.

All right! Straight ahead.

So it's time to get
to work now.

SUE AIKENS:
The level of comfort
I enjoy in my life

is absolutely
directly related to how hard
I've worked to attain it.

What I'm working on here,
these are my solar panels.

And now that the sunshine has
come back, what I can do now,
is get up here,

start clearing it off
and I expose
these solar cells.

(PTARMIGANS SQUAWKING)

Right over there.

I got ptarmigans.

What I want to do,
is before they make me,

I want to get down,
get my binos, get my rifle,

and take the opportunity to
maybe get some fresh meat.

It'd be nice to be able
to shoot the gun
and get my own dinner.

In my own backyard,
on my own terms.

Ptarmigan, it's one of the
only food sources out here
for a lot of the year.

For being one of the dumbest
birds on the planet,

they get away from me
all the freaking time.

Good Lord,
they're all over the place.

I'm seeing maybe
500 ptarmigan or so.

But they're spread out
a little on the far side.

Might be a case of my eyes
are bigger than my stomach

and certainly bigger
than my talent with
a .22 open sights.

Still 100, 120 yards
that direction.

Looking this way.

Can I physically get close
enough to maybe take a shot?

It's a roll of the dice, man.

They're a little
on the far side,

but it wouldn't be
me if I didn't try.

There's one.

I can see some on the bank.

Problem is I got the
sun in my eyes.

Tends to blind you
from what you're aiming at.

You want to be
a little off of that.

It's a long
freakin'-ass shot, man.

(GUNSHOT)

Fucking bloody hell.

I missed.

See my little foxy.

I didn't realise
he had come
along for the ride.

The last thing I want
to do is shoot
my little foxy friend.

To me, it's no different than
knowing you have people
out that direction.

Those are my homies.

So I've got to be
very careful.

Foxy's moved way over there
and he's pointing.

So that means the birds
are down there.

He'll point, just like a
pointing dog would.

It's a pretty cool
hunting partner.

It's a long-ass shot.
They're way the
hell out there.

(GUNSHOT)

(GUNSHOT)

Nope.

Got one more left.

I've only got one bullet left
that I brought with me.

Right there.

Oh, really?

Slinky forgot to read
the game plan, man.

(LAUGHS) He's... He's down
there pushing them that way.

What are you doing, dummy?

My little hunting partner
got a little excited.

What do they call that?
Buck fever?

He got a little fox fever.

And he pushed 'em
a little early and in
the wrong direction.

With where they're at,

the amount of energy
I'm gonna expend
trying to get close,

trying to get close... Nah.

Ptarmigan are the gift
that keep on giving.

They'll be at my front door
if I just wait.

(CHUCKLING)

We were hunting buddies.
You left me behind!

(LAUGHING)

Sometimes we're unsuccessful,

but it feels awful damn
special being able
to share a morning...

Morning hunt with a fox.

Time to be getting back
to my chores.

CHIP: If I had a choice
between Sunday Night Football
over this,

this is what you'll
see me doing.

Storm died out
pretty well, huh?

-Yeah.
-We've still got some
more snow coming,

but it's just, no more wind
and no more streaks.

(AGNES SPEAKING)

CHIP: Oh, the game plan
right now

is to go down and go knock
some holes in the ice.

I'm gonna go
to a shallow place.

The ice is very thin.
We have a lot of
snow on top of it.

I'm gonna go walk
out there and test it
with my ice chisel.

I'm just gonna
walk out there myself

into places that
are real shallow,

so should I go through,
I probably won't go
past my waist.

(AGNES AND KIDS CHEERING)

But also, there'll be
Tiktaalik going along
those shallow places, too.

It's something we look
forward to this time of year.

I like to eat a few
of them things.

Got two inches of ice
here at least.

Today, we're just looking for
where the shallow gets deep

so we can start
setting our traps.

Okay, up high.

Right there.

I'm gonna need willows that
are as tall as you, dear.

I'll knock some more holes
and widen this one up first.

Last year, at this time,
the ice was much thicker.

I was more confident
to take my kids on it.

Let them knock some holes.

But at this time of year,
when the ice isn't thick,

I'm staying close to shore.

