(motor running)
JOHNNY: But right at the mouth of this channel is
very swift current because the water's extremely shallow,
and you come in at low tide to navigate that channel.
And you can see, it's just, it's just ripping right there.
Nature ultimately dictates when I have to come out here
and go fishing.
Today I'm gonna go dip-netting for salmon.
It doesn't matter what I got going on in my life,
as soon as I know the salmon are running,
you drop everything, get out there,
and get your season's worth of salmon.
The waves hit the sandbar,
and it's very easy to get your boat full of water.
You know, people, people died doing this.
They were in a small boat like, just like mine.
You can see these waves right here,
and you want to kind of get in through them without--
Oh, man.
♪ ♪
I just took on a (bleep) ton of water.
(laughs)
Adventures, man, that's what it's all about.
♪ ♪
It's simple to just look at nature, listen to nature,
read the signs.
It's good to see them all congregated
in large pods, large groups.
They wouldn't be doing that if there wasn't food source.
So now it's my time to come out here
and take advantage of that bounty.
It's red salmon, and that's what I'm after.
♪ ♪
I got to get closer over there. You can see the darker water.
I can feel the prop getting close to the ground,
and I don't want to damage my prop.
♪ ♪
I'm starting to get real shallow.
About two and a half feet deep.
♪ ♪
Oh, (bleep).
I'm about to hit that bottom.
♪ ♪
There we go. That keeps the prop a little higher,
a little bit more out of the water.
♪ ♪
CHEVIE: You just can't have a department store
drop off lumber at your front porch.
I had to cut the trees.
I had to get the trees back to Shageluk.
It's a lot of hard work and planning to get it done.
♪ ♪
I'm at my remote cabin.
I'm here just getting ready for some fall projects.
And that birch tree over there is a prime location
for a multiuse tree stand.
We're gonna use it for a tree fort/tree stand,
just a place to be able to get up high,
look out on the country,
and see what's out there when we're hunting.
So I better get after it, 'cause moose season's coming,
and shortly after that, the snow's gonna start flying.
All right. All the building material's at the cabin.
I feel good about that.
Number-one thing to do is to start cutting some of this,
all this grass down so I have good visibility
and a safe working space.
(starts weed trimmer)
We're gonna get this project done and get it done right.
I want to get this project done lickety-split
and be able to use it for this hunting season.
I'm gonna be sitting up there
with my kids looking for big bull moose,
and they're gonna be asking me
10,000 questions like another day
except for we're gonna be ten feet off the ground.
(weed trimmer stops)
All right. Got some weed whacking done.
And that tree stand's right here behind us.
It's gonna be up off the ground.
All out here, I'm looking for moose and just anything.
This is what I'm looking to see more of. Cool.
Time to get some work done.
♪ ♪
KALEB: Out here, we have the freedom whenever we want
to go out and learn a life lesson, to just go do it.
There's no hindrances that get in the way
of learning how to survive in the middle of the wilderness.
♪ ♪
This rain is gonna make everything challenging.
Right now, I've got four cords of wood
just piled up in my yard, and it's raining right now.
The wood is soaking wet.
I couldn't light a fire with my firewood
if I wanted to right now,
so I need a way to protect it and keep it dry.
I harvested this tree last winter.
And now, I need to get it sized up, cut up,
all the important stuff.
And, uh, next thing you know, it'll be standing up
and we'll be keeping the rain off my firewood.
BRITTANY: Hey. KALEB: Hi.
BRITTANY: You got some marks going on.
KALEB: Yeah. I'm getting the first one ready
for some chainsawing.
BRITTANY: I think we're really gonna appreciate
this woodshed come winter and we have actually dry wood.
KALEB: Oh, yeah. I am so looking forward to that.
Dry wood. No ice stuck to it.
No pools of water on our floor from the ice.
BRITTANY: No kidding.
KALEB: Thawing out.
It'll be very nice.
(chainsaw buzzing)
BRITTANY: When it's fall time around here,
our priorities have to change.
We need to focus on what is going to happen this winter.
Every winter it's very cold,
which means we need to make sure we have plenty of wood
and we need a really great place to keep it dry.
We can't wait for the sun to shine.
We need to get this done now.
♪ ♪
It's like sharpening a really big pencil.
KALEB: A very, very big pencil.
For Paul Bunyan.
BRITTANY: Mm-hmm.
