Original subtitles

You know, this last winter, I hurt the body.

One of the largest owies,

was to the, you know, this whole area here.

One of the problems that I have,

I'm not gonna be shooting on this side, ever again.

All of my hardware is for somebody

that has a whole different body than I have.

Put on your gun belt. Where does it hang?

On the right.

This is the one that's hurt.

My guns, every single stinking one of them,

is made to go here, on the right.

So, I'm gonna fly to town, see my buddy Gary,

get a gun made and get back here, so I can protect myself.

I can't maintain my style of life here

if I can't protect myself and hunt for the food that I eat.

If I can't do that simple task, I'm done.

I know you're saying it's all good, it's all okay.

But I know I'm putting

the weight of the world on your shoulders.

I love you and I absolutely respect you

for stepping up to the plate. That's pretty cool beans.

I love you too, Auntie. And I got this.

It's a blessing to have Jesse here,

and being so capable.

This time of year, if I didn't have Jesse up here with me,

I would not be able to leave.

-I love you. -Love you too, Auntie.

Thank you so much for being you.

No problem, Auntie.

-Family's for... (LAUGHS) -Family sticks together.

SUE: You know, the gun, I'm excited about it.

I've got an idea.

But I need to see how it is, and then find my weaknesses.

Winter's coming, the bears are out there,

the wolverines are out there, the wolves are out there.

This is my life on the line.

CHIP: All this nature is the same as it was 10,000 years ago.

We're the things that change.

You ready, bun?

I got to flip over my shoes, so they don't get rained on.

NARRATOR: The Hailstones spend their summer

along the Kiwalik River,

where they only have a brief window

to gather resources before the freeze returns.

For Chip and Agnes,

teaching their daughters how to survive in the Arctic

is a priority and a valued native tradition.

Okay, girls, let's go to the greens!

We can start with sour docks

since the sour docks are ready.

CHIP: What we call sour docks in English,

they call quagaqs in Inupiat.

And they're a local green that we like to eat with,

they're a little, slightly on the sour side.

So, they're good with vinegar and oil,

a little bit of salt and pepper.

And they're a really good green,

and they're really fresh, and the time to pick 'em is now.

Well, you can spot these red stalks that are up.

And around 'em, there'll be, er, nice succulent greens.

And they're pretty tasty, actually.

I like 'em.

I grew up eating this kind of stuff.

But we used to go gather them, you know, on riverbeds.

Not much different than this.

AGNES: You girls got to make sure you pick

the right correct greens, so we don't get sick.

One year, we thought we picked all greens,

and then, there happened to be

a few poisonous flowers mixed in with those.

And I happened to eat them, and I got really sick.

And after that,

me and the girls started watching every plant we pick.

And they have it in their head,

if they don't pick the correct plant

somebody's gonna get sick.

So, it's very important for the girls

to know what they need to look for,

it's important for them to know

where to go to pick these things

and how to preserve them.

If they don't have this experience

and if they don't know what flowers to eat,

they might go hungry.

Being out here, there's no reason to go hungry

if you know what you're doing.

We're really not scoring too high here, are we?

Yeah, we've picked most of the big ones already

and there's just quite a few smaller ones.

CHIP: We should just go down river.

-You guys want to go a couple miles? -MARY: Yes.

AGNES: Yeah, we could.

Probably there'll be bigger leaves.

CHIP: We're heading down to the coast.

We've pretty much picked out this whole little valley here.

Don't ever wanna impact an area too heavy

that it wouldn't grow back.

We go for quality, not quantity.

So, we're gonna go wherever it's wet.

Wherever you see lakes, wherever you see rivers,

creeks, things like that, that's where we'll be,

and that's where the quagaq will be.

MARTHA: There's lots of opportunities,

depends on what you wake up to in the morning.

We always keep ourselves busy.

My name is Martha Mae Salitan, I'm married to Erik Salitan.

I'm from Iliamna, Alaska. Was born and raised here.

