Original subtitles

NARRATOR: On this episode of Life Below Zero,

Alaskans must adapt to overcome new challenges.

SUE: I like to say I'm the king of Kavik.

But Mother Nature took me down a peg this year.

Fuck!

NARRATOR: Andy faces dark winter alone.

ANDY: There's literally nobody now to help me here.

Here he comes, here he comes.

NARRATOR: Erik and Martha hunt the Arctic for a cunning predator.

The Hailstones build a shelter from winter's rage.

The wind is bullshit.

NARRATOR: And Sue Aikens is forced to wait out the darkness.

SUE: The pistol has to be close by.

ANDY: This year, winter's a lot different for me.

After about 10 years of living together,

Kate and I have split up.

That's just the way it is out in the bush.

Sometimes people spend time together

and then they find they want different things in their life.

And so everybody's got to follow their dream.

I'm following mine here.

So, I'm here at Calico Bluff alone now,

which means a lot of adaptation

to going back to doing things on my own completely.

And a lot more work for me on the day-to-day chores.

Getting wood, getting water, taking care of the dogs especially.

But that's part of just living out in the bush when you're alone.

Who wants to go for a run?

Anybody wanna go for a run?

-(BARKING) -Huh?

You want to go for a run, buddy?

One of the things that I try and do all year long

is to mark the trails when I run them

and pack the trail down.

On the Yukon here, it blows really hard.

Any time I have a trail in, if it blows for 10 minutes,

my trail is completely invisible.

Stakes go in about every quarter of a mile or so.

That way if I lose a trail, I only have to break trail for about a quarter of a mile

to find the trail again.

There's been times I've had to come back from Eagle late at night

and it was blowing so hard I couldn't hardly even see my lead dog.

Putting these stakes out really helped me find the trail

and probably saved my bacon

from going into an open lead at night.

(DOGS HOWLING)

Hup hup.

Easy, easy, easy.

Since we've had a little bit of snow,

I can break new trail with the snow machine later and mark it.

But I wanna get out and see what it's like to run a dog team

over the existing trails I have

and then I'll modify that if I need to.

Easy, easy, easy. Easy. Easy.

Whoa! Easy, easy you guys.

Whoa. Everybody stay.

Good boys. Everybody stay.

Okay? Everybody stay.

Stay, stay. Stay, stay.

Good boy, Jack.

So what I like to do is, I usually put these stakes in.

We've had snow and wind,

so I don't have to chainsaw these in.

When you pile snow like this on it, it disturbs this,

the crystalline structure of the snow.

Once you disturb that snow, it packs in and tightens up.

By tomorrow morning,

this is gonna be hard as a rock.

And this will stay good like this until the spring thaw.

Good boys.

Okay, let's go!

I've got another crossing I want to put in farther up.

I don't have a snow machine trail there,

so I think I'll just go check it out with the dogs, see what it's like.

See if I can do it with the dogs.

If not, then I'll have to come back with a snow machine later

and put that trail in real good.

'Cause these are trails that I'm gonna be using a lot the rest of the winter.

Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Whoa! Whoa!

Good, everybody stay.

Trying to put a trail in across the river,

there's some rough ice in here but I can avoid it.

So, it's a pretty good place to cross.

One of the better areas to cross around here.

The rest of the river, upriver and downriver is pretty jumbled up.

So, erm...

This will make a really good crossing once I get a snow machine on it.

But I think I'm gonna go back, get the snow machine,

get a really good trail in.

Straighten some of these... These big S turns out.

Stake it real good.

And then I got myself a good crossing

for the rest of the winter here.

(WHISTLES) Hup.

SUE: The older I get, the more I slow down.

Everybody does. Age happens.

Show me the expiration date and then I know how to live.

I don't know what it is. It could be tomorrow, it could be 10 years from now.

It could be 100 years from now.

But I have to be as close to 100% as a body can get.

You know, this is the dark part of the winter.

I only have a few hours of ambient light.

My main generator is down

and, I mean, I can't express the importance of getting it back up and running.

Besides, obviously, the comfort of power and lights,

it gives me spotlights outside.

If I have to go work on something

and if a rabid or dangerous animal is out there,

I can't protect myself.

That's unacceptable to me.

I'm losing my light,

it's getting colder, I'm getting the storm in.

I need to get that thing dug out so that I can get it running.

Are you friggin' serious?

As you can see,

I got... I got drifts building up inside.

