♪ ♪
chip: Well, let's make sure we got everything in the boating box.
Got a little bit of spare oil, got a first aid kit,
a couple candles.
Fire starter.
We got ammo that needs to go in here,
because there's bears down there.
Twenty shots of semi-auto three-oh-eight is better for a
bear than anything else I can think of.
As long as there's a, a rifle for each of us.
And you know how it goes, you've got to have a gun.
Agnes: Yep.
Narrator: For the hailstones,
making native art is a critical aspect of
their inupiat culture,
as their work can be traded or sold for vital materials and income.
But they have only a brief window to scour the coastline
for useful items as they must do so during high tide.
Chip: That's everything huh? Agnes: Yeah. Chip: All right.
So right now we don't have a whole lot of fishing going on,
we're gonna go down the coast, find a place to park the boat.
And, uh, we're just gonna go beachcombing.
So basically, we're just gonna go out there and
have a good time.
Like a treasure hunt.
Agnes: There's something orange, reddish over there
on the beach.
Chip: I'm gonna get down wind of it.
Agnes: So when we first got to the ocean after we
passed the sandbar, we saw a little beach there.
And there was a whole bunch of birds flying over something.
So we wondered what those birds were landing at and
we thought it was a walrus or something.
Wow, look!
Now, that's a dead whale.
Carol: This is huge, eh?
Agnes: Huge. Oh, wow.
Carol: Wow. The bone already sticking out.
Agnes: The jawbone.
That means there's no, um, baleen huh?
The flippers are rotted already.
Carol: That strong smell.
Chip: Jaw bones, huh?
See this jawbone here?
There's gonna be a big skull coming out of this, huh?
Agnes: There's nothing you can really do with a dead whale
until it rots and it comes apart by itself.
Chip: Just stinks too much right now to try to pry this
stuff out, we'd never get it.
In a couple, three years, we'll be able to come down
here and find the skull.
Agnes: We usually let nature clean it up for us before we
decide to take it and bring it home.
Chip: Man, bears have been over here just eating away.
Chowing down.
Look, grandson, look.
Young bear, probably its mom right here walking along.
Things like that that wash up attract bears.
And they can go over there and eat as much as they want,
so I'm sure the bears that are around there
are very aggressive.
So I ain't camping here.
They're gonna show up to that whale, so why hang out?
Agnes: One, two, three, go!
Chip: If we just keep going, we'll find something.
That's kind of the way we do it.
Whale carcasses, just part of beachcombing.
Jessie: I finally found my perfect location.
Mountains, flowing water.
Two of the most important things for me.
Jessie: Okay. Just sorting through my, uh,
scrap woodpile here.
Gonna get some boards.
Gonna build a smoker.
Been, uh, fishing for grayling all summer.
Legally, I'm allowed to catch five fish a day.
Winter will be coming soon,
so I wanna start putting up some of these fish.
I'm used to fishing with nets and fish wheels,
catching fish by the hundreds.
In nenana I knew where to go.
I knew what to do. I knew how to do it.
I had a routine and a process.
Out here, it's just not like that.
You know, so you gotta adapt to the environment
that you live in.
This is gonna be a hot smoker.
It's a really small box that I'm gonna have a
heat source in and it's gonna produce smoke.
So I think this is gonna be all that I need
to build it, right here.
This is gonna be the height of my frame and
that's gonna be 32 inches,
I'm gonna need four of these pieces.
Grayling is a whitefish.
It's got a really flaky, soft, buttery-flavored meat.
It doesn't keep well over a day.
If you freeze it and you thaw it out,
it's just gonna be mush.
You know everything's still up in the air.
Whether I'm gonna get a bear, caribou, or moose.
Right now, I know I'm catching fish.
I'm gonna build myself a smoker so I can
hot smoke these fish.
Winter is gonna be here before long and I'd like to come up
with a solution to be able to put some of these up and
be able to enjoy this delicacy come wintertime.
Okay.
Now I have the basic structure of the smokehouse built.
Uh, next step is, uh, come up with a clever way to
build a tight door here.
I got some hinges and some, uh,
latches and gonna figure that out next.
