♪ ♪
RICKO: Early morning right now.
Gonna go downriver, look in some meadows and just do some
calls and maybe I’ll see something.
I see something in the water up here.
Something swimming across.
What is that?
Oh, it’s a, it’s a bull.
We got a bull in the water swimming across.
Okay. It’s gonna wanna run as soon as it gets out.
Okay. Shake off.
It’s gonna run for it as soon as it gets to the beach.
(gunshot)
(bleep).
(gunshot)
RICKO: Ooh, good hit.
Phew.
Thank you.
Anaa Basee, Denaahuto.
I just got a moose.
I lucked out today.
I got a moose for myself.
I have good food throughout the winter, but I also want to
go out and try to get a moose for my auntie.
She’s an elder in the community of Huslia.
Her family needs a moose, to put meat away for the winter
but they don’t have anyone to do it for them and I’m happy
to fill that void, if possible.
So I’m gonna go home, put this in the smoke house, and then
I’m gonna go out again and hopefully I can get another
moose for my auntie.
I got one down, and I got one more to go.
(theme music plays)
All right. Coming right here real quiet as possible.
Moose is the number one staple food out here for us
Athabascans and that’s where we get all our meat
is from the moose.
This is the time of the year we hunt them, fall time.
This is when they’re in peak condition because they’ve been
eating grass and willows all summer
and they’re in top shape.
(imitates moose call)
DENISE: I don’t wanna get ever to the point where
I’m overconfident.
And miss the slightest clue that could end it for me.
Oh, boy.
ANDY: I’ll be surprised if the tractor can pull this.
Feels pretty heavy.
Alright?
DENISE: Yeah, I’m just thinking
how it was pulling the skid alone.
ANDY: Big day today.
It’s been a long time coming.
We’re finally gonna put the boat in the water,
do some sea trials, some testing of it and see how it performs
on the Yukon River before the snow falls.
Okay. You ready to go?
Let’s see if this thing will pull it.
DENISE: Okay.
Yeah. Oh, kinda.
That’s a lot of weight.
ANDY: We live off grid.
We have solar panels, we have wind turbines.
We’re able to utilize those for most of the year.
But we still burn gasoline for running the motor boat.
And so then an idea popped into my head about a year ago,
why not build a solar powered boat?
I have spent my entire summer designing, building, and
putting together this idea.
Basically a house boat set on a trimaran, using the sun to
move us around in the wilderness of Alaska.
And today is test day.
DENISE: Oh, no.
Oh, it’s soft here. This is that low, soft spot.
Come on, tractor.
Digging in.
Shoot.
ANDY: But I, I’ll just give it a little bit of a push
with the bulldozer.
Get on the tractor and just hold tension on that,
just be ready to go.
DENISE: He’s gonna come up behind me and essentially
bumper push.
Here we go, here we go.
There’s no way I can depend on cues from Andy ’cause
I can’t see Andy.
Go, go, go.
Push, Andy, push.
I’m trying to watch the corner of the sauna.
I’m trying to keep a straight angle so that I can make the
wide turn that’s coming ahead.
And I’m really trying not to run into our cabin.
ANDY: Hey, turn!
Stop!
It’s binding in there, we’re not pulling straight.
DENISE: Yeah. Yeah.
ANDY: We gotta pivot now.
Get the tractor out of here.
DENISE: It’s obvious that the tractor isn’t gonna be able to do it.
We’ve gotta finish the job with the bulldozer.
There’s definitely some anxiety about launching this boat
but it’s exciting.
Ugh.
This is the part where I don’t wanna look.
There’s just so much work that we’ve put into it,
so much invested in this boat.
We’re going, we’re doing it, we’re doing it!
ANDY: Good.
DENISE: That went well.
ANDY: Yeah. So far, we’re doing good.
First thing’s first, we gotta undo all the lines,
we gotta get a bow line on and a stern line on,
and then we can push in, okay?
DENISE: Okay.
ANDY: We’ll see if this baby floats.
JESSIE: All the things that I have to do are the things that
I wanna do.
I feel like that’s just living your best life.
So, yeah, this is my new bedroom that I built here last fall.
There’s a lot of things that need to be done around here
by the wintertime and this is gonna be number one priority
on the list here, is getting this second story built.
It really makes me excited to have more space and it’s gonna
be more economical for me to build up than to build out
and heat rises.
I have my wood stove.
I’ll get that air circulating right and it’ll be awesome for
a second story.
What I’m gonna do first off is cut myself a stairway.
I love this time of year so much, working outside,
that cool crispness in the air.
Definitely fall time and out here, the line between
fall time and winter time is very thin lines.
So now it’s time to get this done.
Okay, I got my walkway set.
Next, I gotta, you know, lay down the floor.
I think this is just awesome to think of how far that I had
to overcome just from last year.
I did this whole build last fall with a broken collarbone.
You know, now I’m feeling really good.
I’m feeling stronger and better than ever.
Staying strong-minded has brought me like the best
health in my life.
There’s my first sheet so now it’ll get a lot easier laying
it out now that I’ve figured out my walkway here.
