(dogs barking)
♪ ♪
jessie: Got my guns all sighted in.
Ready to rock.
(barking)
gonna head up into the high country,
looking for some ptarmigan.
Ptarmigan season just opened up,
but they're not around here right now.
They're gonna be somewhere up high.
This is a trail that, uh, takes me up into the high country
to the south of me.
I'd like to get as deep out into the country as I can
because I feel like the more remote areas
are where you're gonna see more animals.
Right here, it looks like some pretty deep water.
You just never know what you're gonna get, as far as trails go.
It looks smartest to go around that to me.
It can get pretty rough and boggy back here.
You look like you're getting up into the high country,
but it's still tundra
and a lot of swamp that you can get stuck in.
The trail is real soupy.
There's a lot of mud holes
and a lot of adverse trail conditions.
It's rough out here. It's tough.
♪ ♪
I'm kind of in the muck right here.
The rain really made things soggy out here.
Other people had been traveling on this trail
and chewed it all up.
There we go, there we go.
(engine revs)
nope, don't want to spin.
I'm gonna have to back up and pick another route.
(engine revving)
(revving)
well, (bleep) me.
♪ ♪
I tried to get out, but it's a little too slimy and sludgy.
I'm gonna have to winch myself out.
Luckily, I'm prepared for this.
I got stuck in a place
that I thought I was gonna easily go through.
It looked like mud that was gonna hold me,
but it was some of that really sludgy mud,
and I just sank right to the bottom.
I have a system here to be able to get unstuck
when you're out in open country like this.
It's just a tow strap.
I'm gonna put some anchors into here,
get up to this dry ground.
I'm gonna hammer this down, I'm gonna connect my winch,
should give me enough to pull myself out.
This kind of caught me by surprise,
I got into a false sense of security,
thinking that the machine would drive right through this.
Time to see if that'll get me out.
(engine starts)
(winch whirring)
all right, I can feel it pulling me out.
Just gonna take it nice and slow.
(whirring)
once I get up to this ground here, I should be good.
♪ ♪
wow, thankful that I had the right equipment.
Looks like I'm, uh, to a spot I'll be able to drive out.
Glad it wasn't worse.
A little bit of foresight and, uh, preparation goes a long way.
You're the only person that can save yourself out there,
so I always go super prepared.
Next time I run into something like this,
I'm gonna pick myself a good route around it.
Don't want to be spending no more time stuck.
One thing, coming out here,
you want to be able to make sure you can take care of yourself.
It's a long walk home.
Chip: It all works out.
We're all helping each other.
We're all a big family.
We all do what we know we need to do.
(motor starts)
chip: Guard the camp, be a good dog.
(motor revving)
♪ ♪
well, the flocks of birds are getting larger.
I'm seeing more and more geese together now.
There's more wood down here from the last floods,
stuff I could pick up, but I don't see caribou out here.
This is like the third summer with no caribou.
It's kind of a bummer.
Well, what do you know, a seal.
Wow!
That's just a big wowzer there.
My wife can hunt seals, I can't.
I should just go back to camp and let the ladies know,
since I don't see anything else to hunt.
Narrator: For the hailstones, hunting seal is a way of life
in northwest alaska,
as the animal has been valued for its meat, oil, and hide
for centuries.
But only natives are legally allowed to participate,
so chip must return to camp and warn his wife, agnes,
if the family is to seize the opportunity
for a key traditional hunt.
Chip: I just came right back.
I seen a seal down the channel here.
Thought maybe you'd want to go hunt it or something.
I didn't see no caribou.
Agnes: Wow.
Chip: It looked pretty healthy, too, nice and fat.
It's better that you take the small boat
because you're gonna want him in shallow water
if you're gonna want to be able to follow him in anything.
Agnes: You want to go, carol? Carol: Yeah.
Agnes: You need .22, .22.
Carol: My dad saw the seal.
I'm pretty happy he came back to tell us.
My dad can't be a part of the hunt,
but it's something me and my mom and my sisters do.
I'm just gonna grab the .22, 'cause that's what we need.
Looks like my mom's already ready.
Around here in alaska, we catch a lot of seals.
You got the harpoons and everything, yeah?
Agnes: I got the harpoon, I got the hook.
Carol: Seals are pretty heavy this time of the year.
They start to get fat for winter, and fall time,
this is your time of the year to go out and get your seals
when they're fat like this.
Chip: Don't go without these. Carol: Thank you.