I enjoy hunting, fishing, camping,

anything that has to do with the outdoors.

Beautiful day to go play on the lake.

See if I can't find some birds.

Erik left early this morning with a fishing client,

so I got the rest of the day to go out

and motor around on the lake.

I'm gonna first check out this little pond

that's not too far away from here.

Erik and I have hunted over there

and been successful before,

so I figured that's a good place to go.

Hopefully, I can prove to Erik

that I'm just as good a hunter as he is.

NARRATOR: Martha and Erik Salitan

live on the Iliamna peninsula during the summer months,

where they hunt and fish to maintain

their subsistence lifestyle.

MARTHA: I grew up out here.

You really learn to love and hate the lake.

It's a renewable resource that you can always depend on,

but you also learn it's very dangerous.

It's the largest freshwater lake here, in Alaska.

Eighty miles long by 20 miles wide.

And if you get caught up here on an ugly day,

winter or summer,

it could potentially be really dangerous.

This is the first spot.

This little lake that's right over here.

So, we're gonna head over there.

Hopefully, there's a bird.

(WHISPERS) The lake's right there.

We'll see what we got here.

(WHISPERS)

I'm gonna go down a little bit further

and see if I can't get right across from 'em.

They're right in front of us.

(SIGHS)

On to the next.

There are certain kinds of ducks that taste good,

and certain kinds of ducks that don't.

Mergansers are one of the ones that don't,

so we're gonna keep moving,

see if we can't find something else.

Came to this lake here.

Had two birds in it.

But they're just not the kind that we want.

I'm gonna load up here,

go over to this island right over here called Rabbit Island.

It's a good spot.

Couple of small little ponds on it.

Hopefully, there's birds over there.

JESSIE: I define wealth as in I'm already rich.

I have a life that can live self-sufficiently.

(WHINING)

Gonna help me? Yeah.

You know all about sharpening chainsaws?

(DOGS BARKING)

Starting to cool down, the rainy season is coming.

It's been dry and,

you know, I'm starting to focus on training.

NARRATOR: Jessie Holmes devotes the winter season

competing in sled races with his dog team.

Having proper doghouses will ensure

that the dogs stay healthy and strong

in the harsh conditions of racing season.

The theory of a doghouse for a dog,

is not to keep it warm. It's to keep it dry.

In the winter, you know, if the dog's all wet

and its fur, under-fur is matted down,

it can't stay warm.

All the investment I put in these young dogs

is investing in my future career.

Time's overdue for me to get ahead on some new houses.

Then I don't have to worry about it

for, you know, the years to come.

One thing I gotta do is get all this fireweed out of here.

As much as I love it and as beautiful as it is,

I can't see the ground.

This is all gonna be places

where dogs are gonna end up going if I can clear it out.

So this is like gonna be like, the beginning

of my new dog yard.

Right now, all I see is a lot of work.

Already I got enough sod opened up for a couple dogs.

Look at it that way,

so you don't feel like it's so much work.

One step at a time.

For me, I had to like, just work hard.

Deal with what I got.

A lot of people would have a big piece of machinery

and have a perfectly groomed dog yard.

Me, I have to deal with what I got.

You know, I got what I can afford.

It won't be perfect but it'll be better.

(GRUNTS) Fuck.

Just got stung by a bee.

Out of there.

I guess this is the disadvantages

of doing this kind of thing by hand.

One venomous bee.

Didn't want to get stung by a bunch of 'em. Fuck!

They must have a nest in here, I can see 'em all over.

Summer's a narrow window of opportunity

to, like, get a lot done.

I got to do what's best for my dogs.

(BEES BUZZING)

They're living under this tree.

They keep going in and out,

so I'm gonna try to douse their nest with gas.

Light it on fire.

Okay, I can see right where they're going

in the hole there.

Just got to go for it.

NARRATOR: After clearing the area

and creating a fire break to contain the flames,

Jessie can now eradicate the bees

and ensure the safety of himself and his dog team.

