JOHNNY: I am predator-proofing my camp right now.
More specifically, this meat cache.
And I'm going to be putting these some extra stove pipe
that I have, and I'm going to wrap them around the tree.
Further up, of course.
Once they hit this metal, their claws,
they can't grip into the tree, so it brings them right back
to square one.
Everything out here has access to my fridge,
whether I like it or not.
The animals, they'll take advantage of anything they see.
If there's food laying around...
Oh, yeah.
They'll help themselves to whatever they find.
So, I had gotten a caribou, and it was late in the evening,
so I hung it up here.
And I woke up the next day, and it was gone.
The bear grabbed the caribou, ripped it down,
drug it through all the brush,
and it was ripped open pretty good.
It tore up the ribs and spread the hindquarters apart,
and there were bear tracks around it,
so it was pretty obvious that it was a grizzly bear.
At that point, the bear has claimed that kill,
so it's its property.
And I felt like I was trespassing around the caribou
that I had shot at that point.
It was an eerie feeling, to know that, you know,
that bear could be just right over in the brush, or in the bushes,
and it would definitely defend that kill with its life,
and I'm not ready to die.
I just worry a lot.
This is my food here, you know,
if they get to the food, it's, it'll be a tough time,
especially with these cold temperatures,
to be well fed.
I mean I eat, I eat quite a bit of fat out here.
It's amazing how my body adapts to the environment,
and since being out here, it just craves fat.
I'm a pretty lean guy.
So, it's important to safeguard the caribou meat that I do have.
(howling).
Do you hear that?
Wolves.
(howling).
It's probably about a dozen wolves, at least.
The wolves concern me with Java.
They come out here, and they come around the camp,
they try to lure her away from me.
And their goal is to take her out,
because they look at her as competition.
And they try to kind of flirt with her,
and pull her away from me, in a way that makes them,
like, not appear dangerous.
And then, once she's away from me,
that's when they kind of start to try to circle her.
That's ultimately my biggest fear with the wolves.
They're not going to access my meat up here or anything like that.
I don't have to worry about that.
I just worry about my dog.
Java! Come here. Come on. You stay.
Everything out here is trying to survive,
including myself.
Short term goals are to stay warm, stay fed.
Don't get killed.
ALEX: I kind of got impending doom over my shoulders for the winter.
It's getting colder.
Pretty much whenever there's a bad situation,
it automatically goes to worse.
Now that it's winter, and I just kind of had a big cold snap,
it was like, 30 below for a couple days, uh,
it means I spend more time on my cabin.
And just recently, I noticed this should be cool to the touch.
When I got a hot fire going on in here,
this is getting just as hot almost.
It's actually, I touched it, and it burnt me a little bit.
It should not be that hot, because it's going against the
insulation in there, and the wood.
So, if this is getting that hot,
that's a huge fire hazard.
I need to replace this, basically this whole chimney system,
uh, which is gonna involve tearing apart this wall,
and everything.
So, it's gonna be kind of a big job.
It's about to be the longest, darkest days of winter.
This is the time of year when I'm making fires very often,
sometimes all day long, I have a fire going.
I simply cannot survive without a wood stove.
Which means the risk of setting my cabin on fire
is extremely high.
I made a small fire early this morning,
just to get a little bit of heat in here.
But the stove's totally cool now.
And, uh, I won't be making another fire in here until
I get my chimney replaced.
My cabin is gonna cool down rapidly.
If my cabin freezes up,
especially if all of my water freezes, you know,
then I'm left two options.
Go haul more water, or melt snow,
which takes forever.
It's just a situation I wanna avoid.
There's time pressure, but I need to make sure that I go slow,
because if I try to go fast,
I'll just make a mess of things.
KALEB: It's important that children learn the things that
are necessary to make a homestead like this function,
so that they can succeed in the future as they turn into adults,
and become the next generation of Alaskans.
