Original subtitles

NARRATOR: On this episode of Life Below Zero,

the thaw is coming to an end and the pressure is building.

SUE: Oh, God.

NARRATOR: The Hailstones have one last chance at a summer catch.

That's a big hole.

NARRATOR: In Iliamna, Erik and Martha's quest for food hits a snag.

MARTHA: You're hitting bottom.

NARRATOR: Dreams for a new home in Eagle are falling apart.

You're going to break the glass.

NARRATOR: And a mechanical failure puts Sue's camp at risk.

SUE: It's more than just me that can die

if things don't get fixed.

SUE: You got her? D: All set.

Well, you ready to go get a cup of coffee, and get your ticket

-and get on your way? Or... -Absolutely.

NARRATOR: Kavik River Camp is the only refuelling station for almost 100 miles.

Pilots rely on Sue Aikens for fuel, comfort, and a safe landing.

In turn, they provide the income that keeps her doors open.

(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)

Hey, buddy, how you doing?

(D SPEAKING)

Hey.

Hey, do you got a copy on me?

(D SPEAKING)

Can you hear me? You're breaking up, buddy.

All right, yeah, see that's not good.

My generator's having an issue. I got to go.

My generator is racing, coming down, racing, it's having an issue.

My air-to-ground radio for pilot safety, uh, depends on that.

I can't give them the wind conditions.

They don't know if they're going to be landing

in a 20-mile-an-hour crosswind, or head on or tailwind.

They don't know, unless I tell them, what the conditions are.

So I have to put on the website, "Gens are going down,

"it'll be down until further notice.

"VFR, Visual flying is going to be the rule."

Put the bright red notice that you can't really miss

that I'm, uh, going to have the power down, air-to-ground will be off.

They've got their information on exactly the degrees and bearings.

The conditions have been updated, the timestamp is updated.

The longer I stay out of communication,

domino, domino, domino.

They're all falling. People can't get a hold of me.

Somebody's hurting, can't get help.

Plane is circling around in the fog,

doesn't know what to do. I'm not answering.

It's more than just me

that can die if things don't get fixed.

There's a whole population of people up here that have got to rely on me.

So time to quit talking, shut the shit down and get it down.

CHIP: This place has always got some new little secret to reveal

or some little surprise to pull on me.

I really look forward to it.

It makes you wake up in the morning and go,

"Wow, what's this day going to be like?"

CAROL: Dad! Mom!

AGNES: Come on, girls. Let's go fishing!

NARRATOR: The Hailstones have spent their summer in Kiwalik, fishing...

Nice little haul we got going here.

...hunting...

CHIP: Hit him now!

...and gathering.

Oh, I can see eggs!

Six of them. Six eggs.

NARRATOR: But with limited days left in camp,

they can't afford to let any resources slip away.

AGNES: That's a good fish.

That big one sure ripped that net.

Part of being a fisherman, is taking care of your gear.

And what we're going to do is necessary maintenance.

The webs get ripped. It's just a fact of life.

Ugh, there it is. That's a big hole.

CHIP: The fact is, if we want to catch salmon, we've got to use the net.

If we want to use the net properly, we have to maintain that net.

So we have to do the work that we do

to keep the net going so that the net will keep us going.

AGNES: I'm just gonna sew it back together.

I'm not gonna be making new webbings or anything.

I shouldn't be out here too long,

and I should be done before the mosquitoes drive me nuts.

This is a fishing needle.

Some people call them shuttles.

They're a real good, handy tool.

All it does is pretty much just going in loops and loops,

just making squares.

It's a long, slow process.

Nets are her area of expertise.

She grew up fishing with nets, making nets, hanging nets.

Everything you could do to possibly fish,

my wife has extensive knowledge and skills with.

And, Carol, this is how you have to use your needle, your shuttle.

Try to stitch the hole, you just, um, keep trying to go up and down,

and trying to make, uh, little squares

big enough to where the fish will get caught,

and just keep unravelling your twine

and keep going around and making knots and tie them.

Then move to the next one.

I'm not the best repairer, but I know enough just to get by.

My favourite part about camping out here

was being with my family and learning how to fish

and what plants to eat, and what plants not to eat.

