Just be careful. I might start hauling boards.
Okay. You watch your step.
Stay strong, little tree.
Whoo!
[narrator] On this episode
of Alaskan Bush People.
Instead of going to town and getting lumber,
I'm thinking a lot more about salvaging.
If I wanna build a house.
[Bam Bam] That thing is probably
gonna get somebody hurt.
The whole thing's starting to wobble.
[Raiven] That's not good.
Bear!
Get outta here!
Stop!
It's like an 80% chance that the tumors will come back
and that they'll be, uh, cancerous.
This whole ordeal has definitely not been easy
I just wanna go to Alaska and clear my head.
-Just... No. -[Rain] Put your...
-[Snowbird] No. Stop. -[Rain] You can't lift yourself, Birdy.
Bird is going back Alaska.
I'm not sure how that's gonna happen.
[Noah] I definitely missed i more than I thought I would
Just awesome.
[mellow music playing]
[Gabe] Spring cleaning, this creek's the best.
Make sure I get a good lather.
Well, today, I'm trying to catch up
on some of the chores
of getting this mountain livable again.
You know, we all had to evacuate
so fast during the fire,
there's a lot of stuff that's been overlooked.
So just catching up on some dishes,
doing some laundry.
You know, it's really hard with not everybody
being up on the mountain.
You know, Raquell and the girls,
I miss them every day.
We've lived up a mountain before,
but we keep getting forced out
through strokes of bad luck
and it's just killing me.
I wanna get Raquell and the girls
moved up to the mountain as fast as I can.
But right now, there's no place for them.
That's the main thing in my mind.
I need someplace, someplace safe,
someplace kind of nice to put Raquell and the girls.
A good pair of boots, or tennis shoes.
These puppies need to soak.
Start clean... Oh.
One thing I didn't think of,
now I'm gonna be washing all my dishes
down from the dirtiest shoes
you've ever seen in your life.
Okay. You go further down.
There we go.
You know, when I think about the kind of home
that I wanna build for Raquell and the girls,
it's a very storybook.
I wanna build, you know, a log cabin in the woods.
This place that I come back to
after a long day of work, see the smoke
coming through the chimney and I walk in the door,
all my little ones jump on me,
you know, "Daddy's home! Daddy's home!"
And, oh, that's what I'm looking for,
you know, a cottage in the woods.
There's a lot to be done. I have to find a location.
I have to put in a foundation.
I am very determined to build something on the mountain
that Raquell and the kids can come home to right now.
You know, I'd like to get them up there yesterday
and I think I can pull it off.
This is it, you know, as soon as you come up here,
you feel a sense of freedom.
Yeah, definitely for a bush boy,
this is the only place you can be happy.
[narrator] It's the beginning of sprin
in Northern Washington.
And with the final traces of winter fading,
new life blooms on North Star Ranch.
Look at you, handsome boy.
Get that winter shed off you.
[narrator] For some, the new season
marks a fresh start on the mountain.
For others, ambitions lie on a future back in Alaska.
[Noah] I have great childhoo memories of Alaska.
I wanna give that to my kids
So we're going to head up to Alaska
and we're going to buy a piece of property.
There's a lot of little town that I'm looking at.
It's called the South East End.
We'd really like to be able to have a place
in Alaska before winter.
And if we're gonna do that,
we need to do it now.
But Bird hasn't fully recovered yet,
and we've given her quite a bit of time.
If she's not ready to go by the time we are,
then we're just gonna have to go.
So, fingers crossed on that one.
[Bird] You wanna know why I didn't go to the doctor
-from the beginning? -Why?
I was afraid something was really wrong with me.
But that's when you go to the doctors, silly girl,
so they can catch it quickly.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Weeks after a major surgery
to remove dangerous tumors in her abdomen,
Bird recovers on North Star Ranch,
contemplating the life-changing
decisions ahead.
It's like an 80% chance
that the tumors will come back
and that there's like a higher than 50% chance
that they will be, uh, cancerous
if they come back again.
I love you.
-Yeah. -It's okay.
Not really. You know, to an extent.
It might be okay later,
but to an extent, it's not really okay.
-You know? -[Ami] It isn't. It isn't.
It's been hard to watch her go through this.
I'm into my health crisis.
It's different when you see your child going through it
I would take it a thousand times
to keep her from having to go through it.
You know, they didn't give me very good options
of how do I fix it.
There's a hormone treatment they can do,
but they don't even know if that would work.
And I know what the other thing is.
Uh-huh. Yeah.
Hysterectomy.
So...
Did she ask you about...
About what, Mom?
