(dogs barking)
denise: Amos is gone. He's run off.
All the dogs are acting like something is around.
Andy just left.
I'm thinking he went to see
if he could see amos.
He maybe went, if there's a bear or something around,
he went after it, which can get a dog into trouble quickly,
especially a young dog like amos.
I thought andy went upriver, and I thought I heard amos barking
a minute ago from up there.
There, I think that's andy.
(laughs) I see a little head popping up!
How did andy know where to go get him?
Oh, amos!
Where were you?
Where was he?
Andy: The top of the island.
He had a cow moose bayed up, playing moose tag.
Denise: Amos, you found a cow moose all by yourself?
Did you see the moose?
Andy: Oh, yeah, he had, he was right at the water,
chasing him, and he was chasing it, and it was quite the show.
Denise: Oh.
I wondered, 'cause the other dogs just all went, like,
high tuned radar, you know?
Andy: I think the mooses are starting to move a little bit.
Since it's getting that time, we probably ought to really
think about getting going on the hunting here.
Denise: Yeah. Sign that hunting season is here.
♪ ♪
narrator: For andy bassich and denise becker,
stockpiling meat and protein
for the winter ahead is crucial.
Now is the time to search the region for moose,
a key food source that's available this time of year.
To locate the elusive animals,
the duo must hike up calico bluff
to gain an overview of the surrounding landscape.
Denise: Can start to see the pond there and the lake already.
Andy: Calico bluff, it's just a great high-level view
of the country and a great way to kind of spy
where you might want to try and put your efforts into hunting.
♪ ♪
denise: Okay. We made it!
♪ ♪
oh, spectacular.
I'm just seeing a million pictures all around me!
Andy: You glass the yukon, denise, I'll start working on
ford lake for a little bit.
What we're looking for up here is anything
that's not looking like its surroundings.
So, generally what we see right now
is lighter, greener, yellowish color.
Bull moose are gonna be almost a dark, black-looking color
from this distance.
♪ ♪
denise: I see a dark spot right here.
From the back of that cleared area, if you go left.
Andy: Yup. That's definitely a moose right there.
It looks like two to me.
Yeah, good eye. That's it. That's definitely a moose.
I think it'd be worthwhile to drag the love boat back there
and go for it.
Denise: And I'm sure he's not gonna just, like, wait for us,
so, let's go.
Andy: See if we can find a moose.
Sue: We are fairly consumed with our weather,
because our lives are driven or taken away by it.
♪ ♪
well, I'm gonna take a look at the storage quonset,
the generator shed, and just sort of look at the tent covers.
They've been compromised enough, and I keep repairing them,
but it's finally at the point where the repairs
are not gonna hold any longer.
The gen shed and the storage quonset
have taken the brunt of not only mother nature's winds,
which can get up to 100 mile an hour here,
but the temperatures as well.
After all these years, the material has finally said,
"I give out. Uncle."
the weather looks pretty nice,
but I've got thunderheads building,
and a little bit of rain coming down over towards the refuge.
So, I've got to get all these barrels.
They just need to be moved out of my way.
It's supposed to really start building up a storm.
Lord help me if it does that.
♪ ♪
in a year where revenue is a struggle,
I've taken everything I could in savings and said,
"right, this is the last really big chore,
but probably the most important one of my career here."
and it's something I don't think I've ever heard of being done
by a lone person before.
It doesn't mean it can't be done,
just means I got to be smarter than the average bear.
Alright, I've got all the barrels moved.
The wind right now is very mild,
but it's being drawn in from the west.
So, I'm gonna get the equipment and start taking it apart
and seeing how do I need to lay it out?
How do I need to tie it?
I don't know yet, I will figure it out.
It's a little bit of a rat bastard of a chore,
but I'm the mouse to do it.
Jessie: Once I started being a winner, I never looked back.
There ain't nothing I can't do in my life now.
♪ ♪
I'm returning to nenana.
I built a two-story cabin there.
And after living a season in brushkana,
I want to take the cabin down in nenana.
I want to be able to move all that building material
that's valuable to me.
♪ ♪
this is my cabin here in nenana.
I just built it a couple years ago.
There's no way to see into the future
and know what opportunities are gonna come your way.
I never knew that brushkana was gonna happen.
I had been tired of living in this old, rundown shack and shed
that I had been living in.
Finally upgraded my life and built myself a two-story cabin.
I only got to live in it one winter.
When the opportunity to buy the land in brushkana came up,
I went for that.
I always wanted to live in the mountains.
I never thought I'd be here, tearing down this cabin.
I put a lot of work into it.
It meant a lot to me, to build something nice for myself.
And I never even got to finish it,
it's what hurts me the most.
Wow, it's been a while since I've been here.
Little bit of a jog back down old memory lane here.
I just can see one thing: I just upped and left.
You know, I left a lot of stuff that means a lot to me here.
It's good to come back here
and kind of finalize packing up some of my memories
and special things.
Like all the stuff on this wall
was pretty dear, special stuff to me.
So, I'm gonna start right now.
This calendar here with a picture of my first iditarod.
Flash, and rumba and kors.
♪ ♪
I look out there and there's no dogs in this yard,
there's no puppies in this pen.
It's a lonely place now.
This is no longer home.
No longer a place to keep things.
Time to move on to the next chapter of my life.
I'll be happy to get this job done
and get back home with all this awesome building material.
It's a little bit of a bittersweet feeling for me,
because, you know, it was my dream to build a home
and do a good job of it.
What fills that void right now
is that I have a home in the mountains.
I have a place where I can put all this material back to use,
so it's not a loss.
Okay, I've got all my memorabilia packed up,
now it's time to start taking the cabin down.
♪ ♪
chip: Live and then work till you die.