Chip: Those animals can knock you back.
Agnes: Yeah.
Chip: Good luck.
Agnes: We got to get there right now
before the seal gets out of the river
and into the, um, lagoon.
If we got out there in time,
we would be able to catch it before it go to the shallows.
Ready?
Carol: Yup. Ready for action.
Agnes: Just keep your eyes open. You'll see it swimming.
Carol: Yup. Agnes: Here we go.
Keep your rifle in your hand.
Andy: Your life can always be improved upon.
How much work do you want to put into it?
And is it worth it?
I want to just check the soil and see where we're at with it.
Watch when I go down even lower than where I till to.
Just nothing but sand and clay.
Denise: Oh, man.
Andy: Well, I'm basically living on an ancient sand bar here,
which means that it's very hard, compacted sand soil here.
There wasn't a lot of topsoil.
See these little guys here?
They're not growing
because they're not getting any nutrients
because that soil's too acid.
The other downside is that the soil is very acidic,
and plants don't like acidic soil.
We need to work on this.
Denise: Yeah. That's terrible.
Our main lifeline is this garden.
We depend on our garden to feed us
for eight months of solid-ice frozen winter here.
We're constantly tailoring, customizing our soil,
so that it will produce what we need.
Andy: Let's start making all the material that we need
out of the sawmill and the slash piles
to make the biochar.
Denise: All right.
♪ ♪
(motor starts)
andy: Every time we cut a tree down on the property,
every time we clear space for a dog lot, or anything else,
we have leftover wood.
We want to be able to chip those up
to create what they call biochar.
And biochar is basically any kind of a bio product,
and in our case, wood.
You basically cook it.
It releases all the gases that are built up in that biomass,
and what you're left with is pure charcoal.
Pure charcoal is just pure carbon.
Pure carbon absorbs
just about everything that it comes in contact with.
If you have a bad stomach and it's acidic,
you eat a little bit of charcoal.
It neutralizes it and absorbs the acid.
It's a quick fix.
What I want to use it for
is I want to create really good soil.
By adding that biochar to it, it's gonna absorb nutrients,
and then it's gonna release it back into the soil very slowly.
And then the side benefit of that,
we'll be able to also mix in with the sand
and keep the soil from compacting really hard.
Hold up!
We don't need too many more chips.
Let's start making biochar.
Denise: Sounds good. Let's do it.
Andy: The cooker. We got to make the cooker.
Denise: Yes.
♪ ♪
ricko: Being humble is everything out here.
'cause if you don't acknowledge your mistakes,
it's gonna come back to bite you.
I'm gonna put this bag right behind you, skar.
Skarlett: Okay.
Ricko: This is yours, sky.
It's got all the ammo.
And then here's your .410 right here.
Today, the kids and I are gonna take a canoe
and paddle back into the flats and just look around,
hopefully get a shot at some ducks or any small game.
Canoe feels real nice.
Should hit the lake here pretty soon.
Right now the waterfowl is more back in the flats,
out in the lake.
This is the lake.
Skyler: Have you been back here before?
Ricko: Yeah, I've been back here before.
Okay. See, we'll go over here.
We'll sneak around the edge and we'll look out.
I spy some ducks across there.
Skyler: 12:00?
Ricko: Yeah.
We don't want to go too directly at them.
'cause if we go straight to them,
they think that you're going right for them.
See how they're eating like that?
Skyler: Mm-hmm.
Ricko: That's the best thing, if they're eating.
Ricko: Yeah, hold on.
Ricko: Yeah, go ahead.
(click)
okay, okay, okay, hold on.
♪ ♪
(gunshot)
ricko: Oh, you got one! Skyler: Let's go.
Ricko: Awesome. Good job, sky.
Skyler: Thanks.
Ricko: Skyler was in the gunner's seat.
Came up on some ducks, and he did a real good shot.
Got that first duck right away.
You got it right in the head.
Perfect shot.
Skyler's really starting to use that gun properly
and make the shot happen real quick.
So, I'm real proud of him.
Skyler: Yes, I got it.
Where'd I shoot it? In the head?
Ricko: Yeah, good shot.
Skyler: Thanks.
Ricko: That's right. You got to say thank you.
Skarlett, you want to try to shoot?
Skarlett: Yeah.
♪ ♪
ricko: Whoa, look at all those ducks out there.
Skarlett: Jeez!
Ricko: There's geese and everything in that bunch.
Geese are smart, though, they won't stick around.
