[Rhain] You stand up?
Nope, you're a little wobbly still.
[car honks]
[Rhain gasps] Who is it?
There you go, see.
[Noah] Let me get the boy.
[Rhain] Hi.
-I missed you. -It's good to be back.
For me it's good.
[narrator] On this episode of Alaskan Bush People...
This is it.
Why are you dancing?
We're really excited to start working on our home site.
The sooner I can get a little cabin built,
the sooner I can move Raquell and the girls up here.
I wanna keep it as, as bush as I can.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
That, uh-uh.
Okay, let's get to work.
There is so much to be doing on the mountain,
but right now I wanna make sure the gold is up and running
for Rain and for Dad.
This is your thing, you were the one that saw it all pieced together.
What?
I don't even know where the equipment's supposed to, like, actually be.
Oh, my gosh.
It's going off the edge!
[Gabe] Love the sun out here.
Finally back in Washington.
It's been a long journey and my feet are throbbing.
I'm itchy all over, I'm really dirty, really grubby.
Very much looking forward to getting cleaned up.
As soon as I got back from Alaska,
first priority is to start clearing my land.
It's just killing me. I wanna get Raquell and the girls
moved up to the mountain as fast as I can.
Right now, there's no place for 'em.
I need some place safe, some place kinda nice to put Raquell and the girls.
Well, right here I have everything I might need for my bath.
I have some flowers, so like a cologne.
And then a pumice stone for my feet.
Only time I really noticed the long hair and the beard is when I'm putting soap on.
[groans]
Whew!
That water comes up out of the well
and it's just cold and cool and refreshing.
[exhales] Now for the feet.
Using the rock like a pumice stone.
I'm scraping of all the old dead skin
that's all built up from the calluses and it doesn't tickle.
Feels good, feels very clean very refreshed.
That groggy feeling of the end of the day is gon
I'm ready to start settling in for bed.
I would save it for the next guy, but ew.
[narrator] The Brown family is complete once again. on North Star Ranch.
[Bird] Yes, I'm coming to feed.
[narrator] And with the end of good weather growing near,
home builds for Gabe and Bea
and a mountain irrigation system are top priority.
[Bird] Like, we've been awa from Washington for a little bit now
and it's a little weird to be back.
There is so much to be doing on the mountain right now.
There's so much to rebuild.
But with winter around the corner, we don't have much time.
I do think they missed me.
Hi! Oh, don't come at me.
I'm not Gabe. Good boy.
Yup, showing off.
[narrator] With his goal of finding a new home in Alaska accomplished,
Brother Noah will shift gear to lending a hand
on other urgent family projects
How was it with Auntie Rainie and Auntie Birdie?
Did anything special happen?
No.
No you remember that big red slide?
A big, big giant one!
A big giant slide?
[Noah] Before we go back to Alaska,
the plan the entire time was to help everyone get set up on the mountain.
-[Noah growls] -[children laughing]
[Noah] Pile on!
-[Rhain] Too many babies! -[everyone laughing]
[Noah] There's a lot of stuff we need to do
to my property and to the mountain.
Need to set up everything in Washington to be able to survive without me.
[Ami] You brought stuff?
[Bird] You also don't know how hard it was not to,
every time we call you, to tell you.
[Ami] January 8, 2000.
Oh, my gosh.
Ugh, those pictures were taken 22 years ago.
-[Bam] That's my handwriting. -Yes, it is.
-Oh, my gosh. -[Bird] Yeah.
-[Noah] Yeah, that one's you. -Oh, my gosh.
[Bird] I was waiting for you to see that one.
[Noah] That's you in your kitchen.
It is, oh, my gosh.
It's wonderful to see that Noah and, and Bird have returned from Alaska.
I'm very relieved that they're back safe and sound.
All of it was relatively in, like, this shape.
-But look at this. -[Bird] Exactly.
This gives me hope.
You know, I definitely feel like I got a few answers on the Alaska trip.
It has helped me with this chapter of my life.
But I was somewhat surprised to see
how much the Alaska trip effected Rain.
I could kinda slowly see the, the emotion getting more and more
and it getting a little harder for her.
I wish I noticed it a bit more.
Alaska and everything, it was just, it was really hard on her.
-[Noah] Everyone took it kinda hard, it was tough. -[Bird] Yeah, it was.
