Original subtitles

NARRATOR: On this episode of Life Below Zero,

the spring runoff is creating chaos across Alaska.

GLENN VILLENEUVE: Nature does decide for you.

ANDY BASSICH: Something catastrophic can happen.

SUE AIKENS: You want to live out here? Just deal with shit.

NARRATOR: Sue's business is under water.

SUE: This is my runway. 100% out of commission.

NARRATOR: Glenn's water supply is at risk.

GLENN: I'm not too crazy about drinking that water.

NARRATOR: The Hailstone clan struggles

to keep their heads above water.

CHIP: They're having motor problems.

NARRATOR: And Andy and Kate could see a lifelong dream

plunge into a watery grave.

ANDY: Tell me what the fuck is going on.

'Cause I can't see a fuckin' thing.

Hey, Roger, how's it going?

NARRATOR: Sue Aikens is now the sole proprietor of Kavik River Camp.

I'm no longer somebody else's bitch.

I'm my own owner. I run my own business.

NARRATOR: To make money, she has to keep her runway open

during the busy summer months

when the camp serves as a remote outpost

for scientists, hunters and bush pilots.

With the new pressures of being owner,

Sue has brought on a helping hand

to assist with the drastically increased summer workload.

SUE: I have a family member whose name is Rick

and I brought him up here and he wants to help out.

I just wanted to tell you I appreciate you coming out.

No problem, Sue. I love it up here.

I know we're both... We're not over the hill,

but we're looking at it from the summit.

(RICK SPEAKING)

He's a real good guy. I mean, he was 15 years A&P mechanic,

a pilot and helicopter mechanic in the Navy.

He's just got a lot of hands on experience, a lot of knowledge,

and that's something I need here.

Your help is pretty valuable. You got a lot of talent there.

I got a minion and I'm going to use him.

If I do something that bugs the hell out of you,

(LAUGHING) too bad.

(RICK SPEAKING)

SUE: Holy shit! Welcome to the thaw.

NARRATOR: Sue's camp sits in an unpredictable flood plain

since the flat tundra does little

to hold the river at bay during the run off.

Unfortunately, the runway is dangerously close to flooding waters.

SUE: It is coming up. I see where it's coming up over

-the bank area here. -RICK: Yeah.

The water is stagnant, stationary here

so it's obviously water-logged the ground.

The river is coming up, everything is melting.

You know, it's 24-hour daylight, it's 50 degrees right now.

It's gonna be 50 degrees until the weather pattern changes.

There is no sunset.

Because it happens so late and so much snow,

I mean, you never get to know exactly when it's going to hit.

Bam! Here it is.

NARRATOR: Sue will have to keep her eye on the rising waters,

but for now she has other pressing matters.

(SUE SPEAKING)

NARRATOR: Kavik River Camp is 60 miles away

from one of Alaska's most remote highways, which ends in Deadhorse.

SUE: I got two loads yesterday. I got three to four for today.

Boom, boom, boom. I got to get going.

NARRATOR: Every supply must be flown in by bush plane.

SUE: Yo, Bob-O.

I've been up here a long time without any help and I like it that way.

But does Rick provide companionship? Absolutely.

Holy shit.

Can you give me a fuckin' hand?

-Well, I thought you... (LAUGHS) -Grab her.

I'm here pooping myself.

But for me the blessing is it's a very finite, limited engagement.

-Is that it? -(BOB GILL SPEAKING)

You want more stuff today?

I might as well. What do you got coming next?

-All right, buddy. -BOB: Okay.

Good as always. Fly safe.

NARRATOR: In the short time it took to unload the plane,

over two feet of water has made its way onto the runway.

SUE: The runway is how people get in and out.

It's how supplies get in and out.

It's how fuel gets in and out.

The runway is life out here.

With this warm temperature, everything melts out so fast,

the water table comes up and... And you're done.

(ANIMALS HOWLING)

GLENN: This whole business about living by killing and eating things

makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

A lot of people have a problem with it.

But I don't think there's any way to really escape it.

NARRATOR: Glenn Villeneuve lives without electricity.

He has no way to store fresh meat.

Each day is a vital quest for food.

Just a few days ago I was still hunting caribou.

(WHOOPING)

(EXHALES)

(FIRING)

Both shots missed.

Things have changed and I'm not going after caribou any more.

It's getting too late in the season.