Want to try that .410?
Skarlett: Okay.
Ricko: All right, you can unbuckle your, uh,
life jacket to shoot.
Just put it to the side like, yeah.
I taught the kids a lot on gun safety.
They know where to not point the gun in any unsafe direction.
And also, treat it like it's loaded
and keep your finger off the trigger.
Skarlett: It's heavy.
Ricko: Yeah, that's good.
That way it won't kick too hard.
Skarlett hasn't shot a duck yet.
So, she's in the gunner seat now
and this is her first time using the .410,
and maybe it'll be her time to shine.
You see those ducks straight ahead of us, splashing around?
Skarlett: Yeah.
Ricko: Hold on. I'll tell you when.
You see them?
Skarlett: Yeah.
(wings flapping)
ricko: Go ahead.
(gunshot)
♪ ♪
ricko: You almost got it, skar.
Skarlett was having a hard time placing the shot.
Just got to coach her through these moments,
so she's not afraid of the recoil.
We'll keep paddling, hopefully see some more.
♪ ♪
carol: I'm still carrying tradition
that's been around for thousands of years.
It's just pretty cool.
♪ ♪
agnes: Just got to keep your eyes open.
It's got to be around here someplace.
Carol and I decided to get into the boat for a seal hunt
after chip came back and informed us
that there was a seal getting close to the mouth of our river.
Sometimes it's a long process and it's a really hard hunt,
but, uh, it's an important food source for us.
Carol: When you're on a seal hunt,
you feel in the zone, like everything gets quiet
and you have to really pay attention
to where that seal might be.
Usually, you can kind of tell when you see their bubbles,
or they make little v's in the water when they're swimming.
Oh, look, there it is, mom.
♪ ♪
(gunshot)
agnes: Little too high.
One more time.
One good shot. It's not afraid yet.
♪ ♪
too low.
Carol: This is the first time I go seal hunting
with my mom in a boat.
Usually, I catch them when it's springtime
and the ice is going out.
We usually just drive up and shoot them
while they're on the ice,
but being in the water is a whole different story.
Agnes: 11:00, still.
Keep still.
(gunshots)
low, low.
Carol: The boat's moving, and it's kind of hard
'cause you can't see in the water where the seal is,
and you have to wait for them to keep popping up.
Agnes: Right as soon as it come up for air.
Right there, 1:00.
Go, carol.
Before it get too much air.
Uh.
Carol: Frick.
You really have to just pay attention.
You have to be ready to shoot.
It's kind of like a battle with the seal.
Agnes: There it is.
It's gonna try to get away.
Carol, I'm gonna turn, okay?
It's getting away.
You could actually almost go out and harpoon it, carol.
Right in front of you, carol!
It's gonna come up!
Carol: Oh, I see it.
Agnes: Go ahead.
It's your shot, carol, right there.
(gunshot)
carol: Get it, mom. Go, go, go!
Agnes: Harpoon. Harpoon, just hit it.
Carol: It broke!
Agnes: Just grab your other harpoon, don't get excited.
Carol: It's kind of a challenge,
'cause when you shoot 'em, you have to harpoon 'em.
Make sure they don't sink to the bottom.
That's kind of pretty hard,
'cause I haven't ever harpooned before.
Agnes: It's right under you.
Carol: Oh, frick.
Agnes: You missed. Dang.
Carol: It's like hitting a round thing,
so when you don't hit it straight on,
it either bounce to the right or to the left.
Mom, it's right there.
Frick, I need to shoot it one more time.
Just need to get it in the head once.
(gunshot) I got it!
Agnes: Yup. Now hook it, sweetheart, hook it.
Hook it before it sinks.
Yup.
Just hook it, give me the hook.
Carol: You got to hit it real hard.
Agnes: Oh, my god, it's sinking.
Don't lose it, don't lose it.
Sink it in.
Carol: I tried to hook it, but my hook didn't get in its skin,
so then we just ended up watching it sink.
Agnes: Just got to look, it'll be, it's real shallow.
You can probably see it someplace
if you just see bubbles.
Carol: We have to keep looking for it,
'cause out here you don't want to just kill something
then leave it.
You just have to try your best to look for it.
Real deep over here.
Agnes: Drag your hook if you could, if you can't see.
Agnes: You don't shoot stuff and not take care of your kill.
You'd have to try your best to get it out,
you just hook for it down the bottom of the river.
It takes a whole 24 hours sometimes looking for it,
but try to retrieve anything and everything you catch.