If you ever wanted children?
She did happen to ask that. Yes.
What do you think about that?
Well, those are decisions that, like, changed.
You know, how they change your life a lot.
Yes, they do.
And now it's like I have to do it
or I can't do it ever.
-And it's like a big decision. -[Ami] I know.
With everything happening now,
there is still a lot that goes into
if I decide that I ever want kids,
you know, it has to kind of be a decision that I make now.
And there's a lot that can go into that,
you know, of having to meet someone.
Dating and relationships is already complicated
and you throw this situation that I'm in on top of that.
Who wants to walk into that?
I do feel horrible
that we didn't get to go to Alaska right now.
Postponed it.
Not "didn't get to go."
-We are still going. -[Ami] Uh-hmm.
You have to recuperate though.
I'd be concerned about Birdy going to Alaska
before she's fully healed because I have lived there
a long time and just walking can be treacherous.
Birdy isn't even walking on her own right now,
so to me, it is very much
too soon for her to be planning on a big trip.
I can take it easy, you know?
And I think it'd be good for me to get out,
walk in a creek,
-see some bears... -That will get you excited.
pet a bear cub, you know?
You know you're not gonna pet a bear cub.
[Bird] You don't know what will happen.
Noah's leaving in a couple of weeks
and I'm really trying to heal up.
Right now, it feels like I'll never be healthy
as long as I live.
But hopefully, if I take it easy,
I think I'll be good enough to go.
Look away one second, I'm just gonna cough in pain.
[coughs]
[country music playing]
[Bear] This should be about the perfect spot.
I just need to get it cleaned off
before we can even start laying it out.
[narrator] After successfull hauling his trailer
up mountain days earlier,
Bear looks to expand his temporary living quarter
so his wife and son can live more comfortably
in their new environment.
This is a gigantic tent.
Better to have more spare room
and better to keep your wife and kid comfortable in.
Because right now we have a trailer.
It's a nice trailer but it's a little bit compact.
Now, a tent out here, you really don't want it
without a floor, basically, because there are ticks.
There are snakes.
So I'm just gonna try to ge a floor put in and a tent up
Well, I've always been as extreme as possible,
but I have become a little bit less extreme,
just because I'm doing more
grounded stuff, more family stuff.
[Raiven] I did just put River down for a nap
-as well so... -[Bear] Perfect.
we can try to take care of this while he's resting.
Oh, let's get all this out the way, get it flattened out.
Then we should measure it and put our corner posts in.
There are mice in this area right here.
I don't wanna build it over, like, mice, obviously.
But I'll just try to shoo them along their way.
That's why standing on this?
Yeah.
There are fat ones.
They're not the type that run up your leg.
That's more of the small ones.
So now, I've got two thoughts, which is where are the mice
that are gonna run up my leg
and I don't wanna be near the mice,
preferably not, you know, and this is one
of the adjustments that we're at where,
you know, I'm willing to help,
but after the mice are removed.
[Bear] So it's gonna be 30 longways and then 16 wide.
I am the least builder
of everyone in my entire family.
I mainly just do destruction and roof work,
to be honest.
I've seen a lot of building,
but I've never used these before.
But I think that I know the method now.
This tape is a 30-foot tape, so that's perfect.
Exactly 30 feet.
So that means there will be maximum tape,
huh, 30 feet.
Here, you wanna walk up here with me, baby,
and hold the end of this?
I think right about up here, probably.
Okay. Just hold it tight, baby,
-for 30 feet. -You hold it tightly.
Now, the question, should it be in the middle or the edge?
I think the edge because 16 is the max length of it, so.
Well, I definitely wanna show Raiven and River
that I can be reliable as the dad in the family,
that I can, you know, protect them
and, you know, give them everything they need.
That didn't work.
Breaking stuff is one of my specialties.
I got it. I'll just unwind it.
-I just don't wanna cut my fingers off. -[Raiven] Yeah. Yeah.
You wanna turn it off before you stick your fingers in it?
Uh, good call, baby, by all sensible and logical like.
[Gabe] Good thing Bam didn't see that.
Okay. Here we are.
What do you think?
[Bam Bam] Down here, you have a lot of land
to utilize actually.
[Gabe] I really like this.
[narrator] A half mile away Bam and Gabe
scout a future cabin site,
sitting on 40 acres.
Gabe's land provides easy access to water
and other natural resources
I definitely wanna raise the kids
in the same kind of environment that I grew up in,
with all a lot of the freedoms that the bush has to offer.
It's important for me to find a nice house site
where that's gonna be possible.