There's a lot more flies out just in the last few days

and the lake is all covered in water

so I'm just going to be concentrating on getting smaller animals now

like porcupine... Duck should be coming soon,

there's some squirrels around.

So I'm gonna be hunting those kind of animals now.

There are flies out, all right.

That's some scraps I had to throw out this morning.

(FLIES BUZZING)

When things warm up at this time of year, the flies start coming out.

They go all over the meat and they lay eggs on meat.

The eggs hatch little maggots, ruin the meat. You can't eat it.

(BUZZING)

Hey, look!

I shoot squirrels for one reason:

because they chew on things around here.

They cause a lot of damage.

They'll chew up the tent or they'll get into my caribou hides,

but I also eat them.

There he is.

(COCKS GUN)

(FIRES GUN)

A little red squirrel.

I like to eat all the different animals out here.

I like to eat red squirrels once in a while.

It's been a couple of months since I ate one.

This one is pretty messed up by shooting it.

You see... I'm just going to get the legs.

Just a little variety. Squirrel legs.

It's a lot more than just the flavour of the food,

although that is important.

It's a lot more than the nutrition of the food,

although I think the nutrition of this food is unsurpassed.

But it has to do with the relationship to the food.

I just don't feel the same if I go in the store

and buy some food that got grown 2,000 miles away,

processed by some company that's got some executives

getting rich up in a penthouse in New York City selling it to me.

I just feel a lot better eating this food out here.

(HOWLING)

ANDY: It's not that I don't want to be a part of the rest of the world.

But I gain a great deal of satisfaction

from being able to do things for myself and by myself.

I'm gonna try and go get my sawmill up in Eagle today.

NARRATOR: This spring, Andy Bassich has big plans

to build additions to his remote homestead

using a sawmill he purchased in the winter.

To get it home he had to travel a thousand miles round trip

from Eagle to Anchorage,

160 done over treacherous mountain roads.

You gotta be careful, if you go too far off to one side

you'll just fall off the road.

-Kind of muddy. -Yes, it is.

NARRATOR: The thaw is the only time that Andy will be able

to utilise the sawmill to build his additions.

Once winter arrives, it will be useless.

The sawmill probably weighs I think around 3,700 pounds,

so approximately two tonnes.

I've configured my two boats into a big pontoon

and I'm just creating a much more stable platform.

We're just going to take our time and try and do everything right

and not get in too much of a hurry.

There you go. Now, turn the throttle.

More!

I'm surprised there's still ice on the shore.

That says a lot about how bad break-up was, but it's melting fast.

Twenty-four hours of sunlight does a lot of melting real quick on this ice.

The plan is to bring this up into the landing.

I'll probably sling the sawmill and set it on those big heavy beams.

If I tried to bring the sawmill down on one boat it would be very tippy.

But by putting two boats together,

then it's stable this way and it's stable this way.

So, this is the most stable platform I can build for a heavy load that's long.

And it's all about stability when you are out on the river.

The worst thing that could happen

is that the sawmill could go into the river

and if it does that then it's a loss.

So I'm kind of on pins and needles.

CHIP: It is a different way of living.

There's so many ways to be wealthy here without money. It's crazy.

You know, I chose a different life. A whole different lifestyle.

(RATTLING)

CHIP: We are getting ready to take kids down to our camp fishing trap.

NARRATOR: The Hailstone clan spends most of the summer

travelling hundreds of miles of river in their quest for food.

Everything they catch will be sold, traded or consumed

over the next several months.

(GRUNTING)

And the oldest son is going to join us. He's working his way home.

'Cause he's got his own gear down there.

All right. I'll see you guys down there.

I'm not going to ride down. It's full.

We just saddled up our house.

We just got all of our kids all saddled up and ready to go.

Before you load anything, we need to move the boat out.

Basically we've just got a window of a few days

to get the vast majority of the fish that are coming out of the lakes.

I've done this for 20-some odd years,

I'm feeling good about today. So we'll see what happens.

NARRATOR: Chip will pilot one boat

while eldest daughter, Tinmiaq, navigates the other.

CHIP: Kids! Get in the boat. We do this every year.

We do it in different places but this is one of the most enjoyable fishing trips

because I get to be with the kids after a long winter of having kids in school.

Well, motor's warm. What do you think?

You ready for camp?

(KID SPEAKING)

GIRL: Ready!

-CHIP: They'll catch us. -Bye.

CHIP: The kids are going to learn a lot. There's no doubt about that.

