♪ ♪
MARIO: Here's some bear scat that I came across
on the trail.
You know, I'm not entirely sure how fresh this is,
but I know it's recent because I travel this
trail quite often, and so this is a good sign.
I know there's black bears in the area,
and now the only question is
whether or not I can harvest them before
he dens down for the winter.
People think that simple living means easy living,
but it's quite the opposite.
There's no room to be lazy out here because you'll starve,
or you'll freeze to death.
You know, this is the first snow this season and with it,
you know, it brings a sense of urgency.
Things are getting a little more serious out here.
Look, there's a ptarmigan.
I just saw a ptarmigan, and I'm going to try to find it
and harvest it.
I try to really capitalize on every opportunity that I can.
And you know, if I don't find that bear,
at least I have something to take home for my wife and I
to eat for dinner tonight.
Where'd this thing go?
Sort of see these tracks right here.
It might be a little bit older because there is a little bit
of fresh snow on top of it.
You can see the ptarmigan tracks, they look like little
chicken feet running across the snow.
And it's really neat because when there's snow on the
ground, it kind of reveals to you the mystery of what's
going on out here.
It's all really about perspective out here.
And you know to be successful out here you have to adapt,
and you have to have a good perspective and, you know,
the snow brings a lot of new feelings and excitement and
a lot of adaptations.
Now that winter's coming, I'm really excited.
You know, I came out here to track bear and
seeing all these ptarmigan track with the fresh snow,
it makes me really happy to know that I have a new
food source out here.
And even though I might not come home with a big animal,
you know, you fill your piggy bank one penny at a time.
Man, those ptarmigan sure fly far.
CHEVIE: Trapping in Alaska is a way of life.
It's something that my grandparents did.
It's something that Sonta's grandparents have done
for long time.
It's a skill helping your overall success of living.
SONTA: Little tracks right here.
CHEVIE: What's that? SONTA: Fox.
Is that a fox track?
CHEVIE: Little fox.
SONTA: Wanna check it out in here then?
CHEVIE: Yeah, we minus well go back in there on those lakes
and see what we see back there,
I know there's that beaver house.
SONTA: This time of year, is when people harvest mink.
Animals that are both in the water and on land have
really high fur quality right now.
We're going to set some traps near some smaller creeks and
some kind of frozen bodies of water.
There's a couple little tracks, Chev.
Little bitty tracks.
What do you think those are?
CHEVIE: Those are mink down there for sure.
SONTA: Yeah.
CHEVIE: There might be a marten in here also.
SONTA: Yeah. Yeah, let's get one set.
CHEVIE: Yeah, I like to chop up just a little bit out here.
You kind of give them their last little free meal and
they smell that on the trail.
Want more. Get greedy.
SONTA: I'm just kind of looking around there,
they spotted a couple browns, huh, Chev?
CHEVIE: Brown bear.
Yeah.
SONTA: This time of year, you never know.
There's still Browns walking around,
going back to their dens and.
CHEVIE: Could attract a lot more than, than a mink.
SONTA: Yeah, animals are hungry this time of year.
CHEVIE: We're going to set it right here.
I got it anchored to this big drag, it's called.
It's just a big tree.
And that way if something like a lynx or a Wolverine comes
and sticks his hand in there,
it can't drag that piece of brush very far.
See what we catch.
SONTA: Yeah.
CHEVIE: All right.
Keep on working down this creek, I guess and...
SONTA: Yeah.
CHEVIE: Check out that beaver house, maybe real quick,
and see if there's any natural holes.
SONTA: These little tracks, little highway here.
Oh, yeah.
Look at it coming from this side right there, Chev.
Odds are good.
So right now, what we're doing is really
collecting our own data.
You know, you're kind of putting yourself in
the head of that animal.
What's it going to do?
Where is it gonna go?
And some might be sets that are completely blocking its path,
and others might be areas where it's kind of
searching for food.
CHEVIE: A lot of times those mink and stuff live in those
beaver houses or go in and out of those beaver houses.
SONTA: Yeah, I love looking at beaver house and how they
make their own houses.