Any crack in the tent, any anything

and Mother Nature finds a way.

Fifty, sixty below weather,

it's nothing to mess with and that oil is frozen.

You know, a big old chunk of ice doesn't lubricate.

Engines, you just don't just cold-start things.

You know, I've gotta get it over here, warm it up.

What I am doing is

trying to cover the generator

so that when I get this heater close,

I am actually heating the generator

and not trying to heat the whole shop.

If it's 30 below here, that's 30 below.

I've got to take that little, bitty heater

and try to heat it up to about 50 above.

So I'm asking for an 80-degree temperature change.

(MOTOR STARTING)

Cover it up, there we go.

What that's gonna do now,

that heat's gonna run, hopefully start heating up the generator.

As soon as I think it's heated up enough,

we'll go ahead and try and crank her over.

It's not a quick fix and it's done.

Here on the north slope,

the most minute of problems can take a long time.

CHIP: What we try to do is we give our kids as much

of the most useful knowledge as we can find up here.

And it gives them an option.

Because any of these kids could go get a job in a city, and pay bills,

and live that way. But not anybody can come up here

and make a living the way we do.

Go get yourself a neck warmer. Go get yourself a ski mask.

We're gonna be on a fast-moving snow machine,

-so you're gonna need it. -Okay.

I've got so many kids, so many daughters,

what if my grandkids start following?

I don't want them all in the same place I'm at.

I want some privacy.

So I'd rather put out a little bit of effort and make a second one.

NARRATOR: The Hailstones require a mobile shelter

as they hunt the Arctic for food in dark winter.

Building a teepee is a vital Inupiat custom

that has been passed down the family line for generations.

We're about ready to go, ladies.

Well, Carol here likes to follow me a lot.

And I could use her help anyway, she'll give me a hand.

Poles are really important around here

cos we use them for all kinds of things. Handles.

We use them to build stuff.

It's really handy to know what a good pole is.

(ENGINE STARTING)

Okay, we're good?

See this little dense stand of trees?

What that makes them do is grow thin, and tall, and straight.

When they're individual trees like these, these guys are twisted by the wind,

they lean to one side,

they do all kinds of stuff. They also get really thick

and then taper to a real quick narrow.

These right here don't taper so sharply

and these are more along the lines of the poles I want to get.

I'm not using a chainsaw because it's so cold,

it would take longer to get the saw started.

When Carol was born, we lived in a camp.

And she was born into this whole thing.

This girl here's got a lot of knowledge.

I would really trust myself to be with her

if I were injured and out here and needing things done.

CAROL: I like to go get logs and poles for our teepee.

I'm happy to have the land around us

because this is our playground.

CHIP: This is process number one.

Process number two will be making these things cleaned up.

Process number three is up to the women.

A lot of sewing to be done.

That's pretty much it when it comes to a teepee tent.

People do everything the way they want to.

Some people buy out of a catalogue. Some people build their own things.

This is the way we like to do them.

It just depends on the person. This is what we go with.

ERIK: Alaska is the land of economic opportunity.

There's unbelievable opportunity here.

I'm... I'm nobody and I've been able to run a number of different businesses here

and I've been able to live a very comfortable life.

So what do you think? You want to go find a bluff somewhere?

Yeah, let's fire up the sled and cruise out of here.

My name's Erik Salitan.

I'm married to my wife, Martha Mae.

We run two lodges in Alaska.

You know, a lot of people view living in the bush

as very physically demanding, which it can be at times,

but I wouldn't live any other way.

For me, I enjoy living here

and living the lifestyle I do,

guiding and living a subsistence lifestyle.

I'm Martha Mae Salitan.

I'm originally from Iliamna, Alaska.

Currently I live up here in Wiseman with Erik,

sixty-seven miles north of the Arctic circle.

We're totally off the grid

and we do everything for ourselves.

I would not want to come out my back door

and see a huge skyscraper, or a neighbour.

It's a good feeling to be able to provide for yourself.

NARRATOR: In between guiding seasons,

Erik and Martha supplement their income

by harvesting and selling the hides from Arctic predators.

Martha and I are gonna ride just a couple miles down-river

to a little bluff I know.

It overlooks a large willow bar.

That willow bar's just chock full of rabbits.

And big willow bars like that that hold rabbits

are places that hold predators.

MARTHA: I'm gonna be doing the shooting today,

which is a little bit different, but fun.

