Original subtitles

NARRATOR: On this episode of Life Below Zero,

as winter nears its end, new obstacles arise.

SUE: In the end, I'm not the one with control out here, Mother Nature is.

NARRATOR: The Hailstones' hunt takes a turn for the worse.

AGNES: There's a fox over there, I'm gonna take a shot. Fuck!

NARRATOR: Andy stalks a lethal predator to protect his livelihood.

I got multiple wolf tracks in this slough here.

NARRATOR: Erik and Martha's plans come to a screeching halt.

It's not gonna happen.

NARRATOR: And Sue races to clear a path.

SUE: A plane must have a runway to safely land.

There we go.

We're gonna cut up this moose quarter.

It's the last one that we have from the moose we harvested this past fall.

It's a ham, really tasty, prime cut piece.

I'll hack the bone out of here.

Start taking apart the muscle groups.

When we kill a moose or kill a caribou,

the bones are full of marrow and they're really great for soup,

and then, you know, animals like moose or caribou,

where the hide isn't worth anything, we use that for trapping bait.

And there's really something to do with most parts of any animal.

NARRATOR: Erik and Martha Salitan rely on the animals they hunt

to maintain a subsistence lifestyle in the Arctic.

You wanna scrap together a smoker and smoke some of this meat?

Yeah, that could be fun, different.

-Break up the cuisine a little bit? -Mmm-hmm.

Harvesting your own meat, it's very fulfilling.

You feel a lot better knowing that you butchered the animal,

it's all good quality meat,

and makes you feel a little bit more independent living in the bush.

Well, I'm done. Let's go out and check out what we got for building materials.

Sounds good. I'm done, too.

I'll go put this outside where it'll be cold.

MARTHA: So Erik and I just got done butchering the moose.

We're gonna go out to the hangar and hopefully find the materials

that we need to put together a, uh, usable smoker.

ERIK: The type of smoker that we're looking to make is a cold smoker.

It just adds a little bit more flavour.

It doesn't add any nutritional value.

It has nothing to do with life or death,

it's just a little spice of life.

Doing these small kind of projects is fun 'cause it's like a change of pace,

something different than the daily chores.

It's nice to be able to build something yourself

and to be able to also take the meat that you've harvested

and throw it in there and make an edible, finished product.

ERIK: I'm gonna use these 2 x 6s

that are left over from building this hangar this past summer.

We're gonna go six feet deep, six feet wide, and put a six-foot roof on there.

MARTHA: Now we just got one more wall to go,

which is the wall that's gonna have the door in it.

Then we're gonna throw on the sheeting.

We got a lot of work ahead of us.

ANDY: We give up a lot to live out here

because we want a certain type of quality of life.

And a big part of that quality of life

is utilising the resources that are here for us.

I'm preparing right now to start making

a bunch of snares for predator trapping.

And, um, we don't have a lot of moose per square mile here.

Part of that problem is because of predators, uh, namely, wolves.

Any kind of predator control is very emotional for a lot of people.

Most people are either for it or against it.

There's very few people that are middle ground.

Um, I tend to be kind of middle ground on it, though,

because I realise,

as much as I don't like killing animals,

um, it's absolutely necessary if I want to be able to eat in the future.

I'm getting older, and so I want to make sure

that there's a good moose population in my area

so that I don't have to work so hard to feed myself every year.

For me, going a year without a moose is really bad.

That's probably the equivalent of someone's house burning down,

losing their job, and their car explodes.

Your world is gone if you don't have moose or caribou

in the freezer for the winter.

I've now made my loop.

I like to make my loops pretty big.

Uh, the wolves, they don't like going through something small,

so I tend to make my loops fairly big.

Uh, and when the animal goes in,

this slides very easily in one direction, here.

And then, once it tightens down,

it's very difficult to get it to unlock.

It's pretty simple method to make these.

Not too terribly expensive

and, um, can be very efficient.

Wolves are probably the single hardest thing to trap or snare up here.

They're incredibly smart.

They have an incredible sense of smell,

so they can smell steel underneath the snow or hanging in the woods.

This year, when I killed my moose, I saved the hide,

I saved the head, but I also saved all the guts and I put them in a tote.

They've been sitting in a tote all fall and into the winter.

Ooh, yeah.

Smells ripe.

These wolves are going after moose,

so I think the moose guts is probably gonna be my best bet.

And that'll be my main bait.

Got some moose guts for bait.