It's important to learn these skills

because, when you're older, it'll help you make food.

Should be good enough to put back out.

Right on, we're done. No more holes.

Let's, uh, go fishing.

ANDY: Can you handle being alone?

Do you enjoy being alone?

Do you feel lonely when you're alone?

If you feel lonely when you're alone,

this could be a pretty tough life to live.

All right, let this project begin.

NARRATOR: With sunlight dwindling, and winter on the horizon,

Andy and Kate focus on their passion project, a new cabin.

ANDY: I have very little time right now

to get this house winterised and ready for the snow to fly.

First things first, I have to get this place sanded before I can get it stained.

Step one is building a scaffold.

So I'm going to throw some ladders up,

nail a few boards up onto the sides of the house to support the ladders.

And it's really hard to work efficiently when you're just one-handing it with a ladder,

so I want to set up a system where I have at least a board

that I can raise and lower and I can run my sander.

I've got two hands and a stable platform to stand on.

Nothing worse than trying to sand off of a ladder.

(DRILL WHIRRING)

The time spent putting up some scaffolding systems right now

is going to pay off in dividends for me,

when it comes time to actually start doing the job.

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

This is so typical. I mean, I started out today, it was nice and sunny

and clear and warm, I'm in a T-shirt.

I'm ready to go get some work done.

Here comes the rain.

This has been what it's like all summer.

At some point in the day it rains, sometimes all day, sometimes, every couple hours.

Give it another 10 or 15 minutes and see what it does here.

I've never seen a summer like this.

I'm going to run out, hit that wall and see if it sticks at all.

KATE: It's an unreasonable list most of the time,

and he's, he's a very hard worker.

And he's... Daylight till dark,

he's just busy, busy, busy,

and he likes to just get things done.

That ain't working.

Too wet.

Clogging up the paper.

I think this day is done.

I'm feeling like if I don't get this house sanded

and get the windows in, I've pretty much failed this summer.

ERIK: I don't think that the way I live

is the way to live

and that other people are doing it wrong.

Each human being is in their pursuit of happiness, doing it their own way.

-You ready, babe? -Yeah, I'm ready.

Let's go get some birds.

You jump in and I'll push out.

ERIK: And right now, Martha and I are just doing

some subsistence waterfowl hunting,

and hopefully putting up enough birds

to keep us going here for a little while

before the fish come in.

NARRATOR: Erik Salitan and his new wife, Martha,

are spending the summer in Iliamna,

in hopes of harvesting the region's hard-earned resources.

But navigating the river is no easy task,

even for seasoned hunters.

Yeah, you want to watch for rocks around here.

ERIK: I know. I'm turning around.

Whoa. Slow down, why're you going so fast?

I don't want to be ejected from the boat.

Where are you... Yep.

Fuckin' turn.

I can smell it now.

-You can smell it? -Yes, I can smell the motor.

We are literally a floating duck, a sitting duck.

(ENGINE SHUDDERING)

MARTHA: That doesn't sound very good.

ERIK: No.

Oh, my God.

You know, whenever you're running the river,

you need to read the water, read the riffles,

read the colours and be aware

that there's all sorts of submerged dangers,

and, uh, at this time of year, the river's really shallow.

There's a lot of gravel bars you need to watch out for, with a boat.

I wouldn't start it right here.

You're just going to do the same thing you just did.

Paddle us out.

How am I going to paddle us out in the wind?

That's not going to happen. You've got waders on.

ERIK: There's more along that shore there.

Let's go home and look around down there.

-Okay, that sounds like a good idea. -Let's get out of here.

MARTHA: All right.

CHIP: I think everybody should experience at least once where food comes from.

My food comes from the wild and we got to run it down and kill it.

If it flies, swims, crawls, grows underground or towards the sun,

I'll probably eat it.

(COUGHS)

Wow, what a day.

Hi, sweetie pie. You guys watching this fire?

Don't let it get on the tundra.

If I'm over there working, you guys don't let it get away from you, okay?

NARRATOR: With the net repaired and back in the river,

Chip turns his attention to building a new fish rack,

in hopes that the fixed net will yield good results.