Close to where the shallow is.

AGNES: Looks like
this is a good one.

This time of the year,
we've eaten a lot of caribou,

we've eaten
a lot of whitefish.

It's always good to try
different kind of fish,

so Tiktaalik this time
of the year is pretty good.

CHIP: Sent that into the mud.

There.

You got another one?

In this culture, fresh food
is always in demand.

We never really stop
fishing or gathering.

This year
is quite a bit different.

The river froze much later.

What we're basically doing
is adapting to that.

It's all right, you know.
This is what we gotta do.

You know,
you look at a problem,
then you look for solutions.

The problem
has been the late ice.

This here is our solution.

You got anything
you need me to carry?

Huh? I just got my bag.
It's empty now.
No fishtails or nothing.

CHIP: At least these suckers
will be fishing for us while
we're at home, huh?

AGNES: Yeah.

JESSIE: I'm not trying
to just survive out here,
I'm trying to thrive out here.

And it's more
about smoothing it

than roughing it for me.

(DOGS BARKING AND HOWLING)

All right, straight ahead!

Out in the woods,
there's big lakes.

Out there, there's a lot
of dry firewood.

Straight ahead.
Haw, haw, haw, haw!

(DOGS HOWLING)

Doesn't make sense
for me to buy firewood.

Whenever there's firewood
out there, I got these
dogs to haul it.

I'm not sure what I'll
encounter out there.

There's a been a lot of snow,
it hasn't been very cold.

You don't really know
what's underneath the snow.

Hike.

Hike!

Get up, get up, get up,
get out of there,
get up, come on.

Go, come on, go,
straight ahead,
straight ahead.

Straight ahead,
straight ahead,
straight ahead.

Gee, gee!

Gee! Hup!

It's breaking through
the whole way across,

and I just try to keep moving
once I hit thin ice.

Which is an essential skill
as a musher.

The minute you slow down
is when you're going to go
right straight through.

You know,
your team's going to get hurt

and you're gonna be stuck
out in the middle of a lake,
swimming through it.

There you go. Straight ahead,
straight ahead,
straight ahead, gentlemen.

Good, gee, gee, gee. Easy now.

I see some bigger trees
back there.

Hope they're dry.

Ho, ho, ho.

Stay, stay.

Please stay.

This looks like
a good spot to stop.

-Good boys.
-(DOGS WHINING)

This is nice and kind
of good, dry ground.

It looks like it's out
of those deep lakes,

and don't have to deal
with that no more.

This is nice dry wood.

Can hear it.

(STARTING CHAINSAW)

(CHAINSAW BUZZING)

This will burn nice
and be light to haul back.

My goal will to always be
to have a cord of wood
outside of my cabin.

'Cause every morning,
you wake up, firewood's
going in the stove.

To keep it going every night
when you go to bed,

you got to load it up,
so that the cabin stays
warm and dry.

But also,
if I get hurt or sick,

I need to be able
to have a month's
worth of wood.

I might come back
freezing cold, wet.

I never know
when I'm gonna
come back here,

like, and I have to be
prepared to get that cabin
warm very fast.

You know,
I don't have insurance.

So, my insurance
is having wood, water
and good food to eat,

and living a clean,
simple lifestyle.

You know, when I do
all this work to provide
for myself up here,

it's a good feeling
to be self-sufficient.

(CHAINSAW BUZZING)

And that's a good
load of wood.

Daylight runs away from you

way quicker than
you think it's going to,
that's for sure.

To have a good stack of wood
outside my door could really
save my ass in bad conditions.

All right. Ready, gentlemen?

All right, straight ahead.

Gee, gee, gee.
Straight ahead, gee, gee.

Good.

I'll just stay
on the main trail.

No more adventures
and count ourselves lucky
that got a load of wood

and didn't get too wet.

CHIP: My kids have a real
well-rounded life.

They can go off
into the primitive,

and walk through the door
back into the civilised.

-You ladies ready?
-AGNES: Yep.

NARRATOR: Chip and Agnes
have set trap lines

for the Tiktaalik fish
in the shallows of the river.

