Original subtitles

♪ ♪

Alex: When I was a kid, I didn't do very good in school,

And, uh, my dad would always try to,

I guess, get me thinking about my future, what I wanted to do.

You know, he would just ask me, like,

"what do you wanna be when you grow up," you know?

I always told him that I wanted to be a caveman.

I didn't wanna be an engineer.

I didn't wanna be a doctor.

Didn't wanna be an astronaut.

I wanted to be a caveman.

So making a fire here

In this extremely primitive shelter,

I kind of feel like I'm living my childhood dream.

♪ ♪

Mother nature is setting the rules,

And all I got to do is find a way to play her game.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

I'm just getting packed up, ready to go.

I got some food, stuff to cook with,

Fire-starting stuff.

Just got enough essentials to keep me comfortable

While I'm there.

Well, to keep me alive while I'm there.

I wouldn't say comfortable.

This will be my first night in the primitive shelter,

And I don't know how cold it'll get.

I'm headed out to go beaver hunting today.

I've never hunted them before.

The reason I specifically am targeting beavers

Is because they're basically the largest animal

That's legal for me to hunt this time of year.

It's a pretty fatty animal,

So it's a pretty, pretty rich calorie source.

My hunting cabin is basically at the halfway point

Between my old cabin and the hunting grounds.

It basically is just a place I can stop, get dry, get warm,

Cook a dinner, and not freeze to death.

♪ ♪

Kaleb: We can just walk out our door

And we're out in the great outdoors,

Enjoying nature,

Breathing fresh, clean, non-polluted air.

And I think that's just a great way to live life.

♪ ♪

You can follow me.

Brittany: Okay.

Narrator: Isolated in the small community of mccarthy, alaska,

Brittany and kaleb rowland have chosen to raise their kids

Away from the hustle of a major city.

But with limited stores in town,

They'll need to travel over 300 miles along a dangerous highway

To get much-needed building supplies.

And in order to make the most of their trip,

They never leave with an empty trailer.

Kaleb: Brittany and I are gonna be heading over

To this junk vehicle that's sitting out on the river bar.

And we're gonna load it up on the trailer

And haul it into town.

Brittany: Over the last couple years, one of kaleb's goals

Has been to get all of the old clunkers out of mccarthy.

So I drive the forklift while kaleb does the heavy lifting

And any of the dirty stuff.

Kaleb: My turn.

I'm gonna pick up that yellow vehicle there

And load it on the trailer and strap it down,

And we'll get out of here.

Brittany: Kaleb does this several times a year.

It's really an act of love for the community.

Kaleb: We live in the middle

Of the world's largest national park,

And people come out here

And pay thousands and thousands of dollars

To see the pristine wilderness,

And junk vehicles really don't need to be a part of that.

And so I try to get them off to the recycling center

So that they will, hopefully,

Someday be turned into a new vehicle again.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Looks like the clouds are rolling in.

The weather might be changing,

So we need to get the heck out of here to get to anchorage.

The road is pretty tricky.

We're getting into wintertime.

There's ice, potholes, road glaciers, animals.

You have to have your wits about you.

Brittany: Think it'll hold?

Kaleb: Looking good. I think that'll stay on my trailer.

Let's hit the road.

Brittany: Cool.

Michael: If you don't challenge yourself,

If you don't push out of your comfort zone,

You're not gonna grow to the extent that you could.

All these sleds that I have,

They should be turned into flower pots.

Most of my sleds are breaking, and they're all these,

These traditional cordage-lashed,

Mortise-and-tenon joint kind of sleds.

That thing is done.

My bread-and-butter sled.

I've hauled a lot of fish and lot of caribou with this sled.

And it's worked hard.

It's been, it's been worn out.

But it's time to, to build one

That will hold up to these malamutes.

They destroy everything.

A half a decade of running these dogs...

(bleep)

...I realize that they're just totally brutal

On whatever I hook to them.

Hey, hey, hey, hey!

The force that they exert is just too much

For the typical way that sleds are built.

