All language subtitles for Life.Below.Zero.S05E04.The.Unknown.720p.WEB-HD.x264-KangMus_track3_eng

NARRATOR: On this episode of
Life Below Zero,

the future is uncertain
as winter sets in.

SUE: You know, Alaska's
always gonna have
the upper paw. Nature wins.

NARRATOR:
Sue tackles the threat of
an unwelcomed visitor head on.

SUE:
Only a fool forces a situation
where we all have guns.

NARRATOR: It's tough sledding
for Andy on the Yukon River.

ANDY:
Something's not right here.
What the hell is going on?

NARRATOR: Glenn chases
the hunters of the Arctic.

Wolves went right
through here.

NARRATOR:
And the Hailstones brave
the ice for native trade.

AGNES: Dude, you can't
go too close to me,

you're gonna freak me out.

(SHOUTS) What the fuck?

I'm gonna go get a load
of wood with the dogs.

My woodpile over
by my workshop

is getting kind of low.

Now, I've probably
got enough for maybe two,
maybe three days.

So you never have enough wood
when you're heating with wood.

We'll take all of the older,
fat dogs out today.

Give them some exercise, take
a relatively small team out

and make them do some work.

With these winds like this,

it's probably gonna be
a lot of glare ice out
on the Ford Lake.

It's a little bit dicey

when you've got a sled
full of heavy wood like that
on that glare ice.

NARRATOR: In winter,
the frozen lakes and rivers

that surround Andy
and Kate's camp

serve as highways
to various resources.

But travelling on ice is not
without its dangers.

ANDY: What kills you out on
that glare ice

is you start sliding sideways.

It instantly wants to flip
the whole sled over.

You get thrown off the sled,
you smack your head.

It's just all around
a bad day.

Let's go harness some dogs up
and go get some wood.

Yeah, you're like a big
old blimp, Alt.

(BARKS)

Let's go haul some wood
and work some of this fat off.

Going and getting
loads of wood,

the biggest challenge is
on the way back.

This little sled is small,

but it's gonna have
close to 500 pounds
of birch wood in it.

And once it starts sliding
one way or another,

that's a lot of force.

During freeze up,

exercising dogs
and getting firewood
is a big part of my life.

All right, hup, hup!

Weight and momentum
is a recipe for disaster.

You have to go slow.

If you can, you gotta,
kind of, take the momentum
out of turns.

Be a little bit cautious but,

you know, when the dogs
are ready to go and
they've got a lot of power,

there's not much you can do,
except for just hold on.

Go haw. That a girl.

Atta girl. Let's go.

Straight ahead.
Hup, hup, hup, hup.

This is, kind of, the area
I like cutting wood.

The flood in 2009 wiped out
this whole forest

and just stacked it up
right here.

So there's a lot of really
nice, good, dry birch,

and cottonwood and spruce.

Just a big mix of everything.

It's only about
two miles from my house,

so it's not terribly
far to go get it.

I want to get the sled
a little bit closer
to where the wood is,

'cause I don't wanna
have to carry it any farther
than I have to.

So we'll get a little bit
of wood cut up here

and start hauling it back.

SUE: I educated myself that

nobody else can
make you happy,

that's something
you do yourself.

They can add
to your happiness,

they can take away
from your happiness,

but never
without your permission.

I did not know if I could
run Kavik on my own.

So back-up plan, uh,
friends of mine had this cabin

in Fairbanks
so I bought the property.

But my pilot buddy
flew over and said,

"Hey, you know
that cabin you got,

"I thought I saw smoke
coming out the chimney.

"You might have squatters."

And if somebody is squatting
on my property, what you do,

you get there, only a fool
forces a situation

where we all have guns.

Definitely for me, I'm packing
the 454 peashooter.

The process is, I get there,

go in and diffuse
the situation,

see what the situation is,
handle it.

NARRATOR: After leaving Kavik
for a foot procedure,

Sue Aikens will travel
150 miles

to investigate
possible squatters on her
property in Central Alaska.

