♪ ♪
ricko: There's someone checking a fish net right here.
The king salmon are running, so everybody's out trying to
get their food for the winter.
Me, skyler, and skarlett, we're taking a 700 mile
boat ride from the yukon river bridge
to the family cabin.
It's a journey.
We start on the yukon, we get onto the koyukuk river,
then the huslia river.
So, passing a lot of villages and using a lot of different
waterways to get to the family cabin.
We had a real cold winter.
It was -50, -60 below weather.
And now it's summer, and all the snow,
all the ice is gone,
and the only way we can get around is by boat.
The rivers are our highways.
There's a lot of dangers when we travel this river.
If I was to hit like a sandbar,
a gravel bar on the side, it could,
it could wreck your boat.
It could turn your boat over.
See, like that thing floating over there?
That's what you got to watch out for when you're traveling.
Did you see it?
Skyler: Yeah.
Ricko: There's big sticks in the water that's sometimes floating.
You got to watch for those, and also looking for snags
that are stuck to the bottom and coming up to the surface.
They'll wipe your whole family out if you hit one of those.
Even the most experienced get killed out here on these rivers.
(thud)
ricko: Was coming around the corner and we hit that gravel bar.
We hit pretty hard, it shut the motor right off.
Let me check out this prop.
Oh, man.
Look at that prop.
This is all mangled.
I got one more spare prop.
If I hit again, I'm out of props,
but I just got to be more aware.
I'm traveling and it's getting like,
it gets kind of monotonous after a while, doing this.
And if I'm not paying attention and trying
to take shortcuts too.
A shortcut is not always a shortcut, as you can see.
We got to go over to the beach and switch out the prop.
It's a very dangerous river.
Easy to become complacent traveling this river.
It's either trying to lull you to sleep on the yukon,
or it's trying to take your life.
Man, this is chopped up.
Look at that sky.
Skyler: I wanna see. I wanna see.
I'm getting closer.
Skarlett: What happened?
Ricko: Busted the prop.
Skyler: Oh.
Ricko: Okay, let's drop the new one on.
Skyler: This is crazy.
Ricko: Okay.
Looks good, I don't see it wobbling.
The only thing left to do is try it out and
see what happens.
You guys ready to go again?
Okay, let's go.
Let's try it out.
The moment of truth.
Feels good, feels smooth.
Oh, yeah. Back on step again.
Oh, yeah, we're good.
Just got to stay off the gravel bars,
that's what I got to do.
Sue: Change is common here.
Every year, you don't know what you're gonna get until
you wake up and find out.
(wind)
sue: There's that north wind again.
I would say that it's been a brisk summer.
But it's been downright cold.
Welcome back to kavik.
This is summertime here.
Everybody's being affected by things that are happening on the globe.
My business is as well.
Narrator: After spending time at her property in chena,
sue aikens has returned to kavik for the summer.
With no clients in camp due to pandemic regulations,
sue will use her time to know her survival needs.
Without a meat-supply, her first task is to check on her
food stores from the garden.
Sue: Done. Done.
Done.
Even though it's 24-hour daylight,
in those wee hours I'm going into the 20s and 30s.
I'm not allowing enough time for anything to grow successfully.
So I'm kind of concerned about my own food source.
These aren't surviving.
The tundra is a larger garden than this is.
The tundra's had more experience succeeding in this
environment than I have.
So I wanna get my supplies together and get my butt out
there and see what I can get that nature provides.
The clock is ticking, and I'm worried about winter.
Winter is coming. Winter is coming.
I don't have clients right now.
That means no revenue.
What can I do on my own, using my own resources,
and fill my freaking freezer?
Forage, hunt, go out, and check out what's in the field.
Let's call this a big shopping trip.
I wanna get my fishing gear.
I wanna get my hunting gear.
The goal is not to get tonight's supper,
the goal is to get the winter food.
Let's go.
Andy: I busted my butt for 20 years to live
a sustainable lifestyle.
It's paying off now because the quality of my life
hasn't changed and everybody else's has.
Denise: Ready to go for a boat ride, tope?
Just in time for the rain.
Andy: Denise and I are gonna make an attempt to go
get some firewood today.
We had a really hard winter.
