All language subtitles for Life.Below.Zero.HDTV.720.S03.E18

Hey there, buddy.

(CHUCKLES) Seems like this is
becoming an annual thing here.

NARRATOR: In Kavik, Sue Aikens
has enlisted the help

of a bush pilot to take her
to a familiar fishing spot.

She's received
a new food supply,

but must continue to stockpile
meat and protein

for her survival through the
dark winter that lies ahead.

SUE: We ready?
We got everything in?

-PILOT: Yep.
-All right.

MAN (ON RADIO):
Kavik six flight two
takes off to the east,

we'll be northbound to Kavik.

SUE: Why would you take
a few hours in an aeroplane
just to go get some fish?

Well, I don't have any food.

All the food went bad
when I had my injury.

It's possible, at that site,
in a couple of hours,

I can get a couple of days'
worth of food.

I'm starting from ground zero,

and when winter hits,
it hits with an iron fist.

And it stays for nine months.

Sue doesn't go down
without a fight.

If I'm gonna starve,
it's gonna be my
own lack of trying.

And that doesn't happen
in my world.

I'm gonna try until
I can't try, 'til I can try.

So I've gotta use
everything in my arsenal

to try and bring
something home.

I'm behind the gun.

I got winter breathing
down my neck.

My time is
tick-tick-tick-tick-tick.

(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)

SUE: My natural alone time,

for nine months,
I have to supply for myself.

It's like having
a biological clock

for a woman
who wants to have a baby.

My biological clock
is saying, "Get food."

Get it now.

I knew I wouldn't have
the big tide current,

but I was hoping
to have a little more water
coming in than this.

So, I don't know if
there's gonna be any
good fishing at all.

The pilot brought me here.
It was a great favour to me.

I've got a fishing pole, and,
uh, I'm gonna give it a whirl.

'Cause even, you know,

one goes in the freezer
and I'm one ahead.

There.

See the lay of the land
and then get down
to getting on some fish.

CHIP: I think my wife,
maybe even a couple
of my daughters,

were born with fish
in their hands.

No silver spoons here.

AGNES: Oh, check
this baby out.
CHIP: Oh, that's fresh.

CHIP: Got meat.

Wow, that's a good one there.

Well, when we're done
with these fish,

I'm gonna have
to go get poles and
some cottonwood,

and we'll be able to set
a smoke onto these guys,
and...

Yep, we definitely need
a smoker going on.

Yeah, me and the girls
could go pick berries,
and we'll take the dog.

Yeah, if you guys
take the dog,
I'll take Qutan.

That way you guys'll have
someone to watch for bears

while you're bent down
looking for berries.

I can see that my wife's
gonna need the rack extended

'cause she's gonna
need to store those fish
once they're dried.

And she's gonna need to
make room for other fish

that she's gonna put on there.

NARRATOR:
Along the Kiwalik River,

the Hailstone family
has spent several days
fishing for salmon,

a key source of protein
in their diet.

Preserving the meat for
the long winter is a priority,

and must be first
processed and dried.

CHIP: We're just gonna
go down the coast here
and get some smoking wood,

what we call cottonwood
around here.

I use it to smoke the fish
and keep the flies off it.

And then I'm gonna build my
wife a cold storage over here.

She calls it a sigloak

and, um, it's gonna be a place
where she can put her berries
and her greens.

You know, we want to not only
go out and get these foods,
but we gotta preserve 'em.

We have to keep 'em and, uh,
get 'em home back to Noorvik,
and freeze 'em.

And then we'll have 'em
all winter to eat.

There you go.

(CHAINSAW BUZZING)

This doesn't cost us much.

It's about two gallons
of fuel round trip.

We're just across
the lagoon five miles

and, uh,
there's a lot of wood here.

This is building material.

If I had to buy from
a store, it'd probably
cost me a lot of money.

Take that back to the boat.

There's four good logs.

It's good for, um, smoking
when you're making fish.

It has a way of just punking
out and smouldering itself.

You don't have to keep
lighting it,

and you don't have to worry
about it just catching
the flame and burning.