BRITTANY: Whatcha think, Ellie? ELOVIE: Cool.
KALEB: The smoker that I'm building today is just a bunch
of cinderblocks stacked together in about a four-foot square shape.
You know that when Grandpa built this smoker,
his great idea was to use welding rod to hold the grates up.
I'm hoping this smoker is an opportunity to teach my kids a
little more about the fundamentals of building.
BRITTANY: Keep going. Yeah!
ELOVIE: Haha!
KALEB: And it teaches them a little more about taking pride
in your work, doing a good job.
All right.
Shall we try this screen out, Ellie?
ELOVIE: Yeah.
KALEB: See if Grandpa's ideas works.
Look at that! It works.
And then, getting to teach them a little bit about food prep.
Go get some firewood and torch this off,
and then, we can maybe go hunt for some fresh game.
You wanna go hunting?
BRITTANY: Ellie, when Mama was pregnant with you,
Daddy and Gilbert and I went ptarmigan hunting,
and you were in my belly then!
So, you have gone ptarmigan hunting.
When you were in mommy's tummy!
KALEB: Go head on out and get some fresh meat to put in here,
and while I'm out there, the whole mountainside is
covered in good alder that we'll smoke the meat with.
So, I'll bring some of that back, too.
BRITTANY: Cool. Come on, Ellie, let's go.
Elovie is always gung-ho to try different things,
including going hunting with Kaleb.
I love that, as she's gotten older,
she's actually able to go with him.
It's wonderful to be able to see her grow into herself,
and be able to do these things.
KALEB: Piper, stay home. ELOVIE: Stay!
KALEB: Elovie is gonna have a unique opportunity today.
She gets one on one time with me,
in the mountains, doing what I love most,
hunting wild game.
There's no guarantees, I have not been up to the bowl where
we're going hunting.
There should be a foot, foot and a half of snow.
And so, we're taking the snow machine up there,
and we'll just have to look around,
and see what we can find.
MICHAEL: I take a lot of pride training and running a subsistence team.
And so, what you see here, is you see tradition.
And the tradition is strong.
(barking).
Quiet down, you little knuckleheads.
You guys are nuts.
You wanna be a sled dog? Wanna go for a run?
First run.
Earlier today, the winds come through.
We had white out conditions.
These trees were snapping and cracking.
I had a great big branch fall off into the puppy lot.
But things have settled down.
The visibility has improved.
I can actually see around me.
The winds have dropped down, and so,
this is a perfect time to get on the trail and start running
these dogs on their first run.
This is the dog mushing season.
The way I start my training out,
is I usually tie them up to a sled with no weight,
get the muscles moving, get the tendons moving.
Line up, come on.
Line up. Stay.
My goal on this first run is just getting them back in tune
with their commands.
Getting them psychologically prepared to be back on the trail.
Come on.
So, I'm gonna hook up three dogs at a time,
that's about a two-mile run total.
Short trips...
Stay!
Actually help the dogs focus.
Eventually, we do back to back five milers.
Ten milers.
You know, you gotta crawl, walk, and then, run.
And so, this is the crawl phase.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Go get 'em! Hyah! Hyah!
Go get 'em! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah!
Good boys.
These dogs, they love to be out on the trail.
Come on. Good boys.
The genetics of the Malamute, they've been bred by indigenous people
of the Northwest Arctic for hundreds of generations
to be kind, courteous...
Gee over.
Powerful, hearty animals.
Awoo!
I can cover 20 to 30 miles a day with these dogs,
hauling 800 pounds of stuff.
Straight ahead.
For me, being an East Coast Indian,
this is a very natural way of travel.
It's in my blood, it's in my ancestors' blood.
Mushing was the way that things were done.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Whoa!
I'm sorry, guys, your trail. It's blocked up.
MICHAEL: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Halt. Whoa!
Oh, shoot.
The trail, it's blocked up.
We got two trees down.