Are you a good pup, Neil?
Oh, yeah? Are you a good pup?
Are you sweeping?
(laughing)
Sometimes I get frustrated and hard on myself that, you know,
I got so much going on and I don’t get enough of it done,
but then I look at that trail and remember, you know,
I just cut my way in here through the black spruce
with a chainsaw three years ago today.
We’re come a long way, and to add this extra space,
it’s not really a cabin anymore, it’s kinda becoming a house.
Okay.
I’ve got my floor built and I’ve got it all sealed off
from the weather until I can get the roof on.
Now I’ve set myself up to start on the walls.
Quite a bit of work.
CHIP: Things are changing.
You can’t help it.
You can watch it and adapt, go with the flow, or you can die.
TINMIAQ: Ugh.
AGNES: Nice day for berry picking, eh?
TINMIAQ: Yeah.
The weather looks like it’ll be good all day.
AGNES: Hopefully the berries are just as good as the day.
TINMIAQ: Today my mom and I are going out to pick some
salmon berries.
We call them aqpiks.
It helps our hands and it helps our hearts and our minds
as we collect them and then we get to eat healthy.
AGNES: Oh, here’s a patch.
TINMIAQ: Good ones, eh?
AGNES: Yeah.
TINMIAQ: Half of them are over but there’s still lots of good ones.
AGNES: Yeah. There’s so many, half of them is good enough.
We’ve been walking for a few days and we’ve been picking
salmon berries and we’ve collected quite a few.
And today’s actually the last day because most of the
berries are overripe.
Every two weeks we switch to a different berry.
It’s a good change of diet for us.
Seems like we picked all the best ones.
TINMIAQ: Pretty good.
AGNES: Okay. And that’s that.
Salmon berry season is officially over.
Only enough for us and our berries.
SABASTIAN: Taata, look.
AGNES: Hi.
SABASTIAN: Mommy. Mom!
Look, mommy. Look, mommy.
AGNES: Wow.
SABASTIAN: Look, a duck.
Look, a goose.
TINMIAQ: You got a goose?
(Sabastian babbling)
TINMIAQ: Oh.
CHIP: I didn’t mind babysitting.
Me and the little guy, we had a blast, literally.
Blasting geese out of the sky.
He just flipped out when he saw it fall out of the sky.
SABASTIAN: Do it over there.
TINMIAQ: Last three gallons to add to our collection.
CHIP: Where are we gonna add them?
These are full.
Wow, those are full too.
I’m thinking we should head to the coast, we’ll call this good.
TINMIAQ: That’d be fun.
Go pick a bunch of blackberries all around the
coast because those blackberries should be
perfectly ripe.
CHIP: They should be.
If you guys pulled up ripe ones, it’s time to switch over.
Wow, 36 gallons of berries total in just a few days.
I think you ladies done good.
All right.
Well, let’s make our plans for the coast then.
AGNES: From one berry to the other.
SUE: I’m against going for door number one when
two and three are still unknown.
So, earlier in the day,
I had some clients get caribou.
So there’s four or five bodies laying on the ground
and a bear was sighted.
Very close to camp.
This is beyond my comfort zone.
This is my camp.
This is my ground to keep safe.
I have no choice legally, morally, ethically but to
try to get him.
This is life and death.
Where you at?
It’s enough time that he could be pretty damn well-hidden.
That sun couldn’t be more of a (bleep) if it wanted to.
It’s a common bear technique,
especially for older bears.
If they’re gonna come in, they want the sun at their back
because anything traveling that way can’t see them.
♪ ♪
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
There he is.
And he’s moving away from me as fast as he can.
Dammit, I’m gonna lose him.
Hoo! Hoo!
Nope.
Too far.
Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!
Stop and look, stop and look.
Hoo! Hoo!
Stop, don’t go, don’t go.
SUE: Dammit, he walked back behind.
He’s now outta, can’t see him.
(bleep)!
I think this is all too steep
but there’s the caribou he’s after.
♪ ♪
SUE: I could not get out of the vehicle, stop, load...
sticks, everything, and get a shot.
Where you at, psycho?
Reminiscent of that bear from last year, crazy bear.
The bear was close to camp but I got him.
It’s my job and my life to keep the camp safe.
So it bears watching, it bears being careful.
I don’t recall they’re being a way down from here,
I’ll have to go all the way around.
The time that might take, I would probably consider this
pretty well pooched.
Bear chase, bear: zero, Sue: zero.
The chase is on.
JESSIE: I only know one way, that’s 100%, whichever
direction I’m going.
You got it, huh?
Is that your tools for the day, are you gonna help?
Now that I got my floor done, it’s time to head
into building my walls.
I’ve got all my material right here in my trailer,
keeping it nice and dry from the rain.
This is nice weather right now but there’s a lot of clouds
around and, you know, it’s a matter of time before a little
storm comes in.
Now it’s kind of crunch time so I’m gonna start
banging some nails.
This is my backwall, it’s my shortest wall since
I’m building a shed style roof.