Fun for the both of us.

You've always got to change it up.

You can't become redundant out here in the bush,

otherwise you get bored.

That's not cool.

ERIK: The whole slough had been shelf ice.

There's about 24 inches of ice

and then there's about 36 inches of air above the ground.

Just suspended ice,

just where the whole river collapsed right here.

Do you wanna crawl up on that bank

and I'll try to rally the snow machine to get around it or...

Yeah, that sounds good. I'm probably gonna go over on this side.

This is what happens when you go and you motor around in Alaska.

The wild just presents challenges for you and you've got to overcome.

About a three-foot piece of shelf ice

and then this part all collapsed.

You know what?

I think I can just jump off that.

It's all good, baby!

I was thinking about beating my machine up through the brush,

but I got down on the fallen ice

and I'd seen it was pretty solid so I just jumped the son of a bitch.

You got to stay aware.

You got to, stay on point all the time.

As soon as you're lackadaisical

or you're not paying attention, that's when you can get hurt.

Got it.

We're just gonna continue safely along here,

have Martha get back on the sled,

and go set up and do some calling.

NARRATOR: Erik and Martha are hunting the Arctic

for fur-bearing predators,

as their hides will provide income during dark winter.

I don't know. I... I think we should go a little bit further, actually.

This isn't...

It's not thick enough in here.

There's obviously a lot of science that goes into a good set-up to call,

but when it comes down to it, you need a little bit of luck.

The vibe isn't quite right for me here.

But down the river a little further

I know where there's a nice little bluff.

It's about the same height as this

but there's a lot more willows.

It's holding a lot of rabbits in there.

-That's where the predators are gonna be. -Okay.

Plus the wind is coming right down this creek here,

blowing out on the river.

-So anything that comes is gonna smell us. -Smell us, yeah.

Let's roll down another mile

to the spot I know. It'll be way better.

Right here, we're at about noon right now.

It's just getting light. It's gonna get a little bit lighter,

so we have maybe another hour of daylight.

ANDY: If you're not adaptable, you're not gonna do well out here.

You've gotta be quick on your feet to think and problem solve.

And if you're a little bit creative in your problem-solving,

you do just fine out here.

So I just ran the dogs.

I got a few more hours left of sunlight.

I think I'll go in and try and get a base down with my snow machine.

It's hard-packed underneath the soft snow.

(SNOW MACHINE BEEPING)

(ENGINE STUTTERING)

Uh-oh.

That doesn't sound right.

(ENGINE SPUTTERING)

I got nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Son of a bitch.

What's going on?

Nothing.

Well,

that means that

I've got problems with my battery, so...

I think I'm just gonna go ahead and order another battery.

I'll be able to run tomorrow to go get it.

The good thing about what's happening right now

is it's happening in my yard.

If this happened out in the field, I'd be walking right now.

So my day of breaking trail is put on hold now.

But I still got a lot of work ahead of me.

Who needs a little straw?

Huh? I know Cougaran does.

A lot of adaptation

to going back to doing things on my own, completely.

And, you know, a big part of what's changing for me

is the size of my kennel.

I decided to get down to about 12 working dogs.

Twelve is manageable

when you're alone

and, er,

so I've gotten down to that. I've given some dogs away

I've sold a few dogs.

And, erm,

I'll just take this winter to reassess

what I want to do in the future with my dogs.

That's gonna be a nice bed.

Yeah. Oh, boy.

Oh, you like that, huh?

I guess one of the big changes

for me is that I am spending more time with my dogs.

They just bring a smile to my face and all in all,

every day I go out and do something with my dogs,

I feel like it's... That's the payoff for all the work I put in.

(LAUGHS) Deckle!

We're all pretty tied to each other.

It's a really symbiotic relationship.

They depend on me to feed them, and clean their dog lot,

and take care of them, and make sure they got straw in their house

when it's cold.

And I depend on them to get me from point A to point B,

haul wood, haul water.

So it's... It's a good life.

SUE: I don't know the first thing about some of the things that I fix.

But when I get it done or I figure it out,

I'm pretty freakin' proud of myself.

Fat, 50, and fabulous. That's me.

Well, welcome to the world of Sue,

the non-electrical version.

Basically, you know, the generator is not running.

And for me to have power,

I do have an option.

I have a small, 2,000-watt portable generator,

but it's heating up the main generator

so I can try to get it started.