They'll participate a lot and that's really what we want more than anything else.

Just to be with the kids.

(MOTOR STALLS)

NARRATOR: Suddenly Tinmiaq's motor dies.

Boats are the family's lifeline.

If Tin doesn't get the motor running,

this trip could be over before it begins.

CHIP: They're having motor problems!

NARRATOR: The Hailstone clan is on one of the biggest fishing trips of the year.

But it's off to a rough start

as a problematic motor strands two of Chip's daughters.

-Are you overheating? -(TINMIAQ REPLYING)

Is it just shutting off on its own?

Pull the choke all the way out.

I know my daughter was having motor problems

and she's not a mechanic so she's not understanding what the problem is.

Turn up your throttle. Turn up your throttle, give it a try.

So, we don't have a fuel problem.

I'm hoping we don't have water in the fuel.

I don't see any water at all inside the filter here.

So I don't really think that's going to be a problem either.

I just added some more four-stroke oil in case this one was a little low.

These things have an electronic shut-off

so if you're low on oil or it's overheating, it just shuts the engine down.

Try giving it a pull.

(MOTOR STARTS)

Put it back to that rev, leave it like that.

Let go of... Let it go like that. Now put your lid back on.

Just go! You're going to have stay ahead of me.

Anytime you got motor problems you only go as fast as the slowest person.

Start taking things to the cabin, babe.

Nice ride.

Had some motor problems coming back

and that was really giving people a bad attitude, so...

You can yell at a motor all you want, it don't care.

It was out of the oil, I guess. 'Cause after that, it was perfect.

(CHUCKLES) Single guys are so lucky sometimes.

Today's work is to get down further.

We're going to go put that net in so it's producing tonight.

And then tomorrow we go check it.

That's all we really have to do today, is just get down to the net...

-Set it. -...set the net and then call it good.

GLENN: I think the people in the modern world,

they try to escape this endless cycle of life and death.

I don't want to escape from that.

It's a part of my life every day.

I'm going to see if I can go out and get some water out of my ice hole.

Because I keep water in these buckets in here but they're both empty,

so I need to get some water now.

NARRATOR: In addition to gathering all the food he eats,

Glenn is constantly in need of safe drinking water.

Right at this point where the slush changes colour,

that's where the ice is frozen right to the bottom of the lake.

Not long ago I came out here and I put in this hole

in order to get water from the lake.

I chiselled a big hole down through four feet of ice

and there was really nice clean water.

You could stand here on the ice and it was completely dry.

Now, there's three or four inches of water running across the top of the ice.

It's going down that hole as if it's a drain.

Well, all this overflow from the snow melting on the mountains

has been coming down the last couple of days

and running right into my water hole.

I'm not too crazy about drinking that water

because there's wolf shit all over this lake.

NARRATOR: This winter Glenn shared the lake with a group of aggressive carnivores.

GLENN: That is a pack of 20 wolves

on a big animal they just took down.

This is the biggest pack of wolves I have ever seen.

So I decided to run back and forth to attract their attention.

Last time when I'm running back,

I see all the wolves racing towards me.

I never had wolves come running towards me before. Never.

And I start shooting. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

And I hit three wolves.

All of the other wolves, they had run off.

So I started running across the lake

and I'm running over towards the kill site.

That's what I saw what it was. They had killed a moose. Took a look at that.

Then I decided I better get picking up these wolves

and start skinning some wolves.

NARRATOR: For now, the pack is keeping its distance

but the scat left behind has contaminated his water supply.

Wolves around here have a parasite called an Echinococcus granulosus

and the eggs of the parasite are in the wolves' droppings.

If you ingest those, you can get really sick.

(WOLF HOWLING)

And I'm a little concerned about it

because I've had wolves defecating all over the lake this winter.

There were 20 wolves right here

and before this snow started melting,

you could walk around here and see wolf droppings all over on top of the snow.

So I really don't have much appetite to drink that water.

I was planning on using this water hole a little bit longer.

I didn't know it was going to fill up like this so fast with overflow,

but that's just the way it goes.

Out here, the environment changes really quickly, especially in the spring time.

Things change and you have to adjust.

Whatever happens, you can cope with it

if you are flexible and you adjust to the situation.

But you always have to be on your toes and make adjustments

and take advantage of what's going on.

You can actually use a lot of these changes to your advantage.

Right now, for example, I can't get water out of there like I used to,

but because it's spring time, there will be other things I can do.