KALEB: Let's drag this, drag this over into place.
This'll be the first rear post.
BRITTANY: Okay.
KALEB: So we're gonna get all the posts into place,
and then we'll stand 'em all up at once.
BRITTANY: So, which one?
KALEB: We'll go to the back corner there
and work our way forwards.
♪ ♪
Oh, doggo.
We'll just lay it there, and we'll build the next one.
Huh, that worked out good.
BRITTANY: Cool.
KALEB: Looks nice. Let's get the next one out.
Time is not something that I can get back.
If I don't use these resources, these logs,
I let them rot into the ground,
that's several days of my life that I'll never get back.
I'm not gonna let a resource go to waste.
BRITTANY: Woo-hoo! Last pencil down!
KALEB: I think that's my best cut yet.
BRITTANY: Let's move this over.
KALEB: Yep. Let's get this over there
and call it quits for a little bit.
I'm tuckered.
BRITTANY: Let's move it over and move on to the next phase.
KALEB: Yeah. Next, we have to stand these things up
and brace 'em off.
BRITTANY: Okay.
KALEB: All right, last piece.
BRITTANY: Man, that was fun.
KALEB: A lot of work.
(laughs)
♪ ♪
JESSI: A lot of people measure success totally different.
For a lot of people, it might be a big house
or a big family or a big bank account.
But for me, it's the knowledge
that I'm learning from this land.
All right, you ready?
CHRIS: Yeah, I'm ready.
JESSI: And we're off.
CHRIS: Let's go fishing. JESSI: Let's go fishing.
CHRIS: We're headed to where it's rippling.
That should be where the water's mixing.
This water's a little murky for fishing with a rod and reel.
So once we get into that less murky water,
we should be able to fish.
This is gonna be great.
JESSI: All winter, we didn't have fish.
We didn't have anything.
And so we need to start thinking about next season.
If we can get a huge stockpile of fish this summer,
that makes winter so much easier.
♪ ♪
All right, we are on the sandbar.
CHRIS: Perfect. That's exactly where we want to be.
So check this out. Right where it's mixing,
we're gonna cast right out this way and reel in,
and we've got the fish that are coming up from the Tanana,
and they're eating right in this little spot here.
We don't want to cast into the murky
'cause they wouldn't be able to see our lure.
JESSI: All right.
Here's the spot.
CHRIS: All right. Here is a frog,
if you want to try fishing with this frog for now.
Or actually, I think it's a mouse.
JESSI: This is gonna work just fine.
The day fishing season ends,
I'm looking forward to the next fishing season.
I don't care if it rains, if it pours, it's thunder,
it's wind, it's lightning, hurricane, I don't care.
I am here for the fish.
(thunder)
(rain falling)
JESSI: That's weird.
CHRIS: There's trees down there. I'm catching leaves.
JESSI: Ooh.
Oh, my God. Put your stuff down.
There's a black bear right there.
He's coming towards us.
JESSI: He just came down at the trees,
and he's slowly making his way towards us.
CHRIS: Tozitna, you stay in this boat.
JESSI: Do you want me to get her leash?
CHRIS: Yeah, may as well. JESSI: Yeah? Okay.
CHRIS: I don't think there's gonna be a problem,
but I don't want, if that bear runs across here,
I don't want there to be.
JESSI: Can you put that on her?
(whining)
♪ ♪
Is that making noises?
(whining)
No, that's our dog.
CHRIS: Hey!
(dog whining)
Hey! Go on!
JESSI: There he goes disappearing into the trees.
(dog whining)
CHRIS: I'm gonna get back to fishing.
JESSI: You're okay, Toze.
You're with me. It's gonna be okay.
You're very good.
(whine)
I know.
The Cosna knows how to liven up a dreary day of fishing.
This place is rife with bears.
If we've seen this bear and he came this close,
then there's some more that we haven't seen.
We need to be alert.
♪ ♪
CHRIS: Oh, I got snagged up again.
We got to get out of this area.
JESSI: Yeah, just start, stop going that way.
CHRIS: Oh. No, that's a fish.
JESSI: A fish?
CHRIS: A big fish.
JESSI: Ah! Yes!
Ah! Oh, my gosh!
CHRIS: Take me to shore.
JESSI: I'm going!
CHRIS: I'm trying not to lose it.
JESSI: Okay, I'm trying!
