CHEVIE: This river just stopped flowing about four days ago.
It's the first ice of the year.
We gotta get out here and check this ice.
I want to see about getting a fish net in the ice.
Last year we had a net right here.
This year it's not looking so promising,
but I do want to go out.
At least check the thickness of it.
You have to get out on it right away.
It's easier to set the net that way, and that's when
the fish are running.
If you wait for really thick ice,
the fish are going to be gone.
All right, there's water right there.
Bare minimal.
I don't hear anything cracking underneath me yet,
that's always a good sign.
Whew.
Hear it crack there.
That's pretty deep, you know?
About over my head here.
This is a deep river.
Today I'm kinda rolling solo, I don't need Ryder here,
kids here, 'cause of the danger that it is.
If something bad does happen,
there's nothing that they can do.
Nine-year-old kid's not gonna be able to pull me out of the ice,
and you don't want your kid to witness something
like that happening.
(theme music plays)
MARIO: There is a seriousness to living
in the interior of Alaska.
If you're caught unprepared out here it carries with it
really serious consequences.
And if you're unprepared then
you're probably not gonna succeed.
It's cold.
CLARE: Yeah.
MARIO: This is not good. CLARE: This is a lot of ice.
MARIO: I mean, we don't have any water.
This is a problem, look at that.
That's inches thick, so.
CLARE: That's crazy.
MARIO: You know, we either adapt or we have no water.
CLARE: Totally. MARIO: We can't do this.
CLARE: No.
MARIO: We won't survive out here, yeah.
CLARE: It's freezing now, which means we've run out of
everyday drinking water.
Number one priority is to build an arctic entry
to keep our house warm and have water that isn't
going to freeze this winter.
I didn't really ever like this porch that much anyway.
MARIO: Yeah, (bleep) this porch.
By building an arctic entry it basically provides
an insulated front porch.
We're gonna have to take this down and then build with these
as the corners.
CLARE: Mm-hmm.
MARIO: And we don't have a way to keep constant heat in
a separate building.
So, we figured that, you know, use the heat that was escaping
to help heat the water.
Hopefully trying to solve one problem
with a creative solution.
Because water is life out here.
So, let's put the middle one, that middle third one in line
with that stud.
Ready?
CLARE: Yeah.
KALEB: Any time I set my traps out.
It's just a hope that something will come along and
want to eat my bait.
And I'll catch him.
GILBERT: Dad.
KALEB: But it's a game of wits, it's not a guaranteed thing.
They're doing their best to survive.
When you do a beaver set you do four snares around the pole.
GILBERT: Oh.
KALEB: Make a loop on the end here.
Yeah, we feed it through like that.
GILBERT: Why do you need two loops?
KALEB: One loop hooks around those poles we have,
and the other loop is the actual snare.
GILBERT: Ooh.
But what if the beaver is smarter than us?
KALEB: Then we don't catch a beaver.
And that's okay.
GILBERT: Yeah.
KALEB: Our job is to be smarter than the beaver,
and if we're smarter than the beaver we catch one.
If the beaver's smarter than us, then we don't catch one.
And there's a lot of smart beavers out there, they get,
they figure things like this out before they get killed.
And then they learn and they,
they become really hard to catch.
Okay, you climb on top of the box here.
GILBERT: This is not easy because I don't have my thumbs
in the thumb hole.
I can get the top.
KALEB: There you go.
GILBERT: If weight is inside it, will it just tighten?
KALEB: Yep, see. Watch.
This trip is important to Gilbert.
He wants to go trapping,
he wants to learn how to catch something.
And 100% he knows that it's a way of life,
and it is something to be proud of.
We're gonna put four snares on here.
They're all gonna be kinda spread around the tree
a little bit, and it'll have a piece of wire like that
to help, help them dangle a little bit.
See that?
And then the beaver will be chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp,
chomp, caught.
GILBERT: Ha, you just caught yourself.
KALEB: Yep.
Beaver are a very important aspect to life in Alaska.
They're an important food source for many animals,
and their fur is highly, highly sought after by humans because
of the warmth, the durability
and just the sleek value of the fur.
There, I think this is ready to go in the water.
GILBERT: Rope frozed up.
KALEB: Yep, cold out. GILBERT: Yep.