[Bam Bam] Dude, you have a runoff river right here.
[Gabe] Is that good?
Yes, it's very good.
[Gabe] I like to hear that.
[Bam Bam] You have definitely been blessed with a gift here.
-So what do you think? -[Bam Bam] It's great.
I think this is it.
[grunts]
I have claimed my spot.
Anyone will tell you if they're building their own house,
the hardest thing to it is getting the lumber.
We have a lot of salvaged lumber
from the burned trees that were on our property.
And now we're gonna have to come up with a lot more,
get as much lumber as we can.
The name of the game right now is lumber.
Instead of going to town,
I'm thinking a lot more about salvaging.
Right. Like we're cutting down the trees
-to mill as much as we can... -[Gabe] Yeah.
seeing about getting an actual mill on the mountain.
Yeah. On top of that, there's a lot
of old establishments and things here,
like some of the old flumes from the gold miners.
And there's a lot of good wood still left on them.
You know, looking up at the sides of all these mountains,
they've got gold sluices running all over them
where they used to transport the gold
and all of these old mining wreckages and everything else.
Ever since we got here, I've been looking up at those.
I'm like, "Wow. They're jus sitting there rotting."
You know, I just think it would be incredible
to use that old wood in part of my house
for my little family, you know.
I think that Raquell and the girls
growing up in a house full of history,
it just teaches everything that I wanna teach my girls
You have to remember where you've been
in order to keep going where you're going.
Okay. Now, when you say salvage,
have you checked out to see how much is actually viable?
Nope. All I have is the go ahead to go check it out.
The main thing that we need to find out is, is it rotten?
That's the number one thing. And then you go up and poke it.
Hold that thought.
-You want one? -[Bam Bam] I am not hungry.
-Not hungry? -Not hungry.
-Not at the moment. -Sure you don't want one on a lick?
Tempting, but no.
Well, cheers.
When Gabey suggests
a salvage job that he wants to do,
it's usually not a small thing.
[Gabe] This could be like home sweet home if we fixed it up.
[Bam Bam] It's usually something that's gonna be a bit of an endeavor.
[Gabe] We're literally floating an entire house
all the way back to Brown Town.
Gabey is not just known for taking large bites
when he tackles a project, he's known for unhinging
his whole jaw and trying to swallow it whole.
We'll check it out first, see if it's rotten,
and then we'll see about pulling it apart,
and cutting it apart, stacking it up,
and seeing what we can get.
Whenever you're finished with your spam.
[intense music playing]
[narrator] Coming up...
That thing is probably gonna get somebody hurt.
[Gabe] Surprisingly, Bam is skeptical.
I can't wait to prove him wrong.
Yeah, this is cool.
[Bam Bam] No, this is insane.
[Gabe] Whoo!
[country music playing]
[Bam Bam] Is this the place?
[Gabe] Yeah. This is it.
You can see pieces of it up there already.
[Bam Bam] Lead the way.
[narrator] While half the wolf pack
prepped for a delayed Alaska trip,
brothers Bam and Gabe begin their lumber salvage
10 miles down mountain,
hoping to acquire materials
for Gabe's future home.
[Bam Bam] Well, just step around this thing.
It's a long way down.
The possibility of finding, you know,
good lumber that we can start
building my house with is really exciting.
It's been a long time comin
and that's one of our main fights right now,
is just the lumber for it.
So, who knows?
We may have just stumbled onto a gold mine of lumber.
It's all this here.
And it looks like it goes on for quite a ways.
I can tell you I'm already seeing good wood.
[Bam Bam] Well I can tell you I'm already not.
[Gabe] What do you mean? Look at these.
I like that. I mean, do you realize
what you're gonna pay for that in a store?
I think there's some good usability in here.
I think trying to tackle that thing
is probably gonna get somebody hurt.
I'm hearing there is a chance it'll pay off.
Surprisingly, Bam is skeptical.
That's actually not a surprise.
You know, he's thinking abou all the possibilities.
That's why I brought him, you know.
He's got a mind for this thing
and he's kind of being the voice of reason.
And I hope he keeps that approach,
but I can't wait to prove him wrong.
Yeah, this is cool.
[Bam Bam] No, this is insane.
Whoo!
[Bam Bam] Realistically, I don't have the time
to take you to the hospital, so don't get hurt.
[Gabe] It doesn't look that bad from up here.
[Bam Bam] You're gonna become more and more unstable
as you start pulling pieces off, too.
It's a little rickety, but it feels all right.
I mean, I really think it's a bad idea.
[Gabe] Let me see if I can pry one off.