But freezing temperatures
have created
treacherous road conditions

and driving is a risk.

SUE:
I have a window of opportunity
to check on this place.

I haven't driven this road
in three, four years

and it was
really bad conditions.

It's not a great road.

For me, this is Fairbanks,
this is where we are now.

But then we start going up

and, you know, we're gonna go
higher up in elevation.

We've got several summits.

We're going over
the White Mountains.

This right here, this is not
guaranteed to be open.

That's what all that means.

This is winter, and I've got
a big old pass to go over

and 150 miles to get there.

The world moves so fast here.

In Kavik, I'm going,
"Putt, putt, putt"
five miles an hour

thinking I'm all that,

and here, people are going 50.

And I don't have any control.
They're passing me.

Nobody passes me in Kavik.

I don't know.
Are they drunk?
Are they sober?

Are they able to drive well?

It's a whole field
of unknowns.

So for me to be close
to the social world
everybody else lives in,

you know, it's a lesson
in how does it feel
to have no control.

CHIP: I look
at the subsistence way of life

and I see a lot of good in it,
I see a lot of health in it,

I see a lot of my family in it
and I see a lot of prestige.

I mean, we don't have a lot of
money here in this house,

but people give us respect.

NARRATOR: For the Hailstones,

the freezing
of the Kobuk River

is a brief window for
the family to catch whitefish
as they migrate,

a key source of food
and trade for dark winter.

Well, you know, it's the time
of year when whitefish run,

and the whitefish run
when the ice is starting
to come along

in the fall time.

When they're here,
there's lots,

and when they're gone,
there's nothing.

NARRATOR: After setting
the nets before the freeze,

Chip and Agnes
return to the river to test

the newly formed ice
to make sure it's thick enough

to support their weight.

I'm just walking along here,
checking out the ice.

I can see that it's frozen,
a lot of thickness to it.

There's no bottom ice,
water, top ice.

It's all just ice, ice, ice,
all the way to the river.

So this is really good.

Chainsaw is a new technology

and my took
is my old technology.

Either way
I get through the ice.

(CHAINSAW WHIRRING)

Yesterday we set this net and
today we're here to check it.

This is a real good time
to set your net,

when the ice is
about that thick.

The ice is better
than last year.

A lot thicker.

Every day will be
a little safer
than the day before.

As long as we do our part,
the fish will do theirs.

Well, we'll see what
comes out of here.

AGNES: Yee!
What a load coming up!
CHIP: Yep.

AGNES: Fish been hitting
the net all the way from
the bottom to the top.

We set our net just super.

-Now we have
enough fish for dinner.
-Yep.

My hands has gotten so cold
my polish is coming off.

-Oh, thank you.
-Got your gloves. Here.

We have dark winter coming on.

Like any other fish,
when there's lots going by,
we get lots.

And then when they're gone,
they're gone.

And pretty soon there
won't be any whitefish
at all under here.

They'll have all passed by.

It's just the way that
everything is around here.

The whitefish are passing by,
and the time to get them is
now, and we're on it.

GLENN: I don't think life
has a meaning.

It's not the kind of thing
that has to stand
for something else.

A letter has a meaning,
a word has a meaning,

it stands for something else,
it represents something else,

but life just is,
it just exists.

I'm gonna have a look
around for caribou.

I walk out here on the lake
just a little ways
in front of camp,

where I have a good view
of all the mountains
around the valley.

I spend a lot of time out
here with binoculars

just looking for caribou.

Caribou are one of
the most important animals
to me out here.

NARRATOR: Glenn Villeneuve
relies on the limited animals

that surround him
in the Brooks Range
for survival.

As the days grow colder,
it is crucial for Glenn

not to let any opportunity
for meat pass him by.

This time of year, they often
come down this way

and they'll pass through
this valley some years.

Other years, they stay up
high on the mountains.