Before I do the door, I'm gonna head to set in some
"one-by's" that my racks can set on.
And then there's gonna be a heat source.
I'm taking a hot plate, because I know I can put a pan
of wood chips in there and that'll create smoke and
it'll also create heat.
The two things that I need to preserve the fish.
I'm a very simple person, I like very simple things.
I eat a very simple diet.
But, you know, in the middle of winter,
when it's cold and dark out, having something that you
made, that you really like and you really enjoy,
it goes a long way to pick up the morale.
Okay.
The racks fit real nice.
I've got all my little spacers through this.
Uh, you know,
if it's a little bit too hot down here at one point,
I can just pop it up on top to cool down and finish curing.
I enjoy fishing, I enjoy hunting,
I enjoy harvesting and living off the land and, uh,
that pans an opportunity to start settling in here.
I got myself a smoker, next thing I gotta do,
I'm gonna go grab my fly rod,
and head down to the fishing hole.
Go catch some fish so I can fill it up and start
giving it its trial run.
Ricko: Thinking ahead is key to survival.
If you're not ready, that's when real bad things
start to happen.
Ricko: Okay, I got my smudge cans set out,
just to try to keep the bugs down while we're working.
And what we have here is a bunch of clutter.
I want to start clearing it off.
I need to be able to come out of the cabin,
get what I need, go back in.
But the way it is now, I come out of my cabin.
I got to dig through junk, I got to trip over stuff,
maybe find what I'm looking for.
So I'm gonna get the kids and just start running old
machinery to the machinery junk pile over there.
That's what I'm gonna start on.
Then I'll move to some other stuff,
so it's time to get to work.
Narrator: In huslia, it is critical for ricko dewilde to
use the summer daylight and focus on maintenance
inside and around the family cabin.
With the aid of his children,
skyler and skarlett.
They will work to complete a series of tasks aimed at
readying their home for the brutal winter that lies ahead.
Ricko: I'll start in this corner here.
All this stuff from 20, 30 years ago is just piling up.
This chainsaw here is probably 35 years old or something.
It's a dinosaur, it's no longer usable.
It doesn't need to be here, so.
It's really important to do all this work right now
because once it gets cold and dark out here,
it's gonna become very hard to get anything done without
having organized clean air to work in.
For me to do that, I got to get rid of this stuff
that I don't need.
Hey, you guys haul this over.
Skyler: To the snow machines?
Ricko: Yeah, and just throw 'em in the pile.
Cleaning, organizing,
all that seems like really basic stuff to do,
but it's actually really important knowledge and
it's important the kids learn to take responsibility
of the cabin and just learn to take pride in their
area that they're living in.
Skyler: This is junk.
Skarlett: More junk.
Ricko: This is an old handsaw that my dad built
a lot of cabins with before I was even around,
maybe around when I was born,
he was building cabins with no chainsaws.
There was no such thing as chainsaws when my dad first
got to this country.
And he literally built a whole bunch of cabins with
a saw like this.
A lot of the stuff outside of my cabin has been
there before I was born or during my childhood,
so there's a lot of memories out here in this clutter.
If I let it go it's like I'm not appreciating what
my late father has done as far as providing shelter for us.
We have it good today because of what they went through and
the struggle they went through in life to provide
for us and shout out to my dad.
I mean, that's love right there.
For me to clean up the outside of my cabin,
organize it, it's something that kind of pays dividends.
Every time you go in and out of the cabin,
or you're around the cabin, you take a look at it.
And it's something you're working for.
It's something you're living for.
It's a beautiful spot on this earth.
And especially for the kids to see something like this,
it helps them to really pinpoint their history and
where they come from and it makes them feel like they're
real big and part of this planet.
I have them help me on a job like this,
the history of the cabin,
the history of their dewilde name,
it makes them feel strong and that's a
big deal for us out here.
I like how it looks.
It's a beautiful saw, nice and clear.
Yeah.
This is nice, lot of room.
Majority of the junk is back here, out of our way.
If we need something, we can just come back here
and get it.
But it's beautiful out here, huh?