With the ice not yet thick
enough for long-distance
travel,

catching fish
in these local traps

would help build up
the Hailstones'
food supply for dark winter.

CHIP: Well, when
we were out here last night,
it was about two inches thick.

We've had a really cold spell
last night and today.

AGNES: Minus 20.
CHIP: Might make it
a lot thicker.

Couple more days of minus 20
and we'll be able to ride
on the ice.

CHIP: Well,
these are set lines

and we call them
traps around here

because they're actually
hunting while we sleep
and do other things.

AGNES: Come on, Tiktaalik.

Aw, no fish.

-Least the bait's still there.
-Yep.

Got to put the bait
back in the hole
and try again.

CHIP: Back in the hole.

AGNES: Come on, fish.

-Look like you got
the whole hook.
-Darn.

CHIP: This doesn't
weigh like nothing.

-Yep, no wonder.
-Ah, no fish.

CHIP: I want to pick one up
that's heavy.

AGNES: Darn, we got
one more trap to check,
and no fish.

They've only been out
for a night. That's nothing.

There's never once
been a day in my life

where I've thrown
a rod or hook in and caught
something every cast.

AGNES:
Hopefully, this is the one!

Maybe it's got something.
Maybe it don't.

Only one way to find out.

AGNES: Aw, come on, fish.

AGNES: Ugh.

CHIP: Oh, well.
That's fishing.

This takes
an hour out of our day,

and they've only been
in there for what,
24 hours now?

-AGNES: Yep.
-I bet you by tomorrow,
if those two got robbed,

we just might end up
having a couple
more fish to try it again.

We'll go tell everybody,
no Tiktaalik tonight.

GLENN:
There's a lot of different
ways to live on this earth.

There's seven billion people
on this planet

and they're not
all doing the same thing.

This is what I'm doing.

Porcupine spend
a lot of time in trees.

NARRATOR:
While on the hunt for caribou,

Glenn has discovered
porcupine tracks.

Living in the sparse
wilderness of
the Brooks Range,

he must take advantage
of any opportunity

for meat and protein
that crosses his path.

GLENN: When they come down
to the ground to travel,

sometimes they don't
travel very far.

Look, the porcupine tracks,
they went right up here.

It's not too far ahead.
This is a fresh track.

Hey, look!
There he is, right there.
Right in that tree.

Porcupines,
when they're getting chased,

they like to
take to the trees.

I can't shoot him
with this rifle though.

This thing would make
porcupine soup out of
that porcupine.

This is for shooting
big animals like caribou
and moose.

I don't have a smaller gun
with me today.

I'm gonna
have to cut the tree.

You get a little higher,

you got to think about
which way I want to drop
that tree.

If he goes over into that,

there's a real good chance
he'll get away
under that brush there,

I won't
be able to get to him.

If I make the tree
fall this way,

he'll be out in the open.

I got a much better chance
of catching him.

I put a little notch here
to help guide this tree down
the way I want it to go.

There, I got the notch.
That will direct the tree
where I want it to go.

It's going!

There he goes!

(GROANS) Got him!

If a porcupine
falls out of a tree and
lands on your head,

that's what your head
could look like.

Full of quills.

Porcupine are very
good eating.

One of the tastier
animals out here.

I'm a long way from home.

I'm not gonna bring
him back whole.

I got to butcher him
right here,

and it's getting dark,
so I better get on it.

I'm gonna start
by skinning this porcupine.

Get the skin off without
getting any quills in me
and I'll be happy.

Look at that fat.

Fat's hard to find out here.

A lot of animals out in this
country are real lean.

It's hard to get enough fat
off the land a lot of times.

But porcupines are one
good source of fat.

This will be tasty.

Cut the head off. Here we go.

There.

Cut the hide off,
didn't get any quills in me.

Now I just got to get
the guts out.

It's interesting how one thing
leads to the next out here.

So often the case,
I'll head out thinking that
I'm looking for one thing,

but along the way,
I find something else.

Can't be too choosy and I
really like eating porcupine,

so I'm real happy
even though I didn't
find any caribou today.

That's the way it goes.
It keeps life interesting.

Time to get back to camp.

Go home and cook
up some porcupine.