KALEB: Probably 15 degrees or something like that.
Really a nice day to be out.
GILBERT: Yeah.
KALEB: Beaver pelts if properly oiled are
completely waterproof.
All right, down she goes.
So, I'd love to catch three or four beavers.
We want to make hats for everybody, and it takes
one beaver pelt to make one hat.
Yep, that's the bottom.
There we go.
That is a perfect set.
We'll wire the bait pole to the cross pole;
we'll be all done.
And then we can move on to the other set.
NATHAN: Mother Nature's deadly out here.
And you gotta just go with it.
And do what you can to keep those elements on the outside.
(mooing)
Yeah, Lily?
You know something's going on, huh?
Let's take a look at this partition,
see if we can get this done this year.
Yeah, it's a little chilly in here.
SAMANTHA: Yeah, it's pretty chilly still in here and
it's going to get colder.
And last year I remember looking at the temperature
on this barn and it was just, it was unbelievably cold.
NATHAN: Yeah.
We have a large barn that we're dividing in two.
It needs to be insulated, it needs to be paneled.
Get our livestock areas in tip top shape so we don't have to
worry about them freezing to death out here.
(mooing)
Lily is going to give birth whenever now.
SAMANTHA: Yeah.
NATHAN: So we could always move her in here.
SAMANTHA: It would be nice to have a nice safe space for all
of them to just like be separate and hang out and
not have a lot of loss this winter.
Last year was, that, last year was hard.
That was hard.
NATHAN: I think the first thing we gotta get one panel side up,
get the insulation up, and then panel on the other side.
SAMANTHA: Yeah.
NATHAN: The cold is on its way here and it's brutal and
it's brutal for us and it's brutal for the animals.
SAMANTHA: I brought some extra helping hands.
NATHAN: Huh? Hi, kiddos.
KIDS: Hi.
NATHAN: Last year we lost three cows, almost lost a goat.
SAMANTHA: Oh, come on, last piece.
NATHAN: Well, we'll set those aside if we need them
for like patch work and stuff.
SAMANTHA: Yeah.
NATHAN: So, Moose-Chelle was our previous milk cow, and she
gave birth in the middle of the night on the coldest night
of the year, and Moose-Chelle's calf did not survive.
That was frozen to the barn floor when we walked in.
So, stud's not perfectly straight,
so let's go about there.
When we lose an animal, it's a huge emotional loss,
even though it's part of farm life out here,
any of the animals that die here,
we want it to be for a purpose.
We want it to be planned.
We want it to be for a reason.
We gotta get everything fixed to make it through this winter.
There you go. Perfect.
Now just do the same thing.
Do one like boom, then boom.
CHEVIE: Some of the most dangerous times of the year in
Alaska is when ice is coming, or ice is going.
And it creates really dangerous situations because
the ice is super thin.
And there's just a lot of places for mistakes to be made.
Takes a long time to be able to figure out the ice and
what it looks like.
When I first came out to Shageluk, um,
and started doing this, I wasn't,
I wasn't going out on the ice.
For a long time, I just wasn't comfortable.
♪ ♪
(cracking)
CHEVIE: Whoa-wee.
Still not comfortable.
That ice if I would have stayed out there
it would have broke for sure.
I could, I could just feel it.
That wasn't just being nervous, that was,
that was ice starting to break.
So, I need to keep on looking and find a little bit
better place to set our fishnet.
And so, I'll just keep on moseying along the river here
and see what I see.
MARIO: I feel like I'm changing into a more self-sufficient
and proficient Alaskan.
It's freaking hard.
Just because it's like simple living doesn't mean it's easy.
CLARE: Do you need a new battery?
MARIO: Yeah, this one's, like, completely dead.
CLARE: Is that a big one?
MARIO: Yeah. But I could have sworn this was like, new.
CLARE: It might have gotten too cold.
MARIO: Yeah, it's just cold, yeah.
CLARE: Yeah. I'm gonna grab another one.
MARIO: Oh, man the cold just zapped the battery.
These tools aren't working at their optimal range,
and so our battery went from being full to
being absolutely drained.
And so, we have to have a warm place to keep our tools now,
and we'll keep them in this Arctic entry so we can actually
work instead of have to figure out how to fix our things.