The entire trip was and everyone's just dealing with it in their own way.
It's okay, I can understand that.
It would be tough for me. I'm sitting here talking to y'all
and it's tough for me.
And shouldn't she just gotta take some time for herself.
-Just for a little bit. -[Ami] Whatever she needs. Whatever she needs.
For sure.
[Ami] It's very difficult wh a mother sees her children
going through a difficult, tough time because you can't take it for them.
I'm proud of Rainie for facing these situations and problems she's having.
She didn't really ever grieve.
But, like, each person that's ever been on earth, or ever will be on earth,
there's some things we have to do alone.
Us and God.
Y'all, that's a pretty arduous journey you went on.
Missed y'all.
I missed you all too, it's definitely,
it was a good trip and everything.
You know, a lot to be done now that we're back.
When it's, like, right now, there's really nothing I can do for Rain.
But one thing that I know for sure that I can d
I can help with hard-rock mining and get some gold.
It's just kinda been in the back burner
with us going to Alaska and doing other things
and now I'm gonna bring it back to life
so Rain can be super excited when she gets home.
[narrator] Last fall, younger sister, Rain, convinced the family
to acquire old mining equipment
with the hopes of bringing a gold operation to the Brown's mountain.
[Bear cheers]
Whoo! That's what I'm talking about.
Well, now that, uh, now that we're back,
I was thinking if I could get help to get it, like, up and going.
I know Rain is definitely one of us that wants to get the ranch self-sustaining.
I think that's everybody's goal
and I think the gold will very much help with that.
But there's a lot of other projects we're working on as well.
The hardest part is actuall trying to convince everyone
the gold mine, this is the time to do it.
And that is a goal of mine, is to try and get it up and running
for Rain and for Dad.
[narrator] The renewed hunt for gold
could mean putting other projects on hold
and Brother Gabe is trying to beat the freeze.
[Gabe] Well, right now I'm clearing a path up to
the house site that I picked out, uh, for Raquell and I.
Ideally, I'll have some small piece of machinery,
like, maybe Noah's tractor, come up here and help me level things off.
But I don't wanna make too much of an impact in here.
That's what Raquell and I like about the area,
how foresty it is, it's perfect for our little gnome cottage.
So, I definitely don't want a big bulldozer rolling in and tearing everything up.
So, as little impact as possible.
Which right now is just one man and a machete.
No, Raquell and I are really excited to start working on our home site.
It's been a long time coming and it's definitely the, the first step for the future.
I just imagine walking into the woods
and you hear those birds achirping.
And, you know, I'll go home, walk through the door,
and Raquell's baking cookies and the kids are playing.
That's definitely what I see the potential of this land to be.
House site's five feet away over there.
And don't you know, it'd be this guy in my way.
This is the beaver method, you have to kinda chew away at it.
You know, using the beaver method
is not as fast as having an actual beaver.
Not much wood could a Gabe-chuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
Most important thing in my mind right now on the house build
is just to get the foundation down.
If I can get a good foundation poured before the snow flies,
I'm gonna be able to build through the winter and it's not gonna stop me.
I'll be able to keep buildin
If I don't get a foundation in, kiss that dream goodbye.
[breathing heavily] We got maybe one more run through.
It's gonna be clear, Noah can bring his tractor on up.
[Bam] Now, the top piece still seems to be connected.
[stammers] That should stand directly underneath that looking up, but...
[narrator] With plans to set up an irrigation syst
and a hay field on the mountain,
Brother Bam hopes to fix a malfunction
with one of the ranch's main sources of water.
A big step for the ranch is to be able to grow our own food,
our own hay up on the mountain.
But the amount of water we're able to produce at the moment,
there's no way we could do that.
The main well, it's not functional any more
because the force of the wind broke the wood at the bottom
and it detached the wood where they had it screwed together.
So, it's actually very simple how this is supposed to work.
Uh, the pump is basically powered just by being pulled up and down.
And then the rod just connects to the top of the windmill
and it's made to where it bobs up and down
and pulls the pump as the windmill turns.
The last storm that came through, which was pretty strong,
was just too much for it and it broke the windmill where the wood connects.
Well, that's not a very strong piece of wood to begin with.
The amount of force it was probably dealing with was just way too much for it.