A lot of wind and a lot of snow,
made it almost impossible to collect the firewood that we
needed for this coming winter.
Maybe all this rain will bring some high water.
And then if that happens then we can work on loading boats.
Let's just see what happens.
I'm 63-years-old and we work our asses off around here and
so everything we do around here,
we're trying to minimize the amount of work.
And so I'm gonna build another porch out that connects up
with the back porch.
And that's what all the wood's gonna be stacked on.
Having it on the same level as where the stove and the floor
is, is gonna take a tremendous amount of work out of keeping
ourselves warm this winter.
Narrator: For andy bassich and denise becker,
the endless days of summer are used to gather resources,
improve their lifestyle, and prepare for the seasons ahead.
They will build storage at their cabin for easier access
to firewood during the brutal winters.
But first, they must contend with the unpredictable
yukon river and retrieve a cache of harvested trees.
Andy: Where this wood is located is in a back
slough of an island.
And when the water is high,
I have access to be able to go through the back sloughs
and get to the islands.
Once the water level drops on the yukon river,
it's too shallow to get into those sloughs.
Especially with a very heavily-loaded boat.
Get, get the bow over before we get pushed downriver,
because that looks really shallow right over there.
Denise: Okay.
Andy: I don't think we're gonna get it to shore.
I don't, I don't wanna get us stuck up here.
I'm just gonna tie us off with a rope.
Denise: Yeah.
The water levels are changing fast.
We need to get in, see what we need to do,
get on with it,
and get out while we can with the level of the river.
Oh, and there's all the wood.
Just waiting for us.
Andy: We could start stacking at the top of the hill.
And after the water does come up,
at least we can get another quart into the house,
and that'll kind of get us by until winter, maybe.
Denise: I would like to be able to carry the logs through
the water into the boat.
There's no way we can do that because the bottom of the
river is silty, sandy, and it's sucking mud.
Andy: You ready? Denise: Yeah.
Andy: A lot of living out here is just lifting,
carrying, moving.
It works.
One down, 432 left.
Good.
I'm really fortunate.
Denise is probably one of the most highly motivated people
I've ever met.
She drives herself really hard all the time,
and pushes herself.
So, having a partner like that has really,
really changed the equation for me.
Having someone that I can really count on to,
to really kick in and help, and,
and get a lot of the physical work done.
Last one.
All right. That's a pile.
Denise: We have all our wood piled up, ready to go.
If we get the slightest opportunity of higher water,
we will just get down there and get to calico.
Andy: At least we got something done today.
I mean, it wasn't kind of what I thought as far as
loading boats and bringing wood back.
But for us to try and get this wood into boats way
out there and get upriver isn't worth the effort.
But I think if the water comes up.
Denise: We're ready to go.
Andy: Yeah. So... Denise: Just need water.
Chip: I just know where to be and when to be,
and what to do.
Chip: Let's put together a, a reel and a rod and we'll go fishing.
Chip: We should probably just take one.
Leave that one behind for the girls.
The girls will put that one to use when they come around to it.
Right now at camp there's me, carol, and qutan, and wade.
And we're babysitting wade for his mom, itty-bitty,
because she's having a baby and she's waiting in kotzebue.
My wife's in noorvik, tinmiaq's in noorvik,
and mary's in noorvik.
Because of covid, the town's on a lockdown right now.
And they're requesting everybody to stay home.
This place ain't got no people,
so this is the best place to be.
This is the best quarantine.
All right now, follow me.
Let's go fishing.
This is the best way to babysit ever.
There's lots of fish going by.
See all the, the tails and the backs going by of the salmon?
Wade: Yeah.
Chip: They're going upstream, they're gonna lay eggs,
they're gonna spawn.
And they're gonna have babies.
Right now, in the kiwalik river here,
we've got chum going by, and we've got pinks going by.
And pinks will take a hook right now.
So, I think it'd be a lot of fun to go show wade kelly
how to cast.
Wade: Oh, there's fish over there, right there.
I see fish right there jump.
Chip: It's just fish just jumping all over.
Wade: Yeah, there's lots.
Chip: Sure beats watching a movie,
or playing on a computer,
or I don't know what people do anymore.
But I go fishing.
Wade: Crazy fishes there.