CLARE: That one's charging, and this one, it's good to go.
MARIO: Yeah, with the turrets.
All right, we're getting it in.
So, the plan for today is to put the window on it,
put the door in it, and plywood all around.
Yeah, we've got a window.
CLARE: Woo! MARIO: Woo! She's alive.
Basically, formed our main structure.
So, the next step is, let's do the door.
CLARE: And you want to use the workshop door.
MARIO: Right now, we don't have the time to go make a door...
CLARE: Yeah. MARIO: You know?
And so, we're going to use a door that we already have
in a building that doesn't need a door
as much as this needs a door.
CLARE: Great. Sounds good. Yeah.
MARIO: Okay. Great. Let's go grab the door.
CLARE: Yeah.
I'm getting a little more nervous about our winter
out here as the heart of winter gets to our doorstep and
the Arctic entry is going to be extremely important to
get things warm and water unfrozen
for our animals and for ourselves.
MARIO: Okay. That looks fine though.
CLARE: All right, open her up. MARIO: All right.
Sick!
That looks great so now.
CLARE: Woo! The other side.
MARIO: Let's. Yeah, I don't really know what we're doing,
but we're doing and that's all that matters out here.
CLARE: Yeah. Yeah. MARIO: You just gotta do.
It's looking good.
I'm more interested in what it's gonna do for me
than how it looks.
And really, that's how a lot of things work up here in Alaska.
But, you know, we're making it look nice because it's our home.
Yeah, I was a football star back in middle school.
Last one.
It looks good, doesn't it?
CLARE: Yeah.
MARIO: Let's go ahead and start insulating the inside.
CLARE: Yeah.
KALEB: The best way to find places to go trap,
is to go scout in the airplane.
I watch in the fall time because I get a bird's eye view.
I can see straight down through the trees.
And then I know where to go in the wintertime
to trap these beavers.
You can take the first whack and then I'm going to chainsaw it.
Makes it your set, huh?
(laughs)
KALEB: When Beaver trapping, there's always the risk.
That the ice is not as thick as I think it's going to be,
and I could fall in.
In general, this time of year the ice
should be about a foot thick.
Which is plenty safe.
But next to the feed piles, which is where we make our sets,
the ice is always a little bit thinner.
All right.
So I've got to be super aware of what the ice is doing around me.
GILBERT: Feel it?
KALEB: Yeah, literally that's bottom right there.
GILBERT: Can you go to the bottom with the shovel?
KALEB: Oh, yeah.
Here's all sorts of weeds and garbage down here.
GILBERT: How you...
KALEB: That bottom right there.
GILBERT: Oh my. That's real shallow.
KALEB: This water's not deep enough for our snares to
be open down there.
So, I think what we'll do is we'll move out more like
right here and see if this is any deeper.
Because right now our snares won't really work down there
because of all the weeds and stuff on the bottom.
(grunts)
KALEB: All right. That hole is decommissioned.
GILBERT: What's that mean?
KALEB: We're not trapping there.
This hole looks like it'll be a lot better.
They need to have enough room to where they can operate freely
without getting tangled up in the brush
at the bottom of the pond.
You want to go get the two bait poles, Gilbert?
GILBERT: Okay.
KALEB: And I'll cut us two dead cross sticks.
Gilbert loves Beaver trapping.
It's something that he talks about and wants to do regularly.
So, he's super stoked to go out and do this with me.
And I think that he's starting to get the foundation to where
once he's able to operate the tools that
get us through the ice.
He'll be out here trapping the Beavers on his own.
We'll go stand.
Hey, Gilbert, come on.
GILBERT: I'm grabbing these.
KALEB: We'll stand where it's safe to rig these snares up.
Okay.
And then you can hold these up which that's our water line.
So, these are all reach up above the water which is good.
That one's open all different directions.
Beaver will go working his way around the pole and
he'll be caught before he even knows it.
All right, let's go set this.
Okay, you ready for it to go in the hole?
GILBERT: Yeah.
KALEB: Oh, man, it's deep here.
GILBERT: Yeah. KALEB: It's over my head.
GILBERT: Good picking here.
KALEB: Drops off deep here.
(cracking)
Shooting cracks.
(cracking)
GILBERT: I could feel that crack, it scares me.
KALEB: Yeah, I could hear it.
