SONTA: Chimney fire!
Chimney fire!
CHEVIE: Ryder! I need you to tell me what your mom's saying inside!
Check and see if that chimney's orange!
Ryder and I were working on the snow machine.
Sonta yelled "Chimney fire!"
I could see that the chimney wasn't sucking any air.
So I always have my ladder up against my house.
You just never know.
RYDER: Mom said it's okay!
It's not orange.
I'll give you the chimney sweeper, Dad.
CHEVIE: We'll sweep it after it cools off a little bit more.
You never wanna sweep it when it's that hot.
You can push that thing right through that pipe.
Working on a snow machine, and you hear uh chimney fire, chimney fire.
That all of the sudden becomes not the project for the moment.
I'm getting creosote buildup in one certain spot of my pipe.
So, I got to tear this whole thing out,
put in all new pipe so it's all square and straight.
RYDER: Can I try to go up there? CHEVIE: Go ahead, Ryder.
RYDER: Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. CHEVIE: Careful.
You just pay attention to what you're doing. RYDER: Okay.
CHEVIE: Always gotta have one hand on all the time
and one foot on all the time. Okay?
RYDER: Hey, this is high. CHEVIE: Yeah, it's high.
RYDER: Higher than the house. CHEVIE: Now you come all the way up the ladder even more.
You see how that's hanging over?
You never want to step on that 'cause there's no roof underneath that.
RYDER: Okay. CHEVIE: That's why you come all the way up that ladder.
There you go. Now step off.
People think that it's dangerous having your kid up on a roof um
and climbing a ladder, but the boys become men.
Now's the time to teach him.
And someday I'll be out trapping, or I'll do something
when he's older and there might be a situation like this,
and I want him to be confident enough to be able to get up here and handle it.
First thing always with a chimney fire, shut off the air, shut off the oxygen.
RYDER: Okay. CHEVIE: Never, ever open the stove, chimney fire.
You just keep it shut down and then the next thing you gotta do
is cool off that chimney. The only way to cool it off
is a bucket of water down that. RYDER: Or snow.
CHEVIE: Or snow. And listen to me, you never, ever, ever,
when you're putting water down a chimney have you face
or your hands over the top of it.
'Cause it'll blow steam back up outta there that'll burn you.
What's the number one, number one rule?
RYDER: Always know how and fix it when you can.
CHEVIE: Remain calm. RYDER: Oh. Oh yeah, remain calm.
CHEVIE: 'Cause all as it is is five minutes of chaos
and you can lose a home that took years to build.
ROBERT: Living out here in a place that's so wild,
a place where my ancestors have lived for tens of thousands of years.
And being able to do the same things they did, it just rings true in my soul.
Something that makes me feel complete.
There is a short window to go out and try to dig some clams.
There is a minus three tide tonight at six PM,
so that gives us time today to build our smokehouse.
To preserve the clam, to ensure that we're not wasting anything.
Man, I'm really liking the looks of this spot right here.
RJ: Okay. ROBERT: Gives us a place to sit under the big trees.
RJ: Well, if you wanna get firewood, I can start digging this out.
ROBERT: All right. I'm gonna get some wood.
Building this smokehouse today is something that I've dreamt about
doing my entire life.
Closer. Need to get one or two more of these and we'll be set.
I want to do it like my traditional elders have done it for centuries.
All while using a little bit of modern technology
but keeping the basics the same
as they probably would've been in the past.
RJ: Kinda get that outer frame done and then start a fire.
ROBERT: It's real important to dig a pit
'cause you want the smoke to be as cold as you can.
We're smoking these clams, we're not cooking 'em.
You want 'em to be raw in the middle still.
I might even give you a smoked clam when we're done.
you just want that outside to be that beautiful, golden-brown,
smoke color when you're done.
That's where all the flavor comes from.
Cut 'em to the perfect length and then start screwing 'em in.
Making sure that we build a smokehouse that creates a nice, cold smoke
and allows the heat to escape that is very important.
