Original subtitles

ANDY BASSICH: I'm going to drill a hole right now

through the Yukon River ice so I can get some water.

I'm also going to be testing the thickness of the ice right now.

I can tell a lot about what's gonna happen at breakup by observing ice conditions.

Our life revolves around this river,

but this time of year, it can be extremely stressful.

The potential for the water to come in here

at a very high level is certainly there.

We saw what happened in 2009 when it wasn't even predicted to be a bad breakup.

-(AUGER MOTOR SPUTTERS) -Let's see how thick this ice is.

(WHIRRING)

Shit!

Son of a bitch.

I've been drilling this same hole most of the winter here.

When I broke through

the last time I drilled this...

...I was at about this level right here.

But when I finally broke through to the bottom of the ice, I was right here.

I'm 5'8", so I'm guessing right now,

the ice thickness right here is still close to five feet thick.

In 2009, when we had our major breakup that destroyed our home,

that's how thick the ice was a week before breakup.

And that's really bad.

Shit load of ice, man.

Right now, we have a couple of really bad omens.

The first is too much snow up in the high country.

The second is too thick of ice.

And the third is the ice is still really solid.

This is looking to be a really bad one this year.

Our home is only 35 feet above this level.

We have the potential for a lot of serious flooding on our property this year.

SUE AIKENS: To be successful at living out here, you have to accept

shit doesn't always go down on your schedule.

It's just life throwing you a curve ball.

You better learn how to swing.

Been here a little over a decade.

I've been trying to buy this camp since I've been... Started this thing.

And over the past few months, something's come up that's definitely gonna

affect the rest of my life and my ability to stay here at Kavik.

The owners of the camp, they want, now, to sell the camp, I want to purchase.

For 10 years now, I've been saving my money,

but if I can't get enough scratch put together,

somebody else is going to buy it,

and, uh, I'm flat on my butt somewhere trying to find a new career and a new life.

Everything I do here, I've taught myself.

Every chore is something that I've learnt over these past 10 years.

I mean, it doesn't matter if it's good, shitty, cold or terrible.

I mean, I still got to do it.

Fuck!

Fucker!

I mean, there's never a good time for a breakdown

but there's probably 20 to 30 mile an hour winds here and... Fuck!

So, you're talking 50, 60s below zero on your skin.

Only takes a couple of minutes before you start to freeze.

Fuck!

Fuckin' belt's done. But...

I always carry a spare belt.

You just never know.

This is what it's supposed to look like

and, uh, that's what I fuckin' got.

I mean, this is what's left.

Make sure everything's all clear.

It's fuckin' cold. It's gotta be 20 or 30 below, I don't know.

I'd say we got just a few minutes in these temps

before your skin cells start to freeze.

So I gotta get this done 'cause I'm going to be in trouble here if I don't.

I'm trying to get the belt. It's over the one pulley.

But it's kinda frozen.

I gotta get it to go over this one.

Fucker!

Come on, you son of a bitch. (HUFFS)

Yes!

It's on.

(EXHALES)

(SUE SPEAKING)

I upped the ante by playing my A game.

Nature is uppin' her ante by throwing hers back.

CHIP HAILSTONE: As a hunter, you go out with an idea of what you'd like to do

and then you end up doing what you have to do.

When we have an opportunity at a certain time, we take it.

(CROWS CAWING)

Well, this is the last chance that we have

to get some, uh, sheefish up before the flies come.

Pretty soon it's gonna warm up.

If we wait till later and we go fishing, like, in a couple more weeks,

we have to deal with flies, and then you really have to watch your meat a lot.

So for us right now, this is the best time, with the best weather,

and the best days are here to go get the best fish, and that's what we're up to.

We want to go fishing down to Kobuk Lake.

Um, it's a pretty popular spot.

We're getting some brackish water fish called sheefish.

Sheefish is like a sweet white meat.

It's a really good-tasting fish, and it's a change of diet for us right now.

To us, it's shopping. We're going to go to the store,

the store's got new stuff in it.

We're coming home with something different to eat.

(AGNES SPEAKS)

(CHIP SPEAKS)

AGNES: Okay, sounds like a deal.

We're here on the lake and, uh, we're where the fish are,

and we need to find a nice deep spot or channel

and, uh, we need to throw some holes down.

And if we don't catch fish,

we'll just keep jigging and keep jigging and keep jigging,

making holes, making holes, making holes.