This is a little bit of a problem.
This is my loop that takes me down to the river,
it gets them their first hill.
Once you start miling them up, you gotta keep 'em going,
keep 'em going, every single day.
A couple of trees down over the trail, it happens.
But unfortunately, it's the beginning of the training season.
I can't be stopped up for this,
so this has gotta be cleared out.
That's a pretty violent snap on that tree.
It's not rotten in the middle, it's a good piece.
I'll buck that one up as firewood,
and clear it off the trail.
This next one here, significantly larger.
It's gotta be about two foot at the base.
I'm making a note.
I need a chainsaw mill, a small firewood saw.
(barking).
These dogs are really anxious, they got a lot of energy.
All right, let's get you turned around.
Go get 'em! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah!
Good boys.
JOHNNY: I'm living in a place where humans don't really live.
It's up to me to figure out how to live out here.
There's not a lot of second chances that I get,
so I kind of gotta figure it out the first time around.
Hey, Java, I thought you were getting the tool bag for me, huh?
Carry your own weight, or do you just wanna sit around and eat all day?
NARRATOR: Having lost valuable meat to a bear who came into his camp,
Johnny must protect his property from anymore damage.
In order to keep himself and his dog safe,
he must secure any openings to his cabin.
JOHNNY: You know, a bear will get into a cabin if it wants to get in.
They're a lot smarter than we make them out to be.
But the goal is to hide this window,
and it doesn't know there's a window here.
And that's, to me, outsmarting the bear.
Go ahead, Java. Get it. There she goes.
She kind of cleans up all of the construction scraps.
I'm not complaining.
These two pieces will go, one here and one here.
I'm gonna cut these shutters to size,
and they'll essentially be fixed to these two vertical pieces.
So then, it's just one solid piece that I just put right up
into this space.
The little projects that I do out here,
they keep me going.
They keep me positive.
They keep me getting out of bed every day.
And if I didn't have little projects to do,
then, you know, it'd be boring out here.
And I'm not looking for a boring life.
This is the last nail for this one.
Nice.
That's a nice, snug fit.
Yeah, I feel a little safer leaving camp for longer durations.
The wildlife out here is abound.
There are critters everywhere.
But, you know, it's like, be careful what you wish for,
because I've always wanted to see a lot of these animals,
but I'm seeing a lot of them.
And, you know, every day, it's like a different animal is
trying to present a challenge for me.
Java. You wanna go eat?
Come on, let's call it a day.
Come on!
ALEX: When it's cold, it's cold.
And it stays cold for a long time.
When it's 40 below or 50 below outside,
you gotta do a lot of work to stay warm.
It's pretty dangerous.
I mean, the falling ice tells you it's way above freezing,
is what it tells you.
Redoing my chimney is essential.
But it's also gonna be inherently risky.
My roof is extremely steep, and it's definitely not safe
for me to just be standing on a ladder,
doing this kind of work, unprotected.
If I start to fall, there's nothing, you know,
there's no, nothing to catch me on.
So I'll fall all the way down.
So, I need a rope to hold the, you know,
going over to hold the ladder from the other side,
so that it can't swing.
And then, also a rope to hold myself,
uh, on the other side.
Let me grab that.
Basically, I'll have a rope going across the roof of the
cabin to a tree on the other side.
The rope will allow me to work safely,
work confidently, without having to worry about falling off.
I'll have a harness that I can clip into it.
That way, there's a nice tight rope holding me.
So this way, if I slip or fall,
I'll just lean on the rope.
In order to set up my kind of rope safety system,
I do have to go up the ladder unprotected,
and throw a rope over.
I got a heavy iron shackle on one end to give it some weight.
I need to kind of wind up a little more,
which makes me nervous.
I'm working on a ladder on the side of an icy roof.
You know, I don't wanna fall.
This might be the most dangerous kind of part,
is just setting up my anchor.