[Bam Bam] I don't wanna disappoint Gabey.
I was really excited that there might be some
usable lumber up here, and there still could be.
Dude, dude.
That board you're stepping on is not stable.
My concern is that it's very old.
It's very precarious.
There's no telling which boards
are rotten and which ones aren't.
There's gonna be more put into it
than we get out of it.
Tell me that's not a good board.
Sure. That might be an okay piece of board,
but I don't think it's worth the time and energy.
Oh, yeah?
My efforts can be better used elsewhere, man.
For me, it's just... It's hard to see
all of this wood go to waste.
Well, I made a mistake getting Bam to come look at the job.
I should have roped him into it first.
He took one look at it and he's, like, pass.
I'm like what? Pass?
All this lumber?
All right. Well, I'm gonna take a sample board with me
to show anybody who, you know,
somebody less intelligent and more ambitious.
You know, there's risk to every reward.
I definitely think that this wood is worth salvaging
Even if I'm a man down,
I still think there's usable material here.
[Bam Bam] I don't see anybody that doesn't have
-massive stress cracks. -[Gabe] We're gonna have
some cracks in them.
[Bear] I'm gonna put some down in the middle.
Right now, I just need to put a couple of these down,
get those, put them in, cut them off.
I'm gonna get these boards laid.
I'll need you to hold one end.
Babe, like one task at a time.
[Bear] Okay.
Right now, we're trying to get a tent up.
We wanna keep it as sealed as possible.
And in order to do that, we need a floor.
So to build the floor, we need a foundation.
You just tell me what you need me to do.
Stand there and look pretty. No. Just joking.
I'm gonna need you to hold the boards, okay?
If you don't mind holding that as steady as you can.
Well, some of my youngest memories
are actually of dad building our houses,
and he would literally build them from the ground up.
He would dig the holes, cut the trees,
put the pilings in, build the roof.
Dad would literally just do everything.
And so I'm trying to do the same.
And that just leaves me
with some really big shoes to fill.
Uh, I guess you could say I feel the pressure
a little bit of trying to do it.
I really wish I paid closer attention.
I literally saw my dad practically by himself
build multiple houses
and I can barely put in a floor.
No, you're putting in a floor. Look.
[Bear] Yeah. I said barely... [chuckles]
It is working so far though.
[tool grinding]
[dramatic music playing]
[Raiven] Okay. I think I did it.
To be honest, I didn't think that Raiven
could be any more beautiful.
But when I saw her holding that drill,
holding those boards...
she takes my breath away.
She is one beautiful lady.
Yeah. I think, really, the closest
I've ever used tools for
is like putting up a curtain rod.
It's important for me to ge out there and do my part.
You know, the goal is to be able to do 50/50 up there.
So this is just kind of the beginning
of learning how to do that.
No. No, no.
[tool grinding]
[Bear] You sound like a pro, baby.
-Don't you dare put your... -You sure you've never done this before?
finger by the screwdriver.
[Bear] Yeah. That looks better than mine.
[Rain] Here's your pillow.
I got you. Put in weight.
Yeah.
-[Snowbird] It smells. -What?
[Snowbird] That's what.
-Ugh. -[Snowbird] That's okay.
I'm just gonna put it on your feet.
Bird and I are each other's rocks.
When one of us is down, the other and has to step up
and be strong and take care of them,
but I've never actually done it before.
What's happening right now? What are you doing?
-What is that? -I'm giving you fruit juice.
-Okay. -It's just not in a cup
because you asked for water.
You know, Bird has always been the one to take care of me.
So this is definitely new to me.
It's gonna work like that.
I'm choking.
[Rain] Well, you need to sit up.
One, two, three.
Let go.
And quit trying to do it yourself, Bird.
I can do it. I'll use my arms.
[Rain] No, you can't.
You shouldn't be moving yourself back like that.
It really hurts.
You have... You have to listen to me
and you have to let me take care of you.
Look at me.
I know you're used to always doing everything
and you're used to always being the one in charge,
but you can't be right now, Bird.
[Snowbird] It is very hard to have to rely on Rain.
If I had to rely on anybody, I'm glad it's her.
But I'm her big sister.
You know, I've always taken care of her
since the day she was born.
Do you want to see the sandwich I made you?
-It's a heart. -Oh, it's shaped like a heart.
Oh, wait. There's Miracle Whip?
-[Rain] Yeah. -Hmm.
It doesn't hurt when I eat it.
Well, it's hard to hand that torch to her
and be like, "You have to take care of me now.
I cannot help you."
Uh, and that hurts, too.