That's kinda the way it goes.

(DRILLING)

(AGNES SPEAKS)

-The very first one. Ready? -Yep.

Ha! Mud.

(LAUGHS)

Try again. Try again.

Fuck, I'll try again, what?

-AGNES: Fuckin', that's it? -(CHIP LAUGHS)

Yep.

Well, we just got through, uh, auging up a hole.

It's about, like, five foot of ice and probably two inches of water.

We just probably pretty much hit mud

so we're just gonna have to carry on.

KATE RORKE-BASSICH: We'll die on the river.

The river almost took us in 2009.

She didn't win, but I think it was a warning.

(DOGS HOWLING)

We're getting warm weather now.

We're getting, like, 50 degrees, 60 degrees a day.

So all that snow packed in the mountains right now has got to melt.

When it flows downward, it flows into the river,

and that's what lifts the ice and makes the ice break.

And the faster it comes down, the quicker it's gonna break.

So what will happen is that the water will push the ice,

the ice don't want to move, so it's just gonna jam up

and create big dams.

Of course, a dam diverts water,

and the water is gonna come over land,

and that's what we don't want.

(DOGS WHINING)

In May of 2009, almost everything we had was ruined in the flood.

It was amazingly high water,

and the ice jams created backed-up water,

and then floods.

So when the current died down for a little bit,

Andy took a canoe

and tied a line onto the cabin,

got all the dogs in boats and tied them off.

And just before dawn, the river broke free of some ice down river.

So it was flushing like a toilet.

(DOGS YELPING)

So then all hell broke loose and we lost five dogs.

(DOGS WHINING)

I grabbed one into my boat, Andy grabbed two more.

And Ouzo and Iceberg got washed away.

They couldn't keep up with the current to swim back.

They tried and tried and tried. They couldn't.

Then the big boat that the dogs were in, that flipped on its side

and the dogs were all drowning.

They were holding on to the metal gunnels with their teeth.

And then, finally, the helicopter came

and it picked us up off the roof.

That night was about the most horrendous thing I've ever gone through.

This year we're just taking a lot more precautions

to the similar situation we've got going on this year.

It's going to be a bad breakup.

(DOGS HOWLING)

Yeah, it's coming, Tab. Don't worry.

Today, we're gonna...

We're gonna get the dogs moved up to Eagle.

Yukon River is gonna start getting really soft.

And my, uh, nice firm trails

that I've been using all year...

...are deteriorating very quickly now.

So, I'm feeling like this is kind of the last day

to try and get the dogs up to Eagle.

Otherwise, it would be quite a slog.

Hey, Bertie, wanna go to town? Huh?

Got no choice.

This is kind of an unusual event.

I've never had to move my dogs up to Eagle before.

(SIGHS)

We are really feeling nervous about the ice

going out this year and flooding our property.

Kate's gonna take six dogs with her on the sled

and I'm gonna take the other 18 with my snow machine.

Kate's gonna stay up there with them during breakup

and, uh, I'm headin' back to Calico

to look after all of our property.

We'll just have to play the wait-and-see game at this point.

-(DOGS YELPING) -KATE: Hey, guys. Up! Up!

ANDY: Tighten up!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

KATE: Come on, team, let's go!

ANDY: Straight ahead.

Straight ahead.

We should have gone yesterday. The weather was predicting for it to be cold this morning.

We would have had a good, hard trail.

Instead we've got water underneath the snow now

and there's no support on the trail

to hold the dogs up

so we're just gonna have to slog our way up to Eagle.

KATE: Come on, guys. You gotta do it.

-Come on, team. -Come on, team!

Up, up, up!

-You gotta get off and push a little bit, girl... -Come on, team. Come on.

(SOBS) I hate this day!

You're like in quicksand, Kate.

You're probably gonna have to step off.

(VOICE BREAKS) I can't find the bottom.

You got all these dogs, they're all tangled up.

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Ahhh!

ANDY: It's not deep. Okay, let's go.

Up, up. Up, up.

Cone on. Up, up. That a boys.

Up, up, up, up. Good boys.

Up, up. Up, up.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Everybody stay.

Everybody stay.

You okay now?

(PANTING)

A lot of water.

A lot of soft snow.

A couple of frozen feet.

Boots are full of water.

Just not having a good day.

I wish this was over.

It's rough on the dogs. It's rough on me having to leave for breakup.

Wish I could be home.