And if we don't do that right, we're not gonna get the process right
and they're not gonna be very good.
RJ: Watch your finger. You were pretty close.
I put a screw into my finger before holding it from the backside.
ROBERT: Teamwork makes the dream work.
Get a good father, son combination going
and I'm sure that when we're done it's gonna be pretty amazing.
Badass. Look at that. RJ: It's looking good.
ROBERT: I like your vision so far.
I can hit it with the axe right here if you hold it. RJ: It's good now.
ROBERT: Let's wrap it, build a test fire in it, see how it smokes,
and then go dig some clams tonight.
RJ: Sounds good. ROBERT: All right.
We're gonna move really fast since we have to dig clams on a nice minus tide
tonight at six PM.
Cool. Let's build that little fire and test out the smoking it.
So now that we've got the structure itself built, we're gonna test it out.
We're gonna make sure the smoke draft's right.
It's smoking. It's doing its job.
What do you think? Let's go get the buckets and shovels
and start walking down the beach to our clamming spot. RJ: Sounds good.
JESSI: I just want to grow as a person.
I wanna be a full rounded individual.
That can go out on their own and survive.
CHRIS: All right.
JESSI: let's check this out here.
Between that broken tree that leans out and kind of this tree,
that whole thing is the beaver den.
CHRIS: All right. Let's get to shoveling.
JESSI: Coming into spring, the rivers are gonna overflow at any day.
But trapping season is still open.
And it's important to get resources back in the house.
And there's an opportunity to bring home a beaver and I'm gonna seize it.
Look at this whole raised part.
CHRIS: Yeah. I bet this is their run. JESSI: This is their run.
And that's why it raised like that 'cause they kept on going back and forth
and so as it was freezing it humped up.
This is their run. We found it!
The run is basically the hallway from the den to the fridge and back.
And that means that their food, their fridge is right here.
They're going right to the fridge.
CHRIS: Let's go grab that auger.
JESSI: Okay.
So, they're coming straight through here.
This is the last spot they were coming up this area after it overflowed.
So, I think that this circle here is our best spot.
CHRIS: All right.
JESSI: Beaver is the biggest game that we can hunt for in the winter.
And also, beaver is a two-fer.
You don't just get the fresh meat, the hide is warm, its water repellant, I mean,
it's everything that you're looking for
to keep yourself safe through the winter.
Great.
If they're anywhere within three inches they're gonna run right into my bait pole.
So, I think I'm set here.
So, um, I'm gonna go cut some poles to put in here for bait.
Hopefully by tomorrow night or the night afterwards,
we'll have some fresh meat to bring home.
CHRIS: Cool. We'll I'm gonna go spend some time bird hunting
and then I'm gonna go home and check on the dog.
JESSI: All right. Skedaddle so I can get us some beav.
CHRIS: All right. Have fun. JESSI: Thanks.
JOHNNY: There's just endless land for me to travel, endless opportunities.
I don't wanna do the same thing day after day after day.
I wanna have adventures. And watch the animals.
And just let nature be your guide.
Gonna go on a big adventure today.
I want to get beyond my camp and start scoping out some new grounds,
new territory, see what kinda game lie ahead.
I need to get further and further away from the cabin to find my own food.
I gotta do whatever it takes to survive.
Now's the time, get out there
and poke around in some new country
So, this is a river here.
And I'm not just gonna come ramping down here with the snow machine
without checking the ice first 'cause that's foolish.
God, being this far away from any sort of help.
Looks like some caribou used this a long time ago so it's kinda packed down already.
So, I might just walk in their tracks,
poke at the ice a little bit with one of these sticks
and see what's going on. Because overflow generally happens
along the edges of the bank where the snow builds up
and that insulates the ice from freezing too thick
and that's where you get open water.
So, I don't want to risk going down the kinda steep cut bank
and just busting right through overflow and be in the water.
I got caribou tracks here and here.
I'm gonna walk in these ones down there, start poking around,
and if it's safe I'll just take the snow machine down this path here.
