Original subtitles

NARRATOR: On this episode of Life Below Zero,

Alaskans battle to survive as life returns to the land.

The Hailstones struggle with a lesson in survival.

TING: Right above us, Idi.

(GRUNTS)

NARRATOR: Changes in the tundra could sink Sue's quest for food.

I'm afraid of breaking the ankle.

NARRATOR: Waking predators have Erik Salitan on the move.

And in Eagle, Kate pushes her body to the breaking point.

Son of a bitch. (GROANS)

SUE: When you live out here like I do at Kavik all alone,

I can't help but notice patterns.

The pattern for the caribou, which is my main food source when I'm here by myself,

they come up in spring, they leave in the fall.

This year they're almost a month late.

Where are they?

NARRATOR: Isolated in the tundra,

Sue Aikens relies on caribou meat for her survival,

but with an unusually late migration,

Sue is forced to venture out in search of alternatives.

SUE: I am an opportunist.

We all are when we live out in the bush.

Whatever you need to do to survive, that's what your butt's gonna be doing.

But my butt's not finding them in here. Time to go outside.

Just looking.

Walking the runway.

Typically, along the sides of the runway is a really good place to find birds.

The willow brush will grow there, and that's what they eat.

There he is.

Ptarmigan, they are kind of low on the avian intelligence scale.

You know, they're not the smartest birds on the planet,

but they sure seem to be smart about getting away from me.

I could've sworn I hit him.

You don't ever leave an injured animal anywhere. I don't care what it is.

You check, you double check, you triple check, check it again.

Really?

(GRUNTS)

Ain't this some shit, huh?

Springtime isn't even fully here,

and I'm already worried about winter,

so getting these little hummers while they're still, uh...

While I'm still able to hunt them, yeah, I'll stock up on them.

They're a tasty little snack.

(GRUNTS)

I'm afraid of breaking the ankle.

As long as it took me to come through that deep snow,

he's probably sitting there in Panama with a straw hat by now.

Oh, there he is.

See? (LAUGHS) I can't fucking get it.

Yeah, he's apparently in pretty good health.

So, 400 million bullets later,

he just chuckled at me and went back the other way.

So, I got to admit when the better bird comes along,

and he's a better bird than me.

So, it would've been better if I got something fresh for the pot,

but I'm just gonna call it a night.

ERIK: Some people view, you know, doing all these things

associated with harvesting wild animals as a lot of work,

but the subsistence lifestyle that I live is...

It's the best life on earth.

You get to choose how you live.

That's kind of the fun part about life.

MARTHA: Okay.

High.

Close though.

My name is Erik Salitan, and I'm a registered guide outfitter.

I've lived in Alaska for about 12 years.

MARTHA: Nice.

I saw that one hit in the ice, too.

ERIK: A lot happening in life this year. I got married.

I met my wife while I was guiding out here in Iliamna,

and I just purchased a fishing lodge.

Iliamna is also my new wife's hometown,

so it kills two birds with one stone.

Get to spend some time with her family down here,

and also operate my fishing lodge.

I met Erik about eight years ago

when he came out here working for an outfit.

I actually found Erik rather annoying.

After eight years, Erik got smarter and he wised up,

and now we're married.

Looks good.

-I pulled the first one, but... -Yeah.

I was on on the second two, and they're right where they should be.

Inch high at a hundred, so...

Go put some gear together, and maybe thinking about going bear hunting.

NARRATOR: Seasoned hunter Erik Salitan provides for himself and his wife

by living off the land across Alaska.

ERIK: All the meat that I eat in my household is meat that I harvested myself.

I don't purchase any beef, or any chicken, or any pork at the store.

All the meat that I consume,

and everybody who visits me, consumes all caribou, and sheep,

and moose meat, and bear meat,

and it's all home-grown, organic, free ranging, hormone free,

top notch protein.

NARRATOR: With one week before the start of his guiding season,

Erik must turn his attention to his next harvest.

ERIK: Really exciting time of year being out here in the springtime,

and I'm gonna head out and do my first bear hunt of the year here.

