♪ ♪
ALEX: I'm heading back up towards my tent at Deadman Lake,
it's a few miles from here.
I've just been down by the river,
and as I'm going up I'm, uh,
I'm not hunting anything specifically but I'm kind of,
kind of hunting everything.
I want to get to know this area and all the different seasons
'cause I, I've been here in the winter,
I've been here in the spring.
But this is my first fall here.
And fall's an important time for, for hunting.
It's when the bears are, the bears are at their fattest.
If I can get a bear before they go into hibernation that would
be a great way to start winter.
A bear would be a lot better than grouse.
But, you know, naturally, I don't know what I'm gonna find.
Oh, there goes some grouse.
You know, I could just kind of have my head down and
just hike right up to my tent and not pay attention,
but if I wanna subsist off this land here I gotta build a
library of knowledge.
Look here and here.
This it's, it's kind of melted, it looks like a lynx track.
If there's lynx around that means there's small game around,
and that's good eatin'.
One more little piece of data I'm gathering.
When you live this lifestyle,
you don't necessarily go hunting,
you're kind of always hunting, you know,
'cause anytime you walk out your door there
could be something right there.
That's tough walking.
Might be better to go through the woods.
To me that feels normal, you know.
It sure looks a lot different when it's not covered in snow and ice.
If I have to get a job and build a career in the city,
doesn't feel normal.
Right in here, it looks like a blop of snow,
it's actually a little snowshoe rabbit.
Uh, right now's a great time of year for hunting them because
they've turned white, but, you know, it's still green.
Real slow and careful, I'm gonna take off my backpack,
dig inside, get some bird shot out.
If I can get my shotgun loaded and he doesn't spook, well,
then I'll have a nice dinner.
Fresh meat is everything out here, you know.
That's what it's all about.
Give myself two shots.
(gunshot)
(clicking)
ALEX: Okay, he's dead.
Nice.
Look at that, here's a nice, beautiful rabbit.
You know, that's a dinner, dinner and a half.
He's all white fur, so he was all ready for winter.
But, uh, but this will be his last.
He'll be my dinner tonight.
I respect the rabbit, but, uh,
it's just the game of life and...
Okay.
This could get me through the next couple days,
till I get my next opportunity, you know?
JESSI: When you hunt and fish and live a subsistence lifestyle
in Alaska you've gotta go where the animals are.
You gotta kinda be nomadic.
Right now is time to hunt and fish and get out there.
And get our pantry stocked,
'cause we need enough to last through the winter.
CHRIS: Look at that. JESSI: Oh goodness.
Let's get some fish.
Wow, this looks amazing.
The water's still open, look at how icy it is.
CHRIS: Look right here, see that big rock?
And you see how the water kinda pulls in and makes a little eddy?
JESSI: Yeah.
CHRIS: I feel like we might do some good fishing down there.
I'm just worried about that ice.
JESSI: Gosh.
During summer and fall, fishing at the Cosna is fantastic.
The thing is...
Ooh, how deep is that?
CHRIS: I don't know.
JESSI: The rivers are starting to ice over.
CHRIS: Okay.
JESSI: All right, seems solid? CHRIS: Yeah. That's good.
JESSI: The fish aren't in the Cosna anymore.
They've come down to bigger waters and
so Chris and I have done the same thing.
CHRIS: Careful, the ice is only two inches deep.
Step on the rocks.
It's not bad.
JESSI: So between me and these rapids?
CHRIS: Is deep. JESSI: Yeah.
CHRIS: That's what it looks like to me.
JESSI: Okay.
CHRIS: I'm gonna head around the corner.
JESSI: Let me know what you find.
All right, so I wanna hit a deep spot that
doesn't have quite as fast of water.
When it widens out like this,
usually it slows down and the fish, you know,
they don't wanna be in the current all the time.
They wanna rest a little bit.
CHRIS: Ooh.
That is not thick.
Let's see how deep it is here.
It's shallow.
I was hoping for a nice deep eddy here.
I was gonna bring the lines in and just drop 'em down with
a little bit of bait and do some jiggin'.