Oh.
Chip: Yeah. They're really jumping out of the water, huh?
Wade: Yeah.
Chip: Yeah. They're flying fish almost.
Wade: I don't want it take long time.
Chip: Sometimes it does take a long time.
That's just part of fishing.
You have to be patient. You got to be persistent.
Wade: I know.
Chip: It's the suspense of fishing.
Wade: Yeah.
Chip: Oh, got one on, grandson.
Oh, yeah, come on boy.
Come here. Come here, stand up, stand up.
I got one hooked.
Carefully stand up.
Okay, you remember how to do this?
Wade: Yeah.
Chip: Okay, grab up here. You're going the wrong way.
There you go.
Okay, keep, keep going.
Go ahead.
Wade: It's not moving.
Chip: He's coming.
He still kind of got some fight in him.
Wade: Uh-huh. Chip: Keep reeling, grandson.
Oh!
Chip: He still kind of got some fight in him.
Oh.
Shucks, it came out of his mouth and it hit me.
Wade: Yeah. Yeah.
Chip: Here. Let's try and hook another one up, huh?
Wade: Yeah. Shucks. Chip: Shucks.
A great thing about fishing is it's fun.
I'll just keep casting, it's like gambling.
You're like, "I got to try one more time."
because you know what, there's that chance you can
get a fish that next chance.
You know what's a good thing? There's more fish.
Wade: Uh-hmm.
Chip: So, we just keep fishing. This is kind of fun.
Wade: Yeah.
Andy: In the world most people live in,
money is security.
If you wanna be a millionaire out here,
you better have lots of skills.
Denise: Okay, let's do this.
Andy: Let's see what we can do for getting some wood
back in anyway.
One of the big issues that we're having with getting wood
off of our island is that it's completely
water-level dependent.
We had quite a bit of rain in the last day.
I noticed the water level came up,
so I'm kind of cobbling together a,
a little contraption with my go-devil boat,
which is a really shallow draft boat.
And then I'm coupling that with an army pontoon boat
that I use for freighting.
Perfect.
This is kind of a one-shot deal today.
The water's probably as high as it's gonna be,
so we might as well just try and do what we can.
And if we can't get enough in, then we're gonna have to
scramble come fall time and find another place
to get wood.
Denise: The moment of truth. Dead ahead.
Andy: My biggest concern is that the water's not deep enough
that we can get the boats close.
Because the last thing I wanna do is carry wood 20 feet out
into a shallow slough and then put it into a boat.
Looks like the shallows I'm at right here is only
like knee deep.
Denise: Yeah, I'm on the same.
It's a ridge right along here.
Andy: Yeah, so we're good.
I think we'll be able to load that thing up.
Denise: Let's get to it.
Andy: That's a pretty rotten-looking (bleep) wood,
hopefully it'll hold.
I brought some boards with me.
Some plywood to bank ramps, because I didn't want all of
our wood to get full of silt and dirt.
With denise at the top of the hill rolling and pushing
the firewood down the hill,
me at the bottom end receiving it.
Denise: Looks square, here we go.
First one.
Andy: Not very good.
Denise: Andy, you have to catch it.
This is like some kind of yukon river bowling.
Next one.
Andy: Yeah.
Denise: Okay. This is a bigger one.
Whoa!
Andy: Good.
Denise: What is involved is moving those logs over,
getting them in position to go down the slide.
And as, then at the bottom, they've got to get up off of
the ground and into the boat.
There's a lot of manpower involved in that easy task.
Last one.
Okay.
Andy: Hit me with it.
Denise: It's a heavy one!
Andy: Come on. Right between the legs,
right there.
Denise: I'm gonna give it my best shot.
Andy: All right! Yay!
Denise: Yay!
Andy: You're good.
Today became a pretty efficient operation.
Oftentimes out here, you have plan a,
and then there's plan b, and sometimes even plan c.
Today, plan a worked.
All right. The wood's at the property anyway.
Denise: I know.
Ricko: I feel like I'm very comfortable out here,
but I also wanna watch out for complacency.
You become very comfortable and you start ignoring danger.
We're almost to the boneyard.
This is where all the mammoth bones are at.
I know there's a lot of mammoth tusks in this stuff here.
