Original subtitles

NARRATOR: On this Episode of Life Below Zero...

The end of the Thaw is fast approaching.

GLENN: Winter's coming. I don't have a lot of time.

NARRATOR: Glenn abandons his camp for a taste of civilisation.

GLENN: I live about a 60-mile walk from the nearest road.

Long ways to go.

NARRATOR: The Hailstones set their nets

for their last summer catch.

We got the equipment... Set the net and see what we get.

NARRATOR: A brewing storm threatens Sue's livelihood in Kavik.

I've been out of aviation gas for about a week now.

I don't have the room to fail.

And Andy and Kate struggle to make their dream a reality.

ANDY: Are they coming off the ground?

Andy!

GLENN: In the summertime

the life is just spread so thin over the land up here.

I'm running low on food.

The only meat I have is dried caribou meat.

There's no trapping. There's no big game hunting.

I can't hunt moose at this time of year.

I can't really live off the country

as easily as you can the rest of the year.

So I'm getting ready to leave,

and I'm gonna head out of here towards the road.

I'll probably be back in the fall.

NARRATOR: Since fresh meat is scarce

and difficult to preserve in summer,

Glenn could face many lean days ahead

if he stays at camp.

His goal is to reach the nearest road

without running out of food.

And then make his way to Fairbanks.

GLENN: I travel really light.

It's important to stay light so I can make it to the road

without taking forever to get there.

Sleeping bag, tent, rifle, knife, backpack.

NARRATOR: He'll take just enough to eat for an emergency.

But all his other meals on the 60-mile journey

will have to come from the land.

Okay, so the pack's almost full and I don't have much food.

That's why I'm bringing a fishing pole,

in case I can get food along the way.

I'm not taking anything I don't really need.

I'm gonna miss the place.

But food shortage, that's my main concern.

Long ways to go.

I know how to get generally to the road.

I started coming out here

before they had satellite phones.

I don't carry any kind of navigation equipment.

I don't carry a compass.

But I don't carry a map with me out here.

You can stare at a map for hours,

but you don't know anything about the land

until you get out there and walk on it.

So I just navigate by my memory

and looking at the land.

Look, there's a moose.

In the fall, I get more meat from moose

than any other animal.

But this time of year, I couldn't use a moose

'cause I'm walking out. I can't carry it.

But he's right on the route I gotta walk,

so I'm gonna keep going, work my way around him.

Now, he hears me.

There he goes.

Maybe I'll meet up with him next fall.

This is what that moose was eating.

They're super tough and bitter.

These willow leaves...

They're really not very palatable.

I found a little patch of sour dock.

This is a leaf that's good at this time of year.

It's even better cooked.

But I don't have time to cook it.

Leaves don't give you a whole lot of energy.

But better than nothing.

NARRATOR: There are several species of poisonous plants found in Alaska.

If Glenn consumes the wrong one, it could be deadly.

This is a flower that I eat.

I think people call it dwarf fireweed.

I don't know. I just call it food.

There are two basic categories of plant...

Good to eat. Not good to eat.

This one's good to eat.

CHIP: No, I'm not living a dream. I'm just living this way.

I didn't dream of this. I didn't, uh...

I didn't have a plan.

I wouldn't know what that dream is.

Carol, you had a green hat, right?

Okay, here.

Green hat.

It's 2:00 in the morning, sweetie pies.

Is everybody ready for the boat?

Is everybody awake?

Good morning.

Even with your evil eyes, it's still a good morning.

NARRATOR: For the Hailstones,

the long summer days are a crucial opportunity

to assure resources that will help them survive

through the long winter ahead.

Today, they embark on one of their most important yearly hunts.

The summer salmon run.

Well, first time I've come up this way

so it's time to go get salmon

while they're fat and fresh out of the ocean.

Throw all the kids in.

Head down to one of our favourite fishing camps,

and stay there for a while.

Everybody's good? Where's my life jacket?

AGNES: (CHUCKLES) You don't get one.

CHIP: Oh, I don't get one? All right.