But this is not deep.
JESSI: This is just proving to be more difficult
than I was hoping, but.
CHRIS: How's it going?
JESSI: Hey!
CHRIS: Any nibbles?
Any bites? Any fish?
JESSI: Not yet.
I keep getting stuck up on this ice shelf.
I don't think we're gonna get anything here.
Let's, uh, head up to those lakes and
maybe we'll have better luck there.
CHRIS: Yeah. JESSI: Yeah.
JOHNNY: Out here in the arctic every day,
life is a constant challenge, and I'm super grateful that
I can just step outside my cabin door and just
have an immediate adventure waiting for me.
JOHNNY: A lot of work goes into hunting.
A lot of work goes into hauling meat around.
When you bring it back to camp, the work doesn't stop there.
Living in this giant freezer allows me to hang up meat,
and keep it there all winter.
These guys feel a lot heavier when they're frozen.
The cold is my friend, but the cold can be an enemy.
If you leave the meat hanging up in the wind,
it's gonna get all dried out from this cold air,
so you have to take your time and process it.
If you process the meat properly,
you're gonna have a nice supply of meat through the winter.
That's what I'm after.
The fat of the, the caribou will actually spoil if you don't get
it out of the animal and render it down.
So, I like to get all the fat off the animal.
That way I have some jars of, of fat,
because if I don't eat the fat then I can get sick just eating meat,
and that fat is super vital.
Little start.
There's a lot of fat in these caribou skulls.
You just gotta look in the right places.
Boom.
So right behind the eye is all this fat.
It's very, very delicious, and the texture is just,
it's like a, it's almost like a dough.
Get this tongue out of here.
The tongue is just loaded with fat.
Here come the gray jays.
(whistles)
Little guy's hungry.
It's funny, he goes right for the fat.
The predators out here eat everything.
So, if you utilize head-to-toe,
that's how you get all the nutrition from the animal.
So, I'm gonna get the brain out,
the brain is packed with vitamins,
packed with minerals, packed with nutrients.
And it's stuff I need to keep going out here,
so I'm gonna cut this skull open and get that brain out.
The texture of this is, uh,
almost like cottage cheese or something,
and right now it's gonna be a little bit more frozen,
like ice cream.
But you fry some meat in some eyeball fat,
you know, now we're talking.
What about you, huh? What's your favorite part?
All of it.
You're like me.
I love it all.
Another step done at meat camp.
And, uh, there's still a lot more to do.
CHEVIE: You're not born with the instincts to survive.
It's not like something you read in a book.
It's something that you learn as you're ready.
CHEVIE: Everything is getting ready for winter, including us.
SONTA: Yeah.
It's not super frozen yet,
but we only have like a matter of days.
Really until it gets super frozen.
CHEVIE: Yep, it's crazy how you can watch the water
like kinda get heavy.
Sonta and I and the baby are gonna head out to our cabin.
The goal is to start building a steam bath.
SONTA: I'm super excited about just the ability to spend more
time out here, having a steam bath will really allow us to stay clean...
CHEVIE: Yep.
SONTA: And that's really the great way,
sometimes cleaner than a shower will get you, really.
CHEVIE: Yep.
My only obstacle, I wanna get this done before
this river freezes up.
SONTA: What do you think, Chevelle?
Wanna check it out?
CHEVIE: All right.
Let's break some ground on this project before
it gets any colder out here.
SONTA: Well the next step of just kinda figuring out
where to put the steam bath.
CHEVIE: Yeah. SONTA: Yeah.
CHEVIE: It's gonna be eight feet wide, by 16 feet long, and so
we were thinking the front of the door kinda facing the cabin.
SONTA: Sure, and that way also, you know,
we talked about having some windows there,
a nice look out to the river, or look out to the flat.
(crying)
Well, the baby's starting to cry.
I'm gonna go and leave you to it.
CHEVIE: All right.
SONTA: But I'll come out when I can.
CHEVIE: Sounds good.