It's got to be on this side of the channel if it's rolling out.
Carol: It's pretty much a challenge.
You have to go down the river and zigzag.
Drag your hook at the bottom until you feel something,
but then you also have the tide and the current coming in.
We didn't really know if it was going up with the tide
or going out with the current.
♪ ♪
(sighs)
what's that right there?
Agnes: You find it?
Carol: Oh, I got it!
Agnes: Oh, wow! Carol: Look, it's right there.
Agnes: Get it! Tie it before it go under!
Carol: It's freaking heavy.
Agnes: Man, that was hard to find.
Oh, good. I'm so glad you found it.
Carol: We end up feeling it at the bottom of the river,
and we got our seal.
So now we're pretty happy.
That was a good hunt.
Agnes: That was exciting.
Give it a heave and pull it up.
One, two, three, go.
Carol: Right there, right where it's good to go right out.
Agnes: Okay.
Carol: Should I get water?
Agnes: Yeah.
After we catch the animal, we give it a drink of fresh water.
Thank you, mr. Seal.
That's what our grandparents did,
my mom did, my dad did.
It's kind of like an honor thing,
but it's also good luck for the next, next hunt.
This is carolyn's first seal
that she caught swimming in the river.
Really blessed to have this seal.
I'm curious to see how fat it is.
Wow, look.
That's like an inch of fat, carol.
That's beautiful.
Carol: Gonna have a lot of oil, huh?
Agnes: Yeah. It's perfect, carolyn.
I am so proud of you.
Thank you.
We had a pretty good chance,
and we took that opportunity for a good seal hunt,
and now we have some pretty good oil
to look forward to this winter.
We have a pretty good skin to work with.
And of course, we'll be eating a lot of good, iron-rich meat.
Ready?
Carol: Yup.
Agnes: Just keep it open.
The seal carol and I caught is like 200 to 300 pounds,
so it was kind of heavy.
When we gutted it, it was like 50 pounds less.
We're just gonna throw it in the boat and head back home,
and we'll have to start the rest of the process.
Carol: I'm thankful I could actually go out
and go on a hunt like that.
Not many people could do that,
except for people in our tribe, or us natives.
So, I'm pretty thankful I'm native.
Agnes: Wow, what an awesome, awesome day, carol.
Carol: Yeah, good hunt.
Andy: In this lifestyle, skills are security.
And if you don't have the skills,
you're not very secure in procuring what you need.
♪ ♪
this'll be the outer drum for the biochar maker.
Narrator: To decrease the acidity in his soil
and enhance his ability to grow needed food in the garden,
andy has devised a plan to produce biochar,
a charcoal-like substance made from burning organic material.
But first, he must build a gasifier,
a crucial device for the process.
Andy: First thing I'm gonna do
is just go through and punch holes in it,
about every four inches.
This looks like a good job to sit down on the job.
I'm always trying to find out
new and innovative ways of doing things.
And so, when I learned a little bit
about what biochar can do for gardening
and for increasing production,
it was not only really intriguing, it was a challenge.
So, the next thing I want to do
is I want to cut around this barrel here.
A bit of a learning lesson this year,
with the covid issues that are going on,
the outside world,
it's not always out there to take care of your needs.
So, another reason why we are trying
to be even more independent
is because the outside world is becoming less dependable.
Okay.
That's what I'm gonna pack full of chips,
and this is what's gonna contain
what will end up being the biochar.
Now, the next step I got to do
is start putting my holes into my burn barrel.
And that's gonna be kind of the oven
that I'm gonna put this into.
I'm halfway there.
We start with a barrel within a barrel.
The idea is we cook all the wood that's in the inner barrel,
and then because it has no oxygen in it,
it's gonna make biochar instead of just burning up into ash.
♪ ♪
I think I am done with my gas fire stove.
♪ ♪
if we start it tonight,
we can just let it burn through the evening.
We'll come out in the morning and see what we got.
It'll be kind of a happy surprise
with a cup of coffee maybe.
Jessie: If you want to get out and survive and eat,
you got to move.
You got to be nomadic.
You ain't gonna get nothing sitting here thinking about it.
♪ ♪
keeping my eyes wide open for a sign of any kind of game.
I've been riding around through this tundra
for about 15 miles.
I haven't seen anything.
No moose, no caribou, no ptarmigan, no porcupine.
And I really just can't handle sitting in that machine anymore
out in country this pretty.
♪ ♪
see this lake here?