(MOTOR REVVING)

NARRATOR: Every summer, thousands of salmon

make their way from the ocean to the rivers to spawn.

To catch them,

the Hailstone family will travel 26 miles west

where Agnes and her family have fished for generations.

CHIP: Oh, salmon!

SUE: I have to wake up every morning

and look at my own mug in the mirror,

and if it's not somebody I respect,

it's going to make the rest of my life suck.

After winter, I get a beating with the storms.

Any little thing, even an ice chunk

can tear holes in the top of my tent.

RICK: Careful.

SUE: One of my things I need to do

every single summer

is crawl up on my roofline of the tent

and fix any little holes that I find.

If I don't repair those this winter,

this shape of the building...

The wind comes across and it holds it down to the ground.

You get... You compromise the integrity of your shell,

it's gonna become an air foil that wants to take off.

Something came and macked the top of the building

and tore a longish groove.

Patches are good. Patches work.

Patches aren't forever.

Every time you patch it,

you're weakening the structural integrity.

But I figure we're supposed to get a hell of storm comin' in.

So, better get this done.

Huge changes this year.

You know, I went from being somebody's employee

to owning my own business.

It is good to finally be able to say,

instead of just feel, that Kavik is mine.

Um, it comes with a tremendous amount of pressures.

I knew full well that there'd be a lot of money going out just in improvements.

There's nothing inexpensive about being here.

Well, I don't want to fall, that's for sure.

Suzy is a little chunky.

I don't want to hurt my building either.

One wrong move and I'll fall through it.

Hey, Rick.

I might need you to show me where the holes are

'cause I'm not seeing them.

Right.

-There's one here? -Yeah.

It's nice for me to rely on myself.

This year, Rick has been here helping me out.

It's a good thing that he's been willing to be so helpful.

Plus it gives me somebody to push around.

Can't be the king if you don't have any subjects.

It's not comfortable being 24 foot up in the air

hanging off of a building with no safety net.

The saying is if you don't like the weather

wait for 5 minutes or fly 5 miles, it will change.

Weather comes in really, really quickly.

The fog will move at 20-30 miles an hour sometimes.

It's pretty amazing.

You know, earlier today, was a not-windy day.

But as the system gets closer and closer

the wind is picking up.

You're always, always, always

trying to prepare for what's next.

ANDY: When I first came out here,

I didn't know much about livin' out in the bush at all.

Just putting a little canoe in the big Yukon River

seemed like a pretty huge adventure to me back then.

People who live out in the bush...

The way we end up living depends on what our skills are

and what resources we have available to us to work with.

I have a lot of equipment to work with,

which makes it a lot easier for me,

so I can do things maybe a little bit different

than a lot people living out in the bush would do.

I like building what I call "rustic elegance."

I like things to be fairly well built, rustic looking,

but also elegant in design.

The cabin we live in now was never meant to be our permanent home.

It was meant to be a cabin to live in

while we get our act together

and build a really efficient home.

NARRATOR: To make the foundation for a new cabin,

Andy must transport 10,000 pounds of gravel

in his boat 14 miles upriver.

We plan on living here the rest of our lives,

so we've had this cabin planned for quite a few years,

and it needs a strong foundation.

Like everything in life,

if you have a good foundation you can build a tall building,

or a tall life.

If any of these bags tip over or flop over

and throw the centre of gravity off on the boats,

I can capsize the boat.

So we'll see, once you start working with

heavy equipment and heavy objects,

you never know what you're gonna run against.

So I've got my army boats together.

It's time to pull them into position.

Secure them.

Then I'm gonna need to load these bags

with the sky track into the boats.

That's Plan A.

Plan B will be determined once Plan A doesn't work.

NARRATOR: Each bag of gravel weighs 1,000 pounds.

Andy will attempt to load three to four bags per boat.

(ENGINE RUNNING)

The one thing I'm a little worried about is

as I start loading the boats,

they're gonna load differently.

I'm gonna put my first load in

and that boat's gonna go down.