I need to start getting into the foundation stuff before
the ground gets any more frost in it.
'Cause you don't wanna take any shortcuts.
It's a long process, you just gotta, uh, do it right.
All right, time to get my, uh,
four-by-four beams to run across the top,
get stuff a little righter and tighter, and, uh,
start building the floor.
I just need your straight eyeball on where you want that
edge of the house to be.
SONTA: Well, here's the thing, okay.
So, you're, you're in the steam bath, and whatever.
You're like changing and you're looking out and
you're gonna see the outhouse.
Probably. Right?
CHEVIE: I don't know, I don't think so.
SONTA: If it went more this way, you'd at least get more of that,
if it's not a huge deal.
CHEVIE: (bleep).
SONTA: But that's really nothing though, really.
Right? Is it, is it, does it matter?
CHEVIE: Oh, it's nothing, you know.
(bleep) I'll shovel and chop all day.
Chevelle's learning how to...
SONTA: She's learning how to be the assistant on the job.
CHEVIE: Start praying for her husband.
(laughs)
SONTA: Yeah. CHEVIE: All right. Love you.
Back to the manual labor.
ALEX: To live a lifestyle like this,
you gotta be able to, as they say in the Army,
endure the suck.
Alaska's a pretty rough place.
You gotta work to get any comfort here.
It doesn't come easy.
ALEX: This is kinda the way I wanted to live out here.
It's kinda the way I like it, ya know?
No sense of time.
No sense of distance.
You know, I'm just trying to get the meat,
trying to get dinner.
And when I get it, all questions are answered,
and when I don't, I keep looking.
(laughs)
It's getting colder now that the day's about to end.
So, I'm looking to make a fire, warm up,
and then dress this rabbit up, cook him,
have a good night.
So, this is my camp just up ahead here.
I've got a, uh, canvas wall tent.
Same style, you know, gold-miners and stuff used to bring,
just big enough so you have some quality of life but
also small enough you can keep it warm.
Uh-oh.
I can see the backside of the tent,
and I see a door.
There's no door on the back side of the tent.
♪ ♪
ALEX: Someone's been in here.
It's a lot messier than I left it.
Let's take a look inside.
That's gotta be a bear.
Damn, he trashed it.
He just basically shoved his head and just busted these buckles.
Uh, so I gotta get this place cleaned up before I go to sleep, and, uh,
and then I'll focus on fixing this thing so it's ready
for winter and then also, uh, do something to protect myself
'cause I don't wanna be in here when
a bear shoves his face in at night, ya know?
I didn't leave any food in here.
Otherwise, it would've been a lot worse.
But yeah, I got my work cut out for me.
Yeah, this bear kinda ruined my evening.
JOHNNY: I think that it's in our DNA to know,
how to survive and thrive in this environment.
And I think that we all know how to do it.
We just all haven't been given an opportunity to try it.
JOHNNY: The first season I was up here,
the flies were just laying eggs all over the meat.
That's when I learned if you smoke the meat,
it creates a film on the outside.
Like a natural, plastic, wrap.
Nothing can really penetrate it.
I like using tarp because I can make this smoker air-tight
without expending a bunch of energy trying to build something out of logs.
It's just so much easier to fashion something fast, quick,
and just make a bush smoker.
The hardest part is trying to keep that fire under control.
Because I don't wanna cook the meat.
And I don't want the fire to be a blaze and burn my tarp,
but in order to get a lot of smoke,
you gotta start off with a lot of coals.
That's pretty sealed up.
I'm gonna toss some snow around the edges here,
and just guarantee that final seal around the outside.
While that smoker's going, I've got all this fat to render.
I'm gonna take this inside and do a little rendering.
Java. Wanna eat some fat?
Come on.
JESSI: I feel like the weather changes every 15 minutes.
Alaskan weather is its own kind of person.
It's like a different character, with like, bipolar disorder.
(gusting winds)
CHRIS: Got a lot of really hard snow on top,
which is gonna add to the strength.
JESSI: Good.
All right, that looks deep.