(BEES BUZZING)

JESSIE: I decided to go with starting this fire and,

you know, the gasoline to try to kill 'em

'cause I thought it might be a healthier alternative

than having to use some chemical.

I think it's working, I don't see no bees hardly any more.

Got a lot left to do.

Hopefully, I don't get stung by no more bees.

SUE: You get out of life, here in Alaska,

what you put into it.

(BEEPING)

Hey, buddy.

-Hey, Sue. -SUE: Oh, hey, Eddie!

NARRATOR: After an injury left her unable

to use a firearm with her dominant side,

Sue has flown 500 miles to Fairbanks

to pick up custom weaponry.

-We'll start with this one. -Okay.

-This is the left-handed. -All right.

NARRATOR: The new guns will be crucial

for hunting and protection from the tundra's predators

when she returns to Kavik.

SUE: My life is on the line with my ability to hunt.

What I harvest, what I get, is what I eat.

Predators are always something that are around.

There's a lot of bears, a lot of wolves.

If I can't protect myself and other people,

I can't be the warden of Kavik.

Simple as that.

NARRATOR: Sue will be alone in the Kavik tundra

for dark winter.

With the freeze approaching,

teaching herself to shoot from her left side

is critical for her survival.

This little place, right here,

it's darn near right on top of where I grew up,

in Fairbanks, and it's been a shooting area for me before.

This is a .30-06. But it's a lefty.

And I don't even really know how to hold it.

Gary showed me a little bit, but I don't get it yet.

You know, for me, even holding it, it's...

I mean, I'm getting my beak awful damn close to that thing

and I've got no strength.

The right side can't hold it up yet.

That's the idea for using this.

This helps me steady the gun.

I'm gonna sit in the chair, at the table,

raise it to the right height, get it in there,

and, hopefully, shoot the target.

What I'm gonna do is go for that lower, left target.

It is awkward as heck.

I'm gonna get ready to fire.

I'm scared.

-(GUNSHOT FIRED) -All right.

I can see that I've hit the paper.

And there's your mark.

It's not a bull's eye, but it's in there.

I definitely felt it.

I'm a little scared. Feeling tiny.

But it's pretty fun. It's always fun.

-(GUNSHOT FIRED) -Huh.

I'm low and to the right.

Try to line it up,

trying to keep it tight, trying not to flinch.

-And I'm gonna take a shot. -(GUNSHOT FIRED)

Upper target. Left hand side.

(GUNSHOT FIRED)

Nailed it. Right in the bull's-eye.

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Well... (BARKING) Yeah, you can.

This is a 460, 500 Smith & Wesson pistol.

This is predator protection only.

Not legal to hunt food using a laser.

What I wanna see... I'm gonna put out some other targets

and I want to see some splat. I want to see some boom.

I wanna know that that's a predator going pow.

(GUNSHOT FIRED)

My thoughts are,

I just want to get a feel for what it's gonna feel like.

Address the issue that I've never done anything leftie before.

(GUNSHOT FIRED)

Erm, I have some fears, some trepidation,

and, er, I don't want to stress out the areas.

I just wanna get a feel for where are my comfort levels?

(GUNSHOT FIRED)

I don't want to do it to the point...

I can shoot all day long but that's gonna damage what's trying to heal.

You know, it's kind of like having a bite of dessert

instead of the whole freaking cake.

Bear down.

I think I did really well.

It was a good day. It's a great day.

I'm not, you know...

I wasn't worried about anything eating me.

I was blowing it all away, and, erm,

nothing wrong with having a little boom factor

for your evening entertainment.

CHIP: It's just a big cycle.

And we're always getting ready for the next cycle.

Yee. My heavy bag over.

We're out looking for greens, today,

and we pretty much picked all the greens

around the camp in every place,

so we're going someplace different.

Never know what we're gonna see out there.