So, as long as I've got a little something better than that,
I feel blessed.
♪ ♪
a-fishing you shall go?
Agnes: Yeah.
I do plan on smoking the fish we catch.
Chip: It's that time of year.
If we don't put a little bit of smoke to them,
they'll stay damp.
Agnes: Yeah.
Chip: If you guys are gonna start putting up fish,
I should go get you guys like a log of cottonwood.
Agnes: Yeah, cottonwood is always the best.
It's the rainy season, and it's almost winter.
Camp is about ready to be put back away,
and then we move to noorvik,
which is a totally different river.
With the limited time we have left here,
we're doing the last of the fishing.
Chip: Have fun. I'll see you in a little bit.
Agnes: Yup.
Chip: Good luck, love you.
Agnes: Yup. Carol: See you!
Chip: Well, while the ladies are out fishing,
I better go get them some smoking wood.
I'm always on the hunt for wood. That's a fact.
It's a very economical way to heat things up.
It's also an economical way to cook.
But another thing we do with wood,
other than heat with it or such, is smoke with it.
I'm going to one of my favorite wood spots,
which is a large sandbar.
It's like an island in the middle of the kiwalik river.
And hopefully, there's a piece of wood here I'm looking for.
That should be good for now.
I'm basically looking for cottonwood.
It's real punky.
When you get it lit in an ember, it continues to ember.
And when it's smoking,
it puts off a really good, delicious smoke.
There you go.
Look at that.
That's one right there.
It might even be kind of dry.
Well, dry enough to carry.
I think this will do.
I guess we'll call this one good.
We'll take this guy home.
Carol: You want to try and set it right here?
Agnes: Yup.
It's a good spot.
♪ ♪
one, two, three, go.
Hold it tight for now.
Don't let your rope loose.
Ready? It's already pulling?
Carol: Yup, already, I'm already pulling it.
Agnes: With all the salmon fishing we do,
we always say have to do it happy, sad or mad.
But, you know, usually we do it on the happy side,
because we're working, and working together.
That's real good, carol.
Just all the way to the end of the rope.
♪ ♪
wow! Perfect.
Carol: Oh, look, the dog. It's perfect timing.
Ready to go home, dog?
(whistles) come here, boy.
Agnes: Well, we'll see how it is in the morning.
Ricko: The thing I love about alaska is it stays wild.
Everything out here moves with the cycle of life,
and that's what we have to go by.
♪ ♪
me and skyler are going upriver.
When moose season starts, the last thing you want to do
is start building a camp to get yourself comfortable.
So, what we're doing right now
is preparing a nice campsite for hunting moose.
And that way, when moose season opens, we're ready to go.
We have a nice, comfortable spot.
Me and my son, skyler, are gonna do this moose camp.
My daughter skarlett's taking a break.
I dropped her off in huslia. She's having fun.
Her little vacation,
while me and skyler do some hard, manly work out here.
Now, we'll put a canoe there.
We could drag the canoe back
and paddle around during moose hunting.
And we could even do that today
when we're done building that camp.
I know you like hunting ducks, right?
Ricko: You only have a .30-30, so if we can get close enough,
maybe you can try this fall.
Skyler: Okay.
Ricko: This is a fun trip to do with just skyler,
a little father-son time, and, um, he really enjoys it.
It's easier for him to move around,
especially on a tough job like this.
It's easier just to have skyler.
♪ ♪
it's not time to hunt moose right now,
but it's not too early to set up a moose camp.
If we don't get moose during moose hunting season,
we could have a very tough winter
without all that good meat,
so it's nothing for us to go way out of our way
to really build up a nice camp,
and just try to optimize our chances of catching a moose.
Oh, there's something in the water, sky!
Skyler: What is it?
Ricko: Oh, look at those ears.
What has big ears?
Skyler: Moose.
Ricko: Yeah. Couple of moose.
Couple of young bull moose.
They're probably brothers.
Skyler: That's so cool! Wow.
Ricko: Yup, watch them, they get up on the shore and run off.
Even more inspiration to make a moose camp, huh?
Skyler: I'm gonna get a moose someday.
Ricko: That's awesome.
Okay, there's a lake right back here.
We'll land right here and we'll walk back, check out the lake,
and we'll find the shortest route
from where we're gonna build a camp to the lake.
I'm always excited about opening up a new area to explore.
I picked this spot because it's a good area for moose,
but where there's moose, there's bears out here.
Especially the big bears depend on moose to eat,
and that's why I have to stay vigilant.
Anytime you're out here in the woods in the summertime,
you got to watch out for bears.
Oh, (bleep).
Go this way, go this way.
Ricko: Oh, (bleep).
Go this way, go this way.
Bees. Bees.
Oh, yeah.
The bear have been going through here digging up bee nests.
Oh, another one over there.
I see bear markings on the trees back here, too.
So, if other bears coming through, they smell this,
they know he's the bear that owns this place.
See he chewed up the tree on this side?
See, this is his marking post.
It goes all up to here.
He's probably around here,
because you see all these fresh marks
where he dug up those yellow jackets?
He's right around here.
This doesn't factor into my choice too much,
where I'm gonna put the camp,
because there's bears everywhere around here.
It's gonna be pretty sketchy sleeping at night.
Where I make my camp, I'm gonna determine
by where's the best access from the river to the lake.
And seeing this big animal trail here
tells me that the moose use this spot
because it's the easiest place to walk back and forth
from the lake to the river.
So, what I'm thinking, this is a prime spot to make a camp.
I'd say I got a lot of clearing to do, but not too bad.
The fun begins.
(chainsaw starts)
(buzzing)
it's easy to think you're gonna go out in the woods
and just find a nice spot, but that's not how it works.
We really believe in luck in our culture,
but we also believe that you have to earn that luck.