I'm gonna go out, head a little bit to the Northwest,

and do a hunt for some grizzly bear.

These interior grizzly bears are a highly predatory animal.

We're actually in a predator control zone in Alaska.

That means that the state of Alaska is trying to reduce

the numbers of brown bear, grizzly bears, and black bears.

If you catch a bear that's been eating berries and roots and things like that,

that can be a really good eating animal.

Am I gonna catch a bear?

-Yeah, good luck! -Thanks.

-Love you, babe. -Love you, too.

ERIK: Hunting bears this early in the spring is touch and go, you know.

It's very weather dependent, but I need to do what I need to do

to harvest good food for the table.

It's all just being self-motivated,

and getting done whatever needs to get done.

ANDY: You gotta have a passion for this life,

and you gotta have a certain way of thinking about

how you wanna live to be successful out here.

If you don't have that, it's a good experience, but it won't be your life.

-These plants need to go outside, Kate. -Yup.

You know what, those pots are way too small.

It's time now.

Let's get these out of here.

Eighty percent of the food that we eat comes from our garden.

So, it's a really important part of our livelihood here.

The garden's I think ready to plant this year,

but we need to get a fence built around that to keep the dogs, rabbits,

and other varmints away from all the plants

that we're gonna grow for our food this coming winter.

NARRATOR: 400 miles from the nearest hardware store,

Andy and Kate must gather supplies to fence in and protect

an essential food source.

KATE: It's quite a sizable fence, and around that garden.

So, it's gonna be a lot of work.

-My back's sore. -ANDY: Yeah.

This is pretty redundant, not much fun, work.

Walking around in this tangled up crap.

Tripping and stumbling, and I'm always worried about a board with a nail in it.

'Cause this is all stuff left over from the flood.

Living out here is nothing but hard work.

This life is a very busy life,

and people don't realise how busy it is.

And it's constant planning, and constant preparation.

And it's always thinking a month or two months ahead of time

of when you need to do something.

If you don't do that preplanning, the payoff isn't there.

We're gonna cut a whole bunch of poles that are gonna make the uprights for this.

Every one of those needs to be sharpened,

so there's quite a bit of labour involved in doing this.

(KATE GRUNTS)

KATE: I've got a major issue with my back for the past few months,

so I have to learn to stop when it says stop.

Or else I'm down for a day or two, and I can't afford that.

Well, I just had to walk away. It's just been a long day.

And it's been all bending and lifting.

It's taken its toll on my poor discs in my back.

I feel I better stop, otherwise I'll probably lose a day tomorrow,

and I don't wanna lose a full day.

I'd rather lose a couple of hours at the end of the day,

and rest it, and then continue on tomorrow.

(GROANS)

CHIP: Well, you know, we're hunters.

So we take these opportunities when they come. You just don't know.

It's not predictable, but what we know is to be here and when to be here,

'cause these animals will arrive.

Well, I'm not much of a cook, but I sure try. (LAUGHS)

A lot of people don't realise how many calories you burn by being outside every day,

and not in an office or in a car.

All of our transportation is either a boat or on foot.

So, we eat a lot.

(LAUGHS) Which means we need to hunt a lot.

NARRATOR: Each spring, the Hailstone family travels 85 miles

to set up camp in Kiwalik.

They will remain until the thaw's end.

Stockpiling meat and other resources for the cruel winter ahead.

CHIP: Our plan today is to go downriver,

and, um... It's a very diverse place.

You know, you got the trees upriver.

You got the ocean downriver. We got the mountains all around us.

So, we have chances of seeing almost anything and everything.

We have a possibility of getting geese, getting swans,

getting any kind of birds.

You never know what you'll get, but we need something fresh.

We're hunters, and it's time to hunt.

Shh! Kids! Get down.

(CHIP SPEAKING)

-AGNES: Swans? -You watch the cooking.

AGNES: Yeah.

Oh, I see them.

Oh, keep still!

CHIP: Walk back, Carol. Slowly.