Looks like a real good lake.
It looks like it's, uh, stream-fed.
And, uh, it's a good-size lake.
I'm gonna go and, uh, see if I can't catch a fish.
I haven't run into any ptarmigan, so, you know,
if one thing ain't working, I'm gonna try another.
This looks like a good spot right here.
Got this rock to fish off of.
All rock bottom, no swamp grass getting in the way of my cast.
I like the looks of this spot, get my poles together here.
Those look like otters to me,
swimming around, playing out there.
They eat fish, so, that might be a good sign.
♪ ♪
oh, yeah, I got something.
All right, man.
That's a good-size fish.
No way.
Wow, I've only cast a few times.
Oh, that's a big grayling.
Holy crap.
That is a huge fish.
Oh, wow! Oh, man!
That's the grayling I always dreamed of catching right there.
We ain't got nothing like that on the brushkana.
Wow!
That is the most absolute amazing grayling
I have ever caught in my life.
That's a steak right there.
And, man, I feel like I'm so rewarded.
This is the fish of my dreams, actually.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no!
Jessie: This is the nicest grayling,
by far, I've ever caught.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!
Just lost my fish.
Ah.
My heart's broken.
Fish slipped out of my hand, and it just snapped this line.
I know this is decent line for that, but I,
next time I get one, I'm gonna run for the shore.
That was the nicest fish I ever caught in my life out here.
I mean, I've been fishing all summer in the brushkana
and nothing even close to that.
That, I never even got to measure it.
It's kind of heartbreaking.
That was just pure exhilaration.
I'm gonna keep fishing.
I'm not leaving here without a fish.
♪ ♪
this is an incredible spot to fish.
If I can catch a fish on my third cast,
the fishing's gonna be hot here.
I think I got something.
Yep, I got another fish.
I don't want to get too excited now
until I got this fish landed.
Holy crap.
I am gonna get this fish.
Oh, boy.
This is a nice fish again.
That is an amazing grayling.
Wow!
I can't even explain
how catching a fish like this makes me feel.
There just ain't fish like this all over.
I was a little bit bummed out because I ain't seen no birds.
This beats getting any ptarmigan for me,
to catch a fish this amazing.
When fishing's this good, there ain't no way I'm walking away.
I traveled a long ways to get here.
I'm gonna keep fishing and see how many fish I can bring back.
I'm allowed to take two lake trout,
as well I can get five grayling.
Got one!
Putting up a nice fight.
Wow.
Easy, buddy, easy.
Whoa, now, come on.
That's a trout. All right.
I caught a trout, it looks like.
Man, this place is an amazing fishing spot.
That is so great.
Something with some variety.
Look at that trout.
Ah, this is a beautiful fish!
It might be some rough country to travel through,
but I'll gladly travel up here for fishing like this.
This is what I'm trying to get my degree in right now.
Some people are going to school; this is my school.
The more I come out here, the more I'm gonna learn.
Think I got a bite.
Yeah, that's a trout.
Got another trout.
Looks like those otters were right.
Good spot to fish.
I'm a lucky guy to have this as my backyard.
Knowing this spot for the future,
I'll be coming up here a lot.
Instead of catching a couple fish
down there on the brushkana that are 12 inches,
I'm coming up here to this lake
and I'm able to put pounds of fish up.
It's another nice grayling.
Okay, I got a good catch here.
Time to clean these fish up and, uh, head home.
Oh, that orange flesh that this has is just so good.
The biggest fish that I caught, he got away.
He's still somewhere out here, I'll be back, I'll get him.
But what I got is two beautiful trout.
The grayling that I got are big.
I'm coming away with a lot of knowledge,
and I'm coming away with a lot of pounds of meat.
Days don't get no better than this.
I'm gonna have a feast tonight.
Agnes: Attitudes are always contagious.
It's always best to be happy
because we have to do it anyways.
You can always do it happy, sad, or mad.
♪ ♪
two, three, go.
Here we go.
Perfect.
No, puppy.
We were out there boating today and caught this seal.
Every fall, we usually catch little ones like this.
We have three different things to deal with
when we catch a seal:
Drying the meat, taking the blubber,
and the skin.
It's gonna take a whole-day process.
Um, we'll slowly take it apart.
Carol: Man, this meat and stuff got so much iron, yeah?
Always heat us up in winter.
Agnes: Yep.