If our only option is using better, stronger wood
then that's what we'll do. If this piece was replaced
with a much larger piece of wood.
Run that up, just do away with this whole part.
I am very excited about being able to grow our own hay on the mountain.
When the windmill is working again
I think we can easily set u irrigation systems.
We have plenty of land. There are plenty of places to do that.
It's gonna take a lot of the cost out of what we're doing
and it's gonna make things so much easier.
It's a pretty simple fix, just gonna take the time to do it.
[Gabe] Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go.
[Bird] Before you know it, we're gonna actually, be, like, processing gold.
[Gabe] I know.
[Bird] Also, if you get that zipline up and running at some point.
[Gabe] Yeah.
Well, especially if we get a lot of gold coming out of this one for sure.
[narrator] Last year, the mining gear
Sister Rain acquired was placed near
the most promising mine on the mountain.
But with evidence of historical mining around several different entrances
Bird and Gabe will collect and pan samples from each
to identify the best locatio to set up the operation.
[Gabe] I think this is it, let's get some gold.
[Bird] I think the main reas Dad actually purchased the mountain
is because of all the mines that are on it.
Uh, and it's not just us that are like, "Oh, let's do some mining here."
People have been mining on this mountain for a long, long time.
[narrator] In the 1900s, Palmer Mountain
was ground zero for the gold boom in Washington
But after running out of money and time,
the mines were abandoned.
Many believe the full potential of gold was never realized,
giving the Browns hope for a motherload waiting to be discovered.
[Gabe] All right, I'll watch you from up here.
[Bird] Oh, dude, it's so cold in here.
There's water. Hear that? Listen.
[water splashing]
-Do you hear the splash? -[Gabe] All right, let me in there.
[Bird] This though was probably an air shaft,
is when they were actively mining these,
they did not have the crusher and equipment that we have.
-Really? -[Bird] So, all the tailings, even out here,
could have gold in it.
-There's a bunch loose here, so hold the bucket out... -[Gabe] I'll get you a bucket.
[Bird]...and I'm just gonna go ahead and grab this stuff.
[Gabe] Even though I'm way behind on building the house
I definitely think that mining on North Star Ranch
could be one of our biggest assets.
At one time, this was a mega-producing mine.
It could be really lucrative for North Star Ranch.
It could help fund a lot of our things.
Gold fever is pretty deeply rooted in the Brown family.
It sucks you in, like, that lure of gold.
-What was that? -What? Nothing.
-What was that? -I took a leaf.
Okay, we need to make a pact right now.
What we find, we share.
That's ore, okay?
[Gabe] What we find, we share.
But if I find a baby bat,
-I don't wanna share it with you. -What we find...
What we find, we share, Bird.
[Bird] Once we figure out which one has the most gold
the next step is to get all the gold mine equipment
working and running and in place
and this is the time to do it.
It would be the coolest thing almost ever
if Rain could come home and figure out that the Browns struck gold.
I mean, think about it, Gabe.
We could be carrying gold.
-[Gabe] Our first load of gold. -[Bird] Gold!
[narrator] Coming up...
You got the belt?
No, I don't have me. I'm falling.
I've been trying to study hard-rock mining,
trying to remember what Rain was teaching me.
I don't remember a lot of it.
Noah, be careful with it.
I'm gonna.
[Bird] Dude!
I love the taste of rust and I love the taste of dirt.
Oh, wait.
It's not gold, but it's shiny.
Oh, it's red, though.
What does red rock mean?
[narrator] Winter season is creeping closer to North Star Ranch
and while sister Bird embarks on a steep learning curve
in the hunt for gold,
brother Gabe races to establish a foundation
for his own family cabin.
[Gabe] It should be pretty clear for you.
I already pretty much cleared it.
I'm envisioning the cabin...
Like, I don't want it to be, like, clear-cut around it.
I want it to be, like, nestled in.
No, but, I'm gonna have to make a road to get there.
Okay. A little road.
The width of the tractor.
I can live with that.
[Gabe] Noah and I are headed up
to clear off my landing sit for a house pad.
I'm a little afraid that it's gonna knock down a little too much,
that it's gonna change the topography too much.
Hold.
I really don't want a lot of, like, open space.
I'm looking for a good canopy
for the house to really blend in with the woods.
Keep the bush and then just, boom, house in the middle,
uh, without any real footprint around it.
