All language subtitles for Life.Below.Zero.S04E03.Falling.Apart.720p.NF.WEB-DL.x264-KangMus_track3_eng

AGNES HAILSTONE:
Go, go, go.

-Another day of snow
in this winter wonderland.
-Whee!

AGNES: Today we're going
up the river.

There's caribou crossing
by the hundreds up the river.

This is the time to go
do our caribou hunt.

The river's about to freeze.

This is the time we go out
and go get our meat.

We could have meat
during the freeze-up.

Jon's gonna be here with us.
He just came in from Selawik.

JON: I haven't been up here
hunting with my parents
in quite a few years.

I'm ready to go do
just about anything to catch
a boatload of caribou.

I need meat.

CHIP HAILSTONE:
Around this time of year I
usually have like 30 caribou,

and a lot of food security.

But, erm, that just ain't
the way it is right now.

The thing about freeze-up
is that you never know

when it's gonna occur or
how many times it'll occur.

Sometimes it comes
along and it thaws.

Sometimes it comes along
and just stays frozen.

But we're gonna try and get
as many caribou as we can.

We're not trophy
hunting, we're hunting for
food, so it's all about food.

That's the real trophy.

(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)

It's a long trip up there
to go set up camp,

and our chances of seeing
animals between here
and there are great.

And if they are, we'll
just stop and work 'em.

And wherever we find ourselves
this evening, we'll sit
and make camp, all right?

NARRATOR:
With limited time before
the caribou migration ends,

the Hailstones must intercept
the herd before
the river freezes.

Heck, if we really score good,
maybe we'll just sleep at home
in bed.

(LAUGHING)

CHIP: Well, the biggest
problem you have right now
is having it be so cold

and then getting wet.

Getting wet is the
real bullshit pain.

(TINMIAQ SPEAKING)

So it's about to freeze
up in a couple days,

and we usually come up here
to go get all the bulls

while they cross the river,

and set up a camp,
spend the night.

CHIP:
I don't see any fresh tracks.

But who knows?

Maybe we'll get lucky,
maybe we won't.

This is probably the first
time I've ever been up here

and not seen anything,
caribou-wise.

But what we need to do
is get a few before rut hits.

For now we're just happy to be
right here in the
place we are.

Hopefully there will be
caribou crossing tomorrow.

We're just gonna keep at it
until we get what we need.

SUE AIKINS: Throw a pebble
into the ocean, you're still
gonna have a ripple.

Sooner or later it's
a tidal wave
in another part of the world.

Well, today's the day I say
goodbye to
my last little clients.

NARRATOR: Kavik River Camp
serves as a remote fuelling
station and bed-and-breakfast

for bush pilots who are
passing through the tundra.

With her season of
clients coming to an end,

Sue must now prepare
for dark winter alone.

Well, there's always
a little trepidation.

People fly off, and I look
around and I'm like, "Ah..."

The amount of work
is overwhelming, and...
(EXCLAIMS)

I'm not gonna see
anybody for a while.

It's an emotional trip.
People are leaving
and you're all by yourself.

-And on one hand that feels...
-(AEROPLANE ENGINE ROARING)

It is vast and
overwhelming country,

so it feels vast
and overwhelming.

It's the life that I choose,
it's the life that I love.

And then suddenly it doesn't
seem so overwhelming.

Got to get to work.

Time to get myself a little
cup of tea and warm up.

Winter's not waiting
on me to be ready.

It's here.

What I need to do is get
all my jet fuel barrels.

Get 'em over to the
fuel shed to get filled.

Get as many pallets as I can,

erm, and get those over
by my heat tank.

I need to get it to where it
needs to live for the winter

to make it the, er, easiest,
closest for me

when the conditions are
brutally cold
and brutally dark.

Just gonna take a quick
look at my barrels.

(SIGHS) What a project.

Four barrels go on a pallet.

In order for me
to have enough fuel
for the entire winter,

that's 48 barrels.

I have to individually,

look at each barrel...

Say yes or no to it.

See if they're empty.
If they're not,
verify what's in it.

Check it out. Make sure
there's no holes.