CHIP: I'm making a fish rack for some salmon

and I'm going to make it into a bit of a smokehouse at one end.

Once I build this, I'll have a place to put the fish.

The importance of smoking is, number one,

to keep the flies off the meat.

Because you don't want flies laying eggs,

and making maggots, and destroying your meat,

and making it putrid and rotten.

Number two, it flavours it.

I'm going to make a smoke shack at that end

by enclosing it, so that the smoke drifts to this end.

I'll leave this end open so I can walk in and out and check on my fish.

Every summer, we still salmon fish.

We want to have a little bit of security.

This is food security.

This will get us through the winter, hopefully.

This will be a lot of trade goods.

This will be stuff we can give away as gifts.

This is a really good place to be.

And the reason why we make so much effort to get here

is because it's going to be here. Stuff is here.

We'll never stop coming here.

It's a great place. The breeze is here, the weather is here.

This is just like a perfect combo.

It all comes together for, hopefully, some good smoking.

We just got the net in, hopefully there's going to be a lot of fish.

The next tide, we'll see. You don't know until they're in the net.

This is going to be the part that collects the smoke up.

It's going to be smoking end of the deal.

So I've got it to where I can slow down the wind

as much as possible and allow the smoke

to gather before shooting out the other side.

So, I'm just blocking it all up except for the bottom.

The bottom will provide a continuous breeze through there,

even when the smoke is off.

Most of the time while it's smoking, we'll keep it shut.

When it stops smoking, and it's night, time to go to sleep,

we'll open it up and just let the breeze blow on through.

It's important to have it facing the right direction,

'cause, uh, you want to have the wind to do it properly.

So, if a north wind comes, a west wind comes,

either way is fine with me. It's going to work out. And we want the breeze.

The breeze dries the meat, dries the fish, keeps the mosquitoes away.

This is all good. This is all aligned properly.

This is going to get, to be really good drying done,

some really good smoking done, get some good fish done.

The smokehouse is done.

I've got the stove, wherever the wind is coming from.

Once I've got the fish put in there, I can move the stove around.

But now all I really need to do is just go check the net.

I'm going to have to put a few hours into cutting fish,

then I'll set some smoke on them and go to bed.

Going to be a full rack of fish here soon.

ANDY: Glass half full is way better than a glass half empty.

And, uh, that's the way we like to look at life out here.

That's what living out here is all about.

NARRATOR: A break in the weather allows Andy to continue his work.

But with winter looming, each day is critical.

That's going to work.

Finally got a clear day, so I'm going to go like hell

and try to get as much sanding done today, as I possibly can,

'cause I don't know when I'm going to get another clear day,

and the sanding is the part that takes the most time

and it's by far the most critical thing of this whole process.

Yesterday, I ran into a lot of problems when it started raining.

As soon as the sander clogs up, it just starts burning into the wood

and that makes a pretty unsightly scar in the wood.

I've got some coarser sanding disks,

which I'm hoping is going to speed the process up.

It's going to make it to where it cuts a lot quicker.

It's a little bit coarse for what I really want,

but at this point in time, beggars can't be choosers.

I've got a good day of weather today.

I don't know if I'm going to have any more good days.

All right, let's hope this works.

When I go to do a job,

I want to be able to get in, get the job done, and move on to the next one

'cause the list is long right now,

and the days are short, so everything's coming to a head,

and there's a definitive timeline, and that's winter.

Feels pretty good.

Last thing I want to do is take a tumble.

I don't have full-blown scaffolding around.

Quite frankly, I'd have a hard time putting it up by myself,

it's generally a two-man job.

I have to keep things light. I have to keep them mobile.

I have to be able to do it by myself

and I want to be able to do it fairly quickly.

The last thing I want to do is spend an hour setting scaffolding up

for five minutes' worth of work.

That's gonna be a million dollar sanding job

here by the time I go through all these disks.

What I do is not something I'd ask someone else to do.

I've done it, I'm used to it. I know what I'm doing.

All the ground around the house is a little bit uneven.

It slopes away from the house to drain.

That makes putting up ladders a little bit tenuous at times.

An injury out here is a lot different than an injury in town.

There's no 911. There's no ambulance.

There's nobody to come in with a backboard.