CHRIS: It's going under the boat. It's going under the boat.
JESSI: What do you want me to do?
We're coming in.
CHRIS: Oh, it's pulling on me hard.
I'm gonna just bring him up. Take the dog.
Let me come up onto shore. Ooh, he's fighting me.
He's too big to bring into the canoe.
JESSI: Okay.
CHRIS: I need you to grab the fish.
JESSI: Okay.
CHRIS: Look at this sheefish, man.
JESSI: Is that what this is?
CHRIS: Yeah.
JESSI: Can I put my hand here?
CHRIS: Bring it up by the gill. This is great.
Don't let the dog get in there.
JESSI: Tozie.
CHRIS: Awesome fish, Jess!
Look at that!
JESSI: Yeah! CHRIS: Ha ha ha ha!
That's a beautiful fish.
♪ ♪
KALEB: Out here, the willingness to roll with the punches
is of the utmost importance.
It's no reason to change my plans.
It's just I got to deal with what's thrown at me
the best way I know how and continue to get my job done.
BRITTANY: Okay. What's the next phase?
KALEB: Oh, it's time to get these logs stood up.
BRITTANY: Fantastic.
KALEB: Start here and work our way back.
Oh, yeah.
♪ ♪
Look at that. First corner post is up.
BRITTANY: Woo-hoo.
KALEB: Get it kind of centered in the, those marks there.
I'm liking how this looks.
All right, now don't let it fall over.
I'm gonna grab a brace.
BRITTANY: All right.
Man, the rain's picked up.
KALEB: Let's see if this is long enough.
Ooh, we'll just go to the bottom of that tree to this tree.
Perfect.
BRITTANY: Don't shoot me, please.
(whir)
♪ ♪
(whir)
Can I let go now?
KALEB: Yeah, now you can let go.
BRITTANY: Look at that. One more.
So, what's the next?
KALEB: Oh, we'll just keep standing 'em up.
BRITTANY: Okay.
KALEB: These logs that I've collected will become
the corner posts for the building.
There's six of them.
And these logs will support a purlin,
which is a horizontal member
that supports the weight of the roof.
It will be a team effort
to get these logs vertical and in place.
Oof!
Hey.
♪ ♪
All right, look out.
BRITTANY: Last one. Woo-hoo!
KALEB: Once these posts are vertical,
they need to be braced off.
If I don't brace them off, they'll fall over,
squish somebody, cause a broken leg,
or some other form of extreme pain.
Okay, shoot it off down there.
Whoa, careful.
BRITTANY: Yep. Yep.
KALEB: Don't be doing that.
BRITTANY: I realized that afterwards.
KALEB: That would have been bad.
Braces keep things from falling over.
Yeah, that's pretty good.
♪ ♪
Once I have the posts stood and I get 'em braced off,
they're solid.
For my purlins, I have random pieces of 2x8
scattered around my property that I gather up
and cut 'em to length and nail 'em to the top of the posts.
Man, this is gonna be a good woodshed!
No!
Out of batteries.
♪ ♪
Like, you'd think by now,
us dumb carpenters would know better and we'd check our nails
before we went up to a spot like this.
♪ ♪
Ooh!
KALEB: Ooh!
(thump)
That's a situation where you just let go of it.
No sense going with it.
(nail gun fires)
I got my purlins done, posts standed up,
now my roof rafters are cut and it's time to get them all in.
I lost my help, so I'm gonna have to struggle
with these by myself.
These rafters tie the two halves of the building together
and provide a structure to put my roof on.
Without the structure, there's no roof,
and with no roof, there's no way to keep my firewood dry,
so this is a very important step in building this woodshed.
All right, these rafters are on.
BRITTANY: Wow, you got busy.
KALEB: Yeah. You abandoned me.
BRITTANY: I had to take care of your children.
KALEB: Oh.
BRITTANY: Well, check that out.
KALEB: Yeah, I think our structure's done.
BRITTANY: This is amazing.
KALEB: Next thing we need to do is put sheeting on
and roof this sucker.
BRITTANY: Cool.
KALEB: Hopefully it's not raining when we do that, though,
'cause slippery roofing equals falling carpenters.
BRITTANY: Let's not be falling carpenters.
KALEB: And I'd prefer not to be a falling carpenter.
♪ ♪
JOHNNY: Having subsistence opportunity
is really important for me.