Like, pretty soon there will be ducks coming in to land in this water

and I can hunt those ducks.

You just to have to go with the flow

and you have to let nature decide

about how you want to do things out here.

I mean, nature does decide for you.

You just can't be rigid about things.

So I gotta go look for water someplace else.

ANDY: I've never been afraid to just dive into something.

I've often said, "The best way to learn is to make a mistake."

And I've learned a lot.

NARRATOR: Andy is attempting to transport

a two-tonne sawmill to his remote homestead.

He's using a sky lift to load the machine onto an improvised pontoon.

ANDY: This has been about an eight-month project in the works

as far as tracking the mill down, purchasing it,

getting it to Eagle and now getting it down to Calico.

I've got some slings made up right here

and what I hope to do is pick it up with the sky lift here.

I'm going to take it down

and try and set it right on the boats that I have set up as a catamaran.

KATE: Getting the sawmill down to Calico is pretty much a delicate operation here

and it's fairly time-sensitive.

You're getting grounded over here!

A lot of stress to do something... This is a big event.

And, uh, gonna hear a few swear words, I can well imagine.

(KATE LAUGHING)

You're going to have to back up.

ANDY: Hey, don't go underneath it! Get the hell away from it.

Don't ever walk underneath that, Kate! That's just not smart.

That's a big piece of machinery to be swinging towards your head.

NARRATOR: Two tonnes of heavy steel must perfectly balance on the boats.

If disaster strikes,

Andy's vision of using the sawmill to enhance his home will be lost.

I set this thing down on here, I'm not liking the way it's looking.

It's cock-eyed, I gotta pick it up, square it up a little bit.

That boat looks like it's pretty low in the water here.

KATE: He gets tunnel vision when he needs to get something done.

He's got it in his head to go one way and sometimes it's just a bit much.

This way.

A lot of stress to do something, this is a big event...

And, you know, worried about it going right.

I can't do this.

You never fuckin' listen to me.

Just be nicer when things go smoother.

ANDY: Yeah, that looks good.

It's good as it's going to get right now, I think.

I need to make sure it's tied down

and the balance is right on the boats

so that everything is floating equally.

If something shifts and I'm not tied down and balanced right,

this sawmill could come off the beams

out in the middle of the river,

either capsizing the boats or crushing the boats.

I'm all done. I've got the sawmill the way I wanted.

It's bound down onto the boats.

Real slow.

It's time to start heading down to Calico Bluff

and that's where the real work is going to begin.

Good.

CHIP: We get what we get. You never know with fish.

It's like any other hunting.

We're not watching the wheat grow, buddy.

We're chasing it down and killing it.

And they don't always cooperate.

CHIP: Come on, kiddos, let's go. The fish ain't gonna wait for us.

NARRATOR: The Hailstones spend summer as nomads

across hundreds of miles of river.

Each day has to bring in enough food to feed the family.

CHIP: Fish are in the water, fish are in your net and then they are in your hands.

And between the water and us having them in our hands,

there's a lot of variables.

So we'll see what we get. It's never predictable.

We're going to put the net on that side of the slough

but we're going to stake it on this side of the slough 'cause it's so narrow.

So we're going to have a rope that goes out and the net will be over there.

So the fish will come out, nailed!

AGNES: As far as I could remember when I was a little kid

we've always been here.

My mother's been here, my sister's been here.

The pike are like this huge. They come up and eat the mice.

We used to watch the mice come down to the water

and then a real big pike would just come and grab it and take it.

-Tired. -Stay still. Get off!

CHIP: Just let me push you hard. How does that sound?

Oh, no, they are doing it on girl power alone.

(GIGGLING)

Super girls.

I couldn't jump off.

AGNES: This is how we used to put it when I was a little girl like you girls.

I've always fished right here in the same exact spot.

I used to spend days out here.

Then we'll come back and go check it tomorrow.

And then we'll spend the whole day down here

and we'll cut our fish and make our fish racks.

And all that stuff.

Hold on, Carol.

(CONTINUES SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

Wasn't that the easiest net setting we've ever done?

CHIP: So now my little tired children, we'll take you back to camp

'cause you're so sleepy now.

CHIP: You got her? MAN: Yeah.

Good morning, Qutan.

(KIDS CHATTERING)

Everybody is tired. Everybody had a long day of getting ready.

All the girls are real bossy.

What can I say?