Skyler: Yes.
Ricko: That's a lot of work to get to this point.
And there's more to go.
Andy: Every time you go out hunting doesn't mean you're
gonna be successful.
It's perseverance, patience, and a certain amount of luck.
Andy: Every gun's gonna shoot different.
We'll shoot at the targets, see where we're at.
It'd be nice to get it inside that square.
From that tree stand we built,
50 to 75 yards is gonna be about where we'll
be able to see stuff.
I'm hoping if we get it sighted in tonight,
we can start maybe hunting out of that stand tomorrow morning.
Denise: That'd be good.
Andy: One of the things that I've always been fascinated by
is some of the old-world skills.
And along with that came the desire to understand what it
took to survive out in the wilderness with really
primitive weapons.
It goes like that.
And that takes the powder and it puts it into
this little chamber.
Black powder shooting is really a lot of fun and
I think it might be some,
something really fun for denise too.
When I was in my late teens,
I built a few black powder rifles and got pretty
good at shooting them,
but I was never successful hunting with them.
They're pretty much in complete disarray just sitting
for 20 years in a wall tent.
They're rusted up and they're in pretty rough shape and
I wouldn't feel comfortable shooting one because of the
condition they're in.
I wanted to actually build the black powder rifle rather than
just buy one and shoot it, because building it and
creating it and putting my print on that weapon kinda
personalizes it for me and it makes it more
meaningful for me.
I want to see if I can't hunt a bear or a moose with a black
powder rifle and kind of get a feel of what it was like to live 150 years ago,
where you only get one shot.
And that shot better count.
Just set the rifle onto here.
And here.
Aim for the lower target at first.
I thought if I get it about the right level,
that'll help a lot.
The idea of hunting with a black powder rifle or some
other older means is a great skill to learn.
And that puts a lot more value in that meat once you get it.
That looks pretty good.
Hammer back.
(gunshot)
denise: Whoa. Geez.
Andy: Great.
So let's go down there and take a look at it.
Denise: That gives a, okay.
Andy: I like the smell of the sulfur.
Denise: Yeah.
Andy: One inch high.
And about a quarter inch to the left.
Denise: Wow.
Andy: Look at the size of the hole it makes.
Denise: That went right through that.
Andy: That's definitely a kill shot.
So let's go back and you can take a shot at it.
Denise: Okay.
Andy: Denise has never really shot many firearms.
Just wasn't in her upbringing at all.
Her father and uncles hunted.
But when she was growing up, that's not something the girls
did out on the farm.
And so I'd really like to teach denise how to be
confident with firearms and different methods of hunting
and, and have some fun too.
Put your finger on the front trigger.
And when you think you're ready to shoot,
just gently squeeze it.
(gunshot)
man, it went right through him.
Denise: Wow.
Andy: You're a real frontierswoman now, denise.
That's all I can say.
Denise: Oh, yeah.
Andy: That was a real good shot.
Denise: Is that my shot? Wow.
Andy: Yeah. That was almost a bulls-eye.
Denise: Nice.
Andy: I think the gun's shooting amazingly well.
I think we ought to just go back,
get a good night's sleep and maybe try some hunting tomorrow.
Denise: Put it to the real test tomorrow.
Ricko: You have to be on top of your game all the time and
one wrong move, that's it.
Game over.
Ricko: Let's do a little work here, kids.
We're gonna do the chimney and the stove.
What happens over time is ash is built up inside of here.
And then if you get real cold in the winter and you make
fire and you want to get it real hot in the house and
the stove gets real hot, that stuff ignites and
then it turns into a big torch inside of here.
And you can't shut it off once it takes off,
it's called a chimney fire.
And if you get a real hot fire,
it can get hot enough to where it starts smoking and
ignites and then your house burns down.
Now that the outside of my cabin is done,
my stove pipe needs cleaning.
The chimney is, uh, loaded with soot.
Let's get up on top of the roof.
And those kids need to learn this kind of stuff
because surviving in the woods,
it's not all about the simple dangers like bears,
and open water in the winter,
or whatever like that.