When I can intercept them,
I like to.

I'm just looking around to see
if there are any in the area.

Right now I'm living on moose.

I've got a moose that I killed
about a month ago,

but I don't
have any other meat here.

I see caribou,
they're up on the ridge.

They're a long way off,
they're out of my range,

but there are
a few of them up there.

I don't have a trail up there
right now,

so it would be hard for me
to get up there right now.

I probably wouldn't
be able to intercept them.

By the time I got to the top
of that mountain,

I think those caribou
are gonna be gone.

They're travelling.

If I had caribou here
on the lake that
would be really nice

but they're not down here.

So I'm gonna make do
with the moose meat I've got.

(DISTANT HOWLING)

Hear that?

That's wolves howling.

I'm going over there to see
what's going on.

I'm headed over here because
there's some wolves howling,

ravens flying up
out of this willow field

about a half mile
from my camp.

Something's going on.
I think the wolves killed
something over here.

I'm gonna go over there
and see if I can find it.

Sometimes if I get there
fast enough,

I can get some meat off
of what they killed.

And they may have killed
a caribou up there.

It's possible. I'd love to
get some caribou meat.

Getting across
the creek up here
is gonna be a little problem.

It's pretty slippery,
all covered in snow.

I don't wanna get my feet wet.

Made it.

The wolves are right up
this way.

Right through the brush there,
the snow's all knocked off.

Wolves went right
through here.

Just a little while ago
they knocked all of the snow
off the brush right here.

These are the tracks.

See, here it is.

Caribou,
they killed right here.

The wolves killed
this caribou.

Oh man, there's not much left.

I got here too late.

(SIGHS)

They cleaned up most
of it already.

They made a mess of it.

As far as I'm concerned,
there's nothing on there
for me to eat.

Still meat here
that the wolves will eat,

but I wouldn't eat
any of this now

'cause it's all been
chewed up by wolves.

There are just scraps left.

What I love about living out
here the way I live,

is that most of the time
out here,

it's just very calm
and meditative.

It's a very silent,
quiet environment.

It's very peaceful out here.

But that calm and peace
is punctuated

by excitement
like I had today.

When something like
these wolves come along,

kill a caribou,
it's the contrast.

I like to live a really quiet,
calm life out in nature
most of the time,

but I like the excitement that
happens every now and then.

Something like happened today.

A pack of wolves
in my backyard
killed a caribou.

It keeps life interesting.

There's nothing there
for me, though.

I'm gonna head back,
go back to camp.

Make myself some
moose hoof gelatine.

SUE:
Remote people aren't ones that
really like to stand still

and let the world
fall down around us.

If it's falling, you know,
we're there to be like Atlas
and hold it back up.

NARRATOR: After getting
a tip that squatters
are on her property

in Central Alaska,
Sue is travelling 150 miles
in icy, perilous conditions.

No matter where you are,

whether you choose to live in
town or out of town,

you know, Alaska's always
gonna have the upper paw.

Nature's got the upper paw.
Nature wins.

You can lay down
a piece of pavement,

and nature's gonna say,
"Watch what I do to you now."

You know,
"How'd you like that?"

So yeah,
I'm just taking a minute

and giving the paws
a little bit of a break.

They're sore of doing
the manual transmission,

but, you know, as you look out
across this vista here,

this is the
Twelvemile Summit Wayside,

but it's the Pinnell Mountain
Recreational Trail.

I always kind of
stop here at this area.

Almost 40-45 years ago,

a state dump truck
lost control, swerved,

killed a bunch of my friends,
and hurt some others
and family members.

So for being somebody
who doesn't drive often,

I'm kind of curious, you know,
40-45 years later,

I'm on the same stretch
of road

and it's a little icy
and I got little hurt paws.

And, you know,

take a minute to, uh,
my heart to theirs.

You know, don't ever forget
your family, friends.

And the decisions
you make today could
have deep ramifications.

That sun's getting real low,
so I better start
making tracks.

