Original subtitles

SUE AIKENS: So I got caribou out there.

They're walking towards the river to bail. Oh, man.

The snow is too deep for me to walk.

It's too much for me to crawl down the runway. I'll freeze before I get there.

I need my hunting licence and paperwork.

Spare bullets here, we all know I need lots of those.

Gun.

The last thing I need are my shooting sticks. I'll grab that out the door.

I don't wanna get a female. I do wanna get meat.

Let me be successful.

I do have some ptarmigan in my freezie now.

But it'd be nice to add a caribou.

NARRATOR: Sue Aikens is on the hunt for caribou,

a key food source for the coming spring.

But the animals are only available as they migrate through the area,

and an early herd is an opportunity she can't afford to waste.

They've already made me. They're looking right over.

Damn it.

With my personal code of ethics,

I don't want to get a pregnant cow.

I want to see the dangly bits.

There's no way for me to judge boys and girls from this side.

Fuck! Okay.

Damn it.

(SPEAKING)

Don't give me your ass.

(GUNSHOT)

It's just too far.

Took aim at one of the boys and the women get around and huddle up against him.

It's a survival thing.

And that's the end of this hunt.

I don't believe I even came close to hitting one.

So, back to camp I go.

CHIP HAILSTONE: Preparedness meets opportunity, gives you good luck.

AGNES HAILSTONE: Wow!

The cache is still standing.

NARRATOR: Last summer, the Hailstones built a cache

at the remote hunting grounds in Kiwalik.

The structure is vital to their nomadic lifestyle.

It allows the family to store their wood, gas, and shelter for long periods of time.

Chip and Agnes have returned to their cache to set up camp.

Over the next several weeks,

the family will use it as a base

to stockpile meat, fur, and other resources for the coming spring.

CHIP: Look like our tent spot right here, huh?

Doesn't feel bumpy or lumpy too bad.

-Look. Try with your heel. It's good. -Yep.

CHIP: Well, we don't have much daylight,

so if we're gonna do this, let's do it soon.

AGNES: Some time to, uh, dig out our tent, dig out our floors, try and put it up,

and, um, try to get ourselves set up for the night.

(CHIP GRUNTING)

(AGNES SIGHS)

Cache here, and this accumulation of camping goods for my family that's here,

it's just waiting, waiting to be used.

This is just one of our cycles in the year.

The time to come down here is now.

We hunt caribou, maybe a little bit of trapping, get a little bit of fur.

Ah! There it is.

First, though, is getting the tent up.

AGNES: It's hard work to get our stuff but it's nice to have 'em here waiting for us.

Yee!

Got 'em!

(CHIP SIGHS)

Start working hard, even when it's zero, you start to sweat.

Okay.

CHIP: You got it? AGNES: Yep.

CHIP: Okay, I'm gonna get in, over here. Ah.

Keep it up, keep it up.

(CHIP PANTING)

You gotta expand 'em. Just push 'em out.

I'll hold it up, you push these things out.

CHIP: That's all you gotta do. There you go.

AGNES: We just keep going around and round. CHIP: Yup.

CHIP: Okay, here's half your problem.

Some jackass left this on there.

-It's tied up. -Yup. It won't even fucking expand.

-This crap on here. -I did that. I'm the jackass who put it up.

-Well, jackass, we won't do that twice. -Yeah.

(LAUGHING)

(CHIP GRUNTS)

AGNES: Almost, there you go.

Phew! One more. Careful.

Yeah, I don't want it...

(AGNES EXCLAIMS)

CHIP: Phew!

AGNES: One, two, three, go!

AGNES: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

CHIP: This is our large freight sled.

And at the end of the... When we get down here, it brings us a lot of stuff.

Then we sleep on it, for however many days, nights, or weeks it takes.

CHIP: To me, this is like home.

I'm more comfortable here than I am in, uh, Noorvik.

I feel like, uh, I belong here.

GLENN VILLENEUVE: I like to just take time.

What's the point of rushing forward for a moment that isn't even here yet?

I'm going out on the lake now.

I gotta open up the water hole.

Every three or four days, I have to open up the hole I've got through the ice.

Get water out, bring it into the cabin in buckets,

fill up my reservoir, fill up my hot water pan on the stove.

Hey! Oh, look at this.

Wolves came out here and pissed right beside my water hole.

Wolf tracks. Those are the claws, toes, the heel pad.