(MIMICS SWAN CALL)

Okay. You got one right out in the open over there.

You see the one just put his head down?

-Yup, and the two more just about to land. -There you go.

I'd call it 200/250 yards.

(MIMICKING SWAN CALL)

AGNES: Oh! Look, two more.

CHIP: You were low.

(CONTINUES SPEAKING)

-Let's go finish breakfast. -Okay.

It's okay. Thanks for taking the shot.

Well, keep your eyes open, ah?

Sure would like a swan for lunch.

-Goose for dinner. -CHIP: We tried.

We'll just keep on trying.

SUE: I am a product of my environment,

but it... The environment is not just the Arctic,

it's everything I've been through to this point.

If you work well with your environment,

I think you're gonna last longer.

Another day goes by.

Still no caribou.

Trying to get the ptarmigans on the runway.

Yeah, wasn't too successful.

Gotta change it up again.

I'm gonna go take the Argo and I'm going to switch to the .410.

It's a shotgun. There is some wind.

No doubt there is some wind going on today,

but I'm gonna just keep plugging away at it.

Hopefully feathers will fly.

Let's get some ptarmigan.

NARRATOR: With still no caribou in Kavik,

Sue is scrambling for other sources of food.

And with limited resources,

she can't afford another unsuccessful hunt.

SUE: The caribou are about a month overdue.

It'd be like your local grocery store hanging a sign saying "on vacation."

How do you get the bread, milk, and eggs when they're not coming back?

When the caribou aren't in, that's a whole big difference in my diet.

I have 290/300 days I gotta cover.

And now my main food group isn't coming in.

(SPEAKING)

There's nowhere to hide.

But I can't resist it.

I'm gonna see if I can't walk up the road maybe

and get myself a little ptarmigan.

Man!

I didn't get... Didn't even come close to those guys.

We're gonna keep focused.

ANDY: I wouldn't live out here if this wasn't my dream.

It's not for the faint of heart.

It's not something for someone who's kind of half-ass at it.

It's either full bore or nothing at all out here.

Last one.

I'm glad you did that.

I'd be there all day.

NARRATOR: With a short growing season,

it's crucial for Andy and Kate to protect the garden

that will harvest much of the food they'll need throughout the year.

But the work has already taken its toll.

I had to finish a little bit earlier than I wanted to yesterday.

Um, I have a problem with my back, and it was really sore.

But feeling good.

I would recommend, even though I've never done this, I would recommend...

Yeah, don't tell me how to do it, 'cause that's something I do know how to do,

but I gotta start from a corner.

That's what I was gonna say. Start from a corner.

I know how to do this.

I'm just telling you. It's like...

Yeah, I know, but I'm gonna do it the way that it's supposed to be done.

And I'm gonna go right around.

You are not going to be in control of this part.

(LAUGHS) Good.

NARRATOR: With the fence project well underway,

Andy turns his attention to another critical task for their harvest.

Living out here we try and utilise all the resources that we have available to us.

When we're clearing land, whether it be for new building projects,

gardens, or firebreaks,

I try and utilise those trees as much as I can.

The trees are chipped up, and we turn that into compost.

We don't have great soil right around here.

It's very acidic soil.

So, composting is really important to us.

Everything that I do out here has multipurpose.

So, if I have any ability to plan ahead,

I'm able to get out a lot more out of the limited resources that I have here.

There are very specific things that you have to do during certain times of the year.

We have four and a half months to grow a year's worth of food,

and so time becomes critical to us.

Son of a bitch.

It's not gonna work.

This is just too wide.

Damn.

Willows aren't long enough for the spacing.

I had that concern when we first started weaving them.

KATE: I made a mistake.

I was thinking the willows were longer, and they weren't.

So I don't have willows long enough to support this wide a spans.

Now I've got to go just undo everything that I've done.

If you were to take this, and put this in between vertically like this.

KATE: Yeah, that'll...

ANDY: And it wouldn't even have to go in that far.

Because it's gonna hold itself in there.