Narrator: Ricko and his children,
skyler and skarlett,
are on a 700-mile journey to their cabin in huslia,
traveling southwest on the yukon river.
They have arrived at an area known as the boneyard,
a landmark in the alaskan interior.
Although the bones cannot be taken,
it's a chance for the youngsters to explore
the region's past.
But they must use caution, as the terrain can be deadly.
Ricko: There's a place to stop right here.
We'll hike up in there a little bit and just check it out.
This place here doesn't say "boneyard" on the maps,
but this place is known by elders, everybody.
It's basically a huge landmark for us out here.
Get this boat tied before we float away.
Skyler: Oh, my gosh. This is so crazy.
Ricko: Because if our boat floats away out here,
we're as good as mammoth.
We don't wanna go extinct looking for things
that are extinct.
Okay. There's a little canyon here.
Skyler: Yeah. This is what I wanted to check.
This is where we're gonna find one.
Is this one?
No.
Ricko: There's a lot in here, but they're hard to find.
They blend right in.
Oh, look at that, above us on this side.
If that thing goes, we'll be good as dust.
This is such a magical place but I also wanna be careful
because it's dangerous, there's a lot of hanging,
caving clay and dirt.
Okay. We're boldly going where nobody's
gone before, right here.
Oh, damn. Look at up here.
Ooh.
Oh, damn. It's looking kind of dangerous over here.
Skyler: This is really fun.
Ricko: Okay. Let's go a little further.
If it gets too bad, we got to turn around though.
See, look at that.
That's kind of dangerous.
Yeah. This thing can all come down at once.
I mean, look above us.
Skyler: I know. Doesn't it look scary?
(rumble)
ricko: Did you hear that one fall over there?
Holy.
Skyler: That hit hard. Ricko: Scary.
Skyler: I'm very scared right now.
Ricko: Let's get out of here. It's kind of dangerous.
Watch above you.
Try to move fast so it doesn't cave on us.
(deep rumble)
oh, shoot. Come on!
)
ricko: Oh, shoot. Come on!
Holy (bleep).
Skyler: Dang!
Ricko: A big old chunk came off.
Skyler: That's where we were.
Ricko: I know. Let's get out of here.
Skyler: We're dead.
Ricko: That (bleep) scared the crap out of me.
Skyler: I'm freaked out right now.
Ricko: Let's move. Let's just keep moving.
That thing really hit, huh?
Skyler: Yeah.
Ricko: You kids ran quick, huh?
I didn't even had to say it.
You guys are faster than me.
This place is a magical place but dangerous ground.
We're being curious and going back,
that's how you get hurt out here.
But that was fun, huh?
Skyler: Yeah.
Ricko: As the saying goes, curiosity kills the cat.
I got to get my kids out of here.
Keep moving down the river,
we don't wanna end up like the mammoths out here.
Woo. Let's get out of here.
Sue: There's nobody that tells me to punch a time clock.
So, I'm gonna take all the cards and punch them all.
This is the natural garden.
Nature's bounty.
Narrator: Sue aikens is without a meat supply.
And unusual summer temperatures have thwarted her
ability to grow food.
She's journeyed into the tundra in search of thriving
plants that can be harvested this time of year.
But if she's unsuccessful,
she would be gravely unprepared for the winter ahead.
Sue: This is has been a very cold summer.
My garden was doing very well and I went to 20 in
the middle of June.
Killed it.
I've only got a month, maybe six weeks,
and I'm back to freezing temperatures.
I don't have a fourth try.
This now, the tundra, is where I've got to look
for my greens.
All right. I'm seeing a little bit different color.
I'm gonna stop and look,
that may be fireweed out there.
Doesn't look like the biggest patch I've ever seen,
but I am a betting gal and I'm betting you that's
fireweed out there.
If the fireweed is in bloom, it's a 100% edible plant.
I can take the greens, put them away for some vegetables.
I can take those flowers, I can make jelly out of it.
I can eat them, dry them, make tea out of it.
There's a lot I can do, and it's healthy for me.
Right here is the plant that I'm talking about.
Fireweed.
I can chew 'em right now, and they're good.
As one part of my food source alters and becomes less,
I have to adapt, and change,
and collect something different.