We might need little bit firearm

to protect ourselves from the animals,

but girls used to shooting shotgun and stuff like that.

But, erm, we have a .410,

so they don't have to actually shoot

a real big high-powered gun and it's so heavy

that we're running around the tundra with it.

Usually, we go out and go get some fresh meat

every other day, or go for fishing or something,

but, erm, we don't have any fresh meat here at camp.

So we're pretty much gonna come back with meat

one way or the other.

It be fish, geese, maybe just greens.

I don't know there's all kinds of different things we can run into,

seeing how we're the only people that run this river.

We sure wouldn't mind picking a whole bunch

to store for the winter and put some away, and, erm,

it's a little too hot and no breeze up here,

so we're heading to the coast where the breeze is

and where there's less mosquitoes

and hopefully bigger greens.

We'll go where there's not very tall grasses

and then the leaves should be bigger.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

(AGNES SPEAKING)

CHIP: Okay, now turn it. Whip the nose over forward.

AGNES: Turn, turn, turn. Push.

CHIP: (GRUNTS) Just put us over here in the channel.

-Over here, it's good. -AGNES: Yep, we are in the channel.

-(ENGINE STARTING) -CHIP: Sit down.

So we're gonna go over to the base of these hills over here.

And we're gonna, erm, look around for greens.

We're also looking for greens, so we can eat salads

and you know get the Vitamin C also.

CHIP: And I like taking my kids along,

so they're not only seeing it, they're gonna get to pick it,

then they're gonna get to cook it and eat it.

And that's the whole process from beginning to end.

But I want 'em to know where to find 'em.

You find 'em in these drained areas

right next to the lakes and creeks and rivers and stuff.

This a good place to do it.

Plus, I hear lots of geese over here

and I've seen lots of geese over there so,

I think we might throw a goose or two

into this meal after a while.

But, erm, we don't do anything else

until we got enough greens and the tide comes up a bit more.

There's all different kinds of, um,

leaves and grasses, and, erm,

other kinds of leaves that look exactly like these.

But they're not edible,

so we have to really kind of watch what you pick.

CHIP: Oh, these are minerals and vitamins

all winter long for us.

It's a lot of roughage for your guts.

And it tastes good. You know? Everybody likes a salad.

And we have ways of storing this.

We boil some of these down and save 'em in a bucket,

we'll eat a lot of 'em fresh, and then, erm,

we take the leaves, too, and we put 'em across the top.

And when the bucket moulds, the top will mould,

but what's underneath won't, and we'll peel that off,

throw it away and start eating.

Let's go back towards the boat, ladies.

We'll see what we can do from there, okay?

-AGNES: Yeah. -It depends on the tide.

Everything depends on the tide, so...

Yeah, let's go check on how high

the river's gotten since we came here.

We might be able to go further up.

CHIP: Yep. I think we've pretty well ravaged this area.

MARTHA: We try to hunt all the food that we eat. We prefer it.

You know, to get out, be active

and be able to harvest your own meat.

This is the second spot I wanted to come to.

There's a couple of good coves or bays in here.

Hopefully, they're holding some ducks.

Keep our fingers crossed.

NARRATOR: While Erik is away guiding fishing clients,

Martha is surveying Lake Iliamna

for an opportunity to hunt ducks,

a key food source during the season.

We're gonna go to this little bluff right here.

It's a good lookout spot. See if we can see any birds.

There's nothing out there.

Bummer.

I'm wondering if there's any in this little... Oh.

There's a swan sitting over there.

Oh, there's two, three, ducks.

Oh, they look like mallards.

Nice.

Whenever you go out hunting,

you always are optimistic about bringing an animal back.

I'm gonna see if I can get a closer look

at these ducks over here.

There's a good little spot here to look.

All kinds of ducks.

The good thing is, I don't think they're fish-eating ducks.

This is a good spot.

Lots of birds. Oh, shoot!

Fuck. What just scared 'em all away?

The eagle? Mother...

Something spooked them, I think it was the eagle.