So now it's time to take matters into my own hands

And build a good sled.

Most sleds have been designed exclusively for sport, racing.

And that kind of stuff, that doesn't fly in my world,

Because I got work to do.

Hunting, fishing, hauling firewood.

So this is a first.

This is the first sled I will have ever built,

And it has to pass a lot of tests.

These are the makings of my runners.

These are a little bit thicker than quarter-inch-long strips.

They are 14 foot long.

And it'll be a real flexible runner, too, when I'm done.

You want the sled to give and flex.

And if that thing ain't flexible,

If that thing ain't strong,

That thing is gonna be destroyed by these dogs.

♪ ♪

You know, as I'm putting the sled together,

I've been taking a few little moments

To pause and think about the people I come from.

And I was reading a book that my grandmother was in

Called our lives are in our hands,

And she made a lot of amazing things.

Whether it was pack baskets, fishing creels, axe handles,

Hockey sticks, snowshoes,

She made really strong, flexible stuff.

And the book our lives are in our hands

Got a lot of meaning for me

As I continue on the tradition of building traditional things,

Whether they're canoes or whether they're dog sleds.

It's really in my blood.

♪ ♪

Whoa, that's a big sled.

This thing is 11 and a half foot long.

This is a real freight sled.

This thing is built to haul a load of caribou,

Firewood, fish, lots of gear on an expedition.

You name it, this thing will swallow it.

But it's super flexible.

Even the runners.

But this thing is done, and I need to catch up on some rest,

Wake up in the morning, hook these dogs up,

And give this thing a maiden voyage.

♪ ♪

Jessi: Self-reliance, you know, it's freedom.

That's what it is.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

(engine sputters)

Chris: My throttle's all stuck.

Hey, jess, can you grab me the blowtorch?

I think my throttle's all iced up.

Machines are really important out here.

You got to take care of them.

If you don't treat your machine well,

It's not gonna work well

And it's not gonna make it through the winter.

Jessi: What's going on?

Chris: Uh, the throttle's all froze up on here.

It's not moving.

Jessi: Oh. This freezing rain sucks.

Chris: Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna try to warm it up a little bit.

See if I can just get it to let go.

Hopefully, I can just thaw it out real quick

And I don't have to disassemble the whole thing.

We got really short days out here,

And I don't wanna spend half my day

Wrenching on my three-wheeler.

You can see it's still frozen.

So that means I got to dig into it a little bit more.

Jessi: You know, there wouldn't be any ice in the line

If we had a shed to keep this in.

Chris: Yeah.

If this three-wheeler was just stored inside of a shed,

It wouldn't have got covered in freezing rain,

And I wouldn't be out here spending my precious daylight

Wrenching on it again.

I just got to get this shed built.

Narrator: At their isolated, remote homestead,

Chris and jessi morse rely on what little equipment they have

In order to survive.

With darkness and cold coming,

It's crucial their machinery remains functional.

Jessi: This is some icy stuff up here, huh?

Chris: Yeah, be careful.

Jessi: Well, hi, toz. You don't seem to mind, do you?

Chris: Alright, so let's see, that's, that's almost six feet.

Seven feet's probably all we need.

(chainsaw revving)

♪ ♪

I figure we need about ten logs in total to build the shed.

We'll do three or four at a time until we get them all.

Oof!

Wow, that thing's heavy. I don't know if I can move that.

Jessi: We need to go back and get the sled,

And you put the front part in the sled.

Chris: Yeah. I can get that small, black, skinny sled.

Jessi: You wanna run back now or you wanna try it?

I mean, I can cut the next log.

Chris: Yeah, cut it, and I'll, I'll drag this.

Jessi: Okay.

(chainsaw revving)

I have cut my fair share of wood

In this exact area with this exact saw.

So, uh, pretty comfortable in the wood yard with a chainsaw.

(bleep)

Got it stuck. (laughs)

That's what I get for saying I've done this before.

(revving)

(chainsaw stops)

(bleep)

Jessi: I really don't wanna break this.

Damn.