And so that's one of the hardest parts.
All right. I do have to give you an A-plus on the sandwich,
because there's so much Miracle Whip,
it's like oozing out, and that's just how I like it.
Extra cheese, extra milk whip.
Mmm-hmm. So good.
[Rain] This is gonna be rough for her.
And in my head, I'm thinking,
"How's Bird gonna go to Alaska?"
But, uh, if it's one thing I know,
Bird's never gonna quit.
She's literally the toughest person that I've ever met.
[tense music playing]
[Bam Bam] Are we close?
It's not much further.
All right. That's it.
Ugh. Oh, that's it, eh?
Your mission, should you choose
to accept it, is to dismantle this thing.
Did you bring any rope?
No.
[narrator] Miles from their ranch,
Gabe remains determined
to salvage lumber from a 100-year-old flume site.
I wondered why Bam
was peeling out of that.
Now I know.
After Bam backing out of the deal
of a salvage job, I was definitely glad
that Bear is, like, I'll do it, you know?
I'll come take a look at it.
For me, this is an impossibl to pass this up.
I can't pass this opportunity.
So, you come around the corner
and there's like a ton of lumber for free,
it's kind of an easy decision.
You know, it's one of the biggest things
about living in the bush.
That's the first lesson you learn.
Don't waste anything.
I'm thinking let's just take a few boards off.
Get enough for a load stacked up,
-the ones on the ground. -The good ones...
-No. -are these here.
We're taking this apart.
-That's-- -The whole thing.
That's the job, okay?
Oh, first glance at this whole
wooden menagerie put up in the walls,
I knew immediately when I saw it
why Bam didn't wanna do it.
Destruction and heights are my two favorite things.
So, I am the perfect person for this job.
Batter up. [grunts]
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Or don't.
-Just drop... -Just it.
I'm about seven or so minutes.
Watch your footing.
Being high up is just fun.
It lets you know you're alive.
The air smells better. It's crisper, it's cleaner.
[Gabe] You have any other good ones?
[Bear] Uh, yeah. Two right here.
Watch out, watch out. Watch out, watch out. Ah.
Next, bro.
Any small slip, it's just a rush.
It's the true rush of living is when you're close
to dying or something like that.
One, two, three.
Watch your eyes.
That one's not gonna work. It's split.
-[Gabe] Yeah. -Bye-bye.
Just throw it off that end.
[Bear] Oh, every board we take off,
the looser this thing becomes.
The whole thing's starting to wobble a little bit.
I'm surprised it's standing up right now.
We're just gambling at this point
that this thing will hold us
as we dismantle it on top of it.
Don't fall.
Whoo!
All right.
I think that's a pretty good.
Flip. Yo. Ooh. Shh.
Watch yourself, man.
How do you wanna get them out of here?
Haul them out.
We might need to come up with something else.
[rock music playing]
[Rhain Alisha] Okay. So after this fence,
I got to go and outrun the horses.
Do the horses, do the water, feed the puppies,
the parakeets, then the ferrets,
then the fish.
Don't forget the chickens.
[chicken clucks]
[Noah] So, Bird hasn't fully recovered yet.
If she's not ready to go by the time we are,
then we're just gonna have to go.
With all the new life on our piece of property
here in Washington,
it's kind of all hands on deck.
We were expecting to be back from Alaska by now,
but things got delayed.
[narrator] In the past 10 days,
Noah and Rhain Alisha
have welcomed a baby horse
and a surprise litter of puppies,
adding new responsibilities
days before their departure to Alaska.
[Rhain Alisha] So I've been thinking...
[Noah] What?
[Rhain Alisha] I think there's too much to do.
[Noah] I know. That's why we're getting it all done.
[Rhain Alisha] The puppies alone is a chore.
We have all these other chores,
adding that one
in the last days before we leave,
I just think that I shouldn't go to Alaska.
[tense music playing]
The thought to not go to Alaska has hit me a lot.
I was ready to go
right before poor Bird got sick,
and just more things kept popping up.
I came down to the hard decision
that I can't... I can't go.
I think it'd be better if I held down the fort here.
[sighs]
The only thing that would make it easier
is if you take Eli.
If I can take that workload off of me,
I can work during nap time.
But then you're going to miss his first trip to Alaska.
[Rhain Alisha] I know that.
But tell me how I can leave the puppies.
[Noah] First, Birdy has medical stuff going on,
and might not be able to go to Alaska.
And now, my wife won't be going to Alaska.
It's, like, it's, like, we're dropping like flies.
The main reason I was looking forward
to this trip was because
it was going to be with my wife.