Okay. That's something we don't have here.
The grasshopper!
Don't you bite me.
Hope you don't bite.
If that little grasshopper can make it,
this grasshopper can.
Has my weather changed? Has my climate changed?
Have my plants changed?
Absolutely.
Mother nature throws a curve ball at the globe and
we all scrape.
So, this is me scraping.
I've got nice half a bucket or more.
I don't wanna deplete any one area.
So, I've got to keep going.
Do I have enough fireweed to last me the entire winter?
No.
But I've got quite a bit.
I can make several meals out of what I've got now,
and I've got variety.
Caribou. There's caribou.
I've got a caribou that just jumped out of the ditch.
And he's crossing the road.
He's crossing the road.
Okay. There he is, okay.
All right. (bleep). There he is.
Sue: Okay.
(gunshot)
and he's definitely a bull.
Okay.
(gunshot)
he's done.
I have zero meat in the freezer.
And in one day, I've got vegetables,
and now look at this.
There he is.
(bleep) yeah.
Thank you, buddy.
Thank you.
Man.
Thank you for your gift.
You're a beautiful animal.
Lots of beautiful meat.
I will not let it go to waste, my friend.
Very emotional.
I have zero meat in my freezer.
Totally unexpected, absolutely 159 million%.
Was not expecting it.
It makes me emotional to think about the gift I just got.
It was unexpected.
Here's his little heart rock to tell you thank you, buddy.
Get the rest of my stuff together,
and get him taken care of.
This is one out of four caribou I'm allowed.
And it's one of many steps on the way to me being healthy
for the next 12 months.
I don't know that I'm gonna get four just because I'm
entitled to them.
I'm not entitled to four animals.
I'm entitled to the opportunity to get four animals.
Humans, like anything, are opportunists.
Whether you've got two legs, four legs, or flippers,
you're using the opportunities in your environment.
(thud)
it's a nice bit of meat.
One caribou isn't gonna make an entire winter,
but it's a start.
What a day.
I'm just still in shock.
What a fine, fine day.
Ricko: It takes a lot of passed on knowledge to get
where I'm at today and I think it's important my kids learn
all these tricks of the trade.
We're going to a cabin similar to the one right here.
It's really important to have these cabins out here because
if you're tired, you're hungry,
you're hurt, or anything, these cabins can really
save your life out here.
The importance of cabins is even higher now
that there's coronavirus.
When I was traveling, I broke the prop on my boat motor.
That could be a situation where I'm stuck and broken
down with a busted lower unit,
and a lot of villages are quarantined.
They don't want no outsiders coming in,
no village-to-village travel.
So, having nice cabins out here is more important
than ever before.
It's right over here.
If you look up here, you'll see the cabin.
Did you see it?
Skyler: Yeah.
Ricko: It's so grown in now. Let's check it out, though.
Just got to make sure ain't no bears around here.
Try to look for any kind of tracks,
any kind of sign.
Oh, look at the cabin.
Aw, look at that porcupine.
It's eaten away at it.
Skyler: Right now?
Ricko: No.
You see all those holes all over around it?
Porcupine will ruin your whole cabin.
Not only do bears destroy cabins,
the smaller critters do.
And looking at this cabin right here,
I could see that there's a porcupine just tearing into it.
Once they start chewing on your cabin,
taking the insulation out, and eating at the walls,
you can easily lose a cabin in one summer.
I wanna fix up this cabin,
but I also wanna get some firewood.
That smoke when you put it in the air,
it clears the bugs out,
and it also lets the bears in the area know.
Just makes it a lot safer.
Skyler: Can I try the chainsaw?
Ricko: You wanna do it right now?
Skyler: Uh-huh.
Ricko: Put some safety glasses on.
Skyler: I'm not really good at handling tools,
but I like using tools, like, helping out.
I'm, like, kind of into that.
(chainsaw revs)
ricko: See, look, put your finger here or your thumb,
your finger.
Skyler: Dad...
Ricko: You're good. Just hold it.
Huh?
Skyler: This is a tiny chainsaw.
Ricko: Yeah, it got power though.
You got to respect it.
Okay.
Skyler: Okay.
Ricko: Don't saw your knee, your foot.
Put this out here, yeah.