(laughs) oh, my gosh!

I got this. I know what I'm doing.

Ha! What a crock.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

So don't get mad.

I got the chainsaw stuck.

Chris: Hopefully not underneath.

Jessi: Definitely underneath.

Chris: We don't have another one, so.

Jessi: Can you just come over here and give me a hand?

I didn't wanna pinch up top.

Anyways, doesn't matter. I did it wrong.

♪ ♪

Thanks.

So we had to lift and then pull, and I just couldn't.

Wonderful.

Chris: We're really far out here,

We don't have neighbors for miles and miles,

So we really got to work together

And not get mad at each other and work as a team.

Nice.

Yeah, I'm gonna go load that log.

Um, go ahead and cut this one off.

Jessi: Okay.

Chris: And then just keep doing exactly what you're doing,

And I'll keep moving logs.

Jessi: Okay.

♪ ♪

Chris and I are a really good team.

I'm just stoked for our project.

Chris: I finally feel like we're settling in

And I'm getting the hang of the work program out here,

Hauling water, hauling wood,

Working all day long till dark and then working a little more.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

This is a chainsaw mill.

This is my first time using a log mill.

I have planed a lot of boards by hand,

But they don't come out very smooth.

This device right here should make my bar and my chain

Last a lot longer.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Ha ha! Let's see what it looks like, huh?

Jessi: Maybe too thin, huh?

Chris: Yeah.

Jessi: I mean, but I, eee, that's a little thin, love.

I think a...

Chris: A little bit thicker?

Jessi: ...300-pound bear will snap right through that.

Chris: Yeah. You know.

Jessi: One more time.

♪ ♪

(revving)

Chris: I don't really know what I'm doing.

I'm not a carpenter by any means.

I've been a mechanic and a welder my whole life,

Uh, so building with wood is a little bit out of my element.

I'm learning and making things work better.

Alright.

Now, that's a nice board.

Jessi: That's our first perfect board!

Chris: Looks cool.

Good job.

Alright, now, uh, 40 more?

Jessi: I was gonna say 75 more.

Let's get a-millin'.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Alex: Yeah, I really savor my alone time out here.

It's, uh, it's not the same as alone time in the city,

Because there's always noises and distractions and smell.

You know what I mean? There's things you don't even notice.

You basically, you basically can't get quiet time

In the city.

Today I'm going in there with the intent to beaver hunt.

This is the same area I used to hunt moose at.

There was always a couple beavers in it, swimming around.

And then in the middle, they have their dam.

I'm looking for signs of beaver.

That would be either tracks in the snow

Or recently chewed-down trees.

That would indicate that beavers

Are still operating in this area.

This is the sign of a wild beaver.

Beavers chew down trees.

That's how they build their dams.

The beaver dam's just right here.

I'm just gonna take a look around,

See if I see tracks, signs of activity.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Kind of doesn't seem like there's any beavers here.

I don't see any tracks around. They may have gone.

It's getting pretty dark, though,

So it might be good to head home soon.

♪ ♪

Brittany: Some of the benefits of living this lifestyle

Is you really value what you have.

♪ ♪

Kaleb: It's about a six-hour, one-way trip

Without the trailer.

And with the trailer on this trip,

It'll be about eight hours.

It's quite the ordeal.

And all of that on icy, nasty roads.

♪ ♪

Brittany: You have to be very sure of yourself

And your vehicle to drive the road in winter.

The first thing we have to do is drive 60 miles of dirt road.

The mccarthy dirt road is not for the faint of heart.

We never know what's around the next corner.

Kaleb: We're making first tracks down the road right now

Since it snowed last.

Brittany: Kaleb knows the mccarthy road very well,

But in winter months, things change so drastically.

♪ ♪

Where's the road glaciers?

Kaleb: They're for the next 30 miles or so.

Brittany: Okay.

Kaleb: It is very much like running a gauntlet

To get out of here and into town.

You really have to want it.

There's road glaciers

Where water flows across the road and freezes.