We had this grand adventure planned.
Now, if I'm going alone, it just kind of makes it
to where it's just a mission, not a journey.
What... So I'm supposed to just
go back and enjoy myself looking at properties,
and trying to pick a home for us up there?
-Yes. -Without you?
Honey, you know what I like.
[rock music playing]
[Raiven] North, what are you doing?
What you laying down in there for?
I don't like when horses lay down.
There you go.
I'm pretty sure there's a bear over there.
That's not good.
Babe?
I'm not quite sure where he is.
Babe, there's a bear
I'm pretty sure by the ostrich pen.
A bear?
Kind of by the feed over there.
-I don't know-- -Over that way?
[Raiven] Yeah.
You wanna just stay close to the camp.
If it's a baby, there could be a mother.
Mmm-hmm.
The little bear cub isn't really the dangerous one.
I mean, you don't want them chewing on your leg,
but they're not really dangerous.
But if there is a cub
that hasn't already left its mother,
that means that there is a mother bear nearby.
Get out of here.
Stop.
Get out of here.
Stop.
That's one thing that you don't wanna mess with.
That's a mother of any species,
much less a mother bear.
Keep going.
Get out of here.
Go.
Now look at him run.
Okay, Mr. Ostrich.
Winter just let out so the bears
are all coming down, and stretching, and yawning.
Bears are always more hungr
when they first wake up from hibernation.
You wanna just stay vigilant basically,
keep your eye out for them
and scare them off if you see them.
They're definitely hungry, and looking for any source
of food that they can find.
First, I thought you were calling me,
because I heard you say "bear."
I was, like, "What?
I said, "Bear, there's a bear."
And I thought there might be some confusion there.
[Bear] Yeah. Just for a second.
Seeing a bear up mountain
is definitely just solidifying the fact
that we are up mountain, and we are in the bush.
And this is a different lifestyle.
Kind of seeing, you know, a bear up there
is definitely just that reminder that it is real.
This is the reality of our daily life
from this point and adjusting
to that being our normalcy.
[Bear] We should definitely keep our eyes out.
[country music playing]
-[Bear] Ready, set, go. -[Gabe] Go.
Ah. Backwards.
Whoo!
Oh, missed.
-Yes. -[laughs]
Okay. Back to work.
[narrator] With the foundati
for his new structure in place,
Bear calls on brother Gabe
to assemble and hoist the tent
into its final position.
Well, looks like we have some directions right here.
I'm saying, if it has directions
since we're probably gonna need them.
Yeah, tons of directions.
Maybe too many.
Looks more like the funny pages.
Yeah, it does kind of resemble that a little...
Now to pay me back for helping Gabe with that old,
broken down flume, I asked if he could help me
put up this menagerie of a tent,
but it looks like his instructions,
half of it is for something
that we don't even have so my...
I'm not entirely sure how to get this tent up.
[Gabe] Come on, bring it in.
A little more.
Missing the third Stooge.
[Gabe] A little more. Whoa. Not so much.
All right.
Ah. I don't know how this is gonna work.
I think the main issue that we're having,
it's made to go into the dirt.
What do you want me to do?
Just stand there at the moment.
There are some questionable stains in here.
This specific tent is made to be built
into the dirt, not on a wooden platform.
To be honest, this tent will work out a lot better
if I had Noah to help,
he'd like, take a toothpick and a Swiss Army knife
and shave something down and somehow make it work.
But Noah, he is planning a trip for Alaska.
So, Gabe's all I have, and Gabe's good with muscle.
But neither of us were really the tent putter-uppers.
Are we ready to try to make it stand?
[Bear] Let me stick the fat pole through.
All right, going up.
[grunts]
That about the same height as yours?
-[Gabe] I can't see you. -[Bear] No?
Thing weighs a ton.
Dude, in this wind, I don't think it's gonna work.
Also, it's like a giant sail, man.
I just don't think it's gonna be safe enough
or secure enough to have my little boy and wife in there,
especially we get some really,
really strong wind on the mountain.
We're right by where the windmill is.
-Stand clear man. -[Gabe] Hold it.
-It's coming down. -Hold it.
Stand clear.
Okay.
Well, what do you wanna do?
Let me look more closely at the schematics and stuff.
We'll have to tackle a different way.
[Gabe] Right.
This tent's a giant fiasco.
[country music playing]
[Bear] You start hauling them,
I'm gonna rig the line.
Okay.
-Just watch your steps. -Yes, sir.
[narrator] The next morning Gabe and Bear
team up once again at the flume site,
hanging 1,000 feet in the ai on the side of a cliff.