And by making that moose hunting camp,
I'm teaching my son skyler a lot on how to hold your luck,
how to gain luck out here in the land.
And all that makes for a better opportunity
for the bigger picture,
which is harvesting animals and sleeping good at night.
And that's how you really thrive out here, is being comfortable.
(chainsaw revving)
okay, that's it.
The whole campsite's cleared out.
Beautiful view of the river right here.
If any moose come out,
you'll be able to see them on the bar from here.
If I want to hunt back here, I can get back through the lake,
put the canoe in there.
Little bit of gas money, some hard work,
and this is how we put food on the table out here in alaska.
♪ ♪
jessie: I learned to stop chasing the dollar bill
and just chasing my dreams.
And here I am now.
♪ ♪
now I've gotten everything cleaned out inside,
I got to start taking the roof down,
I'll start really getting into a lot of structural stuff.
You know, I got a big day ahead of me,
but this is very valuable material to me.
It's coming apart a lot quicker than it went together,
and already my mind's turning about nice, little projects
that I'll be able to take this material
and, uh, start making my homestead better.
♪ ♪
it isn't that long ago in my life
where I'd just sleep under a tree wherever, whenever,
and it's still 15, 16, 17 years ago,
but that's still pretty fresh in here,
what it is to have nothing but what you have on your back.
You don't want to grow old like that.
You want to have a place to put your roots in.
My place at brushkana makes that all possible.
The last sheet's coming off.
Then I'm gonna tear all this black paper off,
and that's gonna go pretty quick.
It's gonna reveal the downstairs.
Time to just start taking it all apart
so I can get down to the logs, windows,
and all the valuable stuff in this cabin.
♪ ♪
all right, I got all the rafters off.
My main goal right now is get down to these logs.
That's what I need to build a log cabin at home.
Gonna take the windows out,
make sure that they don't get damaged
because these walls are about to come falling down.
♪ ♪
sue: I've got no problems admitting
that I'm an opportunist.
If the opportunity is there, I'll take it.
♪ ♪
the barrels have been moved.
All surfaces are ready to receive the new tent.
And hopefully I can figure this out on my own.
I'm never done one on my own.
I've never actually even heard
of anybody doing a building this size on their own.
(squeaking)
he's like, "no, don't close off my escape hatches, man.
I have dug holes for years!"
sorry, dude. It's getting fixed.
Narrator: Years of wear and tear
have caused irreparable damage to the protective tents
that cover central structures in kavik.
With a storm approaching and winter on the horizon,
sue aikens must quickly replace the damaged covers,
or the buildings will be overtaken
by the ruthless conditions of the tundra.
Sue: Right now, I've got a huge thunderhead coming in.
It's really not good
that I didn't get it before the weather hit.
This building has zero protection now.
It's gonna take off in a good wind,
the storm's gonna bring wind with it.
It's the risk you take when you start doing something like this.
Replacing the covers on these buildings,
it's an insanely huge chore to have to do.
And I don't have a choice, I've got to do it by myself.
In the back of my mind, it's always,
"winter's coming. Winter's coming."
♪ ♪
if I don't get it done before winter hits,
the raging storms of winter are gonna tear them apart,
and I'm done.
The mosquitos are starting to bite really hard,
so I know the rain is getting imminent.
So, I'm gonna run around here and start pulling these ropes,
trying to get it over that section.
We'll see.
As a single person out here
trying to change out a 54-foot tent cover,
it's a little hit and miss.
I only have two arms, but I do have winches on equipment.
So, what I'm doing
is I'm really trying to get inches, inches, inches.
Wind is coming up, the storm is coming in,
I'm kind of out of time.
Because if that tent gets blown off, the project is done.
Come on, baby, come on, baby.
♪ ♪
(snap) (bleep)
(snap) sue: (bleep)
grab it, grab it, grab it, grab it!
Okay.
My tent is just coming over the top, and it broke.
Now, I don't know.
I'm, I'm gonna try to put a loop in.
Um, I'm gonna try and retie it.
That could have been real ugly.
I was able to grab it, that's great,
but the storm is also here.
So, what I'm gonna do now, I'm gonna get these ropes taut
and get that new tent top on over the existing one.
(groans)
if I can alleviate that weak link,
I think I can get this.
♪ ♪
hell yeah.
So, that portion is done.
The tent cover is over the tent.
But the wind is here,
and it's gonna take this, and it's gonna move it.
I've got to get rock on it and I've got to do it now,
before I lose the building.
I'm gonna get gravel. I've got a pile of it here.
When you throw the gravel on it, that weight is gonna help.
A hundred-mile-an-hour wind will tear it up
if I don't have enough force to keep it on the ground.
♪ ♪
(engine stops)
all right.
Basically, that is the top of this one done.
Wind was my only foe, really.
It's, yeah, it's, it's trickling a little bit of rain right now
and it's certainly gonna come in heavy in the next few minutes.
But I've got several ton of gravel on each side.
And so even if the wind does howl,
it's not taking this, this tent topper anywhere.
Still got to do the gen shed regardless.
I got it on, job well done.
Time to put the kids to bed, read them a story,
and get a little sleep myself.
♪ ♪
andy: Every single day that we get up is a very different day
with new adaptations and change in the season.
♪ ♪
denise: I feel like the leaves are changing minute by minute.
The colors.
♪ ♪
narrator: After spotting a moose from calico bluff,
andy and denise have traveled to ford lake
to try to track down the animal.
Harvesting a moose will allow them to stockpile meat
for the long winter that lies ahead.
Andy: I think I'm gonna just probably go
somewhere right over in here,
pretty close to the edge of the lake.
And I'll just rake and rub a little with a stick
if I can find one.
Denise: Okay.