Even a pinhole leak,
it's a protected ecosystem.

You can't leak fuel out
all over, it's just not
the way it's done.

So I have to visually inspect
each year, each barrel.

This is a no.

Bad ones are over here.

Why are they bad? Well, this
one has a hole in it.

This one's beat up
really dang bad.

Looks like it's been
that way for a while.

Right here is a ding,
but it's not a hole.

But if I need 48 barrels,

I've got to do 48 inspections.

You know, I'm getting colder.

Am I well below zero?

No, but now is the time to get
everything where
it needs to be.

I have to continue my process
on getting the barrels
where they need to live,

because overnight
I can drop below zero.

Within a couple weeks
I'm gonna be dark.

I got 48 that are
free of holes,

free of things that'll
compromise the integrity
of the barrel.

Next step for me though,
for this, get to work.

Start pumping fuel.

JESSIE HOLMES:
I've got a passion for this
and that's what drives me,

it's passion, determination,
competitiveness.

Winter is coming fast,
it's already snowed.

The ground's been
freezing every morning,

but now it's time to turn my
full attention to my last
big priority of the season,

before winter, is to put up a
lot of fish here for the dogs.

NARRATOR: Jessie Holmes
relies on the resources
along the Nenana River

to maintain a subsistence
lifestyle with his team
of sled dogs.

To survive the
long winter ahead,

it is vital for Jessie
to catch fish
before the river freezes.

JESSIE: My lead, which is one
of the most important parts
of the fish wheel,

is in pretty bad condition.

A lead is basically a fence
from the shore to the baskets
of the fish wheel.

So the fish hit it,

they have no way to go through
except into the baskets
scooping them up.

The trick about a fish wheel
is attention to detail,

and this lead is one of the
most important parts of it.

It could run now without the
lead, it'd catch some fish,

but I'm not looking for
some fish, I'm looking for
hundreds of fish.

Next thing is just to
physically push this in here.

If you fall in this river,
you know, you're not gonna
make it very long,

especially this time of year.

You could get hit by any
moving part

or scooped up into the basket
if you fall in,

and you could lose your
boat and your life.

Oh, come on.
You got to be kidding.

All right!
Done.

I'm hoping that
this will be productive

'cause I wanna put up as much
fish as I possibly can
before winter.

Nothing goes to waste.

What I don't use,
there's other animals
that will use it.

It's getting light out there.

I got to get back
up to that moose.

I got to go up there and get
that before anything finds it.

This time of year
there's still bears around.

There are wolves around,
there're wolverines.

If anything gets to that moose
before I get there,
they'll eat it up.

What they don't eat,
they'll destroy.

I got to get up there
as fast as I can.

NARRATOR: Glenn Villeneuve
has successfully harvested
a moose,

which he relies on to provide
enough meat and protein to
survive most of the year.

He must retrieve the meat
before scavengers devour it,

or be forced to search for
other food sources in

dark winter when the
animals are scarce.

Bears don't go into
hibernation till two or three
weeks from now, so,

I definitely want my rifle.

Very important.

As I approach that moose...
(RIFLE CLICKING)

Main thing on my mind,
did anything get there
before I get back to it?

I got about four and a half
miles of walking in the snow.

I'm gonna be dragging
heavy loads of meat.

I got to get that
moose back to camp.

I'm listening carefully.

Listening for any sounds.

Trying to look ahead,

see as far as I can
in the forest.

Looking at the snow, are there
any bear tracks around?

Just paying close attention.

I don't want to
get surprised here.

The moose is just over
the other side
of this little hill.

I can't see it.

(TAKES DEEP BREATH)

But it's just on the
other side of this hill.

I've gotta be very careful,
going up over this last hill.

Make sure there's
nothing there, I don't want
to get a surprise.

It's very dangerous situation.
If you come across a bear
that's on a food pile,

they can be
extremely aggressive.

There it is.

Looks good,
just how I left it.

I want to keep the meat
as clean as possible.

So I got this tarp, I'm gonna
set each piece down here,

wrap it up, and drag it home.

Okay.