(TYRES SCREECHING)

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I'm not even going
40 miles an hour.

The road looks
in good condition,
but it's sheer ice.

And these semi-bald tyres
couldn't get a grip

and I lost control
of the vehicle.

You know, I got it back.

Yeah, the speed limit's 55,
fuck you.

GLENN: People have a very
romantic view of nature,

kind of,
peaceful and beautiful.

It's actually,
there's a lot of suffering
that goes on in nature.

This is the last piece of
butchered meat that I have.

This isn't even
enough for a day.

I have to go out and get
some more meat

down off the meat pole now.

Thaw it out in here and cut it
up into small pieces

so I can
cook it and eat it.

NARRATOR: With his stock
of meat wearing thin

and unable to harvest caribou,

Glenn must rely on
his stored meat cache

to harvest a healthy
supply of protein.

At this time of year
I've got my meat in
two places out here.

Some of it's hanging off
this pole 20 feet high,

and some of it's up on this
platform 15 feet high.

The purpose
of these structures
is to keep the meat safe.

If I didn't have
the meat up there,

wolves would come along,
bears would come along,
eat the meat up.

So I have to keep it up
high out of reach.

Right here
I've got a moose head.

I killed this moose
in the fall.

I buried it in these antlers
in order to protect it,

try to keep ravens off of it.

And now the snow's
fallen on it
and protected it

further from the birds.

I just have to dig it out
and throw it down

so that I can bring it inside,
thaw it out, and butcher it.

Here's my moose head,
nothing got to it.
It's in good shape.

Birds didn't chew it up.

No animals got to it up here.

This looks like a tasty hoof.
I'll take that one.

Living out here
in the Brooks Range,

I'm highly dependent on
moose and caribou.

They make up the bulk
of my diet.

And it's important to have
variety in your diet.

You can have a lot of variety
even when you're only eating
one or two species of animal

as long as you make use
of all the different parts.

This is all thawed out.

I'm gonna start
with this hoof this morning.

All the ligaments and tendons
in that hoof will boil up

and they'll turn the liquid
that I boil them
into gelatine.

I'm gonna skin it.

And skinning a hoof is tricky.

I enjoy skinning.

It's an interesting process,

especially when you
get into the details.

Just to understand how things
are put together,

how animals are adapted
to the function.

It's interesting.

A hoof is a part
of a moose that's often
not utilised today,

but I like to use the hooves.

The gelatine that's used
in processed food today

is made from hooves
of cattle mostly.

And I make mine
from the hooves of moose.

So a lot of people
are used to eating gelatine,
they just don't know it.

Gelatine comes from boiling
up ligaments and tendons,

a lot of which are found
right here in the hoof.

When I started
living out here,

I wanted to live as much
off the land as I could.

And I started experimenting
and realised that

just living on steaks,
and roasts, and muscle meat
every day is not good,

but if you eat all of the
different parts of the animal,

it feels good.

Gelatine in the making.

ANDY: One thing I'll say
about this country out here,

there's no guarantees
to anything.

The way it is,
is the way it is.

And if you can't handle that,
you don't come out here
and do anything.

(CHAINSAW WHIRRING)

This is my favourite place
to come get wood.

'Cause there's lots of it
from the 2009 flood.

Lots of variety
in a small area.

That makes hauling wood
become a much easier job.

Well, this little sled,
when it's full of birch,
is probably about 400 pounds.

And then another,
with me in all my winter gear,

is about another 170, 180.

So you're looking at
600 pounds in a sled.

So that's about, a little over
100 pounds per dog to pull.

Alaskans are very
unique people.

We're all very independent,

especially people living
out in the bush.

We live out here to live
a certain lifestyle,

to be connected to the land,

to get the resources
from the land.

And that's what's
important to me.

The big thing is
when you got a heavy load,

you've got more momentum.

When you start sliding out,
you got more torque.

When everything starts
twisting, it's hard on them.