It's really good
for, uh, flavour.

And I see some pieces
over here

I'm gonna get for my
sigloak build.

Some longer pieces.

Here, why don't you
give me that?

Got us wood for building
a nice cold storage.

Just got wood for fire,
wood for the smoke
on the salmon.

CHIP: My wife's society,

they divide things
between men and women.

And women do certain things
and men do certain things
in ideal situations.

Our ideal situation is that
my wife went off berry-picking
with the girls

and my youngest daughter

didn't want to go
berry-picking,
so she helped me out.

She got to see
where all the wood is
and why I come down here.

She's almost 10,
so spent a little time

together with
the youngest daughter.

JESSIE: There's no guarantees
out here.

Here, the only guarantee
is you're gonna have to
work hard for everything.

(DOGS BARKING)

Well, another
beautiful morning.

I'm always a fan
of the morning time.

It's a time to get
a lot of things done.

With dogs, one of the
things you got to do
every morning though

is get woke up
by these damn squirrels.

And they're out there
stealing my dog food.

I see a squirrel right there
eating my dog food.

These guys tear holes into
my $67 bag of dog food.

Every one of those little
pellets that they eat actually
costs a lot of money.

I don't like killing things,
but you know what?

It goes right in the dog pot.

Turn it into dog food.

Just throw it in the cooker
with fish or meat,

whatever I got while
I'm cooking up.

I don't want to let
it go to waste.

Resources are resources
out here, you know?

A lot of people would
probably laugh at me

for cooking up squirrels
for my dogs,

but I'm not gonna
just leave them

rotting in the woods in waste.

Got a little excited there.
Shot too soon.

I want to kill him,

I don't want to leave him
to go off and suffer in
the brush. You know?

I got a bunch of
dog food here.

You can see these squirrels
have eaten away into it.

You know, this here is some
super-quality chicken,
and beef, and pork scraps.

This is their base food here.

It's a real high-grade kibble,
you know,

keeps these dogs going.

These kind of dogs
need a lot of calories,

so I don't want
to let squirrels

be eating my
expensive dog food.

This gun, I wouldn't say
it's the most accurate
or best gun, you know?

But, uh, sure works
for blasting squirrel.

(SQUIRREL SQUEAKING)

Squirrel.

(SOFTLY) I'm gonna see
if he didn't come in
and get this dog food.

Take my time with this one.

This is what I call
protecting my investment.

-(GUN FIRES)
-(DOG BARKING)

He just ran right on off.

They're pretty quick
like that.

I don't think
this gun is actually
shooting that straight.

It's kind of old and rickety,
been beat around in dog sleds,

and think I kinda
need to sight it in

'cause I'd rather
they die fast

so I can, uh, throw 'em
in the dog cooker.

This thing isn't
really seeming to be
shooting that straight.

I'm gonna take this can and go
see what's going on with it.

MARTHA: I love being
out here in Iliamna

and experiencing the same
stuff that I grew up doing.

I got the day off of clients

and I'm gonna take Martha
upriver to a place
I've never been,

that I've heard
is a really good
grayling hole,

and see if we can't go ahead
and find a real honey hole

to slam some grayling
next week.

MARTHA: So where's this spot
you wanted to go to?

How long of a drive is it?

It's not too far.
I think we'll have
some good luck.

It's really nice
out there today

and mountains are shining.

Let's, uh, burn out of here.
There's not much daylight.

MARTHA: Good day
to catch grayling.

ERIK: Yeah, I think we're
gonna get lucky here.

We have a wide variety
of game fish here in the
Iliamna Lake drainage,

but a really neat fish
we have here is grayling.

There's an area that
I've been looking at

out of the air
for a couple years.

It's a really nice riffle.

I want to run upriver
a little further than I
usually do with Martha

and see if we can't
get into a real honey hole
of grayling.

There are some unknowns
associated with going to
a new spot,

but the reality
is the risk part is more
about travel with the boat.

The boat is
the bigger obstacle.

You want to make sure
that there are no really
shallow riffles

or hidden rocks.

-You know, honey, the water's
actually pretty high in here.
-Yeah, it came up.