You can buy your food,
or you can go out and you can find your food,
and I prefer to come out here and find my own food.
(grunting)
Ooh, man, Java, you got better four-wheel drive than me.
As an Alaskan resident,
we're allowed to subsistence-fish for salmon,
but each location has a method of take.
And at this location, the best way to do it is with a dip net.
This is a little fall right here, and there's a pool.
And the fish will gather in this pool,
reserve their energy to come up either side of this fall.
So while they're kind of resting,
that's where I scoop and catch a bunch of fish.
♪ ♪
Sockeye salmon are the fish that I'll be catching in this creek.
They grill nicely, they cook nicely.
Most importantly, they dry really well,
which is probably what I'll be doing with these fish.
There we go.
That's two.
Oh, I got a twofer.
Look at that. This is what I'm after.
Look how tired they are.
Sockeye salmon, also known as reds.
We call them reds up here. And when you catch them,
the first thing you got to do is clip their tail.
You got to cut the end of the tail off.
And that way, if Fish and Game comes, they'll see that
and they'll know that I'm a subsistence resident fisher
of this subsistence fishing run.
My little stinky fish bag.
It's only used for this purpose.
All right, so that's the first fish done.
Gonna take care of the second fish
because I want to get back into that pool,
'cause apparently the salmon are running.
Into the basket he goes.
There we go, that's two fish.
We got a ways to go.
Most locations in Alaska have salmon.
My Arctic location does not have salmon,
so when I'm at my summer location,
the goal is to catch as many as I can
in a short window of time.
There we go. Getting some weight in there.
Getting all these salmon is a win-win
'cause it's gonna supply me with a lot of food
and it's gonna supply me with trapping bait
for my camp up North.
I don't know, man, it kind of slowed down right here.
I think I'm gonna hike up a little bit.
There's a good spot further up.
Now, if I keep poking around with my net
in the same location,
the fish are gonna catch on to me,
so it's important to kind of move on, find new locations,
uh, so you don't just burn out one spot.
♪ ♪
CHEVIE: I think the most challenging part
about doing this build is just the logistics.
It's just the thought process of being a few steps ahead
so you know you can have a productive day.
All right, you guys, grab a bucket on your way out.
All right. Well, it's not raining too bad,
that's kind of, that's pretty good.
SYDNEY: Yeah, it's good time.
CHEVIE: So my kids are gonna come out here,
they're gonna help with all the processes.
They're still pretty little, so they're gonna be hands-off
with, with a lot of the heavy lifting.
I told them they could paint
the exterior walls of the tree stand,
so they're looking forward to doing that.
All right, let's get this party started.
RYDER: Yeah!
CHEVIE: So I want you guys to choose a color, paint with it.
RYDER: Whoa, yellow!
CHEVIE: Whoa, jeez. Look at that.
RYDER: Yellow! SYDNEY: Oh, yeah.
CHEVIE: So don't, try not to get this
all over your hands and your clothes.
SYDNEY: Okay.
RYDER: Okay.
CHEVIE: We'll see how--
(laughing)
If that's your favorite sweatshirt,
kiss it goodbye, okay?
(laughing)
Make sure you paint, whatever color,
you got to paint the whole board one color first.
Remember like I've been telling you?
RYDER: Yeah, I know. SYDNEY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
CHEVIE: It doesn't have to be perfect.
This is just for fun, right?
SYDNEY: Yeah.
CHEVIE: This is the way that I like to teach.
Hand them the tools, give them some direction,
and then back off.
How's that working, Sydney?
SYDNEY: Cool.
CHEVIE: Cool.
All right. Well, looks like you guys got it under control.
They're all laughing and having fun.
As long as I can teach a few things, it makes me smile.
I get a kick out of it.
Ryder, I need you to help me with the post-hole digger.
♪ ♪
CHRIS: We're at the mouth of the Cosna.
I'm really excited to do some fishing.
This is where I fished with my dad as a kid.
This is my favorite fishing spot in all the world.
I love this place.
JESSI: All right, let's head
down the bend a little bit,
try to find some deeper water.
CHRIS: Yeah.
JESSI: It's real shallow right here on this whole bank.
CHRIS: I'd love to catch a pike.
This is looking better right in here.
I think I'll stand right on the end of this.
JESSI: Might be a good spot.
CHRIS: Yeah. Let's just try this out for a few minutes.
Wow, it's deep right here.