There's a lot of wolves around right now, and that means there's caribou around.

Caribou on the lake!

I can use another caribou right now.

This time of year, the days are short.

It doesn't stay light very long.

When I see caribou, I gotta go.

This is how it usually goes.

I'll be out doing jobs, just keeping my eyes open,

and sooner or later, an opportunity comes up.

I gotta go over there and see if I can get close enough to get a shot.

I don't wanna head out on the open lake and try to run 'em down

or chase 'em around out there.

I wanna sneak through the woods around the side.

I'm gonna try and intercept 'em over on this end of the lake.

They definitely saw me.

Caribou are very unpredictable, but sometimes,

when they see some movement and they're not sure what it is,

they'll actually come closer to check it out,

see if it's danger.

Look at this.

This is where caribou have been feeding. These craters, they're making 'em.

The caribou crater down through the snow.

They have to dig down to get to the lichen.

That's caribou food.

Caribou eat this and turn it into meat and fat that I can eat.

These are wolf tracks.

These wolves are hunting caribou every single day.

(WHISPERING) I'm getting closer. They're about a quarter-mile away.

But I gotta get about half that distance before I shoot.

I'm gonna take off my snowshoes here so I'm quieter.

(WHISPERING)

I'm gonna sit here for a while and see if anything changes.

No.

They're too far,

so I'm not gonna take that shot.

There are a lot of caribou around.

I'm gonna wait for a better shot.

Right there, these caribou are going behind the island.

They're gonna have to come out the other side.

I might be able to use the island to hide myself

and intercept 'em on the other side.

When the caribou are here, I gotta take advantage of that opportunity

because they can be here one day and gone the next.

ANDY BASSICH: Every day is kind of an adventure out here.

Every day you see new things in nature if you pay attention to it.

You wanna go get some wood?

Who wants to go get wood? Just a short run.

I woke up this morning, it was about 30 below zero.

Went out to my power shack and I got no wood.

I like getting firewood with the dogs as much as possible,

especially when it's colder out.

The machines are a pain in the butt to deal with.

Dogs are always reliable.

It's good exercise for the dogs

and I just like the dogs better than the machines.

It's just way, way more fun with the dogs.

Attaboys! Little more gee! Gee, gee, gee, gee!

Come on! Hup, hup, hup! Hup, let's go, hup, hup, hup.

Ho! Ho!

It's either cut wood or go get a job,

make money, and buy oil.

I'd much rather go cut wood.

Well, this tree's leaning definitely the wrong way,

but at least I don't have to worry about it dropping on the dogs.

(WHIRRING)

Well, that kind of sucks.

When trees are leaning, they can only go one direction,

so you're at the mercy of the lean of the tree.

(SPEAKING)

Trees hang up, uh, sometimes multiple times.

And, um, it makes for a lot more work.

(LAUGHS)

Whoo-hoo!

(SPEAKING)

I dropped, I think, four trees,

just to try and get it to where I could cut it up for firewood.

I'll get back in there and stumble around,

and try and get the rest of the wood another day.

(STRAINING)

Hundred and fifty, 100 pounds, 150 pounds, it's not too bad.

This'll be enough wood for probably five days.

On your feet! On your feet! Hup, hup!

Ho, ho. Whoa, whoa! Perfect.

I'm gonna load this thing to the max.

We don't have too far to go.

I'm only about a mile and a half or so from the house.

Okay. Hup, hup.

Easy, boys. Easy. Easy. Shit.

Oh, man.

Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Good boys.

Everybody stay. Good boys. Good boys. Stay. Whoo!

Stay. Stay, stay.

Phew! Man!

Bit of a bump at the bottom of the hill I wasn't expecting. (LAUGHS)

Hopefully no harm done.

I heard something pop when I hit the bottom.

You guys did a good job of stopping for me. Good boys.

I'm lucky the dogs stopped for me. I didn't wanna have to walk home. (LAUGHING)

I'll keep on going here, drop this load,

then come back and get another load.

Hup, hup.

GLENN: You gotta know what you're doing.

If you don't know what you're doing, you can get yourself in a lot of trouble.

(WHISPERING) There are a couple caribou

just up here off the end of this island, they're out at the lake.

I have to see if I can get up close enough to get a shot.

NARRATOR: For Glenn, hunting caribou as they migrate

through the Brooks Range is key to his survival.