You gotta take the kids, take them home and put them to bed.

We're looking forward to tomorrow. Maybe the net will be full of fish.

We're hoping for it, anyway.

SUE: Happiness is a very brief burst of emotion.

But to be content is to be comfortable in a style of life.

NARRATOR: Kavik River has suddenly flooded Sue's runway.

If she doesn't stem the tide,

the runway could be washed out, putting her entire business at risk.

I'm gonna go see where my river is.

I can hear that it's flowing more strongly.

Holy shit! It's too much, too fast.

It came up two feet in an hour.

We can't control it going this way unless we ditch it.

What he's doing now is creating a channel

for that water to go out across the tundra instead of over my runway.

Yeah, I got stuff melting out everywhere.

Yeah, it's definitely flooding.

Oh, crap!

Damn it! Yeah, this is what I need to avoid.

This is all the snow melting and running over the ramp.

This T-section, there's my runway.

Let's check and see how deep it is.

But I got that plane coming in 'cause I got another 3,000 pounds of goods

that I gotta get in over all this mess.

It's a force of nature.

And the flooding is only going to get worse

'cause you know, its 24-hour daylight, there is no sunset.

This is my runway and trying to prevent it from getting this deep.

Yeah, I gotta get this done.

It's coming up so fast

that we're actually having to take gravel from the runway itself

to try and cause a dam.

Where I would normally ditch that ramp, I can't do it...

There's too much ice. I can't bust through it.

So, now it's damage control.

Try to build a dike high enough to force it over that way.

On the upswing, I might try fishing later on.

I mean, I am so grateful that I have a minion this year, that Rick is here.

But if he tips that thing over I'm going to beat him up.

You better not get stuck, motherfucker.

I would hate to have to beat him first month on the job.

Occasionally, shit happens.

You are shitting me.

-How you doing on fuel? -Good.

You're pushing it a little too hard.

It has never stalled like that and then started.

-Turn it off. Let it sit for a minute. -Yeah.

(ENGINE ROARING)

Liquid is not a normal state for a runway.

It's not a desired state.

But it's too much, too fast.

It came up two feet in an hour.

Planes can no longer land in this section.

So until this is dealt with, until that water goes down,

I'm out of business on selling fuel.

The bummer is I'm also out of business on receiving fuel.

NARRATOR: No runway. No supplies. No fuel.

The melt is putting a massive dent in Sue's business plan.

Nature is king out here, man. You want to live out here, just deal with shit.

You can't get all bummed out about it. It's kind of cool.

You know, the power of nature.

GLENN: I'd rather die up on one of these mountains if I had to.

But I'm not planning to.

This is the best way of life for me to live

and I'm going to do it as long as I can.

NARRATOR: A contaminated water hole in the lake

has Glenn on a search for clean drinking water.

GLENN: The lake water has just become pretty contaminated by the overflow on the ice.

I'm getting water from little streams anywhere I can find it.

This water here looks a little bit better to me than what's over on the lake.

I'll still boil it this time of year just because there is so much run off and...

Sure doesn't look as nice as the water does in the wintertime.

It's got a brownish colour now but it's just from the vegetation, mostly.

It's kind of like tea.

In the spring time, I have to get water different places like this.

Okay, that's enough. I don't want too much 'cause it takes so long to boil.

That's it. I gotta boil some more water.

ANDY: One thing I've learned living out here, you never fight Mother Nature.

You learn to work with her.

If you work against her you get your butt kicked every time.

NARRATOR: Andy Bassich is on a 14-mile journey with a two-tonne sawmill

on a makeshift pontoon.

I'm trying to stay fairly close to the shore.

The wind can make this river really choppy, really rough, really quick

if it's blowing up against the current.

Just keeping an eye on the course I want to run here.

NARRATOR: If he doesn't navigate skilfully,

the whole machine could end up at the bottom of the Yukon River.

ANDY: This is a big river and it moves fast. It's got a lot of power.

You don't have to be afraid of it but you gotta respect this river.

And if you lose respect for it, it will bite you in the ass real quick.

Kate! Put it into neutral and turn it off.

Our house is just so wet and mucky right now and there's no bottom to it.

So there's no support for any kind of heavy machinery.

The biggest challenge for me today

is going to be trying to get that sawmill up onto the shoreline.

-(LAUGHS) Fucking mud. -I know.

Jesus Christ. Pain in the ass. Fucking river!