Little things can kill you out here and you gotta be ready for it.
Be careful.
I, I wish you'd put your damn shoes on sky.
Okay.
See, we're just gonna scrape it out all the way down.
It's easy to have an accident on that roof when
it's covered in snow and ice, so get that chimney clean.
Get it ready for winter,
because if you wait on things like this,
that's how you can have accidents in a harsh environment.
It has been over 20 years since this chimney's been cleaned,
it's way overdue.
It's important to keep that stove clean because that's
vital to survival out here.
You really gotta get that stove hot and that's when
that chimney fire can happen and it might seem like nothing right now,
nothing to worry about,
but this is the time to do it.
The kids need to learn what's important to keep
you alive out here.
Especially all this creosote back here that came
out of the chimney.
And that stuff, see, it's not ashes.
This stuff has oil in it.
You see that, look?
This stuff can catch on fire.
Once it gets hot enough,
your chimney will be shooting flames.
Okay, we're done here.
And this is something you kids can do on your own if I tell you now,
"sky, clean out the stove."
you know what to do, right?
Skyler: Yeah, I can.
Ricko: All right, let's dump this out.
Spread the ashes.
But we have one more job to go.
Jessie: When you first don't succeed, you don't give up.
You keep trying.
Keep trying until you get it.
Jessie: Zeus, dad's gonna go catch some fish.
Gonna go catch some fish, okay?
I'll be back. Kay, dallas? I'll be back.
I got my smoker built.
I'm super excited to go get five fish so I can, uh,
start experimenting with some different flavors.
Spice things up a little bit.
And, uh, part of spicing things up a little bit is
getting away from my comfort zone.
And working on improving my technique fly fishing.
Okay.
This is one of my favorite spots to fish.
It's, uh, right here adjacent to my property line.
It's, uh, really nice to have a good fishing hole
that's this close to the homestead.
Fish tend to hang out here in the slower water,
right along the eddy line.
I brought my fly rod.
Gonna give it a try.
See if I can increase my,
uh, skill and knowledge of this.
It's something new that I'm trying out.
And it's, uh, a little bit frustrating but I really, uh,
need to overcome it and, uh, try to catch some
fish with it.
The trick here is to be up on top of the water like a
mosquito would be or a bug floating by.
And the fish is just sitting out there in some
slow current of water.
Putting out as little energy as possible,
just waiting for something to come by in the faster water.
Okay you little sharks, here I come.
Oh, I got one.
I think I lost it.
Dammit.
No, I still got it.
It's a good-sized fish too.
Ah, beautiful fish for the smoker.
That right there, that's a meal this winter.
I'll be excited if I can get four more and
take 'em home and try out my new smoker.
Grayling doesn't keep well over a day.
I believe that I can hot smoke these, jar it in oil,
a lot like someone would do herring.
So I can enjoy the same fish that I won't be able to catch
this winter.
Oh, yeah, ha-ha.
I got two down, three more to go and I can go back and
get that smoker going.
Oh, yeah!
Fish number three right here.
Another good-sized one, yeah.
This is exciting for me cause normally,
when I come out fishing I'm only, you know,
looking to catch a fish or two on the spinner rod.
Here I'm catching quite a few fish, it's exciting.
I'm gonna move up to another spot and see if I
can't catch the big boy.
What a good start.
Chip: Here in the arctic,
no matter where we go or what we're living in,
it's always home.
Agnes: Yee! Carol: There we go. Agnes: We made it.
Chip: Well, I imagine you guys wanna get walking and
I'll just catch up to you, the tide's coming up.
Agnes: Uh huh. We're just gonna keep walking,
hopefully we'll get beyond that bluff.
Chip: Walk as far as you can, yeah, yeah.
Good luck.
Agnes: Goodbye.
Chip: See you later. You, stay with me.
We'll take care of the boat,
I'll let you drive.
Narrator: The hailstones are searching the kiwalik coastline
for valued materials to make native art
that they can sell or trade to supplement their income.
After seeing bear sign where they hope to camp,
the family has found the safer spot to settle in and
comb for native treasures.
Agnes: We're just gonna keep walking and
hopefully find something.