This is one of the situations where it's not enough that
I just try hard.
I have to do it right, because if I get injured out here, uh,
even, you know, a relatively minor injury that
might not be a big deal if I got hurt in the city,
out here, it can be a death sentence.
This (bleep) heavy.
(bleep). (bleep).
It's definitely not safe for me to just be standing on a ladder,
doing this kind of work, unprotected.
Second time.
But, you know, any time I'm working alone,
a lot of my time is spent figuring out all these
different safety systems.
Get the hell off this death trap.
Now I just gotta find a good tree,
something nice and solid to tie my anchor off of.
Something that will hold my weight if I fall.
There's my rope.
And now I can go set up the end of the rope that
I will be connected to.
Of course, which I always wanna do is test it.
So, it should be able to adjust it as I climb up,
and it will hold my weight if I fall.
I'm focused on doing this as safe as I can,
but I got a lot of things kind of fighting against me.
I got this cold snow blowing in my face.
Just have the steepness and the slickness of this metal roof.
Here it comes.
At this point, my body is pretty exhausted, but, you know,
I'm still a long ways from finished with this job.
So, there's no turning back now,
because now, I don't have a stove anymore.
MICHAEL: You can't just stop because something is strenuous.
You gotta keep going.
And so, that's part of life up here.
Get 'em! Get 'em! Go get 'em! Good girl!
Look at you go!
All right.
Right out that way is my five-mile loop.
I gotta get on that.
These dogs have to keep miling up.
It's time for that first winter caribou hunt,
and these dogs are my transportation.
It's very important, they gotta keep running.
And that will prevent injuries on the trails during expedition.
I'm gonna go ahead, fire up my little chainsaw.
Then I'm gonna try to clear out all this old,
rotten willow.
It seems like I am attached by a dummy cord to this darn chainsaw.
What a mess!
I bought it used for next to nothing,
and it has handled year after year after year of cutting.
The winds are picking up.
I actually don't like working around these treetops.
A 60, 70, 80 mile an hour gust will come through,
and just snap these trees like they're toothpicks.
Gonna have to hurry up and clear this out.
Look at that.
My five-mile loop is clear again.
I just bucked up that small tree as firewood.
That big tree, I'm just gonna mill it up real quick with my saw mill.
It's gonna make some nice lumber.
And so, I got this ladder brought out here,
and this is just to act as a guide,
so my first cut will be somewhat straight,
and I can continue to cut this two and a half inches thick
the whole way down.
This thing is an absolute beast.
Lot of work involved, but if you do the work,
you don't have to buy store-bought lumber.
I spent my whole life working, working, working,
and we're just programmed to desire
all these things that we know we can't afford.
That's unsustainable for the human spirit.
So, if I have to do a little physical labor, big deal.
It is liberating, not feeding all these greedy systems.
All right. First cut.
Beautiful piece right there.
I'll make a nice bench out of that.
All that brush seemed like an impenetrable barrier in the moment,
but after doing a little bit of work,
I've got a nice load of firewood,
and I'll have slabs.
It ended up turning into an amazing situation,
where a barrier became an asset.
But right now, the winds are picking up something fierce.
I wanna get this done and get outta here.
KALEB: Living out here, I have to go out in the woods and
harvest the meat, process the meat,
and then, I have to preserve it.
Whatever method is used, I personally have to do.
These tracks are all old, Ellie.
Check out all those tracks over there, okay?
I'm heading out into the mountains to hunt ptarmigan,
and I get to go teach my daughter a little bit about
hunting wild game.
Stand up.
You're doing great, Ellie.
Ptarmigan are a small grouse species.
They usually live up in the high country.
They turn white in the wintertime,
so they're extremely hard to see.
Usually the only reason you see them is by looking for shapes.
You have to learn the shape of a ptarmigan,
and if you can learn that, you can find them.
Look at these ptarmigan tracks!
These are kind of old, though.