Little more power.
Before you touch it, hold it back.
There you go.
Skyler: This is really helping me.
Like, I'm learning a lot here, like, in the woods.
I'm learning all my survival skills.
I mean, I'm having a lot of fun, too.
Ricko: Yeah. You're a pro!
Good job. Flip that up then turn it off.
Awesome. Good job.
Now I don't have to cut wood no more.
It's all you.
Okay. I'm gonna cut some brush.
My turn to have fun with the chainsaw.
(giggles and playful groans)
chip: There's a little quip about insanity's hereditary,
you get it from your kids.
It's true.
I can tell you seven times over, they drive me nuts.
Chip: Too fast, you have it on the top.
Go slow. There you go.
Wade: This slow? Chip: Yup. Keep going.
Narrator: In kiwalik, the summer salmon run is
in full swing.
And chip is teaching his grandson, wade,
to fish with a rod and reel.
Capitalizing on these seasonal harvests is a vital
lesson for chip to impart to his grandson,
and to reinforce to his youngest daughters,
qutan and carol.
Qutan: Oh, whoa!
Chip: You lose it? Qutan: No, it just went.
Chip: Too bad the water's so dark they're probably having a
hard time seeing our lures anyway,
unless we get it right in front of their nose.
Wade: I wanna do it by myself.
Chip: Go ahead, grandson.
Wade wants to do everything. He wants to shoot things.
He wants to gut things. He wants to pluck things.
He wants to clean things. He wants to hang things.
He wants to start fires.
He wants to cook. He wants to wash dishes.
Anything we're doing.
Carol: Go like this,
you got to go over this one, okay?
Wade: Okay.
Carol: One, two. See? You did it.
Carol: It's just really enjoying when I watch wade
learning new things.
Learning how to rod and reel on his own,
actually wanting to try on his own.
Throw hard. One, two...
Chip: I got a hit. Wade, I got one on the hook.
Carol: Wade, look. Dad will get a fish!
Chip: Come on over here, look!
Let's land this guy. Look at it. Oh, pink.
Carol: Awesome. Oh, I caught one also!
Chip: You got one on?
Carol: Yeah. Chip: Wow. Carol: Oh, it went away!
Chip: Oh, I haven't landed this one yet.
Carol: It let go.
Oh, no. Look, I got it again!
Chip: Oh, look, I got mine landed!
Come on, wade.
Check it out.
Carol, you're still fighting that one?
Keep it away from the grass, bun.
That grass will mess you up.
Wade: Ha! Another one right there!
Chip: There you go. Oh, she got it!
My little sweetie pie caught herself a, a fish.
Wade: I want. I want.
Carol: Okay. Go ahead.
Wade: Yeah. Whoa!
Carol: Don't be scared.
Awesome.
Chip: How you like that, wade?
(chip laughs)
chip: I bet. Yeah, that's pretty cool, huh?
Wade: Yeah.
Carol: I caught another one!
Chip: Oh, you got another one on?
Carol: Yes, I do. Chip: All right.
Carol: Here, wade, you wanna catch it?
Chip: Yeah. Come on, grandson.
Let him, let him reel it in.
Carol: Here, reel it in.
Chip: Well, let him play out.
Carol: Watch, wade. Watch, wade.
Chip: Let him play out so he gets tired and
doesn't break your line.
Wade: Is there a fish on it?
Chip: You don't have it till it's landed. Whoa!
Wade: Oh! Whoa!
Chip: Whoa!
Wade: Oh! Whoa!
Chip: Go ahead. Let it run. Let it get tired.
You're still reeling him in, there you go.
Wade: I see it.
Chip: Okay. It's coming here? All right. So.
Carol: Yeah. I think it's tired.
It's tired. I'm pulling him off.
Chip: Oh, look at that.
That's a nice little female pink.
That's a good job you did there, wade.
The pinks put up a wonderful fight for their size.
Chip: And it's good for a little kid,
and those are pretty lightweight tackle that
we're using there.
So, you know, he got to really fight him.
Wade: Now there's three!
Chip: Yup!
Wade's loves fishing.
He sees the reward.
He's also knows that we're killing animals for food.
We're doing it quite a natural way.
Qutan: Smell it, wade. Smells good.