This is it.
Why are you dancing?
What do you think?
What, this is it?
[Gabe] Do you have a problem?
This is just kind of in the middle of a road.
I think there's barely room for my tractor to turn around.
-Well, we'll take some of this out. -Are you taking
these trees down and, like, leveling it that way, or...
I wasn't going to.
In my opinion, Gabe's home site is lacking quite a bit.
His place is in the middle of a road.
But he sees something here, so I wanted to help him
and, kind of, put what's in his head onto the land.
This... There's no yard.
-There's no room for the girls here, though. -Well, out here is...
'Cause this is like 24 by 24 from that point to over that point.
I'm only doing 16 by 16.
[Noah] Then any tree within that orange square needs to be removed.
Take down your trees and then I can do my thing.
[Gabe] Okay.
Noah's bringing up some good points, uh,
like I am building the house right in the middle of this, like, road.
I definitely wanna listen to Noah.
He has really good insight and he's a good operator.
But at the same time,
this is where I want the house, you know? So...
[Noah] All right. Now just get out of my way and let me work.
Gabe and I work really well together,
but I have no filter.
His is more of the, "Ugg, I do this,"
and I'm like, "Okay, let's do this instead."
I need as much room to be able to go forward and back as possible.
[Gabe] Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Nah-ah-ah.
[Noah] He does have strict things in mind,
like not wanting to take down trees and such.
[Gabe] I'm a little concerned that we might have gone a little too far.
[Noah] Which one?
Uh, I don't know, all of 'em.
But it's best to just do it the right way.
I don't know. Do you think we opened it up too much?
Do you think it ruins the magic?
[Noah] No, man.
[Bear] Cowboy boots are perfect for climbing, right?
Bam actually asked for my he
to see if I could give him a hand repairing this thing.
He's not the biggest fan of heights and stuff
and so I just thought that I would give him a hand.
So right now I'm just trying to repair the pusher rod
and the first thing I have to do is take off the old one.
Normally, I work with a lot more siblings,
so working alone makes anything a little bit more difficult.
But one plus to it is I don't have Bam being like,
"Oh, Bear, you're about to get decapitated
by this gigantic windmill blade spinning right beside you."
No, I'll still be cautious not to turn my head into,
you know, some kind of lunch meat,
'cause that thing is definitely spinning fast
and if the blade were to hit you in the head it would not be good.
Now the wind's died down a little bit, I should be able to get it.
Problem is, I need to hold both of these, unscrew 'em and hold on still.
It's gonna be hard.
I can't get to the top one. None of my tools will fit it.
And when I turn it, it's spinning the screw on the other side
so I have to hold it down,
then hold the other side down and then turn it,
which is difficult while I'm also holding on.
I could try to break it, but I don't have enough force from up here.
Well, Bam looked at this thing earlier,
so, you know, I was thinking he'd set me up with the right tools,
but he didn't climb up to actually see if the socket fits
and it's taking way longer than I thought it was going to.
Okay, I don't have the right ratchet.
The top screw up here is giving me a bit of a hassle,
so I'm gonna go down and concentrate on the bottom one now.
These tools just won't work
I need a different socket and I...
Nothing I can do for the top part.
But I do still have a hammer and there is one thing I can do
and that's remove the box underneath it.
Plus, I love destructions.
I'm trying to get this thing struck down
so we can get to the well again.
The ball can go in temporary 'cause of the snow and stuff.
So I'm tearing it apart.
That way we can get to the actual well in itself
to get totally repaired.
[exhales] Last one was a bit tricky.
[Noah] That's the conveyor belt.
[Bird] This is the conveyor belt.
And so a crusher will be here wherever we want it to land
and a conveyor belt up there.
-This is the rock shelf that needs to be taken out? -Yeah.
But it just needs to be a little bit more flat.
[narrator] After determinin
what they hope is the best potential mine site,
sister Bird attempts to reconstruct the daunting mine equipment
with the help of brother Noa
who's been spread thin on the ranch.
Got the belt?
No, I don't have me. I'm falling.
I have been trying to study hard-rock mining,
trying to remember what Rain was teaching me.
One of the main things I've been trying to study
is, like, how the equipment goes.
There's a conveyor belt that leads into a big crushe
that crushes big rock into just smaller pieces of rock,
then goes to a conveyor bel that goes to another crushe
that gets, like, really crushed.