Some of them can get 10, 12 feet thick.

That gets downright scary.

There's one in particular that's bigger than all the rest,

And we will be stopping and checking it

Before we cross it to make sure it's not too bumpy.

And hopefully this little bit of snow that's on the road

Doesn't mask it where we can't see it.

That would be very dangerous.

Brittany: Oh. The joys of this road.

Kaleb: I'm kind of wondering if we won't even see anybody

On the road here.

So if we get into trouble in any way,

We're completely on our own.

Cell phone service along the road is hit or miss.

You have to be dedicated to travel that road.

You have to know how get yourself

Out of situations without help.

It is quite common to travel the entire length

Of the mccarthy road without seeing a single person.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Brittany: Okay. Whoa. Whoa.

Kaleb: Well, here we go. Here's our road glacier.

Kaleb: Well, here we go. Here's our road glacier.

Thank god for trailer brakes.

Ah.

♪ ♪

Alright, so I, when I check these out,

I walk up on the high side here

And just kind of feel how slippery it is.

And I look for this,

This is some slush here, which gives good traction.

So if I've got slush, we're pretty much good to go.

Brittany: Think we'll make it across?

Kaleb: Let's give her a go.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Oh, that one was good.

Brittany: Do you think those are gonna get worse?

Kaleb: Oh, they're gonna get much worse.

We're at the beginning of the winter right now.

They've only just started to form.

Right here is the kuskulana bridge.

It's 256 feet up above the river bottom.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

We've made it through the toughest part of the road here.

All the road glaciers and potholes are behind us,

So now it's pretty much just smooth sailing on into the city.

I'm hoping to spend as little amount of time in the city

As possible tomorrow,

So we need to be quick and efficient in all our stops.

I really dislike going into the city.

It's always stressful for me.

And I'm always just wanting to get in and get out.

Brittany: We are in the city! Woo-hoo!

Kaleb: Oh, boy.

♪ ♪

Chris: We're always trying to look ahead as far as we can,

And long-term goals out here are great to have,

But sometimes you just have to focus on what's in front of you.

(chainsaw roaring)

Hey, jess, how many boards do we have?

Jessi: 22, 23, 24, 25.

Chris: We're right on the money, 25.

Jessi: 25.

Chris: We're gonna get a few more out of this

And we'll be done.

Jessi: Yeah!

Chris: My dad built this cabin and left it to me.

And I haven't had a chance to come out here

And really build any structures.

Once I get this structure done,

I'm gonna feel like I have accomplished something out here,

And I've adding something to the homestead.

That's gonna feel good.

Jessi: Yes!

Last cut, love.

Last one!

Yes!

Ready to build shed!

Okay.

Chris: So what we need is about 12-foot-long birch poles

That are about four inches in diameter.

We're gonna put those at the top,

And that's gonna be the main roof supports.

Followed by a couple smaller beams going down

To support the planks that we have made.

Let's see if we can get about 10 of them.

Jessi: Okay.

Chris: Alright. Jessi: I will haul them back.

Chris: It's getting cold out.

Jessi: I know. Winter's coming.

(chainsaw roaring)

♪ ♪

Chris: When you're out here building

Without a wood supply store, and you don't have everything,

You just have to build with what nature gives you.

(grunts)

Watch out!

♪ ♪

The real reason we're using the trees that are already here

Is that they make really good permanent structures.

They're not gonna heave with the frost.

They've been here a long time.

I'm not worried about them caving under the snow load.

This is gonna add a lot of structure

Having these extra trees.

Jessi: I've never built anything

That I didn't get every single part from a hardware store.

And we made that pumper out here.

And, you know, most of those nails were burned out

From who knows when.

Jessi: There we go. Chris: Nice!

Chris: Our next step here

Is we're gonna start putting the planks up.

First one there, huh?

So, jess, take a look at this.

I'm gonna put you in charge of drilling holes,

And I'm gonna hammer nails.

(drilling)

Alright.

You know, I didn't really know

What I was building when I started.

I knew the general idea, I wanted a triangle shed.