I got holes in them so I can tie them up to a tree.

The one thing I don't have is I don't have much daylight left.

It's pretty much gone off the mountain here now,

which means I got about an hour or so.

That's not enough time to get out and make these sets.

It's a one-shot deal when you do this

and we'll get an early start tomorrow morning.

SUE: I did not choose to leave society.

I am just living my own life.

Only with the freedom of isolation does my little light shine.

I've got a snow machine coming out to help me with my chores.

(COUGHS) Snow machine won't fit into a regular plane.

It's gotta be a bigger plane.

And, uh, there's a Caravan,

a little bit larger plane than I usually get during the winter.

But the key to getting the Caravan in was getting the runway ready for it.

NARRATOR: Sue Aikens relies on planes to deliver supplies into Kavik.

Maintaining her mile-and-a-half runway

is crucial for her survival and can take days to complete.

SUE: If a big plane tries to land, you know,

going 200 miles an hour and tries to land on ice, on sheet ice, glare ice,

all's they're gonna do is be a new storage unit off the end of my runway.

Gonna go work on the runway, try to get as much snow off of it as I can.

I'm hoping if I can get the initial layer of snow off down to the ice,

the sun will do the rest of the work for me.

If I can't do that, I can't get the Caravan in.

Can't get the Caravan in,

well, then somebody in Deadhorse gets my snow machine

as a lawn decoration. (CHUCKLES)

I don't take the clearing or the maintaining of the runway lightly at all.

Most of these bush pilots and pilots that come out here are people that I know.

They're cool people.

A plane must have a decent runway

that they can count on to safely land.

Doesn't matter how badly I want to get whatever's on that plane.

I will never risk somebody's life to get it.

I take that very seriously.

I'm gonna go ahead and drag this section.

Gonna attach my drag, that's this thing under the snow.

And it's gonna cut and move the top layer of snow.

Right now it may seem light,

but this is after 10:00 at night,

so my temperatures are gonna go down a little bit.

Um, before everything refreezes,

I wanna knock that clear and let the sun work on it tomorrow.

I heard the engine knocking.

If I keep pushing it and it breaks down on the runway,

then I've shut down my entire runway to even skied landings.

I had to take a drag off this, she's done.

I have to get her in the shop, let it warm up, take a look at it tomorrow.

If I can't get this thing going tomorrow,

I don't get a snow machine in a Caravan, that's the way that is.

AGNES: In this harsh country, there's nobody just gonna appear and help you.

You have to be comfortable and have an idea of what you're doing

before you just decide to just get up and go out into the country.

Is it cold out, Chip?

CHIP: It's getting a little breezy,

so I would dress warm if I were you.

NARRATOR: Chip and Agnes have set up camp in Kiwalik,

110 miles from their home in Noorvik,

to capitalise on the region's vast resources of caribou and fur.

CHIP: We've had terrible winds and terrible weather

and in the time that we've had to wait for the weather,

the caribou have gotten closer and closer.

Now the caribou are here.

-Whoa, bright. -Yeah, it is bright.

There should be a small herd of caribou roaming around,

so we're just gonna go check out the flats and the lower hills

and, uh, see what we've come across.

After three, four days, we pretty much consumed all our extra food we brought,

so we just need camp meat.

I'll bet you the caribou are closer than they were yesterday.

CHIP: One thing that's nice is the caribou are moving closer to camp every day.

Caribou are herd animals. They all wanna be together. They wanna be in large groups.

So they're forming up right now and they're forming up,

and they're following each other,

and they're gonna be passing through here.

Our good days are here.

CHIP: Yeah, no, let's head up to the, to the, um, trail

-and take the hard trail. -The trail.

And we'll save gas that way.

The best thing we can do here, because we wanna hunt in a short distance

and because we wanna have an easier hunt

is to let the animals come to us.

So when we got the animals coming closer and closer, it saves us gas,

it saves us parts, it saves us time, it saves us a lot of energy.

AGNES: Pretty much gonna stay down low where it's not too windy, not too cold.

We just go ride round through the back and watch the herd

and see if there's any fur or anything else around.

There's a fox over there! I'm gonna get closer and take a shot!

Fuck!

There goes my ride.

I let go of my handlebar.

I sit up, and I grab my rifle, and it got stuck in my handlebar.

And then it turned me.

Fuck!

Oh, God, over a stupid fucking fox.

CHIP: Wow, I didn't see you crash.