JESSIE: My story's
just different.

I'm just a purist,
I really like it simple.

(DOGS HOWLING AND BARKING)

(JESSIE SPEAKING)

NARRATOR: In order to avoid
a catastrophic fall
through the ice,

Jessie and his dogs
were forced to push
his sled to the limit.

Making repairs
before the onslaught
of winter is crucial.

JESSIE: The sled
that I'm hauling wood
here in,

handlebar's completely
broken off of now.

Just not a strong
side structure.

But very good runners,

so that's why I wanna
take a little time here
and rebuild this.

I just have to go look around,
scavenge stuff out of
my sled graveyard,

and do what I can do to get
this thing going down
and hauling some wood better.

So I'm gonna leave
this back stanchion.

This is what we call
a stanchion, right here.

This is the upright
part of the sled
and there's three, four,

depends on the
design of the sled.

But I'm gonna
remove these stanchions

because they're not
that great a wood,
and they're breaking.

You can see right here,
that's broke already.

And I need to haul
a lot of stuff in this,

so I need to rebuild this
to where it's gonna
hold my load well.

Not flex so much.

Winter is just beginning
for me and the work's
just starting,

so this is just the
next project on my list,

which is followed by
a hundred projects.

But I learnt how to fix sleds
because I don't have
a lot of money

to buy things
that are new and built.

So I've got myself
two sturdy stanchions
added to this.

I'm gonna try to put
some sides on it
that are out of plywood.

Everything out here,
it's rough on things,

and you have to
constantly maintain things

and be able to
fix them yourself.

Brr!

I'm trying to get done
before it gets dark.

Finish it up.

Yeah, that's making it
nice and stable.

It's gonna be great
for hauling wood.

A lot better
than it was before,

and it already
was hauling a lot of wood.

Now I just got
to bring it inside,

thaw it out,
and get ready for tomorrow.

SUE: This is not a lifestyle
you just wander into.

It is a committed decision
to excel and overachieve.

What I'm doing now
is I have two coolers in there

and I want to start
refilling them with snow
so that they melt.

There's always chores to do.

When you're living remote
and you're in this
kind of a climate,

things have to get done.

There's nobody here
but me to do 'em.

This is not the densest snow,
so I'm not gonna get a lot of
water value out of it.

(PTARMIGANS SQUAWKING)

I'm listening. There it is.

I got ptarmigans.

I got ptarmigans
here and there.

This is an important chore,
but that's getting fresh meat.

So this is gonna
go back and wait

and I'm gonna get ready
and see if I can't
nail me a ptarmigan.

Anytime you're doing a chore
and the opportunity presents
itself,

I've got to try.

(PTARMIGANS SQUAWKING)

(WHISPERING)
See, they laugh at you.

I've got exactly
one, two, three bullets
left for this rifle for birds.

I'm gonna try to,
very quietly, as I can
on the snow,

choose my path

and get close enough
to try and shoot him.

I've got three chances.
Let's hope I get him.

I think I might be S-O...

Little late to the party,
aren't you?

You're supposed
to be helping me.

Oh, I think he spotted him.

(PTARMIGAN SQUAWKING)

Damn, he's going too far.

(GUNSHOT)

Get him.

(PTARMIGAN SQUAWKING)

Go get him!

Now Slinky is there,
the bird is there.

I may be able
to get a little closer.

But I've only got
two bullets left.

(GUNSHOT)

(PTARMIGAN SQUAWKING)

(GUNSHOT)

Nope.

(SIGHS) That's it.

And there they go.

Just piss-poor planning
that I've got plenty
of protection bullets,

but not a
lot of hunting bullets.
There's a big difference.

Come on, Slink.

This little bit of fun
doesn't stop the fact
that I got chores to do.

Come on, my little sled.

Yay.

This is really the first chore
I started out with today,

but the last chore
that I'm finishing.

I'm trying to get more snow in
so I can make more water.

This frozen snow

is going to turn into water
that I can drink, cook
and clean myself with.

The ptarmigan
that I almost got...

(CHUCKLING)

...would have fed me
and given me
personal energy and fuel.