CHEVIE: It's amazing, huh? What engineers.
SONTA: Probably wondering,
what the heck is that noise on my house?
CHEVIE: Yep.
SONTA: It's just Chevie and Sonta.
There you go.
That's the one.
CHEVIE: Good? SONTA: Yeah.
CHEVIE: Okay, let's head out.
SONTA: Yeah.
SAMANTHA: I have so much to learn.
I mean, I haven't even scratched the surface on
all there is to learn about farming or living in Alaska,
especially raising livestock to eat.
With farming, no matter which way you turn with it,
you're going to have to confront life and death.
This is the price of raising your own food.
This is something that we have to do.
It's important, but it's not fun.
AISLYN: Look at all those chicken.
We're gonna kill one of those.
SAMANTHA: Hi, babies.
François, look at you.
This summer we actually bought a whole bunch of meat birds
and now it's like the middle of winter and it's time to
actually take initiative and butcher the birds.
NATHAN: We got our meat birds banded, right?
SAMANTHA: Yeah.
NATHAN: I noticed, it seems like we have less chickens
with bands on them,
so I'm wondering if someone sneaked in here and
snipped some bands off.
SAMANTHA: Oh, I did, I did.
There's a few that I really love.
I'm not looking forward to it because I do have a tendency
to get really attached to everything, but,
I know it's necessary.
We can't just keep everything as a pet.
NATHAN: Time for death has come for some of you.
That plucker will make things a lot faster.
I think.
SAMANTHA: Are you ready to build?
NATHAN: I think so.
Dwindle down our flock.
SAMANTHA: Babies!
Time for the big project, huh?
Are you ready for this?
NATHAN: As ready as I'll be.
We got a lot of meat birds, chickens, turkeys.
We've also got ducks and geese.
Slaughter Day is here, so we're gonna try to build a
little feather plucker so we can make the job easier and
try to get as many done as we can.
This is my first time building a chicken plucker.
So, we're going to build the frame, we're going to drill
holes where we need the feather plucker fingers in.
And then we got a little plexiglass and that'll be
our spinning bottom.
SAMANTHA: I think this is gonna be great because I mean
we do have a lot of chickens to process and this will make
it like hopefully really fast in comparison to like
hand plucking because I mean, we have like at least
20 birds to, to do today, right?
NATHAN: Probably 20 or more chickens that we could cull.
Few ducks and then maybe some geese.
SAMANTHA: I know I want two of them to live.
Just saying I got attached to a few of them and I did that.
NATHAN: You would.
SAMANTHA: So, yea I would.
I would. I couldn't help it.
NATHAN: Let's see how much we get through.
It's going to be a process.
SAMANTHA: I would like one goose to die.
But the other two I kind of like too.
But I know we can't keep them all as pets.
NATHAN: We'll kill the one that always likes to attack me.
SAMANTHA: Okay.
NATHAN: Let's stand it straight up so we can just
get it kind of aligned.
Okay.
Let's pop it on the ground and see how this thing fits.
SAMANTHA: Yeah.
Nice.
NATHAN: Just about perfect. SAMANTHA: Yeah.
NATHAN: I guess figuring out what the next step will be.
SAMANTHA: Looks good.
I'm excited to pluck some chickens,
I'm not excited to kill them though.
JOHNNY: This romantic idea of being in the woods all alone,
it sounds great, but it's a big mental struggle.
So, I found ways to keep my mental state in check.
And one of the best things I can do for myself
is building things.
Crafting, things, always bettering my life out here.
This area's got a lot of memories for me because
I cut a lot of my cabin logs down in here.
And just thinking like, man, this is about to be my first
winter out here.
How's this going to play out, am I gonna make it?
All right, I better get back to work.
Oh, ima eat this last cranberry.
Hm.
I want to build a proper workstation at my cabin,
and this is my building sources.
It's these trees, that's my material.
(knocking)
Kind of hear it's a little hollow in there but should
still be a good tree to use for my project because
I'm making a draw horse where I can work pieces of wood.
Proper workstation means I can get through this winter.
(whirring)
Look at that.
You see how hollow it is?