I gotta go get some beams.

I gotta lay them across to make a wider deck

so that I don't have to worry about her falling off.

Then I have to unchain everything

and make sure the boats aren't moving around at all when I try and pull it off.

The most important thing right now is these ramps,

once it starts coming off the boat, don't break.

They still tied on somewhere?

-I think it's just pulling the boats. -No shit!

ANDY: If they break, then everything is going to fall down onto the boats

and it's going to be a real mess.

(KATE YELLS)

You gotta talk to me and tell me what the hell is going on!

I can't see anything from here!

There's nothing going on!

Would you look right here? Is that in the fucking mud?

Tell me what the fuck is going on!

Yeah, that's in the mud.

Jesus fucking Christ, man!

I don't know what... You're tipped too far this way.

You gotta fucking talk to me about what the fuck is going on,

'cause I can't see a fucking thing from on that tractor.

Please, okay?

(KATE SPEAKING)

It's not fucking rocket science here.

I'm not an easy guy to live with.

I'm a Type-A personality

and I'm a do-er kind of guy and I expect her to put up, too.

KATE: We're a normal couple. We're not living some kind of fairy tale here.

We do have our issues at time to time.

But it doesn't make us love each other any less.

Fucking bullshit, goddamn fucking design.

Well, fuck me in the goddamn ass.

Jesus fucking Christ!

NARRATOR: The handle strikes Andy's foot with the force of a sledgehammer.

(GROANING)

Fuck, that hurt, man.

I'm working by myself, I have nobody to help me

so if suddenly things go wrong, I'm on my own.

And I'm going to have to deal with it on my own.

That makes a relatively easy job become very, very tough.

Can you stand on this right here?

I'm going to go real slow.

As this comes back, you just walk down the board here

until that weight is on this board.

I'm gonna go real slow.

Just, if anything, be ready to step off of it. Okay?

(GUNNING ENGINE)

-Stop! -Okay, get off of it!

You've gotta be proactive out here.

And if you're not proactive, you're either going to get hurt

or something is going to be so difficult for you,

you're not going to want to stay out here.

The sawmill is obviously here in Calico. (LAUGHS)

And it went... For the most part, it went really good.

I'm real happy that it's here.

I'll get it tuned up and we'll start making sawdust.

I've been building for 25 years.

I mean, whether it's been here or someplace else.

Every single year I'm building another cabin and...

You know, that's the part I love.

The sawmill is ready to rock and roll.

It makes me feel really good when I can

knock down a tree, drag it here, turn it into lumber

and turn into something that Kate and I can better our lives with.

Our goal here is to live a high quality of life here.

A comfortable life here.

And the sawmill is going to make that possible

for us to able to create a lot of really wonderful things for us in the future.

Kitchen cabinets, building our decks and porches around our cabin,

building a greenhouse...

Well, that's pretty cool!

ANDY: It's gonna be a real plus in our life for a long time to come.

CHIP: Well, we can use resources around us to enrich our lives

and to give ourselves a steady income

and to make our bodies healthy

and to give us a sense of culture and responsibility and hard work.

That's where it's at.

I just like to make sure my jerry jug is topped off every morning.

In case we decide to turn someplace else

and take a little extra boat ride.

NARRATOR: This morning, the Hailstones will learn

if the first leg of their annual fishing trip

begins with a bang or a whimper.

CHIP: Everybody ready? KID: Yup.

-You guys are happy? Well fed? -KID: Yup. Yup!

Let's go!

AGNES: We are heading down to check our net. CHIP: Yep!

Us girls will go carry on doing what we do best.

Fishing.

CHIP: The fish is food security for us.

Something we can get in trade, something we can sell.

NARRATOR: A full net today will set the tone

for the family's long summer of hunting.

An empty net could mean many lean days ahead.

KID: Oh, there's a fish! CHIP: There's lots of fish.

Look at all these pike we got.

GIRL: Can I go get a fish? CHIP: Well, ladies, it's your show.

That's a lot of fish.

CHIP: Looks like a whole lot of pike, or "ceelic" as my wife calls them.

AGNES: The pike bite, so be careful. GIRL: Yup, they got teeth.

They're pretty tasty. There's a certain way that they'll cut them.

They'll dry them up. They'll be good.

KID: Wow.

Ceelic. Pike!

-Watch out for the... -KID: Oh, man, that's nasty.

(SCREAMS) Look. The fish got a fish in it. Check it out.