(cracking)
Watch out.
KALEB: Woo, shooting cracks!
Those get my heart to pumping.
GILBERT: It scared me.
KALEB: Shooting cracks are when the ice has stress in it,
and something happens that breaks
the surface tension of the ice.
It relieves the stress, and it shoots cracks out from
wherever that epicenter is.
It's basically like an earthquake.
We're going to put snow in the sled and haul it over here and
then stick the snow on top of this.
GILBERT: Ah!
KALEB: This is a really good reminder that no matter how
confident I am about the safety of what I'm doing.
All right, this one's done except for covering.
Sometimes nature just thumps her nose at me.
GILBERT: You're making it harder.
KALEB: All right, let's go.
And despite the dangers, we have to try our best and
we have to put out our most honest effort
to catch these beavers.
All right.
We'll get all of it on there.
CHEVIE: There's a fine line between dangerous and safe.
(cracking)
And you have to walk that line.
(grunts)
CHEVIE: A lot of the times we do it is when
we're putting fish nets under the ice.
First, we'll pull our net across the ice.
And then we'll cut a bunch of holes.
And I'll show you how to run this net under the ice.
Winter's really kinda happened overnight.
It's gotten really cold, the ice is thick here,
it really feels like a good, safe place to be able to set
a net with Ryder for the first time.
Let's see what kind of shape our net's in.
In the fall, when the lakes start freezing,
the whitefish leave and go to deeper water in the Yukon River.
So there's only one time a year
these fish run downriver into the Yukon.
And that time is now.
(sighs)
RYDER: Let me try.
CHEVIE: Just don't drop it down the hole.
RYDER: No.
CHEVIE: You get a little frustrated with life,
get a little mad at your dad, you know?
You know how you do?
RYDER: Hi-yah.
Oh my gosh.
(laughs)
CHEVIE: When they're willing and they're ready and
they think it's fun, you better capitalize on that.
'Cause that time's not gonna last forever.
RYDER: The last hole finally.
CHEVIE: Okay, ready? RYDER: Yeah.
CHEVIE: Here it comes.
Look. Look.
RYDER: Oh, I see it. CHEVIE: Grab it.
RYDER: When?
CHEVIE: You miss it?
RYDER: I couldn't do it, my hands are too cold.
(laughs)
CHEVIE: Okay, take a break.
Now you see how it's gonna work.
As a parent you gotta know when to push your kids just
a little bit because it's really just a rite of passage for Ryder
proving to himself he can do it.
Ready?
RYDER: Yeah.
CHEVIE: See it? You gotta look for it first.
Okay, you got it?
RYDER: Almost I got it. I got it.
CHEVIE: Okay, you know you're gonna have to push it to me.
RYDER: Oh my gosh my hand hurts.
Ah dad hurry, please hurry.
CHEVIE: Okay, push it to the next one, fast.
RYDER: I'm trying to. My arms are freezing.
CHEVIE: Pull your arms out. Pull your arms out.
I got it! 'Kay, warm up.
Go to the, go to the next one.
It's good for you to know how cold it is.
It makes you respect this water.
RYDER: Okay.
CHEVIE: It'll take your life right now if you fall in it.
Okay, here it comes Ryder.
Looking for it? Got it?
RYDER: Yeah. I'm holding.
CHEVIE: Hold on to it good.
It's slippery.
Okay, I got it.
RYDER: You got it? CHEVIE: You got one more.
Go to the next one.
RYDER: I couldn't. CHEVIE: Hurry up, hurry up.
Fast!
Grab the, the, the, the stick.
RYDER: Do I pull it out?
CHEVIE: Yeah, go ahead, pull it out if you can.
RYDER: I couldn't. I couldn't pull it up.
CHEVIE: Okay, wait. Wait for me. Don't...
Don't, hold it right there.
RYDER: My arms, I gonna go get my jacket now.
CHEVIE: Go ahead, go get your jacket.
RYDER: I am. You're making me die and freeze.
CHEVIE: Ryder's my only boy and it's good for us to get out
and work together.
Good job, man.
RYDER: I don't know why I'm doing this.
CHEVIE: What? You did great.
This is something that I would have had
a really hard time doing without him.
Okay, hold it right there.
RYDER: Okay.