The siblings have hatched a new plan to transport
the salvaged lumber back to North Star Ranch.
What do you think?
From this tree down to that one?
-I think so. -Think we have enough rope?
Maybe.
You know, my first idea to get the boards down
was just pick them up and haul them down.
But it is quite a way. It's pretty steep.
And then Bear came up with a really cool idea.
He's thinking maybe a zip line.
Careful.
Bear is gonna anchor it down on one side.
Run the line down to the other side
in between two trees.
And then hopefully we'll be able to attach
the boards onto that and just send them on down
just like you would a garbage chute.
You have enough rope?
[Bear] Yeah, it looks like it.
[Gabe] Just be careful. I might start hauling boards.
[Bear] Okay. You watch your step.
[Gabe grunts]
We're a little precarious up here.
I'm looking down,
and there's a pretty good drop.
I'll try to get a little bit of a swoop.
-Ah. -So give me a test board.
We are just balancing on the edge
of this stacked up old lumber
on the very tip of the cliff.
Stay strong, little tree.
Reaching up above our heads with the giant board,
trying to get it clipped on and it's not easy.
But, uh, it'll be worth it
if we can get the zip line working.
I'm ready. Okay, here we go.
Awesome.
Cool.
Extreme.
[Gabe] Oh.
-We'll have to... -I should have seen that.
move that one out of the way.
No, I thought it might hit that one.
Let me go down there and move that branch.
Can you reach the board?
[grunts]
-[Bear] Watch your head. -[Gabe] There it goes.
[Bear] Okay. Get back up there.
I'm gonna grab the lines.
All right.
-[Bam Bam] Hey, man. -Hey, what you doing here?
Bam, you came.
I knew you couldn't stay away.
I think most spot we could use your help
would just be down here, untying these ropes.
Well, it's definitely a good idea
to get the boards down the way they're doing it.
Of course, there are a few adjustments
I would definitely make
to make it a little more efficient.
But it is a good idea.
And they were safe about the way they were doing it,
which I'm glad to see that, that when I'm not around,
they are actually respecting the danger.
All right, then, let's hit it hard
this last hour, and see how many we can get done,
and then we'll all break off.
Yeah, that works for me if it works for you.
This way, you don't have to climb down every time.
Y'all just send them down, I'll unhook them,
and we'll see how many we can get down.
[Bear] Sounds good.
It means a lot to me to see Bam.
He'd do anything for his little brother.
That's the gooey center
we always talked about, you know.
Bam is not outwardly sweet, but inside,
there is a heart of gold in there.
All right. Send it down.
Awesome, bro.
And stop.
That was nice. That was good.
Definitely saving time.
Get the next one ready if you can.
[Bear] All right.
Well, even though everybody has different plans
for building their house,
we're still all really doing the same dream.
[Gabe] Here it comes.
[Bam Bam] All right, send it down.
Nice and easy.
[Bear] Whoo!
The same dream that my old man had,
we're just carrying that on
to build up the North Star Ranch
to be a completely self-sustainable ranch,
and a home for generations of Browns to come.
[Gabe] This was all Bear.
-[Bam Bam] Yeah? -[Gabe] Yeah.
Yeah. Just don't let him ride it down.
[Gabe laughs]
[narrator] Coming up.
[Snowbird] If you think it's okay to even go,
like, should I just call it off?
So with my current condition
going back to Alaska, it has to kind of
be a decision that I make now.
[tense music playing]
[country music playing]
[Noah] Hey, kids.
-[horse neighs] -Really?
Really? You wanna play?
We have a new little filly named Peyton.
Right now, I'm trying to desensitize her,
to halter and lead.
Oh, does that feel good?
Yeah, it does.
Right there, is that the spot?
It helps, though, that I don't have
the chemicals coming off of me that are fear.
Horses understand that.
It looks very beautiful on you.
So you tell her.
So far, I've been able to get it
around her nose without her freaking out.
So I'm just, like, slowly edging
further and further to getting the halter on,
not trying to push it down,
don't want her freak out or anything.
That's fine.
By tomorrow, I'll probably have the halter on and strapped.
Are you coming to say goodbye?
[chuckles] Oh, thank you.
Kisses?
What would my wife think?
[tense music playing]
[Bear] Pull it in so that it's completely straight.
[grunts]
-I broke it. -[Bear] You broke it?
Gabe, cinch, not destroy.
[Gabe] I'm gonna blame the wind on that one.
[narrator] It's been a momentous two weeks
for the Browns, with brother Gabe
successfully reclaiming lumber for his future cabin
and Bear continuing to expand his home front.