Look at that, I could stick my hand in there.
That's how hollow this thing is.
Hopefully it just goes down in the direction
I want it to go in.
Oh (bleep), it's leaning.
(bleep).
JOHNNY: Come on, come on, come one.
That's how it's done.
(whirring)
Ha-ha, look at that.
Just a little bit, actually.
I can still pull lumber out of that.
It's actually not rot.
Ants!
They just eat this stuff out.
Look at that.
That's amazing compost right there.
I like to make, craft, fabricate most things that
I use out here as much as I can.
All right, I'm gonna rip it down the middle.
And I have nothing but freedom out here to create things in
my mind that I want to build.
And it's nice having that freedom.
It didn't work out too shabby at all.
I guess I could, uh, ask the store manager if they have
anything more appropriate, but I think they called off today.
I haven't seen him in the office.
SONTA: Living out here, knowledge is power.
The more you know about certain animals,
how to access certain resources.
That's the kind of knowledge that we strive to have.
This is pretty good.
CHEVIE: Yeah, I'll check this ice out here and
see what we got.
Maybe that Channel narrows down too, right in here.
SONTA: Yeah.
So today we're gonna set some traps.
We're really targeting the mink population right now,
and so we're trying to method that my grandpa
used quite a bit.
Being able to trap mink under the ice with a fish trap.
I'm a little worried how hollow that might be.
I think that's the thing, is figuring out
what's underneath there.
CHEVIE: Yeah, that's hollow for sure.
One time I was coming over here when
we first moved out here.
I was hauling birch from off this island.
I though, "Oh, look, that looks good."
I tried to drive right across that with my 6-Wheeler and
straight down I went.
Crrk!
Took me a day to get out of it.
So, I know that that's deep.
SONTA: Hopefully the ice is frozen in general,
that's always a concern is if the ice is just too thin.
We want the ice to be thick enough to where it's safe
enough to walk on, yet not too thick to where it's completely
frozen to the ground.
Oh.
I heard water.
CHEVIE: Water right there.
SONTA: Well, that's pretty good, Chev.
CHEVIE: That looks pretty damn good, actually.
SONTA: Uh-huh.
Essentially with a fish trap, fish are getting stuck inside
the fish trap, and it's a lure for the mink to come into.
Mink right now are still going into the water and eating.
It's a method of trapping them.
They'll drown in a fish trap.
So, it's a really good way to harvest mink.
A little mink comes around, sees an open hole,
maybe it'll just jump in.
Everything is kind of looking
for fish right now, too, you know?
CHEVIE: Yeah.
SONTA: Oh, got it all the way loose, huh?
CHEVIE: Got that shovel, baby?
SONTA: It's all this ice.
CHEVIE: That's thick man.
SONTA: Yeah. We'll run the trap.
Get down in there.
Let it do its thing now.
SAMANTHA: In the wintertime, the days are getting
a lot shorter.
We only have so much time to get stuff done.
We have the time to make things functional and do their
jobs and then move on to the next project
before we're too late.
This is starting to look like a chicken plucker.
NATHAN: So, I guess now we start on the feather plates.
Which is going to be cut out of this.
We'll cut a circle and we gotta have like an inch of space.
SAMANTHA: Okay. NATHAN: On each side.
And once the circle is cut, we get the holes drilled.
And the fingers in this thing.
And that's what's gonna spin in the bottom.
SAMANTHA: I do hope this thing works.
The feather plucking machine is an absolute necessity for us
because we have too many birds for us to sustain
over the wintertime.
So, we need to get this chicken plucker going so that
we can process chickens a heck of a lot faster than we could
if we had to do it all by hand.
It's not going to be pretty, but I hope it functions
exactly how we need it to function,
because we're going to need this thing to work.
There you go.
Back in Oregon we had chickens, but we've never like
actually had meat birds with the intention of
killing a whole flock.
It's a big deal.
NATHAN: The best way of cutting this without breaking it,
just hold it still.
SAMANTHA: Okay.
I'll try not to, so just kind of maneuver, however I got it.
(whirring)
(cracking)
NATHAN: Damn it.