A lot of these rocks that
were really obvious to see.

MARTHA: Well, that's what
jacks you up too,

is when the water level
drops and rises,
and drops and rises.

Yeah.

Look at that big wave
right there.

ERIK: This is a totally
different river

than I was fishing
the last time I came by.

Many people have died
in these waters before.

There's a lot of people

who wanted to make it up
to the second set of rapids
and never have,

so, let's just say
there's some
boats down there.

ERIK: What the fuck
is that right there?

Rocks like this will really
screw you up, huh?

Yeah.

Look at that
son of a bitch there.

MARTHA: There are
certain kinds of boats
for certain kinds of rivers.

The flat bottom with the
little jet boat on the back

is meant for running around
small streams with tight turns
and stuff like that.

It's not meant for running
these kinds of white waters.

You need a really big,
heavy boat, with big jets
on the back

to be able to run
these kinds of rivers.

Why don't we land right here,
Erik? This looks safe.

I'm working on it, honey.

Okay.

I'm gonna get up there.

It's usually a good spot
right there to fish,

but it's too high right now
and too rapid,

so we're just gonna play it
safe and fish from shore.

NARRATOR: Erik and Martha,
are surveying the river
for a new grayling hole.

But treacherous rapids
have forced them to test
for a safer fishing spot.

MARTHA: I've lived
in Iliamna my whole life.

I've witnessed some
people doing some
crazy stuff in boats.

There have been some people
who have tried to run these
rapids and had bad luck,

so, you know better
than to play on 'em.

Today our objective
is the smaller prey.

The Arctic grayling.

These rapids right here
are very beautiful.

They're a great place to fish.

But they will kill your ass.
(LAUGHING)

You gotta be really careful
around this type of water,

show the river a lot of
respect and pay attention

and make sure you're
within your abilities
and your limits

before you do anything.

Well, what do
you think, honey?

Should we keep on keeping on?

Yeah, there's not
very many fish here.

Let's go back to the boat and
we can find another channel
and keep on going.

Okay.

ERIK: We're gonna head
back to the boat
and drift out of here

and head up another channel
that doesn't have so many
rapids,

and keep on keeping on
looking for that
honey hole of grayling.

We're nowhere near the spot
I had in mind yet,

and, like usual, Martha and I
got distracted fishing.

CHIP: So we're always
you know, thinking ahead,

living for the day,
but working for tomorrow.

AGNES: We're definitely gonna
be spending our evenings
picking salmon berries,

which is when the salmon
are here after July.

Then the salmon berries
should be ripe.

NARRATOR: While Chip
collects building supplies for
their fish rack and sigloak,

Agnes and the girls
must gather and stockpile

a vital food source
for the coming winter.

It takes a group effort to
get through these willows

'cause you never know
what's in the willows.

There could be, um,
bears, wolves, muskox.

That's why we have
the puppy dog here,

so it can just scare
off anything.

Look at the size
of these berries.

And they're ripe.

I usually just try to keep
picking all the ones
that are orange.

You can tell how good
and nice they are.

And I just try
to leave the ones

that are already sunburnt
and stuff, and not ripe.

When we have our
long, cold winter,

it's nice to have
something sweet

besides all the meats
and fish we have.

So we balance it out with
the berries and the greens,

not missing anything
from our diet.

It's hard work.

It's backbreaking, but, um,
in the end it pays off.

Phew, that looks like
that's enough for today.

We could just pack up
and start heading back.

These short pieces right here
are cottonwoods.

Those are gonna be
for smoking salmon.

Then I got these
pine ones over here

and we're gonna be using
those for making the sigloak.

Stick your guys' berries in.

So all the berries you got
don't have to be eaten
right away.

We can save 'em for winter.

-Sound like a good deal?
-AGNES: Sounds like
a real good deal.

CHIP: Yep, it all worked out
good though.

AGNES: Yep, we all work out
real good together.

CHIP: Let's munch.
AGNES: Let's go home and eat.

CHIP: Come on,
come on, come on.