I’m gonna be able to have a bunch of windows up there and
get a lot of sunlight.
One of the biggest reasons I live out here is the aesthetic
beauty that I see every day.
Got a little bit of rain but a lot of clear sky still
out there, and a beautiful rainbow, man.
This is just about the most beautiful place in the world
a person could be up working.
So beautiful 360 degrees.
This is a real special place to live.
Third year out here,
adding on the third addition for the cabin.
It means something, you know, something real special.
It’s hammer time.
And then I’ll be ready to raise the first wall.
This is a shorter wall.
It’s not gonna be as heavy so this is a good time to get my
system down, and practice for the big one because this next
wall is gonna be a big, heavy wall, eight-foot tall
so, you know, kind of sort out my technique
with this one.
It’s a little safer.
All right.
(groaning)
There we go.
Get that wall up.
This is like the moment where you can, kind of,
just start seeing a project instead of just trying to
imagine it in your head.
Encouraging to see a quarter of the wall is done.
Next wall is gonna be the biggest wall.
The hardest one.
ANDY: Being a person who’s not afraid to challenge themselves
and maybe get kicked in the teeth, every now and then,
that’s a good thing for a person.
DENISE: Getting down to it, Andy.
ANDY: This will be the exciting part, see if it floats.
See if it doesn’t go glug-glug-glug.
DENISE: Oh, it’s not gonna go glug-glug-glug.
It’s not!
ANDY: We’ve never pushed the boat in.
I don’t know how well it’s gonna drop off.
The big thing that I’m concerned about is if the skid floats.
If it doesn’t go down in the back end, we’re gonna have a
heck of a hard time getting this boat off of it.
It’s all bets off.
It’s just a matter of you gotta put it in and see what
it does and that’s what we’re here to do today.
So this is the line I want you to control.
I, I’ll push in.
This is the most important one right here.
DENISE: How hard’s this gonna pull?
I mean it’s gonna hit.
ANDY: I don’t know, but you gotta be ready with this.
DENISE: Yeah.
ANDY: This is the surefire way that you’ll be able to control
that boat.
DENISE: Definitely a moment of truth.
ANDY: Okay.
Let’s see what happens.
Four months’ worth of work.
DENISE: Remember, we’re doing our best, Andy.
ANDY: Always.
Let’s see what we can do.
DENISE: These are the moments, man.
Okay, she’s moving.
She’s moving, straight to the eddy.
This is actually the part that I have been dreading.
There’s a lot of different things that can go sideways.
Back end’s in, pay attention.
Here we go.
So the skid has to come in,
rock, sink, allow the boat to float.
At the same time, think about how we’re gonna keep it secure
on shore.
ANDY: It’s almost there.
I’m gonna try just pushing it in by hand at this point.
Just don’t let it float away.
DENISE: I’ll do my best, Andy.
ANDY: You always do.
DENISE: My nightmare is to see that boat out of our control
and heading off down the river.
ANDY: You ready?
DENISE: Okay. Here she goes, Andy!
ANDY: Pull that tight.
ANDY: Really close here.
DENISE: Almost.
Oh, I can hardly look.
Yes!
ANDY: Don’t let it go downstream too much.
Pull that tight.
DENISE: Oh, look at it, Andy!
ANDY: She’s grounded.
DENISE: Woo-hoo!
ANDY: Yay!
DENISE: I know.
Come here.
ANDY: Finally!
I almost didn’t think that day was gonna come.
It’s floating pretty high.
DENISE: Okay. Tie it off, tie it off, pay attention.
ANDY: The boat’s in the water and it’s floating and
I’m feeling really good right now.
It looks really good sitting in the water.
I’ve been waiting a long time to see what this is gonna be
like so I’m, I’m really psyched!
We’re gonna take this baby out and see what it does.
Exciting times!
RICKO: To be good in the woods, you have to understand
that there’s a million different lives out here happening.
All these animals, all these trees, everything has a spirit.
Had some luck, I got a moose for myself and my family and
now I’m looking around for my auntie.
She’s an elder, she’s not able to hunt for herself.
Today’s a different day.
It’s a lot windier, a little bit of a storm rolled in
since the last hunt.
As you can see, it’s a lot more of a choppy river and
I’m gonna cut in over here.
Try to get out of this wind.
I’m at the kill site where I got one for myself the other day
and I’m just looking at, checking it out because
something came around and pulled the skin away.
Okay.
I’m gonna put a shell in the chamber.
I see some bear tracks here.
Basically it came in and it drug away the, it drug off the skin
and you could see the tracks right here.
It’s a black bear.
I’m just gonna go poke around a little bit.
Oh, yeah. Right here.
There’s the skin, cleaned it off as much as he could,
then he went over this way.
So thick in here.
You can see his trail right here.
I don’t know the untrained eye might not be able to see it.
See that little path right here.
Oh, snap. Something else right here.
Moose kill.
This is a bull moose.
You can tell because it has a base right here,
that’s where the antlers grow out.
And obviously, there’s no antler on it so it was killed
in the winter when they didn’t have antlers.