(Jessi chuckles)
I hope I don't catch a big fish,
it'll pull me right off.
JESSI: I hope I get a big fish.
Woo! There's a nice, big wolfy print right there.
Wow! Fresh wolf print.
Oh, they must have been tracking a bear or something.
Wow! These bear and wolf prints are extremely fresh.
This is a really bountiful place that we're in,
the mouth of the Cosna.
You can see wolf tracks,
you can see beaver, muskrat, bear.
But, I mean, that's like a good-sized wolf print.
One going that way and one going back?
I mean, all of the animals of the Cosna
have all kind of congregated right here at the mouth,
so we just need to be alert.
Oh.
CHRIS: Was that a fish jumping?
JESSI: It had to be because it was up to my left.
CHRIS: Well, maybe we need to move up to where the weeds are
a little bit more.
It's kind of deep here.
JESSI: I think I'm in a good spot.
If you come down here, bring, bring all the mosquito (bleep)
And head nets and stuff. I'm dying.
CHRIS: Well, then I'm gonna stay right here.
You enjoy those mosquitos.
JESSI: Ah, sh-nap.
Alaskan mosquitos are a whole 'nother breed.
They swarm you, it's like a mist,
and they just come at you, and it's just incessant.
They never stop.
You try to take a deep breath and they just fill your lungs,
they attack your throat,
they're trying to get into your ears,
they're poking into your eyes.
These guys are beasts.
Okay, got to get my stuff.
Hoo ah, hoo ah, hoo ah! Ah!
♪ ♪
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!
Love, love!
CHRIS: Get it, baby!
JESSI: I think I lost it!
I think I lost it!
CHRIS: Did you lose it?
JESSI: I think I lost it!
Damn!
(sigh)
They're out there.
I'm casting and I'm snagging,
and I'm casting and I'm snagging,
and every time I go through the weeds,
I just, my heart leaps.
It's a rush.
Every time that you get a nibble,
you know something's down there,
you just don't know what you're gonna pull out.
♪ ♪
Oh! Ugh, I had a bite.
Ugh, is that a fish, or is that a snag?
What is that?
That's a fish. That's a fish!
Chris! Chris! I think.
CHRIS: You got a fish?
JESSI: I think so! Maybe! Maybe!
CHRIS: I'm coming, love.
JESSI: It's a fish! It's a fish!
CHRIS: Oh, it's a huge fish, Jess!
I'm coming, Jess!
JESSI: Come here! It's a fish!
I think, is it a sheefish? What is that?
CHRIS: Easy, easy, easy.
JESSI: Okay.
CHRIS: It's huge!
JESSI: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
CHRIS: Pull him in. Right there, love.
There it is.
JESSI: Oh, Chris, don't lose it, don't lose it, don't lose it.
Please, don't lose it.
CHRIS: I'm trying to--don't!
I got it.
JESSI: Way to go.
This came undone.
CHRIS: It broke.
That's why I just grabbed him and threw him.
JESSI: You're so good!
CHRIS: Look at that fish you just got!
JESSI: Yeah!
(laughing)
CHRIS: Give it a whack, really hard.
(thud)
Good job.
JESSI: Oh, my gosh, fish.
Yeah, Chris!
Chris and I are a fantastic team.
One of these fish is gonna feed Chris and I for almost a week.
Thing is, is I want to get more fish.
I think it's time to put in the fyke net.
Cool.
Take this...
and one, two, three.
See how it's nice?
You can't see the fyke net at all.
It's completely submerged.
It's perfectly positioned for all the fish
to come funneling in.
And that's all you need.
Great.
♪ ♪
JOHNNY: Subsistence is a big part of my life.
It's just part of feeling free, living free,
to go out into the wild and to catch wild food.
(water rushing)
This right here is the honey hole.
♪ ♪
It's my favorite place to come.
You just catch netfuls of fish.
They hang out in the pool
and reserve their energy to try to make it up.
That's a tough waterfall to make it up.
Good luck to ya.
Let's get fishing, Java.
I would say over 90 percent of my diet is meat,
and it's all meat that I hunt.
And to have a different source of protein, being fish,
gets me super excited.
♪ ♪
Get it.
♪ ♪
So, I got these two fish here.
The other ones I had in the net were a lot smaller,
and if I'm gonna keep fish,
I don't want to keep the small ones.
That's another one for the bag.