Carol: I am thankful for this seal
'cause right now we have black meat for winter,
we have seal blubber which turns into seal oil,
and then I have the skin I could be making into some hats
or mittens or mukluks,
so I'm pretty happy we got this seal.
I'm pretty thankful for it.
Man, that was hard especially with moving boat
and, and the seal want to keep moving.
Agnes: You did real good, though.
You really tried with your harpoons and your hook.
One, two, three, go.
You want to work on the blubber, and I'll take the meat apart.
Carol: Sounds good.
I'm just gonna separate the skin and the blubber,
and then I'll be cutting these into little blocks and then...
Seal hunting is a big part of our culture.
Hearing stories of our ancestors and all our elders,
they had many ways of cutting up seals
and many ways of using the skin and using all parts of the body.
It's pretty cool just knowing my ancestors did this too,
and it's, um, really good to be able to know
that I'm doing this tradition.
♪ ♪
the last piece.
Agnes: Right on, carol.
Let's go and bring it under the rack and hang it up.
It's just real awesome to work with carolyn
and let her keep learning her traditional lifestyle skills.
I'm real happy she's able to shoot and harpoon
and help process it, so that's a real important step for her.
And I feel like if she were to lead a seal hunt,
she'd be able to do a pretty good job.
Wow, that's a lot of meat for one seal, eh?
Carol: Yeah.
Agnes: We'll just let those hang for a bit and dry.
Ricko: The land out here provides,
but it's very unforgiving.
It's easy to have an accident out here if you're not careful.
♪ ♪
skyler: Do you think there's ducks back here?
Ricko: Yeah.
Skyler: Is there a lake back here?
Ricko: There's lakes off to the side.
This is just a long slough.
Nuna; slough.
Skyler: Nu...Nuna; slough.
Narrator: Ricko and his children, skyler and skarlett,
are hunting for waterfowl along the huslia waterways.
It is a key resource that's available
before the birds migrate south for the winter.
And it's a vital lesson for the kids
to know how, when, and where to search for food in the wild.
Ricko: What I'm trying to do is bring me and the kids
off the main river and into the dead water back here
where there's a lot of grass and still water,
and that's where all the ducks are hanging out.
There's something up ahead.
Let's get that shotgun ready.
There's some in the water up there.
Are you nervous?
Skarlett: No.
Ricko: Okay.
Okay, you want to try?
Oh, yeah.
Okay, you ready?
Skarlett: Yeah.
♪ ♪
ricko: Okay.
(gunshot)
ooh, you got one!
You got one.
Put another shell in.
Skarlett: Okay. I don't know how to do that.
Ricko: Get that.
Skarlett: I don't know how, dad.
Ricko: Oh, it's getting away.
Hold on. It's gonna try to get in the grass.
Pull that one hammer down. Here, I'll trade.
Thank you.
Get that shell, get that shell.
♪ ♪
okay.
Skarlett: Can I shoot it?
Ricko: Not yet. I'll tell you when.
Skarlett: Tell me when to shoot it.
Ricko: Not yet.
We have to get close to it.
Skarlett: I shoot it?
Ricko: Okay. You ready?
Skarlett: Yeah.
(gunshot)
ricko: Ooh, you got it a little.
Get that shell.
Skarlett: Getting away.
Ricko: Where is she heading, sky?
Skyler: It's kind of on the left.
Ricko: Okay, almost... Okay. Hold on.
Skyler: It's a wild duck chase.
Ricko: Let me, let me paddle up to it.
Skarlett: Okay.
Ricko: Oh, it's gonna dive.
Sky, watch for it, okay?
Skyler: Okay.
Skarlett: Over there?
Skyler: It's probably gonna come up from the right.
Ricko: It's swimming with its head down.
It'll get away like that.
Skyler: Where'd it go?
Ricko: Watch for it.
It's swimming with its head down.
It'll get away like that.
Skyler: Where'd it go?
Ricko: Oh, right there.
Right there, right there, right there.
Do you see it? Right along the edge.
Its head is down low in the water.
Watch him, watch him, watch him.
Skarlett: I don't see it. Oh, I see it.
Ricko: See, his head's right along the shore.
Okay, you see him? Skarlett: Uh-huh.
Ricko: Okay. Go ahead.
Stay still.
(gunshot)
oh, I think you got him.
You got him good.
Okay.
Skyler: She got him.
Ricko: Good job, skar.
Skarlett: Anaa basee. Ricko: Oh, yeah.
Skyler: Anaa basee, ducky.
Ricko: Your first duck, skar.