This ain't gonna fuckin' work at all!

When winter hits, everything stops.

If you didn't get it done, you wait another year to get it done.

There's a ticking clock going off in my head.

Shortcuts are seldom shortcuts.

Lesson learned.

I've only got a 10-inch board that I'm walking around on.

So you've gotta pay attention to where you're putting your feet.

One step the wrong way, one loss of your balance and it's a long hard fall.

The stain I'm gonna use on the cabin.

I don't want to move my scaffolding a bunch of times,

so I think I'm just going to sand and stain, and sand and stain.

Let's see what happens.

It feels good to get some stain on it, and get this place closed in.

I'm really worried about weather getting in on my insulation

that's in between these walls.

It's not the most glamorous job in the world, but it's an essential job.

Man, this is almost done

and that's a good feeling right now.

The idea for this house is to make it as completely weather proof,

completely efficient as I possibly can.

By the time this stain wears out,

I'll be burbot bait in the bottom of the Yukon.

A sauna's gonna feel good tonight.

That was a long day.

I'm not getting any younger every day so

every summer is probably going to be pretty full for me

for the next year or two until we get this house completed.

ERIK: The lifestyle that I get to live up here

as a hunting guide and a subsistence hunter and trapper is pretty unique

and there's a lot of work associated with it,

but I think that there's more pros than cons.

-Oh, yeah, this is pretty good right here. -MARTHA: Yeah.

NARRATOR: After ditching their boat for dry land,

Erik and Martha change strategies in their quest to harvest food.

Depending on the conditions, we use boats, we use four wheelers.

We use our feet.

And sometimes we sit and call, other times, we spot and stalk ducks.

You got an empty shell?

You want to make a call out of one?

Might be too windy. Oh, you got it?

MARTHA: I took a shotgun shell, and burned a hole into it,

and it makes a very simple goose call.

I've actually tried it before, and only been successful a few times.

It's really hard to do.

(CALL WHISTLING)

ERIK: Maybe the... You better practise some more.

(GUNSHOT)

I'm kind of sick of sitting here.

You want to go and try to stalk up

some of those birds that landed over there?

Let's just walk in the woods and see what comes our way.

SUE: It's a calculated risk every time you step out the door.

There's no guarantees in anything.

The only guarantee is it's a, you know, it's a limited time engagement,

so why not pack it full of experiences.

NARRATOR: Sue has shut down her main generator

to find the source of the breakdown.

Without it, she has no direct contact with inbound planes,

and clients in camp are without power.

SUE: Best-case scenario, something that I can fix very easily

with something, with things I have here.

Worst-case scenario is, it's toast.

The longer I have it down, my freezers are shut down,

people here aren't getting heat, there's no communications.

I can't run a lot of my equipment.

You've got to find the problem and fix it.

The generator is the heartbeat of the camp,

to be able to have lights, heat, services in your quarters, hot showers.

All of that magically disappears

if I don't have energy to run that kind of a system.

That cuts into my profit margin.

If I go into red, you know, red is dead.

Okay, this isn't good.

I have got a problem.

That's not good.

You've got oil over here.

You've got little fuzzies. Everything will stick to it.

When it sticks to that, it's like creating your own carpet.

The oil gets on there in the back of the fan.

Any piece of fuzz, any piece of dust,

any anything is going to get stuck.

And now air can no longer pass through to cool things off.

That's not good.

That tells me that there might be a seal blown.

I can take all of this off, this bracketry, clean it,

pressure wash it, whatever, get that cleaned up.

Clean everything else around it.

Pull the radiator hose, bottom, top.

Come on, you fuckin' prick.

This is our problem.

Oil leaking somewhere gets flung through the fan

onto the back of the radiator.

Any dust, any dirt, of which there's a lot here,

any of the tundra cotton,

that's mostly what this is, gets flung onto that oil and blocks it.

It can't breathe through this.

What I just scraped off, there's your fins.

The air has to pass from here

through that to cool down the radiator fluid, which cools your engine.

When it's like this,

there's no danger any air is getting through to cool it,

so you're sending hot anti-freeze through a hot engine.

It's a recipe for disaster.