(EXCLAIMING)

JESSIE: You're pretty small
when you're out in the
wilderness out here.

There's other predators,
you know,

that are gonna come in
and try to take your food.

I never grew up, like,
out shooting or hunting
in the woods, you know?

It's just kind of,
a desire that
came to me,

something I wanted to do.

And I somewhat feel cheated
sometimes, to not grow up,

you know,
doing things like this.

You know, for me, like,
guns are really important
where I live.

There's a lot
of wilderness around.

There's a lot of predators.
Wolves, bears, coyotes.

I have a lot of stuff to
protect, you know?

My fish and my dogs
and my own life.

You know, a bear
can come into your camp,

and that could be
all she wrote.

(GUN FIRES)

(GUN FIRES)

I can see that this is
shooting low and to the right.

I'm gonna need
to adjust the sights
for a little more height

and, uh, tweak this over
to the left a little bit.

Okay, I'm gonna
try again here.

(GUN FIRING)

Looking pretty good.

Adjusted these sights
here a little bit

and I'm liking
what I'm seeing.

I'm ready to go kill
some squirrels.

Twenty-two's
the meat gun up here.

You know, you can't always
kill big game, you know?

So you can
survive off of ducks,

geese, beaver,
porcupine, rabbits.

Once, I, uh, got to 17,
I was on the road,

I started learning
how to shoot guns.

Got on with a guy
who was an old Vietnam vet,

he kind of taught me
the ropes of shooting.

And then once I got up here,

I just kind of learned
from hunting and being
out in the woods.

(SQUEAKS)

I hear a squirrel back here.
I see him too.

Straight ahead there.

(DOG BARKING)

(GUN CLICKS)

You son of a bitch.

(GUN FIRES)

One shot, one kill.

Doesn't get better than that.

So this goes back to the dogs,
and goes in the pot.

At least it doesn't
go to waste.

I'm very against
wasting things.

I would never shoot something,
and kill something,

if it couldn't be used
somehow.

But killing's just
part of life out here.

Part of the food chain myself.

(SQUIRREL SQUEAKING)

I see one.

It's moving now.

(GUN FIRES)

All right, I've got some
good squirrel hunting
on this morning.

Just part of the routine
around here,

maintaining the pest.

You know,
as is getting firewood.

These are jobs that
just have to be done,

so my next task
is go get some firewood.

(DOGS BARKING)

Can't cook dog food
without firewood.

You can't heat your house.

You can't dry out
your blue jeans

when they're soaking wet, so.

Two squirrels down.

Time to go cut some firewood.

(CHAINSAW BUZZING)

Nothing goes to waste,
you know,

these are leftover from
projects that I've had

and it goes right back
into the woodstove.

You don't just use wood in
the winter around here,
you use it all year round.

You never can have
enough wood,

you always got to
think ahead on wood.

It's one of the most important
things of living in Alaska.

All right, well I got myself
a little bit of wood here.

This ain't gonna
last me too long,
but it's a good start.

I'm gonna take over some wood
to my dog food cooker

'cause that's where I use
the most wood at,

and, you know,
having all these dogs

makes my wood consumption

at least a third
more to double.

Life would be a lot more
simple if I didn't have dogs,
I'll tell you that.

That isn't what
I'm looking for.

I love living with dogs,
they're my best friends,

and, uh, I rely on them

to keep me alive
in the middle of winter.

AGNES: You always gotta help
and give a hand,

and then when you need it,
someone will always give
you a hand back.

CHIP: Oh, man.

I'm trying to extend
the fish rack here.

This thing
had to be made bigger.

There's no way this thing's
gonna accommodate

all of her fish by the time
we get the fish going.

NARRATOR:
Extending their fish rack will
allow the Hailstones to dry,

smoke, and preserve
large quantities of fish.

This will help them with the
supply of protein they'll need
to survive the winter ahead.

CHIP: I just basically doubled
it by adding three rows
to what's already up there.

The rows up pretty high
'cause I don't want animals

coming along from the bottom
and getting hanging salmon.

What I gotta do next now that
I have a smooth pole on top
is put another layer of tarps.