CHIP: He was eating the baby pike? AGNES: Yup.

A fish with a fish in its mouth. That's cool.

I got it! Dad, look! I got it out.

Oh, it's a baby one.

CHIP: Pike are pretty easy to find. They stay in the same place

and if we want pike, we'll just go jig for pike.

They are one of the real easy fish to catch.

AGNES: Once we have all these hung and dried, they all just last until the winter.

The little bugs won't be able to lay any eggs or stuff into the meat.

So what we are going to do is just go on ahead and take all the scales off.

And when they're taking the scales off that's called covecsya.

Then we will just cut them all up,

wash them and put them on the drying rack.

One day you'll be able to teach your own daughters how to fish.

-At this spot. -At this same exact spot.

You'll be like me. "When I was your age..."

(LAUGHING)

We'll leave them here and let them dry here

and then go home and go have a birthday party, Carol.

(GROANING) It's so heavy.

(WHOOPS)

AGNES: Some birthday cake for the birthday girl.

CHIP: More blue! Tied-dyed, huh?

It's Carol's birthday. She's 11 years old today.

We can't turn off the lights 'cause we don't have any 'cause the sun is shining.

-I want to put it on! -I will, sweet pie.

-All you get to do is get sung... -Put it in the middle!

CHIP: Okay.

(ALL CHEERING)

Shall we hand you your things one at a time

or do you want to close your eyes and reach into the box?

Go ahead. Being the little girl you are,

you get your own white fish net.

We gave you a net like this that's not made yet

so you could finish making it.

You could add the floats and then you could do the leadline

and then you could put the ties in.

-(CAROL SPEAKS) -(AGNES ANSWERS)

CAROL: These are traps? CHIP: Trap beavers and ducks.

Now I get to set my own traps.

-Now we can go see the beaver dam you were talking about. -CHIP: Yup.

I prefer to give my kids tools and stuff instead of giving them games.

I prefer to give them things that they can use.

-And a mosquito net. -Mosquito net.

-Whoa! It's going to shock me! -CHIP: No, it's not.

The girl is famous for taking away lighters I give to her.

"Oh, here, have a lighter." "Hey! You can't have lighters."

So, (LAUGHS) she's now got her own personal lighter.

It's important to be able to make a fire.

(LAUGHING)

She's well-versed in all this stuff. She knows what it's all for.

She's an extremely intelligent kid.

(CHIP SPEAKS)

And this is the first time this girl has ever had a birthday

and didn't receive a firearm.

She has many pistols, she has shotguns,

she has .22's, she has a mose and a gat,

she has an AK-47.

Carol is not going to be the kind that just sits back and takes stuff.

She's gonna be out chasing it down and killing it personally.

And I kind of see that coming up in her and I want to nurture it.

Oh, now I get to get my piece.

She got in my face!

AGNES: It's her piece. It's her birthday!

SUE: You know, you can't whine about what Mother Nature does.

I mean, you can, it just doesn't get you anywhere.

Mother Nature wins.

NARRATOR: Sue Aikens has lost her battle with the spring run-off.

She's had to shut down her runway and cancel all incoming flights.

SUE: Even on a short trip to go check out the runway,

doesn't matter if you want to go take a poop, take a weapon.

No sense pinching one off if you can't also fire one off.

So I had a look at the Kavik rapids.

This part, that can get full of water.

It's really full of water now.

Might as well have a canoe and a couple of paddles 'cause you're upstream.

I mean, I'm done.

Without a runaway that people can land on I can't get guests,

I can't sell fuel.

That's how I generate income so I'm even allowed to be here.

I can't fix this with machinery.

I can't fix it with high hopes.

The only thing that's gonna fix this is letting it go.

Letting nature do whatever it's going to do.

When it's done, get the little Sue-cat and a Bob-cat and go to work on it.

This is where we blocked it off.

We thought we were so slick.

I was still bringing the groceries. Bob landed.

Done now.

What I do is I take the cautionary cones and I'm going to block it off,

so that the pilots even from the air go, "Why the hell... Oh, shit."

You know, it's kind of an "Oh, shit" eyesight factor on,

"Don't land in the middle of the runway, fool."

It's a destructive force but it's also one hell of a renewal of life out here.

As a business owner now, it keeps my revenue from coming in.

But all those animals and everything else,

they're going to thrive off of this.

King of my own castle and my castle says, "Stop here."