It's just high-stress day. Can't stop shaking.

Pull, Stolie, pull.

Good job, guys.

Come on, up, up.

ANDY: We're lucky to have this... This is my first house I built here in Eagle,

and I lived in this before I started developing our place down at Calico Bluff.

And so, if I have to spend a night in Eagle,

we have a place here that we can spend the night.

That was a hot trip, huh?

Well, that was nerve-racking.

Hey, guys. Well done, Gilligan.

Well done, Noel.

Come on over here. This is your new home.

You're such a good girl.

You did a good job today.

Oh, I think that's everybody's.

This has been a rough day.

But I do have to look after the dogs

and that's the most important thing.

Mmm. My angel.

But my heart will be at home.

So it's a bittersweet day for me, and I don't know how long I'm gonna be here

and that's gonna be the hardest part for me.

You did a good job today.

-Little bit frustrated? -Yeah.

It's gonna be really hard when Andy leaves here now shortly.

See ya.

-Love you. -Love you, too.

You're gonna be okay. I'm gonna be okay.

You better be.

It's going to be really hard to be separated that long, for one thing.

And, uh, just worry about all the work that he's got to do down there

to finish up getting ready, and I can't be there to help.

And, uh... (GULPS) I just hope he'll be okay.

I hope that all this fuss and bother is for nothing.

I really hope I have a home to go home to.

CHIP: A lot of patience.

That's what you got to have to live up this way.

This is the Arctic.

It may be, technically, a desert, but we got lots of water flying around.

(AGNES SPEAKS)

CHIP: Looks good to me.

Who knows if they'll bite or not.

There's only one way to find out, is knock a hole in.

Get 'er done.

AGNES: Whoo, that was heavy.

Well, the fact is if we didn't take it all the way down

as far as we could, we'd have a real narrow hole.

We wouldn't be able to pull a big fish through.

So you want to fish this one and I'll fish another one or what?

I'm gonna go right over here.

AGNES: Hopefully, our second try will be a lot better

so we can sit here and start fishing.

There is a whole big lake to choose from.

Just gotta go find that perfect spot.

-Oh! -Fuck.

Whoo-hoo!

Whoo!

-AGNES: Whoo! -(CHIP EXHALES)

We weren't expecting it to do that.

That took me by surprise.

We're pushing down as hard as we can, all of a sudden, slam!

I got it.

I feel pretty good!

I'm about to start fishing.

Hopefully this will be productive, but you don't know until you try.

Happy fishing.

Good luck.

(AGNES SPEAKS)

(SIGHS)

(AGNES SPEAKS)

(GIGGLES)

Well, I've got no luck.

I can't quite think like a fish.

I got wolves and caribou down, but...

(LAUGHS)

(WIND HOWLING)

(SIGHS)

Something's down there.

Ah, man.

Something's under there. It just bit again.

Come on, fish.

Oh, I got something.

I got something! It's a fish!

-CHIP: Hey! -Whoo!

-(CHIP WHOOPS) -Right on.

I got the first fish.

CHIP: Thank God.

That's a little one, but it's a good one.

I was about to get chilly,

but I just all of a sudden warmed up.

(LAUGHS) Hey!

Today we weren't as successful as we'd like to be.

I caught a small sheefish.

It's been a long day sitting here jigging,

so, uh, we're just gonna pretty much call it a day

and try again tomorrow.

We'll all just keep trying till we get a good load up and go back home.

CHIP: The mess of success.

(AGNES SPEAKS)

CHIP: Fishing's always hit and miss.

Some days you catch them, some days you don't.

But, um, that's just fishing,

and it doesn't discourage us. We have tomorrow.

We got enough fish for dinner and I'm not complaining.

We're gonna head over to a shelter cabin and crash out for the night,

and when the sun's back up, we'll be back out here again.

ERIK SALITAN: There's a lot of things to do at this time of year.

It's a quick transition.

The bears will be out soon.

It's, uh... It's a great time here to be alive here in the Arctic of Alaska.

Springtime here. Big thaw.

I'm gonna grab my chainsaw here

and go out and cut some wood.

There's a lot of things to do at this time of year. It's a quick transition.

Here in the Arctic, the preferred time to cut firewood is the spring.

The reason for that is you still have enough snow

that I can use my snow machine to access my wood-cutting yard.

If I waited until the summer, I'd be limited to what I can do on foot.