It's a little bit dicey here though.
I shouldn't be able to chop it with a dull stick.
And then right here it gets really strong.
So, it's just underneath this snowbank.
I'm feeling safe about it. So,
I'm gonna go ahead and fire up the machine and come down this steep bank.
Gonna try to push myself and push the machine
and see if the land pushes back or not.
JOHNNY: It's just absolutely stunning country up here
and I've always been wanting to come up here.
It's pretty nice to lean on the snow machine
because I'd never be able to travel this far without it.
I'm seeing a lot of willows and poplar on the gravel bars,
and there's a good chance there might be some game up in there,
so I'm gonna get a little bit closer,
and start looking for some small game.
Man, there's a lot of ptarmigan tracks in here.
These are all pretty fresh too.
The little suckers are all over in here.
It's a nice little sign to see.
More right here too, look at that, no kidding.
And they just cruise through here and just eat the little buds
and stuff off the willows.
And uh, the willows grow next to these poplars.
'Cause this is a sandbar to the river.
You know when the water comes up in the spring, this'll all be underwater.
'Cause all the snow melts and it creates uh, a really full river.
And it, it just gives all these trees nutrients,
and then the river settles back down for winter, like it is now.
And uh, the ptarmigan come in and just munch on all this little stuff
and I might run into some ptarmigan.
I can pull up a little bit. If I see anything moving,
I might have some dinner.
JESSI: I don't get a thrill from killing animals.
That's just not how it is.
I get the thrill of being subsistent.
That I can depend on myself and simple machines like snares to feed myself.
Oh, yeah! That was it.
So, the trick here is making sure that not only is it
in the exact spot it needs to be.
It also needs to be the exact width, and also has to be angled just so.
I want this right in the middle of their hallway.
So, if they're coming from their bedroom and they're headed to the fridge,
they're gonna hit this and then they're gonna grab a hold of this
and they're gonna walk their way down.
And as they're physically pulling themselves down this stick past those,
they're gonna get themselves.
All right. So, we're gonna put everything in there.
Okay. Perfect, perfect.
I have a really good feeling about this set.
Hopefully tomorrow or next day.
Come on, beaver!
RJ: Alaska is temperamental.
Part of being out here is that it constantly changes.
This is a bit of a freestyle. There's no blueprint.
We're gonna make it work.
ROBERT: For me, this is much deeper than harvesting a clam.
This is putting me in a mindset of how my ancestors lived.
This is putting me back in time.
See lots of little holes in the ground here.
Let's try right here.
Oh. I think it's gonna be good.
RJ: Couple more. ROBERT: Oh.
We scored.
Looks like we're gonna get like fifty butter clams in one little hole here.
RJ: There's a- Oh, here we go.
ROBERT: Cockle? RJ: Cockle.
ROBERT: Oh, we're in a cockle beach now.
Let's see if there's a few around here.
That was too easy. I didn't even have to dig.
It's crazy. This is a magic beach.
Well, I think we got enough cockles and butter clams.
Let's just try for a homerun and see if we can get a couple geoducks.
RJ: Yeah.
I know there was a bed up here somewhere.
ROBERT: When you walk by 'em, it almost looks like suction
and like just be a big deep hole.
And you gotta be quick on 'em 'cause they'll get away fast.
I think if you find a big hole you might-
RJ: That looks like one right here. ROBERT: Yeah. Try that.
Ooh, I think I heard him. Be careful.
Going in for the kill.
Oh. Look at that. RJ: Geoduck. Nice.
ROBERT: That's a score right there. RJ: Big boy.
ROBERT: We can get a couple of them, eh?
I want to get one more geoduck. That would be amazing.
RJ: You gotta look for, you know, maybe one-to-two-inch diameter holes in the sand.
See that? ROBERT: Oh, that's a hole.
See if you can find that one.
RJ: That's its tongue right there.
ROBERT: Grab it. RJ: I got a hold of it. I got its tongue!
RJ: There we go. ROBERT: There we go.