Sockeye salmon are smaller salmon,
but you get a lot of them, and, uh, the meat's phenomenal.
All right, get one more fish,
and I think I'm gonna call it a day.
Woo!
It's incredible how powerful and how capable
these salmon are swimming upstream.
They got to go through a lot of different waterfalls.
They're swimming over all these big rocks and boulders.
I'm having a hard time just walking over them.
Gonna get that last fish.
♪ ♪
Oh, yeah! It looks like a good one in there,
a good couple.
Oh, yeah. There's a one, one of 'em's really nice.
That's a big one.
That might be the biggest one I've gotten so far.
♪ ♪
Let that one go,
and this is my final fish right here.
It's a pretty good sized one.
Yeah, that's a nice fish, it's a good sockeye.
Really good fish.
No, you don't.
Keeping you over the net, you like to fight.
I'm not losing you.
♪ ♪
That's it right there, man. That's a wrap.
♪ ♪
KALEB: With fall time comes a checklist of chores
that need to be done.
Winter's around the corner.
It's gonna be cold and dark here pretty soon,
and my biggest challenge right now is my heat source.
♪ ♪
This is looking good.
I've got my structure all in place, my roof is squared up,
and, uh, the rain quit on me,
so I've got this golden opportunity
to get this roof sheeted and roofed,
and then this'll be a dry space.
No more water can get underneath,
and I'll be able to stack all my firewood underneath here.
So, I'm gonna keep my wits about me, keep nailing these sheets,
and get as much work as I can done
before it starts raining again.
My ultimate goal with this woodshed
is to get it done quick.
My firewood's wet, and I've got to get it under cover
and get it dry before winter hits
and all of this moisture that's coming out of the sky
freezes into these logs and creates all sorts of issues
with heating my house.
♪ ♪
Cool.
I seem to have sheeted myself into a dilemma,
and I can't get to my ladder now.
I hope I don't die.
♪ ♪
Aah!
KALEB: That's how it's done.
♪ ♪
Well, that didn't go so bad, but it just goes to show,
I should be thinking more about safety than production.
Once I get this finished,
I know that coming into the next winter,
I will have a good woodshed.
I'll have dry wood to heat my house with,
not this wet crap that I have to deal with now.
It's important to have a warm house.
(pop pop pop pop)
ELOVIE: This is so amazing, Dad!
KALEB: Thank you.
Do you approve, Miss Inspector Lady?
Should we get the last shingles on?
ELOVIE: Uh-huh.
KALEB: All right, back to work.
ELOVIE: Mom, it's so awesome up here.
KALEB: Bye, Ellie.
We're just getting this done, just in time.
The rain picked up, kind of lost my little weather clearing.
(nail gun popping)
ELOVIE: Pop-pop-pop.
KALEB: Got the last of these shingles on,
and we will have a dry place to set our firewood.
(nail gun popping)
There we go, we're all nailed off, Ellie.
♪ ♪
JOHNNY: I have a lot of respect for the animals
that I chase down, or I harvest, or I catch.
I have a large understanding of them.
Just because I use them as a food source doesn't mean
that I don't have a connection to them in other ways.
I mean, look at these, these are beautiful.
They're red, really nice meat,
and what the plan is, smoke a bunch of strips
because I want to take a lot of these up to the Arctic with me.
Drying these out, it's not gonna be a bunch of bulk,
it's not gonna be heavy, and it's gonna kind of fuel me
while I hunt in the Arctic.
I'll be munching on these salmon sticks on a riverbank,
around a hilltop, glassing for moose, glassing for caribou.
You know, there's all these different methods
of what people do with their food.
A lot of people smoke stuff for flavor.
I smoke stuff for necessity.
The flavor's just an added bonus.
So, this is kind of the strips right here.
This is what, what I'm after.
Just kind of put it into a quick brine.
Really nice, beautiful, thin strips.
Very vibrant red, very healthy fish.
It's getting late, creeping up to midnight.
But I got the sun still out, I can still see.
There's no reason why I wouldn't stick, stick it out.
Just keep processing, keep working.
Winter's coming around soon,
and I'll be leaving here and heading up to the Arctic,
and I don't have to worry
about getting the season's worth of fish.
That's been done, the work's been put in.
So, the smoker's pretty full.
I don't need to force it too full,
just gonna do batches.
So, I'm gonna put some of these alders on here.