And then I'm gonna
put an end over here

that can be used as a doorway
and yet be closed up,

and I'll have a smoking stove
off to one side.

These are to hold the tarp out
and away from the meats.

So that if there's a wind,
that the tarp here doesn't
beat against the meat.

Definitely one advantage
we have here in the Arctic

is that these longer days
in the summertime

let us work whenever
we're comfortable.

Wow! Awesome.

-CHIP: You think so?
-Yeah.

AGNES: It look like
a cool smoker, huh?

Cool. We love it.

CHIP: Well, this will be
your smoker end.

(KIDS CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY)

Okay, thank you so much.

I love you.

SUE: How you live is a choice.

Take the opportunity to grow.

Take the opportunity
to deny it.

But it's your choice.

Now, the tide's not in,
you know, and that's
what the fishies, they do.

They get in here on one tide
and they swim out on the next.

Char, um, are aggressive.

When the current's
against them,

they're just invigorated
and they go after stuff.

But, uh, there's no tide
right now.

NARRATOR: For Sue,
summer offers a short window

to harvest protein and
restock her food supply.

But low tides have
made catching Arctic char
a struggle,

and she must
soon return to Kavik.

SUE: I don't have the time
to wait for the tides.

All's I've got
is the here and the now.

My time is
tick-tick-tick-tick-tick.

I got a fish!

That right there
is a nice Arctic char.

I don't want him
to flop back in.

I'm gonna put him up here.

Get ready for my next fishy.

Come on. You know you want it.

Damn it.

Damn son of a bitch fuck!

All right.

The lure came off.
The fishy got away.

This is supposed to be
20-pound test.

These kind of snapped that
like a little son of a bitch.

Yeah, every cast
I'm just getting weeds.

Yeah, you know, I mean,
this is not gonna get me fish.

It gets in the way
of getting fish.

I'm not giving up,
no way, but, you know,
my time is short,

so I've gotta make
some decisions soon.

Come on, bite on it.

Don't you dare spit it out.

Ah, nice!

Got him!

Whoa!
I don't even know how to get
you out of here, little dude.

That's fucking amazing!

I got a twofer.

I get my old lure
that I just lost

and the new one
that he just ate.

Okay, come meet your cousin.

All righty.

I think one more cast
from here,

and then I've gotta call it.

The pilot's needing
to get his work done.

Kavik doesn't run itself.

It's been a good couple
of hours.

Got a couple of just glory,
prize-winning char.

Those are beauties.

Learning a little
somethin'-somethin'.

I can catch fish out here
even when there's no tide.

Just not many.

And logic says
that there's a lot
more fish in here,

but again,
char is a fighting fish.

When you have a good current,

you'll have a good time
catching char.

It might be hard
for people to grasp,

but I choose to live so remote
from the rest of society

not because
I don't like people.

It's just where
I shine the best.

Okay, little buddy.

All righty, then.

Well, time to wrap up
this little chapter.

JESSIE:
I didn't come up to Alaska
to live some complex life,

I came up here to live simply.

Hey, I got myself
some wood up, you know.

I got some squirrels
knocked down

and, you know,
spent a lot of time
here around my dogs,

and that's a good day
in my mind.

That's one of the reasons
you do live out here,

you gotta work hard,
but it's a hell of a lot more

slow-paced
than a 9:00 to 5:00 job.

You know what time it is, huh?

Favourite time, when I cook
you up some stew.

Pretty proud of this cooker.

This, uh, seals it tight.

Keeps the fire going.

This thing cooks pretty quick.

I got my squirrels.

And then I put 10 gallons
of water in here

for the amount of food
I'm gonna have to cook
for these dogs.

Now it's time
to add some fish.

Big ol' chum salmon, there.

They get kind of excited

when I'm foolin' around
with the cooker.

They know what that means.

They know I'm cookin' 'em up
the good stuff.

This is gonna be
the biggest sustenance
added to this meal,

and this is, uh, real high
quality human-grade chicken.

You ain't gonna feed
these dogs off of squirrels,

that's for sure.