This time of the year is a good time to go take a walk
and just learn the area.
There's a lot of things washed up on the beach that
we can turn them into artwork.
Oh, wow, check it out.
Carol: Oh, wow, look.
Agnes: Yeah. That's a walrus jawbone.
Carol: A full one, eh?
Agnes: Uh-huh. This is a good find.
Carol: Awesome.
Agnes: We work together and usually we come out successful
with some raw material so we can work on our
carvings and stuff.
We can definitely do something with that.
Oh, look this is a whale eardrum.
Carol: Eardrum?
Agnes: Yeah. It look like that.
Carol: Weird. That's so cool.
Agnes: We came across a whale eardrum.
It's kind of interesting because usually the ones me
and carol find are usually broken and we finally
found a complete piece.
Carol: That's a little trippy to think your eardrum
looks like that, eh?
Agnes: So, um, it's always good to go spend time on the shores.
Oh, here they come.
Carol: I hear wade. Agnes: Should we stop and wait? Carol: Maybe, yeah.
Agnes: Does he want to pick us up to go make camp?
Carol: Probably.
It's about to be dark in less than an hour.
(toddler chatter)
chip: It's getting to be lower tides.
And some of those bays, it's like almost a quarter mile
of very, very, very shallow water.
Carol: What's up, "wadels"?
Chip: We just decide it was time just to build a
fire and make camp.
Agnes: Yee, yee, yee! I love that boy scout stuff.
Chip: Yeah, we'll have a good day tomorrow.
We'll start early.
Then we can make our way home.
Andy: What I've learned is the old ways of doing things
give you a tremendous foundation for the new ways
of doing things.
♪ ♪
andy: So denise and I got up early this morning and, uh,
we wanted to try and get out and get up into our tree stand
and do a little bit of hunting.
We put a lot of work into building the tree stand.
So we want to try and get some payback now.
Along the yukon river, vegetation is pretty dense and
so you really need to kinda get up and be able to look
down to really have the best chance of getting a
black bear or moose with a black powder rifle.
Every step of it is gonna be a bit of a challenge but
it's a learning process and we like challenging
ourselves and we like learning.
Denise: Being in the tree stand,
you have more of a sense of security when you're in and
amongst the wilderness, the wildlife.
Bears, lynx, everything wild is out here.
And in an instant, you can be their meal.
You can just look up and there's a bear like just
come out of nowhere.
Andy: They just appear, yeah.
They're like ghosts.
Denise: Yeah, and it's amazing cause they're,
they look so big and awkward.
Andy: You know, more than likely we're gonna probably
see 'em before we hear 'em.
Bears can move through the woods pretty silently
if they want to.
Lot of times when you're hunting,
you're kinda walking and listening.
You feel like you're doing something and it's a whole
different mindset when you do tree stand hunting.
Basically, you just gotta come in as quiet as you can and
then just sit and wait and sometimes that's the hardest
kinda hunting there is to do is just sitting and waiting.
Just past the point where the beavers are at.
I saw a bunch of brush moving right at the edge and
I caught a glimpse of black.
Let's, let's watch the shoreline here
really close, okay?
Denise: Okay, yeah.
It's getting dark, it's getting harder to see.
Denise: I know.
Andy: Black bears have a tremendous sense of hearing,
but they really have a good sense of smell.
Their sense of smell is like twice what a dog's is,
and they can smell a long, long ways away.
So, that's the advantage to getting up high.
It's a big advantage, hunting bears from a tree stand.
(rustling bush)
jessie: To me, it's exciting to learn.
Without the struggle, there isn't the reward at the end.
Jessie: All right, this is my spot right here.
There's a lot of different rocks out here.
It's gonna take a little bit more skill casting,
because there's a lot of different places you'd want to
get your fly to get by.
Hopefully, I can catch a couple of big fish here to
fill out the rest of my, uh, smoker.
Narrator: Jessie holmes is fishing for grayling in the
brushkana river, a key food source that's available in the
waters this time of year.
Harvesting a supply of grayling will allow jessie to
smoke and jar the fish, and stockpile vital food
for the harsh winter to come.