Then that goes through holding tanks and stuff,
and then it eats away at the rock and you get the gold.
Okay.
Now it's... The conveyor belt goes up there.
You can do the machine. I'll do the ...
[Noah] All right.
To be honest, I don't know anything about it, really.
I know how to pan for gold. That is it.
I don't even know where the equipment's supposed to, like, actually be.
One thing that my family always has done
is, if you don't know how to do something,
the best way to learn is to do it.
You do it and you make a mistake
and you know that's not how you do it
so you do it another way.
[Noah] Okay, let's do this.
[Bird] Noah, be careful with it.
I've gonna.
-Thing's heavy. -[Bird] Yeah.
[Noah] Bird's signaling me as I'm coming around the corner.
Uh, basically she needs to tell me
when to stop and where to put the machine.
I can't see past it to see where the edge is.
[Bird] Take it out that way.
Oh, oh!
Yep. No, lower.
No. Oh, my gosh!
I think we should put a rope on it so I can move it.
This conveyor belt is so close to the end position.
It's where it needs to be, but it's tipping
'cause the one end is on a rock.
Set her down for a second, Noah.
Okay, hold on.
Is it too close to that edge? Is my only problem.
Well, it's a little crooked, is the only thing.
-I think, if I set it down, I can move it. -[Bird] Yep.
If this conveyor belt breaks we're definitely at a standstill with the gol
'cause we need every piece that we have
in order to get the gold.
Honestly, it's so nerve-racking.
Lower on it.
Slowly!
-You scream at me if it gets close. -[Bird] Slowly!
-Inch by inch. -[Noah] Little bit.
I think that's good.
-You sure? -Yep.
[Noah] Okay.
Didn't think we were gonna get it for a minute,
but the conveyor belt is in position
and I am so excited.
It looks so good.
Looks pretty good to me. What do you think?
Yeah.
It's perfect.
Next things next,
we get that crusher and we place it here.
I'm gonna get the straps and get that set up for tomorrow.
[narrator] Coming up...
[Bird] Be careful as you go too far out.
[Noah] If you've something too heavy on your boom
and out too far,
you can actually tip your excavator up.
I'll pull some out of the edge.
Oh, my gosh.
Noah!
I got it!
So, now what are we doing?
[Gabe] Well, I was thinking...
Uh-oh.
I'm gonna do what you said and make this a yard.
It doesn't do me any good to have a dead tree right there
that can fall on one of the babies while they're outside playing.
So let's take this out,
take that out, take that out
and then I'll take you out to dinner.
[narrator] In the southwest corner of North Star Ranch,
Gabe has opted to expand his proposed home site.
[Gabe] Go get 'em, tiger!
[narrator] But before they c stake out the foundation,
brothers Gabe and Noah must clear and haul out
the fire-damaged trees around the home site.
Hold. I'll roll it off.
You know, it's very important right no
to just get a lot of the dead trees out of the way too.
When some of the trees are burned completely out,
there's no soil holding 'em
they're just, you know, death traps waiting to happen.
That's not a very good environment to raise a family.
So definitely gonna get some of the old dead trees out of the way
and hope to safe it up a little bit.
[Noah] Uh, are you cutting trees
or do you want me to try to push 'em first?
[Gabe] Uh, might as well just give 'em a push.
Here we go.
Noah!
[Noah] What?
That top's really wobbly.
Don't let it come back on you.
It won't come back. Don't throw things at me, man.
[Noah] I know that I have a lot on my plate.
But Gabe needs help with his house.
He went to Alaska and helped me out,
so, yeah, it's only fair that I get my tractor and I help him dig.
Are you taking down that big one?
Yeah.
[Gabe] I'm not even sure you have enough power to do it.
[Noah] We can try.
I had a feeling about that.
Let me grab the saw.
[Noah] Gabe's really eager to get his home finished
and get his wife and kids move up here.
I can definitely see that.
She's going!
[Noah] If I didn't have my place,
I would be working just as hard
to be able to get my family back up here.
Go ahead and take the slack out.
[Gabe] I feel like George Washington on the Delaware.
I'm surfing down the hill on these logs
and it's pretty cool.
Definitely don't try this if family's watching you.
But it's a very cool sensation to be surfing down my mountain on some trees.