As I go along, I just take it as it is and build with what I got.

Nice!

Jessi: Yeah, shed! Yes!

Chris: Coming along.

You know, my dad handmade this cabin with no power tools.

Just a hand whip and a hammer.

He didn't have the tools to make a perfect house,

But that's okay; he built a home.

You're not gonna always do it right;

Just keep trying.

He always told me that.

My dad moved out to the bush when he was about 19.

And here I am in my 30s moving out to the bush.

That's when he came out of the bush,

Which kind of makes me feel like I'm just picking up

Where dad left off.

Getting out there, building on the house,

Making things work.

I feel like I'm following in my dad's footsteps.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Michael: In the long run, you could pay for convenience,

But sometimes you got to take things into your own hands

And build it right for you.

(dogs barking)

You better eat your meal.

You got to be my crash test dummy.

Go ahead.

You ready for a new sled, snoop?

You ready to break a new sled?

You're not gonna break this one.

You're not gonna break this sled, big boy.

Narrator: In order to hunt and gather resources,

Michael manzo has completed construction

On a custom freight sled.

But in order to test his work,

He'll need to run it across the harsh alaskan terrain.

Michael: Last night, I got the brunt of this sled build done

Well into the evening, and now it's the test.

I wanna see if it can actually hold up

To three of my most brutal dogs in the lot.

Prime, snoop, and cyran.

My biggest, most powerful dogs in the lot.

They're terrible dogs to get out of the yard,

Because they destroy stuff.

I don't approve of the design.

Snoop approves of the design.

(barks)

Wanna go for a run?

(barking)

Dogs are crazy.

(barking)

It moves so easy.

Look at that.

Look at this.

Moves on a pinkie.

(barking)

That thing is slick.

There's a lot of uncertainty with running this sled.

It's an entirely new design.

It is a very long sled in a tight, wooded trail.

It's 11 foot long from the front of the bow

To the back of the runner,

And that's a little nerve-racking.

Basket sleds of that length are synonymous for not steering.

I designed everything as strongly as I could

And as flexible as I could,

But I'll give it a good test and see.

Alright. Time to harness these crazy dogs up.

(barking)

You ready to go for a run, buddy?

They shred stuff. They destroy sleds.

They don't care that that sled is long.

They're just gonna go.

Double-check everything.

Make sure I screwed these carabiners down,

'cause this is a lot of dog.

These dogs are brutal.

(barking)

Alright.

I got to get these guys on the trail, they're going crazy.

Go get 'em! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah!

(barking)

Michael: I got to get these guys on the trail,

They're going crazy.

Go get 'em! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah!

(barking)

Go get 'em! Hyah! Hyah! Haw!

(barking)

Whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, hey! Get up there! Come on!

(barking)

Go get 'em! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah!

Come on. Hop up. Hop up. Hyah!

♪ ♪

This is a lot.

Just starting out with a fresh sled on a tight, wooded trail.

Usually when you test a sled out,

You'd wanna test it in the open country,

Or on a lake, or out on the sea ice

Where you're not gonna crash into stuff.

I'm kind of taking it to another level.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Wow, that steered good!

Dang!

See that tight corner? It's taking corners, man.

I can lean into it.

I get a lot of motivation from this dog team of mine.

They're a really rowdy bunch.

And we're doing new things, we're going new places,

And we're getting better with each year.

I've broken a half dozen different sleds

Over the past five years,

But this one here, it's gonna be a tough sled.

And I can haul way more than I could ever imagine.

The amount of capability that I'm gaining

With this sled is insane.

Woo!

It's a fun run!

♪ ♪

Alex: At the end of the day, I try to think,

Okay, how much time do I have left before I call this quits?

Before it's going past the point of diminishing returns?

♪ ♪

Last night, it rained and got really warm

And everything melted.

This will make finding tracks of animals,

Specifically beavers down there, probably impossible.

It'll probably be all melted.

But I think I'll still go down there

And I'll look for any recently chewed trees.