Jessie: Ooh, yeah.
This is gonna be a good spot.
I already saw a fish come up.
It's intriguing, seeing these fish jump out of the water.
They're obviously feeding on something on the surface.
I want to try to imitate whatever they're feeding with this fly,
and use that to my advantage to catch some fish.
That's what fly fishing is all about.
I can see it all now.
I'm starting to learn and understand.
Right now, I'm just studying the water.
And I'm gonna use that to my advantage to catch them.
Oh! (bleep) yeah.
All right, I got another fish.
Right away this is, uh, really a hopping spot.
I can see them just jumping out of the water.
It's pretty exciting.
Fish number four.
Next one I'm going for is a big one.
Try to get my last fish of the day.
A nice-sized fish.
Oh, baby. A little tiny fish here.
Getting back in the water as quick as I can.
There you go.
Can't see the fly.
Think I lost my fly.
One thing I can see is, um, by far,
I'm still a rookie at this.
And one of the rookie things is trying to stay out
of the brush right behind you,
which is catching my flies a lot.
But I'm definitely getting better.
And it's exciting to be getting better.
I got a fish that keeps going through the lure here,
but I'm having trouble getting it right where
I need it.
He looks like a big fish though,
so keep trying right at that same spot.
Oh, there he is!
Whoo!
It's the nicest-sized fish I caught today.
Been awesome fishing up here at the upper hole.
You can definitely see the size difference of the
fish up here that I caught.
That's what I was after.
I've got my five fish, and now it's time to go home
and try out my new smoker.
Nothing like working hard at learning a new thing.
Now, I feel like I'm getting effective with the fly rod.
For me, it's very important to have more tools in my tackle box,
so I can be more effective at putting food on the table.
This helps me to be better at living off the land.
Seeing how the fish are at different spots,
different weather circumstances,
different times of the day,
different styles and techniques of fishing.
Chip: This place is bigger than us.
There's a lot of resources,
a lot of things to do and you don't always need money.
Pretty wild.
Chip: Well, the tide's going down.
The boat's almost grounded again.
So, my thought is this, if you guys want to go,
I'll stay and watch the boat.
Agnes: We're gonna go beachcombing that way.
Chip: Yup.
So, when the tide comes back up,
I'll go pick you guys up.
Sound good?
Agnes: Uh-hmm.
Chip: Grandson, you want to walk with them and beachcomb or are you gonna stay with me?
Chip: Okay.
Narrator: After spending the night along the coast,
the hailstones will continue beachcombing in search
of more useful materials for native art.
But they must act quickly before the tides recede,
and make the journey home too dangerous in shallow waters.
Chip: I'm supposed to pack up camp here,
put it in a boat,
and pick them up when they get all the way down to that point.
But the dig is, they've only gone about
500 yards and stopped.
I looked down the beach.
I could see they weren't moving.
They were all gathered around something.
No, honestly, you know what they're doing?
They're just sitting around the hole.
They're digging.
So, I figured, well, I'll stroll down and check out
what they're looking at.
You guys didn't make it very far!
And here, I thought you were walking miles.
Agnes: Yeah.
We just saw this little piece sticking out
and started digging.
Chip: Holy (bleep).
You guys found a whale skull.
Agnes: This popped off of it.
Chip: Yeah, it did. A freaking ear drum.
That's worth some bucks.
Carol: I found a little bone sticking out of the sand.
We decided to start digging it.
And it actually came out to be like a freaking whale skull.
Make me wish we had a shovel.
You can make a lot of things out of this whale head and
it's actually coming out to be pretty big.
We're not even done digging yet.
Yup, now, I could I say I freaking dug up a whale head.
Agnes: Whale skull, it's a really hard bone that you can
carve a lot of little earrings and stuff.
Bones that you can use to turn into artwork and sell,
or trade, and stuff like that.
Come on, free.
Yup, ooh look!
Carol: Ooh, look!
Chip: One, two, three, up.
Edward: It would be pretty heavy, huh, if we got no rope?
Chip: Yeah, we'll put that in a boat,
if we can get anything in the boat.