It's a big day, man.
That was exciting.
Whoo!
Good job on keeping the eye out.
First duck.
Skyler: It's bigger than mine.
Ricko: I get nervous like I'm a kid again
when you guys are shooting.
Skyler: Even I got nervous.
Ricko: (laughs) yeah.
When that duck was getting away,
it felt like the world was falling apart on me.
(laughing) I normally don't get that excited,
but I know it's skarlett's first duck.
And that'd be very disappointing if she got that duck
and it was getting away and then I let it get away,
I would have felt like I failed, too.
Good job, skar.
You're a little badass.
It's time to eat.
Let's go find a place to make a fire.
I know a cool spot.
Skarlett: That's good.
Ricko: Okay.
♪ ♪
this one's done. This one's done.
Here, knock yourself out, kid.
Here, you could try.
Skarlett: I need a lot more.
Ricko: You want more?
Skarlett: Mm-hmm.
Skyler: This tastes good.
Ricko: Doesn't the food taste better when you get it?
Skyler: Mm-hmm.
Ricko: And you worked for it.
I was real excited,
and I think I was probably the most excited I ever been
to actually be part of hunting a duck,
and that's just because I knew
how much it meant for skarlett to get a duck,
and it was exciting, and I'm real proud of skarlett.
That's a big day for me as a father.
Oh, look what I got.
Skyler: A wishbone?
Ricko: Yep, the wishbone. Ready to make a wish?
Skarlett: Mm-hmm.
Ricko: Wait, did you think of one first?
Ah, it's still too fresh.
Oh, you won.
Skarlett: Yay!
Ricko: I was wishing that you guys become super good hunters
so that when I'm real old, you guys can hunt for me.
I can just lay back and get fat.
(laughing)
♪ ♪
denise: It's a mistake-heavy environment here,
and the consequences are huge.
♪ ♪
(dog barking)
all right.
Topaz has a lot to say about this plan.
Andy: This is a big experiment.
I want to see how practical it is for me to make the biochar
and get the benefits of being able to put it into the garden.
So, that's basically the goal of what I'm trying to do right now,
and it's yet to be determined.
We need to load this up.
We'll screw the lid shut and we'll set it into this.
We're gonna line all the way around the gap
between this barrel and this barrel
with as much wood as we can possibly put in there.
Denise: With gardening, key factor is soil.
You are only as good as your soil.
Balancing the ph is crucial,
and the biochar is a means that we can control that.
Andy: Let's just get it on either side
and kinda get it centered up in here.
Denise: Our garden is something we depend on.
It gets us through the winter.
Everything it produces is what we're gonna have for the winter.
It's all about planned strategies
to make this garden efficient and provide what we need.
Andy: Let's keep adding birch bark.
Just let it do its thing for a little bit.
We'll let that burn down when I can get the lid on it.
Denise: There we go.
Andy: Let's see how it works
and we'll just let it cook for the night
and see what we got in the morning.
♪ ♪
any predictions?
Denise: A lot of biochar.
Nothing's hot.
♪ ♪
andy: Hold on to the barrel. I'll pull this out.
Denise: Okay.
♪ ♪
well, what do you think?
Andy: I'm hoping it'll be good.
The only thing I'm worried about
is if this leaks a little bit of air,
it might have just burnt it all up.
Denise: Oh, that would be bad.
Oh, let's see.
Okay, you ready?
Andy: Yeah, I'm ready.
Open it up. Let's see what's going on?
Denise: Da-da-da-da!
Denise: Okay, you ready? Andy: Yeah, I'm ready.
Open it up. Let's see what's going on?
Denise: Da-da-da-da!
Yeah, that's good!
Andy: That's real good stuff.
Ooh, it's still putting out a little heat.
Denise: It is.
Andy: There's some unburnt, uncharcoaled stuff down there.
Denise: Is there? Andy: Yeah.
Not a hundred percent, but it's, I mean, that one is.
That's pretty good, though.
Denise: Wow!
Andy: Dump it out?
♪ ♪
denise: I am really impressed with the gasifier.
We have very good results from it.
We will definitely be tweaking it a little bit,
but the results that we have now are very impressive.
This biochar will really help for years to come.
It'll keep enriching the soils, enriching our harvest,
and increasing our production.
♪ ♪
well, I've never planted biochar. (laughs)
andy: I'm gonna try and do is just kinda put this stuff in
and maybe crumble it up a little bit, huh?