I know that. But I'm just...

I'm just trying to suggest things to you here, okay?

-I know. -I know you're frustrated right now, so...

I'm frustrated, and I know that part.

I know how to do this, but I'm just saying I just screwed up with the...

No, that's not a screw-up.

It's just a modification. (CHUCKLES) That's all.

So hand me another one there, and we'll just see how this works for a minute.

KATE: Andy feels that my original design is not good enough.

So, I'll change that.

It's annoying.

I just had a problem, and I never had a chance to be able to fix it on my own.

(SOBS)

He takes control of everything.

I mean, it just pisses me off.

This is easier than the other way.

Yesterday I was really excited to get my fence started.

I was only in the first round, and I realised that the sails were too far apart.

The mistake was that the alders are not long enough to make a tight weave.

Andy decided that we'd put in the middle uprights with the alder branches.

You know, I would've liked to have figured it out

and done it on my own, which I would've.

It's kind of hard when someone steps on your toes like that.

I find it very upsetting.

Just leave me alone, but I feel better today.

And I'm not gonna let that get me down. I'm gonna build my fence.

Grr.

SUE: Mother Nature is gonna tell me where I have to get things.

I know what I need.

I know I need to get it from her.

She's a fickle little thing that likes to run and hide.

(SPEAKING)

NARRATOR: The absence of caribou has Sue chasing ptarmigan

around the tundra for meat.

She must harvest as many as possible in order to fill her freezer before winter returns.

SUE: I don't wanna get too close. I don't wanna scare them.

With this wind, unless it's just a couple of feet in front of me,

it's just gonna take shots and pellets and fling them all over.

Got him. Sweet!

I got another one.

Yes!

Awesome.

Well, got a couple.

Go breast them out.

Their skin is very thin.

Just pull on them. You want to sharpen up your hunting skills,

because a lot of things are hunting these guys right now.

If I can see what they're eating, I'm gonna know where to look for them.

Willow buds.

So I got the heart right there, and his breast.

This is about as fresh as you're gonna get it.

Nice little meal.

I better keep going.

Here we go. Another ptarmigan.

That first shot got him. He didn't go all that far.

That's why I watched what he was doing, went over there.

I thought, "Man, no way, I'm not gonna have him suffer. I'm gonna make sure."

Pop him one more good time, and take care of this business.

Get all the feathers off. This is meat.

Then again, I'm awfully darn grateful for these little guys. Thank you, buddy.

But what I don't use, I simply bring over there,

and there's gonna be foxes that are out here.

All kinds of animals will use that.

So again, heart and breast.

Yum, yum, yum.

Colonel Sue-nders.

Mmm!

But there's nothing like nice fresh meat.

So, thank you, little birdies.

CHIP: To us this is being our own bosses.

This is having healthy food with no GMOs, no sugars.

We're not paying somebody for it.

We're doing the work ourselves from start to end.

And I wanna teach that to my kids.

(TALKING INDISTINCTLY)

Right over here, sweetie pies.

This is the place that I like to set up.

NARRATOR: The Hailstones have settled into their spring hunting grounds,

and today Chip is giving all five of his daughters

a lesson in harvesting waterfowl.

This is bird season for us right now.

We're trying to nail quite a few birds if we can.

It's a fresh food of the season.

The birds are just migrating in by the bazillions.

And we haven't had birds here since the beginning of September last year.

What we need to do now is make a screen.

You older girls have done it before.

You younger girls are gonna have to watch, and participate,

you're gonna have to see what it is we do.

Just basically wanna make a wall that you can hide behind,

so that when these birds are flying by here

they'll just see the wall and then you can stand up, and bam!

You won't have the wall in your way.

So we're not gonna make it too tall, okay?

Ooh. Hey, puppy.

CHIP: The blind is important to keep the kids hidden.

Birds can see very well and they can see colour,

so they need to be hidden very well.

(IDI SPEAKING)

CHIP: It's also necessary that they see the correct blinds being made.

I don't want them to learn the wrong way.