So that's gonna tweak the other boat.

Then I'll put another bag in that one,

and so the boats are gonna be

wanting to tweak quite a bit in between loads,

until I can even 'em up.

NARRATOR: Adding too much weight to the boats

could cause them to capsize and sink,

along with Andy and Kate's foundation

for their dream home.

I got a leak.

It ain't gonna fucking work.

Every bit of water you get in a boat

when you got a load like this is dangerous.

And the more water that comes in

the more water I gotta worry about

sloshing around in these boats

while I'm going in the river which affects my stability.

So, I don't want a bunch of water in this boat.

I'm going to have to pull a bag out of this.

I can't go down river with water coming in the boat,

that's just asking for trouble.

I'm going to see what it looks like.

I might have to take another one out.

So we'll see what happens.

This boat went through the flood in 2004,

and the ice pushed this cleat through the hull.

So when it gets down below this point in the water

it starts taking on water.

I probably took on about 20 gallons or so...

30 gallons of water.

So it's just gonna cost me more time and more money

to get the gravel down.

NARRATOR: Andy must now haul the 10,000 pounds of gravel

through the fast-moving currents of the Yukon

without capsizing his boat.

ANDY: When things like that happen

sometimes you got to listen to them, and don't push it.

And so that's what I'm doing.

Be safe instead of sorry.

Uh, if I was to lose these boats right now,

my whole summer would be screwed.

There would no way I could get all the materials down to build that house.

There's 80,000 pounds of building materials

I need to move downriver.

Taking care of these boats

is priority number one for me right now.

I feel okay with the way the load is now.

And hopefully we'll have a good trip home.

GLENN: Humans are not adapted to live in this kind of country.

This is a very hard place for a person to live.

I might be about a third of the way to the road now.

I'm not thinking about how many miles I walk each day,

but I am thinking about getting back to see my kids.

And walking all day will work up an appetite.

I only got enough food in my pack for one meal.

A little bit of oatmeal. A few pecans.

A few raisins.

Some dry pounded caribou meat.

That's all I got left.

I could eat it all at once,

but I better not eat right now.

I can go a little longer.

This is tussock tundra,

and it's not easy to walk through.

Really the biggest danger I have,

walking around out here by myself,

is if I was to get hurt and I couldn't walk any more.

So, I'm always thinking about that.

I don't want to twist my ankle or screw up my knee.

I gotta be able to keep walking.

That's one thing.

You can't lose your ability to walk out here.

If you lose your ability to walk when you're in town,

it's not good.

But it's not the end of the world.

There's plenty of people that are going to help you out.

But out here you do have to be able to walk.

If you can't walk, you can't live.

It's just such vast country.

A person out here is just a little dot on the tundra.

I don't plan on anybody coming out here with an aeroplane and finding me.

So I always think that I have to be able to get out of here by myself.

Physically, I'm tired.

My feet are starting to bother me,

and I have low energy just from not eating all day.

So I want to find something to eat.

No, I've never eaten green blueberries.

I just want to try them and see if they're any good.

They're not very good.

Everything tastes better when you're hungry.

But not something I'd eat if I had a lot of food.

What I really need to find is some animal food to eat.

I have not eaten anything other than a few leaves

and some green berries.

And it's getting late,

and I'm tired and I'm ready to go to bed.

And this is the place where possibly there's some fish.

I don't know if there's anything in here.

I think up here the fishing is probably not that good.

There's something.

There is one there!

Oh, oh, oh!

Boy, he almost got away!

A little tricky when you don't have a net.

That's a good fish, but I'm really low on food.

I'm hungry enough to eat two or three of those, easy.

I almost lost dinner.

That fish weighed more than my fishing pole

so the fishing pole has already paid for itself.

It was worth carrying.

If I hadn't caught fish, I was gonna go to bed hungry.

I had a little bit of food left, but I was gonna save it.

I still have a long ways to walk.

I'm hoping for one more night out here

to make it to the road.

It's just getting harder because of my food situation.