CHRIS: All right, I didn't hit water and
I got a good three inches of lake ice,
plus three inches of hard crust on top.
I'm gonna push out a little ways and test it.
JESSI: Oh, right in the face!
Damn.
(sighs)
It's like getting sandblasted.
(bleep).
Holy crap.
CHRIS: I got water! And it's six inches!
JESSI: Great.
CHRIS: Nice and solid, I'm gonna go towards the middle
and check it out.
JESSI: You want me to go get the chainsaw or
are you gonna just do it with that?
Ow.
CHRIS: With this wind our chainsaw will freeze really fast.
JESSI: Oh, you're right. I didn't think about that.
CHRIS: It's gonna get wet.
JESSI: Okay.
CHRIS: There we go, we're hitting water.
Maybe we're gonna get lucky.
JESSI: Okay.
Oh, jeez.
This is even worse than it was down at the river,
but the fish are probably here,
so we're still gonna give it a shot.
Chris likes to dirt bike.
He likes to get on machines,
and he likes to go out and see things.
I like to pull things out of black holes in the middle of the lake.
(laughs)
I've never gotten a fish this way.
I have fished many times in a hole through the ice,
and I have never brought one up.
Oh. Oh. Uh. Uh.
He's biting.
Did, did he stop?
CHRIS: Are you getting hit? JESSI: Yep.
I think I'm hitting on grayling,
just because it's a real soft tug.
Just a little bit, just ee, ee, eeeee,
just a little bit.
CHRIS: Jess, oh Jess.
JESSI: Did you get, don't you dare get a fish before me.
CHRIS: Jess. Get that net. Come on, Jess.
JESSI: The net. Okay. I was getting bites too though.
I'm coming!
I'm coming. I'm coming.
CHRIS: Come on, Jess! JESSI: I'm coming!
CHRIS: I'm gonna lose it, come on!
JESSI: I'm coming! I got it. I got it.
Here, right here. I'm right here.
Oh my gosh.
'T believe you got a fish before I did.
CHRIS: Get it. Get it. Get it. Get it. Get it.
JESSI: Ha! Fishes!
CHRIS: Look at that rainbow. What a beautiful fish.
Yeah, keep it away from that hole.
All right.
Thank you, fish, even though you're small.
We'll still enjoy you.
JESSI: Oh, my gosh, I can't believe that, argh!
You got what one before me.
I'm jealous! Woo!
I have never been in winds like this.
I have very little luck being out on ice doing ice fishing, but...
CHRIS: Whoa! JESSI: I'm willing to stay here.
(laughs)
JESSI: The next fish has Jessi's name on it.
CHRIS: Oh, there he is.
Fish on! Fish on!
Get the net! Fish on!
JESSI: Okay! I'm coming!
Fish are biting.
I'm coming. I'm coming. I'm coming.
And I'm happy.
CHRIS: Come on, Jess!
JESSI: Even though this is probably one of the rougher experiences
I've ever had fishing.
CHRIS: I just had it up.
I'm losing him.
Here he comes. Here he comes.
Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on.
And now. Now.
Oh! Right!
JESSI: Yay! Good job, Chris!
At least we're getting something.
ALEX: If you're someone who's keen on being comfortable,
this isn't the lifestyle for you.
If you just eliminate the possibility of quitting from your mind,
then you start finding ways to adapt.
ALEX: So, this just demonstrates the kinda brute strength of a bear.
This is like really thick, strong fabric.
It's hard to cut, even with a knife.
You know you can take a sharp knife at it and,
and really have to work to get it to cut.
He just put his claws right in there and shredded it.
I view this as a warning shot.
Okay.
My first priority is to get this place fortified.
Because the bear could come back tonight.
I'll just clean these branches up.
I already got the metal frame on the tent.
I think I can bolster the frame using spruce poles,
make this place a little bit more like a fortress.
All righty. There we go.
And less like a thin t-shirt.
That's good.
I'll saw 'em to length as I need.
Mostly this is what my life is:
cutting down trees, hauling 'em in a sled.