That's good.
The fact that you were able to ride on it
the entire way down down that bumpy road
is a testament to how smooth of a driver I am.
[chuckling] This is true.
And to your balance.
Talk things first.
The big blue crusher has to go on these
so I can put these in place
and then move the crusher somehow.
It's really heavy.
[narrator] The next morning at the Brown's quarry,
Bird and Noah face their next challenge with the mining equipment -
moving the 30-ton rock crush into place
at the base of the conveyor belt.
And then, that goes to that platform down there.
-Okay, watch yourself. -Yup.
So all the mining equipment have been taken apart.
Uh, it just needs to be set up properly.
Everything on the mining equipment are separate pieces.
The crusher is one of the main points of it.
-Okay, so next is the big blue, right? -Yup, big blue.
[Noah] there'll be quite a few complications because it's extremely heavy
Very important to be careful with it.
How much chain slack do you want? As much as possible?
-As least as possible. -As little as possible.
Bird?
Should you be doing all this manual labor?
I'm fine.
Of course you're fine, you're a Brown, we're fine till we are dead,
that's beside the point.
No, it means a lot to get this done
'cause I know it means a lot to Rain.
[Bird] You know Rain and I have never really been apart.
I think the longest we've been apart was a week.
And it's hard.
It's hard to not to have her on the ranch and have her with me.
It's hard
to not able to be with her and for her.
I swore that I would always be there for her,
and I know this is something she needs to do on her own,
but I just wish I could be there
even if it's in the shadows just to making sure she is okay,
but I, I can't be there with her right now.
You know, I'm definitely hopeful and praying
that Rain soon will be back to herself,
and feeling good, and feeling more like herself,
and can join us on the mountain.
Okay.
[Noah] Okay, you ready?
[Bird] Anytime that we come across something that's like,
"Oh, I don't know if we can do it."
I just think of Rain.
And I'm like, "I don't care how hard it is,
how long I have to stay out here,
I'm doing it for Rain."
[Noah] Here we go.
[Bird] Ooh, okay, we're good, we're good, we're good.
Oh, my gosh.
[Noah] I'm off the ground.
[Bird] Oh, my gosh. Ooh.
Be careful as you go too far out, it's wanting to do this.
So this excavator can move pretty much anything,
however, uh, if you've something
too heavy on your boom and out too far,
you can actually tip your excavator up,
because it changes the center of balance.
Stay over here, not over there.
You don't wanna get too close to the edge.
Oh, my gosh.
Noah, up.
Got it.
Oh, my gosh.
Noah, you'll push it off the edge.
Noah, up.
Oh, my gosh.
[narrator] To launch their mining operation on North Star Ranch,
Sister Bird and Brother Noa
must relocate a 30 ton rock crusher uphill
to its foundation.
Oh, my gosh.
h, let's push it down the hill?
[narrator] But as the excavator struggles under the weight,
the family's dream of gold on the mountain
teeters on the edge.
Noah!
I got it!
It's going off the edge.
[Noah] I'm pulling it this way.
Okay, well, 'cause from my view,
you're pushing it off the edge.
Honestly, it's so nerve-racking.
he's just whopping it around, and I know it swings,
but he's, like, just plopping it down and oh, it's gonna break?
'Cause we need every piece that we have in order to get the gold.
I'm very concerned for it.
How close am I to the edge?
Like, it's all being pushed down the edge.
All we have to do is get it to where I can put it and it will sit.
I can't see you. I need you over there.
[Bird] It's kinda teeter-y.
Noah.
[Noah] I got it.
Looks good?
I'm gonna go walk to it and touch it,
and see if it moves.
[Noah] Get out of the way fast if it does.
-[Bird grunts] -[Noah] Oh no, that's set.
No, that baby is not going anywhere.
[Noah] Okay, so we got it.
It is where it needs to be, it's just backwards. [laughs]
I'm so excited. I've almost never been more excited in my life,
and it's just because that's gold basically
I'm basically looking at what's gonna create gold,
and I just know Rain is gonna be over the moon,
and I'm so excited right now.
We'll finagle everything into place where it actually needs to be
securely once we have it.
-Okay. -Good job today.
Yeah.
[Bird] Still a few more things we need for the mining equipment,
but we have enough to get it into place
to actually do some crushing.