So here I sit in the dark.

For me, while I'm out of power, the pistol,

you know, has to be close by.

This year, both the states and the feds

have gotten a hold of me and said, "Hey, there's a severe outbreak of rabies

"and distemper out there. Don't take a chance."

I've got to limit my exterior activities during the dark.

For me, without power,

you can look out my window and you're not gonna see very far.

So you know, I mean, I've said it a million times, nature's king.

You know, I'm just a visitor.

I'm not, you know, I like to say I'm the king of Kavik

but Mother Nature took me down a peg this year.

Time for me to check on the generator,

to see if it's warm enough.

Maybe it'll kick over.

Well, let's see.

I put my hand under.

It's fairly warm in there.

Okay.

It's warmed up.

So, I mean, here goes... Here goes nothing.

(MOTOR RUNNING)

(MOTOR DYING)

Oh, shit.

All right, well, it started.

It didn't want to stay started.

So, when it cuts out like that it's not getting enough fuel or something.

All right. I wanna take this, the little bleeder bolt.

You loosen it when you're trying to bleed the system,

which means air is in the system.

Air will not combust by itself.

So, you have to bleed that out,

hence you have a bleeder bolt.

I should probably loosen it

so that any remaining air can bleed out.

So, I loosened it just a... Just a smidge.

(MOTOR STARTING AND STOPPING)

Come on. Come on.

What the fuck is that?

Ah! Fuck!

What I discovered is the bleeder bolt is no good.

Erm, I... What do I notice?

When this is loose it will allow that fuel to seep.

As you can see, there's no fuel.

There should be fuel puking out and there's not.

So, you know, I really need to get on the horn and call Bob to fly out.

I mean, it's just so silly. It's a tiny little bolt.

But it doesn't matter if it's one stupid bolt.

If it keeps it from running, you know, I've got to fix it.

CHIP: If you think about yourself,

then you've got, like, 10 people thinking of 10 people.

But if we all think of each other, we've got one mind.

We all work together. It's a common goal.

Here, check out these stakes.

I got all these scraped up real good.

-Right on. -Every burr gone.

They won't even make a hole in our tarps,

-yeah, or our canvas. -Nothing will make a hole in the tarps. Nope.

That takes a lot of work. Thank you.

CHIP: Yep. No problem.

NARRATOR: Chip and Agnes are teaching their daughters

to construct a teepee,

a native tradition that will provide shelter

from the Arctic's wrath as they hunt for food.

Right now we are measuring the cloth for our teepee.

We stay in teepees a lot.

I'm, of course, gonna be following them out to go camping,

so I want my own teepee to stay in with my sisters

cos we've already got one for my parents made.

Notice how he's making it into a circle, Qutan?

And then when we put all the poles up,

all the two ends will meet together and form into a teepee.

Working together makes things a lot easier

rather than me and Chip trying to do this all by ourselves.

Working together makes everything a lot easier.

Well, let's pile the poles,

let's wrap the canvas, and I'll take care of these...

-The tarps? -I'll take care of the tarps.

(INDISTINCT TALKING)

AGNES: Okay, girls, let's go in now and go get this sewed up.

Now that we're done out here,

the girls will be doing the inside job with sewing

the canvas together with a sewing machine.

Me, myself, I'm not a sewing machine person.

I usually sew stuff by hand.

Maybe I'll get to learn something today.

That looks so simple.

And way faster.

AGNES: We get to use the sewing machine today

and sew up this canvas and we can be done in a matter of minutes

and yet it's still a traditional use for us.

-All done, Mom. -Yay, all done?

-Right on. -Yeah.

Wow, you did a real good job.

Usually I'm hands-on and helping,

but everything all changes.

Like, I get older and the kids start to,

you know, get things done.

And the younger kids start to bring...

Like Carol helped with the poles and stuff.

And we just work together that way

and it just makes life so much simpler.

And one person don't have to do all the work

and we just share the load, and that's

pretty much how we work together

and make a happy life here.

Right on. Thank you.

ERIK: If you'll work hard, you can have anything here.

There are no limits of any kind.

It's all just being self-motivated

and getting done whatever needs to get done.

This is our first hunt of the winter.

See if we can't call in a fox

to really kick off the fur season and get a hide on the stretching board.

What do you think?

This looks like a pretty good place with all that brush over there.

Let's just set up along these willows here

and see what we can make happen.