SAMANTHA: Whoa.
NATHAN: Okay.
Change of plans.
SAMANTHA: Hey, you got the circle out.
I guess we could always take like the bottom of another one
of those blue barrels and just do the same thing.
NATHAN: It's kind of what I was thinking.
Because we have one more of these, I guess the question
is, is how is that gonna work?
We'll have to check it.
It's a little wonky, but I think it'll work.
So, we just cut the bottom out of that other one, good thing
we have a bunch of junk laying around.
SAMANTHA: I know, seriously.
I've never been so grateful for a bunch of garbage.
I'll help you get it.
NATHAN: Sure.
The hope is that the feather plucker will be
a huge time saver and helps us expedite the process and
just get a lot more done a lot faster
and get our freezers full.
Let's see how this goes.
(whirring)
Okay.
SAMANTHA: There. Sweet.
NATHAN: It's all about saving time because
I don't wanna spend money.
(drilling)
SAMANTHA: I think you got them all.
NATHAN: Sweet.
We'll see how the fingers go on this thing.
(groaning)
SAMANTHA: All right.
Look at our chicken fingers.
Look at our little finger plucker thingies.
NATHAN: One less thing to worry about, on to the
next thing to worry about.
JOHNNY: Out here one of the quickest things I've learned
is that nothing lasts forever and there's no store out here.
The stuff that I need to subsist out here,
I just pick up some tools, grab some logs,
and just wing it.
So, what I'm making here is kind of a
draw horse working station.
It's easy to cut my hands, it's easy to use tools
improperly when you're using one hand on the tool.
And trying to hold on to what I'm trying to work on.
Being out here alone.
I don't have help out here and I have to keep myself safe and
if I get hurt, then I'm in trouble.
I'll be able to hold the tool with both hands and
let this draw horse grip that piece of wood.
It's going to be bad ass.
It's actually this side that I'm going to be utilizing.
This rounded part that I'm draw knifing right now with
my draw knife is the underside.
No one's going to see it, but I still want it to look good.
I like to be proud of all my projects and what they look
like at the end and out here it's not always the finished
product, it's the process.
Knowing I put everything into it.
This is going to be the base of it.
It'll be on legs.
You know I can only go up so high right here.
And I need to have something that can just hold it and
I can just reach and just do nice safe steady pulls with
the draw knife instead of pulling it toward my face.
So, it's, like, man, I need I need the draw horse built
so I can build a draw horse.
Just kind of pounding those legs in, there's no glue,
no nails, and this is technically considered
mortise and tenon,
which is combining two pieces and when they lock together
it's very strong.
But for this guy here, I made three legs.
It's never gonna rock.
It's always going to have three points of contact on the ground.
This guy for example I always gotta find
a sturdy place for it.
It's hard with the uneven ground and the, you know,
the bumps of snow and ice.
But no matter where I put this, it could be sideways
even though it's crooked, but it's always going to be flush.
That's for just rough cut and just kind of
going to town on projects,
and this is going to be actually where I sit right here
just like this, and I can use my hands with
my draw knife and do a lot more detailed work.
I'm really excited to kind of have this in
my arsenal of tools.
The next thing to do is the mechanics of it.
CLARE: This is my first winter here.
Winter is definitely approaching quickly,
so we're on high alert to see what we can see.
MARIO: Ready to go find this bear?
CLARE: Yeah, totally.
MARIO: Yeah, you know, I've been looking for the
last couple of days and it's getting kind of
late in this season.
It's really starting to snow and get really cold.
CLARE: Might still be a bear out there.
MARIO: Yeah.
And if he hasn't den down for the year, you know,
we've still got an opportunity to harvest the bear and
if not, come home with some birds.
It's exciting, all right.
CLARE: I'm excited this winter to get out with Mario to do
our first hunt together of the winter season.
There's a lot to see this time of year.
We've seen a black bear this fall and lots of grouse and
different birds, some ptarmigan as well.
So, we're gonna just go out and see what we can see and
have a good day.
MARIO: There's like 20 grouse in those trees over there,
you see that?
Holy crap.
Look at that!