If I saw her standing there, and I saw the fox running,

and I didn't see her aiming or trying to shoot at it.

-Are you okay? -No.

Well, the rifle went right through the fucking, uh...

Right through the tank.

(EXHALES) Well, you know, here on the tundra, it's bumpy.

And if you go too fast and you hit too big of a bump, you can get thrown off,

you get your machine flipped over, you can get, um, you can just crash.

As long as you're okay, I can fix this.

Okay?

AGNES: Fucking, stupid fucking fox.

CHIP: You could sit here and cry, and hoo and ha over this shit.

It doesn't fix plastic or metal.

We need to get it back to camp so we can put it on a cargo sled and take it home.

Or we need to, um, leave it the fuck here and just carry on with ourselves.

We need to go get you another rifle.

AGNES: Oh, God, it's...

Fuck!

Bent.

Broken.

Not only did I break my best rifle,

I totally broke my gas tank.

Handlebars won't even turn.

My windshield is all smashed up into many pieces.

CHIP: There's a lot of structural damage to this thing.

-It's not a pretty sight. -Sorry about that.

It's not you, I'm glad you're okay.

Don't be sorry to me.

I've crashed snow machines, I know just exactly how you're feeling.

We still got one ride, there's no reason to go back unless my ride's totalled,

and then we've got yours for parts and we'll still make it home.

-Okay. Well, that's a good way... -So buck up.

-...to look at it. -It'll be all good, yeah. We're gonna be good.

-Get ready? -Yeah, put your stuff on it

and let's just tow this thing back to camp now.

Having two machines has always been our premise.

When one machine's down, we can continue on while we fix the other one.

I think you gotta just quit worrying about it.

We've always, always, always figured it out.

MARTHA: As far as waste goes, I guess that comes full circle with everything that we have.

Whatever we can use, we'll utilise it, so, nothing goes to waste.

ERIK: Working on my skid here, drilling a hole in.

I'm gonna attach a rope between the two of them

and then I'm gonna be able to pull the smokehouse around with a truck,

a four-wheeler, a snow machine, a tractor, whatever.

NARRATOR: In Wiseman,

Erik and Martha are using resources that surround them

as well as salvage materials from past builds

for the construction of a new smokehouse.

MARTHA: We're putting up the sheet metal here,

which is not only going to complete the smokehouse, but make it sturdier.

Feed it up on the top there.

MARTHA: So far progress has been real fast.

We have four walls, we've got the roofs all ready.

We've pounded it out and we're just gonna keep moving.

Is it gonna fit?

We're gonna get this door on hinges, make sure it flows the way we want it.

Then we'll sheet the son of a gun.

MARTHA: Between our fishing lodge in Iliamna

and our hunting lodge up here in the Brooks Range,

we've always got a lot going on.

So it's nice to be able to work on our own little projects

at our own pace and do what we wanna do.

ERIK: It's gotta come up a touch more.

Yup, right there.

(DRILLING)

Nice.

-And it's solid. -Yeah.

And the first moose we smoke in there is the moose that antlers it is.

I'm just pumped to drag it out of here and, uh, fire it up for the first time.

ANDY: Everything changes in the wintertime up here.

Everything gets harder.

You have to be twice as careful.

You don't take chances.

If you do have a problem, you don't have a lot of time to react.

(BARKING)

This is gonna be bait for wolves.

This is moose guts, left over from the moose that I got this fall.

I think that's about all we need for supplies.

I'm hoping that I can set a bunch of bait out and, uh, hopefully trap

a few of those wolves in this area.

(HOWLING)

I'm really dependent on the resources that are around here.

The moose population, the density is so low,

that's creating a real problem with competition.

Good boy, Briggus! Good boy, Berg!

And that's making it harder and harder for me to get out and get

what I absolutely have to have to eat for the winter.

And it really affects how we can even survive out here.

NARRATOR: To survive along the Yukon River,

Andy believes it is essential to remove any predators

that are a threat to his food supply.

Up and over. Up and over.

Let's go haw. Let's go haw.

Attaboys. Attaboys. Good. You'll make it.

You'll make it. Attaboys.

That didn't look good.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Everybody, stay!

Yeah!

Good boys! Everybody, stay!

All right, all right, we've got some wolf tracks here.

I got multiple wolf tracks in this slough here.

Looks like they were chasing something

'cause they're in a gallop here.

Attaboy! Attaboy! Let's go!

Think this spot's gonna be a pretty good spot around here to set some snares.