Yeah, I haven't had a good protein dinner in a while.

It would be nice, but, you know, there's lean times

And then there's, there's non-lean times.

Right now is a lean time, so.

I'm gonna head back out,

Looking to see if I missed anything yesterday,

See if there's any sign of beaver.

I don't have my fingers crossed on this, but you never know.

It's always good to double-check and make sure.

I never paid attention to the distances out here or the time.

I kind of measure things in terms of how tired it makes me

Or how much effort it takes.

So it can be hard to explain to other people.

A lot of times people ask me,

"how far is it from here to here?"

And I say, "uh, I don't know, an hour maybe."

But I honestly have no idea.

That's just kind of what it feels like to me.

But I live out here alone, so it works for me.

♪ ♪

Well, back here at the beaver dam.

I think the owners are gone.

I took a look around the perimeter,

Tried to see if I could see any, like, recently chewed trees.

They all look pretty old.

I think these beavers probably left a year or more ago.

So beaver's off the menu.

♪ ♪

It's a little disappointing.

Beaver would have been a great, great meal.

But it is what it is.

I always try to be open to learning from failure

And not let failure disappoint me.

(clucking)

(fluttering)

I, uh, I heard grouse wings.

I think he just moved from one tree over here, over to there.

Grouse, they, they make a distinctive noise.

As soon as I hear the sound,

I get my eyes up and just watch and listen.

If you can spot where they are,

Usually you can see where they land

'cause they don't land too far.

They try to rely on their camouflage to avoid detection.

He's just right ahead of me in that tree there.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

(gunshot)

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

(gunshot)

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Alex: Yeah.

♪ ♪

Looks like we got him through the heart.

It's a decent-sized one.

So, uh, there's a nice dinner.

It's pretty awesome.

It's still a good place to hunt.

Even if beavers are off the table,

It's always good to hunt different areas.

We'll go ahead and field dress it here,

Because the weather is pretty is warm,

I don't want the meat to get spoiled.

So by taking out the guts

And just removing just the meat you want,

Taking off all the feathers,

It'll help the meat cool down quicker.

Good enough.

I'll just rip out the breast and the wings.

The rest is just gut piles.

The reason I always take a backpack full

Of what you might call possibles

Is because there's always a possibility

You come across an opportunity you didn't plan for.

In this case, I was going to find beavers.

There's no beavers, so, tough luck there.

But I managed to get a grouse today.

I can return home happy.

Have a nice dinner tonight.

That's always very encouraging.

♪ ♪

Kaleb: While this life may not be more complicated

Than life in the city,

It does require its own unique set of challenges,

Which are usually overcome

With proper planning and due diligence.

♪ ♪

Brittany: So what are we doing first this morning?

Kaleb: So we're dropping the vehicle off at the scrapyard,

And then we're gonna be headed to the hardware store,

Pick up a load of building materials.

Definitely ready to have it off of my trailer

And be done with it.

Alright, we're here.

Brittany: Sweet.

Kaleb: It feels great getting this vehicle dropped off

At the junkyard.

It's yet another eyesore gone from my valley.

So far the weather has been holding off for us.

However, there's a weather front

Moving into the copper river valley.

So we're gonna try and beat that weather system home.

Alright, we're here.

Brittany: Can we get a nap after this?

Kaleb: Um, no.

The lumber supplier is 300 miles away.

You have to pay attention

And make sure your preparation is done in advance.

Kaleb: Thank you much. Man: Alrighty.

Kaleb: Somebody will be out with a forklift?

Man: Yup. Kaleb: Sweet.

Kaleb: I'm picking up some two-bys, some plywood,

And some other odds and ends of building materials.

We're gonna put about 7,500 pounds on the trailer.

It'll weigh it down nice.

Should give it lots of traction on the road.

♪ ♪

Starting to snow a little bit.

Brittany: Yeah.

Kaleb: Hopefully the roads will be good.

Brittany: How's the weight feel?

Is it any different from the truck?