ELOVIE: How?
KALEB: See how they look like there's a little bit of snow
in the bottom of them?
It snowed two days ago.
So these ptarmigan were up here when it was snowing.
And they've flown off somewhere else.
We need to go find some more tracks somewhere else.
Where maybe they've been a little bit sooner.
All right, let's go.
Wow, Ellie.
ELOVIE: Dad, what are you doing?
KALEB: Need to get my binoculars out.
ELOVIE: Can I help you also?
KALEB: Look at that! ELOVIE: Whoa.
ELOVIE: Yeah. KALEB: Through the binoculars?
ELOVIE: Yup.
KALEB: Yup.
KALEB: Elovie just loved seeing the moose today.
They're just wintering up there.
They're way up in the high country.
And they'll stay up there until the snow starts to get deep,
and it pushes them down the mountain.
Ellie, it's pretty cool seeing stuff move around up here.
We've seen old ptarmigan tracks.
But so far, we're not really seeing any,
anything fresh for ptarmigan, so.
KALEB: Yeah, we can't do that right now.
ELOVIE: When?
KALEB: I know, it's pretty exciting seeing the moose, though, isn't it?
KALEB: We can shoot the moose in September.
KALEB: Oh, it's not sad.
There's a reason for hunting seasons.
If you just went and killed all the animals because you
could hunt year-round then there'd be nothing left,
and we wouldn't be able to use that resource in the future.
Today was a good opportunity to teach my daughter a little bit
about conservation, and we have to be responsible stewards.
And always remember that if we want this to be here tomorrow,
we need to be very careful about our actions today.
Check out the moose scat.
ELOVIE: That is poop.
KALEB: It's been here a couple days.
You think it's the same moose we just saw?
ELOVIE: Uh-huh.
KALEB: Yeah, I bet so, too.
It looks like he's been living on the hillside here for a few days.
ELOVIE: Maybe.
KALEB: I saw all sorts of beds on the road.
I think he's just hangin' out up here,
enjoying the view.
What do you think?
ELOVIE: Yeah. KALEB: It's pretty gorgeous.
ELOVIE: Uh-huh. KALEB: Well.
So, it might be time to head down the mountain and get our alder firewood.
Ready to go do that?
ELOVIE: Yeah.
KALEB: All right. Let's go.
We might not have been successful with our little ptarmigan hunt,
which really depends on your definition of success.
I would consider it success because I had a
great afternoon with my daughter in the mountains.
Just sit there and watch while I get some alders,
and you will cool off.
'Kay?
Fortunately, we plan ahead, and we have meat in the
freezer from our last hunting season,
that we can call upon to put in the smoker,
instead of what we attempted to harvest today.
All right, Ellie, think that's enough to smoke some meat?
ELOVIE: Let's, let's boogie!
KALEB: Let's boogie!
Apparently, you're ready to go.
ELOVIE: Let's go! KALEB: Let's go.
MICHAEL: This is a hard environment.
The darkness, the cold.
I don't try to play tough guy in Alaska.
All right.
The winds have died down. The sun's peeking out.
It's nice and cold.
It's a good time to move some heavy stuff.
This was originally a big tangled mess over my five-mile loop.
But in the end, after all that hard work,
I'm gonna come out of here with a bunch of lumber,
and some firewood.
And so now, I'm gonna take my time and haul one piece at a time.
(barking).
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
These dogs don't give me much time to do anything, really.
They're just knuckleheads this time of the year.
Hey! Line up! Come on! Line up!
Super hardheaded breed.
Hard workers and hardheaded as well.
You stay lined up.
You ready? Go get 'em! Go!
Whoa! Whoa, whoa! Slow down.
This is actually the first time that I've hauled a
16-foot slab with this sled, and it works perfectly.
If I get about three more dogs,
I could probably just load the entire sled up.
But for right now, we need these dogs to get in shape
before I really start puttin' the miles and weight on 'em.