With a small herd making its way across the lake,

he must sneak along the perimeter to cut off his prey and get into firing range.

GLENN: I have to do things that are gonna confuse 'em.

First, I just walk parallel to 'em,

closing the distance a little bit at a time, but not going straight at 'em.

(WHISPERING) I wanna get a little closer if I can.

(YELLING)

Starting to yell, that confuses 'em,

because my voice is echoing off the shoreline.

When they got behind this little island right here,

I yelled really loud when I couldn't see 'em,

hoping that the echo off the far shoreline would chase 'em back around.

(YELLING)

(WHISPERING) God, they don't look that far.

(YELLING)

(SPEAKING)

I decided not to shoot,

because I just can't tell which one is the mother for sure,

and I don't wanna orphan that calf.

It'd definitely die if it was on its own this time of year.

I'm just gonna keep looking. Sooner or later, the right opportunity will come up.

SUE: You must develop, in your life,

a line in the sand that doesn't get crossed.

There they are. Little bastards.

Kavik Valley is known for the, uh, feed.

The type of lichen that we have here is the kind that really adds the fat on.

This is an opportunity too good to pass up.

Here they are again. 'Bout two, three miles down.

Time is of the essence.

(SPEAKING)

You do not see me.

I'm not coming your way.

(SPEAKING)

We can try to get close.

(GUNSHOT)

God. Fuckin' stop, will ya?

(GUNSHOT)

(GUNSHOT)

I took a few shots on the left.

Way uncomfortable, way unsteady.

I took that shot at that caribou down by the river.

Busted the bone into four pieces.

I take shots and I'm flinchin'.

I'm gonna see if I can't walk up a little bit.

I'm gonna be out of bullets. I got two more left.

(PANTING)

(GUNSHOT)

We got an injured one, so we gotta go.

It's that one on the far right.

He can still go pretty far. He's got an injured leg.

Shit. Stop, dude.

I took a close-range head shot just to put it out of its misery.

I'm gonna go back, get the sled, and, uh, get him on it.

Before it freezes up too hard.

Been chasing these suckers for a while.

Changed it up today, almost gave up,

and decided I'd just try that one last time.

Uh, it was actually a hell of a distance shot.

I am proud of myself. It may have taken me a store's worth of bullets

to get the animal down, but go me.

Wintertime meat. Almost unheard of.

CHIP: I've always enjoyed the hunt. It's a good way to provide for your family

and to enrichen your life.

I'm gonna take an axe with me and go get some firewood.

I like to go down to the beach and go get, uh, driftwood that's blown clear and dry.

I'm gonna go over here to a place called Spafarief Hill.

At the base of that is the ocean.

And there's a lot of driftwood over there.

And a lot of it's really dry and a lot of it's already busted up.

-I love you. -Love you, too. See you later.

There's a bunch of female caribou over here.

I didn't wanna spook 'em.

They're about a good 500 yards away.

There's a lot of females with babies.

So if I wanted caribou, I could be caribou rich right now, but I already am.

So, the chore right now is for firewood.

When we left here this fall, we left all this wood here.

So I just wanna get a nice pile, so, uh,

I can burn wood while Chip's gone,

and if for some reason he gets back kind of late,

he doesn't have to worry about sawing all the wood he brought home,

and, you know, getting it all chopped down.

Now that we have the wood thrown in the tepee,

most important chore, I'm gonna walk to the river and go get some ice.

What I do is I pretty much just go out and go find a big crack

or a lot of cracks joined like that,

and, of course, you can see the ground under there. You can actually see the bottom.

That's real good drinking water.

Just start chipping away and...

It's real easy.

See how clear it is? It's good water.

We take it day by day. You know, we plan ahead,

we think of the next season,

we think of the other opportunities that are heading our way,

and we try to put all that together.

So this should last us a couple, few days.

So I'm just gonna go bring this ice to the, um, tent.

Then I'll have my water and my heat.

CHIP: It's always a good sign when there's tracks, there's caribou, there's ptarmigan.

But, uh, I gotta make my way over to the wood, too.

That's more important than anything else.

I got some dry wood.

This last, uh, summer, when we were down here getting wood,

I left a little tripod pile of wood.

I see it's mostly knocked down, probably by the waves,

but it's sticking up.

And the trick is that it's not frozen to the ground.

It's sticking up and it's dry, so, I got a couple of good dry pieces of wood to take home.