(TING SPEAKING)

CHIP: Ting and Idi are experienced.

And the younger ones need to see it and they need to interact.

Well, I want the younger ones to see what the older ones are doing and to mimic them.

I want them to learn.

This is all a learning experience, but it's also adventure.

Ting, you're in charge.

Everybody listen to Ting or get out of the hide, okay?

Remember, safety first.

Watch your ammo, listen to your sister.

Anybody that's in their 20s

and has survived this long in the country has got brains.

-All right, I love you. I gotta go get firewood. -Okay.

-Love you. -GIRLS: Love you, Dad.

TING: Okay, now, all we're gonna do is sit here

and wait for anything but fish ducks, tulugoks, and seagulls.

And then we'll shoot anything else.

And you girls could shoot them with the .22 if we wound them, okay?

But until then, we girls need to be quiet and sit still.

It's the waiting... The waiting game.

Figure something out to do quietly while we sit here and wait.

Oh!

I could see where all the birds are going to land.

(SPEAKING)

(MIMICKING GOOSE CALL)

Real high, yeah.

The wind is picking up and they're flying sort of far,

so I didn't really get a good shot and I missed.

(LAUGHS)

TING: Look, Idi, there's more right here.

See, you girls, the birds are flying. Be quiet.

IDI: Okay, I got a little shot. Get a little bit more.

Idi! Idi! Idi! Right above us. Idi!

(MIMICKING GOOSE CALL)

(GUN FIRES)

(GUN CLICKS)

Oh, what the fuck?

They're too far now.

-(IDI SPEAKING) -TING: No, I didn't.

Because I didn't even (CHUCKLES) cock it back.

-(CLICKS) -There we go.

I was going to shoot.

(SPEAKING)

ERIK: It's a really beautiful place to live,

and I really enjoy what I do for a living, and it's a great life.

It's pretty wholesome. It's what I choose.

NARRATOR: With limited hunting time before his guiding season begins,

Erik heads north on a solo bear hunt.

ERIK: Grizzly bear densities aren't nearly as high as coastal brown bear densities.

Certain parts of the Alaska peninsula,

brown bear densities are as high as one bear per square mile.

Now the grizzly bear density is higher in this area than it is in the Brooks Range.

So it's not a walk in the park.

Here in Alaska they have the same day airborne law.

So I can't hunt till tomorrow.

Got my camp all set up in the wind.

It's gonna be an early morning.

It gets shooting light about 5:15/5:30.

I'm just gonna crash out and grab a little shut eye here,

and hopefully there will be lots of fun and adventure tomorrow.

Short night. Not a whole lot of sleep.

Have a little coffee, and get out there, and see what I can find.

I originally got into guiding 'cause I loved to hunt.

Unfortunately as the years went on I did less and less hunting

'cause I was always working, but I'm out here by myself.

I don't have to worry about anybody.

I'm not responsible for anybody.

Just doing my own thing.

This is freaking awesome.

Got a set of bear tracks coming down the hill here.

So these bears we're hunting here are interior grizzlies.

They're the smaller of the two subspecies of bears in Alaska,

and these interior grizzly bears,

they're a more ferocious mountain variety.

They're very predatory. They hunt moose, and caribou, and stuff like that.

They're kind of just like a black bear on steroids.

Time to make a shot, stakes are high.

When you're hunting grizzly bears,

it's a good rule of thumb to take your time,

get a good first shot.

And then after that it's the ethical thing to do,

and the good insurance policy, to just keep shooting until you get him to stay still.

Otherwise it's real easy for him to get away from you.

I see some blood in the snow down there.

I'm reloaded, and I'm gonna ease my way down there

and see if I can't either find a dead bear, or finish it off.

Really beautiful animal.

Male, nice interior grizzly.

The wind this morning was extremely advantageous.

The bear's number one defence mechanism towards predators,

which is only man, is this nose right here.

He's got a heck of a nose on him,

and they can smell you at several miles.

That wind blowing right in my face as I approached the bear,

he didn't have a chance to smell me.