(GRUNTS)

I want to start with some
of the tastiest meat.

The pelvis here's got the
tenderloins and the backstrap.

(SIGHS) There, that's a
heavy piece of meat.

I'm gonna make a new trail.

Try to go as straight
as I can right down.

Try to find the path of least
resistance through all
these woods here.

That's where I got to get it
to, down there to the water.

That's where the camp is,
500 yards down.

-(THUD)
-(PAINFULLY) Aah!

Whoa!

This is out of control.

Living out here by myself
I got to be really careful.

I don't want to take extra
chances I don't have to take.

Running down that hill in
front of this sled
is not a good idea.

I could get myself run over,
if this thing hit me
in the legs,

I mean, it would knock
me right over.
I could get hurt.

I got to put the
brakes on this thing.

If I put rope underneath it,
the weight of all that meat,

pushing down hard
on that sled, it'll force
that rope into the snow,

it'll create
a lot more drag.

That's the theory anyway.

I got to see how it works.

I got the brake on.
I'm gonna try it out.

Hopefully this time, this
thing's under control and I
don't get myself run over.

Oh yeah. There's a
lot more resistance.

Lot of drag there,
that's helping.

Oh, perfect.
No problems.

No problems. Problem solved.

(GRUNTS)

There. One down, seven to go.

You got to really be on it.

Lot of work to get
done in a short time.

But in a short time, I can
get enough meat
to last me for six months.

What an experience.
There's nothing like it.

Killing a big bull moose
up there in the woods,

it was so satisfying
to have that moose,

knowing that I was gonna
have moose meat this winter.

It was the most intense
moose hunt I have ever had.

Headed back for the last load.

Most of the meat, easiest way
to transport, it's in a sled.

But for the head,
I'd rather put it on my back.

(SIGHS) Ah!

Made it back.

Hey, look at that,
all the meat's still there.

Nothing came into camp
while I was gone.

That's good.

Now the moose is
all in one place,
I can keep an eye on it.

I can see it right out
my window, much more secure.

And then tomorrow
I'm gonna get up,

and I've got to
reposition this moose.

I've got to secure it
so that I can leave camp

and know that nothing's gonna
happen to it when I'm gone.

JESSIE: Nothing ever goes to
waste around here.

That's what dogs are for.

Setting down here
to check the fish wheel.

It's been running all night.

I'm really hoping the labour
and the new lead's
gonna pay off.

The season's coming
close to an end.

I need a lot of fish
going into the winter.

The winter's long up here.

You get all the conditions
up here, 50 below zero, wind.

And that all affects dogs
and ups the amount
of calories they need.

Dogs love fish soup.

Nothing gets them
going in the morning

like fish soup boiled up
with a little fat, so...

Oh, it's looking
like it's running.

You know the lead's
all in place,
that's an important thing,

it ain't gonna catch no
fish if it ain't in place.

Oh, I see a lot of
fish right there.

It's looking great.

Wow, it's looking
better than I expected. Whoa.

There's a fish right there.

Wow.

This is a lot of fish.

And that could feed my
dogs for a long time.

I know one thing, I'm gonna
have some happy dogs.

I'll use about 18 a day,
20 sometimes.

So, that's, you know,
days of feed for my dogs.

This is what it's
all about for me.

You suffer a lot of hard times
and lean times out here,

so, when it's good,
man, you're excited.

You just... You realise how
lucky you are to be doing
something like this.

I'm gonna throw this last
one on here, it's 177.

So, now I got haul all these
up to my house on the
Nenana River and get to work,

you know, moving 'em and
getting 'em to where they're
gonna be for the winter.

Fishing is nothing but work.

But whenever it pays off
it's the best feeling
you could have.

SUE: Winter is not waiting
for me to get rested and
have time to feel cosy.

It's here.

All righty.

(SIGHS) Well, there's
48 barrels of fun.

(SIGHS) Count them
just to make sure.

Yep, 48.

This is only part
of staying warm.

You don't stay warm staring
at 48 empty barrels.

It's got to be
48 full barrels, so...

And a job half-done
isn't done.