Andy: Hunting out here on the lake
is a very different proposition than hunting in other areas,
because sound carries so well.
And the wind is constantly moving,
so not only can animals hear you very easily,
but they can smell you very easily out here.
♪ ♪
(smacking)
denise: So that brings the moose in.
It's what they do with their antlers, calling for a mate.
They rake their antlers against the brush,
or against the trunk of a tree and make those calling sounds.
(grunting)
he had me fooled.
(grunt)
andy: I think that's all the noise
I really want to make right now.
I'll just have to head back to where denise is at
and see what she's up to.
♪ ♪
andy: You can hear that? Denise: Yeah.
Andy: Okay. It's awful windy.
I wasn't sure how well that sound is traveling.
It's obviously heading towards the hills over there.
Well, let's just go sit down.
Denise: Okay. Pretty wet.
Andy: This is definitely grand central station
for traffic going by here,
so, it's not a bad place to hang out for a little bit.
Denise: We'll just wait it out.
♪ ♪
agnes: Lucky for me, I have my big whole family
and lucky I grew up here.
I think I'm lucky.
♪ ♪
nice day to go fishing, with the net soaking all day.
Hopefully get a tub-load.
♪ ♪
carol: Ready? Agnes: Yup.
♪ ♪
carol: Right now there's just a few fish running good.
There are silvers that are good right now, and some kings,
but we don't really get much at this time of the year.
So, we're gonna go check our net
and then, um, see if we get any fish.
♪ ♪
agnes: Wow, the net looks good.
It looks like there's some fish in there.
Carol: Yeah, look, it's moving right there.
♪ ♪
yeah, see those down there. Put your motor up.
Carol: Uh-oh.
Agnes: Oh. Dang.
That's not what we want.
Agnes: Oh. Dang.
Spawned-out fish. That's not what we want.
Carol: Spawned-out fish, which has already laid eggs,
and they're just getting nasty.
We call them zombie fish out here.
And you just take them out and throw them back in the river,
and they'll probably float up, die later.
And then the rest of the animals will get to eat.
The birds and everything else in the water.
And don't come back.
Agnes: I hope they're not all zombie fish.
♪ ♪
oh, here's a good one, check this one out.
Carol: Oh, wow. Agnes: Whoo.
Carol: That's a good one.
Agnes: This one's a nice one.
It's a silver.
This is what we're hoping for.
I'll put it on that side.
Carol: Oh, look, king.
Agnes: Wow.
Carol: Real red.
Agnes: Yeah, you could just leave him on the boat floor.
Carol: Whoa, look at this, barely been caught.
Agnes: What is it?
Carol: Probably jumping, yeah?
♪ ♪
agnes: Fishing with caroline is a lot of fun.
Carol's usually the one taking the fish out of the net,
then I'm usually on the other side of the boat
trying to keep the balance.
She enjoys taking the fish out of the net,
and I enjoy sitting there, watching her.
It's a blessing when you have your kids working with you.
Carol: Might be the last one.
Agnes: Oh, there's another one? Yay.
Right on.
How many is that? Six?
Carol: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Agnes: Quite a few fish, huh?
Real short net.
Carol: Right on now. Ready to go?
Agnes: Yeah. Go cut up our fish.
And we'll just cut them all up and make them into strips,
and then we'll get some, uh, smoke going on them,
so we can smoke them also.
Smoked salmon strips.
Carol: Sounds good.
Andy: Plan minute by minute, hour by hour,
and adapt to whatever comes our way.
And make the best of whatever we can.
♪ ♪
denise: That wind's kicking up.
Andy: You getting cold? Denise: Yeah.
Andy: Well, I think, uh, our timing isn't right.
Like I don't see any moose here.
So, I'm gonna go back out
and I'm gonna kind of check the lake out
and see if any ducks have landed on this side since we landed.
And then why don't you build a fire
and you can warm up a little bit.
Narrator: Andy and denise are searching for the moose
they spotted earlier from calico bluff.
But after a long day of calling for the animal,
they have yet to see any more sign of their prey.
So, while denise builds a fire,
andy will turn his attention to a harvest
that is more abundant in the area: Waterfowl.
Andy: The thing about duck hunting on the lake
is, um, the ducks just, you have to be super stealthful.
The second they see you, they're gone.
♪ ♪
just one by himself.
Kind of a long shot for this gun,
but I'm gonna give it a shot
and see if I can't add something to the pot.
(gunshot)
denise: Oof.
Ugh. I wish there was a way
I could get some warning on that.
Andy: Oh, yeah, got him.
Yeah.
All right.
♪ ♪
every time you go out, you learn more
about where the resources are that are free.
So, we can go out into this country
and we could shoot a duck pretty much for free,
the cost of a shotgun blast.
We can power ourselves around with our own muscle power,
which doesn't cost us any money.
There's a lot to be said for, uh, the viability
and the sensibility of living this lifestyle.
♪ ♪
oh, what the hell?
Holy crap. It's my canoe.
It's been gone since, like, 2009.
I lost this in the flood in 2009.
What a find. Holy crap.
(laughs)
it doesn't look so pretty,
but see if I can't bring it out to the lake,
and we'll have another boat out here.
That's a one in a million.
Anytime we can come home with something is a win.
Denise: Hey.
Andy: Not only did I get a duck, I found a canoe...
Denise: Like a canoe, canoe?
Andy: An aluminum canoe that I had during the '09 flood.
And it just disappeared during the flood,
and I just assumed that it got washed back in the woods
and was crushed by all the ice.
Denise: Wow. Oh, man, that's good.
Andy: Yeah. Denise: I want to go look at it.
Andy: Well, let's get something to eat,
we'll do that on the way back.
♪ ♪
jessie: I've been footloose and fancy-free
my whole damn life, and it feels good.