CHIP: Actually this kind of living, you know...

There's killers and there's accomplices.

If you are not a killer, somewhere down the road

if you eat meat or fish you're an accomplice.

We use nets 'cause we're in rivers and such here...

And, um, as I was growing up

I used a fishing rod.

So my wife is always in charge of any such nettings.

So when we're setting a net, we're setting it her way.

We're doing this the Inupiat way.

We'll be checking the nets a couple of times a day,

so we're expecting hopefully 20 or 30 fish a day.

Hopefully, it's a good run.

That's what we are hoping for. We're hoping for a good run.

We got the place. We got the equipment.

We're here at the right time.

Salmon are in the river.

Best bet is to just set the net,

and see what we get.

Got the rope?

Means a lot to me 'cause I sure like salmon,

and that's a lot of food I don't have to buy.

So instead of buying food, I can buy fuel,

or I can buy shoes or something else with my money.

I can skip all the grocery shopping

and do my shopping now.

Fishing, hunting...

It's all out looking for food.

It's like going down the aisles.

The strategy is that my wife is now tightening the net

so that we're not halfway across the river

and blocking too much of the river.

Ting, give her a hand.

She needs some serious help right now.

And pull.

CHIP: Careful.

You guys watch what your mom is doing.

It's important to learn.

First you observe and then you put your hands on it.

Let you know what's up and what's at stake here,

and my wife really knows what's going on here.

CHIP: Whatever works.

We're all following her tired direction.

She's not awake yet. (CHUCKLES)

ANDY: Often times it's the prep work

that's really the hard work for me.

The building part is the easy part.

I can see our home.

Haven't capsized, I haven't swamped,

my feet are dry.

So we're doing good so far.

NARRATOR: Andy has successfully gotten his 10,000-pound load home.

Now, he has to safely haul the gravel to shore.

ANDY: Take that one up and tie it to the same place!

That's it!

This is about half of it.

I had to build this boom for the back of my bulldozer,

so that I had a way to get these bags off of the boats,

and I took this old winch and set it up.

And then the boom is set up to my front bucket,

so I'll be able to raise and lower the boom

with the front bucket.

The big challenge now will be...

Is do I have enough of a reach out over the river

to pick the bags up out of the boat...

And that's mainly what I'm concerned about here.

I don't know that that's a good idea.

NARRATOR: Each bag of gravel weighs up to a half ton.

But if Andy's makeshift crane can't support the weight,

the bulldozer could tip over and pin Andy underneath.

KATE: The tracks are lifting about 4 inches.

That's a little too high.

Andy!

You're coming up!

All these little things are going through my head

as I'm doing this, and it's just insane.

I don't want this tractor to fall backwards.

Andy would just go arse over kettle, and he will be flat.

No!

Andy!

Down she goes... All right!

Happy dance!

It was damn scary there for a second.

That went well.

Marginal.

Go up!

ANDY: So far it's working... Barely.

The winch is barely able to pull these up out of the boat,

but it's making it.

And, uh, the brakes are holding on the tractor,

that's what I'm really worried about is...

I'm really having to put a lot of pressure on the brakes

to hold me in that position while I'm lifting,

but so far so good.

We got three more bags to get out,

and then we can call it Miller time.

I like it when my inventions work.

Sometimes I do these things and they're all fucked up.

Feels good!

ANDY: Yay!

You did it!

-You did it. -Barely worked, barely worked.

Barely. Oh... Thank you.

-Good job! -Yeah.

You're amazing.

You can do anything.

Like lifting you up on the gravel.

-There's your foundation. -(LAUGHING)

Hope you enjoy it.

And he built it all himself.

Just me and my welder and a bit of grinding,

a bit of welding, a bit of cutting,

a bit of swearing.

You know, we have enough bags here right now,

we can get a good start on the foundation.

So it's a good feeling.

I mean, we've been talking about this for a long time.

KATE: That's the beginning of our new house, baby.

ANDY: It only cost us a thousand fucking dollars.