Kind of big pieces that have been sitting out in the rain.
They're gonna get nice and smoky,
especially when I deprive the smokehouse of oxygen.
♪ ♪
And then I'm gonna make a little airflow here,
and then it can breathe out the top.
And that's kind of what I want to see,
is the smoke just kind of pillowing out
real slow, real smooth.
That means that the fire's burning slow and low.
Awesome.
Keep processing fish.
♪ ♪
JESSI: I've been taught by the animals and the land
and the trees and the river,
and even the sky itself teaches me something new
every single day.
CHRIS: Where'd you stick that net at?
JESSI: See these branches, these like small trees that come out?
CHRIS: Oh, yeah.
JESSI: It's set right in between there.
CHRIS: Oh, that looks perfect. Looks deep.
JESSI: It's actually really deep right there.
CHRIS: Oh, that's awesome.
As we're walking over to that fyke net,
I'm trying to figure out where she stuck it,
and it looks like she put it in a fantastic spot.
JESSI: See if we got anything.
And it's facing that way, so I don't know.
CHRIS: I don't want to pull this side yet.
JESSI: All right.
I got the front.
Oh, I think we got skunked, love, what?
CHRIS: What?
JESSI: What is that? CHRIS: What is that?
JESSI: What is that? What is that?
CHRIS: I think it's a burbot.
JESSI: No, it's not!
CHRIS: It's weird-looking.
JESSI: What is this?
I mean, look at its mouth and its really big bulbous nose.
CHRIS: Yeah, it's a goofy-looking thing.
If it was a burbot, it would have whiskers all over.
But it's some kind of sucker.
JESSI: I don't know if you have like razor gills, or what.
CHRIS: Nah, not suckers. Just...
JESSI: It's a woman fish! (laughs) Wow!
CHRIS: It's pretty.
JESSI: All right.
Thank you, fish, thank you for your life.
We've never seen anything the likes of you before.
Look at that. All right, ready?
CHRIS: Yeah.
JESSI: God, that's a gorgeous fish.
CHRIS: Let's put him out of his misery.
JESSI: Yup. There you go. Ready?
(thud)
♪ ♪
CHEVIE: I've said it before and I'll continue to say it,
is that my kids are the best investment I have.
And the more time I put into that investment,
the more I'm gonna get out of 'em.
♪ ♪
(hammering)
RYDER: Does this side look good?
CHEVIE: Yeah. The backside needs a lot more, though, okay?
Put a lot of dirt on that back side. Fill it in.
SYDNEY: I know, that's what I've been doing.
CHEVIE: That's what I like about working with my kids is, uh...
RYDER: You have help.
CHEVIE: I can apply a little bit of pressure on 'em
and say, "Come on, let's go, you know.
Just do what you're told. It's not talking time."
And you kind of adjust and react,
and always hasn't been that way,
but they kind of just rise to the occasion,
and that's what I like to see.
The kids are absolutely learning something by being out here.
They're learning skills,
whether it's painting or running power tools.
They're constantly learning about that.
And they're also learning how to work together.
Thank you, good job.
How to follow direction is the biggest thing.
If they listen and they're able to listen and follow direction,
they're gonna be able to get a long ways.
(drilling)
So, now that I'm up off the ground,
we're 11 feet in the air, and uh, on a small working space,
so I'm gonna have to be careful.
Don't want to fall off of something that high out here,
400 miles from the hospital.
We're gonna get up there, put the last sheet of plywood on,
then I'm gonna start standing up some walls.
But first, before we stand the walls up,
we're gonna have to cut down,
I got a branch that's gonna be in my way.
And if we want to build this tree stand,
that big branch has got to come down.
Okay, I'm just thinking about what side I want to be on.
Where is this thing gonna go?
I think I'm gonna move my ladder to the other side.
I think when it does go, it's gonna want to come this way.
It's gonna swing under me like this, so I'd rather be,
I think, over there.
♪ ♪
At least that sounds right.
♪ ♪
Spatial awareness, got to know where I'm at.
I'm close to the edge here.
(bleep) goes wrong, I want to go that way into that tree.
Slow and steady wins the race.
(starts chainsaw)
♪ ♪
(crack)
CHEVIE: Clunk.
All right, a little whack on the head.
I think I'm okay.
It's, uh, one of those things, though.