But this is just early season training,
and they're already getting work done.
Whoa!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
Whoa!
Good dogs.
I wouldn't have been able to move that by myself without
straining my back.
And so, what you're seeing here is a traditional way to
move stuff around.
Goods and supplies, freight, lumber, firewood.
You name it.
All you gotta do is just fire up a few malamutes.
All right. Time to go with another team.
Straight ahead! Straight ahead!
The training regimen in the winter time,
it starts the second that snow hits the ground.
Haw! Haw! Good boys.
This is the best time of the year in Alaska.
It's cold, it's brutal, and these dogs motivate you to
get out here, get the blood pumpin'.
They really do help me cope with the dark and the cold.
I can't sit around idle.
They have to work. It's their season.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
(barking).
All right.
Look at those slabs of wood.
This color right here, it's such a comforting color.
It's this warm, setting of the sun color,
mixed in with wispy clouds.
And so, with that setting sun, I gotta keep movin',
keep runnin', keep puttin' them miles on them dogs.
I got two in one shot, bunch of wood and some miles on my dogs.
I'm gonna get one more run in.
JOHNNY: Complacency is what's gonna kill you.
So out here, I like to stay moving.
I don't like to stop, you know.
There's so much to do.
Just surviving alone will take up most of your time.
What you smell, Java? Huh?
Oh, yeah. These are all broken branches.
This one's living too, so.
There's, yeah, you can see the bear's hair right here.
Yeah.
What he does is he just comes over here,
and he puts his back against the tree,
and just kind of marks his territory,
and any branches that are in the way just break or fall on the ground.
It's a good day to be doing a, a little bit of bear defense
on the cabin, that's for sure.
Come here, Java. Hey! Come here.
My goal today is to make a latch for the door for the cabin.
The purpose of the latch is to keep Java in the cabin
when it's necessary.
I rarely leave her in there without myself being in there.
But there are times usually when there are bears or wolves
roaming that, uh, it's, it's kind of important to keep her
in there for her own safety.
So I got to find a, a little spruce tree to cut down.
And that's gonna be, uh, what goes through the door.
And, um, I'll have a handle on each end of that.
Let's see, let's see.
God, that's such a, that's a big (bleep) grizzly bear!
Look at that.
♪ ♪
JOHNNY: God, that's such a, that's a big (bleep) grizzly bear!
Look at that.
You could see where its nails, that's a big,
that's a big paw.
And that's the right, right foot,
and that's the left foot there.
And he's moving, he's moving toward my camp.
Makes you think.
You know, I've been, I've been waitin' so long for it to
start snowing so I could see all of the tracks and know
what's hanging around my camp.
It's a little bit more than I thought it was,
to be honest, so, um, yeah, time to get to this latch
before, before that sun goes down.
Just gotta find about a one, one-and-a-half-inch diameter,
uh, little spruce tree.
It'll act as the, the piece that goes in the door.
This one here might work.
I really enjoy working with my hands.
To, to have a thought, and to put it down on paper,
and then, take it from paper, and to apply it,
and actually build it, is very, very satisfying.
So the plan for the latch is to take,
uh, two pieces, put 'em up.
Spruce, I'm gonna have to whittle down.
Probably about 50%.
And that's gonna slide in and out of that little box that I make.
And I'll have a hole in the side of this doorjamb that
this will go into.
Little handle, and it'll slide in and out.
You know, I think people tend to go toward other humans when
they wanna feel like they belong.
But I don't need people out here to feel like I belong to something.
I feel like I belong to this, uh,
this ecosystem, this environment,
and all the animals.
Nature.
You know, having the bear that comes around here at night,
I'm a part of that bear's life now,
and it's kind of become a part of me.
We have this weird relationship.
You know, whose, whose turf is it at what time?
It's like a, a weird respect.
But also, you can't let your guard down either because
that bear will capitalize on, you know,
taking my food.