I have a real nice wood-cutting yard

and I'm able to get there on snow machine and snow machine only.

Hoping to cut enough firewood right now

that it will get me through

that first part of the fall this next year

until there's enough snow that I can again be riding

my snow machine to cut more firewood.

This is where I cut firewood here on this island.

We're on sort of a tight little slough of the river here.

This is a backwater, a flood channel.

This is the first tree I want to take today.

Here, we're targeting dead standing spruce

that's already dry, that's ready to go.

Get this home, throw it right into the wood stove.

When you burn exclusively firewood to heat your home,

you need a lot of firewood.

So what you do to get the wood is you come out and girdle these trees,

which is the marks that you see here.

In girdling it, it cuts the xylem of the tree, it exposes it.

It kills the tree, and then the tree sits out here in the woods,

it dries standing, and a few years later

when you come back to cut them

it's already dry and ready to go.

Always got to pay attention

when you get one hung up like that.

See, there's that loose top up there.

No, really, though, 'cause that...

It's gonna roll this way.

It's not like, uh, bullshit. It is gonna fall here in the next cut or two.

(CHAINSAW STARTS)

That tree was not leaning in an advantageous direction.

Well, I got a full load in my sled.

I got several piles back there with some more wood.

I'm gonna haul this back to camp.

I just came out here, travelled down the river,

a short distance from my home,

cut some firewood, I filled up my sled,

I made several other piles along this slough.

So, uh, that all worked out.

I knocked over a couple of trees here.

And got them all limbed up, bucked up in lengths.

I'm going to haul them back to my camp,

buck 'em up, split 'em,

throw 'em in the wood shed there,

and we're good to go.

Wood to me is one of the most valuable commodities

there are out here in the bush.

I mean, it's how I heat my house.

What I just did here

is basically everybody else in the world

going out to their desk job,

working their week, punching their clock,

and then giving it to the heating oil man for the winter

to pay for however you heat your house,

propane, heating oil, however.

I'd much rather cut out the middleman

and just go and get my own heating fuel here.

SUE: I've always had a way with nature.

I work in harmony with it, not against it.

I'm part of the circle of life.

First thing I have to do, 'cause I'm burning.

Haven't been frostbit in a long, long time.

If you can relate a frostbite...

...a frost burn, just like you would a sunburn.

If you imagine you go to the beach

and you're having a hoo-ha time

and you don't notice you're going to get a little pink.

You go from pink, you're gonna get a little red,

from red, you know, you get blisters

and then if it's bad enough those blisters pop and you start peeling.

Your skin is telling you that, uh...

"Look, dipshit, you abused me, you burnt me.

"Here's a little payback, biatch."

(COMPUTER CALL RINGING)

MAN: (ON PHONE) Hello, Momsky.

Hey, sonsky. How are you doing?

Oh, I'm doing okay. How about you?

SUE: I'm doing all right.

I'm just trying to put together, uh,

everything going on here at Kavik.

MAN: So what's going to be going on with Kavik now?

Well, you know, I had to lease the camp

this winter just to stay here

and I either gotta buy it or get booted.

If I don't purchase the place, I have to leave.

So I'm looking at being a 50-year-old fat chick

trying to find a new career and a new life.

And I wanted to ask each of you and Jen,

I mean, we're a family, even if I do run away,

but, uh, you know, see what your feelings are on me

buying the place or quitting the place.

MAN: What I want you to do more than anything else

is do what's gonna make you happy.

I don't ever wanna do anything to make you sad,

but you know I go psycho when I get in town too long.

MAN: I love you a lot, Mom.

I just want you to do what's gonna make you happy.

All right, I love you, sweetie,

and I'll call you in a few days.

The enormity of the decision is,

I mean, it's off the charts.

I don't want to lose my home and I want a chance at this future.

I'm going to Fairbanks to buy this place.

God willing, I'll come back

and be able to introduce it as Susan's Kavik River Camp.

ANDY: I've invested 25 years of my life here,

and this is a place

that I have a really strong spiritual connection to.

And it's gonna take an awful lot

for me to give this up.

Kate's in Eagle now with the dogs.

I made it back here. I left Topez here.

I always like to have one dog with me when I'm down here.

We're predicting this to be a really bad breakup

and one of the last things I want to do

is to put some eyebolts

through the beams supporting my house

and then tie those off to the base of trees.

In the flood in 2009,

every building on our property floated and moved.