You got it. You were grabbing onto its
RJ: I was holding onto its tongue right there.
ROBERT: Couldn't get away. RJ: Uh-uh.
ROBERT: That's awesome.
All right.
Let's pack up the buckets and get the heck out of dodge.
RJ: That was too much fun.
ROBERT: Look at that smoke in there.
Looks good. We got eight racks to smoke, RJ.
Looks really good. You wanna try a couple?
RJ: Yeah, that looks really good.
They got a nice golden-brown to 'em.
ROBERT: Oh, yeah. Look at that. I'm gonna try this little one, this one.
RJ: Yeah.
ROBERT: Excellent smoke flavor in 'em. RJ: Uh-hmm.
ROBERT: Like a secondary wave of flavor that comes through almost.
RJ: Uh-hmm. What do you think? Are they done?
ROBERT: Yeah, they're done.
Hmm. Good.
RJ: I kinda want to have another one.
That one right there.
ROBERT: Think we'll get any back to the boat?
RJ: At least a couple.
These almost look like jerky, the butter clams. ROBERT: Uh-hmm. Sweet.
RJ: Could have some like smoked clam chowder with those.
ROBERT: All right. Go process these suckers up.
JESSI: I want to be successful in all parts of the Cosna.
Picking the spots and setting my own snares.
Setting my own sets.
I wanna do it all myself.
I'm headed out to try and see if I can find any beaver dens.
Find beaver tracks.
Find airholes, feed piles, really anything that leads me to more beavers.
CHRIS: Out here on the homestead, we are a team.
We're out here all by ourselves, every day, doing this.
And if we can't split up and trust each other, then what are we gonna do?
JESSI: You can see some what I think are airholes.
Looks like an airhole right there.
Right in front of me here, there, there, and over there.
When you look in here, there's a beaver chew down there.
That's a good sign.
I'm gonna have to do some shoveling.
That is a beaver run.
See this area right here? You see how bubbly it is?
You can really see it, and then it kinda comes, it kinda comes this way.
Do you see? It goes
like that.
So, I think that's it's run, right there.
So that's where I'm gonna want to drill
and hopefully put a post in and get myself a beaver.
All of our eggs are kind of in the same basket,
'cause I only have one good beaver set up.
That's like only getting your groceries from the corner store.
It always runs out, and we only get new shipments every other Tuesday, you know?
So, I'm just out here trying to find myself another grocery store.
It's solid ice.
There's only like a couple inches of water coming through the ice.
And it's solid ice.
There's zero percent chance that I can get a beaver here
because no beaver can swim through two inches of water.
I'm gonna have to head out and go check my
one and only beaver set that I got going on right now.
SONTA: The main thing to be successful living out here is definitely planning
and how you're prepared.
The more prepared you are, the better chance for your own survival.
Oh wow, check out this snow.
That's a lot of snow coming off the roof, that's for sure.
Chevie and I just had a chimney fire.
And what ended up happening is that creosote got built up
inside the Chimney pipe and um, we went to put some wood in the stove,
and that fire just caught that creosote on fire,
and it went all the way up the stove pipe, and out the top,
and it was a pretty scary time.
So, what I'm gonna do now is see if I can chip some of this snow out of the way
so Chevie can start working on the chimney
and get our stove pipe replaced.
CHEVIE: Got the hole cut inside of my stove,
and I'll weld this piece of two-inch pipe in there.
And then I'll put a valve on it, and this'll make this stove more efficient,
or else you get it back drafting and stuff
because there's just not enough oxygen,
not enough pressure inside your house. It burns up.
It's just sucking oxygen all the time, so after I get this welded in here,
I'll have the stove done and then I'll need to start working on the chimney.
SONTA: This is an extremely dangerous time in Alaska
with all the snow falling off the roof,
so now that the kids know ahead of time to steer clear of any areas
where there's snowfall.
Ah, it's slippery guys.
Even if I know this is not a very steep like, you know, grade, it's very slippery.