MARTHA: In the beginning, I was a little scared,

but Erik's been a really good instructor.

He's helped me a lot with shooting,

so I'm not scared any more .

I always like to just sit here for a minute

before we start the call and set up and just

kind of let things calm down a little bit

after the snow machine, the animals can hear that.

Kind of look out over my area,

memorise the little black spots.

Over there, across the river,

is where I really see them coming from.

Keep a sharp eye.

(WHISTLE BLOWING)

This reed call imitates a rabbit in distress.

To a hungry predator, it sounds like something good to eat.

-There's a fox. There's a fox. -MARTHA: I see.

-He just moved. -Yeah.

-He's behind the brush there. -Yeah, a red fox.

ERIK: Here he comes. He's looking right at us.

Here he comes, here he comes, here he comes, here he comes.

(GUN FIRING)

-Well, that worked out good. -Cool.

Should we go get him?

-Yeah, let's go get him. -Let's go.

So we came up to this bluff where Erik knows there's a bunch of good willows

and some rabbit action in there.

We were hoping to find a fox and we did.

He came out, he told me where it was,

I got my sights on him, and I blasted him.

I told you the tail was cool, isn't it?

We just got this really nice red fox.

-First fur of the season. -First fur of the season.

You wanna head back? I'm pretty cold.

-Yeah, my eyelashes are starting to freeze. -Let's get out of here.

Fairly long shot for an open-sighted rifle,

and she took advantage of it.

One shot, one kill.

Boom, right in the head. Fox down.

So, we got the first fur of the year on the ground.

I got to have a kick-ass day with my wife out in the woods

and my life is cherry.

SUE: I guess it's not fear,

but there's a healthy respect of what's out there that I can't see.

You know, what I can see I can deal with.

What I can't see, I can be surprised by.

Sunshine!

Right here is the break in the storm I needed.

NARRATOR: In order to get supplies flown into Kavik,

a flight from Deadhorse costs $1,000.

A high price for a small generator part.

SUE: But as soon as I can get those parts in my hands,

gotta get on it.

Sooner I get a fix done, power is restored,

spotlights are up, I can move on to the next issue.

Super Sue's back in business.

Fixes are done. Life is good.

Hey, Bob! Hey!

Susie!

My parts came in? My parts came in?

I think so.

-It's a little box, right? -Yep.

Awesome.

I appreciate it. I know you've got a lot of stuff to do, but...

-That's you. -Yeah.

-Yeah. -Well, cool.

-Okay. Good luck with that. -Awesome.

If you have any problems, give me a call.

-Okay. Yeah. -I'll talk you through putting it on.

Yeah, I... You know, I might need it.

I've never had to replace that before.

-Alright, it's cold. -Okay, yeah.

I don't wanna keep you down on the ground.

-Alright. -But...

(PLANE ENGINE ROARING)

All righty.

I'm gonna have to do some of this with my bare fingers.

And it's pretty cold.

There's no heat. There's no anything in here.

Bummer that, hell.

But I've gotta be able to...

These are little parts.

This is the good bleeder bolt.

And if you look at the old one,

it's a little shorter.

This one is broken.

And you would think, "Oh, well here's a new bolt, drop it in."

Well, the other half of that bolt is sitting in here.

I can't just drop it in. I've got to remove it.

Oh, this is gonna be bad, man.

See if I can nudge it. Do not drop parts, Sue.

Do not drop parts.

I don't know the first thing about some of the things that I fix.

I have to remind myself to stay calm,

cos that generator,

it's just not running right now.

And it's my job to figure it out.

Pretty goddamn frustrating.

But if I have to do it, I have to do it.

Okay.

You don't want to be on there.

You want to be replaced.

And you know this.

Okay.

And the new bolt goes on.

So snug, not psycho.

Fuel!

Yep, I got some fuel.

It's flowing good now.

Okay, that tells me that I've bled the air out.

So now that I've...

Now that I see fuel coming out this, you know,

coming out this area. I snugged it down. That means

I have fuel up to this point going towards the injectors.

So, the next thing for me to do

is, you know, try to kick it over. See if it'll run.

I hope this works.

(ENGINE TURNING ON)

Looks like we got power, baby!

I can hear it's running on all the cylinders.

Now, I'm gonna push down the lever, send it through camp.

Okay.

If the light is on the Twinkie, we're in business.

Okay.

Come on!

Close my eyes.

Yay!