CHEVIE: And now we're going to go set another net.
All right, good.
How many other nine year olds do you see out here?
RYDER: I don't see anyone.
CHEVIE: I don't see anyone either.
SAMANTHA: Whenever we lose an animal that we are not
butchering for food, it's a huge emotional hit just because
we put so much time and energy,
but it's also a huge financial hit.
We can't afford to lose another animal.
And it's, it's getting colder every day.
We need to get Lily in here, so she can have her baby and
not have to worry about her losing it.
I think that's pretty vital at this point.
NATHAN: Yeah.
We need to hurry up and get it done 'cause
it's not getting any warmer.
SAMANTHA: No.
NATHAN: We'll start with the insulation.
I guess we'll just go piece by piece just like we did in there.
SAMANTHA: Yep, we'll do it. NATHAN: Alrighty.
Cool, let's grab the insulation.
SAMANTHA: Lily is about to give birth.
She could be ready to drop any second now,
or it could be another month or two.
It's time to get this milk barn done
and get her in it.
That way we don't have to worry about if she drops her baby.
NATHAN: Every single piece of this farm, you know,
it's just a constant infrastructure work.
Constant refurbishing.
Re-insulating, paneling, fencing.
(laughs)
NATHAN: I mean, that's about half of what we do is...
SAMANTHA: Right.
NATHAN: Just animal housing and fencing.
SAMANTHA: Having Lily in the milk barn is going to be vital
because as long as she is producing milk,
she will be around to both feed her baby and
to provide for us her milk.
NATHAN: Like all the way to the side.
SAMANTHA: Oh, I thought I did.
(coughing)
I'm pretty sure I just breathed that in.
NATHAN: Yeah, you should, you should probably be
wearing something over your face.
Especially considering your asthma.
SAMANTHA: I don't currently have anything.
Right here, here.
Hold on, I'm gonna have to because it's starting,
it's getting in my eyes and...
(groans)
I have insulation in my eyes.
Okay. Hold on.
(groans)
SAMANTHA: Blinking fiberglass out of my eyes.
Instead of just inhaling it.
I don't know if it'll really help with the,
the whole eye thing.
How does this work?
There it is.
NATHAN: Actually, that's not gonna work.
SAMANTHA: It's succeeding.
This is working out pretty well.
(drill whirring)
NATHAN: Yeah. SAMANTHA: Yeah.
Hopefully this will actually like,
retain and like radiate the heat back too.
NATHAN: It already feels warmer than it did.
SAMANTHA: Right? NATHAN: Yeah.
SAMANTHA: Warm.
CHEVIE: The water's really high.
You have a big river to fish.
The fish could either be on the other side of the river,
under my net, or they're just not running yet.
All right, let's see what we got here today.
Out here checking it by myself, Ryder's in school.
Sometimes he misses one of the checks,
but that's just part of it.
A lot of times I'll be pulling the net out right here.
I pull the net up like this.
And Ryder's dragging it out that way,
and it's a really big help.
But I'm here by myself today.
I gotta pull it out and drag it.
When you're out on the land playing a sport,
you're gonna lose some games and you're gonna lose some animals.
Those moments where you're defeated really is what makes
that success of pulling that net outta the ice full of fish
so great is because you know that there's moments where
you've been defeated and you've lost and
you've had some hard times.
What's important is I gotta get this untied.
Soon as it goes loose, I gotta get over there,
pull this net out as fast as I can, so net,
fish don't fall out of the net,
'cause my net's gonna try to go down river so.
Feels pretty heavy.
♪ ♪
Oh, one little pike there.
Not a whitefish, but it's a fish.
Little bit of slush.
Okay, that's it.
No whitefish today it doesn't look like.
Caught one pike.
I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that
the fish aren't here yet.
When you do get a lot of fish and you hit the run just right,
you appreciate it more.
It feels good.
You win some and you lose some,
but you gotta get up and play every.
All right, got everything all cleaned up here.
Ready to check again tomorrow.
No whitefish today, but was happy to see a fish
come out of the hole.
Fresh fish is fresh fish.
KALEB: Everywhere I go and everything I do,
I'm constantly watching out for something I can hunt or
trap to help sustain our family out in the bush.
You wanna check the close one or the far one first?