♪ ♪
okay, now that I've got the roof off here,
before I, uh, start taking down the second-story walls,
I'm gonna be just dropping those down.
I don't want them to damage these nice windows.
These are very valuable to me.
I don't even have a window in my cabin in brushkana
because I knew I'd be able to use these windows.
A lot of this is, uh, little bit extra difficult
because I built this cabin to last.
I didn't build it to be taken down.
(saw whirring)
it's really hard for me taking this cabin down.
I built it.
I built it nice, and I never even got to finish it.
I never got to finish the deck,
I never got to build a proper kitchen,
I never even got to trim the windows.
Which in the end, I'm glad I didn't,
because I don't think I would be able to tear it down
if I did that.
That'd break my heart.
I don't think I realized how heavy this was gonna be.
(bleep)
not gonna be easy, is it, holmes?
That's what happens when you think things are gonna be easy.
(groans)
jessie: (bleep)
I've got, uh, the window out
with the whole frame attached here,
but, man, it ain't light and it wasn't easy.
I got, uh, three more to go.
♪ ♪
I don't want to be spread thin
and be thinking about two places.
I want everything that I need in brushkana,
and that's where I can get focused,
finally accomplish what I've been trying to accomplish.
That went a little easier than I thought it would.
Now I got all my windows out,
I can, uh, start disassembling these walls.
♪ ♪
it's a little bit of mixed emotions
because I'm tearing down something that I built to last,
but, uh, I'm finding clever ways of doing it,
and it's going well.
You know, I just can't be hung up on the negative feelings
of having to tear it down.
I got to get caught up in the positives
of what I can build with this material.
(creaking)
now it's time to start disassembling the logs.
I'm starting to not see a cabin no more
and I'm starting to see projects at brushkana taking place.
♪ ♪
agnes: Living a subsistence lifestyle,
you have to go out and get your own food,
put it away and prepare it the way you want it.
(chainsaw roaring)
♪ ♪
chip: How goes the fish catching?
Carol: Good.
Chip: Good? Awesome.
I scored a log of cottonwood.
Agnes: Right on.
Chip: I'm gonna get some smoke up for you ladies
before it gets dark.
Agnes: Yeah.
Yep, these are definitely worth waiting for and fishing for.
Yum.
Usually, this time of the year, it's always foggy and rainy,
and so try to cut our fish strips kind of thin
so they can dry.
Because if you don't cut 'em up thin,
they're just gonna get, uh, moldy and they won't dry
and get rancid because of the weather.
So we're just gonna rinse 'em, salt 'em,
hang 'em, and smoke 'em.
Carol: I enjoy catching my own food out here.
Knowing that I grew up out here, too.
We know how it's been processed
and how good it's been taken care of.
It's a pretty good feeling
knowing I know how to make my own really healthy food.
Agnes: A good batch of fish here.
Hang 'em and leave 'em here for a while.
In the next few days,
I can actually eat the fish right out of the rack.
And then we'll pack them all up and then head back to noorvik.
We're pretty much set for winter
with our silver and our reds and our kings.
Carol: Ha-ha.
Agnes: Awesome. Good job.
You can tell they're salted by the gloss over 'em.
Carol: Yeah.
We're gonna have lots of dried fish
for when we go hunting now.
Agnes: Yeah.
♪ ♪
ricko: Life gets played out and everything becomes a job,
but when I have my kids with me,
I'm reliving my youth again through them.
♪ ♪
okay, sky. Let's get this tarp up.
Just spread it out as far as you can.
See, we're gonna put it between these trees here.
And this is just gonna give us a nice little dry spot
we could sit under or even leave our firewood here.
Let's try to get this done before the rain hits.
We might be using this tarp before we even know it.
It's about two weeks out from moose hunting season.
But it takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of noise
to put up a moose hunting camp,
and I want to do this early so I'm not making all that noise
and having to do all this work during moose hunting.
Skyler: We could set a wall tent here.
Ricko: Yeah. Well, this is something we could leave up.
We don't even have to take it down.
We don't want to put a wall tent up and walk away.
Bear might tear the crap out of it.
This is a big step for skyler
because he's hunted a lot of small game,
but now he's gotta think of the bigger animals
and it's a lot more dangerous hunting big game,
so he's gonna have to stick close to me
and learn all these different moves we do out here
to try to get a good opportunity to harvest something,
so it's exciting for him.
Ricko: Now we'll stand it up.
Okay, tarp's up.
Next thing, let's put some firewood under this.
Okay, this is a dead spruce tree,
also known as standing dry.
Once it dies, this becomes
the best firewood you can get out here.
Only problem is it's leaning right in the brush.
Skyler: So?
Ricko: I'm hoping to knock it this way.
It's easier to cut it up
without having to walk through the brush.
I'm gonna try. If I can't, I can't.
(chainsaw revving)
seems like a simple job just to cut a tree down,
I've done it a lot of times,
but there's a variable of adding kids into the mix,
especially being way out here in the woods.
It's a long ways from help right here,
so there's no room for error,
no room for getting hurt out here.
It wants to fall this way, I want it to fall that way,
so we might have to push it.
Go right, stand right here.
I'll tell you when.
♪ ♪
ah! Get back!
(chainsaw buzzing)
♪ ♪
ricko: Ah! Get back!
(chainsaw idling)
you gotta get away from it.
When it's falling, that thing can kick back.
(turns off chainsaw)
(bleep) that scared me.
See how you were standing right here?
Skyler: Mm-hmm.
Ricko: If this thing lands on something over here,
it'll kick that stump right up into you,
that's why I shoved you back.
I forgot to warn you, though, ahead of time.
I was a little scared there and pushed him back right away.