This was probably a wolf kill, happened in the winter.
And bears have cleaned it up a little bit.
Walking around here, it’s really important to look for
signs of any kind of danger because I’m not the only thing
hunting moose out here.
The last thing I wanna do is be in an area that’s high
density for bears and not know it.
Because you surprise a bear out here and it jumps up
and attacks you?
It’s game over.
This is kind of normal stuff you see out here in Alaska.
You see where big animals kill other big animals and um,
all in a day’s life out here.
Life and death in Alaska.
I’m gonna keep moving.
When I’m looking for moose, I look for lake systems that has
grass in it and that grass is what the cows eat.
And the bulls are hanging out looking for these cows so
it’s, the best places for moose is any place along the
river that has a lake with a nice meadow.
I see sign of moose around here.
RICKO: Literally hundreds and hundreds of cranes flying over.
They’re going south.
Probably going to get cold.
Maybe snow is coming.
(scraping)
The bulls rub their antlers on these willows, not only to
take the velvet off but also to make that smashing sound to
call each other in.
(imitates moose call)
RICKO: I don’t know where the bull is at.
The bull, I would think the bull is over here.
’Cause the wind is blowing this way, he’d want to smell
if anything is coming in.
RICKO: That’s what hunting is about, you gotta be patient
especially don’t want to start pushing these cows
around wherever I see them, because I know eventually the
bull’s gonna be standing there.
So for now, I’m gaining good knowledge on where the cows
are hanging out, and hopefully one of these mornings,
my luck will change.
CHIP: In the end, I’d like to leave as little trace as possible.
Maybe just some wild stories.
You won’t get in my boat without your life vest, little punk.
Come on.
Get out of the water, grow up and act your age.
You act like a two-year-old.
(laughing)
Not bad for a two-year-old.
(laughing)
TINMIAQ: You ready to go down to the coast, Sabastian?
Let’s go look for some blackberries.
CHIP: You wanna go help me stack up some wood?
There’s always firewood down there.
The coast is the place to go for blackberries and while
we’re down there, I’ll get a chance to put up some
firewood, get it up off the ground.
Make it available this winter so when I pull up, it’ll be
nice and dry and it won’t be frozen to the ground.
AGNES: Yee! Yee, Yee!
Some birds flying over something over there.
TINMIAQ: Looks like it’s been there for a while.
So the birds are picking on it, probably some bears and
stuff so we didn’t wanna get too close.
We decided that’s not a good spot to pick the berries or
stack the wood right now so we went further down the coast.
CHIP: Look at all these blackberries.
Right here with the wood.
SABASTIAN: Tataa, tataa.
AGNES: You found the jerry jug?
Wow.
SABASTIAN: And a pole starter!
AGNES: Oh, you even found a pole starter?
TINMIAQ: Blackberries everywhere!
They’re ripe, eh?
Yeah, you fill yours up too, Sabastian.
CHIP: There’s a big log right there.
That’d be fun to jack up, get it off the ground, and be able
to slide a sled under it.
This winter will appreciate that dry wood.
Once you get past the plant material, something a little firmer.
Hi, puppy.
Holy (bleep)!
you dumb dog.
You learned what porcupines were, eh?
Look at that, all over your face.
Holy cow. I gotta take care of you right now.
You’re gonna hate me for this but I’m gonna (bleep) do it
anyway, dog.
Let’s get you stuck right there.
Now don’t (bleep) move.
Oh, geez, you poor puppy.
Come on, stay right there.
Calm down, puppy. Calm down.
(whining)
There’s another one out.
(whining)
Almost done.
(whining)
(sighs)
Okay, now I’m the one that’s bleeding.
Bit right through my (bleep) hand.
I’m trying to make it bleed a little more, and make it stop.
I wanna push out any dog blood that might be in there,
I don’t wanna get (bleep) going on.
I’ll get a (bleep) infection from hell.
She’s a lot happier.
Sorry about all the pain and (bleep) but you’re the one
with the porcupine quill sticking out of your face.
Sometimes to get better, it’s gotta hurt.
Have you guys seen the dog?
That dog met a porcupine.
AGNES: You get ’em off?
CHIP: Yeah, I had the pliers so I, I used the pliers.
AGNES: Oh, good.
CHIP: But the damn dog, check it out, bit right here into my hand.
TINMIAQ: Comes stuck over the wood.
AGNES: Oh, (bleep)!
CHIP: Yeah, and then she bled in it so I need to clean it out.
AGNES: Sick.
TINMIAQ: Dang, I don’t know who got it worse,
you or Komuk.
CHIP: Well, I got like 21 piles of wood.
AGNES: That’s good.
CHIP: Yeah, that’s what I thought.
AGNES: Yeah. We have five gallon bucket of blackberries.
CHIP: Right on.
Well I’m gonna abandon hope on getting that log right now,
we might think about just heading back now.
AGNES: Yeah. This wind is getting pretty strong.
CHIP: One, two, three.
We’re under power ladies, we’re under power.
AGNES: Okay. Yee.
I’m glad we came back to the boat, eh?