NARRATOR: To survive the
harsh winter ahead,

Sue must disperse her
fuel throughout camp.

But isolated in the tundra
and working alone,

filling and moving
48 barrels of fuel
is a hefty undertaking.

SUE: This is a 200-gallon
portable tank.

I carry it wherever I need it.

This is my fuel shed.

I just got fuel
in the big bladder
over here the other day.

Now I need to start taking it
out and sprinkling it
around camp.

(ENGINE ROARING)

C'mon, c'mon, c'mon.

It's kicked on.

I'm trying to be very careful.

I'm giving myself 10 gallons
of fuel a day for
whatever purpose I need it.

That's 3,000 gallons in an
average winter between
loads of fuel.

That cold winter
weather's coming in.

It's better if I can get
a lot of my work done,

my winter fuel where it
needs to live now,

than waiting till it's 50, 60
below and then saying,
"Shit, where's my fuel?"

Take this into the gen shed,
plop it into the tank,
come back for more.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Really?

I've definitely got smoke
coming over here,

kind of by, where this filter
is, something smells hot.

It could just be overheating,

I thought I had a radiator
issue before,
coolant issue before.

Sorta smells that way.

It is a catastrophe if
this Bobcat goes down.

I don't have the money for a
new one. I don't have it.

Winter is beating
down the door.

If I want to be successful at
being warm this winter, then
I've got to fix the Bobcat,

or at least fix it enough that
I can get the hard work done.

The problem is it's a very,
very old piece of equipment.

You know, you're, you're
talking 20, 30-year-old
piece of equipment.

Been around the block a few
time like the town bike,
everybody's had a ride.

So I'll start it off simple,
process of elimination.

See if I can see
an obvious thing, but do the
simple things, check the oil.

If it's out of oil it's gonna
be hot and it's gonna
be unhappy.

And you are
pretty low on oil.

A Bobcat 753

will take seven and a half
quarts of oil
on a full oil change.

I'm not doing a full oil
change right now, I'm just
bringing it up to level,

and gonna see if that
makes any difference.

It's starting to get a little
bit on the late side tonight,

but I just want to see,
is there something obvious?

Was it just a little low?

(SUE SPEAKING)

There's a petcock valve,
and it's leaking anti-freeze.

It's already smelling warm
to me, and it hasn't
gone anywhere.

I'm gonna take it back,
park it just like it was.

Get my little book out,
read up, what the hell is it?

What does it mean?

Leaking anti-freeze
is not good.

It's not good for the animals,
and it's not good
for my vehicle.

My whole plan with
working smart instead of hard

falls to pieces when the
equipment meant to do the
hard part for me fails.

Now worst-case scenario,
the Bobcat doesn't get fixed,

I don't have the money laying
around to get another one.

Everything'll have to be
filled, five-gallon cans
at a time.

But the stakes are pretty
freaking high for me
to get this job done.

GLENN VILLENEUVE:
Not everybody has the chance

to go out and hunt
for their own food.

If you really want to,
it's still possible.

(SIGHS)

I'm going from the whole
animal down to
bite-sized pieces.

(SIGHS)

NARRATOR: With all of his
moose meat back in camp,

Glenn must now carry
the supply to an area

that is safely out of
reach from scavengers.

I still got to get this
secure, so that when I leave
camp, nothing can get to it.

When I'm not here to watch it,

this meat has to be out
of reach of scavengers.

By hanging the meat up off of
this meat pole, it protects it
from scavengers.

Bears can't get
to it up there.

Problem is,

I built this meat pole
11 years ago.

It's getting old, it's not
in good shape inside.

Eventually it's
gonna fall over.

I just don't want it to come
down with me on top of it.

-It's 20-feet high...
-(WOOD CREAKING)

If that thing broke
when I was up there,
that would be a disaster.

I can't chance it.
I can't put a whole moose
on this any more.

I think I'm gonna have to
divide up the weight.

I'll put part of it
on this pole, I'll put part
of it up on this platform,

less stress on
these structures.

-(CHAINS CLANGING)
-All right.

See how this goes.