Some of them moved 75, 80 feet away from their original spot.

What I'm a little nervous about

is if all these buildings start floating,

they're gonna end up going back out with the water.

This rope here is weighted for five tons.

Unless the ice actually hits the house,

if the whole house was floating, I'd be able to pull it with this rope.

It's like having a large boat in the water.

There's not a lot of friction there.

So I think I'll get one here, go around the other side,

see if I can't get one over there

to some more trees that way.

And that'll keep it from moving sideways.

Then I'll have to go and try to figure out a way

to attach to the back of the house

and go back that way.

So I think if I can do three points,

I'll be in pretty good shape here.

Okay. So the house is secure.

Try and get a few hours' sleep.

Probably go to sleep tonight with the window open

so I can listen and hear if something starts happening.

We're coming down to the wire.

It's been a long winter.

It's been a lot of fun. Got a lot of trapping done.

I got a lynx here.

A lot of the stuff out there, hunting and fishing,

is, uh, luck, to be honest.

But where the skill comes in is in seizing opportunity.

What the fuck!

There's a muskrat right there.

You know, Alaska's a harsh place.

Either you like it or you don't.

It's the only place that I could live.

I wouldn't trade this life for anything.

This is the lifestyle I choose to live. It's not the right or wrong way to live.

It's just the way I choose.

It's been a lot of fun, got a lot of trapping done.

Caught a lot of fur, had a great time,

got out on the country, but spring is officially here.

It's time for me to get ready

for what I really do for a living,

which is, uh, be a hunting guide.

Alaska has a rich tradition

of guiding and outfitting for big game.

There's nothing I'm more proud of

than being a guide and everything that goes with that.

I'm gonna be taking six grizzly bear hunters over the next month.

I have my first client coming in today.

I need to put together a camp.

I need to ready his guest cabin

that he'll be staying in and head down and pick him up.

These are two of my most important pieces

of guiding gear.

This is a 60-power spotting scope.

I can look at a brown bear's head from a long range

and know if it's a mature bear or not.

My second piece of gear that's really important

is my guide rifle.

This gun has been with me for my entire guiding career

and it's, uh, it's been involved in the harvest

of many, many bears and moose and sheep.

(TRIGGER CLICKS)

I'm kind of excited and nervous all at once.

It's the first hunt of the spring

and I'm gonna hop in the truck

and head down and pick up my first client of the year.

CHIP: It's a way of life.

This isn't just a job or an occupation.

Every day, I have to do something that benefits

my household and my family.

I gotta keep them warm. I gotta keep them fed.

Well, I guess we're gonna go fishing again today.

The fish weren't biting yesterday, but, um, you know, that's fishing.

So we're giving it another try.

We could get a sled load, we might get nothing.

But we won't know if we don't try, so we're off.

(AGNES SPEAKING)

(CHIP SPEAKING)

(AGNES SPEAKING)

Other people are out here all the time looking for fish

and, um, when we come across their holes,

where people have been lucky, then we're lucky.

We don't have to dig so deep.

The fish move.

You know, like, this could be the hottest hole that there is

for a whole day and tomorrow there'd be nothing at all.

In the same manner, the holes that didn't produce today

might just be the hottest places to be tomorrow.

So, we don't know until we try.

Just keep trying.

Oh! There we go! There we go!

Oh, good golly!

I don't like getting hooked. I always try to stun 'em.

Oh, boy.

That's a good meal right there.

Oh, I got one! Yes!

-CHIP: Oh, good one, too! Big one. -Ahhh!

Get it!

CHIP: Holy shit! Where's that hook?

AGNES: Ahhh!

I hook this...

Whoa, all right!

Got one! Yes!

-You need your hook by your hole. -Phew.

Now this is what you call a sheefish.

This what we're after.

It's a pretty good size, it has a lot of meat.

Sweet meat. Pretty good.

Wow, that's all the way to your... Past your waist.

Well, we got one, big sheefish, and then we got ourselves four smaller ones,

and we got ourselves a couple small tiktaalik.

And, um, if you had to go buy the equivalent in the store,

it probably could run you 300 or 400 bucks.

So, um, coming out here, and doing this

is definitely worth our time and our effort.

And we actually saved money by buying gas

instead of food at the store.

Well, that's quite a few meals right there, all right.

Yeah, looks like it. Yum.

CHIP: When we look at spring coming on, we see a change of seasons coming

and with the change of seasons comes a change of taste.