First thing I'm gonna do:
expose the frame,
clear my junk out, get a nice, clear workspace.
And, uh, and then I'll get to work.
Three critical things:
I gotta have shelter, warmth, and I have to have food.
My shelter has been threatened.
So I gotta prioritize this one task.
That'll be enough space to work.
I'll get these spruce poles and put 'em in here.
Tie 'em off.
Put one along the bottom to make it rigid and
that will make this place a little bit, a little bit safer.
Just a little bit, but every little bit counts.
Never, never really pictured myself making a fortress to
defend from bears, but here I am.
Here's the last one, but it won't do anything yet because
the bottom is, uh, insecure.
So, he can just push right in.
My tent's kinda back in action,
but now I still got a few finishing touches.
CHEVIE: In the winter, everything's fogged up, frosty.
Visibility is really limited.
It's cold. It's rough.
You've gotta be able to work through those types of weather conditions,
and come out with a finished product.
(saw humming)
CHEVIE: Floor joists cut.
And then I just need two, four rim joists, and, uh,
we'll put together, I, Sonta and I will put together a floor.
The goal is to, uh, start building the steam bath.
So we can use this steam bath throughout the whole winter,
but we got about a week.
'Til the river starts really flowing ice,
where it's unsafe to take a boat on it,
so let's start putting together a floor.
Right now, time is of the essence.
If I don't build it now, I really can't start building it
until next year.
SONTA: Cool, Chev, this is looking awesome.
CHEVIE: Well, I missed one screw right there.
SONTA: I was, just had my eye on that actually.
CHEVIE: I know.
I thought I'd talk about it before you did.
SONTA: This is great.
There's nothing like seeing it up off the ground now.
CHEVIE: Yep.
It's good to be working up off the ground now, finally.
So, I'm assuming that you're gonna have that little bit
bigger window over here because...
SONTA: Because we have the view.
CHEVIE: Not of the outhouse either.
SONTA: Not the outhouse though, no.
CHEVIE: It's all about setting the moon, mood in the steam bath.
SONTA: Mm-hmm. Really nice, Chev.
It's looking good.
CHEVIE: All right, I gotta, uh, mill up the last bit of my logs.
I know I'm gonna need 'em for my six-foot walls
for my, uh, steam bath.
It's a long process, but it's got to,
it's got to get done and, uh,
I'm the only one that's here to do it.
Get this thing warming up.
Start milling logs again.
I've been using this mill for a lot of years.
Motor's a little tired on her.
She's, uh, sputtering and popping a little bit more than
she did ten years ago, but, uh,
it's built me a beautiful house,
a place for my kids to stay warm.
We've built a lot of stuff in its time.
And it's here gonna finish building me a steam bath.
(clinks)
(motor stops)
(bleep).
♪ ♪
CHEVIE: That's the first time that's ever happened.
The, uh, blade was frozen to the wheels
and so when it to, went to turn it just popped off.
If I can't cut these logs, if something goes down
with this mill there may not be enough time to get this steam bath done.
Because the ice is gonna start moving in this river sooner than later.
So, you get a new blade on it...
(grunts)
Get back after it.
(engine turning)
Come on, baby.
(engine starts)
Oh, yeah.
See if this blade stays on this time.
All right, one down, ten to go.
Got ten, 12 logs I need to get milled up today to ensure that
I've got enough logs to build this wall.
So we got one window there, then we're gonna do another one here,
stove's gonna be right here.
We'll get these walls up, with the wood stove in,
put the roof on, be ready to go.
But for now we're gonna keep on moving.
JOHNNY: To live this far away from everything,
that's a lot of different occupations that I hold.
It's really crucial to survival of the wild.
(smooches)
JOHNNY: Got some fat to render, girl.
You get to eat all the crusties once it's done rendering.
Mission right now is to take all this fat, render it down
until it's all melted down from a solid to a liquid.
So, to sort of render this big pot of fat,
I gotta get the stove cranking hot.
I stay busy with meat camp for days if not weeks,
but that's why I'm here.