I'm just worried about the,
the poles themselves,
how strong they are.

Just gonna take it slow.

Keep my balance.

(GRUNTING)

(EXHALES DEEPLY)
Got it up here.

That's definitely as much
weight as I want
on that platform.

I want to put the rest of it
up here on this meat pole.

Getting this little block
and tackle together,
this is gonna help me.

I can lift a very
heavy weight with this.

I've got to go all the way
up on top of the pole

in order to make
this system work.

(WOOD CREAKING)

I can't see what's going on
inside that wood so I just
have to use my best judgment.

Got to be careful up here.

I'm 20 feet high, where
my feet are standing.

I definitely don't
want to mess up.

I had to get this
pulley up high enough

so that I could wench the meat
all the way up to where
I want to hang it.

Oh, wow.

Really light now.

It's given me a huge
mechanical advantage.

There, I got it high enough.

Last piece of meat, just got
to get these ribs up there.

I got most of the meat over
on the platform this year...

(PULLEY CREAKING)

But I distributed the weight
and put some of it
on my meat pole.

Got it.
That way, it's safe.

Neither of those are gonna
fall down with that amount
of weight on it.

And also, nothing
can get to it.

Scavengers just
can't get up there.

I got that moose,
I got it back to camp,
and now I got it safe.

JESSIE: The more you grow
out here, the more you
understand what it takes.

I'll be building a new rack
system that I can hopefully
hang 1,000 fish on.

So I can just take those fish
right off of it,
they're ready.

And just to lessen my
workload, make more space.

NARRATOR: Creating a fish rack
will allow Jessie

to dry, smoke, and preserve
large quantities of fish.

The meat will provide him
and his sled dogs

with enough protein
for the long winter.

I need to start
collecting some poles,

and I'm gonna put 'em up with
some barrels in a level area

and start filling it up
with some fish.

I'm not an idealist out here.

I'm a realist.

If it means using a
chainsaw over a bow saw,

that's the way
I'm gonna do it.

Waste time doing things the
hard way, then you miss out
on a lot of opportunities.

Time's of the essence.

It's imperative that I get
these fish put up
for the winter,

it really enables
my lifestyle.

This is a huge part of my
lifestyle to have these fish.

It fuels my dogs
and it fuels me.

This is pretty much
what it's gonna look like.

I'll be rolling these
and spacing these,

even enough apart
that I can fit about
five fish per alder pole.

I'm looking to not go
too far of a span

'cause I don't want it to bend
and break and be under
the strain of too many fish,

so, I'm just trying to fit
in this rectangle what I can.

I'll have 125 fish per row,
and nine rows, so I'll have

over 1,000 fish
hanging on this
which is gonna be cool.

It's time to hang some fish
and try to fit as many
in there as I possibly can.

As much as my rack can hold is
the work I got cut out for me.

I'm just going for it,
'cause time's everything to me
right now.

All these fish that
I put up now,

fish that I'm putting up for
my whole winter season
of dog food.

I got to cut costs of my dog
food and add a quality
supplement of fish and,

you know without these fish,
life is pretty hard.

I got to get this done right
so I optimize on
my catch of fish.

I don't get to try
to do this again.

You know, this is it, this is
my opportunity to put up fish
for the winter.

Got a lot of dogs,
need a lot of fish.

Got to do it right.

Fifty dogs, there's no such
thing as too much fish.

(CREAKING)

(THUD)

Fucking damn it!

Fuck!

Well, it's a hard lesson
that's gonna cost me
a lot of work,

but it will probably stick in
my mind, you know? It's...

I don't think that
plastic barrel helped me
too much there.

Could have had more barrels
maybe and more supports,
and some weight.

Think I cut a shortcut because
the metal barrels,
heavier to carry. (LAUGHS)

And this is what
fucking happens.

I'm gonna load all
these fish on the tarp.

Still just really thankful
to have this fish.

This is a very
valuable resource.

This is costing me
valuable time

that I need to be out there on
the river putting up
more fish.