I didn't want skyler to think he made a mistake
because it's only common for a kid to not realize
that you can't stand next to that stump.
Especially being way out here in the woods,
mistakes like that can really cost you your life.
My mistake, I gotta think a little harder
before I explain things.
Hopefully, he learned from that, though.
We all make mistakes.
That one's on me.
Let's see if we live to cut another tree.
So let's get back to work.
Just gonna limb all the branches off of it,
buck it up, stack it up,
and we're done with the firewood and shelter.
(chainsaw buzzing)
anytime I do stuff like this with my kids,
I'm bonding with them.
They also learn a lot
and they learn how to start a project and finish a project.
You can start carrying it back, put it under the tarp.
And like my late mom said, don't half-ass anything,
so that's what I want to teach skyler,
is how to get the job done and get it done right.
♪ ♪
(thunder)
oh, you feel that rain?
Skyler: Uh-huh.
Ricko: Tarp is good.
It's keeping everything dry already.
A place to put the guns.
That's the beauty of having this tarp,
so you don't have to hide in the tent all day.
Skyler: Yeah.
Ricko: And even if you didn't have a tent,
you could sleep right here at night and you'll stay dry.
It's raining out, but we're dry.
This tarp's doing its job already.
Moose camp 101.
♪ ♪
jessie: I'm done waiting.
When I want something, I'm gonna go get it,
and that's what I did.
♪ ♪
I've got all the second story down, I've got all my beams out.
Now it's just taking these log screws out,
dropping these logs down.
Then the hard work will begin,
putting them on the trailer is the hard work.
♪ ♪
these are amazing eight-inch timbers.
They can shelter you from the storm,
and, uh, it ain't doing me no good here no more,
so getting it home is important to me.
♪ ♪
I will say about this cabin,
I could see a lot of things that I did wrong,
taking it apart, and that's good.
Anytime you can assess your own work
and see an opportunity to do something better,
that just helps me in the future
whenever I do build my big dream house in brushkana.
It's just a different way of looking at things,
taking something apart instead of putting it back together
that opens up a lot of ideas in one's head.
♪ ♪
all right, I got all the logs down.
Time to start loading all this up
and head for brushkana for the night.
(grunts)
every aspect of working with these logs,
you have to be very careful in.
It's not like a two-by-four or a two-by-six
or a two-by-ten that I can handle all day long.
I mean, these logs weigh 200, 300 pounds.
Some of 'em are really heavy.
Nice, uh, hearty load here.
I don't really want to risk anything
trying to get greedy and haul more than I, than I should,
because, uh, you know, I got a rough road to travel ahead.
I'm gonna head for brushkana, get these unloaded,
spend the night and head back here in the morning,
and I'm there, I can see the end in sight.
But, uh, the next part's gonna be challenging as well.
When I built this cabin, I felt like I was spending money.
As I tear it down, I feel like I'm making money.
♪ ♪
sue: You always want perfect conditions.
You seldom get them.
♪ ♪
all right.
Late last night, I got the storage quonset building done.
The gen shed is quite a bit larger than the storage quonset.
The cover is a lot heavier.
I missed last night's storm, for the most part,
but I've got another one right now.
♪ ♪
this is the beginning to my winter.
So I'm gonna tie these ropes on,
heave 'em over like I did yesterday,
and keep plugging away at it.
Shoot, here comes the rain.
♪ ♪
if I tear these up,
I don't have more money sitting in the bank to do it.
This is everything left in my 401k
to get through this phenomenally unusual year.
There's a lot of weight still left to come over,
and I'll just keep going and reelin' 'em in.
And I'm betting on myself to get it done right.
That's a big bet.
Ugh!
♪ ♪
(snap)
♪ ♪
sue: Come on.
♪ ♪
ugh!
♪ ♪
(snap)
holy (bleep).
All right, uh, what just happened now,
it's kind of a game changer in how I get this cover over.
With all of this water,
the weight of the tent itself was too much,
but I'm fully committed, and I have to get it done now.
♪ ♪
so, what I'm gonna do is go back on the other side,
and with the little sue cat,
I'm gonna try and lift the material up a little bit more.
If I can get it lifted up a little bit more,
I can run and start hand-pulling some of these other ropes.
♪ ♪
the cover is over.
Unfortunately, it was done at a cost to the building.
I've got tears in the building.
I cannot fix those while things are wet.
So that means tomorrow, I need a few band-aids on it,
but I got band-aids, and I'll be okay.
A baby makes it to the front door
one toddle at a time.
Not a leap.
♪ ♪
andy: Difference between winter and summer here
is 180 degrees.
They don't look the same, they don't smell the same,
they don't feel the same.
♪ ♪
well, that was a good little break.
Denise: It was great.
Andy: Get off the lake for a little bit.
Got a duck, found an 11-year-old canoe.
Now all we've gotta do is see if it can float.
(laughing)
so why don't you pack up your gear here
and I'll meet you down by the canoe?
Although we didn't get any big game today,
we gained a lot of knowledge,
so it was a really successful experience today.
Well, I'd say it's seen better days, but might float.
(laughs)
I guess if it doesn't make it home,
it'll be a monument to the '09 flood
at the bottom of the lake.
Denise: Oh, cool.
It does float.
Andy: Yeah. It's probably...
Denise: (laughing) it's a little squashed.
I guess considering how it arrived here,
that's in good shape.
Wow, that's great.
We could put a whole moose in there and pull it home.
Andy: Well, that's what I'm thinking.
It may not be great for paddling,
but it sure would be good for hauling.
Denise: Uh-huh.
Andy: Work for us is oftentimes play.
It's really rewarding because everything we do for work here
directly benefits us.
That's the beauty of bush life,
that's the struggle that a lot of people have with bush life
is that it's hard physical work.