But, you know, the reason
I cook these squirrels

is just to not see 'em
go to waste.

Grab one more bucket of meat
and this sucker'll be cookin'.

All right, now this fish
and this meat and this fat,

this is what really
substains my dogs.

These dogs are meant
to like, travel,

and they have great endurance,

and great endurance
relies on fat.

That's where their energy
comes from.

And protein is what repairs
their muscles from, like,

the extreme training,
you know,

and builds back new muscle.

Put some squirrel in there.

This is a major resource
to me.

Without this resource,

I can't continue to have
as many dogs as I have.

It's time to feed the dogs!

Dogs don't just need food,

they need tons of love
and attention.

They need a good,
solid pack leader.

Everything I do is for
my dogs, and like,

they come before me, you know,

and that's the way
it should be

whenever you got a bunch
of animals,

'cause I choose to have
this many dogs, you know.

I choose to be ambitious
and wanna race.

Oh, there's one of
those squirrels, Prince.

Yeah! There you go.

As you can see,
the dogs like it, you know,

it just adds a little
more nutrition

to the diet
and a little variety.

Mostly, it just keeps me
from wasting resource.

When you live out here
and stuff's sparse,

you just try to use
everything you got.

And dog mushin's expensive.

So, to like learn how to
utilise these resources
is extremely important to me.

Dogs are happy, I'm happy.

I feel like a king, you know.

I got everything I need
around here.

CHIP: I have other people
that are counting on me.

And part of counting on me
is me being able to do

the things that they want
and need.

It's nice, soft dirt,
I gotta say.

Lot of sand in it.

Some clay, not much.

Well, the point of having
a fish rack

and the point of having
a nice cold hole

to store things is
to preserve stuff.

If you've got all this food

and you're trying to keep
a surplus,

you have to have
a way of preserving it.

This right now is just about
keeping what we've worked
so hard to get a hold of

in good condition
to get it home,

so we can have it
for the winter.

-Is this gonna be the door?
-Yep.

If you have it just laying
here on the ground

like a hole in the ground,
a bear could just part it.

Weasels can go in it.
Mice will fill it.

NARRATOR: For the Hailstones,

it's crucial to build
a cold storage, or sigloak,

to preserve their supply
of berries and greens,

and protect the food
from predators.

CHIP: Old-timers
used to make 'em round.

I make mine square.

It's got a lot more to go.

I'm just getting
the basic frame down.

Ah! How come!

It just smacked my
knuckle really hard.
Pissed me off.

It's not bleeding or anything,
just got thumped.

It's gonna be a little blue
right there.

It just caught my knuckle
up here in front

and gave me a good
little whack.

I guess what I did was
probably take it off the tip
when I pushed the tip,

and I was sideways,
and it just gave it a chance
to roll off the side.

The trick is to make sure
the bar isn't bent.

But it's not.

And a long time ago,
if an Eskimo came
across a chainsaw,

there's no way
he would have rejected it.

Folks up here have
always wanted

to make their lives better
in a really harsh environment,

and you really gotta admit
that they came up with some

very clever ways to
do it socially and to
do it personally.

And these folks up here,
if there's a better way
to do something,

they have always
incorporated it into their
way of doing things.

And we have a door!

Is it done yet?

It's almost there.

I got the basic frame up.

The idea of making it,
building it,

is to keep all the foods fresh
and keep all the mice away,

so they don't go bad.

CHIP: It's part of living
like we do, Bun.

So we don't have to depend
on anybody but ourselves.

There ain't much
for jobs up here,

so you gotta make
your own work.

Qutan there's our
youngest daughter,

and it's always been a pure
joy just to teach the kids.

We consider this to be part
of their education.

They have to have
local knowledge
of the local materials

and the local foods,
when to be there,

what to do with 'em,
and how to store 'em.

We cut down these willows
quite a while back,

and they're useful
for lots of things.

I just need the willows right
now to hold down the grasses

that we've stacked against it
for an insulative layer.

I'm done.

Just flip it all the way up
and back,

so it doesn't fall on
your head.

-Not bad, huh?
-Can I go in?