There's something else to hunt. Every day, there's something new to gather.

We're gonna jump on our snow machines

and we're gonna head off to Noorvik.

Have ourselves a nice little trip home with some smiles on our faces.

There's a big difference between a fresh fish and a frozen fish.

And fresh fish is what we got on board.

SUE: When you get knocked down, you either stay there and cry

or get your ass back up and make it work.

And this has been a long time coming.

I am in Fairbanks.

The only thing standing between me

and my dream of owning Kavik, this right here.

A cheque needs to be written to purchase it.

This is what it all boils down to.

Get down there,

sign a document, shake some hands,

light a stogie,

and sip a single malt and breathe.

Start the next chapter of my life.

It's a huge step for me.

It's no small feat to be 50

and finally purchase your own lighthouse

so you can make that light shine for everybody to see.

Hey, there.

-Good to see ya. -Congratulations.

-Oh, thanks, I'm nervous as a little cat. -Oh, yeah.

(LAUGHS)

MAN: That is it.

-Congratulations. -Thank you.

Oh!

Cheers.

Success.

(GIGGLES)

I feel good, and I feel shaky.

It hasn't sunk in yet.

This all started... I was in Fairbanks, dead of winter,

busted leg, having surgery, and trying to get back home.

(SUE SPEAKING)

I absolutely think it's detestable

that somebody feels they have the right

to come in and change my world without asking.

He's down.

-Oh, man, it's good to see you. -(MAN LAUGHS)

(LAUGHS) I see a light.

I'm back in Fairbanks, leg has kicked ass,

and I'm buying my own home.

It's a... It's a new era for Super Sue.

(LAUGHS)

ANDY: I've put 10 years into this place

and lost almost all that work

and I don't know what would happen if I lost it again.

I don't know if I would have the resolve to rebuild again.

(RUMBLING)

Come take a quick look over the bank here

and see if it's coming up.

I gotta get some stuff up high.

Just woke up, heard a sound. It almost sounded like rain.

It was kind of a crackling noise.

Looked out of the window dreamy-eyed

and saw big chunks of ice in the yard...

...and, uh, realised the river was breaking up.

You can hear the ice cracking and popping.

This is looking to be a really bad one this year.

KATE: I'm scared for his life, to be honest.

I can't replace him.

If all my buildings float, and I lose everything,

we have to really think seriously

about whether we want to continue to live here.

KATE: If the ice comes, it's the end.

It'll just be splinters.

So I really hope I have a home to go home to.

It's kind of a last minute, big scramble here.

Well, I was hoping I was gonna get

a night's sleep last night.

That didn't happen.

I gotta get in the house

and get some more stuff up high.

So, my electronics.

Storing all my water jugs in here

so they don't float away.

So I got water in case I'm flooded here.

I'll get a few upstairs.

It's one of the biggest issues when you get stranded

is you realise you'd have no water to drink.

(RUMBLING)

Just going to have to wait and see what Mother Nature

throws at us now.

I woke up and I thought I heard it raining out

and it just didn't sound right.

It sounded like the sound of raindrops

or something on the tin roof and it kind of took me a minute to kind of wake up,

and first thought was, "Oh, shit, it's raining, I gotta go cover stuff up."

And then, I looked out the window and saw

big chunks of ice here

right up on the bank.

I was like, "Oh, crap!" I could see the ice,

it looks like it must've started right up against the shoreline

'cause the ice out between here and the islands

was, uh, still solid,

but it was just starting to break up.

So, uh, the river is moving really good

out in the main channel right now.

I'm looking out there and I can see it moving

probably 10 or 12 miles an hour.

Water came up about five feet in less than a minute here

when it breached up river about maybe 200 yards.

So, uh, there's a lot of water piling up

back behind this, I hope...

I hope it keeps moving.

All right, well, I just came up on my roof

'cause that's my best vantage point.

I'm seeing open water starting to show up

and I'm seeing the ice thinning out

in the main channel right now.

So I think the first big push has gone through right now,

and, uh, that's exactly what I like to see.

So we're going to see here, when this open water appears,

it might peel off these large pieces out in front.

We'll see what happens here

but, uh, I'm feeling like we're through the worst part of it right now,

so I'm starting to relax a little bit more.

CHIP: It's a way of life. This isn't just a job or an occupation.

Every day, I have to do something that benefits my household and my family.