You know, I can spend all my time working and then just buy food on the shelf,
and that's, that's a way of life.
But instead, I choose to spend my time working on my own food
that I find and that I harvest.
So while the fat's goin',
it's time to bust out myself a little treat,
a little delicacy, and that's gonna be
good old brains.
(sizzling)
Listen to it sizzle.
Just so wild to think that this matter right here is what gives
me the intelligence to be able to cook this.
It's kind of interesting to think about.
Don't wanna think too hard about it.
It's going to be delicious.
You can kinda just scramble these up almost like eggs,
that's really what the texture is.
They're good in the morning, you know?
Fry up a little bit of meat and then, um,
kinda have like a scramble.
Brain scramble and meat.
You can just taste all of the nutrition in there.
And they're creamy, it's, uh,
nice to have these textures out here.
I don't have creamy texture, just the meat.
It's just nice for my pallet.
Want some brain?
Oh, yeah.
This must have been a smart caribou 'cause these are some of the better brains I've had.
We got a beautiful liquid in here right now.
Game bag works really well to strain it,
leaves me with a beautiful fat.
It almost looks like honey.
It's three jars of fat right here.
That right there is a good start,
it's good start going into the winter.
It's not going to last me through the whole winter,
but it's a really, really good start.
JESSI: If you wanna live a subsistence lifestyle,
knowledge is power.
Knowledge is money and every day out here
that I'm learning how to fish better,
that's more money in my bank.
CHRIS: Whoa!
Damn wind today.
JESSI: All right, soon as that fish pulls this is gonna go like
that and, up goes the flag.
So that's what we're gonna try.
Keep our eye on this.
I just need you to get more fish than Chris.
All right, I'm gonna go take my spot back.
We've been out here for a couple days and we only got two fish.
I'm kinda worried about not having fish for the winter.
CHRIS: Come on, fishy.
JESSI: It's something that my body needs.
I mean one day I'd like to know how to do it all.
I mean, I'm starting small and
I'm starting with a little bit of ice fishing.
It's a trial and error, and you gotta make mistakes.
The thing is, is the opportunity is right beneath my butt.
Right here, all the stinking fish.
CHRIS: We got something.
It's big.
I guess not, it was just an angry fish!
All right!
JESSI: Look at him.
Gosh darn it!
CHRIS: Woo-hoo!
They might be small but they're stacking up.
JESSI: I'm not a good ice fisher.
I'm just not, but, you know, the only way to get better
at ice fishing is to ice fish.
Do I still have him?
Oh, he let go.
It was a good bite though.
That means he's still down there.
CHRIS: It's a fighter, ah!
All right! Jess!
JESSI: Chris! Dang it! CHRIS: Woo-hoo!
JESSI: Oh!
Oh, I'm so frustrated.
CHRIS: Oh, that little (bleep).
I bet he got my bait.
JESSI: Oh, there it is!
I got him! Ah, look!
(laughs)
I got him! I got the fish!
Look at him! He's gorgeous!
Almost got out of my net, look at that!
Woo!
CHRIS: All right. JESSI: Mine's down!
We're getting there, that's all that matters.
Progress is progress.
I'm gonna go put this fish away and
then I'm coming right back to this hole.
Yeah!
All right.
CHRIS: Good looking fish, love.
JESSI: Oh, no! I didn't lay it down!
CHRIS: Ah, man.
CHRIS: Something knocked it down.
JESSI: Was it a fish?
Did the fish just pull it right in there?
CHRIS: I don't know, this thing got kicked over and,
I mean it didn't blow it I don't think.
JESSI: Oh, crap, you can see it, Chris.
CHRIS: Can you?
JESSI: You can see it right there.
CHRIS: If I see it I'll get a treble hook and I'll get it back.
JESSI: Look at it... CHRIS: I can see it!
JESSI: You can see it, you can see all of it.
CHRIS: Ah, I'm gonna get a big treble hook and
I'm gonna try to fish that out.
Holy (bleep)!
(laughs)
JESSI: Well, I guess these did not, uh,
serve their purpose but you can see it right there.