Good boys!

That's it! Get on that track.

All right!

Good job!

I'll get these up into the woods here in a couple of places

and then come back and start setting some snares

and see what I can do.

These wolves have a really good sense of smell.

So if he's walking down the river,

I think they'll pick up on this pretty quick.

There's one.

Go back down this way now.

Killing daylight.

I got two chunks of moose meat in.

Now I just gotta get in here and just set snares all around this area.

My main emphasis for doing all this trapping right now is to try and knock

a few of the predators off so that the moose populations can come back stronger.

So, it's not gonna go to waste.

If I had a couple of wolves, I could make a nice parka.

So there's lots of things I can do with the fur,

but the main reason why I'm doing this is to try

and help the moose in the area.

So if there's something I can do to help the abundance

of the food that I need to eat,

then it's worth my effort to do that.

There we go. That's the last one.

It's time to head out of here, back home, where it's warm.

Right, let's go home!

Attaboys!

This lower section of this river

is always really bad with ice, uh, very thin ice.

It can be very deceiving at times when you get a snowfall over it.

So I'm always a little bit nervous in this lower section.

That's not even hard to break that with this pole.

I think we're just gonna have to go fast and... You understand that, Tope?

We're gonna go fast, girl, right here. Right here.

Okay. Little Gee, little Gee, little Gee!

Attagirl, right there. Good. Perfect. Let's go.

Hup, hup, hup, hup! All right.

Nobody hurt, but, uh, we still got a long ways to go.

So it's time to keep moving.

CHIP: Life here is done as it's done.

It's all cheque-in-the-mail stuff.

It's not in your hands, till it's in your hands.

You can talk about might all we want,

but we don't fly on the wings of maybe.

-AGNES: Hi. -A snow go, I heard one.

Oh, look right there!

Hee!

NARRATOR: After Agnes broke her rifle in a snow machine crash...

CHIP: Hey, Jeff! What's going on?

...Chip called on a family friend to bring out a new rifle.

AGNES: Whoa! I got it. I got it.

-CHIP: You want coffee? -I got it, mine!

Thank you!

CHIP: A friend of ours from Noorvik's down here hunting

and he brought down a rifle for my wife that my daughter

went over to her aunt's and got.

Okay, Chip. Yep. I'll see you guys at home.

AGNES: All right. Thank you so much.

-You're welcome. -Good luck to you!

Yep!

AGNES: Hee!

Well, I don't have a new snow machine,

but, uh, I have a new rifle.

One hundred, right, 125?

One fifty, just set it on 150,

give it a crank off and see if you nail it.

It's not a rifle she's used for hunting.

It's, um, it's from her collection.

We're not sure where it hits or if it even works.

But we have to test it and make sure.

Fire at will.

You hit about two inches to the right of the paper.

You hit about two inches closer.

(GUNSHOT)

-Hmm. -Real close to where you were. Here, let me go check now.

I'll zip over there.

It's good to get familiarised with the trigger, the, um,

the action of the bulk, and the feel,

and see how long the, um, how much play I have

before the bullet actually goes off.

So this is good practice,

regardless of if I hit or not.

You are hitting to the right. So shoot more to the left.

-(GUNSHOT) -Hitting high.

So I think it's the rifle hitting high.

I really do. What does your trigger feel like?

Does it feel like your last rifle?

Not really.

Okay. That's a trouble, too.

-Yeah, we gotta get used to that. -Yep.

So we'll get up there and give it a try

-and we'll see what happens, all right? -Yeah.

That rifle's not exactly dialled in for, um, my wife.

She, uh, took a few shots.

And so she's only missing by an inch or two on this side,

an inch or two on this side. So she's keeping it within a foot by a foot.

And that's good enough for caribou.

You can put it right in the middle of their chest, and it will hit within a foot,

you're gonna get an animal really well. No problem.

ERIK: Every day I work. You know, out cutting some firewood,

out hunting, trapping.

Whatever it is, I'm into being productive every day.

MARTHA: (GIGGLES) You ran into me.

NARRATOR: Erik and Martha have built a smoker

to prepare meat they harvested themselves.

But before it can be used, it must be moved out of the hangar.

MARTHA: Your snow machine's gonna be able

-to pull this thing? -I am not sure.

Try with a snow machine. If not, we'll just hook the truck up to it.

MARTHA: So we got the tow hitch attached.

We're gonna see if we can get the smoker out of the hangar now.