So I was able to sneak into that 150 yard mark,

and make a nice shot on him in the chest.

Although I guide many, many brown bear hunters

and grizzly bear hunters every year,

I rarely get the opportunity to come out on my own.

To get out here and to get to harvest a bear is a neat thing.

And it's always great to get out here,

and it's just... The whole world is reawakening after a long winter.

SUE: One of the challenges out here, you never know what to expect.

(CHUCKLES) Expect the unexpected.

You have to play with the cards you're dealt with.

You don't get dealt off the bottom of the deck.

There's about a million ways that you can prepare ptarmigan.

Basically, I cleaned them out in the field pretty good.

You're just gonna try and get

as much of that meat as close to the bone as you can get it.

What I'm doing now, I'm just feeling for little pellets.

Making sure they're out of there.

It is a dark meat.

It is a rich meat.

It has a tendency to be maybe a little bit tough.

So I try to do things to lessen that toughness.

I mean, this was a nice little hunt.

You know, I got a few of them.

It was fun. They're tasty.

A caribou is gonna give me over a hundred pounds of meat.

This is gonna give me a couple of ounces of meat.

So by no stretch of the imagination

am I done ptarmigan hunting for the year.

Will it take a lot more dedication to fill my freezer with it?

Yup.

And I've got about, oh, I don't know, three weeks left of the season

before they shut it down so that the little birdies can do their wild thing,

have their babies, and teach them how to fly.

And then it'll open up again in late fall.

But I intend on putting a smack down on them while I have the opportunity.

Little bit more labour intensive

as far as the amount of repetitious time I have to do what I do.

But I'm thankful for every animal,

every bit of food that I get that helps sustain myself.

Like I say, 290 to 300 days is what I go through by myself.

I've got four little meals that I can freeze plus one to eat now.

Take these bad boys off, let them cool down...

And there you go.

Awesome!

Yeah, the other day I missed a whole lot of shots.

Had a lot of fun, didn't put anything in the freezer.

But anytime that I can do this

and help take care of myself, I feel good about that.

I got a long ways to go,

but every little step is a baby step the right direction.

CHIP: It's a good feeling to provide for my family

and it's a good feeling to show my family how to provide for themselves.

And that's really my goal.

Not just tell them about it or let them read about it,

I want them to participate in it.

(MIMICKING GOOSE CALL)

Call them, call them.

When we got here earlier it was real sunny.

It was the beginning of the day, like the middle of the day.

And now it's cooled off a lot.

It's getting cloudy.

Still, just the waiting game.

(BOAT APPROACHING)

(SPEAKING)

-Here comes dad. -CHIP: Hello!

What you up to, girls? How's your day going?

-Good! -You girls see much birds?

TING: Not really, no. IDI: Not really.

Well, I've been downriver and there's quite a few birds down this way.

When I was getting wood I saw lots.

So we'd probably have better luck this way if you girls wanna give it a try.

Mary, you take charge of these girls.

Take them back to camp and secure them in your sister's tent.

You two older girls follow me.

You're gonna need a .22 and you'll need your 12 gauge.

TING: Okay. IDI: Okay.

(TALKING INDISTINCTLY)

CHIP: I'd take you younger ones, but too much for the party.

TING: Love you, girls.

We'll be back.

GIRLS: Bye!

Well, you know when you hunt, you hunt for a living.

If the animals aren't doing what you want, where you want,

you gotta go to where they are and do it their way.

That's just part of it all.

This is a good experience for my kids, I think.

I like raising them this way.

If you don't try you won't succeed.

We may fail, but at least we'll have tried.

But it takes... It takes a goose to make a goose dinner.

So we're gonna try and get a goose.

I see geese already.

TING: Should I load my shotgun?

We'll get a little closer and I'll let you out.

I'll stay with the boat and watch it.

And you girls just go be natural.

Be careful.

TING: So these geese are closer, you try to walk wide so they...

If you happen to scare them towards me, okay?

-(TIN SPEAKING) -(MIMICKING GOOSE CALL)

Ooh! Check it out.