Anytime you put weight
on something,

it totally changes
the whole formula.

I'd say that's a load.

NARRATOR: In winter,
Andy's dog sled is essential
to gathering resources.

But adding weight to his sled
could make for a difficult
trek on the ice.

The big thing
I have to worry about is
when I'm sliding sideways,

hitting the snowdrifts,

'cause that will
flip you in a heartbeat.

Okay, let's go.

We'll see what it's like
out on that glare ice
out on the lake.

It's pretty, pretty windy out.

It's gusting 25 to 30.

And this is like a giant sail
out on that lake ice.

Oh, shit!

Oh, something's not
right here.

What the hell? (GRUNTS)

What the hell is
going on here?

Oh, shit!

Ho, ho, ho!

Whoa! Whoa!

God dang it!

Looks like my ties broke.

I kept pulling on... Whoa!

Whoa, whoa, whoa!

Ho! Everybody stay.

Looks like both sides broke.

I was having problems steering
coming over that trail

and it looks like my plastic
even broke right here, too,

and it's broken on both sides,

so this stanchion's wanting
to come up.

If this thing comes apart,
I could be left standing
with just a driving bough,

a piece of wood in my hand,
and the dogs go home.

And then I got a long
walk home.

It could bust on me
and I could fall off
and smack my head on this ice.

You just don't want
to take chances.

And the worst thing
that can happen to dogs is

running free with no driver
on the back.

That's when dogs get
tangled up, legs get broken.

These guys are my buddies
and they're dependent on me.

I'm making the right decision
right now.

I think if I take the weight
out of this sled,

I'm gonna be okay.

Everything's about efficiency.

Bush economics.

Sometimes shit happens.

Oh, shit. Here's another
place that broke.

That sucks.

Here, this plastic's
cracking here.

This broke under here, too.

Basically I'm gonna have
to rebuild this whole sled.

All right.
If that's the case then,

better get it home
and get on it.

Go.

GLENN: There is no food
that evolved in order
to feed something else.

They're trying to survive
and then something comes
along and eats them up.

This gelatine's been boiling
for a long time

and all the ligaments
and tendons off that hoof

have boiled down now

and that's gonna gelatinise
that liquid.

But I have to separate
the bone

and the tissues
from the liquid

because I like my gelatine
nice and smooth.

When this cools, I'll have
about a gallon of gelatine.

That'll be really tasty
moose gelatine.
That's good stuff.

I'll set this outside to cool.

Right behind this eye,
there's a big chunk of fat.

That's what I'm going for.

Right here,
so I go right down in here.

That's the eye fat.
That's really tasty.

Fat is very important.

In the cold weather

and when I'm not eating
a lot of carbohydrate,

most of my calories
come from fat.

Look at that. All that fat
right from behind
the eyes of that moose.

Here we got some gelatine.

Ooh, that looks delicious.

The idea that
it's a bad thing
to kill animals,

to hunt, to eat animals
because it causes suffering,

that's all tied
into a modern view of life

as being something that is

comfortable, and gentle,
and peaceful.

That's one way
of looking at life,

but I like the reality of life
under more natural conditions,

which isn't always pretty,
but it's real.

CHIP: We're not trying
to catch the tail end
of anything here.

We always have fish,
we always have caribou,

we always have heat.

The kids are clean,
well-dressed.

Pretty happy with ourselves.

What we're gonna get is,
we're gonna get food

for ourselves
and for our dogs,

'cause a dog's got to eat
and we like to eat.

And the way it looks,
over the next
couple three days,

we should have a lot of trade.

Whitefish is a good commodity
around here.

You can get a buck or two
for each fish,

in trade anyway,
worth-wise.

It worked out really well.

This one looks almost like it
was caught in the net before.

CHIP: I would say that
if we get lots and lots
and lots and lots,

we won't only have
for ourselves and trade,

but we'll be able to give
plenty away, too.