(SNOW MACHINE BEEPING)

ERIK: All right.

(SNOW MACHINE REVVING)

MARTHA: No.

It's not gonna happen.

ERIK: We tried to pull the smokehouse out with the snow machine.

I think we can probably get it if we kept reefing on it,

but it's not worth damaging a snow machine over it.

So I'm just gonna pull my truck around, hook onto it, and drag it on out.

That's good!

Start off slow so we can get the line taut.

Little bit more.

Okay!

Oh, oh!

I knew it was gonna hit that lip!

It hit that lip and busted the skid off.

We just tried pulling the smokehouse out.

Unfortunately, we didn't have the skids braced well, so they came together and, uh,

in turn, pulled the whole frame of the smokehouse in also.

So, a little bit of a bummer.

How'd that happen?

The chain choked the two pieces together

because there was no crosspiece here.

I'm irritated in myself for rushing,

not putting a good support on it.

Gonna take this 2 x 6 and make the skids a little bit sturdier

by putting it in between, so next time when we pull,

at least they won't come together.

Stand on this, will you, Martha?

Now we got the bracing on there,

I'm gonna go ahead and hook it onto my truck

and hopefully it should be secure and we'll go ahead and we'll be able to pull it

across the yard where we want it.

MARTHA: We just moved the smokehouse

to where it's gonna sit temporarily and get it smoking.

I'm gonna put this little wood stove in there and fire her up.

So now Erik's sticking the alder in there.

Alder is a highly desirable wood to use for a smoker.

A nice flavour that comes off of it that will be impregnated into the meat.

There she goes.

Being able to put the moose meat in there, get that fire going,

get it smoking in there, it's great, you know.

It'll be good and it'll have that really good smoky smell and taste to it.

Close the doors, let it smoke.

ANDY: Alaskans are very unique people.

We're all very independent.

We're all very inventive, tough, hardy souls

that wanna take care of themselves.

Hey, Briggus, boy!

Let's go check some traps.

Let's go check some traps.

We gotta go see if we got some wolves.

NARRATOR: Andy has set traps for wolves in order to protect the moose population,

an essential source of food and protein along the Yukon River.

So we'll go check those traps today

and hopefully we'll come home with a little bit of fur to skin.

Pack of wolves is probably one of the most lethal things on the planet,

as far as hunting goes.

So, if you have that knowledge, and you know how to use that,

you can use it to your advantage

to try and take advantage of the wolves and trap them.

You guys are smoking down the trail today!

Good boys!

Yee-haw!

So it's all luck.

You know, there's a certain amount of skill in everything you do,

but if the wolves don't come through, you're not gonna catch them.

It's just the way it works.

Gee! Gee! Gee!

Attaboys! Good! Good! Good! Good!

Whoa.

Whoa.

Good dogs.

Everybody, stay. Good boys.

I'll just walk up there and try and disturb as little as possible,

check out all the snare sites.

I can see the rest of my snares down through the line here.

I don't see anything that's disturbed.

I've got another bait here. A leghold here.

There's another snare right there in that opening.

Looks to me like I got skunked on this spot right now.

It's just gonna take more time.

So a little bit disappointing.

Like everything I do, I always try and make it multi-purpose

and so I'm not just gonna go out and set for wolves,

I'm gonna set for marten, because they bring me a few bucks,

whether I sell them to a furrier

or whether I make something out of them myself, it's dollars in my pocket.

So what I wanna do here is I wanna make a marten set,

just a natural one, using the branches.

This is one of my favourite ways to set for them.

Trying to build a little bit of an income from this

to help offset the cost of dog food and other supplies that I need.

There's one set.

I think I'll make another one on this tree right here.

It's just a matter of one animal finding this, and then from that point on,

a lot of the other animals will start following those tracks.

Yeah, okay.

So there's two marten sets.

Okay. Let's go.

I'll just keep checking about every four or five days

and sooner or later, I'm gonna catch something here, I know.

AGNES: Lots of little things get thrown at you,

but when you're out here, you just have to keep moving forward

and keep on keeping on and keep on hunting.

We're opportunists.

(CHIP SPEAKING)

AGNES: Yee!

NARRATOR: The Hailstones are hunting for caribou,

which will provide meat and fur

that will help them survive the months to come.

I'm on top of a ridge top,

and, uh, the caribou were slowly eating their way up this way.

So any moment they should be coming soon.

So I just keep my eyes open.