GILBERT: Um, the far one because it mine.
KALEB: All right, we're checking the far one.
Today we're gonna peek down in the water and
see if there's anything in our snares and
hopefully catch a couple beavers.
Hope the plastic isn't frozen in too much.
And all we want to do is just peel away one corner of
the build-up of snow and look down in the hole.
Well, I don't think this one caught anything.
GILBERT: That's a bummer.
KALEB: Let's go check the other one.
I have taken the kids out beaver trapping before
and failed, and this is kind of our redemption pass.
We have to try our best and catch these beavers.
GILBERT: Peel it up.
What do you see?
KALEB: We did not catch anything.
GILBERT: Oh.
KALEB: And I don't see any sign that a beaver has chewed
on our stick yet.
All right.
GILBERT: This is not lucky.
KALEB: So we need to pull the plastic off
and reset the snares.
It's not a guaranteed thing to catch a beaver or
any animal for that matter.
Oh, and I am not looking forward to this.
This water is cold.
They are doing their best to survive,
and survival does not include stepping in traps and
getting caught and killed.
All right, well, this set is back in business,
so I'll finish shoveling all this up.
Then we'll go check the other ones.
The other set has been waiting for us
a whole entire day longer, so maybe, just maybe,
it'll have a beaver in it.
Yeah, this pond was really shallow and
the other pond was really deep.
GILBERT: I think it's hard work to trap a beaver.
KALEB: Yeah.
Why do you think it's hard work?
GILBERT: Because all the steps you have to do.
KALEB: Yeah, that's how it is with everything.
GILBERT: What is that?
Do you think a beaver?
KALEB: I don't know what was in there.
All right, you ready?
This could be real interesting.
Oh, Gilbert, look at that.
KALEB: Oh, geez.
All right, gotta get this guy in the snow, quick.
GILBERT: Yahoo! KALEB: We got us a beaver.
GILBERT: That's huge!
(sighs)
KALEB: That's a nice medium sized beaver, I'd say.
GILBERT: The webbed feet are cool.
KALEB: Yeah and look on the tail.
Look at that.
Something took a big old bite out of his tail.
GILBERT: What do you think?
KALEB: I think he had a close encounter with a bear.
GILBERT: A bear? KALEB: Yeah.
Ah, you stinky rodent, yank him around in the snow and
start getting his body all dried out.
GILBERT: This is my first beaver.
KALEB: These are the biggest rodents in
North America right here.
GILBERT: That's such a pretty color.
KALEB: Oh yeah. This is the premium fur.
Let's go.
MARIO: In this wild country, it's really essential to be
a good problem solver.
Being able to make decisions quick and fast out here could
be the difference between life and death.
Oh, no. No.
CLARE: Too far.
MARIO: Too, too far.
I didn't expect that to go so well.
CLARE: So, we've got our framing done and we're going to
put in our insulation next.
MARIO: You don't want your insulation getting wet and
potentially molding over time.
And then you also want it to do its job to stay dry.
And if you get that process correct,
you're gonna ultimately end up trapping
as much heat as possible.
Freaking awesome.
CLARE: Mm-hmm.
MARIO: All right, so let's go ahead and plastic the inside.
CLARE: Mm-hmm.
MARIO: Okay.
Let's put some plastic on it.
And this will keep moisture from building up in there.
The interior of Alaska is a really beautiful and
unique place, and while there are harsh conditions,
no matter what happens here, we're gonna persevere and
we're gonna succeed.
We're both tough people and that,
tough times don't last and tough people do.
There we go.
CLARE: Okay. MARIO: There you go.
(bleep) that.
CLARE: Yeah.
Nice. Perfect.
Looks good, huh?
MARIO: It's done. Yeah. CLARE: Great. Yeah.
MARIO: Great.
NATHAN: It's not easy farming in the middle of nowhere in Alaska
through these brutal winters.
We're doing everything we can to get our facilities in
tip top shape, get everything insulated and warm.
And have a good place for every animal to go.
I mean, the plan for now is to build some
goat play structures in here.
We got scrap wood.
We got pallets.
SAMANTHA: See what we can make.
NATHAN: Yeah, let's go grab our materials and
we'll get creative.
SAMANTHA: Sweet.