Sometimes the payoffs don't come for a long time.
But they do come if you're, if you persevere at 'em.
I don't think I could live anywhere but alaska.
I just really like my life out in the bush.
♪ ♪
I put 30 years of hard work into what I'm doing right now,
and it's starting to pay off and I want to be able to enjoy it.
In my later years, what I want to do
is live a nice, peaceful life that's me and denise and my dogs
and natural surroundings and be self-sufficient
and live a much more simple life.
We've got a caboose this time.
Denise: Yeah. The moose caboose.
Something that makes me stop and contemplate
is something special, and that happens a lot here.
What I love about alaska is that it is the air, it's the beauty,
it's the nature you can count on.
As unpredictable as the day-to-day is,
the climate, it's, it's, it's always there.
Andy: So we got a good gander on the lake, a little gander duck,
an old canoe find,
and a pretty good day of paddling on the lake.
♪ ♪
ricko: Athabaskan culture is all about survival.
Me teaching the kids is like passing my culture on to them.
♪ ♪
nice lake system back here, eh?
This is all river right here.
Once we got the tarp up, the wood cut,
we brought the canoe off the boat and back into the lake.
I want to paddle around, look for a place to do a ladder.
There's places where there's a lot of moose,
but there's also a lot of brush, and it's hard to see them,
so we do ladders out here on the trees.
That gives us a vantage point
to be able to look out over the flats or over the brush
and try to pinpoint where the moose are at.
But there's also small game out here.
He might get a chance to shoot at some ducks,
and that's exciting for skyler.
It's also exciting for me
and also puts a little bit of food on the table for us,
and fresh meat's always good.
I see a couple of ducks right there, straight ahead.
When they get close together, that's when you shoot
because you have higher chance to get them.
Okay. Right there, they're close together.
(gunshot)
oh, yeah. You got it.
Get, reload, reload, reload.
I think you got him pretty good.
Okay, grab.
Ah, don't be scared.
We don't want to tip over.
Hey.
Get your gun ready.
Did you see where he fell?
Skyler: Yeah, I saw.
Ricko: Next time, don't let him get away.
You gotta grab him, sky.
Oh, right there, right there, right there.
Right there. Look, straight.
Look, you see it?
Skyler: Oh, yeah.
Ricko: Okay. Shoot it in the head.
(gunshot)
oh...
(quack)
you got it.
Good job.
Skyler: Is that a big one?
Ricko: Yeah, that's a mallard.
Skyler: Holy smack.
Ricko: Oh, this is a big duck.
♪ ♪
skyler: Okay.
(exhales)
ricko: You get nervous? Skyler: Yes.
Ricko: I get nervous for you.
Skyler: Anaa basee, duck.
Ricko: Good job, sky.
Skyler: Oh, my gosh. He's...
Ricko: That's the biggest duck you ever got.
Skyler: Yeah.
Ricko: There's always misses out here.
You don't always catch what you're shooting at,
and it's just part of the game,
and skyler is a little nervous when he's pulling up on a duck,
and I think it's easy to make mistakes
when you're not thinking clearly,
and that happens to everyone out here,
especially at a young age.
We kept paddling and eventually he was able to catch a mallard,
which was the biggest duck he ever caught,
so that was exciting.
I'm looking for a good place to put up a moose ladder.
You see that big tree down there?
That's the best place for a moose ladder
because you can see all the way around.
You could see down this way,
you can see down the other side of the lake,
and also back into the flats.
♪ ♪
hey, what's that over there?
It's a black bear.
Ricko: Get down real low and cover your ears if I shoot.
Stay down.
(gunshot)
ricko: Stay down.
♪ ♪
(gunshot)
skyler: Got him? Ricko: Shh, shh, shh.
♪ ♪
wait right here.
♪ ♪
I just shot at a black bear right here.
It ran up right here, so I'm gonna look for some blood.
I don't want to rush back here
because if he's wounded and I run up on him, he might grab me.
♪ ♪
I could see his trail through this stuff.
It's easy to see his path, but there ain't no sign of blood.
And it looked like I hit him.
He went like this, but what I think happened
is when he was on the bank like this,
I shot over him,
and the bullet travels faster than the sound of your firearm,
so slapped the ground, so I think that startled him,
and it looked like almost, like, he, like, got hit,
but I think from no blood
and the way he was moving after that,
I think he just got startled by the bullet.
I really think I just made a real rookie move
and I'm real disappointed in myself
because black bear's a big deal out here.
That's a lot of good meat, a lot of good fat,
a lot of good bear grease.
I feel bad, but I know I didn't wounded the bear
because there's no blood.
If you hit a black bear with a .375 solid,
you're gonna see some blood,
so he's still living, I didn't waste any meat.
Skyler got to watch me try for one,
and maybe skyler can feel like I'm more like a human to him
because he thinks I'm a superhero,
but I make mistakes, too,
so, it's okay, maybe another day I'll see him.
You know, skyler, I don't think I hit him.
Skyler: We were so close to it.
That thing just came right out for you.
Ricko: You know how I feel right now?
Skyler: How?
Ricko: I should've gave this gun to you and let you shoot.
Okay, well, at least we got ducks, huh?
Skyler: Yeah.
Ricko: What I want to do
is build a little ladder up this tree
and just make perfect steps going all the way up
and then clear out an area from top
where I can look out over the land
and maybe see any kind of big game
that happen to be in the area.
Okay, whatever falls down,
just try to clear it away from the tree, okay?
Hopefully it isn't me.
♪ ♪
we're back in the stone age out here, you know.
We gotta climb trees, we gotta think outside the box,
we're just like the animals out here.
They're doing everything they can to survive.
And part of growing up in the woods,
you learn to do everything you can to survive.