CHIP: Yep. I sure am glad too.
SUE: Just cause you want it to work out doesn’t mean it does.
♪ ♪
Well, this is the site of the gut piles that I left.
Um...
And I am kinda getting the chills I wanna see if I see
any sign of the bear.
Not that long ago, opportunity knocked, but it knocked twice.
(gunshots)
I got two bulls down,
what I wanna do today,
kinda revisit gut piles that I had left,
has there been activity on them,
what can I glean from that?
Here’s bear poop.
I can see bones in there, lots of bones and then the nasty
little bits that just, the cling-ons are down here.
Probably been chewing on some of the hide.
Here is, whew, man it smells terrible.
Good lord.
There’s still a lot of meat left on this thing that this
bear wants.
They protect this with everything they’ve got.
They’re getting ready to go through winter, they’re not
right in the head, alls they think is I’ve gotta eat or
I’m gonna die, I’ve gotta kill everything in sight or
I’m gonna die, I gotta get the best spot, if I’m not the top
alpha, chicks don’t dig me.
No procreation I can’t, I can’t survive.
It’s a warning to others, this is my territory, GTFO,
I will be back and I will mangle anybody that messes with it.
And it’s very close, very close to camp.
So I’m gonna go ahead and get back in big red.
I wanna go check out that island.
So I believe this is where the bear went.
When I tried to get a shot at him last night I was on the
other side of it and he dropped in.
And came this way a little.
Let’s see what I can find.
I got all kinds of prints in here.
Got some caribous, this is a mighty fine size wolf print.
This is a bear print, it’s bigger than my hand.
Whoa Godzilla, bear print,
slide, this whole thing is a bear print, that’s a biggun.
Definitely big old mama.
You got caribou, you’ve got wolf, you’ve got bear,
for a predator, this is Valhalla.
It definitely went down here,
positive that there’s more than one size bear print.
Nothing is cub size and now there’s wolves in the mix,
so time for me to get back in the vehicle,
and keep sweeping the territory.
JESSIE: If there’s anything I enjoy the most is perspective,
and letting my perspective change and mold by the surroundings.
(drilling)
Okay, well I left off yesterday with my wall here
it’s gonna be quite the task to have to get this wall up.
This is eight foot wall you know and it’s got a lot of
studs in there because of the window,
so it’s just heavy.
Rained last night and everything’s a little bit wet,
you know, that makes things a little bit slippery and also
the wind’s blowing, you know,
blowing steady kind of against me.
So right now I’m screwing in some bracing, in case things
were to go wrong so it has something to land up against.
If you mess up and that falls back on you, you’re crushed.
If it falls this way?
It’s done for.
You ain’t getting it back up here.
Okay, that’s looking pretty solid, that’ll stop that wall.
Now is the time.
Time to lift this heavy son of a gun here.
Oh, it is heavy.
(groaning)
A step at a time.
Whew, the wind.
This is tough (bleep).
One, ugh!
Take a little break here.
Because the wind’s blowing pretty good.
Final push.
♪ ♪
JESSIE: Here we go.
Once it starts getting here, it starts getting a lot easier.
There we go.
Bump it against the bumper here.
Okay, that worked out good right there.
Heavy, but set up correctly.
But that wind is blowing against this wall.
I’m glad I got that brace up there.
Feels like a sail right now.
The rest should seem easy.
This is an exciting stage to get to, because now it’s
starting to feel like a room.
When you’re really starting to get a feel for it, you get
some excitement going.
I’m just a couple smaller walls and building my roof
away from having closed in my third addition.
All the space that I could ever need.
Okay, so I got my last wall here assembled.
Get this raised up and then I can start looking at laying
out my rafters and I got to finish sheeting everything.
Having this level of comfort is just something that
I’ve really desired for quite a while now.
Boo-yah!
Damn, I’ve come a long way in three years out here.
Looking around at that country, what this all used to look like
and looking around 360 degrees now, I’m excited, you know.
And it’s all built with my own two hands, so at the end of
the day, there’s just such a satisfaction there.
Every bit of work that I do and I gain more and more,
each day, each week.
All right, now, the true test of a wall.
How balanced is it?
Can you fight on it?
Can you run on it?
Feels good.
Getting close to getting this sheeting done.
Sometime tomorrow, I should have this roof on here and
that’s pretty exciting thing.
Limit’s the sky.
RICKO: None of us are perfect out here.
But no matter what, you have to try to do good in life.
It’s very early in the morning.
I know it’s where some cows are at, so I’m coming in low
and slow, trying to keep the sound footprint down.
No big waves splashing. No roaring motor.
Just gonna idle in, park,
try to get downwind of where the cows are.
You always got to pay attention with the wind when
you’re hunting moose, because the wind is the boss.
(imitates moose call)
If you look at this, you can see a moose print there.
There. There.
So, I’m just gonna follow it.
A lot of times, these lead to a bigger trail, which is
quieter than just coming crashing through the willows.
On this side, it’s the meadow and I want to get out there as
quiet as possible.
Hopefully, I have some luck.