A little bit of ice underneath there.
Really good peace of mind to get this done.
It's a lot of weight to have up here,
so we can sleep better at night knowing we don't have
this much snow hanging over our heads, literally.
So, I wanna get this work done, so he can have all day to kind of play
with the chimney tomorrow.
CHEVIE: For some reason, this stove pipe's been acting like this.
Something's going on where I need to address the situation.
That's a way that a lot of houses in Alaska burn down, especially in rural Alaska.
It's caused by chimney fires.
When they get going, they get going hot and fast, and they're hard to stop,
so it's the last thing that I wanna be worried about
when I'm out trapping or doing something away
from my family that Sonta could have to deal with
something like that while I'm away.
SONTA: So I'm gonna call it a day for now.
Perfect timing.
But I think this is good enough workspace for Chevie to access the chimney pipe
and do what he needs to do tomorrow.
CHEVIE: Every homemade woodstove has its little goods
and its bads and its little nuances.
My old man built me that. It's one of the last things
that he built for me before he died,
and I wanna keep it around.
We could go buy a commercial stove, but I'm fighting that.
I don't wanna give up on it that easy.
So, I definitely don't want it to be the source of a house fire.
I know that's the last thing that the old man would've wanted, so he gave it to me,
but it's my due diligence to make sure that it's all running right.
I gotta get that stuff done.
So, I got my new damper.
That'll let in more air.
It's nice and tight, got it all welded up.
This is gonna suck air from the outside.
I'm gonna put a little ball valve there, put a little thing on the door here.
For my dad, he built this stove. I modified it.
I'm ready to get this stove back in the house, get the house warm again.
JOHNNY: It felt like when I was in town the only chance
I had to turn my brain off was sleep,
and out here it's like all the garbage on my mind, it's just gone.
I'm able to just kinda turn my mind off out here and just exist.
And that's the stuff that my soul needs.
But these ptarmigan tracks are pretty fresh.
I think some of 'em are.
But these birds are white-on-white, you know?
And they're not the easiest things to spot.
Their defense is just camo, standing still.
After a minute or two, they'll start to move their head around.
You know, in like a weird jerking motion, and that's when you see them.
That's how you spot the ptarmigan.
This looks pretty grazed out.
I mean there's no buds left on here,
so I think that's gonna be my sign that these are old.
Nothing left here to forage on, so I might just kinda poke
around the corner a little bit.
See what's happening over there.
'Cause it's looking ptarmigany up there as well.
So I'm gonna repo myself.
Not only am I looking for ptarmigan, but I'm just looking at new country,
and I'm learning a lot.
I'm seeing a lot of different signs, a lot of different tracks on the river.
Ptarmigan! Ptarmigan!
Got ptarmigan into the poplar trees.
(rifle shot)
JOHNNY: Got a ptarmigan.
There we go.
Wow, gorgeous.
Look at these feet, it's like these little snowshoe feet,
they just kind of cruise along and it keeps them afloat
so they can walk around and eat these little buds off all the little plants.
Beautiful bird, really, really grateful.
So that's one for the pot.
This will be great. Great meal.
Let's see if I can find some more.
CHEVIE: In rural Alaska, you don't back down from stuff.
You just go till you can't and that's just what it takes to live out here sometimes.
That's why we have the life that we have out here.
And not for everybody but it works for us.
That's my buddy Jared, he came over to give me a hand
on getting this chimney pipe replaced my wood stove back in.
This isn't his first time on my roof I'll tell you that.
I help with a lot of the building of this house here
and there as did so many people in this community,
you know or when he's had hard times or needed help doing things,
I've been there to help him and he's returning the favor
and I'll return this favor and just goes around and around and around.
I think that just the length of the stovepipe gets so damn cold
from the cold weather that. JARRETT: Yeah.
CHEVIE: All that oil and moisture that's why I'm getting the buildup you know?
JARRETT: Yup.