It's probably, one log is probably two good days of firewood.

Yeah, it's dry, all right!

This is the Arctic, and the thing is you gotta keep warm.

You gotta keep dry. That's really how it works.

-Shucks. -(AXE CRACKS)

Oh, man!

Brand new axe, gone to shit.

Bummer.

I just bought this axe for 40 bucks at the store before we left.

I didn't wanna take the home axe,

'cause we heat with wood at home,

and leave the girls with no axe.

I could throw a fit, I guess. Cuss.

Bitch.

But that's not me.

I think I'll just, uh, tie down the whole log.

I've got, uh, two miles to the lagoon, five miles home, so seven-mile drag.

Won't be too bad.

But I have to get wood.

(STRAINING)

Right there.

Sometimes the roots are frozen into the sand and you can't go anywhere.

I'm gonna get this tied up.

I'll go back to camp,

find me a cup of coffee or two.

That gas was expensive, my time isn't free.

Despite that, I'd rather spend two gallons of gas

than burn five gallons of stove oil tonight.

I also get to breathe fresh air, see some animals.

I've seen so many tracks. I've probably seen a couple hundred caribou.

This place is alive. It's really good to be here.

Those are some nice, dry-looking, long logs.

Yeah, I broke the axe. Whack, whack, whack, whack, whack, pow.

It broke, like, instantly. No good axe.

We'll have to use the bigger axe, I guess, here.

So however it works, I guess.

Man, you know that if you wanna see caribou,

I saw about 200 that just crossed the Kiwalik,

and then up on those hills there was a big, long line that came up towards us.

-AGNES: Wow, all over, just here and there? -All over.

Caribou are scattered 'cause the feed up there,

when you get up on these hills, the feed is everywhere.

So they're not even bunched up, they're just scattered.

AGNES: Wow.

We have plenty of firewood. I dug out all the firewood we left.

-Oh, the split stuff? -Yeah, the split stuff.

-So we don't gotta saw this right now? -Nope.

-We have it all inside and... -Oh, excellent.

We... I went and got ice, and brought it in and melted some.

-It's warm. -Excellent.

AGNES: And you can see. (GIGGLES)

SUE: You don't ever know what Mother Nature's gonna throw at you.

You're at the top end of extreme for conditions.

Here she is.

Phew.

Damn cold. Temp is dropping fast and hard.

But I'm just gonna try to get a real quick gut job done, then bring this joker home.

Been a while since I've had to do one in the wintertime here.

This is not common.

These guys are not supposed to be back here for a couple of months yet.

Argh!

Okay.

Well, that ain't gonna fucking work.

Yeah, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to...

This is all frozen.

(PANTING)

My hands are freezing to the knife.

(EXHALES ANGRILY)

I'm freezing to the knife.

My hand is freezing to the knife,

the blood is freezing to the knife, the fat is freezing to the knife.

Come on. (PANTING)

There.

My hands are so frozen.

Fuck. Okay.

(WINCING)

Damn it!

I'm in trouble.

I don't know how much more I can handle on my fingers.

Ah, fuck it.

I owe it to this animal, this beautiful girl, to make the most out of her life.

Argh!

Whew.

This is the heart.

Whew, all right.

Boink.

One saving grace, I was going for the boy.

This one got hit, got a spine shot.

Uh, at that point, this is the one I have to take down.

It's not a pregnant female.

So, thank the good lord on that.

I just, I would probably have to give up hunting.

'Cause I don't know how I would've handled that.

Last piece.

Okay.

For a winter kill,

wind chill factor's around 50 below zero,

I got a lot of good meat.

I feel proud of myself, but mostly,

the only thing I'm feeling right now is freaking cold.

But, uh, you don't even know how grateful I am.

ANDY: It takes a lot of self-motivation to live out in the bush.

Uh, you've gotta be able to push yourself.

NARRATOR: Andy and his dog team are returning home with a sled load of firewood.

Mushing with the dogs is critical to their training,

but the Yukon River ice is treacherous,

and he must be cautious to avoid sled damage,

or serious injury to himself or the dogs.

I like using the dogs. Uh, it's good exercise for them.

The dogs are quick, reliable, and, uh, they do the job. Plus, they have fun.

Attaboy. Good boy.

You don't put the time in with the training, you don't get much out of 'em.