Well, you know what?

I'm worth it.

SUE: You know, there is no guarantees and I accept that.

But life's not worth living

if you don't push a boundary or two.

The rule is if I want to live out here,

I have to run a business.

There's a saying that,

"When somebody starts a business,

"expect to, you know, lose money the first three to five years

"while you're getting your feet underneath you..."

So, you know, you got to make sure you have your capital to do that.

And I really don't have that luxury.

So I've got to make it go.

I've got to make it profitable. It's a challenge.

I don't have the room to fail.

Planes in the area, I'm an emergency fuel station for them.

The only one for a hundred miles.

I've been out of aviation gas for about a week now.

And there's people stuck out in the field,

no way to get in because the planes can't get fuel.

NARRATOR: Alaska's unpredictable weather

has delayed Sue's regular fuel shipment.

Until it arrives, her customers are grounded.

Hey, buddy?

I know you're waiting on fuel,

but I talked to the plane and Everetts said they're gonna try again today.

You going to be okay with hanging around for a little while?

-They're gonna make it today? -Yeah, they're hoping to.

I mean, the thing that worries me is I can see snow over here,

if it comes down we're pooched another day.

Well, we're getting low. We're going to need it.

Yeah, well, I'm out. Whatever you got is what you got.

I got enough to do one more round,

and I got four guys standing out there waiting to come in.

SUE: I'm under the gun.

All these planes you see here

have been grounded for days now.

People stranded out in the field.

Winter storm's coming in.

Once the snow flies, really, I mean,

they wrap it up and go away.

So I've got two, three months, maybe,

to make 12 months worth of revenue.

Fuel is critical.

The planes can't get in the air, the people can't move.

People can't move, they don't pay you to get where they're going.

Hey, 22 Mike, you got a copy on Kavik yet?

22 Mike Everts, this is Kavik, do you got a copy?

Not yet.

(STATIC)

Hey, 22 Mike, was that you?

22 Mike, you got a copy on Kavik?

MIKE: Oh, yeah, go ahead, Sue.

Hey, buddy, it's awful good to hear from ya.

I've got some planes that'll be awful happy

-to get back up off the ground. -Okay.

You just fly safe and thank you, thank you.

You guys always save my biscuits.

The AV gas, the aviation 100 low lead is on its way in.

Booyah!

These little planes can get about doing their business,

start getting people out of the field that are cold and hungry.

Yeah, there he is.

That bird right there, good old Salmonella.

1942 World War II aircraft

flying my fuel in, it's gonna save their bacon.

Boom! And he's down.

Just getting 2,000 gallons.

I'll go through three quarters of that in the next 10 days

and then save, barrel up the rest.

I'm getting 2,000 gallons of jet fuel.

It'll take me another 6,000 to get through the winter,

as long and cold as my winters are.

So you don't do this kind of a lifestyle by mistake.

I work for my three months a year

to pay for the place and make enough revenue just to buy a style of life.

You know, I'm not out to get rich.

I just want to be me.

I'm standing on top of about 3,946 gallons.

MAN: How many dollars?

$21,000, $22,000... Somewhere around there.

-Awesome. Thank you, Sue. -I really appreciate it.

You always come through for me.

These guys, the big birds, they're the ones who take care of me.

It's a big deal. I mean, it's a service that I run here.

If you don't have fuel from the Haul road all the way to Canada,

I'm it.

And for me to be out of fuel is a danger.

So I feel better knowing all my birdies can get back to the nest now.

Just like me, she's an old bitch, but she still likes to smoke.

Booyah! Kavik's open for business.

CHIP: Travel is always an education.

No matter where you go when you travel,

you're learning something.

I want my kids to learn as much about the world as they can,

so when they get older they'll have choices.

NARRATOR: With winter close at hand, the Hailstones are hoping

for a sizable catch of fresh salmon

to last them through the coming freeze.

AGNES: Hook it, miss Mary.

This is the time to get fish while they're here,

and while they're healthy and fat.

Whoa!