Whichever direction they come from,

I just, pretty much, have to be ready.

Whether it's scouting around looking for different things,

or we're going directly to where we know what the conditions are

and we can hunt the area, we're always hunting.

AGNES: They're coming straight to us!

-I got him! -Good one.

CHIP: We didn't get defeated on the caribou. We were able to ride.

We were able to, um, come up about, maybe 2,000 caribou here.

And we had to pick out a good one.

Whew, we got one.

This is a good piece of meat right here.

There was no mistake in shooting this one.

He's fat, too. So I can't complain. He's a young bull.

We thought a cow, but he's a young bull.

There's always more caribou around,

so just have to work on meat, and try for another one, and keep your eyes open

'cause there's a lot of fur around, too.

(AGNES SPEAKING)

(CHIP SPEAKING)

SUE: You have to be dead nuts about who you are, what you want out of life,

and how the hell you're gonna get it.

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

Yeah, it's gonna be scattered snow, possible rain.

So, yeah, if you can find out whether or not we can reschedule,

that would be awesome sauce and a side of fries.

NARRATOR: Sue is awaiting a plane to deliver a snow machine,

which will increase her mobility in Kavik.

But in the tundra, she is always at the mercy of Mother Nature.

The update on the flight is, today is a scratch.

Um, plane cannot get in here and I'm just waiting to hear

whether I can reschedule it for tomorrow.

It cost me 500 bucks just to, in the fuel to work the runway the last day and a half.

But it's just part of the risk of being here.

I can plan for it, and I can get ready for it, and in the end,

I'm not the one with control out here, Mother Nature is.

Last night, I was trying to clear the runway

and the Bobcat started having some power issues.

I have a feeling my hydraulic, uh, pump is going out.

I'm gonna top it off

with a little bit of hydraulics.

It's not feeling happy.

So, I either get it done

or bust it down trying.

I mean, everything else has been failing this year,

might as well go for broke and get it all.

I've decided I'm gonna go ahead and push this thing as hard as I can today.

It may be a mistake, I may end up with a lawn decoration.

Even if the Caravan can't come in,

there's other pilots flying around.

They're gonna think it's safe, and it's not.

So I've gotta go see if I can't just finish dragging it

and then let nature do its business.

At least then, I've given it my all.

I'm definitely risking the equipment.

I know I have to replace the hydraulic pump.

I know I've got filters to replace.

I know I've got some issues.

I'm hoping that it just holds its own.

These birds need to be safely on the ground.

They need to know Kavik is a place to go and be safe.

The runway is as good as I can get it.

I am pleased that I got a good mile, solid mile of the runway

done nice and smooth.

Do one more check in the morning,

verify that it's still in good shape,

and, uh, when he calls, I'll give him the honest report.

Away we go.

ERIK: Day in and day out, I wanna be out in the woods,

I want to be hunting, I want to be trapping,

I want to be flying, I want to be fishing.

That's why I run off and come live out in the woods.

MARTHA: So, uh, our meat's been smoking in here for a couple hours.

Should been long enough to give it a good, smoky taste

from that alder we put in there.

I'm gonna go and grab a good piece for dinner for Erik and I.

Looking good in here.

I think I'm gonna go with this one right here. Right on the top shelf.

Took this one off the top shelf,

so I guess it's what you would call a top-shelf meat.

Nice.

Gonna go cook it up.

Um, smoker was a good little project for Erik and I.

That was a little bit of a challenge there at the end when it came apart,

but, uh, Erik and I always, uh,

overcome whatever issues we have out here, which you gotta do anyway.

You can't rely on anybody else but yourselves, so you work independently.

It's really cool to think that just not too long ago,

Erik and I were brainstorming up this idea about this whole smokehouse, and, uh,

built the smoker and then smelled the fruits of our labour.

-Do you like it? -Mmm-hmm.

I'd say that smoker worked out pretty good.

Mmm-hmm.

Real good.

ANDY: I really don't need a lot to live out in this country.

I have the skills, and I know how to get the resources,

and I know how to utilise the resources.

I think living the way I live is one of the easiest ways in the world to live.

Burning daylight.

It's time to go check snares and traps.

These traps and snares have been out for a little over a week.

I got skunked at my first set.

There you go.

Second time's a charm is what I'm hoping for.

Let's go, yeah! All right!

There's no one thing that a person makes his living on out here.

You have to be multi-talented.

You have to be kind of an opportunist.