It's not just physical conditioning training that's important,

there's a lot of training that goes into discipline, behavioural issues.

If your dogs behave well, then you take 'em everywhere and you do more with 'em.

If they're always misbehaving, then,

it defeats the purpose to take 'em into the bush with you.

Easy, easy, easy.

Easy. Settle down, you guys.

Holy shit.

Easy, easy, easy.

Oh! Shit.

Cruising top speed across the Yukon River jumble ice,

the sled started running sideways, and I couldn't control it.

I felt the sled starting to give way on me, so I just let go.

Bailed because I was afraid I was gonna fall off.

The sled continued on with the dogs.

It was crashing and banging,

and eventually it slammed into a chunk of ice, flipped over.

Anybody here get hurt? You guys okay?

You was just going like the wind! Holy crap, man!

Holy shit.

Plastic shouldn't do that, but it looks like it's,

it's just getting kind of old and brittle.

I don't know if I can get this home like this.

I'm gonna just unload the sled here,

maybe take one log for my fire and then lighten the load up and try and get it home.

(GROANS) Stay!

I don't wanna come home empty-handed, 'cause I'm out of wood.

A fast, easy wood trip's turning into a bit of an ordeal here.

Man, lost my sled twice today. (LAUGHING)

Man! I don't think I ever seen one blow apart like that.

All right, easy, you guys, easy. Gambo, easy, man, easy.

That wasn't too bad. The sled didn't come to an abrupt stop,

but I've had 'em crash before where it comes to an abrupt stop

and I've had dogs rip right out of their harnesses before.

And that's not good for the dog.

Good boys. Haw, haw. Haw, haw. Haw, haw. Haw, haw.

What a mess! When I came down the hill, I heard something pop.

I knew the sled wasn't handling right,

so I just decided, let go, get the heck away from it,

'cause the last thing you wanna do is fall on that hard ice out there.

That's how you really get messed up.

I'd rather just let go. I can rebuild a sled, I can't rebuild an Andy.

Something good came of it.

Got a couple pieces of wood for my fire. That'll get me couple of hours.

Uh, I don't know, I'm gonna have to bring this into my shop

and really go over it, but I mean, it's... It's smucked.

I mean, it's gone. Look at that.

It's pretty much toast. This is a total rebuild.

Well, I guess the quicker I can get the dogs put up and get it in my shop,

thaw it out and start tearing it down, the quicker I can

get back on the trail, go get my wood.

All right, you guys did a good job. That was me.

I'm the one who screwed that. I'm the dumbass today.

Today, you were a good anchor. I saw you stop everybody. You're such a good boy!

CHIP: In the way that my wife was raised up,

she kind of takes care of the warm places.

I kinda deal with the cold places.

I'm gonna go get some more firewood.

There's a log right over here I'm gonna go to.

It was there this summer,

and I flipped it up to make sure it would dry out really well.

So before I run out of heat, take this tired-ass chainsaw

and walk over there and chop it up.

Oh, heat is important.

Heat dries everything, cooks everything,

lets the body bathe in warm water, drink hot stuff, eat.

It's life.

A good river will give you everything.

Some good drinking water, fish in the right seasons,

and firewood. It comes from upriver.

(CHAINSAW WHIRRING)

Well, with the wood I got yesterday that hasn't been burned yet,

and this wood right here, I'd have a couple, four, five days' worth of wood, I think.

Well, this will be good for setting up camp for now.

But I am gonna have to go get more wood. It is a constant chore.

It's like going to the river and getting ice.

It's like going to the bathroom.

These are just cycles we're always attentive to.

And when I start to get low on wood, I don't run out of wood. I go get more.

That's just the trick to it all.

I call it wood reduction.

I reduced it from being a tree over there on the bank, to chunks of wood.

I brought it here, I sawed it up into other pieces.

And now I'm gonna bust it up with the axe so it'll fit inside my stove.

Eventually, this will all be ash.

I got about two fires here, two fires there.

Something to start us in the morning,

finish up at night, start in the morning, finish at night.

It's a never-ending chore.

-You want some tea? -Yeah. Tea would be awesome.

AGNES: Nice and warm, eh?

Yeah. Here, I'll add some more wood to the fire real quick.

My chores are done. I got them logs and I got the wood split up.

I went out and chopped some ice, and just stacked it up for later.

-Cool. -Tent is up.

Tent is up and happy. Our chores are done and it's time to hunt.