So the machine will shut itself off, which it was doing,

and only a fool keeps it running,

so, just have to do our best to clean it out.

Um, we're going to give it a diesel bath

and, uh, get it clean.

The cost of replacing it, you know, 50,000 to 70,000 to buy it.

Anywhere 5,000 to 20,000 to ship it.

So you're talking a $100,000 mistake

if you don't catch your mistake right away.

Where it was all crappy and creepy,

now you can see all those fins.

Now, it's not a perfect job,

but you don't catch the problem, it's going to catch you.

CHIP: Truthfully, every day is different.

It's half of what enthrals me about this lifestyle.

I never have the same day twice.

There's no Groundhog Day out here.

-Look, the fishes. Ooh. -Wow, yep. That's moving.

Summer's coming to an end. When we can see stars again,

which will happen in the next few days, summer is over.

NARRATOR: The end of summer is also the end

of the Hailstone family's stay in Kiwalik.

Today, they will pull their net from the river

in hopes of one last salmon haul before winter arrives.

I think today, we're going to pull the entire net out.

We're gonna lay it right here. My wife will be able

to work on the net and I'm gonna cut fish.

CHIP: Time to get some fish out here.

Carol, you get on the side with your mum.

Qutan, you help me on my side. I'm going take the lead line, you take the top line.

The net is coming up on this side right here, kids.

We're going to work it right over here, okay?

You pull gently. You don't pull real hard. You pull gently and firmly.

-AGNES: Hee! -Any more?

Little more, eh? One more.

This is a zombie fish here. This one is spawned out.

See these teeth on the fish? They can rip up the net really bad.

They can poke holes in your skin,

and this guy right here has already spawned.

AGNES: Ow! The fish just jumped and bit me.

Be careful. This fish is alive and I tried to grab it

and it just tried to bite my finger.

Watch out for the teeth, girls. They're real sharp.

Carol, when you're standing there,

waiting for somebody to take a fish off

you have to try to clean or untangle the net.

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.

I want my children to live a good life,

and I want to take them along, and not just tell them about it,

or let them read about it. I want them to participate in it.

AGNES: This is a good one.

CHIP: There's a hole right there.

This fish has taken a small hole,

and with his teeth, and his thrashing and wrapping himself up like that,

look what he's done to the net.

So it only makes the holes bigger, and fish will do that.

They just want to escape.

They don't care about your net. They hate your net.

-Whee, we've reached the end! -This is the end.

CHIP: We got enough to make smoke salmon

so we can have treats throughout the winter.

It's a really different taste.

When you got the two different flavours,

you know, you don't get tired of it. Variety is the spice of life.

AGNES: Not bad of a catch.

ANDY: Being self-sufficient, being solitary.

Um, some people think it's a lonely life.

It's never been a lonely life for me. It's exhilarating.

NARRATOR: In order for Andy to install the windows

that will shield their cabin from the brutal freeze,

he must travel 15 miles up the Yukon to their storage in Eagle.

You want to walk backwards or you want me to walk?

I can walk.

ANDY: We were fortunate in that we were able to tear down

a few buildings during the flood and salvage some of the materials.

When I was tearing down those materials,

I was thinking about this house,

and how I was going to be able to use those materials in our home.

I'm always nervous when I'm moving glass.

It's really heavy,

and this has all been sitting outside for four or five years

and there's a lot of moss, and it's kind of slippery and slimy,

so it's a little hard to hold on to.

These are the atrium windows.

There's a lot of handling involved and every time we handle something,

all it takes is one trip, one fall,

and we're back up in Eagle trying to pick up some more windows.

Probably...

I mean, these were salvaged, we got them out of the hotel

that got destroyed by the flood.

I'm guessing something like this,

probably 300, 400 bucks a window here.

Why don't you get out? I'm going to back down right beside the anchor there.

Don't crack that thing in two.

If these things slide through your hands,

they're going to slice right through that leather glove

like a razor knife through butter.

There's a lot of different things that could go wrong.

The last thing I want right now is badly cut hands

or completely shattered windows.

Kate, could you please grab the boat?

-Yeah. -Damn, you're going to break the glass.

No, I'm not.

Look at how it's sitting on the edge.

I know, I was trying to correct that.