Might have to so some repairs,
but for right now, to just get it up and running and crush some rocks,
I believe we have everything.
Noah, there for a second, it was actually, like, picking the back of it up.
-[Noah] I'm aware. -I though you were gonna do this for a minute.
[Noah] I felt it.
[Gabe talking]
Okay.
-We're like two cop buddies, let's stake this thing out. -Let's stake it out.
[Gabe] It's been a lot of hard work,
but it's definitely a labor of love,
and now we can get started on a really important part,
which is marking out where the foundation's actually gonna go.
Like, I can see a cabin here now,
but once we get it stacked out,
it will be a little bit more real.
Okay, I'll give you the smart end.
Okay, so you want me even with the tree?
Uh, whatever you think.
Is this for the porch or is this for actually the house itself?
We're gonna measure all of it.
Oh, now the brain work comes in,
and [groans] brain work is not my strong suit.
You can nail this one this way,
you can nail the first one that way, where that's good and stout
[Gabe] I'm good at, like, you know,
hauling in things and that kinda stuff.
But when it comes to thinking stuff,
I'm, like, "I'd rather somebody else do it."
That's not square, that's...
-It's square back here. -No, you're not.
Look at it.
It's a foot off.
You, jelly head, come on.
Definitely glad that Noah is here,
he brings mind power to the table.
[Noah] You are right at sixteen.
Right there.
Now this is the logistic side of it.
If we're off even a little bit at the beginning with any of our numbers,
we're gonna be way off by the end of it.
That's sixteen.
Uh, so I wanna really do this house right,
and so the math has to be perfect.
Where should I put my door?
On a wall.
[mockingly mumbles]
Home from work.
[exclaims]
"Honey, I'm home."
Like-- [chuckles]
Okay, straighten your legs, straighten your legs.
Watch your hand position.
Get up very carefully.
-All right, help me up. Help me, help me. -It's good. it's good.
You're-- Hold, just hold it right there.
Careful.
[Gabe] It just means the world to me
to have Noah helping me out with this.
Definitely gonna feel Noah and his, and his wife's and his kids
absence on the mountain, uh, when he goes off to Alaska,
it's, Alaska is a long way away.
Oh, dude.
Yes.
You know, we're barely separated from each other at all.
Got it.
What is that?
[Noah] You're a gingerbread man. [laughs]
[laughs] Looks like a gingerbread man.
-Oh. -Oh.
In the eyeballs.
To have one of the members of the wolfpack so far away
and cut off from the rest of us,
it's is gonna be really weir
So definitely gonna miss him.
"Warning, do not get in your mouth,
eyes.
Do not put on your skin."
Should have read those first.
[Bird] Oh, my gosh, this dirt.
Always just so inviting, do you just wanna lay down in it?
It's so inviting. Actually, do you use dry shampoo?
-No. -So dirt works the same way.
-You lay your hair down, like so. -I'll help.
Just put it all on my hair.
-Ready? -Oh, yeah, I'm ready.
-Look how full. -I think there was a bug in your hair.
Probably a couple, but how, like,
luscious and full it looks.
Okay, full chinchilla time, lay down, I'll bury you.
I just love the dirt.
The chinchilla bath with the dry shampoo, Bush style,
it's my favorite kinda of bath.
Doesn't last long, you have to keep doing it or just wash your hair.
[grunts]
Ah! The dirt, it makes you feel alive.
You're not riding in my truck.
[Bear] Today I should have the right tools,
the socket should fit,
only one way to find out.
[narrator] After a failed first attempt at fixing the windmill,
Bear returns with new tools
and a replacement pusher ro from Brother Bam.
Watch out below.
Bulls eye.
[narrator] Hoping that he ca repair the windmill
to help supply water for the planned irrigation system.
Now to get the pusher rod.
So now all I have to do is get the pusher rods.
I have to put 'em together, there's, like, three of 'em.
I'm gonna start at the very top and work my way down.
The windmill well is one of the main sources of water for all of North Star Ranch.
Raiven and I happen to be very, very close to it,
and so we'll definitely benefit greatly
if we can get this windmill well fixed.
Well, this one feels totally secure.
I might tighten it up just a little bit
before I come completely down,
but it's pretty stable.
So far it seems to be working.
All right, it's bolted on, so she shouldn't be going anywhere.