Um, instead,

I got to work off a little bit
of the extra booty.

The other thing I do like,
it is pretty cold outside.

While I did not manage
to get myself a ptarmigan,

this is my little version

of a little Sue cream.

All's I do is I take the snow,

put in
a little bit of the milk,

a little bit of flavour,

and look at that.

I got strawberry snow cream.

As much as a person living
in the city may want to live
close to the store,

close to schools
for their children,

close to a way to get
to and from their jobs,

I'm doing the same thing.

I'm living close to my store
called a ptarmigan,

near the river and the snow
for my water

and open up the door, that sun
beaking me in the eye sockets
is gonna give me power.

There you go.

It's pretty friggin' awesome.

JESSIE: I don't think
you can break the bond

between the dogs
and the driver,
if it's strong.

All right, I got my
sled done now.

It's ready to haul some pretty
good-sized loads of wood.

It's a lot better
than it was before.

But now I got to put
it to use here.

This is the wood
that I got two days ago,

so I made it two days
of cooking dog food and
keeping my house warm.

So it's a beautiful day,
it's warmed up a little bit,

so this is a perfect day
to be doing this and working.

Try my new sled out.

I'm gonna bust a trail through
there and come out
with a load of wood,

and then I'll have
a trail in there.

Hike!

All right, a gee and a holler
and yippee-ta-yay,

out of the chute
and on our way.

Good, straight ahead,
straight ahead,
straight ahead.

Gee!

Need to get a trail
in there now with the
snow the way it is

before it gets
deeper and colder.

It's easier on the dogs
to break this trail in now,

and I need to access
this all winter
if I run out of wood.

Whoa! Gee.

I see lots of wood.

One thing's for sure,
you don't need outside
motivation or anything

to get wood because it's an
environmental motivation here.

It only gets colder in
Alaska in the winter so,
having the wood, man,

you're pretty motivated
to get it.

This is called mapping
out your winter.

You just got to be
willing to go out
and work for it.

Take advantage of
when you're healthy and
everything's going great

and put a big, large effort
into getting some wood.

You never know
what's gonna happen.

So this is just another day
at the office for me.

Straight ahead.
Hike, hike, hike, hike.
Straight ahead.

Good way
to warm up for the day.

I'll be nice and warmed up now
after a few hours
of splitting wood.

Good workout.

Good bunch of wood,
good training on the dogs.

It's the simple things
out here in life that matter.

That's why I work so hard
doing this

is because the reward
is out there for me.

The reason
I live this lifestyle

is for the adventure and the
joy of training the dogs
out in the wilderness.

Now this cabin looks like an
Alaskan cabin, you know?

With a good wood pile
out in front of it.

CHIP: In this culture,
fresh food is always
in demand,

it's always what's going on.

So what we do is we hunt,
and we fish, and we gather.

NARRATOR:
With the ice thickening,

the Hailstones' window
to harvest Tiktaalik
in the shallows

is quickly coming to a close.

CHIP: Same old, same old.

(QUTAN SPEAKING)

CHIP: Because
when we set these,

the middle of the
river wasn't frozen.

So we set these on the ice
we could stand on.

Now the whole river's frozen,
we can go where the fish are,
take these out.

AGNES: Aw, man!
CHIP: That one's gone.

(AGNES SPEAKING)

CHIP: What's happening
is the ice is getting thicker.

So the shallowness is
progressing more and more

and pretty soon,
it's gonna be frozen
right down to that sandbar.

In two days, this ice
has thickened
at least four inches.

AGNES: Well,
we ain't had a fish yet,
we're just checking our traps,

so, um, hopefully,
we'll catch a Tiktaalik soon.

We have a few
more traps to go.

Come on, fish!

Aw, man!

Hopefully,
we'll catch two fish.

We have two traps left.

Come on, Tiktaalik.

CHIP: There's something there.

AGNES: Oh, my goodness!

(LAUGHING) Look at that!

Wow! Yee, Tiktaalik!

Well, it took a few days,
but we have one.

This is our fourth trap
and we have one trap
left to go.

CHIP: It's a dead one though.
The dogs will eat it.

Dog got to eat.