Oh, motherfucker...

While I was looking at those ducks,

something spooked 'em which is a bummer.

They all took off and flew right past me,

but I didn't have my gun. I left it back there,

so I didn't have to go through the trees with it.

There's two swans over there. One disappeared somewhere,

the other one's over there milling around in the grass.

I'm not looking for a bird that big,

but I'm also curious on whether or not

there's a couple more birds

tucked in that little swampy area over there.

So, go check it out.

Came up on the swans, they saw us and flew off.

(WHISPERS)

Oh, shoot.

Oh, motherfucker!

We came up on this mallard. Couldn't tell where he was

'cause there was kind of a blind spot here,

he was hidden behind all this grass.

Fuck!

I should have done that way back there.

I put one in the chamber and spooked him.

Should have done it back there.

But, that's hunting.

You can't always get lucky.

There was a bunch of ducks here.

It was a good spot,

I was just never able to connect with one.

We're gonna head to a new place.

I'm still optimistic.

I definitely miss Erik.

We get along really well and have a lot of fun,

but, er...

It's nice to be able to go out and do things on your own,

especially on a beautiful day like this.

So I just came out to these little islands here surrounding Rabbit Island.

They're swarming with seagulls.

I figure the last ditch effort,

I'm gonna try to get a couple of seagull eggs

before I go back home, since I didn't get any ducks.

Weather's getting pretty nasty,

so I'm not gonna take my time.

See if I can't find some eggs and motor home.

A seagull nest is usually in the grass or in the rocks.

Here's a nest, but there's nothing in it.

Keep looking.

Nice. Two seagull eggs.

Since I didn't bring a basket or a pail or anything with me,

I'm gonna have to use my jacket.

Put a little bit of grass in there.

Growing up, it was always exciting when summer came.

You knew that seagull egg-picking

was gonna be right around the corner.

Found another egg.

There's all different shapes, sizes, colours.

Pretty exciting, I haven't gone seagull egg-picking

in a couple of years.

Kind of makes you feel like a kid again.

Nice. I haven't found one with three in 'em yet.

I was a little bit broken-hearted

by not getting any ducks and bringing them home.

This makes up for it.

So these three make exactly one dozen eggs.

It's about time to get out of here

because the wind's starting to pick up.

I'm happy with what I got.

I'm gonna pull out of here

and go cook these eggs up at home.

CHIP: We're hunters. It's a very satisfying way to live.

It's, er, instant gratification.

NARRATOR: After gathering greens known as sour docks,

the Hailstones turn their attention

to harvesting flightless birds for protein,

using a native hunting method.

This isha hunt, the moulting birds hunt,

we just try to get as much as we can

and carry 'em all back to the boat

in however much the girls can chase down,

and we're usually satisfied with whatever they catch,

and they know how to hunt without using firearms.

So we don't damage so much meat,

you know, it's a good hunt.

CHIP: That's all right, keep your eyes open.

We'll come up across 'em.

We want adult geese, we don't want baby ducks.

No birds.

(CHIP SPEAKING)

There's lots.

(AGNES SPEAKING)

-Right here, girls. -One, two, three, go!

-Go ahead, girls, go! -Jump and run! Run!

CHIP: Run, run, run, he's goin' back to the creek!

-There's one going back! -(GRUNTS)

You know, people may not like clubbing,

but we find it's better than shooting.

When you're hunting 'em and they're going by overhead

and you hit 'em, and they're wounded,

they have the potential to fly for miles,

die somewhere else and never be used.

When we're clubbin' 'em, we're right there.

We get 'em or we don't. We don't wound 'em.

You kill them immediately.

When they're flying overhead and you shoot 'em,

you hit 'em right where the meat is.

In the breast, in the chest. We don't wanna do that either.

We want the meat, so we hit them in the head.

We waste no meat.

We actually end up killing fewer geese that way

to get the same amount of meat that we're lookin' for

'cause the amount of food you need doesn't change.