I smell moose.
You can see where a bull tore up this patch.
There’s a lot of sign of bull moose in there.
It smells like moose.
It is a bull.
This is where he’s pissing.
I’m gonna rake a little bit.
(scraping)
There’s a bull down there.
Out here, we’re good.
(imitates moose call)
It’s not super big.
It’s a fat one though.
(imitates moose call)
Whenever it stop, I’ll do the cow call and whenever it move,
then I shut up.
The wind is perfect.
(imitates moose call)
(whistles)
(gunshot)
RICKO: Oh (bleep).
Yeah.
Anaa basee Denaahuto dineega.
Just came in real quiet, followed the cow trails and
then did cow, oh, sorry, my choking up.
Did cow calls and then got this bull to walk right up to me.
A small medium like this is a perfect size bull for my
auntie because gives her a lot of meat that has fat on it.
So I feel real lucky because I got that moose to come right up
and I feel lucky because the moose came right to me.
When it come to me like that, you got to take it.
It’s really important to be thankful and respectful when
I catch an animal like this.
That moose gave itself to me.
He walked right to me.
In our Athabaskan culture, that’s truly what we believe.
Without luck, that animal won’t come to you and today,
that animal came right to me.
Anaa basee Denaahuto dineega.
Enaa sebaabe.
What I just said is thank you to whoever created us.
Thank you to the moose.
Enaa sebaabe.
Enaa sebaabe means real good food and that’s what this is.
This is food, food for the table for a whole winter
for one family.
And I’m real happy because I got this for my auntie.
She depends on people like me and every year,
she depends on me to help her get a moose.
So, I’m real grateful that I’m able to provide something for
her and this is a lot of meat for the winter for her and uh,
her, her and her family would be really happy and that makes
me happy and so, Anaa basee Denaahuto.
Thank you.
I’m gonna get back to the boat, grab my knives, game bags,
tarp, everything I need and bring this moose back to
the boat and bring it home to my auntie.
AGNES: Our lives right now are awesome.
You know, we chase the berries, chase the fish,
chase the caribou, and just live from one season to the other.
TINMIAQ: This is the rewarding part of me picking all my berries,
I get to come back and make a nice sweet snack.
AGNES: How’s it going, Bun?
TINMIAQ: I’m just making up some syrup and some tea.
AGNES: We take the time to enjoy the berry and its flavor
because it’s the first picking of the year.
So it’s always awesome to take the time to enjoy the season’s flavor.
TINMIAQ: Mmm, good tea.
Tastes like jam.
AGNES: Oh, puppy.
She’s recovering from her porcupine quills.
A lot better.
TINMIAQ: Here comes Dad with the biscuits.
CHIP: I didn’t make them sweet or anything.
I just made biscuits.
TINMIAQ: Oh, I have plenty of sweet.
I put so much sugar into these.
CHIP: Okay.
TINMIAQ: It tastes pretty good.
CHIP: Wow, that’s better than cake.
AGNES: So good to have something sweet, eh?
CHIP: Uh-hmm. AGNES: Fresh blackberries.
TINMIAQ: We have all of our berries and our hearts are
happy and our hands have worked and we can sit back and
relax and eat something nice and sweet while we enjoy the day.
You like the berries Sebastian?
(laughing)
CHIP: I’m enjoying my grandson, you know?
When you see Sabi, man, you can see that Hailstone just
jetted right on through that bloodline.
(laughing)
I’m happy for my kids.
My kids have done well.
To educate kids and bring them out here and do the things
we did, it’s not an easy life.
But I enjoyed doing it.
I tried to raise my kids into like an adventure lifestyle.
If we’re not doing 110 miles-an-hour doing this way,
we’ll, then we’re here at 40-below, which is just as dangerous.
We’ve got firearms.
We kill things.
We cut (bleep) up with sharp knives and we eat them.
So we’re playing with fire.
AGNES: My girls really make me proud.
I just love to watch my girls take care of their own
children and know that Chip and I did a good job.
Hopefully, they’ll continue to walk right in my footsteps,
living this kind of lifestyle.
TINMIAQ: Now it’s just Sabastian, his mom and
his aana and taata.
AGNES: And a five-gallon bucket of blackberries.
Life is good.
ANDY: If you’re really observant, you can tie in
nature to, not only the physical skills that you have,
but also just an understanding of the world we live in.
All right! We’re underway.
DENISE: Here we go!
That motor is quiet.
ANDY: Yeah, it is.
DENISE: Nice. ANDY: Wow, looks good.
Look at how it’s slicing through the water.
DENISE: Look at it.
ANDY: Now the fun begins.
It’s time to see what this thing’s gonna do.
Just testing everything that we kind of put together and
seeing how it performs.
So yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s working good.
The clouds are out but we’re definitely getting some solar power.
DENISE: Even with the cloud, bit of cloud cover.
ANDY: Yeah. Yeah.
DENISE: We’re getting some charging.
ANDY: We’ll definitely be sun worshippers in this boat.
(laughing)
DENISE: I, I can see you trying not to smile.