Yeah, you can get in.
You can play.
You can do whatever.

So I'm pretty happy
with what's going on.

We'll have a place to store
berries and greens

and use like a refrigerator
and have no mice.

We'll have a place over here
to dry foods up.

I know it's kind of
small and narrow,
but that's the whole idea.

If we made it really big,
it would be hard to keep it
cool and chilled.

It's big to me.

Well, it's big to you
'cause you's a little lady.

It's just part of
preservation.

You don't wanna
work really hard

not to be able to, uh,
use what you've got.

SUE: The worlds are colliding,

and they're formin'
a good circle.

Touchdown!

Awesome fishing trip!

Yay!

But, here, thank you, Jake.

You're sure welcome.

-I sure, I appreciate it.
-Absolutely.

Wanna get the sand off,
clean 'em up.

Make a nice, smooth,
clean cut.

And just get the guts
out of 'em.

Um, getting this fish
is super important to me.

So, you know, anything
that's gonna help me
be successful

in obtaining my food stores
is a good thing.

I want as much of the meat.

Gonna lop off his tail
down here.

I'm a single person.

That's a nice-size
little fishy steak.

Look at that.

This is actually a trout,
related to a trout,

but it's got pink meat
like a salmon.

You know, I had about 500
pounds of food that went bad.

And that's of all varieties.

You know, it may not
seem like a lot, but it is.

Looking at it,
"Oh, it's only two fish."

Well, it's not just two fish.

This is the same
as going and getting,

down south,
maybe a week's supply
of protein for somebody.

And I did it in
a couple of hours.

This is a grand total
of six meals.

Every day I wake up
and my brain just says,

"What the heck
can I learn today?"

I learnt that I could put
six meals up,

visit with a friend,

learn about my fishing hole.

What a great day.

All righty.
Now to add to my little pile.

Boom.

Adding a little sushi
to the winter food.

ERIK: I couldn't be luckier.

I wake up every day and my
wife and I are self-employed,
and we do our own thing,

and we just have a good time
running Talarik Creek Lodge.

Just reading the water,
it looks really good right
in here.

NARRATOR:
Violent river rapids have
forced Erik and Martha

to change course
in their search for
a new grayling hole.

Finding its location
is critical

for their subsistence
and incoming clients.

Let's drift down from here.

The grayling fishery
here in Alaska,
as a whole, is strong.

It's a native fish. They're
found in almost all fresh
waters here in Alaska,

and they're just
a really vibrant,
hard-fighting, sport fish.

Both to catch
and eat for supper.

So we're just up here
exploring a new
fishing ground,

few days in between
fishing clients,

and I've learned it makes
it a lot more fun and exciting

to fish different
waters every day.

We always like to experiment,
get out there,

and check out
some new fisheries.

Today's just a fun day
for Martha and I to go out
and do a little fishin',

but at the same time,
we're scouting out a new area.

Martha, despite being the
sweetest nice girl ever,
is extremely competitive.

And she loves to fish.

All right,
I'll tell you what, Martha?

Whoever catches
the biggest fish doesn't
have to clean 'em.

MARTHA: Sounds good.

ERIK: Are you gonna
catch the biggest?
MARTHA: I'm gonna try.

Oh, but I thought you were
super fisher woman,

down from Alaska Peninsula,
Iliamna.

Always catch the biggest fish.

This is what I did as a child,
I'd come out on the...

Oh, yeah! (LAUGHS)

-I got a fish.
-You got one?

Nice-sized grayling. Look it!

Okay, so you got the first.

Bam! I got one too.

Yours looks small.

ERIK: Mine doesn't
look small to me.

Let's have this one for dinner
with the other one.

Aw, shoot.
I think Martha's is bigger.

You wanna measure fish?

ERIK: Oh, holy moly!

Looks like you're
cleanin' fish.
Look at this beast.

You clean the fish,
I cook the fish.

That's the way that it goes.

ERIK: This is a really
beautiful Arctic grayling
here.

They call it the sailfish
of the north.

It has this really neat sail
on the top.

Just protect his gills
and hold his body there,

and this is a pretty nice one.