And my wife has sisters and,
that are elders,

and we have
other people that are elders

that rely on us for the fish.

NARRATOR: The Hailstones
have a limited window
to harvest whitefish,

an important commodity
for meat and trade.

But working with heavy
nets on the ice

cannot be taken for granted.

The water's getting deep
on the river top here.

AGNES:
Ice might not be strong enough
to hold our net, fish,

and snow machine,
and people.

I'm afraid of the ice
getting thin or rotten,

there's a lot of times
when it just doesn't

look safe enough.

Dude, you can't
go too close to me,
you're gonna freak me out.

(SHOUTS) What the fuck?

CHIP: There's no need
for you to freak out.

Don't be setting yourself up
for being like that.

Get it out of your mind.
Sing a song.

Whistle.

We got water flowing
on top of the ice,
but under the snow.

So this isn't exactly
the safest way to be out here

doing this stuff,
but we're not doing too bad.

We're doing pretty good.

And we're not falling through,
we're pretty well,

pretty well off here.

If it gets any more dangerous,
we may skip a day or two.

Hopefully it will get colder.

Other than that,
just keeping up with the net
is the way to go.

Look like we have enough.
I probably will just pick out

-a few good ones and keep them
aside for trade, eh?
-Yep.

CHIP: We basically do
call this shopping.

We got almost 80 fish.

I can't think of the last time
we've even bought fish.

I mean, where would you even
buy fish in a store

except maybe a can of tuna?

AGNES: I don't think
I've ever bought a fish.

I've sold fish,
I've traded fish.

Ah, this one's full of eggs.

-AGNES: The bottom of the...
-Sugliks.

Oh, this one is a good one.

(SLURPS)

You want some?

I have other methods
of getting them
to my mouth, but yeah.

We got a bunch
more over here

we could trade off,
if you don't eat them all.

I'm not gonna eat them all.

I'm gonna save this
one to cook.

Whitefish with eggs
are the real prize.

Real good trading material
if you come up with
a whole bunch of them.

People will trade you
gas, or food,
or things from the store.

How about when we get
these home, you'll...

You can get on VHF and see if
anybody wanna trade.

I can think of a lot of things
I'd like to have.

-AGNES:
They're all in the can.
-Yep. Now grab that end.

-It's been awesome fishing
with you, thank you.
-Mmm-hmm.

ANDY: If you have a few
of these basic tools

so that you can
turn natural resources

into the things that
you need to build

or create your life,
the way you envision it here,

then those are tremendous
assets for me.

Get this beast over in
the shop and

try and rip her apart.

I think I could have been
in big trouble if I would
have left that load in.

It's barely held together.

But it got me home,
that's all that mattered.

This is a lot quicker
for me to rebuild this

than to start from scratch
and build a whole sled.

Put some new plastic on it,
she'll be like new,

and hopefully
I can get another
five or six years out of her.

All right.

I like this sled.

I've done a lot
of miles with it,

and I've hauled
a lot of wood with it,

and it's one of my favourite
little sleds to run around.

It's, kind of,
my little Corvette,

so I wanna keep using it.

That was the guilty culprit.

That's definitely
needed replacing.

It's all messed up here.

It's broken all back in here.

That's all it would have taken
for me to lose that sled.

This is probably the hardest
part of the whole process,

is cutting a big piece
of this plastic by yourself.

It's like trying to cut
a giant noodle.

I didn't wanna screw that up,
'cause that's about
a $350 piece of plastic.

(LAUGHS)

I'm always nervous when
I'm making my cuts on that,

'cause one mistake
and it's a lot of money
down the tube.

It is the most important part,
it's the foundation.

It's like the foundation
of a house.

You know, if you have
a lousy foundation,

you don't have
much of a house.

There's nothing
like running a new sled,
psychologically.

It's, you know, you're...
Just put a bunch of work,
and time,

and effort into something,
that's always,
always a big deal.

One more screw.

I love making a mess, I always
hate cleaning them up.