Possibly even turning me into a meal or definitely Java.
Let's give it the test.
Java, come here!
Java, come on! Java, come on!
You hear her scratching.
Looks like the, looks like the latch is doing its job.
I hold myself accountable out here.
It's up to me to get things done.
Yeah, I'm pretty happy with it.
Works pretty good.
You have to know how to apply yourself.
You gotta be confident, but you can't be arrogant or cocky either.
And kind of have the wisdom to know the difference,
or you won't make it.
What do you say, Java?
You wanna go walk out on the lake or something?
Come on!
Let's go walk out on the ice.
Hmm? Come on!
ALEX: A challenge comes, I just face it.
I just do my best.
You know, I'm still here. I'm still alive.
Nobody can say I'm a failure until I'm dead.
It's a really good thing I, uh,
took my chimney down now because all this creosote
inside, if that gets hot enough,
it'll set on fire.
I can see that there is, uh, a bit of heat damage in here.
So that's, uh, a major warning sign.
If it kept going on like that, there would definitely have
been a fire at some point.
So, it's a good thing I'm replacing this.
You little son of a bitch.
All this work I have to do, everything's kind of
conspiring against me to, to make this job more dangerous
than it has to be.
You know, trying to lift and haul heavy awkward things
on a steep roof.
I'm using sharp power tools.
And I'm also working in the dark.
Okay. There you go.
I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The final step is to get this eight-foot length stove pipe.
Lift this heavy thing up, and then,
carefully guide it into the flashing,
so that it rests on the stovepipe underneath.
Come on.
It wants to tip either way.
How do I prevent it from doing that?
Uh, once I get, I can get it to here, that's fine.
It starts to want sliding, to slide either way.
I just don't want it to do that,
because I don't, I, it's too heavy,
I won't be able to just easily get the control of it.
It's just I don't have any control over the upper end,
even, even up like this.
If I drop this thing, if it falls,
it may be ruined.
Adjust my body, see if I can find the right spot.
I'm not sure if it's on it.
That's got so much (bleep) sway to it.
And it doesn't hold itself.
(bleep).
And I can't get it off.
(groaning).
I can't get it off.
But now the issue is, well, the stovepipe's stuck.
It's stuck in the flashing.
I can't leave it here because if I do,
it's gonna fall over.
It's gonna bend all the metal,
it's gonna tear my whole chimney up.
It's pretty heavy.
Uh, it's also slick.
Maintaining my balance for myself and of this pipe is
really difficult.
I'm extremely angry.
Just, uh, you know, a lot of, it's a lot of stress
compounding, so, uh, I'm just gonna,
I'm just gonna let some of it out.
I don't care if I'll die.
If I fall, I fall. That's it.
(groaning).
You (bleep) big heavy (bleep).
(bleep).
You (bleep) big heavy (bleep).
When I hit a road block, I get angry.
I get mad.
Uh, and I just let it all out right on the spot.
It helps me kind of get through it quicker.
(bleep).
Once I kind of get that bad energy out,
then it helps me have a level head,
so I can think.
Okay, yeah, I'm stuck.
What do I need to do?
I think I can go inside, and I can actually feed the chimney
from below, up, up.
Rather than trying to do it this way because this thing's
just too heavy.
I got no way to handle it.
I can't get it to sit on there correctly.
So it's, um, I just can't do it like this.
Time for Plan B.
It's never (bleep) over 'til it's over.
Okay. All right.
Okay, now get the box off.
Oh, yeah.
Uh, I don't know what the temperature is right now,
just my, uh, anger and frustration that's keeping me warm.
I was just trying to work fast.
It's getting a lot colder.
That's just gonna make all this work that much more difficult.
Yeah, and on top of that, is I don't want my water to freeze,
I don't want my food to freeze.
So I need to get this done fast and efficient.
But this is also my chimney.
And this time, I wanna make it safe and make one that will
last for a lifetime.