(laughing)
ANDY: I’m not a naval engineer.
I’m not a naval architect.
There’s a lot of insecurity when it’s something new like this.
But this boat has met my expectations and maybe even
exceeded my expectations.
Looks good.
It’s pretty, pretty efficient, the way the water’s coming
off the sterns.
DENISE: Dang.
ANDY: Seeing the hulls going through the water beautifully,
it’s just a really good feeling when you put that much
time and energy into designing and building something
and it works.
Yeah, it looks good.
DENISE: Yeah. ANDY: We’re making headway.
It’s not, it’s not a race boat but we’re making steady
headway with the boat, you know?
DENISE: We’re making leisure way.
ANDY: All in all, I’m real super happy with the hull, the way that’s performing.
DENISE: Yeah.
ANDY: I mean, look at the wake behind us.
There’s, there’s no big wave.
You know how most boats you see, a great big white plume of water?
That’s, that’s inefficiency.
DENISE: Yep.
ANDY: If you don’t have much of that white water behind the
boat, you know your boat hull is really efficient.
So, yeah, and I think, the two things I wanted to see in this
test is, how are the hulls moving through the water?
How high the motor is?
And now, the last thing we got to kind of test is,
let’s go check out the explore factor of this boat,
’cause that’s what it’s made for. Right?
DENISE: Yes. Yes!
ANDY: Let’s go see what this thing does.
DENISE: Yeah.
♪ ♪
ANDY: Get around this bluff here and then we’ll pack into
one of those back sloughs and see what it’s like back in calmer water.
DENISE: Ah, I’ve been wanting to look back there all summer.
ANDY: Get up on the hills and go explore.
Put a net in the slough.
DENISE: You put the net out, I’ll go get berries and
goodies from up there.
ANDY: All right. That’s a deal.
DENISE: Just feeling how it is to get up around the next
corner and to see the shores and what’s there, it’s like
looking into our future.
My hope for the five and ten-year plans, living at
Calico Bluff, are that we can have time to enjoy the true
beauty of the life here.
I feel proud that I have been able to hunt independently on
my own, handle firearms and put food on the table.
I have to be able to do those things on my own and
I know that I can.
Most importantly, it benefits both Andy and I.
If I can handle the skills and do what needs to be done to
survive here, I can have his back 100%, like he’s got mine.
Wow.
ANDY: Yeah, it’s gonna be a lot of fun, taking this out there.
We’re getting to the point where it’s a big list of
projects are starting to decline.
The list is getting whittled down.
We want to just kick back and start enjoying life around here.
Go out for floats on the river in the summer.
Just kind of get out and take the days at a slower pace.
There’s a period of time where I wanted to leave my legacy
but what I’ve realized is, when I get involved in things
that I want to make changes in the world or I want to make
life better for myself or for Denise or for my dogs,
I do it for us.
I don’t do it so other people can go, Wow, look what you did.
I do things so that it’s a world that I want to live in
and a world that I want to share with the people close to me.
JESSIE: One thing I’ve learned, you know, all this
time out here is to live in the moment.
It’s about what I can do today that sets me up for tomorrow.
♪ ♪
Okay, laying out my rafters.
I’ve got them all cut.
So once I got this layout here, I’ll be ready to start
laying out the structural part of my roof.
It’s the finishing touches, you know?
Start good, finish good.
Looking at these mountains, I’m really dreaming about
my next adventures.
For me, this opens up a lot of opportunities.
Getting towards the end of like, doing all this building
and carving my way out in this harsh environment
and making my home.
Now I can start knocking off all these adventures and
getting up into all these mountain valleys and all these
places that I want to go with my dogs.
Okay, now I got all my structural parts of
my roof tied in.
I can start covering everything.
Having my roots in the ground is just giving me a whole
different perspective and experience in life.
This is my dream come true, you know, to be able to
build this house.
I came up here, sleeping under spruce trees at 40, 50-below.
You know, now I got my own home and looking around,
it’s just amazing what I’ve accomplished in three years.
I have three cabins.
I have a sauna.
I have plenty of places for dogs.
I’ve got a little farm started.
40 years old, you know, is the first time like I feel like
I’m really at home.
Last sheet.
Right now, I feel kind of emotional,
just thinking about it.
You know, whenever I can stand up here and look at this place
and think about just starting here in a tent three years ago
with a dream and a lot of passion.
To make this happen and, you know, this is, this is just
incredible to be capping this off.
My adventurous spirit will never change.
(howling)
But, you know, coming home,
it’s starting to feel pretty nice.
SUE: I’m not willing to trade fear off for my future.
I have to keep hitting it head on.
So, something was in camp last night.
And it definitely kept me awake with all the noise it made.
And glassing around and I thought I saw the bear
across the river, on the hill,
just laying low and watching camp.
So, I’m gonna go up to the area where I thought I saw it
and work my way back.
Camp, in a bear’s eyes, no matter how clean I keep it,
it always has that underlying scent of food.
The tents and the buildings, in a bear’s language, those
are dens that you never have to dig, they’re always there.