CHEVIE: We just wanna make sure that it's not getting creosote from sucking oxygen
because the pipe's wrong or bent, tilted a little bit so
this is gonna be a good fix right here. Yup.
We're good. JARRETT: We're good.
SONTA: I can feel that already, that feels really good.
I'm just super glad that this is safer and, um,
you know I don't have to worry about a chimney fire.
It's really scary, you know my adrenaline gets up having to deal with
something like that if it ever gets out of control it's my worst nightmare
CHEVIE: Alright so we got the chimney situated.
Time to go out hunting or going out on the land and see if we can locate some geese.
JESSI: I'm an opportunistic hunter.
If there's something out there that I can bring home and that I can eat,
I will trudge through the deep snow, I will keep going.
You have no other option.
Uh. I can smell the beaver for sure.
I set this not yesterday, but the day before.
Right so that one hasn't even tripped, that wasn't even touched by a beaver.
Nope, this guy doesn't have anything on him either.
CHRIS: Man, these grouse, they're really camouflaging these trees
especially with all the snow on them.
JESSI: I'm not discouraged yet. (laughs)
It's only day two.
I know that there's a lot of beaver here.
Just a matter of time.
I'm going to see if I can get some rabbits on the way to find beaver.
Bring some snares, make couple of these guys and then headed out down the trail.
Maybe I can find some good rabbit highways, but what I'd really like to find
is any kind of new beaver tracks at all.
The best spot I know with a beaver snare,
and it's just right here next to the trapping cabin.
But I haven't gotten anything yet.
You kind of want to have more than one spot to get your food, so that's what I'm trying.
Cause I need more areas to harvest food from.
There it is, so there's a nice long snare.
I'll be able to put you know there's some large rabbits out here, so
some larger loops in here.
This might, and then I'll be able to wrap this part around the tree some bailing wire.
I don't wanna take one life for every meal,
I want as many meals out of one life as possible so the bigger the game,
the better the prize but while I'm out here I'm looking for everything.
CHRIS: This time of the year grouse are just hanging up in there,
and they're eating the pine needles.
And what you see it's just a little bit of snow falling.
Ah it'd be good to get some fresh meat.
Some surf and turf.
Beaver and grouse.
I don't see any movement.
JESSI: These are really good size rabbit tracks.
You can see their little feet.
Small feet, small feet. These are the front feet, those are the big feet.
They're hopping and hopping and hopping.
Fairly good-sized rabbit.
So, I'm just gonna follow these little tracks and see where they go.
CHRIS: I'm gonna go give these trees a kick,
see if I can stir them up a little bit.
Sometimes you can get the tree to move a little bit when you kick it,
and they'll flutter just enough to see where they're at.
Eyes on! I see something,
it's really dense in that tree.
It could just be a ball of like tree mass but ima take a shot at it.
I'd really like some grouse.
Oh, he's moving, that's a grouse.
(rifle shot)
CHRIS: There he is. Head down.
JESSI: That was a shot. That would've been Chris.
I wonder what he's got.
CHRIS: We got ourselves a chicken!
All right, Jessi's gonna be stoked.
Some fresh meat will be really nice.
Oh, there's another one right there.
Let's see 'cause it's really high up there.
JESSI: I heard two shots, so maybe he's got something.
Hopefully he's having better luck than I am.
CHRIS: Ha-ha, this is fantastic. I got two birds.
Hopefully Jessi's doing this good.
JESSI: Shots were pretty close, so go try and find Chris.
Chris! CHRIS: Yeah! Check it out.
JESSI: Oh my gosh they're beautiful.
CHRIS: Two birds in the hand!
JESSI: Good job!
Oh, look at them!
I heard those shots and I wasn't sure what was happening.
CHRIS: I was getting dinner. JESSI: Oh, gosh
CHRIS: yeah. JESSI: Look at that, that's some heft.
CHRIS: I know. JESSI: Wow, good job love!
CHRIS: This is really awesome.
I can't wait to cook these guys up.
JESSI: Dinner! (laughs)
All right well what do you say we go on home and see the Toze.