Foxy, we did it! Come on!

(IMITATES GUNFIRE)

Yay foxy, I've got lights!

Yay!

I feel like a ton of bricks has

lifted off my shoulders.

You know, I say that

when I got here

the only thing I knew about diesel mechanics was how to bake bread...

Bam!

That was brioche, buddy.

Whoo!

Yay!

ANDY: The only thing you can really rely on out here is yourself,

and your skills,

and your creativity with those skills.

I just couldn't imagine my life in any other place.

Come on. Come on. Come on.

He says, "It's cold and windy out. I don't want to go."

Come on. You're coming.

I gotta make a run into Eagle with the dogs.

I'm gonna take a pretty big team in so I can make good time

and get as many dogs exercised as I possibly can.

The main purpose is to go in and get a battery for my snow machine.

NARRATOR: To access resources along the Yukon River in dark winter,

it is crucial for Andy to carve trails through the icy terrain

with his snow machine and dog sled.

Hup!

You guys gotta settle down a little bit. Easy.

Settle down.

Whoa! Easy, easy.

I'm living alone.

I can't afford to hurt myself. There's nobody to pick up the slack

if I'm hurt.

It's real easy to flip a sled.

It's real easy to get thrown off

and slam into the ice.

Caution is the number one word for me.

There's literally nobody now to help me here.

All right, up and over.

Thatta boys. Straight ahead. Up and over. Let's go.

You guys are smoking! All right!

Yeehaw!

Atta boys.

Easy, easy, easy, easy.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa!

Everybody stay!

Everybody stay!

Stay!

All right, let's go. Good boys.

It's a little hairy running 12 dogs.

In fact, it's not a little hairy. It's scary as shit

to hook up twelve 80-pound to 90-pound dogs

and take off with them.

Okay, good. Let's go now.

Good boys. Straight ahead!

Yeah, good boys...

Now, Gee!

Now Gee!

Gee!

Gee, come!

Whoa! Whoa!

It's a long way to go for me right now

just to go pick up a battery.

But it's something that's really essential to what I'm gonna be doing

and needing to do in the next couple of days.

And so it's worth the trip here.

Kind of a rough trip in, in a few places

and running a big dog team like this in Eagle

is always a little bit nervous.

But I got what I needed

and get the heck out of Dodge, head home,

and see if we can get that machine running.

Okay, let's go home.

Gee! Gee! Gee!

ERIK: I'm a registered guide outfitter.

I'm a fishing guide.

I do a wide variety of things year round, all out in the woods.

Alaska's the land of economic opportunity.

There's unbelievable opportunity here.

If I skin it will you flesh it?

-I'll flesh it and sew it, yeah. -I hate fleshing.

ERIK: Obviously had a good day.

Called in this fox for Martha.

She cracked it one shot with the AR.

We skin everything we get taxidermy quality.

We try to get the most out of everything.

So, taxidermy quality, meaning that you keep the whole thing.

Keep the face. You keep the feet.

You have everything so it's top-notch.

I don't know why you don't like to skin foxes

but you like to fool with caribou and...

You like only animals you can eat.

I'll do the sewing and the fleshing.

That I enjoy.

The taking the skin off the actual body,

for some reason that gives me the heebie jeebies.

Just like how anything is out here,

it requires a lot of teamwork.

So I went out, I shot it,

Erik's gonna skin it, and I'm gonna sew it back together

and it will be fine.

Were you excited when the fox was coming in?

-Yeah, I was really excited. -Yeah?

-Yeah. -Were you scared you'd miss?

I was nervous. I wasn't scared to miss.

You did good. You dropped it.

Okay, we got the back legs freed up

and now we're gonna free up the front legs here

so that when we skin down past them

we're able to just pull them right through.

What do you think? We'll get a buck and a quarter for this?

-Yeah, it will be valuable. -At worst, 100 bucks.

It's a lot of fun to get out in the wintertime

and just go do stuff, especially for Martha and I.

You know, we're slammin' busy all...

All year 'round.

This is our time and we just get to go out, and hunt,

and trap, and just do our own thing,

and just get our own time. Hang out together.

Went out, got the first fur of the year.

Got a fur on a stretching board.

A little bit of cash on

a red fox here

and a good start to the trapping season.

CHIP: There's really a lot of things you can do for yourself.

If it's not working in one way, then it's gonna work in a different way.

And you just keep going until you find that way.