Denise: There's a ton of work that goes
into making this garden grow and support us.
But that support is well worth every ounce of effort
that we put into it.
Andy: Keep making it.
The more we make, the more we can put in.
The more we put in, the better the garden gets.
Denise: And the more we can eat.
Healthy garden, healthy us.
♪ ♪
carol: Probably the first people that were out here
were doing the same thing as us.
It's pretty cool.
♪ ♪
agnes: Make sure we have sharp ulus,
and we take the pieces and just break 'em down smaller,
so it can render faster.
After you take the blubber apart from the skin,
you have to take the big chunks and cut it into smaller slices.
What we're doing is helping break down the fat.
It'll turn to an oil, and we use that oil
to dip our, um, dried meats and our frozen fish.
In the end, we're gonna end up with probably 8 gallons of oil,
and that's a lot of oil to start off your winter.
♪ ♪
it's already starting to render.
You can see where they're starting
to get some oil in there.
Carol: That does look good.
Agnes: I'm really proud of myself
for making sure my daughter is able to do these seal hunts.
It's very important that she able to provide her own food,
especially if she marries a non-native.
Carol: My favorite part of cutting up the seal
is, um, cutting up the blubber.
It's kind of just fun
when you get to hang around whoever you're working with
and just talk and have fun cutting.
And at the end, just see who has the biggest bucket.
Agnes: Wow.
That's a lot of blubber.
Carol: Yep.
Agnes: We'll start working on the skin, eh?
Carol: Yeah.
♪ ♪
agnes: Anywhere around here or straight.
Carol: Right here? Agnes: Go.
There's so many things to do with seal skins.
There's seal skins that turn into a lot of rope
during the spring time.
In the fall time, usually,
the skins are made for pants or clothing.
Those two, you got to stretch it way back till it's tight.
Carol: My mom, she seemed pretty proud of me
'cause that's like the first time me hunting in the boat,
and I already know kind of what to do,
and she's a really good partner.
And knowing that I actually do know how to process it,
if I really had to on my own, I'd be able to.
So, I'm pretty proud of myself, too,
and thankful for my mom who teaches me how to do this stuff.
And it's pretty good to know I got parents
that are gonna keep showing me
the way of my culture and my ancestors.
Agnes: It's not touching the ground?
Carol: Uh-uh.
Agnes: Now, we just leave it like that for a couple days.
The air will go under and over, and it'll dry.
Awesome, carol.
No one else in the world I'd rather go hunting seal with.
Good teamwork.
♪ ♪
jessie: Nothing makes you closer to the land
than living off of it.
♪ ♪
this is the reward of the journey,
pick out which fish I want to cook.
This is a special occasion, catching these beautiful trout.
I think I'm gonna take the biggest one.
I'm gonna bake this whole fish up,
and then I'm gonna take these three
and put 'em in the smoker and preserve them for the winter.
This fish is just incredible.
I mean, you can't buy something in the store
that tastes this good.
This is right out of the lake, from the field to the table.
It just doesn't get any fresher.
It doesn't get any better than that.
Nice thing about this fish
is I didn't even expect to go out and catch any fish.
Thought I was out looking for ptarmigan.
You know, one thing didn't work out.
I'm not the type to give up.
I found where the best fish that I found so far are,
and I didn't even plan on that.
So that was a pleasant surprise.
Going out and getting my own food
is not only healthy for my body, it's good for my mind.
And it's just exciting
to open up so many new doors this summer.
While my fish cooks inside,
I've got a smoker that I built earlier this summer.
The smoker allows me to be able to preserve
whenever I have a lot of fish like this.
This is a lot of fish for me to try to eat right now.
I'll be able to smoke them, jar them, vacuum seal 'em,
freeze 'em, and be able to enjoy my catch later on.
I put love into getting my food,
I put love into preparing my food,
and I just love great food like this.
It nourishes my body, makes me strong,
helps me to live the lifestyle I live.
Oh, it smells so good.
Wow, wow, wow!
Nothing like fresh fish that you caught yourself.
♪ ♪
mmm, so good.
That was a long, hard trip across some pretty rough ground.
Got stuck, got going, didn't find no birds,
but at the end of that rainbow,
I ended up finding a beautiful lake,
catching these amazing trout,
coming home with pounds and pounds of fish,
and, uh, one of the best meals I've had in a long time.
I know that big, monster fish is just out there waiting for me,
and I can't wait till I can get back up there and get him.
♪ ♪
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