Wait, all right there you go.
There you go, Yeah.
Look, yeah, just aim and shoot right there.
Here, get closer, look.
All right, aim and shoot.
There you go.
Up.
There you go.
(gunshot)
MARIO: Oh! Hold on.
Hold on, come here.
CLARE: Yeah.
MARIO: I think we were just a little too far from him.
That's okay. Let's go find him.
He's just down those trees.
CLARE: Okay.
MARIO: We'll follow through.
We don't give up on these things.
Okay?
All right.
♪ ♪
I think we can track it down.
He's right here.
He's right here around this tree.
Here.
Oh, he was right above us, wasn't he?
CLARE: He flew off.
MARIO: That's okay.
Okay. Good job. Hey, there's no worries.
CLARE: Yeah.
MARIO: You know, you see things through out here, you know?
CLARE: Yep.
MARIO: If at first you don't succeed, keep trying.
CLARE: Mm-hmm. MARIO: All right, let's go.
CLARE: Winter wonderland.
MARIO: All right, hold up.
All right. Can you point it out to me?
CLARE: It's this tall spruce. MARIO: Okay.
CLARE: I dunno, it's probably in the middle.
I don't see it right now.
MARIO: I heard it. There it is. There it is.
(gunshot)
Yeah.
CLARE: Good job. MARIO: Yeah. That's awesome.
Yeah, I mean, everything we can get out here counts.
Yeah, right?
CLARE: Yeah, absolutely. MARIO: Yeah, here.
CLARE: Good job. MARIO: Yeah, thanks.
CLARE: Well, black bear's been pretty elusive so far.
No signs of it today.
MARIO: That's okay.
You know, I'm, that's just part of hunting and living
in Alaska out here, you can't really get
everything you want.
But my dad would say,
you can't win 'em all, but you can't lose forever.
You know?
So.
CLARE: We did get two grouse today already.
MARIO: Yeah.
Let's go see if we can't find some more birds.
SONTA: Alaskans, anytime the snow starts falling, you know,
you're always thinking about what's next.
And what's next for us is being out on the land trapping.
The animal's fur are starting to thicken up.
The quality of the fur is better, more dense,
and will make for warmer garments.
Right now, we're gonna go check out
the first traps that we've set.
Are we seeing some movement?
CHEVIE: What do we got going on down here?
Something knocked my trap down and stole my bait.
Could be a mink, could be a weasel.
Took the bait.
This trap didn't even go off.
I don't know how it knocked it out.
I don't know what it was, but something came down here
and robbed us.
So, I think the best thing to do is double down and
set out a different kind of trap next to this one.
So, if whatever critter comes back,
we won't be expecting the second trap.
Maybe we'll pick it up in it.
SONTA: That's a good idea. Double down.
CHEVIE: I'll just hang a little bit of salmon from up here.
SONTA: Okay.
CHEVIE: Because it could be a fox too.
SONTA: Yeah.
CHEVIE: So, if I put salmon up here, the only thing that
could get it up here is a fox.
Nothing else can get up that tree.
SONTA: Yeah. Well, that's good.
I'm glad something's coming in though.
CHEVIE: Whatever it is, likes fish.
SONTA: Bring it back in and hopefully get it
caught next time.
So, one of the first things I just remember my dad
telling me about my grandpa trapping mink is
him showing us this site, grandpa's Mink Creek.
And that's where he liked to trap mink and it being a very
special time for us as a family.
Chevie and I are optimistic for the likelihood that we
catch something is pretty good, but at the same time it
could outsmart us again.
SAMANTHA: We can't just go to the store and buy everything.
We need to utilize what's already on the farm,
what resources we've been blessed with,
and to make something cool out of it.
NATHAN: It's ready for a test run.
Ready when you are.
SAMANTHA: Moment of truth.
(rumbling)
It works.
NATHAN: It's working.
SAMANTHA: That's pretty cool.
NATHAN: I think that'll pluck some chickens for us.
SAMANTHA: Are you sure it won't pulverize it?
Are you sure it's not too fast?
NATHAN: I don't know.