All right.
Um, now I can make a fire.
So, that's done.
Well, that was a really long day.
It's over now, now, now, now I got my stove.
MICHAEL: When I look at these dogs,
they help me get through the winter of Alaska.
They reinvigorate my spirit.
I find running and working with these animals just as
therapeutic as it is for the animals running the miles.
Come here, Mow-Mow.
Right here, we got a little bit of strong brew.
So every day, there is moose stew sittin' on the dutch oven.
I dump that juice into the dogs' water.
So I bait their water.
Trying to get dogs to hydrate, you gotta trick 'em sometimes.
Oh, you want some boost juice?
Oh, you've been working hard, buddy.
For working animals that endure the cold,
it's a lot of upkeep.
You know, I'm the coach, I'm the mentor,
I'm the leader.
I'm everything to these dogs, and they've known me since
their eyes first opened.
You give one of these malamutes a job,
it perks 'em up.
It's what they thrive and live for.
They wanna work hard. They're really smart.
And so, it is an honor to work with this indigenous breed for
which the people of the northwest Arctic of Alaska
sculpted for hundreds of generations.
Everybody like that strong brew?
You better drink it up because we're gonna keep runnin'.
Can I get an, "Oh, howl, yeah"?
Awoo!
(howling).
BRITTANY: To raise a family here in rural Alaska,
it takes a lot of planning, it takes a lot of willingness,
and you can't half-heart do anything out here.
KALEB: This thing is working great.
BRITTANY: Your little smokehouse?
Moment of truth.
GILBERT: Yummy.
BRITTANY: Kaleb and I have never been what someone might
call traditional, including the way we have outdoor meals.
We use an ATV for our dining room table.
It's a lot of fun in the non-traditional way.
KALEB: Who wants the other wing?
ELOVIE: Me! GILBERT: I do.
BRITTANY: I think there's nothing better than being by a
bonfire, and having the stars overhead,
and being with my family.
KALEB: Did you work up an appetite, Ellie,
going out on the ptarmigan hunt?
ELOVIE: I did.
KALEB: We might not have gotten a ptarmigan,
but this is a good alternative.
Getting to spend the evening with my family around the
fire is awesome.
And I think that the smoker is a huge success,
and I'm looking forward to smoking many,
many other meats in the future.
BRITTANY: Isn't this skin so good?
GILBERT: Uh-hmm.
KALEB: Oh, man, it worked great.
BRITTANY: I'd say that sometimes the simplest things are the best.
KALEB: Uh-hmm.
BRITTANY: Are we gonna eat this whole chicken?
KALEB: Probably. ELOVIE: Probably.
ALEX: Ooh, look at that.
Yeah, that sap in there, that'll burn nice and hot.
Puttin' my stove back together,
making a fire and warming up, is a moment to savor.
There we go.
Now we're home free.
For me, my woodstove is like my, my shrine.
When it's cold outside, I go before my woodstove,
and that's where I, I have my prayers, right?
Maybe humans have just been like kind of living with fire
for so many millions of years, that it's just kind of in our
DNA to, uh, to kind of revere it or something.
So that's one of the reasons I came out here.
I wanted to just live by instincts, you know?
I like kind of rejecting society,
and, and just going back to kind of being an animal.
You know, maybe at some point in the future,
I'll return to society.
I don't really see that happening,
but at least now I know kind of a little bit of the
other way to live.
JOHNNY: You want some of the tea?
The only thing I answer out here,
Mother Nature and Java.
One of the toughest things at being isolated is battling the
"What ifs" in my mind.
I'm facing negative temperatures.
I'm facing animals that, you know,
wanna maybe take me or my dog out.
And suddenly, you see a bear out your window.
That'll stir you up real good.
I have no idea what's gonna happen every day.
It's very unpredictable.
I wouldn't change it for the world.
Captioned by Cotter Media Group.