Check that out. I got it.

All right, we might have got it.

I got it!

I shot a goose, and now we just have to wait for it to just go down.

There's no way for us to go get it.

Uh, you wanna go back to the boat, and go get the float...

-Yeah. -...while I watch it?

Well, we sat in the blind all day, and that was for how many hours,

and coming out here, now I got my first goose of the year.

Good feeling.

It's a good feeling to get my first goose of the year.

-Got a goose! -CHIP: She got a goose?

Okay. Then I want you up front, and then you can hold my motor up a little bit.

All right, sounds good.

CHIP: Okay, bun. You're gonna have to grab it as I pass it,

'cause I'm not gonna slow this thing down.

Shake it.

Ah, don't pluck it yet.

(WHISTLES) Sweet!

Excellent, bun! I'm so glad!

We're gonna have goose tonight!

I'm glad you sent your sister to come get me.

If you're lazy after you kill something, it's no good.

Yeah.

Come on in, pie.

(LAUGHS) I caught a goose.

Check it out, Carol. I caught my first goose of the year.

CHIP: Well, it's been a really long day,

but I'm so happy with them right now.

And I'm gonna go hear the stories a few times

while she tells it to everybody else.

So, that's also one of the better parts of a good hunt,

is being able to tell the story afterward.

No bragging.

Bragging is entirely wrong,

but now, honestly, I can send her off to go goose hunt that way

while I go goose hunt that way. (LAUGHS)

And when you're doing that kind of stuff, somebody is gonna be productive.

And we're all gonna benefit.

So, I see it's like another step in her life

that she's really taken up to really well.

KATE: One skill that you really need is thinking ahead.

When you get up in the morning,

you know exactly what you gotta do first, second, third, fourth,

right up to one thousandth.

And there's that many little things that you always gotta be mindful of.

-Hey, pupper. -ANDY: That was made for you, Shilling.

We got a barrier now.

Hey, this looks pretty good.

-You like it? -Yeah.

Come here, Shilling. You wanna go through this fence?

-KATE: No. -He says, "I can't get through that.

"I can't get through that."

(LAUGHS) I think that'll work really good.

Looks like it'll let the light in, and it'll keep the dogs out.

I'm tired.

Yeah, you did a good job on that.

Thank you.

ANDY: Kate did a great job on this.

You know, I'm real proud of her for sticking to the job.

It's a big job, and we talked about it for a long time,

and it's kind of nice to finally see it happen.

And just cost us time and labour,

and, you know, that's part of living out here is adapting to whatever happens.

It's frustrating at times,

but if you're afraid of that then you don't belong out here.

-Well... -There's my boy.

I've got a little surprise for you.

-You do? -Yeah.

Oh, okay. I like surprises.

-Down by the river. -Okay.

Something relaxing.

I'm tired. I don't wanna go do any more work.

(LAUGHS)

Pina coladas made out of Yukon River ice, and, uh...

This year the ice went away pretty quick.

Uh... Not much left,

and so time is short for making Yuko-ladas. (LAUGHS)

That'll make a fire.

The Olympic torch.

ANDY: Here we go.

-All right. I'm ready. -To an easy break-up.

KATE: Yee-haw!

ANDY: The gasoline evaporated.

Yuko-ladas!

Yuko-ladas!

-ANDY: Are you happy with your fence? -Yeah.

I finally got a wattle fence.

And I think you did a good job. Turned out good.

My next one will be better.

(LAUGHS) I don't know how many more of those I wanna build.

Good job.

Thank you.

You know, we're not getting any younger, it's kind of sad,

but, you know, now we're doing the heaviest of the heaviest of work

when we're getting older.

I don't think either one of us are ready to roll over and say, "Never mind."

That's never gonna happen.

This is a dream...

This is our dream,

and it's gonna happen,

or we'll die trying.

Well, Andy.

Here's to our new garden, and hope it brings plentiful bounty.

(LAUGHS)

(BOTH EXCLAIMING)