This right here is what I'm gonna use to make

a stove for the inside of my teepee.

It will be a good little wood stove.

I'll get the top off and I'll probably transfer the top.

I'll cut it and make it a little bit shorter

and use the other woods from the top to make the doors

and hammer this sucker out.

(METALLIC WHIRRING)

There's nothing really hard or technical about this kind of living.

What it is, is long and it's cold.

But once you're used to the work, it's not a problem.

It's actually kind of a fun way to go.

And we're in control of our own destinies.

We... We're our own bosses.

This will be the part where

the pieces of wood get put in.

It's kind of a big deal here,

but it also makes it for an easier start, too.

That is one tough cookie.

The cold weather is pissing me off.

(MOTOR SPUTTERING)

It don't wanna!

(HIGH-PITCHED GRATING SOUND)

(SIGHS)

This is just adapting things. This is...

A lot of things come up here to the Arctic and they don't work out so very well.

It's just our temperatures, and our conditions,

and just the way the world is up here, I guess.

So, cold weather has a hell of an effect on a lot of things.

There. Now we got a hinge in.

So, that will be the door.

It's getting windy, kids.

-You guys fly it up and over. -TING: That's no problem, there you go.

CHIP: The wind is bullshit.

(GRUNTS)

You got it?

Okay, Qutan! You'll pull it until it comes over.

-Okay. -Pull it, Qutan.

There, you got it! She got it!

Pull it over, now the other side. Mary, pull yours.

Yup. There you go.

Yours, Ting, you got to pull it.

-Now, Qutan! -Oh, wow!

(AGNES CHEERING)

-CHIP: Whoa, we're looking hot. -TING: Nice.

Check, check, check it out.

Now look, it's just perfect.

Awesome.

All this extra time, and effort, and frustration

turns out pretty good.

And this is just the perfect teepee

for all of us to fit in,

and keep warm, and still be out,

and just be comfortable.

-You got it? -CHIP: I got it.

Well, this is a good replacement for your girls' tent, huh?

This is a much sturdier deal

and it's much more like what me and your mom are using.

I think this will work out just fine.

-AGNES: Yeah. -Nice, good space for everyone

to have small little tents.

AGNES: Yeah. CHIP: Yeah.

We could just kick back and relax and tell some stories and...

-TING: (LAUGHS) Be warm. -And be warm.

It's real good that we all get to participate

in doing something like this together.

The girls, they know how to make their own home now.

That's a good way all the way around.

It's your house. This belongs to you, ladies.

You girls got it made.

-TING: It's mine. -CHIP: Well, someday you'll have your own family

and then we'll make another tent, I'm sure.

(AGNES AND CHIP LAUGHING)

ANDY: Being self-sufficient, being solitary.

Some people think it's a lonely life.

It's never been a lonely life for me.

It's exhilarating.

Being your own boss is the only way to live.

All right, I got my battery.

Quick trip to town with the dogs.

Stick it in.

Hopefully it's ready to go, otherwise I'll have to charge this one.

Patience, patience, patience.

Everything takes time out here in the winter.

This is a good day to go put some trail in.

It wouldn't matter if it was a good day or a bad day,

I'd still be going out and doing this

because I got to get this done

if I wanna run my dogs some more

on some of these other trails.

It doesn't matter if it's 40 below or 40 above.

You just go do it. That's just part of living out here.

Come on, baby.

(ENGINE SPUTTERS)

All right. One more time.

-(ENGINE STARTING) -Yeah!

Machine's running.

Sounds good. Everything sounds like it should.

I think I'll go hook up my sled

for pulling behind the machine.

That puts down a really good trail for me.

Go turn some dogs loose for recess

and go have some fun putting trail in.

Haw, haw. There you go, Deckle.

Let's go buddy! Good boy, Carby!

Good boy, Briggus!

Haw, haw.

All right!

I spent my first 15 years

pretty much living alone in the bush.

And I'm kind of feeling like I'm back to where I was

when I first came to Alaska,

but I'm a whole lot older.

All right.

Good boys.

I often wonder how long I'm gonna be able to do this.

You know, I'm 56, almost 57 years old

and you know, I know my body's gonna give out eventually

and I know just the amount of work I have to do

is gonna have to diminish over time

but I can't ever think of a time I won't live out in the bush without dogs.

I'm glad I listened to my heart

and decided to come out here

and make a life for myself out here.