NATHAN: So the indoor goat playground is important
because when you have animals cooped up,
they need something to do.
They need a way to get out their energy, you know,
if they're stuck in a room,
it's kind of a depressing way to live your life.
So we're gonna try to give 'em the happy place
to kind of hang around.
Things to jump on, they can snuggle under,
or get warm and just give 'em some entertainment.
So let's start with some...
So you're thinking one level here?
SAMANTHA: Yeah. NATHAN: Two levels there.
This would be the lowest level.
Have a ramp going up to the lowest level of ridge
going to the second.
And then like a level on top of that that
they can just jump onto.
SAMANTHA: Yeah, I like it.
NATHAN: Their relatives are climbing up
the sides of mountain cliffs.
You don't like that?
So we're trying to, you know, replicate that in a sense.
I think it'll be good for 'em and it'll keep 'em healthy.
SAMANTHA: You know, our kids like to climb,
so that's like a whole thing.
So we have to do this with both the goats and
our children in mind, like...
NATHAN: Yeah.
SAMANTHA: I like my animals to be happy because
happy animals produce better milk.
They produce better eggs.
You can taste the difference.
Should I go ahead and cut these off now?
NATHAN: What do you think? SAMANTHA: I love it.
I think it's, I think it's amazing.
I think they're gonna love it.
NATHAN: For goats anyways.
They wanna climb on everything,
jump on everything, get on the highest point.
So, we'll find out.
SAMANTHA: Right?
CHEVIE: If you want to be successful in Alaska,
you have to be able to know when to thread the needle.
So if you're scared and cautious,
you're gonna be hungry.
You gotta be able to get out there when the fish is running.
How's your little puppy doing, Emmy?
EMERY: Oh, she's good.
SONTA: She's pretty happy.
CHEVIE: What you think, Ry-Ry?
Okay, I'll show you what to do, okay?
Whether it's Ryder, or one of the girls.
We're gonna untie that one first and you're gonna hold onto it.
All right?
I think it's important for the family to come behind
the person that's doing something new.
Okay. Come here, buddy.
Yeah, come over. Come.
Whether they succeed or fail, and support them.
Go, go, go.
RYDER: All the way to the top?
CHEVIE: Okay, come up here, Ryder.
Right up here.
Grab the end of this net.
Come grab the net, oh, one whitefish.
One fish.
SONTA: Only one? CHEVIE: Only one.
Oh, two.
Only two, but the two fish is better than none.
RYDER: Straight now.
CHEVIE: It's these times like this that
you get to bond with them.
SONTA: Nice. Look, Chevelle.
CHEVIE: And they're constantly growing.
They're constantly developing.
They're always changing.
SONTA: Good job, Ryder.
CHEVIE: If we fished this hole and there's a lot of fish here,
and it just gets more and more and more, okay?
It, it'll, it's the beginning.
And then it'll peak and you'll get lots every day,
and then it'll just go back down.
We'll fish the whole time.
Wanna check this one?
We want to develop somebody that has respect for the land
and is able to thrive on the land.
It's important for Ryder to be a part of that and to know that
and be able to feed himself.
This one's in the middle of the river, okay?
See how fast it wants to go down river.
Okay, go ahead.
RYDER: Whoa. CHEVIE: Got it?
Go ahead and let it go.
Okay. Come. Come.
Okay. Come right here.
Let's grab with your hand, help me pull.
♪ ♪
Come on, baby.
CHEVIE: Keep pulling.
Keep pulling over this the way.
You gotta walk up this way.
A lush, we got too, look at all those fish.
(grunts)
Good load of fish there, Ry-Ry.
(singing)
RYDER: Oh, my gosh, it feels weird.
CHEVIE: How many fish do we have, Ry-Ry?
RYDER: Hmm, I don't know.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
CHEVIE: We got eight. Is there one more over there?
RYDER: Yeah, there's one. CHEVIE: Go ahead and grab it.
RYDER: I couldn't, it's tangled up.
CHEVIE: Some years the water's too high or something happens,
and you don't catch fish.
But all in all, it was a huge success.
SONTA: That other net had more fish in it?
CHEVIE: Yeah. SONTA: Awesome.
CHEVIE: Quite a bit. We got one nice big lush too.
SONTA: Oh, really? CHEVIE: Yeah.