Wade: Uh-hmm. Qutan: Yeah. Chip: There you go.
Yum.
Qutan: This is really good.
Wade: Dada look? Chip: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Qutan: You sure like fish?
Wade: Uh-hmm. Qutan: You had fun today? Wade: Uh-hmm.
Qutan: Do you like it?
Carol: Awesome.
Chip: That came out of the river, huh?
You catch that on the, on the fishing pole?
Think someday you'll be cooking it?
Then you'll know how to catch it, clean it,
cook it, and eat it.
Wade: Uh-hmm. Ew! No, bug doing here!
Qutan: Where?
Wade: Right here.
Chip: I don't mind babysitting you out here.
You can stay with me all summer long, wade.
This stuff is fun.
Wade: Yeah.
Andy: There's a lot of work to do every single
day around here.
Anything you can do to minimize that work later on is
money in the bank.
This is eight foot by eight foot, right here.
Four foot high is two cords of wood.
So, hopefully we just have to fill that up one time and
that'll be it for the winter if we're lucky.
We got the job done getting some wood back up to
our homestead here.
And now we're gonna be adding kind of a porch addition
onto the house that's gonna house all of our wood
for the winter.
Instead of building a woodshed away from the house
where we have to carry all the wood to the house,
the idea is to build a deck onto the house for the
wood so that it's all at the same level.
All right. I'm gonna go mill floor joist,
and we're gonna, we're gonna start our clock right now.
We're gonna see who finishes first,
me building the deck or you bucking and splitting.
Denise: And splitting all that wood.
Okay, I'm winning this.
Andy: We've got a stack of wood for denise to buck it up
and split it up.
It's time for me to get the deck done that we're
gonna put it on.
I'm kind of a hare.
And denise is kind of a tortoise.
You know, she's very methodical.
She's very focused on what she does.
I tend to be kind of a rabbit where I come in and
just go like crazy like a buzz saw and work really fast.
Two very different styles of doing it.
That's why we find a lot of times it works really
well for us to just work alone at our own pace,
and get the job done.
Denise: Hey, andy!
Andy: Uh-oh! Denise is the winner.
I'm a loser!
Denise: There something I can do here?
Andy: We're about ready to start stacking wood now I guess.
Well, it feels good to get this project done.
♪ ♪
denise: Duh-duh-duh!
Andy: Well, that was a lot of,
a lot more work than winter, but it's a good start.
Now, all we gotta do is just 14 more times.
Denise: Oh, that's cheery.
Can we just enjoy this for a moment?
Ricko: A man can do anything with just food and water and sleep.
That's all you need to get by in life.
(chainsaw motor)
ricko: What'd you see, skar?
Ricko: It was under there?
Ricko: Skarlett said she sees a porcupine under here.
Let me see. Where'd you see it at?
Skyler: We're in a cabin.
We saw some porcupine bites on the house,
and my dad was saying that,
like, if the porcupine keeps on doing that,
the whole cabin will be destroyed.
Ricko: Let's go walk around this area and look for him.
Skyler: So, we're gonna look for that porcupine and
we're gonna capture it and put it on the other side of the river.
Ricko: Spread out back here. Spread out.
Go ahead, sky. Look over here, spread out over that way.
Skyler: Okay.
Ricko: Skarlett, just keep going where you're going.
Look around. He might be hiding behind,
like underneath a tree or something.
He's gonna try and hide.
Skyler: Oh, I see it!
It's right there! I see it!
He's hiding under this tree!
Ricko: Don't touch him! Don't touch him.
He might hit you with his tail.
Skyler: Holy! That has a lot of quills.
Ricko: Yeah, don't get slapped by that thing.
Look at him.
He's a little guy!
I'm gonna capture him and then we'll bring him down river.
I don't wanna get slapped with it, though.
Here, sky.
Try to get him to come towards me.
Poke him just a little bit.
Not, not too hard, though.
There you go.
Keep him going this way.
Skyler: Come on.
Come on, buddy. Come on. Come on.
Ricko: There you go. Just keep poking him.
Skyler: Whoa! It's tail!
Ricko: He tried to slap at you?
Skyler: Yup. Look at the stick.
Ricko: Jeez. Dangerous little dude.