CHRIS: Yeah, let's go cook up some grouse. JESSI: Yeah!
RJ: Anything that involves harvesting off the land,
if you're gonna do it you should do it right.
I think that's the most respect that you can give to anything
that you take from the land.
Now that we've got these clams smoked up,
we're gonna chop them into bite sized pieces
and get them ready to put into cans.
ROBERT: Let's just boil them for about 10 minutes.
It'll sanitize and kill everything on them.
Start cutting the cockles up and jar them and get this show on the road.
One for the mouth, one for the jar.
All that dark color is smoke flavoring that went into the clam.
It's so good.
All right well we got our bounty here,
we got all our cockles all diced up, ready to go.
We got all our butter clams all ready to go.
Perfect! That helps give it some beautiful flavor,
some really good olive oil.
RJ: Yeah, now it's time to get these jars put into the canner
and bring everything up to pressure.
ROBERT: Hundred minutes for the 15 pounds.
Let's see how they turned out.
It's boiling there. Still cooking in them jars.
That's so good.
SONTA: Hunting on the land is who I am.
And I was raise to do this.
I was raise to be a hunter.
And it's really important that all of our kids be skilled survivalist.
Geese hunting has been a part of our family for generations.
It's really important for Ryder to be out here
and just to be a part of this process.
It's never too early for you to learn what it is to be a hunter.
Hey Ryder.
Come check out our little blind, Ryder.
CHEVIE: Alright let's get these snow machines,
Ryder we can't leave them out here in the open, okay?
RYDER: But I don't know where to put my new coat, right behind you?
CHEVIE: Yeah, right behind me. I'll show you.
We'll kind of, we'll go along the ice right here,
and this water right out here is getting deep.
Everyday this is getting deeper and deeper.
If this part, oh, geese coming.
SONTA: One, we keep calling it across the ice.
Pretty high.
CHEVIE: All right Ryder, we gotta get these snow machines hidden, okay?
SONTA: Leave some here for Ryder to set up.
The Innoko area here is a part of a huge migratory flyaway for the birds.
The wetlands here are super attractive for birds flying in,
we're one of the first kinda big stops for a lot of birds
because it's still frozen to the north of us.
And so, we have open flatlands and we'll be waiting here when they land.
CHEVIE: See anything?
SONTA: Just you guys and some awesome decoys.
I set some up, but Ryder can set up the rest if he wants to.
CHEVIE: Okay. All right.
SONTA: Kinda positioned my primary ones where I want them.
CHEVIE: Okay. Wanna set up the rest Ry-ry? RYDER: Mhm.
SONTA: For us to have our kids out here is important
because they get to see what this is all about.
They get to see how this is done and the strategy behind it.
And they get to see and develop a little bit of that drive
and why we do this and the meaning behind hunting animals.
CHEVIE: There's a bunch of geese coming, come on. Hurry.
SONTA: Bunch over there.
Really wanna take a shot at the wings but they're just too far out.
CHEVIE: Yup.
SONTA: They were line up pretty damn good too.
CHEVIE: That's the thing, you hope that there's 5 or 6.
SONTA: There's more coming off that lake, just keep calling.
Ryder, wait. Shh.
(geese calling sound)
CHEVIE: I'll take the one on the left.
Damn it.
(multiple shots)
CHEVIE: Well my gun didn't go off.
SONTA: Dang, yours never went off?
CHEVIE: Uh-uh, my gun clicked for some reason.
SONTA: At least I got 3 shots of, their tails.
CHEVIE: Geese are moving in. We'll get a couple more good passes
SONTA: That was a hot little minute.
CHEVIE: That was hot man, holy smokes.
SONTA: We gotta get the rest of those decoys out. CHEVIE: Yup, yup, yup.
Go ahead, I'll back you up. SONTA: Okay.
Sometimes you can put them in pairs,
so it looks like they're really hanging out together.
RYDER: Okay SONTA: Uh-hmm.