It's starting to build, so the time to get this done
is to get it done now.
Everything else is dependent on when and how big
the waves will be.
And we didn't know how big they were gonna build to,
and I wasn't gonna find out with a wave or
two in the boat.
So, it was time to go.
You know, try to venture home.
Time to go! Jump in, bun.
Carol: Grab the anchor!
My dad always tells me,
"you don't call something yours until you take it home."
so, we just got to make it home.
Edward: With the skull being as heavy as it is,
we started realizing that we're off balance.
Chip could see waves coming in on the side of him.
The waves were getting rough.
So, it was kind of a rush.
Carol: Watch it!
Chip: I'm watching!
Well, here's the choice.
I go out to sea, and I sink, and all that effort and
work goes to (bleep) and I die.
Or, all that effort just goes to (bleep) and I live to
do it again.
So, (bleep) that whale skull.
Chip: We can find a whale skull some other day.
I'm used to the ocean, I'm used to the boats,
I'm used to all that stuff.
But when you got an overloaded boat,
and you got 500 pounds of skull.
You just got to decide,
"hey, it's time to get rid of this stuff."
so, that's what we did.
I worry about my grandkids and my daughter more
than you'd ever know.
And, uh, when you're out there in the boat like that,
that's the kind of stuff that's in your mind.
Anybody with common sense would make that decision in a heartbeat,
like I did.
Agnes: Got this to the boat.
Chip: Yeah, that came off the back of the skull, didn't it?
Agnes: Yeah, this is the only thing we have left,
besides the eardrum of it.
Chip: Well, that's all right.
Agnes: And look, this. This was a good find.
Chip: Yup.
Agnes: We were walking, beachcombing.
Chip: Having what we got here,
and not swamping the boat,
was the better than having a skull in the boat.
You know what I'm saying?
Carol: Yeah.
I learned new things every day from my parents,
and even though we had to throw out that whale head,
I know it was the right move,
and I'm glad my dad actually did that.
He's teaching me what's right.
Chip: That skull will make the beach again someday.
The waves, a storm, something will throw it back
up there for us.
Edward: Yeah, yeah.
Chip: We'll get the rest of this stuff dried up and we'll
just start the next adventure, I guess.
Agnes: Yup, yup.
Chip: I can live with throwing a skull overboard.
It's all replaceable.
But the fact is, I could never replace my kids
or my grandkids.
Carol: Let's just call that an adventure.
Chip: It is an adventure.
I ain't never gonna forget that one.
Jessie: It's important for me to never look
backwards or forwards.
I'm always looking upwards.
♪ ♪
jessie: Okay, I've got my five grayling here.
They're all gutted, headed, scaled.
I'm gonna pat these dry here.
Want to get that moisture off.
One of the things I'm trying to do once this goes in the
smoker is trying to dry them out a little bit.
Feels good to be back to preserving food for the winter.
You know, you can feel it on the air that it's not
very far away.
It kind of puts a rush in you.
If you want to have this kind of stuff come wintertime,
you got to start putting it up now.
You can't count on getting a moose in September.
You can't count on getting a caribou.
You can't count on nothing.
All you can count on is what you got in your hand.
And right now, this gives me security that I'm getting
ahead, and be prepared for possible hard times.
I'm really happy that I built this hot smoker.
Now, I have a way of preserving the fish and
I know how to think about when I go out and just
bringing home one fish for dinner.
I can, uh, bring home multiple fish.
I've got my first set ready to go in.
Gonna start 'em up nice and high.
One of the things about any kind of cooking that's gonna be good,
is you got to take your time.
Next is to add the smoke.
This panel sitting here with these alder wood chips.
Once it gets hot enough,
it'll start smoking and that'll be the finishing touches
of my flavor,
and the rest will be all slow-cooked.
That's why I have 'em on the upper rack.
Wanted this to come out slow.
Let time do its work.
Now, it's just patience.
Ricko: There's a lot of things you can use out here
to survive with.
There's also a lot of variables out here that
can kill you.
Ricko: Here, we got the stove cleaned.