I don't think I'll ever stop trapping, even when I'm 70 years old.

Attaboys. On by. Let's go.

Straight ahead. Let's go.

Well, looks like, uh, I'm at the end of my line here.

Go check some snares and a few marten sets.

And I'm not seeing any disturbances in the trees.

So there's a snare there.

There's my bait set over here.

One here.

A little bit early on, anything big coming through here,

but I'm gonna leave all these snares where they're at.

The longer they're out here, the better chance I have of catching something.

I think I'll, I'll head on back and go check the rest of my traps.

And there's two more marten sets and we'll go back

and see if I have a little bit of luck in that area.

It kind of looks like there's something hanging there.

Yeah, baby!

So we've got one marten here.

All right!

He's frozen solid, so he was definitely caught in the cold weather.

It's been a few days.

I feel good there's one, let's go check some more traps,

see if I have any more luck.

Yeah, buddy!

Hello, Mr Marten.

All right.

That's a nice-looking marten.

So that's two. That makes me feel good.

I like coming home with something in this bag.

We're good to go.

It's a pretty productive area. We'll just keep setting, hopefully we'll keep catching.

Good day today.

Look at that, Tope.

Didn't pick up any wolves, but I've got two nice marten, and, uh, so I've got some fur.

Didn't do any real predator control to help the moose right now,

but it's just a matter of time.

Time and patience.

Okay, let's go home. Yeah!

Go home and skin some marten.

Marten skins peel off pretty easily once you get going.

And once it gets to this point,

I usually like to hang them up.

Go slow and easy right here 'cause I don't wanna tear it.

Trapping is probably the only way that a person out in the bush

can be guaranteed making some money.

Um, you know, I say all the time,

the only way to really live out here is you gotta diversify what you're doing.

Fact remains that I have to make a living, too

and this is one of the few ways that I can supplement my income.

There we go.

And so now what I need to do is I need to put it on the board

with the flesh side out.

I'm gonna stretch it out and that's gonna dry in that shape,

and that gives it a certain form that the fur buyers like.

Generally speaking, I'd say 90 bucks for one animal like this.

I've got one of them skinned out.

This one's still a little bit stiff.

He's not quite ready to skin out,

so we'll let this guy sit here and thaw out a little bit more.

So this was a pretty, pretty good day for me. I picked up a couple marten.

I didn't pick up any wolves, but, uh, for the amount of time that I put into it,

it's good to get a little bit of fur here and, um, keep adding to my collection.

And as time goes on, I'm hoping that I'll pick up a wolf or two in those snares.

I'll just keep at it all winter long, see what I end up with.

It was a good day.

SUE: Mother Nature and I are always kind of

playing a game of cards, it's like poker.

Occasionally, she deals herself a winning hand.

You know, and I just gotta wait till we shuffle again.

You know, eventually I'll get my, uh, full house.

Good bit of news, finally.

It's been several days with this storm and the fog is now finally pulling back.

Supposed to be blue bird in the next couple of hours.

So I'm just checking the runway with the wind that we've had.

What kind of drifts have built up?

What do I need to do to make this a perfect landing?

So I'm going up and down and seeing, how wide can I tell them is a good area?

How long of an area is acceptable?

It's looking pretty good!

The eastern end of the runway looks beautiful.

If he sticks to the centre, he's got a good run.

But I'm gonna mark some of these drifts with my machine.

I mark the drifts by just running over the drift with the Argo.

And that's gonna leave a trail

and he'll be able to see from the air, stay between the lines.

Because it's not bad, it's just I care a lot about the safety of these guys.

It's just beautiful, blue skies.

Uh, no obscurations at all.

I'm really happy, yay, a new toy.

But actually, I... Serious face, it's a new tool. (SNORTS)

These guys live 500 miles away from me, but any time I need them,

bam, they're there.

-How are you doing, Sue? -Good. How are you doing?

-Pretty good. -Thank you.

-Good to see you. -Yeah, you, too.

I appreciate all the help.

How was the runway?

-The runway's good, yeah. -Okay.

Dirk got here safely and the snow machine is here.

The Argo was a go-slow-and-get- there-and-back.

This is a go-fast.

Time for me to see what I can do here.

(ENGINE STARTS)

Yay!

It seemed like Mother Nature dealt herself a winning hand on the old weather conditions.

Susie pulled out a royal flush in the end.

It's a beautiful day, he landed no problems, and I've got my new "tool."

Yay!

Got a new tool.