We're gonna go ahead
and release this one,

give him a kiss and
hopefully this fish will still
be here next week

for a client of mine to catch.

We're gonna go ahead and
call this a successful trip,

and we know where to bring our
clients in the future.

And right now, we're gonna go
and find some dry firewood

and make a little campfire
and eat some grayling supper.

Super easy to make a shore
lunch or dinner on the river.

All you need is a bunch
of dry wood, a pan,

little bit of butter,
and fish.

The bark of the birch tree
is the best fire-starter
that exists in nature.

So I don't know what
kind of wood we're gonna
round up here,

but whatever it is,
we get it going

with some of this birch bark
as an accelerant.

-Look at that.
-Nice.

That's probably
good enough for now.

That should make
a good bed of coals.

I'm gonna clean those fish
since you're the big winner.

Nice white meat fish.

Mix it up with some onions
that Martha has along ready
to go,

and it's gonna make
for a delicious meal.

MARTHA: It's a good spot.

Definitely gonna bring clients
next week up there,

-make a day of it.
They'll love it.
-Oh, yeah.

Aw, that was good.

MARTHA: So today Erik and I
went out to have a fun day
out on the river,

and also look for a good
spot for our clients
to fish grayling.

We managed to find a really
great grayling hole.

We caught us a bunch
of grayling.

Now we're nice and full,
so we're gonna head home.

It was a beautiful day out
on the river.

Just another great day
in Iliamna.

CHIP: Food is the centre
of a lot of things we do.

Food is the reason
why we hunt,

it's the reason why we gather,
it's the reason why we fish.

AGNES: Oh, awesome.

So how do you work this?

CHIP: It's, uh,
just a board for a lock.

Just pull it out, unlock it.

Look, it flips all the way up
so you don't hurt yourself.

-It'll fold all the way back.
-(LAUGHS) Cool.

If you wanna
get down in there,

we can hand you all these
buckets and you guys
can stack 'em proper.

And that'll be good for your
seal oil in the spring,
and the eggs.

It'll be good for birds
to keep 'em cool,

it'll be good for greens
and for berries.

Chip and Qutan was real busy
around camp.

They made us a sigloak,
which is a cold storage.

That turned out pretty good.
I'm real happy for that.

Now he won't have to
worry about my berries
and greens going sour.

CHIP: Should we have
these bellies for dinner?

-All the ones up
to here are salt.
-CHIP: Okay.

All right, then I'm gonna put
these all in the same rack.

-That would be perfect.
-Yes, it would.

AGNES: Nice, yeah?
CHIP: Yeah, ain't it?

-This'll do just fine, huh?
-Yeah.

This will do just fine.

I really like it.

CHIP: I like revitalising
this camp quite a bit.

It's been a lot of fun.

This is our backyard.
This is our home.

It's where we live,
and we know where
the food comes from.

And not only that,
it's the chase
that is involved.

And for my kids, it's culture.

In their background,
they can see the things

that their grandparents
have done.

Maybe materials have changed,
but the food hasn't.

The animals haven't
and the land hasn't.

So I think folks here
are pretty well intact,

and they're pretty well
grounded in what's going on.

And, um, I like that.

I like knowing
where my food's from.

For now, we've got enough
to keep all the meats
stored really well,

and all the greens,
and all the berries.

We'll get 'em to Noorvik,

I think, in better shape than
we have in a couple years.

It's very important,
when we're trying to live
the subsistence lifestyle,

because not only we're out
here to get the food
and preserve it,

we also want to store it
and make sure
it's stored properly,

so when we bring it back home
and eat it this winter,

it'll still taste as good.

If you go through all this
tremendous effort

to get all this equipment,
to do all this work,
and you get all this food,

if you don't take care of it
and preserve it,
there's no point to it.

So it's just a continuation
of what it is we're about.

So we'll let these smoke and
we'll let the berries chill

and we'll go eat
our dinner, huh?
Call it a night.

Pretty happy with the way
that all ended up.

My wife's pretty happy, too.

AGNES: A good day.
CHIP: Oh, what a good day.