GLENN: Gotta take advantage of opportunities as they come.

I never know what today's gonna bring.

When I'm hunting caribou, I follow my instincts. I follow my feelings.

I've spent a lot of time around caribou out here,

and I don't necessarily plan it out.

I'm looking for a big caribou.

Either a cow without a calf, or a bull.

Patience is something that is in short supply in the world today.

In modern society, everything's so rushed.

Hunting takes a great deal of patience, the way I practise it.

I'm never in a rush. There's no, there's no need.

Give it time, and sooner or later, the moment will come.

It's a long winter.

I only need five or six caribou.

I don't have a two-week hunting season.

I'm not out for a weekend, recreational hunt.

This is my lifestyle.

I can take the whole winter to get those five or six caribou,

and I'm gonna wait 'til the shot I want comes my way.

Hey, look at this.

Caribou hair. The wolves.

They must have gotten a caribou around here.

There's the wolf! I gotta go over there and chase that wolf off.

(GLENN HOWLING)

The way I deal with wolves when they come around

is the same way I deal with grizzly bear.

I go out and talk to 'em. I give 'em a chance.

If they listen to me and they go away, that's all right.

If they don't listen to me, and they get too cocky,

they come in closer, I might have to shoot 'em.

You can't let wolves harass you.

They have killed a couple of people in Alaska.

This guy today, he listened. He took off.

(GLENN HOWLING)

What a great day it was out hunting on the lake.

You definitely don't have to get an animal to have a good time hunting.

You just have to be patient.

Sooner or later, the right animal will come along and I'll get the right shot.

ANDY: It's up early, to bed late,

eat lots of Aspirin, keep on going.

NARRATOR: After crashing twice while hauling firewood,

Andy's dog sled was severely damaged.

Repairing it is essential to his ability

to haul resources with his dogs for the duration of winter.

ANDY: I got the sled inside to do an inspection on it.

Brush bow's totally destroyed,

plastic's totally destroyed, delaminating runners.

The more I took apart, the more I found wrong with it.

I think it's gonna be quicker for me to build a whole new sled

than to try and do repairs and then rebuild this sled.

When I started this morning, I had no idea I was gonna be building a new sled.

(DRILL WHIRRING)

Alaskans are very unique people.

We're all very independent, especially people living out in the bush.

We're all very inventive, tough, hearty souls that want to take care of themselves.

Yeah, I'm just about done.

This is the final thing to do. This is called the bridle.

This is what the dogs pull the sled with,

and hopefully, I don't have to do this again for a while.

Looks pretty good.

It's fairly light.

It's a... It's a little more than a one-handed sled,

but I'm guessing maybe 30, 35 pounds maybe.

Kind of a frustrating chain of events today.

Losing the sled, busting it up,

but I'm gonna have a new sled.

I'm gonna have something that will last me for five or six years.

There's a silver lining in every dark cloud.

Once your head gets wrapped around that, you just get on with the job.

Let's test it out.

Whoo-hoo!

SUE: I'm not pushing it. I don't see any reason to push it.

I accept that I'm in my mid-50s and not my mid-20s.

Get my coffee going.

Yesterday was an amazing day!

Went out after multiple attempts at trying to get caribou.

They're not supposed to be here this time of year.

I finally achieved the goal and got some caribou.

And when you get it in the wintertime here,

when you get food like that in the wintertime here, it is the biggest blessing.

But at the time, you're thinking it's quite possibly the world's largest curse.

'Cause what I had temperature-wise was anywhere 26 to 30-something below zero,

20 mile-an-hour winds plus coming out of the south-southwest.

What that means is 52 to 55 below zero wind chill factor.

Took my body temp down like that.

My fingers, I was coming away with blood, my fingers are freezing to the knife.

But I stuck with it, I got it and this is the result.

To be able to get a fresh-cooked little meal like this,

fresh protein, is, uh, pretty amazing for me.

Much, much appreciated.

Looks like my coffee's getting there.

Can't have a good breakfast without good coffee.

It may have been a tough hunt,

but that's a tender little cow.

You know, it's easy to see when you get really injured

that you can just give up and say, "Whatevs. I'm done."

Um, but I haven't done that, and I didn't do that with the hunt either.

So the hunt really typifies how the whole year went.

Successful in the end, but a hell of a journey getting there.

(CHUCKLING)