CAROL: Oh, yeah!

AGNES: It's alive.

AGNES: It's not rainy season yet

and then our fish are able to dry.

Because in the next couple of weeks

the rainy season will come,

and then there'll be all this moisture in the air

and nothing's going to dry then.

So, that's why we do it now.

There's one down there.

Hey!

That was a tough one.

Mom, there's two right here.

I got one.

Are we gonna have enough room for the fish in that tub?

Tub is full and we're only half way through the net.

CHIP: There's a good bounty of fish.

(AGNES SPEAKING)

CHIP: This is natural food, this is healthy food.

And it gives them culture,

a sense of well-being and a sense of satisfaction

when they're done.

And a good sense of just where food comes from.

AGNES: We try to catch a whole bunch to begin with and dry them up,

so they'll keep for the rest of the season

and we'll put those in our freezers for the winter.

NARRATOR: No part of the fish is wasted.

The bellies, eggs and meat are all separated.

What isn't eaten now

is dried and stored for the winter that looms ahead.

Any ones that have a lot of fat in them,

after we dry them, we put them in our seal oil,

so they don't get rancid and get too strong.

IRIQTAQ: You don't keep sawing, you push.

Look, I'm just going to hold your hand, okay?

Come this way.

Push with your whole arm, yeah.

-Put your weight into it. -QUTAN: Okay.

IRIQTAQ: You got it?

QUTAN: Do I need to finish it?

I got it.

I'm very proud of my daughters.

Try to teach them what I know

and then by the time they're my age

they'll pretty much have it all down to where they're doing it by themselves

without me guiding them or instructing them.

You do what's right and take what's left.

CHIP: Why don't you use a long stick and push it?

Just throw it on, the bouncing will do it.

Fire!

That will keep the mosquitoes away.

(SIGHS) I separated the bellies, the eggs from the fish.

AGNES: I got, like, 50 fish, I'm satisfied...

And there's plenty salmon for now.

QUTAN: No, just stop!

Get away.

Iri, I'm much faster than you.

We travel around and gather and hunt in all kinds of different places,

but we always come back to the same places.

You know, people have been doing that for thousands of years.

People still do it today.

I like living this way.

I like making it to where

I can just do things on my own, for myself and for my kids

and teach them and take them along.

-What the heck... -Good job!

CHIP: I think it's important they see that.

That they live it, that they touch it.

So if they end up with no job, the economy tanks out,

I want my kids to be able to know the resources as well.

So, if they need to, they can choose it

as their way of living.

Booyah!

GLENN: The reality is that if something went wrong 10 minutes from now,

I could be laying on the tundra with the grey jays pecking my eyes out

and nobody would notice.

This morning I woke up, and I was thinking,

"Wow, I'm gonna get back to the road today, hopefully."

It's been over 10 months since I walked away from that road.

Just started sinking in right now,

that I'm going back to civilisation.

That's the last of my food right here.

Some dried caribou meat.

I'm not anticipating any big problem.

It's just a matter of putting

one foot in front of the other.

Getting across the tundra.

That's it.

That's the last of my food.

NARRATOR: The last thing standing

between Glenn and the road to town

is crossing the north fork of the Chandalar River.

GLENN: There's the river.

The biggest problem I'm worried about now

would just be if there's too deep of water.

From up here, I can't tell for sure

how much of a problem the river's gonna be.

I gotta get down closer and look at how much water is running down there.

Looks like there's still ice along there.

Oh, wow, there is a lot of ice down there.

I have never seen it like this.

I have never seen ice that thick at this time of year.

I've been through here in the summer.

I've never seen ice here at all.

That's amazing.

Looks like it's more than six feet thick.

This is my biggest concern is not being able

to get across this river.

'Cause if I can't get across this river, I got problems.

I got to turn around and walk all the way back to my camp.

That's too far. I don't have food left.

Just walk upstream and see if there's a place where I can get across.

NARRATOR: Glenn has to find a clearing in shallow water,

or he won't be able to cross the river.