You can see the whole thing.
The flag is up, I'm glad it's bright orange.
Wow.
You're gonna have to get it in that corner.
CHRIS: I can't get it over to where it's at.
It's gonna take all day to pick it out of here.
Oh, come on wind.
Feels heavy.
Oh, oh.
Whoa, Jess! I got it!
JESSI: Great. CHRIS: Ha-ha!
Fixing problems for 15 years!
JESSI: Amazing.
Hopefully we'll get some fish instead of fishing for our gear.
ALEX: I have to respect the bear,
'cause I moved into his home.
If he comes back and, uh,
doesn't respect the respect that I'm giving him, uh,
then I'll shoot him and eat him.
ALEX: Now I gotta sew up the big hole I think.
Get that done before I move all my stuff in and
then I'll be, uh, kind of back to normal.
Okay, um...
I've never actually sewed, you know,
some of my clothes got holes in them,
but not so bad that I ever needed to sew, so.
I knew someday I'd have to do it,
but I was kinda dreaded it 'cause, like, ugh.
Sewing.
I was hoping I could make it to my death without having to do it but,
unfortunately this is not a job duct tape can do.
You know, life out here is, it's simple,
but it's not easy.
Simple means that I can understand it.
I'm just a regular guy and so
if I'm able to do it then it's simple.
That's not bad, I mean it's kind of a,
you know, I don't know if my mother's gonna be proud
but I did it.
An Alaskan winter's no joke.
Every little advantage I can get I try to take.
Uh, I just got my wool blankets here,
and I just kinda stuff 'em up into the, uh, frame here.
And this, just this little bit of insulation makes it to where
I can burn much less wood in here.
And, you know, just a little fire and it stays toasty warm.
I can solve my problems on my own,
but that doesn't mean a lot of times I don't know
what the best decision to make is.
In my time in the army,
someone else was making the big decisions.
Okay.
Out here in the middle of the woods alone
I have to make all of the decisions.
Every decision.
This can be part of my bed roll.
But I don't want to always know what's gonna happen.
I want for nature to compel me to keep growing.
CHEVIE: You just never know what's going to be tossed our way,
but you gotta constantly be a step or two ahead of yourself.
You can't predict everything, but if you can predict most of
the things you're gonna be ahead.
CHEVIE: North wind's blowing like a sun of a bitch today.
And, uh, when the north wind starts blowing like this.
Cold weather comes right behind it.
Got a, my wood stove for the sauna,
I got my ladder to put my roof on.
Insulation for the floor and the ceiling,
all the final to things to, uh, insure that this steam bath
throws as much heat as possible, so.
The obstacle's gonna be trying to get this, uh,
wood stove up this bank somewhere.
Need to be working on the roof of my steam bath,
not playing games with this, but on the other hand steam bath's
not much of a steam bath without a wood stove in it.
So, gotta get it there.
So I'm gonna pull my boat as far as I can up there.
Can't run it too far or else water will come in the back of
the boat and you don't want that right now.
Thor sitting in here like he's watching something.
He's making me more nervous than ever.
Just don't wanna be fishing it out of a slew or
some (bleep), you know.
I'm really down to the last few days of getting this done.
So I hope it just goes smoothly,
I don't have time for any setbacks right now.
(thuds)
: Well, that didn't work out quite as planned.
I didn't break any windows, so we're winning.
I'll get it back up there, get it sucked up that bank.
It's not a super, super heavy stove but, uh,
it's a lot of steel.
There's no way I can get it up the bank by myself without
some sort of mechanical advantage.
We use these chains that have winches a lot.
I'm just gonna re-hook it to itself like that,
take it slow, start pulling it up and see what she looks like.
Chainsaw winch was the way to do it today.
SONTA: So we're getting a huge stove and a tiny steam bath.
CHEVIE: Perfect height, right waist height to put
wood in like that.
It's pretty sweet.
Let's get it up these stairs.
SONTA: Well, that's not bad.
Shoot, we could have brought it up the bank like this.
Why'd we do all that chainsaw winching?