Oh, there's some up higher here, coming up over the willows.
(geese calling sound)
CHEVIE: Hold still Ryder, duck down. Duck down.
(geese calling sound)
SONTA: Good job Ryder, they thought you were a big goose out there.
CHEVIE: a big goose Ryder. Go ahead, you're good. They flew by
SONTA: They didn't believe you that much.
CHEVIE: Next time just kind of crawl around on your knees and peck at the ice.
RYDER: Okay. (laughs)
CHEVIE: They're gonna think you're a big goose.
That's the biggest thing that they see Ryder is movement though.
So, if sometimes you get lucky and if you could just hold really still,
they'll come right in.
Cover up your face, that's why we always look down.
Look at the ice.
Good job, good listening Ryder.
JESSI: Didn't get a Beaver but I'll just keep after it.
CHRIS: It's all right, I'll feed you today and you'll feed me tomorrow.
JESSI: That's the plan.
I was so proud of you for getting out there
and getting these grouse and bringing them back.
I'm sorry Toze.
Oh, my gosh. CHRIS: Wow. JESSI: it's great.
CHRIS: it's one of the best grouse I've ever had.
JESSI: I don't know if it's because I'm really hungry or what.
CHRIS: It's been a long time since we had grouse and we worked hard today.
JESSI: After all this work and just trudging through all this stinking deep snow,
nothing is better than being out here.
ROBERT: It's a lot of effort for a few jars of clams
but holy smokes they're gonna be awesome.
It looks so delicious.
Let's eat your prized possession, see how it tastes.
RJ: All right.
It's nice and frozen.
ROBERT: That's a nice little piece of meat there huh?
RJ: Yeah. Yea they're hard to find
and hard to dig up but yeah, might be worth the effort.
ROBERT: It was fun to see a tear of joy in your eyes and
the thrill of the catch was pretty cool I thought.
You got this big geoduck, worked your ass off for it
and I think grandpa would be sitting here
with a toothpick if he was with us doing the same thing we're doing.
Loving every second. RJ: Cheers to pops.
ROBERT: Love you dad.
We're eating this geoduck, it's supposed to be a celebratory moment,
it brought me back to my father and growing up as a kid
we used to go clam digging on the beaches with my dad.
I miss you.
You get those moments that bring you back in time to really good memories.
RJ: Last one for you if you want.
ROBERT: I'm gonna give this one to my dad.
Love you dad, I miss you.
That's for you.
CHEVIE: Not too far over there we don't want them to land way over there,
you want them to land closer to us. And I hear them.
SONTA: Right, they are Ryder come on.
We got nine decoys over here birdies, come on in.
Pretty high unless you called them in.
Kay, duck for cover.
CHEVIE: Blow that call Ry-ry, where's it at.
(geese calling sound)
There you go, good job.
SONTA: A little too high.
Come on ry-guy, I need your help.
We see a couple small passes but they're pretty far away from us.
And so we'll come back tomorrow.
Let's pick up these decoys and hit the road.
Ryder knows what to expect now so he's out there, he's participating, he's engaged,
and we'll take him any time to be out there with us.
Geese hunting is something that I want to be able
to pass down to the next generation
JOHNNY: You know it's been a really good day
and now I know where I can get new resources.
I know where the ptarmigan are at.
I know that Caribou like to travel the rivers in the winter.
There's so much I've learned from just one adventure.
So, a lot of people just cut out the breast you know.
But I like to eat the whole thing.
The skins good you now, skin's healthy.
It's actually, today is my mom's birthday.
I guess in a way I'm celebrating her birthday.
Yeah, I can't call her.
No phone service out here.
She might be a couple 1000 miles away but
eh we'll say she's hanging out with me right now.
So having a little bit of grub with her right now.
Just sitting. With the animal you harvested from the land,
I honestly can't think of any other place I'd rather be. Uh-uh.
That's a little birthday dinner here huh?
Alaska is the only place that I can live where my soul is truly free.
Nothing between me and just a nice slice of freedom.
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