All right, I got her done.

It's time to take her out,

and see how she tracks,
and go get some wood,
and run some dogs.

Bye!

SUE: As remote people,
people in the bush, you know,

we, kind of, have a saying
that, you know,

we're all out here
'cause we ain't all there.

You know, as I'm driving down
the road and it's dark,

we got the northern lights,

are just really bright,
really active.

So that's pretty cool.

The northern lights
are considered
a pretty lucky sign,

so cross my fingers,
hopefully it's lucky for me.

We're trying to find
the lead-in trail
to the cabin.

But in the dark, when all's
you can see is a few feet,
they all look the same.

But there's the hill
and I'm at the top
of the hill.

It's gotta be around
here somewhere.

NARRATOR: Sue is travelling
to her back-up cabin
in Central Alaska

to investigate a tip that
there are squatters inside.

But without any daylight,
she must approach with
extreme caution.

Now my property starts here
on the right hand side.

Okay. And there's a vehicle
in my driveway,

but it doesn't look
like it's moved for a while.

That's my driveway
right there.

And there's a vehicle there.

All right.

Yeah, this has been
here a while, man.

Somebody's using it
as like a trash dump.

They just parked it here
to try and claim something.

I mean, I've never
had a huge log across
my friggin' driveway.

Like they say,
a lock only keeps out
an honest man.

Somebody's been here,

didn't respect that
it wasn't theirs.

This has been junk
here for a bit.

Looks like, maybe,
with the mattresses
on the floor and all that,

it was a party house.

From being a cute little
kitchen area to being this,

the only thing that I can see
to fix that is a sledgehammer

and some gasoline.

So, I mean, all's I'm gonna do
is assess the damage,

then make a decision.

Do I wanna stay here
and start working on it now,

or make a plan for the future?

It's a little creepy
seeing the baby stuff.

But to have little babies
out here and in this
kind of a mess?

This did not come overnight.

This is not somebody who went
hunting and thought,

"Yeah, hey,
nice hunting cabin."

You know, we'll use it
for a weekend with the boys.

This was a family invasion,
man.

Really the only thing,
after seeing that,

the only thing I can do,

I can't stay in the cabin.

I've got a blanket,
I've got a car,
and I got time.

You kip out for
a little while,
get up in the morning,

and see where you're at.

Right now, where I'm at is not
a healthy place mentally,

but a lot healthier
than staying in there.

I'll make a decision,
when I see it in the daylight,
how I'm gonna handle it.

Not looking a whole lot
better in the day.

I can smell it more
in the day.

That ain't pleasant.

I've just gotta assess,
make a plan,

see what I wanna do.

Who puts a frickin'
chicken coop in a house?

Where do you pick and choose

what you save,

and what you fuckin'...

There.

You know, ta-da,
I've gotta flip that.

It was a nice table,
now it's junk.

Junk.

There's not one piece
or stick of furniture here

that I don't feel
creeped out about.

I came to get intel
on squatters,

I got more
than I bargained for.

Life's like poker, you know,
you gotta play the hand
you get.

You know,
make the best out of it.

It was a lot of effort
to get out here.

It was monetary and personal,
not a wasted trip at all.

Emotional trip,
you know, head-trip.

The structural integrity
is still here.

You know,
cosmetic integrity? No.

I gotta get back to town,
I gotta get my stuff together.

I gotta get Ermie,
I gotta get back to Kavik,

and I have to make a plan
to make this better.

ANDY: In dealing
with multiple personalities,

10 or 12 dogs,
or even five or six dogs,

you're gonna deal with
issues at times.

And it's how you work
through those

and come home
at the end of the day
that makes it fun,

and exciting, and challenging.

(WHINING)

Gambo's ready!
Alt's ready!

Everybody's ready.

Let's see if the sled's ready.

All right.
I guess we're going.