It works, so all that's left to do is go gather the
chickens and start getting at it.
SAMANTHA: And butcher some birds.
NATHAN: Yeah, let's turn part of our farm into food.
SAMANTHA: I can do that.
With these birds, they're not just some chickens that
I bought and threw in a pen and just, you know,
went and tossed out food once a day.
I raised them from babies.
I interacted with them on almost a daily basis.
You know, they, they have grown on me.
NATHAN: We'll start with this.
SAMANTHA: When it comes down to the ones that really have
a lot of personality, it's hard.
NATHAN: It'll be all right.
SAMANTHA: Bye, buddy.
Sorry, dude.
NATHAN: Can't keep them all.
Time to get to work.
SAMANTHA: You know, Nathan, he doesn't have the
emotional connection to these animals as I do.
He sees nothing but food even when they're a living being,
and I see a spirit, I see a soul inside of
a little chicken body, you know?
And I know that that's gonna be gone.
He handles it so much better than I do.
I'm sorry.
Oh, Lord, take them, take them quick.
He processes things completely different than me.
He's designed completely different than me,
and I can appreciate that because this isn't a lifestyle
where you can be ruled by your emotions.
I'm sorry.
It's gonna be easier for me to disconnect to the birds if
I kill a few myself even, and I don't like it.
It's really hard to do.
I feel terrible because it's never as pristine
as you want it to be.
It's never as pretty, it's never as fast and as nice.
But I also know that this whole process is gonna
help me grow as a person.
NATHAN: It's wings will, it'll pull its wings in that
as you put it in.
SAMANTHA: When I have to take something's life,
my only thing is, go be with God.
Go be with the Creator.
Let's just get you outta here as fast and as painlessly as
possible, you know, and have it done by loving hands.
That's all I want is for them to be dispatched by someone
who loves and cares for them.
NATHAN: Don't cut your fingers.
SAMANTHA: Okay. I'm sorry.
Oh, I'm so sorry.
NATHAN: All right, let's scald.
SAMANTHA: Yeah.
NATHAN: So generally.
45 seconds or so should do it.
SAMANTHA: And it's only a moment, and then they will
never have a bad day ever again.
And that is comfort for me.
NATHAN: Hold that.
I'm gonna power this thing on.
See how this thing works.
SAMANTHA: All right.
(rumbling)
SAMANTHA: All right, that's good.
God dang. Actually.
NATHAN: This thing is working great.
SAMANTHA: Dude. Yeah.
All right.
NATHAN: Pretty good job.
Only a few feathers remaining.
I kind of expected that.
SAMANTHA: Right.
It's not torn to smithereens or anything either.
NATHAN: That's gonna save us a ton of work.
SAMANTHA: Make sure the feet get in there.
Oh, yeah.
NATHAN: Good. SAMANTHA: Yep.
I know what went into those birds.
I know what they were fed.
I know how they were cared for, and I know that it is
a lot more healthy than whatever factory farm chicken
you're gonna find in the store.
And it's so important to me to feed my kids things that are
natural rather than stuffed into a little tiny barn where
they barely have room to move.
NATHAN: I am thoroughly impressed with this thing.
SAMANTHA: Yeah. NATHAN: Yeah.
SAMANTHA: That's cool.
NATHAN: I mean, that's incredible.
SAMANTHA: It's a naked chicken.
It's so much better than factory farming and going out
and buying stuff from the store.
You don't know where it came from.
You don't know what conditions it lived in.
You don't know anything about the bird.
I don't think it's fair the way things are done.
I don't think it's right and I'm happy to be breaking the
cycle of factory farming and raising my kids in a
more natural, connected way with their food.
I knew these birds personally, and I know that because of the
love and care that went into this whole process,
it's gonna taste infinitely better
when we actually get to eat them.
JOHNNY: My first winter out here alone,
I felt like I lost my mind real quick.
The physical part, you know, you can motivate yourself and
get through, but it's the mental part
that's the most challenging.
If I don't make big builds like this and big projects,
my mind just goes crazy.
Got a board.
And now I'm gonna start making the mechanism of it to make
this thing a functioning draw horse.