Skyler: He's slapping a bunch.
Ricko: Oh, he's moving. He's on the move. Hold on.
Ricko: Stay right there. Just don't move.
When I pull this out, he's gonna go in the thing and
I'm gonna tip him up.
Okay. Hold on. Hold on. Just don't move.
Okay. Get him in there. Get him in.
Skarlett: Dad!
Ricko: Okay. Get him in there. Get him in. All right.
Skyler: Oh!
Ricko: Get the cover. Get the cover! Get. Get.
Cover it, sky. Cover it.
Okay. We got him.
Whoo. He's going crazy.
Skyler: I'm keeping this stick.
Ricko: Good job.
Don't hit me with those quills, though.
Okay.
Let's put him in the boat and relocate him.
Skyler: We caught a porcupine in the woods.
It was, was it fun, skar?
Skarlett: Yeah.
Skyler: Yeah, it was pretty fun kidnapping it.
Ricko: I wonder if there's any laws against
kidnapping porcupines.
Skyler: We put it in a box.
We're gonna put it on a different island so it doesn't
chew up this cabin.
Ricko: I wonder if this porcupine ever been on a boat ride?
I'm gonna try to land right here and then we'll carry him
up on the beach and you guys could let him go.
You guys ready?
Skarlett: Yeah.
Ricko: There you go, little buddy.
Skyler: Yeah. Ricko: Dump him out. Skyler: It's so cute!
Ricko: Just stay calm.
Let him go. Let him go.
He wants to go to the willow line.
Run. Run to the forest.
Porcupine chase was a lot of fun.
A lot more fun having the kids with me out here,
because for the kids it's fun,
so that makes it real fun for me.
Run away, little porcupine.
Skyler: It's so little.
Skarlett: And cute.
Ricko: Okay. We got the porcupine out of there.
That was...
Skarlett: And now we have to fix up the house.
Ricko: Yeah, let's put some sheet iron on the cabin.
That way, next porcupine that come along can't just
eat it up.
Okay.
Just, just push against it like that.
We got rid of the porcupine.
Now I wanna make sure any other porcupine that come up
can't chew on the cabin like this one was doing.
Don't drop it on your toes.
Skyler: Oh, we're gonna put it like right here?
Ricko: Yeah. You can just go all the way down.
(hammering)
there you go.
And then at the bottom.
Oh, yeah.
Pound it all the way in. There you go. You got it.
Skyler: Oh, this is.
Ricko: Hold it right there.
This is the best way for me to bond with my children,
because they learn a lot and, um, it's hands-on.
And sometimes, I think, in the city,
they can almost become like they don't need me.
They have everything at hand.
Do you think a porcupine can climb up this metal?
Skyler: Uh-uh.
Ricko: No way.
When they're out here in the environment,
they can sense the danger and they're reliant on me 100%
so they kind of become sponges.
They soak in all the knowledge real quick when
we're in an environment like this,
traveling and that's how they learn.
Get them out in the field.
You're gonna do the last one, skar.
And expose them to it.
And they learn the right way to survive out here.
There you go.
I'm real proud of you guys.
We came in, we did our business, when we leave,
we leave a better place.
But I'm tired.
Skyler: Yeah, me, too.
Ricko: Let's go get some rest.
No quills in the den.
Sue: We become the hunter,
the butcher, the processor, the consumer.
You're all parts of the spectrum.
For me to give myself the treat means I take care of him
the right way.
So, here's the meat I harvested.
And here's some of the veg,
even some of the flowers I was gonna make some of the syrup with.
The stems might be just a little on the tough side.
So, I'm gonna sauté it in butter,
with a little bit of onion.
Some dill that I grew in the garden last year.
I am going to start putting in some of the fireweed.
Gonna put in some of the onions till I got a little
couple pieces of grass in there.
Grass isn't gonna hurt me.
Let me get these steaks on.
This whole meal is going to be sort of a blessing,
sort of a thank you.
It's going to be my version of a wish for the next gathering session,
and a thank you for the one I just did.
This is a moment of tundra harvest.
Does it take effort to procure?
Absolutely.
But is it worth it?
Positively, yes.
Yum.
It's absolutely perfect.
Captioned by cotter captioning services.