SONTA: Wow. CHEVIE: Good size.
SONTA: It's been a while since we had one of those.
KALEB: You ready to skin a beaver, Gilbert?
GILBERT: Yeah.
KALEB: Start making cuts. GILBERT: Oh, boy.
KALEB: Beavers are one of the only creatures besides humans
that change the landscape around them to suit their needs.
This beaver's life was not wasted.
And we appreciate it coming to our set,
chewing on our pole, and becoming a hat for survival
in this cold climate.
GILBERT: Look at those teeth. KALEB: Yep.
These ones are sharp.
My goodness.
GILBERT: Can I try?
KALEB: You need to learn how to skin squirrels and stuff like
that before you get to skin an expensive hide like this.
You did a good job helping me Gilbert.
GILBERT: Yahoo!
NATHAN: All right.
Goat kids and human kids.
What do you think?
SAMANTHA: Oh, Cupcake's already on it.
NATHAN: Is it cool? AUTUMN: It's really good.
She's already on it.
NATHAN: Yeah. AUTUMN: What's she doing?
SAMANTHA: It's pretty warm in here too, huh?
It's not so bad.
AUTUMN: No, it's not so bad. SAMANTHA: I like it.
Shall we put Lily in her barn now?
NATHAN: Yeah, probably. SAMANTHA: Cool.
Y'all can stay and hang out.
NATHAN: The goats seem to be loving the playground,
they're having a good time and it's nice to see that.
This farm is definitely a huge work in progress.
Work is never done.
Every day it's something different,
every day it's a new challenge.
And we're hoping for better days than our previous winter.
(laughs)
NATHAN: You know you do. SAMANTHA: She's getting spoiled.
I don't think we're gonna have to worry about even if
she goes in the middle of the night without us,
like I think she's gonna be just fine.
NATHAN: Yeah.
SAMANTHA: This is gonna help us a lot.
NATHAN: Yeah. She looks fat and happy.
SAMANTHA: She does. NATHAN: And warm.
SAMANTHA: She's big.
Yes, you hear the goats going crazy in the other room.
They're really enjoying that.
NATHAN: They're having fun in there.
SAMANTHA: Yeah.
Oh, I think, I think this was a really beautiful project and
I'm really glad that it's done and I'm glad that
we don't have to worry about our animals this year.
They're gonna be fine.
Lily seems pretty darn content in the milk barn.
I definitely love my cows.
Oh, my snuggle bug.
She's so sweet when she's eating.
(drill whirring)
MARIO: That was the last screw.
CLARE: Woo. MARIO: Yeah, that's it.
CLARE: Nice. MARIO: Yeah. That looks good.
CLARE: Mm-hmm.
MARIO: We can go ahead and stain it and seal it.
There's no better feeling than, you know,
ultimately creating something that increases
the quality of life for either of us.
CLARE: This look nice matching the cabin.
MARIO: It means a lot when we look at these things
that we've accomplished together.
CLARE: All right. MARIO: All right.
Let's finish off the door and we're done.
CLARE: Great.
MARIO: You know, we've come a long way.
Every time we work on something.
You know, we build up the little team that we are out here,
and now that we've got another one under our belt,
you know, we can start moving on and
looking forward to the next project.
All right, it's done.
CLARE: It's done? MARIO: Yeah, it's done.
Being Alaskan, there's really no telling what's
in store for us and what we can accomplish.
SONTA: I was kind of getting concerned we, we missed the run.
So.
CHEVIE: Officially, the, the,
the whitefish run has begun pretty good.
SONTA: We should be catching for a few more days after.
Ryder did a good job out there.
CHEVIE: It's a lot of weight pulling that net.
SONTA: Yeah, it's good to see him do that.
CHEVIE: Ryder and I will remember this time,
setting the net under the ice for the first time for the rest
of our lives, and that's what really matters.
Someday he'll be teaching his kids.
That's what it's all about for me.
So couldn't be more proud of him.
You guys, we'll, we'll take these home,
we'll let 'em freeze overnight.
NATHAN: When you're out there working,
it can get kind of mundane and repetitive,
but in the grand scheme of things,
we're really building a legacy,
something to pass off to our children.
It's just a huge lifelong project that's never gonna end.
Captioned by Cotter Media Group.