There's one, two, three, four, five,

six, seven, eight, nine, 10.

Ten flightless ducks.

Well, this is good enough, let's put these in the boat

and jump in and catch the tide out of here.

AGNES: Duck soup. Big duck.

CHIP: All right, ladies.

We got ducks and we got lots of sour docks

to chop and cook.

We'll have ducks for dinner and we'll, er,

-go put our sour docks away. -AGNES: Yep.

JESSIE: All the hard work that I do for the dogs

ties into me being strong.

They work for me but I work for them.

What I got here is I got some plywood,

some rough-cut 2x4s

and I'm gonna start laying this out.

My goal here is to be efficient with my materials, you know,

and try to make my doghouses

out of one sheet of plywood, per doghouse.

(SAW WHIRRING)

When winter comes, you gotta constantly

maintain your dogs' houses. Clean 'em out once a week.

Trying to set the house up to where it's easy to do that,

very functionable, I need the door up high,

so the straw stays in there

and they're not draggin' the straw out.

So to finish that up, I'll use a hand saw,

that way I can keep a nice, clean cut.

I got a feelin' that the dogs

are gonna be pretty excited about this.

This is the time of year

you gotta get everything done in Alaska,

'cause winter's comin', you can smell it in the air,

the fireweed's starting to lose all its flowers and bloom,

so time's comin', the dogs gotta have houses,

they gotta be dry.

Okay, what I'm gonna do next

is get my 2x4s measured out and cut,

and I'm gonna slap one together

and make sure my design's sound.

I don't ever really go off a plan or a blueprint.

I just got it in my mind what I wanna do,

and it's just playin' with numbers

and layin' things out.

This has kind of worked. It's a real good investment,

you know, in my dogs.

In the end, you know,

these doghouses are gonna cost me money,

but to buy the same kind of doghouses built,

it's $100, you know?

Big part of being a dog musher is, you know,

you got all these dogs

and they're very dependent on you, so...

To be willing to put them before your needs a lot of times,

so, like, while there's my house,

it's pretty rough and needs a lot of maintenance,

in my free time, I'm doin' things like this

to maintain my kennel.

You just gotta really... You gotta love the dogs,

you gotta love mushing, you gotta love the lifestyle

'cause you're gonna sacrifice a lot in your life.

I wouldn't do this stuff if I didn't love it, you know,

I'd find something else to do.

(SAW WHIRRING)

These are the pieces that I will fuse

to line the roof and the floor with,

so everything'll firmly attach.

This ties it in, structurally.

Oh, fuck!

I did that upside down.

I was just kind of gettin' in a hurry

and I did this upside down.

I'm gonna have to turn that around.

This is the part that's supposed to hold the straw in,

all the straw would just come right out.

(POWER SCREWDRIVER WHIRRING)

Well, at least I caught it when I did,

so I can flip it around, won't be a big deal.

Now, that looks like a proper doghouse.

(SAW WHIRRING)

With my plywood that I have,

I have to, like, think to be, like, efficiently

and plan out my usage of my wood.

I got the stack of wood, that's what I got.

I don't wanna have a lot of waste.

For building doghouses, you know,

I view it as just a simple thing,

like building a smokehouse.

It's, you know, built to shelter the dog.

It's not a piece of artwork.

Like, you build a doghouse,

it's not necessarily permanent,

but you know, if you take good care of 'em,

they could last five, six years.

Doghouse number one.

-(BARKING) -Ginger.

What you doin'? Hello, Ginger.

(BARKS)

Is that your house? You're a good girl.

Give the doghouse to the dog, she's in it right away.

She must like it. Back to it.

Just gettin' started.

MARTHA: One of the cool things about living in Alaska

is that the land is always there

to give you opportunity.

How was it, baby?

It was pretty rough out there, actually.

It looks pretty rough,

I was almost a little bit worried about ya.

I brought you back somethin' special.

Besides yourself?