NARRATOR:
After repairing the foundation
of his dog sled,

Andy must retrieve
the firewood he left behind

and make sure his sled
is fully able

to withstand the harsh
winter trail conditions.

ANDY: Good. Whoa, whoa,
easy, easy, easy.

Whoa, whoa!
Whoa, whoa! Good!

All right, come haw.

Sled's doing real good.

The test is
when it has a load in it.

It felt pretty tuned up and
it felt... Felt good.

Put all this wood in here
and see what it does.

This will be a test for it.

A good load of wood like this,

I'd say that's a load.

You guys ready to go?

Okay, let's go. Hup, hup.

Yeah, let's rock and roll,
guys.

A lot of labour and work
goes into having dogs

and so you want a payback,

and my payback
is hauling wood.

There's a million
different things that
they can do for me,

it's unlimited.
They're tougher than hell
and they just love to work.

It's not punishment
to take 'em out.
You can see it.

The second they see me
or hear me move

one of these sleds around,
it's chaos in the yard,

'cause they're happy
and they wanna be
the one chosen to go.

We're gonna go gee
up here, Tope.

Atta boys, all the way.

Yeah. Whoa.

Yay! That was perfect, Tope.
Good girl.

Yeah, that felt really good.

Drove perfect.
The bridle is adjusted
just perfect.

I'll offload the wood
and split a little bit up
for tomorrow morning.

See my woodpile's about gone,
so this is good timing.

If it all goes good,
I won't have to do this repair

for a long time again,

but just another day

in the life of a dog

in my dog lot.

Right, boys? They love it.

Yeah, boys. Haw, haw.

CHIP: You know, in the end,
it's self-perpetuating,

that's the best part about it.

So it's like basically
being self employed
in a bit of a business

that can perpetuate itself
by skipping the money part,
mostly.

Well, Agnes went inside
to get on a VHF,

and I got a feeling
she's gonna probably get rid
of most of these here today.

Not too many people
are running nets right now.

I have some whitefish outside
if anybody's interested
in trading for gas

or grub from the store.

I'd be interested in some
fresh vegetables to trade for.

Thank you.

-Hello, neighbour.
-Hi!

Just heard it over the VHF
that you were willing to
do a trade.

-Sheefish, whitefish.
-Awesome.

I have the ones with eggs over
there and one salmon.

Oh, awesome.

-Here's a bag of fruit.
-I'd love one.

-There. There's three of them.
-All right.

They're about the same.
Right on, thank you,
neighbour.

Okay, neighbour.

AGNES: Not bad, three fish.

Five gallons of gas.

Hey, awesome.

I was asking for gas.

You can take, I guess
whatever you want.

-Mmm-hmm.
-These two in the oven,

fry that one for
some other time,

and give this to
your puppy dog.

Yes, potatoes.

Yee!

A few people came over
and now I have some apples

and oranges, some fresh fruit.

I have five gallons of gas.

And now I also have some
potatoes and onions

to go with the fish dinner
I plan to have tonight.

Awesome.

Bye!

Whitefish is a very
valuable commodity up here.

It's almost like
a dollar bill to us.

It's a delicacy people love

and they'll trade
almost anything

for some of the fish here.

Yeah, for us, this is like,
you know, economic bonus.

We get fish,
we can trade them around.

We got gas
so we can go check our nets
with our machines some more.

My wife got to trade for some
fruits and veggies

and other stuff, some oil.

It's, kind of, the way we have
to work with things.

I get to hang out
with my kids.

I get to work with my wife.

This is for sandwiches
for tomorrow

if you guys don't finish it.

So we've got fish
for ourselves

and fish for our family,
extended family.

Fish to give away to friends
and for gifts and stuff.

And fish for trade,
like Noorvik dollars.

So they're whitefish.
Everyone likes them.

-Not a bad day, yeah?
-Nope.

-It was pretty good.
-Good teamwork.

I've got five gallons
of gas outside

and it didn't cost me nothing
but a couple fish.

Gee whiz, that's great.