Move the boat forward, please, like it was.

Right here?

Can't fuckin'...

It slid there on its own when it got off the boat.

(ANDY GRUMBLING)

Will you take that glass out of there, that Plexiglas out?

The window had slid a little bit and edges were grinding on edges,

and I was waiting to hear a big crack.

Bottom line is this house has to be weathered in for this winter.

Putting these projects off until fall time is always really stressful.

I really don't like it when I have these projects that have

to get done that they get put off until the end of the season.

Better hurry up, we've got some big black clouds moving in.

ANDY: I'll measure them up, do some milling, do some cutting.

Hopefully, we can set these windows

and that'll be a big step in closing up our house.

SUE: Life can surprise me by showing me my wall

and reminding me not to get too proud and too full of myself.

I am pleased that I still have a mind that can come up with the ingenuity of,

"Yeah, so I can't do it your way...

"But I can do it this way."

NARRATOR: Sue has cleaned the debris causing her generator to fail,

but before she can fire it up,

a new problem stands in the way.

There's a big crack there.

Bum deal.

So now my exhaust is not going where it needs to go, it's floofing everywhere.

That's not the way you want it.

You want a solid piece of tubing going to the outside world and gone.

So I want to cut it here, pull this end out.

Pull this out of the way, slide that in, and see what we need.

Because it all matches together. You know, it's...

All right, so you just want to cut that off?

Yeah, yeah. We'll cut it to length.

We'll cut everything to length once you see what we need...

All right. What I'm going to do, cut it, marry it,

make a new joint.

It's always good to have a backup. I currently don't have one.

Luckily, these are pieces and parts out of the bone yard.

Bone yard is an area of currently non-usable parts,

but it is something, you know,

you hear me say here and there, repurposing.

By itself, it's not a usable piece.

By itself, it's too short to do me much good.

Together, it can be a solution.

-Got it? -Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

The most important tool that you can have out here for this lifestyle,

that's your mind, your creativity, your ingenuity,

and your ability to improvise.

Ta-da.

Changed out the exhaust pipe,

you know, cut it, made a tundra fix.

Um, it is time to get this thing kicked over

and see what it's going to do.

ERIK: I came to Alaska as a teenager.

I was in search of a sense of adventure,

and free and open places, and wilderness.

I guess I found it.

NARRATOR: Erik and Martha are stalking the woods along the Newhalen River

to harvest waterfowl before the birds migrate south for the winter.

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

or meat that's recycled to me via my hunters

that I guide every spring and fall.

You know that's not an unlimited resource up here.

You got to realise that these animals need to be respected,

and that you need to really be careful about how many you harvest

and what you do harvest, you should use to the fullest capacity.

ERIK: It's fish.

Shit load of them over there.

MARTHA: Bird hunting is not easy.

It's different than caribou or moose.

So when the season comes, it's really exciting to shoot that first duck

or first goose and eat it.

There's some out there.

(ERIK WHISPERING)

Okay.

(ERIK WHISPERING)

(ERIK SPEAKING)

MARTHA: Where'd it go? Is it still alive?

There it is.

Who got it, you think?

Who cares? Let's go home and eat it. You going to make soup?

-Yeah, I'll make some soup. -Nice, let's go home.

I'm going to head home, and I'm going to have

some fresh duck, nice and fat.

We're going to chow down on some delicious table fare, so.

Go home, clean up these birds and call it a day.

ANDY: My visions are always big.

My plate is always full.

But that's what I wake up every morning really liking.

If I had nothing to do around here,

I would get bored pretty quick.

ANDY: Double check that and make sure that's going to fit.

NARRATOR: Today, Andy and Kate will install the windows

in their new cabin,

to ensure their dream home will be able to endure the brutal winter months.

ANDY: This is a super sticky material so it will seal this window

right into place here.

So whenever this window touches it, that's it.

That's where it's going to be.

Hold on, I've got to get my fingers out.

-That should do it. -Look at that, real glass.

Yay.

One window done, three to go today.

So I've got to get this done so he can get on with the getting the windows in.

This kind of little jobs I don't mind doing.

It's getting me closer to getting me into my new house.

(CHUCKLING)

ANDY: I love doing all the things I do around here.