You think you're doing everything right,
and still (bleep) can go kind of,
go a little sideways on you there,
so got to be careful.
Building this tree stand, one of the harder tasks
is when you're building around a tree,
you know, stuff can't be square.
You're working around a big tree that's round and has branches
and all these different things,
so some of this stuff's a little abstract,
it's not as straightforward.
I'm in my little 8-by-8 structure here.
We can build some benches in here and do some cool stuff,
maybe even hang a little swinging swing
or a swinging something from the, from the ceiling
for them to sit in.
We'll put a roof on, small roof on.
I'll be able to climb up that birch tree right there
and get up on top of my roof,
and then I can really see out across that flat.
A lot of square miles.
I'm excited.
The kids put in a lot of work, um, last year,
and, hey, they put a lot of work into this build.
I'm really proud of them and their work ethic.
We're gonna be able to, uh, keep doing stuff like this
as they get older, and this is just the start,
but just got to, uh, get this roof on
and get it wrapped up.
Some things I got out here were tin and plywood.
Those are a real luxury.
I mean, you get stuff like that out here,
you make sure you don't lose any of it or waste any of it.
It's a big deal for me to use that material.
We get a lot of rain here.
I just want to build something that can last.
I want it to stand up to time.
♪ ♪
(drilling)
All right, I'm just getting my, uh, plywood on my roof.
Next thing I got to do is tin.
Moose season's right around the corner.
I hope to be sitting up here with my kids.
It's awesome.
Okay, let's get the tin on this roof.
♪ ♪
KALEB: Start stacking it up.
You're gonna make a couple thousand trips.
Having this woodshed up and full of wood
is like an Arctic insurance policy to me.
I know that if I get hurt this winter,
I don't have to sweat getting my firewood.
I know it's already there.
I know that I have enough for the winter,
and that is incredibly freeing to me.
Oh, man, nice stack.
GILBERT: Yeah, it's taller than me right here.
Come look.
ELOVIE: And me.
KALEB: Oh, boy.
Last three pieces.
BRITTANY: Woo-hoo!
KALEB: I got the last three pieces.
BRITTANY: Yeah, baby!
KALEB: And that's a wrap.
We worked hard. We got this woodshed up.
We are set.
JESSI: All right, so.
CHRIS: That's a huge fish.
JESSI: I know. That is gonna feed us for a while.
Chris and I have come a long ways this year.
A hard couple months of trapping and a lean winter.
Times like today, now it's all culminating until tonight.
We're gonna feast on this fish.
CHRIS: It's good to go.
JESSI: Mmm.
CHRIS: So good.
JESSI: I've been waiting for this for so long.
CHRIS: Wow.
Takes me back to being a kid,
sitting on the sandbar with my dad, eating fish.
This has just been a great trip.
CHEVIE: What do you guys think?
SYDNEY: Oh, it's sick.
RYDER: Oh, this is so cool.
CHEVIE: Home sweet home. Good job on the tree stand.
Way to whip it, you guys worked hard.
Final touch right here, okay?
So, this is, this is, this was your papa's gun rack.
I had this when I was a little kid around my house...
SYDNEY: Cool.
CHEVIE: and so, here's a little bit of Papa,
a little bit of older Roaches here.
You guys get to use this your whole lives.
Okay, put in the final screws, you guys.
SYDNEY: And then maybe if we have any children,
we'll give it to our children.
CHEVIE: Sweet. Okay, Sydney.
(drilling)
Good. All right, guys. Come over. Group hug.
Love you guys.
(kissing)
What a big help you guys were.
RYDER: Yeah.
CHEVIE: Let's think about the next project.
JOHNNY: These are sacs of salmon roe.
It's just the eggs.
You know, if was to just put this stuff to the side
and say, "I'll deal with it later,"
it's just gonna rot, it's gonna spoil,
so as soon I get all of this meat, all of this fish,
all of this stuff, I have to immediately start curing it,
um, start preserving it.
You know, this is what it takes to live this lifestyle.
It was a good day, got a lot done.
A lot of hurdles, a lot of challenges.
It might be tiring.
It might wear on me from time to time,
but, you know, there's not a lot of instant gratification
with this lifestyle, but that's not really what I'm after.
You know, I like putting in the time.
I like putting in the work,
putting in the blood, the sweat, the tears.
To me, that's way more important
than any paycheck I've ever gotten or any achievement
or any pat on the back I've ever received.