[Bear] This tent has been killer hard to get up.
It's like one thing after another.
But it feels pretty good
to finally be having this baby up.
Looks good to me, man.
It's a lot more space.
I'm gonna call that a job well done.
-I'm gonna agree with you. -Ah.
Whoo.
[narrator] And while Noah prepares
for his upcoming journey north,
the time has come for sister Bird
to make a difficult decision
stay in Washington and finish her recovery,
or risk injury with a return to Alaska.
[dramatic music playing]
So with my current condition going back to Alaska,
it has to kind of be a decision that I make now.
Life really hit me hard.
I would be lying if I said
there weren't times that I wanted to give up.
But, uh, honestly, I wasn't even
gonna postpone it the first time.
But at this point, there's no amount of pain
that's gonna stop me,
and make me postpone it a second time.
Not happening.
I definitely think it is worth the risk,
even though I'm not fully recovered.
The truck is ready.
[Snowbird] I am just about ready. Hold on.
One, I'm not gonna be fully recovered for a long time.
And two, I need it right now
even as much as the physical pain is.
There's a lot of mental stuff that I just need a break.
[Gabe] Are you excited?
Very. Yeah.
A little nervous. A little excited.
What?
You're not taking a watermelon.
I am taking a watermelon.
Don't you touch my watermelon.
Bird.
I wouldn't say that it surprised me
that Birdy has found the strength to go.
Has she recuperated? No.
She should be going? No.
Bird wasn't gonna let anything,
not even surgery, stop her from going back to Alaska.
[Ami] You all better be careful.
I don't need to tell you how dangerous it is.
[Snowbird] No, for sure.
You know how I used to pick up sticks on the beaches
that were shaped like guns for y'all?
Bring me a couple of those.
-Oh, okay. -Okay.
And the main thing, just bring yourselves back, you know?
You guys be careful out there, and just have lots of fun.
[Ami] The youngest three of my kids are leaving.
I don't like it.
I don't like being separated from them.
Okay, guys.
[Bam Bam] All right. Calm seas and fair weather.
[Ami] Birdy is still recovering
from her surgery, so I'm very glad that Raive
is gonna be there to keep Bird safe.
-I love you. -Okay. I love you.
-[Gabe] All right. -Don't forget your letter.
-I will. -[Gabe] You guys have fun.
I hope and I pray
that the kids find what they need.
It may not be what they're looking for,
or what they think they'll find,
but what they need.
Godspeed.
-[chuckles] -All right, dude.
-We'll bring lots of rocks. -Be safe.
-[Ami] I love you. -[Gabe] More to us.
[all] More to us.
[country music playing]
[narrator] After traveling 1,000 miles from Washington
the Browns have finally arrived in Haines,
the first destination on their Alaskan journey.
[Snowbird] The Alaska air smells so good.
It smells just like dirt and trees.
There isn't anywhere that I've ever been
that smells like that.
[country music playing]
There's a lot that I'm looking forward to doing
while we're here in Alaska.
We're actually here in Haines.
I haven't been here like 19 or 20 years.
Birdy was born here in Haines.
And we spent the first 10 years of my life here.
When Bird and I think of home, this is the place.
[Rain] I never thought that I would be able
to come to Haines.
Getting to experience it is just so mystical.
There's a lot that I'm looking forward
to doing while we're here in Alaska.
If we can actually find a piece of property,
then it can turn from being just taking a trip
to actually being permanent
and being able to give my sons what I had,
at least a little bit of it.
That's just worthwhile.
[Snowbird] It's definitely my goal for Alaska
to try and find some answers.
What I want my future to hold,
where I want it to be.
If I wanna have kids ever,
figure out who the future Bird is.
I think following mom's and dad's old footsteps,
I think that will help give me clarity.
[country music playing]
[narrator] On the next episo
of Alaskan Bush People.
[Noah] White caps says never a good sign.
-Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. -Okay, we have a problem.
Just go with it.
It feels so good to be back in Alaska.
Honestly, you don't know how excited I am.
[Noah] I am focusing on the future
The future of Alaska.
Dang, all right, this is nice.
But a lot of things have kind of gone sideways.
Whoo!
That was a howl.
[Bear] Right up there, we have an old mine shaft
where bears have been seen coming in and out.
-[bear growls] -[Gabe] Well, go slow, slow.
Hold. Hold. Hold.
[yells]
In the excitement,
I may have overdone it a little bit.
Was it a good idea for you to take
the whole trip and come here?
[tense music playing]