CHEVIE: Damn, you're tough. SONTA: I know.
Been working out.
Nice.
So we just scoot it?
Whoo, it's awesome.
CHEVIE: Let's get a roof on here.
SONTA: You gotta go a little bit up.
CHEVIE: I got ice in the river, it's 18 degrees this morning.
SONTA: It's not quite over it, just gotta eyeball it.
CHEVIE: I know that winter's coming, and with winter, snow.
SONTA: Little loud for baby, if you could just keep it down.
CHEVIE: Sorry, Chevelle.
(laughs)
CHEVIE: It's kind of like the fourth quarter, man.
Three minutes left, it's grind time.
I want to get this done.
JOHNNY: The meat's been in here overnight.
It's looking pretty good, I'm gonna take it out into the light
and get a better look.
(gusting winds)
And it snowed last night, too.
This is exactly what I'm looking for.
It's nice and dry, it's not like tacky wet meat on the outside.
Again, I'm not trying to cook the meat.
All I'm trying to do is put this natural
kind of butcher paper feel to the outside,
and this is just one more layer of added protection against the frost.
Uh, even against the birds if they were to pick through,
they kinda hit this hard outside.
I'm gonna go hang it up in the cache and
start doing the rest of 'em.
Javs?
Come on, wanna help?
You know, I don't ever just put meat up,
put fat up, sit back and relax and think I'm done 'cause
that's just not how it works out here.
CHRIS: Do you need to scoop out your hole or anything?
JESSI: I think it's okay.
I think if I had to choose between the winds or
the wet snow I'd choose the wind.
CHRIS: Oh, something just took my bait.
I saw him down there.
Come back, buddy.
Ha-ha!
Oh, right.
JESSI: Are you? CHRIS: Yeah.
Look at that.
What a pretty fish.
JESSI: You know, it's gonna get one before me.
(laughs)
Me versus the polar tip up since I already lost,
it's like the losers bracket.
CHRIS: Got one! JESSI: Are you kidding me?
CHRIS: Oh, fish on! Fish on!
Hot dog!
JESSI: If Chris gets another fish I'm stealing his spot.
Living off the land is more than just a lifestyle.
I don't think my family gets it and I don't think my friends do.
CHRIS: Got a fish! Got a fish, got it!
JESSI: Oh my, okay I'm taking it.
I'm going over there.
Nope.
To be out here and to get your water and
to get your house together and to get all of your food.
All right, gosh darn it.
When you live off the land, you become intimate with everything
that it takes to live and you become a totally different person.
ALEX: This is nice, this is the most organized I've been out here.
So I'm feeling really good about this, uh, you know,
kind of turn this place into a little bit more of a fortress
so I can sleep a little easier at night.
Celebrate all this hard work I've done with that rabbit
I got the other day.
Okay.
I've kind of learned a long time ago when I was young and
getting started in the Army.
I kinda made a little mantra where I'd tell myself
this is just my life.
I thought about like, the guys at Valley Forge,
they're in the Revolutionary War.
They like didn't have boots and their feet were freezing,
but they just kept going and I figured they probably weren't
sitting around complaining about the lack of boots because
there just wasn't boots.
And so that's what I kinda told myself.
I just have to do whatever I gotta do.
JESSI: Bite it, my friend.
ALEX: And then I wasn't thinking about quitting, you know?
SONTA: Let's go see how warm it is.
Test out the steam.
ALEX: Then I was just thinking about adapting.
JOHNNY: Hey man, this ain't a blanket.
ALEX: My lifestyle here is continuing to do what I was used to.
JESSI: Got him.
Oh, goodness sakes.
ALEX: Have a rough lifestyle where I just go from meal to meal.
I don't cook a lot but that's probably
a good solid 20 grams of protein right there.
When you're alone out here, when you gotta do all the work yourself.
SONTA: That's what we wanna see.
ALEX: You can't be a defeatist,
you gotta always look for the silver lining.
It's never not going to help you.
Mm, that's very nice.
Captioned by Cotter Media Group.