My hands need to be free to hold the tools and
hold them correctly.
This draw horse is gonna allow me to just use my feet,
and that is going to clamp down on the wood,
and then my hands are free to use the tools correctly.
And that's what this draw horse is gonna allow me to do.
You know what I could really use is a wooden mallet.
I do a lot of chiseling and a wooden mallet is just a nice
tool to just be able to do these sorts of things with.
I had a whole set and I'm down to two of 'em cause
I've actually shattered these cheap plastic ends
with these axes.
That's the first thing I'm gonna make,
but it's not the last thing I'll make if this thing works.
I'm out here alone and I got nothing in my way.
When you spend a lot of time alone and you isolate yourself
from modern society...
All right.
You start to get these ideas and you start building things.
Let me use this hardwood birch for little mechanical pieces
cuz they're stronger than the spruce,
a little bit more dense.
And whatever I end up building is a
representation of my mind.
That's what I want it to do right there.
I can move on to the next part.
I've noticed if I'm struggling at building something,
then I'm usually not in a good head space.
There we go.
What I'm building is going well,
and it looks good at the end of it.
Then I know I'm in a good place.
You know, this won't be the last draw horse I ever make,
and nothing lasts forever out here.
And, hey, if I need something, I just make it.
To me, that's freedom.
I sleep great at the end of the day knowing that
I can do these things for myself.
All right, so I got the pegs in and
let's see how it'll work.
I put it in there, look at that, that's secure as it could be.
And I can just draw knife it, rotate it, draw knife,
rotate it, draw knife.
I guess what I want to do now is this will probably make a
good handle for my mallet that I wanna make.
So, I'm gonna start by just making a simple mallet and
then move on to make some other tools and who knows
what else I can make out here.
You know, time will tell.
SONTA: Trapping is really a part of the lifestyle here.
There's nothing more exciting than setting traps and
coming back the next day and hopefully catch 'em.
CHEVIE: That's pretty good.
Go ahead and clear it out and we'll...
SONTA: Yeah.
CHEVIE: See what we got in there.
SONTA: So right now, Chevy and I are not quite sure as to
where the mink are gonna be at.
So, while we're looking for mink, we're actually also
looking at the fish population as well and what the
movement's like under the water.
There's only so much that the tracks above the ice
can tell us.
We have to try to figure out what's going on
underneath the ice,
and that's what matters with trapping minks this way.
CHEVIE: Feels pretty light.
SONTA: Oh, darn.
What is that?
CHEVIE: It's a gill.
Caught some bait, anyways.
SONTA: Little pike.
CHEVIE: Little pike.
That's what those mink are after.
SONTA: Yeah. Huh.
That's a perfect little size bait too.
CHEVIE: Maybe we'll get lucky
and catch some more fish in there,
and then once they start swimming around in there,
that's what might bring in a mink.
SONTA: Yeah, that's what would attract something
to go in there.
CHEVIE: Well, let's go check the rest of our traps.
See if that trap's still there.
Trap's still there.
SONTA: Bait's still there. Just reset it.
CHEVIE: Give it a go. SONTA: Yeah.
Right now, we're seeing that there's really
no movement of their food source in and around this trap.
So, we're gonna let our trap soak just a little bit longer
to see if we're actually able to trap anything.
You know, the way we believe out here is that there's
no word in our language for failure.
Really, this is about learning
and trying something different because they're out there and
we just have to figure out where they're at and
how to trap them better.
Oh.
CHEVIE: What do we got?
CHEVIE: Oh, it was a Martin that came out here, huh?
SONTA: That's what was messing around in there.
CHEVIE: If it was in that conibear, he'd be dead.
He must have knocked it over again.
That's why I put that second trap out there.
SONTA: That's okay. Got it in a paw.
I'm gonna take care of it.
CHEVIE: That second trap paid off,
that one 20 was snapped again.
He must have had it figured out.
It's fur still looks really good.
I'm glad it's cold.
SONTA: Yeah. CHEVIE: Nice and prime.
SONTA: Yep.
Nice size. Cold enough.
Its fur's thickened up a bit.