This looks like a place I can get across.

There's no ice to climb up on the other side at least.

It'd be nice if it was even shallower and not running so fast.

I'll give it a try.

Made it!

I'm starting to get excited about getting back.

It just started sinking in right now

that I'm actually going back to civilisation.

Actually going to see a bunch of people

I haven't seen in almost a year.

I started wondering this morning,

how much different my kids look.

I haven't seen them in so long.

Getting close now. This is real familiar country.

I can see the road.

I'm almost there!

I'm gonna head up and see if I can get a ride.

It's not easy to get a lift up here, necessarily

when you're carrying a rifle,

and you're all dirty and smelly

the way I am after this walk.

Made it to the road.

(SIGHS)

That was a bit of a walk.

Wow.

Just got to wait until a truck or a car

comes down this highway.

Try to hitch a ride to Fairbanks.

It's exciting to get to the road

after being out here over 10 months.

But I don't mind going to town,

but I just don't want to live there.

I feel like I'm kind of half alive.

Like I'm kind of caged up down there.

Not easy for me to leave the place.

You know, knowing I might not be back for a while.

ANDY: We both love this place, and we don't want to leave this place.

If I can make a comfortable and easy living down here,

we can stay here for the rest of our lives if we want.

(DOG BARKING IN THE DISTANCE)

So, Andy, are we just going to dump this right in the hole or in buckets or...

(ANDY GRUNTS)

From the mixer to the wheelbarrow to the hole.

KATE: Okay.

Easy as possible.

Sounds like a plan.

ANDY: I moved about 10,000 pounds of gravel

from the river up to here.

And my next process in the building of the house

is to get this concrete poured and this foundation set.

Our summers are very short here.

So there's a lot of pressure and a lot of stress on me

to try and get these things done.

And I'm probably my worst enemy

because I'm Type A and I want everything done yesterday.

Pouring concrete isn't rocket science,

but the mix can be pretty critical.

We don't have the advantage of having

all of the ingredients cleaned

like they would in an urban environment.

This is going to be a pretty large home that it's sitting on.

So, bottom line, I've got to get

the cement/gravel ratios correct.

I have to get the right consistency of water correct.

It's gonna need more water.

That will be wet enough, probably.

You want a quick dump or a slow dump?

No, do it relatively slow.

Good!

Pretty much just pour that concrete,

level it out, then let it cure.

KATE: This day has finally come.

I'm really excited. I can hardly stop wiggling.

I was excited four years ago when we were gonna start,

but, you know, the flood of '09

had a different idea for us,

and we actually had to start over again.

And that was about as frustrating as life can get,

but I'm getting what I wanted four years ago.

My dream home.

So the bottom of my house is going to be about this high off the ground,

and that's because this is the highest piece of ground around here.

Worst case scenario, we'll get

a little bit of water on the bottom floor of our house,

but everything else will be okay.

So, that's plan A.

B, C, D and E.

'Cause once this house is done, it's done.

If it ever gets knocked off the foundation

we're buying a sailboat and moving to the Caribbean.

Here, you can put the last rock in.

Rock of ages.

ANDY: This might be our last load.

Foundations are done now.

Concrete's all poured.

Everything went pretty well doing that.

Although this gravel job was a really big job.

It's just the very beginning of this whole process.

I'm starting to feel like

things are coming together here.

I'm feeling like once we get this home built,

we're gonna be in pretty good shape

and I can maybe slow down a little bit.

My body's starting to wear down from all this work.

Every morning I wake up and if my back's sore,

I hear that clock going... Tick, tick, tick, tick.

And I want to finish these projects before the clock runs out.

Is this gonna be our corner stone?

One of them.

One of four corners.

We got to be our names and date.

So in 500 years, they'll know we were here.

Who the hell will care?

KATE: My life with Andy is like a big old roller coaster.

I think I'm the luckiest woman in the world,

because for his temper, he's equally as funny,

he's equally as charming,

he's equally as romantic and kind.

He makes me smile. He makes me happy.

My house.