Any fish that's dead
in our net or on our line,

we just classify as dog food
because our dogs have to eat.

It's kind of like finding
a dead caribou.

You don't know
what killed it,
you don't eat it.

What we need is fresh meat,
not dead on the line,

like, from drifting there
or being sick or smogged out.

AGNES: Let's go check
the other one.

Hopefully, the other one will
be alive. Let's go see.

Right on, Qutan, thank you.

CHIP: For now,
I'm really happy
I got something for my dogs

to get them through
the next couple days,

and we just keep on fishing.

-Here's another fish.
-AGNES: Ooh!

-Another Tiktaalik!
-CHIP: No, not alive.

Bummer.

We used this type of fishing
because we couldn't
cross the river.

But now the river's frozen
solid and we can go anywhere.

We can go where the fish are
and carry on.

You know what, kids?
We had a really bad
whitefish season

because of this
late freeze-up.

And the dogs got to eat.

So when you get dead fish,
you feed 'em to dogs.

If these fish were alive
and squirming,
we'd keep 'em for ourselves.

So, not all is lost.

So we should be happy
that our dogs will eat good.

This is some of the best food
there is for 'em.

This ice is so thick,
it's frozen solid out there,
we can travel now.

The time for doing
this is over.

I made myself a new tuk,
which is an ice chisel that
we use to get through the ice.

Since we've been down here
checking Tiktaalik traps

and using that chisel
and opening up these holes
every day,

we've been able to check
the progress of the ice.

Now the ice is thick enough
all the way across the river,

we can go to where the fish
are instead of trying to bait
the fish to where we are.

So I think fishing's gonna
get better.

I'm pretty happy with this tuk
and I'm gonna be using
it a lot,

because it's an ice tool
in the land of ice and snow.

-Shall we go home?
-AGNES: Yep.

CHIP: The worst day of fishing
is better than the best
day at work.

We just keep on fishing.

GLENN: I've always
got a lot more to do
than I have time to.

Not necessarily just work
that has to be done,

but things I want to see,
things I want to learn about.

Didn't find any caribou out
there, but I was lucky enough
to get a porcupine.

I've eaten muskrats,
I've eaten squirrels,

but if I'm gonna eat
a rodent, there's nothing
better than a porcupine.

Because of this. Fat!

Fat's hard to come by.

A lot of animals out here
are really lean,

but this porcupine,
as you can see,

he's got a good layer
of fat on him.

Fat has more
calories than protein
or carbohydrates,

and you need a lot of calories
to stay warm.

It takes energy.

That's why porcupine is a
special food for me out here.

Look at that.
I got a front leg,
I got a back leg,

and plenty of fat
to go with that meat.

That's what I'm having for
dinner tonight, porcupine.

Everybody has to decide
how they want to live,

where they want
to get their food.

This is just the way
I choose to do it,
because I enjoy it.

I enjoy living out here,
I enjoy the lifestyle.

I feel more connected
to my surroundings.

I don't think
this is for everybody.

But I think, unfortunately,
there are a lot of people

that aren't doing
what they love to do,

and that's too bad
to let life go by

and not do
what you really want to do.

If you really wanna do
something, you ought to
get out and do it.

This is what I want to do,
so this is what I did.

I bet it's just about done.

Oh, yeah.
That looks delicious!

Look at that porcupine.
Mmm, does that smell good.

Look at that.

Full moon,
what a night to eat out.

I eat mostly moose,
and then caribou comes next,

but once in a while,
I come across something
like a porcupine,

get a little variety.

That's porcupine fat.
It's good stuff.

Mmm. Mmm.

That's the best part
right there.

It is a little sprucey.

He's been feeding
on spruce bark lately.

Connects me
to the forest around here.

The food tastes
a little bit like the area.

You can't just go to the store
up here and say,

"Hey, tonight I want to eat
pork chops."

You got to go out and see
what nature's got
to offer you to eat.

Today it offered me porcupine.

A lot of times, I don't know
what the day's gonna bring.

That's what makes
life interesting.

You never know
what today's gonna bring.

You never know exactly
what you're gonna be
eating for dinner either.

What a night.

It's beautiful out here.