MARTHA: A little nest.

-ERIK: Grass? Oh. -Eggs!

Nice. Seagull eggs, huh?

Yeah.

Well, let's go up to the lodge and have some supper.

Sounds good.

Time to get the eggs boilin'.

Between running two lodges, one hunting and one fishing,

we very seldomly have time for ourselves.

Today, when Erik was out fishing with the client,

I decided to go out and play on the lake

and I was able to harvest some seagull eggs,

so it was just a great day.

These are true organic seagull eggs.

I don't think you could go to your local

supermarket today and buy them.

You gotta go out, and pick 'em.

Every opportunity Erik and I get,

we try to harvest our own meat, eggs, berries,

anything we can get, we harvest it.

I try to eat as much of the native food as I can.

That was how my palate developed,

I ate a lot of seal oil and frozen fish,

seagull eggs, caribou, moose, all of that growing up.

That's just what my body was used to.

So, how was your day gettin' these eggs?

MARTHA: Good. I had a blast.

Was there as many seagull eggs as there usually are?

There was quite a bit, I didn't really go too far for 'em.

I kind of stayed on this little patch of islands

that I just kind of hopped from island to island on.

-ERIK: These are really good. -Yeah.

ERIK: I really like seagull eggs.

Today, we made money from guiding fishermen,

and then we made food from you collecting these eggs.

Yeah, we're lucky to do what we do out here.

-We live a very blessed life. -Mmm-hmm.

ERIK: Alaska will provide.

All you gotta do is work for it.

SUE: All the good intentions fly out the window

when old Mother Nature decides to rule with an iron fist.

NARRATOR: In order to pick up her weaponry in Fairbanks,

Sue left Kavik in the care of her nephew, Jesse,

and needs to return home.

SUE: Weather's not good, but we're gonna try to get in.

We're into a winter weather pattern up on the north slope.

Caribou have all migrated out about a month ago,

geese are headin' south, it's way early.

But the fog bank comes in,

so that's what we're fighting is the fog.

NARRATOR: The fog that may prevent her from landing in Kavik

could also spell danger for the inexperienced Jesse

on the ground at camp.

This is one of my pride and joys.

Extremely hard to replace.

Custom thing. Baby it.

I've got 500 miles to go in land.

If it's not good there, I can't get in.

PILOT: Clear.

(ENGINE STARTING)

SUE: Just because you want to go to Kavik,

doesn't mean Mother Nature's gonna let you.

(PILOT SPEAKS)

(WOMAN ON RADIO SPEAKS)

(PILOT SPEAKS)

Yeah.

So, this is basically just the fog occlusion

that we were talking about is.

It can be beautiful everywhere else,

but you get close to the Arctic Ocean

and that fog bank sets in.

So what's happening, you got your ground here,

1000 foot higher, you start your fog bank.

Well, you got 1000 foot of that,

we have to find a place to come under safely.

It's thick enough you can't just pop through it,

you can't see through it.

If we can't do that, bye-bye Kavik,

hello trying to get into Deadhorse.

I'm 10 miles from Kavik and I may have to end up

goin' 100 miles that way and wait it out.

PILOT: Those spots are definitely getting thinner

as we get closer and closer.

Uh, looks pretty good over there.

Got a nice clear area.

Come down in elevation, get underneath the cloud,

so we can go, you know, twirl down and get in there.

So now we're down into that.

Just put me down here, I'll walk.

(LAUGHS)

PILOT: Yeah, that was one of the roughest trips

I've been on this year.

Home sweet home.

Yay, I'm home.

Where's Jesse?

There you are! Come on over.

Cool, man. Finally, got here.

Careful with the wing. I love ya.

I'm back home.

Yup, yup, yup. Time to get to work.

Oh, wow. Right over there,

I've got a white wolf 50 yards out.

I got a wolf.

It's time to put this baby in action.

Right over there.

Yo! Whoa!

Yeah, I'm lookin' at you!