Good for sewing.
Pretty color too.
About three of these and you make a hat.
We're a third of the way there to getting a
new hat for Ryder.
CHEVIE: Yeah. He needs one too.
SONTA: Mm-hmm.
He was running out the door without a hat on.
CHEVIE: We'll just reset it.
Maybe a mink will come next time.
SONTA: It's always good to have some new fur coming
into the house and materials to use sewing.
This would be good.
CHEVIE: It's nice to be able to have a little extra here
and there sometimes too.
SONTA: Yeah. This is good Chev.
Good start for the day.
We should go check the other traps.
CHEVIE: Right on.
MARIO: Simple meal for a simple life.
CLARE: Yeah. Delicious.
MARIO: You know?
CLARE: I love grouse.
MARIO: Yeah, I love grouse too.
CLARE: Really good.
Yeah. And the dogs love it.
MARIO: And the dogs love it.
This was our first winter hunt together.
CLARE: Mm-hmm. Yep.
MARIO: And you remember kind of moving out here in
the spring and seeing these grouse as little babies?
They were just little babies, and they would cross the road
just like 10 of 'em right behind Mom and you know,
those are probably the ones that we're eating now.
CLARE: Yeah.
MARIO: And you know, it's just really neat to see your food
raised in front of you and you're not doing the raising.
Mother Nature is doing the raising.
You know?
Alaska is something that I hold very near and dear to my heart,
so it feels really special to share
something like that with the woman I love.
And you know, it's often said that
journeys are traveled alone,
and adventures are shared together.
So, I look forward to living my life in Alaska with Clare.
JOHNNY: God, this is nice, man.
It's nice being able to draw knife all different sizes.
This is a pretty lofty piece.
I wasn't even sure if I was gonna be able to
draw knife big pieces.
I was thinking more of just like small, intricate stuff.
All right.
Mallet head.
You know, people use these things for centuries.
Before we had modern tools and modern technology,
and I can't make everything out here.
But most of the things I need I can make.
And if I can't make it, maybe I don't need it.
Now I can make mortise and tenon for a lot of things.
Give me more inspiration or more drive to make these
things now.
Just whatever I need to make out here.
SAMANTHA: That's the last part.
NATHAN: Yeah.
So, uh, just make sure they're dry before
we start throwing 'em in bags.
SAMANTHA: Yeah.
I'm glad that we did this, and I know that it was like,
absolutely necessary.
I'm, I'm pleased with how it went.
NATHAN: This is a good start.
This will definitely fill up our freezer quite a bit.
SAMANTHA: The chicken plucker working out like
the way it did is amazing.
NATHAN: Saved us so much work.
Feels a lot better now to have it done, huh?
SAMANTHA: Yeah.
Because the ones that I didn't attach myself to,
I didn't have a problem with.
It was the ones that I had built a relationship with
over time that that I ended up having the biggest problem with.
NATHAN: It's not always easy, but this is the farm life.
SAMANTHA: We have proven everybody wrong when it comes
to whether or not this place is farmable,
because it really is.
NATHAN: Everyone thought we were crazy coming up here, man.
SAMANTHA: Everyone like, what are you doing?
NATHAN: The farm... SAMANTHA: You're gonna die.
NATHAN: In the interior of Alaska.
Brutal conditions, but we love it.
It's been nothing but blessings for us.
SONTA: I figure it'd be a good time just to kinda warm up.
Yep.
You know, really at the end of the day, we're out here having
a good time, but we're also out here looking for all fur
and any fur that we can trap and harvest right now.
And we got marten fur and that's pretty darn good.
You know, it'll keep us warm.
I wouldn't have life any other way out here.
I love this lifestyle.
I love raising kids in this environment,
and I love what it teaches us.
You're constantly learning.
We're never in a state of stillness, of idleness,
you're always trying to improve, get better and,
Alaskans, and the way of life here is really about trying to
find food, trying to find resources,
and it's kind of a cyclical process
of harvesting and living and living on the land.
Utilize what's around us to provide the things that we need,
the very basic necessities of what we need to survive.
Captioned by Cotter Media Group.