At the start of the season,
I wanted to spend more time with my kids
and I really accomplished that this year,
and they learned a lot by hanging out with me.
We did a lot of hunting, fishing, building a tree house.
Not only did the kids have a lot of fun, they learned a lot.
Because when they learn to plan for the future and work for it,
it's not only gonna help them in the woods.
When they go to school, when they get a job,
they're gonna know how to start a job and finish it,
and that's what's really important,
is just teaching them how to work hard
and earn something out here.
In another five or ten years, I'll be doing good out here,
and they're gonna be helping me out a lot.
That's the legacy I want to leave out here.
This is the highest point I'm gonna go,
and it looks beautiful up here.
Perfect vantage point,
I can see all the way down the end of this lake,
I can see across in these meadows
on the other side of the lake, perfect for hunting.
Spectacular view.
♪ ♪
sue: You're only as strong as the weakest link.
Determine what that is, account for it,
and your job is done.
♪ ♪
all right, I brought the ladder in
because last night, putting the gen shed cover on,
I ended up getting a few tears in the building.
There was a lot of force going different directions
once that rain started pelting.
So before anything organizes and storms come in,
I have to get material for the fix and I have to fix it.
How do you say in a camp like this,
what's the most important thing?
Without those two buildings being saved, there is no kavik.
Getting those on saved camp.
Yeah, I did a hell of a good job.
This was a bit of a strange year.
Pandemic going on, it changed everything.
From the way we talk to each other
to the way we experience things.
There's a lot that I had to adapt to.
The clients that I had set up for this year
aren't gonna be showing up.
Does it mean I don't work here at kavik? No.
♪ ♪
I put a lot of sweat equity into kavik, as well as the cabin.
I was able to work on my survival skills.
I'm most proud for sticking with it.
Hey, dude!
It's been a tough year.
Adaptation is just taking the circumstances
and changing a little bit to succeed.
♪ ♪
all right, that patch is on.
Two new tents, gonna last the winter,
everything's safe,
and I can concentrate on having fun this winter.
♪ ♪
agnes: It's really awesome to be out here in the country,
and it's a blessing to have your family with you by your side.
♪ ♪
the smoke is doing its thing.
Got a few pieces of paniqtaq there.
These make some tea.
Chip: Well, that's gonna be
some straight-up powerful cranberry tea, huh?
Agnes: Yeah.
Carol: Dad, our, uh, dry fish is real nice.
Agnes: We did pretty good.
Chip: I'd say you guys did excellent.
Agnes: Yeah. Should be enough salmon for now.
Chip: Yeah.
Carol: Man, we sure did a lot of fishing
and a lot of stuff this year, huh?
Chip: It was fun.
Carol: Can't believe we stayed here through winter,
spring, and summer, and then now fall.
Agnes: This year, 2020, was not what I expected.
Covid-19 was a lot of uncertainty.
When the rest of the world is like that,
it's the best place to be is out camping.
We were pretty much adapting to our grandkids
over this last year.
Having wade kelly along with us,
sebastian, and little baby rose and little baby adelynn,
it's just so interesting to just see my daughters
have their own children and families.
I'm happy for them.
(quacking)
chip: Geese are calling.
They're getting ready to leave, too.
And soon enough, we know we'll be on to other places
doing other things,
but we've got a lot of nice smoked fish to take with us.
Time to go north and hunt caribou.
My kids, I like the fact they like the simpler stuff,
like just putting up a tent, hunting...
(gunshot)
...Fishing, kicking back
and being busy in a whole different way.
It gets you away
from that 9:00 to 5:00 stuff of the village.
It's the place to be for me.
Agnes: Right on, eh, we'll call it a day?
Chip: Yup, call it a day.
Agnes: Good job, carol.
Thank you for your handiwork.
Carol: Mm-hmm. Lots of fun.
Better than being in the village.
Chip: That's for sure.
♪ ♪
jessie: Some people have a midlife crisis,
but I'm having a midlife success.
♪ ♪
wow, this is really grown over, over here.
It's, uh, looks completely different.
This old doghouse here.
Just lots of brush growing over it.
This was one of the nicest dog yards
that I had ever had up to this point,
and, uh, you know, this is a walk down memory lane
looking at this whole place,
thinking about how much I changed this place.
This used to all be forest and trees and, you know,
I wanted to make a better life for my dogs.
♪ ♪
being back in nenana these last couple days
was a flood of emotions for me.
It was very bittersweet.
There was a lot of nostalgia.
It was just, uh, reliving all the things
that made me prepared for the future.
It shaped me in many different ways.
This is where I learned how to be a good dog musher,
I learned survival skills,
I learned how to build a lot of things on my own,
and it made me a better person living here.
I experienced pain, I experienced loss,
I've experienced hardship, and I've come through the fire,
and I can move on and focus all my abilities in one thing,
one place, and watch that grow and watch that always be mine.
It's a sad sight,
seeing this dog yard with no dogs in it, you know.
If the dogs ain't here, then my heart's not here.
My heart's with the dogs.
It's a little bit bittersweet to leave it all behind
and say goodbye to it, but my home now is in brushkana.
I've got everything that I can salvage from here.
It's time to say goodbye.
♪ ♪
when I got on the road and knew I was heading home,
I never felt so excited to be somewhere
and go somewhere in my life.
I feel very satisfied with what I was able to accomplish
in brushkana this year.
It requires sacrifice, it requires isolation,
it requires being happy with yourself
every day when you wake up.
I always wanted to live in the mountains,
I always wanted to live on a river.
You know, my dream has come true.
I have a beautiful place in the wilderness.
I'm ready for the winter
and I'm ready to have the best season of my life.
So, this is the beginning of something great.
This is the beginning of a whole new chapter.
Captioned by side door media services