I get up every morning, and I do what I want to do

and I don't know too many people that have that ability to say

that that's the way their life is.

Now, that's a kitchen window.

I'm feeling pretty good about going into winter with the project now.

The, uh, house is sanded, stained, the windows are in.

None too soon, the colours are changing really quick.

We've had frost, and, uh, we've had snow on the tops of the mountains,

so, kind of, got it done in the nick of time.

Now it's time to go fishing and hunting.

SUE: You have to be dead nuts about who you are,

what you want out of life, and how the hell you're going to get it.

You better have both hands on the pistol and ready to aim and shoot.

All right, so, took apart the radiator guards,

cleaned the radiator,

degreased the radiator.

It is time to get this thing kicked over and see

what it's going to do.

Green, yellow.

Cross your fingers.

(SPUTTERING)

That don't sound good.

-(GENERATOR TURNING OVER) -There we go.

There it goes. Well, you can see that the wind is blowing now.

Before, it wasn't.

We got wind coming out which means that it's cold.

So that means it's cooling down the radiator fluid again. Yay.

And I'm right in the middle of making sure the gen is back up,

and you can see, I've got planes everywhere.

They need to be able to talk to me.

This guy's been waiting so I can get a break

to get the fuel done so he can get in the air.

So, I mean, it's just all one big, happy family, man.

-You ready to rock? -Yep.

So, yeah, thanks for being patient with the generator.

But at least now, I'll have air-to-ground.

-We got power, I'm smiling. -Yeah.

Planes only make money when they're in the air,

but I only get money from them when they get on the ground and get fuel.

If we can't communicate to each other, it's a safety issue,

but it's also a monetary issue for both of us.

-All right, is that going to do it? -That's absolutely.

All right, $25.90.

Fly safe, I'll see you later on.

Once D gets airborne, I'll do a radio check with him.

He can hear me, I can hear him.

Then I'm totally back online.

You got a copy on Kavik here?

(D SPEAKING OVER RADIO)

All right, you have a good day,

fly safe, and thanks for being patient on the genny.

(D SPEAKING)

I just got confirmation it's working.

Lights are on, water's pumping, back in business.

CHIP: The whole essence of subsistence is to be able to go in your local,

immediate area, utilise the materials around you, and have a good life.

And that's all we're up to.

I want to make these ones into strips.

Mom, I have a cut right there, but I want to cut fish.

Nope.

You'll get an infection.

CHIP: With this pulling of the net, we're going to have a full rack,

and the full rack is also gonna mean that we're gonna have a full boat.

So if we want to not only to get it done right, but we want to take it home,

we, kind of, gotta limit ourselves to what we got today.

Another good fishing season.

CHIP: Yup, it sure is.

This looks like a good final amount to smoke.

If we had to have a last amount of fish at all, you couldn't get it better.

Oh, we always have productive summers when we come down here,

and that's why we come down here,

and why we've been down here for more than 20 years.

Cutting and processing your own fish has always been

a really important resource up here.

Because if you've got salmon, you've got wealth.

That's energy, that's food, that's trade material.

That's the good stuff.

AGNES: This has no salt in it, and we just pretty much use it

to clean all the blood and stuff off of it,

and then we put them in this one,

and this is, um, for salting and smoking.

So this one has salt water in it

and, uh, this is just regular water, just wash and rinse

and then we just go hang them up,

and they'll just be non-salted, but slightly smoked.

Almost done.

Good haul, eh? Just right.

CHIP: I want to put them up in the smoke,

but for now, for drip-drying, they need to get all that salted water

off of them.

-Sure looks good, eh? -Sure does, sure smells good.

This is going to be real good snack during the winter until next salmon fishing season.

We have pinks, chums, and silvers here.

We don't usually get silvers back home,

so this is going to be a real good, different taste during the winter.

CHIP: All in all, this was an excellent investment to come here

and spend the summer in Kiwalik.

We've just basically put a couple thousand bucks into being here,

and I know we're going home with a vast more amount in, uh, potential money.

It's got to be a couple of thousand dollars worth of fish hanging here.

You can't get skunked on fishing if you know what you're doing.

We just don't get skunked.