There’s never a shortage of food or water.
But they see me as some kind of alpha and if they take me
out or take my camp, bingo, it’s theirs.
That’s bear language.
I feel good though.
A sighting of the bear is good.
When I almost had him but I did not take those shots,
and then I went and checked out bear island to see.
It almost felt like that bear was leading me to bear island.
That’s spooky.
When you’re trying to scout for a bear, you don’t look for
a big ol’ body that’s nice.
You look for ears.
(imitates bear call)
Going down into that (bleep) right there, you have no idea.
S-A-F, scary as figs.
Total upper paw (bleep) there.
You already know I’m here.
I’m not gonna be quiet.
I’m not coming down in those bushes, dude.
When you have inland grizzlies, you’re, you’re
looking at, next to the polar bear,
the damn smartest predators over and above man,
that you can deal with.
I got a lot of reasons to pull it back.
Oh (bleep), there (bleep).
SUE: Look at that.
Bam!
You’re a beauty, my friend.
Welcome back to my neighborhood.
I can almost be brought to tears that they’re
coming back to my area.
They’re increasing in numbers.
How amazing is that?
Beautiful bull.
I can’t hunt them on state land
but whether I can hunt them or not,
I have a beauty and a love for my own ecosystem.
Impressive to look at, but that sun is getting lower and
I’m not getting any faster or younger.
I’m gonna take it home.
♪ ♪
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
That is him.
Oh my God, he’s huge.
He’s way the (bleep) out there.
He’s a mile away.
He’s gonna go straight and I’m gonna try to get
around the other edge.
Get the sun out of my eyes, ’cause that’s where he’s
trying to put us.
He’s running now.
We’re gonna lose absolute sight of him.
Damn it.
Don’t do it, buddy, you’re tired, you’re tired.
He’s so far away now.
We’re gonna lose him.
Well, that’s one bear that isn’t coming back into camp
anytime real soon.
Yeah, I’m seeing you, buddy.
Man, he’s a beautiful bear.
There’s no doubt about that.
Hell of a good season though, huh?
Wild, wild year.
I said it was gonna be a winter of extremes.
That stretched into a year of extremes.
I have so much more moisture,
rainfall, snow, than I’ve ever seen.
The animals behave differently.
But I was able to read those signs correctly.
(gunshot)
But it is a pretty tough lifestyle.
But you can move mountains if you have the right fulcrum.
As I’m getting weaker in my human form, the machine is
gonna pick up the slack and say,
"Don’t worry, I got your back."
The thing about myself that won’t ever change,
my overall belief in hope.
It’s part of my nature to see the rainbows and unicorns and
ignore the bats and the belfry.
RICKO: With Native culture, elders is the number one key
to our survival.
We cherish our elders and we help elders as much as we can.
What’s up, sis?
SOPHIE: Hello brother.
RICKO: How you doing?
RICKO: Yeah, it was good. How you been?
SOPHIE: I’ve been good.
RICKO: I’ll give you a hug too.
Oh yeah, it wasn’t too bad.
One shot too, so I didn’t bloody up your meat.
SOPHIE: Oh, good.
RICKO: Okay, I’m gonna hang this one.
You could tie off some of the legs, if you want.
SOPHIE: Gonna provide us all winter long.
RICKO: My auntie and her family has helped me a lot in the past.
And I’m more than happy to return the favor.
Through the toughest times of my life, these people and this
family have been there for me.
We all rely on each other out here.
No one’s homeless out here.
No one’s hungry.
We all help each other out and that’s just how it is out here.
We always have been this way. It’s part of our culture.
So that’s why we help elders as much as we can.
And even if we have an elder that might be kind of grumpy,
we still treat them good, no matter what.
That’s all of it.
SOPHIE: Okay. Thank you again, brother.
RICKO: Yeah. Thank you.
SOPHIE: Thank you for everything.
RICKO: Love you. SOPHIE: I love you too.
RICKO: The knowledge of survival is what our culture
is all about.
It’s a torch that just keeps burning.
And it’s, it’s kept alive by the new generation raising children.
So it’s really important that I raise my kids to
embrace this culture.
Know this knowledge that we have.
My proudest moment is being able to get out with my kids.
Passing that knowledge on to them, how to harvest these
animals and how to pay respect to these animals.
I feel really good about my children’s growth
over the past year.
They’re all succeeding so well in everything they do and
I’m really proud of them because they like being out in the woods.
I couldn’t ask for anything better than that.
I love to be in the woods.
And seeing my kids really embrace that lifestyle and
want to learn it, makes me feel proud to be their dad.
Passing the torch of knowledge to my children is the goal in
life for me.
And if I’m able to pass that knowledge on to them,
pass that culture on to them, that’s the most important thing.
And let them carry that torch to the next generation.
Because once that torch goes out, it’s very hard to get
that thing burning again.
That’s how I’m here today.
That’s how I was raised real strong by my mom and dad and
all the people in my whole Athabaskan family.
And we pass on knowledge and that’s the most important
thing in life.
Captioned by Cotter Media Group.