So, I got to get the kids and help me clean
this washing machine out.
I wanna put some water in it and see if it runs.
I'll go grab the kids and we're gonna get
this running, hopefully.
Okay. Skarlett, you can start the generator.
Oh, awesome.
Having clean clothes is important out here.
And it's been awhile we've been out here without doing laundry,
and things are starting to add up.
Hopefully, it fires up and we can do some laundry.
The moment of truth, we'll see if it works.
Ready?
Holy...
Ready?
Holy. It's running.
Look at that, that's power right there.
Okay, let's dump this laundry in.
Doing a job like this just really makes me feel a strong sense of accomplishment,
and it's something you see every time you go in
and out of the cabin, that work you've done.
And that's what helps me feel good out here,
is just accomplishing small things and having a beautiful cabin.
And when I'm long and gone,
this property is gonna belong to my kids.
And if they continue to work at it like this,
that's more of a chance they continue this legacy out here.
Good job, we got it done.
We cleaned the whole area, did laundry, fixed the stove.
This place looks beautiful.
When we do stuff like this,
it's preparing for the upcoming season.
So, that's why I kind of want you guys to help me out.
Not only to make it look more pretty around here,
but so you take responsibility.
And also, this is dewilde family legacy right here.
When you put your work and sweat into doing this,
that's how you own it.
Because one day, I'll be gone,
you guys will own this cabin.
But, yeah, good job. Successful day.
Lot of work. But it's all done.
Jessie: Nothing out here scares me.
But everything out here excites me.
Jessie: Oh, yeah, that comes off the bone nice and good.
That's delicious.
If I can get this to go in a jar,
and come out that delicious, I'm gonna be in business here.
I'm gonna have to stop myself right now,
because I want to eat 'em all.
But if I eat 'em all now,
then I ain't gonna have food for the winter.
One more bite.
Can't help myself.
Hmm. So good, so good.
Next step for me is to pull all the meat off the bones.
Put it in the jar.
Once I got 'em all deboned and in the jar,
I give it a good coating of some real nice olive oil.
Then all that's left to do is jar 'em up.
Right now, lid's not sealed.
Bacteria and all kinds of nasty stuff can get in there.
It can spoil.
What I'm gonna do is put it under a high pressure system,
and that's gonna seal.
Once that's sealed, this could last for up to 10 years.
Make sure these are clamped really tight.
Once this starts steaming, it should have some jars
that are ready to last.
Today was an awesome day.
I felt like I got to get out there and, uh,
work on my new technique of fly fishing.
And to be successful with it and come away with five nice
fish was just even better.
Okay.
Been going for long enough.
Yeah.
Hot tamale.
Okay, there they are.
Those will seal up real good and be ready for
eating this winter.
When you can do something like this in a day,
you're really putting your day to good use,
getting ready for the winter.
Everything I've done out here has been a struggle
to this point.
I'm starting to get ahead.
The dogs are set up.
My home is set up.
Now, it's my chance and my opportunity to start settling
in here at home, just like I was in nenana.
Andy: Nothing out here is completely safe.
It's just a matter of gauging how safe it is and
what's the reward.
Andy: A bear coming through the woods is kind of exciting.
Because you're, you're kind of like on the edge of your seat.
You're seeing it come closer and closer and you know that
if it just can come into that one area where you can see it,
you'll be successful, hopefully, with your hunt.
(bleep).
(gunshot)
andy: I think building the black powder rifle,
shooting it accurately, and then going out and hunting
with it and getting really close to maybe shooting a bear
was really exciting for both of us.
That's what hunting is to me.
It's not about the stalk or the kill.
It's more about the experience of being out,
exploring and hopefully coming home with something that
is a useful thing to continue our lives out here.
Andy: Have to try another time.
But we got a good spot here and there's definitely game
in the area.
Denise: Well, hopefully, there's not on the trail going back.
Andy: Well, if nothing else,
we've got something for a couple of years to come.
Denise: Definitely.
Andy: That's a nice platform. That turned out really good.
For now, let's go home.
Denise: Okay.
Captioned by cotter captioning services.