I gotta keep them warm. I gotta keep them fed.

Springtime.

It's the sure sign of spring, kids in shorts.

-You guys catch fish? -Yeah.

-Whoa! -Holy crap, look, it's still moving!

-It's still alive. -(LAUGHS)

-(GIRL SPEAKS) -CHIP: Of course.

AGNES: Oh, yay, home at last.

CHIP: Home, at last!

We're having this one.

She chose this one for tonight.

This is the one I caught.

-It's gonna fit right there. -Oh, my God.

Holy cow, that's big.

Boy, it was lots of fun catching this.

It almost get away.

Well, it's the first sheefish we've had fresh

since, uh, we stopped netting fish in November, huh?

AGNES: Yeah.

CHIP: Nothing like fresh, fresh food.

We'll get four or five meals out of this one, if you include the head.

We'll bake the head and eat it separate.

We actually had a pretty average year, huh? I'd say.

Catching fur, catching fish, catching caribou.

-But, um... -Watch your knee, sweetie.

I would say it wasn't too bad of a year.

-CHIP: Best thing to do is look at how well you've done. -Look! Are these eggs?

-Yeah, Mom, it got some eggs! -Mom, it's got eggs!

Bad!

Look, Daddy, I got eggs!

CHIP: Oh, lucky!

-(AGNES LAUGHS) -CHIP: Bonus.

-CHIP: Wow, look at those eggs. -Oh, Mom, look at the liver.

CHIP: You guys can have the rest of the fish,

-just leave me the eggs. -No.

-CHILD: The liver. -AGNES: Watch out. Might splash ya.

-I'm just gonna go bam! -Oh.

See?

(WHISTLES)

AGNES: Out here, we try to do subsistence hunting

and gathering and fishing as much as we can.

I'm gonna put this in the oven now.

Sometimes we don't always have money

to go to the store and purchase

all the meats and prepared foods that most people have.

It's pretty expensive when you try to go to the store,

so we pretty much rely on all the stuff

that we catch.

-Ready for dinner, girls? -Yep.

Right on, it's done.

Some people say subsistence living

is a poor way to live.

But I think subsistence is a poor word

for a good healthy living.

Looks pretty good.

CHIP: There's a big difference between a fresh fish and a frozen fish

and, um, we've got nice, chemical-free, organic fish

that we know happen to be wild.

It's all about good health and happiness, and that's what we got here today.

We ended our fall and started our winter with fishing,

and we ended our winter and started our spring with fishing.

Almost like poetry.

KATE: We'll push every day

until we can't push any further.

Until the time runs out and that's all we can do.

ANDY: Here we go. Come here. Come here, Tope.

Mommy's coming. Mommy's coming home.

Oh, boy!

I talked with Kate last night,

and she's found out that there's going to be

a helicopter in the Eagle area,

and she's contacted the company

and they said that they would be able to do a quick trip to drop her off down here,

which is going to make her really happy to be home again.

(HELICOPTER APPROACHES)

Who's that?

Who's that gonna be? Is that gonna be Mommy?

Huh?

She's managed to find someone to take care of our dogs in Eagle

for the next two to three weeks

until I can put a boat in.

Getting Kate back here is gonna be a real joy

for the both of us,

and I know she's chomping at the bit to get back here,

so it'll be a happy reunion.

Who's that, Tope? Is that your mommy?

Hey, man!

-Hey, how you doing? -KEITH: Good, how you doing?

-This is Keith. -Hey, Keith.

Thanks for bringing my woman home.

-Oh, no problem. -(LAUGHS)

-How you doing, stranger? -(KATE MOANS)

(KATE SPEAKING)

ANDY: Yeah.

-KATE: Oh... -(ANDY SPEAKING)

(ANDY LAUGHS)

So that's what saved us, that big chunk from here down to there.

KATE: Yeah.

ANDY: It deflected all this stuff, we were pretty lucky.

KATE: Well, I'd say we got the lottery ticket this year.

-(ANDY LAUGHS) -KATE: The winner.

It's 'cause we did all that work to prep. (LAUGHS)

If we wouldn't have prepped, we would have been kicked...

-Well, we're all organised now. -Kicked in the butt.

-We know what to do. -(CHUCKLES) Yeah.

This has been stressful, but a good ending

and looks like we made it through, probably one of the worst breakups

that could have happened in this area, unscathed,

so good start of the spring.