I don't have any desire to kill it.

It's not attacking me,

I just need him not to be on my turf.

You need to be gone! Hey!

This is not your camp.

The way the wolves hunt,

they throw the betas out here to grab your attention,

and it's the alphas back here that get your back side.

-He's right there. -(GUNSHOT FIRED)

Fired a shot this way.

Just to make noise and get that wolf moving.

That's a nice-sized fuckin' wolf, man.

This just proved its worth.

The only thing you know for certain out here

is you don't know nothin' for certain.

But I can protect my turf.

CHIP: What it really comes down to

is just making sure that our kids can make a good living

if they choose to stay up here.

Hey, puppy. You stay home watchin' camp?

We even got one for you, puppy.

We sure did.

Wow, we have enough greens and enough ducks for dinner.

CHIP: You girls wanna take care of those ducks,

and if your mom wants to clean up a pot full of greens,

I'll get the alders fired into here

and we can start up some dinner, huh?

We like alders and cottonwood for cooking fires.

They impart a really nice taste and flavour.

And this fire was started with stumps.

The stumps are full of pitch,

and if you want your food to taste like pine pitch,

then cook on it.

I'm gonna let these alders burn down to coals,

then we'll be able to roast 'em.

AGNES: Right now, we're plucking ducks.

What we do is just take all the feathers off

and cut the wings off, cut the heads off,

cut the feet off.

I am taking the tail, the feet,

the wings, and the head off.

CHIP: While the ladies are taking care of these ducks

and my kids are hacking and whacking

and guttin' and pluckin',

I'm gonna make sure that we got

some good, clean greens here.

AGNES: This is a pretty good hunt.

I'm glad we got chance to come across these ducks.

We get to eat today and eat tomorrow.

This is an education that will teach my kids

to live off the land here,

and happily, with success and with wealth.

Well, for us, this is what we work towards.

Instead of getting a paycheck

and then going and buying food at the store,

we went out and got the ducks.

We went out and got the greens.

And these, right now, are the flavour of the season.

These are like having turkey at Thanksgiving for us.

It's natural, it's healthy, it's organic.

And we had a great adventure getting it.

AGNES: A job well done, girls.

We get to eat what we catch today

and sleep real good, and start all over again, tomorrow.

When you all get older and you can take your kids

to go do the same thing,

and you don't even need no firearms or nothing.

Need to know where to go

and what time of the year to go there.

You'll notice the bird stop flying.

Look in them creeks, look along them lakes.

You guys did really good, today.

It was fun to sit back, watch the boat,

and watch you guys go pick up the dead ones.

That was a lot of fun.

I'm so proud of you girls.

CHIP: We started out gathering

and we ended up hunting, didn't we?

Mmm-hmm.

Even the dog's happy.

JESSIE: You can't just look at the small picture when you're out here.

Like I have to like be thinking

four steps ahead, all the time.

The last piece for the last doghouse.

Lot of new houses goin',

got some leftover materials I'm gonna keep

for whenever I do the next side of the yard.

But this was a big job, and great to get it done,

see my dogs all have houses.

Let me get your floor in there for ya.

Yeah, you got yourself a nice new house, huh?

Check it out, huh? What you think?

See they're really happy with the new houses,

jumpin' all over 'em.

Gettin' in 'em, they'll really appreciate it come wintertime

-when it gets cold. -(BARKING)

You know, to a lot of people, this would seem like hard work,

this is a labour of love for me, you know.

It's what I do, you know,

I love these dogs and they depend on me,

so when I work hard and take care of things they need,

you know, that's the main thing I'm about.

Feels great to see all this go towards them.

For 20 bucks worth of material,

I built a house that other people sell for $100.

I mean, I can't afford to do that out here.

That's not what I'm about.

It's a lot of work to do for one guy,

but, you know, I like being tired.

I like knowing that I worked at the end of the day.

So, that's a rewarding feeling to me, to be tired.

Means I gave everything.