Well, I'm quite determined to get this windmill fixed and get that pusher rod up.
I'm not one to give up easily.
It's actually a family motto
It's like, "Never give up, never surrender."
Takes a whole lot more than a couple of tries of bad too
to stop me from completing my mission.
Oh, so now I'm down to the final step,
which is connecting the pusher rod to the well itself.
I think this will do it.
This is the last part, and then we'll have some fresh running water.
To be honest, this windmill and I [grunts]
have been through a lot.
And our Mom has been wanting to get it repaired,
we all really have,
and, uh, now she's repaired,
so it feels pretty good to have finally gotten it.
Now, when the windmill is working and pumping water like it should be,
we can start growing our own hay.
With a hay field and irrigation systems up on the mountain,
it would be a huge step for the ranch to be self-sufficient.
[Bear] We haven't had a ton of wind,
but as soon as the wind picks back up,
a single spin will raise this up and down,
and she should spit out water once again.
Well, my work here is done.
I'll tell you what? Let's play a game.
You dig on that side, I'll dig on this side, and we'll see who wins.
Oh, you don't wanna mess with my babe and blue ox.
On your mark.
Get set.
-Go. -Go.
Dang.
[narrator] With his foundation marked,
Gabe and Noah must now dig four feet down into the ground,
which will then be filled with a concrete pad.
Hey, Gabe,
I don't think you would've gotten this out with that shovel.
[Gabe] Wow!
That is ginormous.
I'll call that one Wayne.
[Gabe] Oh, man, I've run into some pretty big boulders in here.
I'm digging and I'm going and I'm doing pretty good, you know,
but then it's just, like, [imitates clanking]
And without Noah's tractor, this would be impossible.
How deep did you get?
Dude.
Oh, yeah, I think you're almost there.
You're almost to depth.
Wow.
The feeling when I see that
claw go into that dirt and start digging, like,
I can literally see the cabin going up, like,
this is the foundation being dug.
And it makes me really feel like we're gonna get it done before winter,
and before you know it, I'm gonna have cabin in the woods
for Raquell and the girls to come home to.
Finally breaking ground on our land is just, it's a great moment,
Like, long time coming, and I'm happy beyond words.
This is, you know, exactly what I've been wanting to do for a while now,
it's cool to see it come to fruition.
Starting to feel like a home in here.
Already got my walls,
I guess, I'd be in the basement right now.
Being able to help Gabe out, uh, it feels good.
Really, in essence,
this is what the wolfpack does.
Uh, when we need to we band together and we get stuff done.
Okay, I'm to length.
I think you're there.
I think we just need to straighten her out, level her down.
I think you got it.
Yeah, need to get this dirt out of the way, push it out of the way
to be able to make room for all the concrete stuff
and level out the sides, and I think we're good.
I couldn't have done it without you.
[grunts] Thanks.
-Sure thing. -Thanks, bro.
This moment has been a long time coming,
you know, and I thought it was gonna be done a long time ago,
but that's the thing, like, you can't look back,
you just gotta look forward, keep going, stay the course.
[Bird] It's actually happening.
Getting it here is the hard part.
You know, I definitely thin the gold can really
spark that fun and excitement in Rain,
which I think she really needs.
When we moved here, when we were even in Alaska
you know, the dream is to be self-sufficient,
and I definitely think the gold will help with that,
and that's what everybody is working toward.
[Gabe] Big rock right here.
[Noah] Got it.
[Gabe] Definitely looking forward to, uh, you know,
spending the rest of my life here with my family.
Like, I think this is gotta be a great place to raise the kids.
You know, I'm just excited to see where we go from here
Uh, I feel like we, we're climbing.
Without the family, without the help, it would be impossible.
[narrator] On the next episo of Alaskan Bush People...
-I think that's good, right? -Just as long as you can get in the door.
The house site that I picked out just seems to be going up really fast.
Thank you for helping me
to realize, you know, the dream.
It's very exciting to be selling our first two long horns.
What we have to do is
[Ami talking]
Stop.
Oh, no.
[Bird] Better turn on,
'cause it has to be running before Rain gets back,
and she's close.
If the equipment never runs the dream of,
of mining on the mountain would be dead,
I think along with Rain's little heart.
Noah, it's moving. Noah, look.
Oh, it pops out-- Can it-- Ohh.