Takes a lot of pounds of meat
to feed these dogs, so,

while this is a lot of fish
and it makes me feel good
to have it,

I don't want to waste time,
thinking I got it made

'cause you don't
ever have it made.

You can't be complacent.

I'm gonna put this back
together, I'll just put it
back together stronger.

And count it a lesson learned.

I got these fish, they're
ready to go back
on these racks.

Racks just need to be thrown
back together a little bit
more securely.

Fish got to be moved again.

This task is mostly done,
so it's definitely gonna
get done.

I have no choice
but to get it done,

I don't start something
and not finish it.

SUE: You count your years by
the winters you're surviving.

All righty.

Time to, er, get some
fuelling done, man.

NARRATOR:
With temperatures dropping,

Sue must fix her Bobcat to
disperse her fuel
throughout camp,

or risk having no heat
in freezing conditions.

-I'm gonna get some
anti-freeze, pour it in there.
-(ENGINE ROARING)

Got to mix it 50-50.

Last night coolant was leaking
out, maybe that'll fix it.

If it fixes it, great,
I'll run, run, run,
get my fuelling done.

I've got to get my
fuel done, winter's here.

Do I want to hurt
my little Sue-Cat? No.

Do I have to push it to
its limits? This time, yes.

So, that's good.

(ENGINE STARTING)

I don't like it when
my shit doesn't work.

I'm gonna run that thing
till it falls apart today.

I've got all this to fuel
up and I'm out of time.

You start from one end,
and go around to the other.

The Bobcat is running
hot, pistol hot.

Erm, whether it's
thermostat, pump...

Don't know, don't care.

I've got to get
my barrels done.

That's the name of the game,
is getting the chore done,

so that this winter I don't
have to break myself doing it.

All lifestyles come with
a certain amount of angst.

Mine just... My angst
comes in 55-gallon drums.

CHIP: I wouldn't trade
this life for anything.

It doesn't make
a lot of money,
but it's very satisfying.

Lot of ice going by.

Won't stop caribou
from crossing, but...

This doesn't seem to have
panned out very well.

NARRATOR:
The Hailstones have arrived
at a familiar hunting spot

and set up camp
to scout for caribou,

a crucial food source
for the months ahead.

We got up a couple of hours
ago after the fog left.

And er, we haven't seen or
heard any caribou cross
whatsoever.

So we're thinking the ones
that have been following this
trail probably petered out.

But there were a lot of
fresh caribou signs downriver,

so our thought is just
to, erm, move on downriver.

We'll move to where the
caribou are crossing,
it's the smartest thing to do.

We got the transportation.

You can't always
be 100% on hunting.

Lot of times you
go home with nothing.

I'd like to
avoid that though.

I want to go home with lots.

We're gonna pack up camp and
put everything away and
head back downriver.

This big sheet
of ice right here,

what gets our attention is
that it's up and
out of the water,

which means that it's
floating, which means it's
at least an inch thick.

This other ice that we got
here is a quarter-inch thick.

There's no problem,
but that right there

is kind of like a "Hey,
there's some big guys in the
river to be aware of."

What we don't want to do is
get ourselves stuck here.

-AGNES: All set, ready?
-(CHIP SIGHS)

CHIP:
You got that secured?

All right, well, you guys make
sure the lids and stuff
are down,

'cause ploughing through all
this ice and stuff
is just a bunch of crap.

It's gonna knock
all this loose.

(ICE CRACKING)

AGNES: Stop, Chip!
CHIP: Damn it!

(ENGINE SLOWING DOWN)

CHIP: This ice all around
isn't doing us any favours.

It burns a lot of gas to
either slow down
and plough through it,

or to take the time
to go way around it.

And er, I'm not into beating
up my boat,
and I'm not into wasting gas,

so we're gonna get out of
this stuff here and
make a new plan.

Go ahead. We're just gonna sit
here and wait a little bit,

quietly, and try
to keep still,

not scare any of the
animals away and hopefully

they all come down the hill
and cross over here

so we can try to catch some
zooming across the river.

Feels like we're in
an okay spot,
but not a really good spot.

CHIP: Ah.

Huh.

That's pretty fucking
dead if you ask me.

I feel like the main herd
has already passed.

-Oh. Yep. You guys just
want to go home?
-Yep.

Well, the ice makes it really
hard for the caribou to swim.

I mean, they're literally
cutting and beating
themselves up

if they try to get
through this stuff.

Caribou aren't gonna
be crossing here.

As long as there's all these
big huge pans of ice,

and to me they're
only getting bigger,

it looks like it's time to go,
so we're gonna
get out of here.

Here we go.

We've decided to
get away from the ice.

We're gonna pare out all the
extra heavy things
that we've got.

We're just gonna lighten
the boat as best we can
since we're at home.

And hopefully in the morning
start out anew and go out
and see what we can get.

We're not defeated
or anything.

It's just not the day for it.

Maybe tomorrow
will be a better day.

We'll see.

GLENN:
I took the time to learn
what I needed to learn.

That's why I survived.

(METAL CLANGING)

I cook all my food right
here on this woodstove,

or outside on
an open fire, if it's warmer.

I just like the atmosphere of
the woodstove
and cooking on it.

You get used to it.

Cut myself a couple
of nice steaks.

Backstrap for dinner.
Look at that.

Just clean it up a little bit.

It's hard to keep it
perfectly clean.

Sometimes I get a few moose
hairs on my meat
and that's all right.

I can just pick 'em off.

I can trim a little bit
if it's a little bit dirty.

But I don't want to trim more
fat than I have to 'cause
I like eating that fat.

I'll eat three or four pounds
of meat a day, that's normal.

Cold out here. Got to have a
lot of meat and fat
to stay warm.

There's nothing like hunting
for your own meat,
nothing like it.

Everything that lives
has to die.

And the way nature works,

when things die, they get
consumed by something else
that's living.

It's a cycle, it's natural.

And people are
part of it, too,

and when you're hunting
you see it up close
and personal.

You're part of
that big process
whether you know it or not.

But the hunter is aware
that he's part of that
cycle of life.

The hunter knows because
he killed it himself.

-(CHIRPING)
-(HOWLING)

Time for dinner.

Look at this, that steak's
looking pretty good, isn't it?

I tell ya, this is when it's
really all worth it,
right here...

Right here
at the dinner table,
that's what it's all about.

Mmm. There's something
about it.

All those miles walked
and all that weight dragged,

all that time spent

out there in the woods,

and then it all
pays off, I tell ya.

Lucky enough to live up here,
you may as well be grateful
and thankful.

(HUSKIES BARKING AND HOWLING)

JESSIE:
Got this rack project.

Would have been nice
to have finished
that in one day,

but now we got good six inches
of snow to add to the mix.

NARRATOR: Jessie has suffered
a setback while
constructing his fish rack.

With snow already falling,

he must complete the rack
to dry and preserve the fish

that will feed himself and his
sled dogs through the winter.

This isn't like I'm having to
start this whole project
over again.

I'm just trying to rectify the
balance problem
that I had and...

And then I just pick these
fish up and slap 'em
on here and...

I'm behind right now,
if I don't keep moving
I'm gonna be way behind.

For me, fear is... Fear of
failure is probably
the greatest fear for me.

'Cause right now I have so
much on the line,
and I've invested so much.

Hopefully this'll set up a
little bit and help it
from kicking out.

(CRACKLING)

Whoa.

Oh, God.

That tree's gonna break
and fall right on this rack
and destroy all my hard work.

I'm gonna have to
take a look at it

and see if I can safely get it
down somehow
without hitting the rack.

Whoo, yeah!

Ah, disaster diverted.

Oh, man, I'm feeling
good about this, you know?

It's way more solid,
it's gonna hold.

It's a lot of work, but
it's for a greater cause.

That's what attracts
me to this, you know?

Is that long time out in
the wilderness with the dogs.

You got to be really solid
with who you are, you know?

You got to like yourself.

All right! This looks great.

This is gonna hold.

Got, you know, nearly
a thousand fish here so,

you know, I achieved
what I wanted to achieve.

I had some hardships
along the way,

but it's just a lesson
in perseverance, you know?

When things aren't going good,
that's when you got to
step up, man,

you got to step up
and get it done.

My mind can rest that I
accomplished this and I can
move onto the next job,

which now, that the
snow is coming, is many.

CHIP: This is part of life.

You've got to kill something
if you want to eat
and you want to live.

(HUSKIES BARKING)

Are you guys ready?

-I'm ready.
-Yeah.

It's too bad your mom doesn't
feel good enough
to follow today.

-That's all right, the four of
us will get 'er done.
-Oh yeah.

This morning Agnes hasn't been
feeling very well, so we
suggested she stay home.

Me, Jon, Ting, we can cover
this. We've got Carol.

We're pulling her out of
school for the day,
let her go hunt some more.

We're a good crew.
We'll work out.

-(GRUNTS)
-Jon will direct the hunt.

He'll pick up any of your
wounded. You two
will do the shooting.

When he's telling you "shoot",
"don't shoot",
you listen to him.

You know how it is when you've
got two or three people
shooting at the same time,

you have to have
control on that.

Take the boat, go out, and
when darkness is coming
we'll come back.

And it's gonna freeze up
the river here pretty soon.

So we're trying to
beat the rut basically.

And we need to come up with
a certain amount of caribou

because there's a certain
amount that we eat,

and other people that we
support, too, and we need
to get caribous.

Yesterday where we were at,
up above Kiana,

up on the main channel
of the Kobuk River,
it was icing in.

So, we decided to ease on down
home, go back out again today,

'cause there's no
ice down this far.

The caribou aren't gonna
cross route through the ice

when it's going
through the river, so

we don't want to be too late.
But then again,
we don't know what we'll get.

So, what we're gonna do
is we're gonna give it a try.

(JON SPEAKING)

Checking for some tracks...

This is always a good place
to park and have a look.

There ain't nothing here.

Migration is going basically
from the north to the south,

but to bypass this place they
have to swim east to west, so

we're just gonna,
just keep looking, I guess.

We're going to a place called
Kugluktuk, where the delta
starts to separate.

We're looking at all the
caribou trails over here.

I want to find some caribou
that are making tracks,

I don't want to just see
the tracks of caribou.

We didn't see any today.
And that happens.

It's just part of hunting.

It's getting later in the day.

Just make our way back down
Noorvik and hunt our way home.

We're easing on out of here.

Let's hope we see something
on the way, huh?

If we're not gonna
catch caribou,
then we're gonna have to...

We're gonna have to have a
hard, cold winter
for the first few months.

It's pretty hard.

It doesn't feel good.

It's hard to be unsuccessful,
especially on so many trips.

CHIP: Never, in my life,
have I ever been without
caribou at this time of year,

or had this happen.

That just ain't
the way it is right now.

Sometimes you go
home with nothing.

Oh, well, that's the
attitude you got to take.

If you don't, you just get
upset and that doesn't help.

Sometimes nature takes control
in the strangest ways,

and that's part of living
in the Arctic.
You just keep at it.

Hunting isn't always
a sure thing,
that's why it's "hunting".

SUE: I don't want to get
caught with my panties down,
I got to get my work done.

Commando is no way
to get caught by nature.

(ENGINE ROARING)

Well this is the last barrel.

The sun's just getting
ready to go down.

I've been at it since
the sun came up.

All right.

There you go.

Three-thousand gallons of fun.

So, you know, snapping a
little bung down
on this one is kinda,

snapping together one of the
big puzzle pieces of winter.

I got the Bobcat going.

It didn't want to run,
and it's not running well.

But I did manage
to get it going,

which enabled me to get fuel
from my storage containers

to my fuel barrels,
over by my heat tank.

Er, what that'll do for me is
that enables me to,
very short distance,

I can hand pump that
fuel into my heat tank,

but it allows me to have heat
for the nine,
10 months of winter

in between fuel deliveries.

Preparation is just 90%
of thriving out here.

It's not easy no matter
what style of life you choose

but for me,
it's the wind in my face,

the chill up my spine

and the thrill of not knowing
what's out there

that keeps me living here.