Kaleb: Oh, it's a little bit heavier,

But it feels well-distributed,

And it doesn't bounce when we go over bumps.

Brittany: Oh, that's nice.

Kaleb: Which feels so much nicer than the truck.

Brittany: Yeah.

That'll be really nice on our way home.

We have lots of bounces.

Kaleb: Lots of bumps.

Brittany: Yeah. That's what I...

Kaleb: Frost heaves, potholes.

And that's just on the paved section.

That's not even the mccarthy road.

♪ ♪

Dumb light.

Brittany: Oh, man.

Aren't you glad we have none in mccarthy?

Kaleb: I am so glad.

Brittney really would like to stay longer,

But we need to get going home.

Brittany: We don't want to get caught up in the storm.

It sounds like it's gonna be a pretty bad one with rain,

Which is never fun this time of year.

Kaleb: Slippery highways, here we come.

See you later, city.

♪ ♪

Chris: Every time I make a plan, I have to change it.

So I just like to let the universe guide me

And just build what I build.

♪ ♪

(hammering)

Alright, love.

Jessi: The roof!

Chris: Got a roof!

(grunts)

Jessi: Okay. Look at that!

Chris: There it is.

Jessi: Yes!

Chris: Good work.

Jessi: Yay, shed!

Let's get that three-wheeler.

Show it its home.

The shed is done.

I am so stoked.

Gallons of sawdust.

My hair and my eyes will never be the same.

And we're done.

That seems pretty stinking solid!

Chris: I'm not the best builder in the world,

But the project came together pretty well.

(engine sputters) awesome. Uh--agh!

(engine revving)

(click)

(revving)

Jessi: Yeah!

I love our shed.

I love what it looks like.

I love that it fits the three-wheeler.

Chris: I feel pretty confident that I did a good job

And it's gonna withstand the bears.

(grunts)

Jessi: Which side?

Chris: Your side first.

Jessi: It's useable, it's functional, it's beautiful.

Our stuff is gonna be way more safe when we're not here.

Chris and I did good.

♪ ♪

Brittany: I'm glad your parents could keep the kids

Another night; it's about their bedtime.

Kaleb: Uh, yeah.

Brittany: We still have another what? Hour and a half?

Kaleb: Still another 30 miles to get home.

Brittany: Goodness.

Kaleb: So I think we're gonna put chains

On the two front tires.

Just for safety, for the rest of the trips.

Can you run the spotlight?

Brittany: Yeah.

Kaleb: It's a difficult enough road to travel during the day.

And throwing darkness into the mix

Just makes it that much harder.

I'm ready to get out of this rain.

Alright. That's nice and tight.

Brittany: Alright, well, let's get out of the wind.

I'm frozen.

♪ ♪

Kaleb: We're gonna be super careful; it's 50 degrees out.

There's slick ice on the road, and it's raining and blowing.

So we're getting hit from all sides here.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Alex: It's really nice to have this nature-provided dinner.

Be able to cook it outside in this nice weather.

This isn't some disgusting, factory farmed, sickly bird

That had a terrible life.

This was a beautiful,

Magnificent creature of the woods.

It was strong. It was powerful. It was healthy.

I was there with it in its final moments.

(sizzling)

I really enjoy quiet solitude here at the cabin.

And the weather's nice and warm.

Just sit by the stove and watch the trees grow,

Listen to the wind.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ oh, my lord, take this soul ♪

♪ lay me at the bottom of the river ♪

♪ the devil has come to carry me home ♪

♪ lay me at the bottom ♪

♪ the bottom of the river ♪

Michael: I felt dead for a long time

After my three one-year tours in iraq,

And I was very frustrated with the world.

And it took many years to actually find things

That are passionate and fun.

I really enjoy the journey

Of traversing the landscape by dog team.

It's just, it's a great breath of fresh air.

Nice catch.

♪ ♪

Chris: When my dad moved out to the cosna,

It was during the homestead act.

There was already a bunch of homesteaders

Up there settled in.

There was a whole slew of people.

Jessi: Oh, man.

Chris: Heavy.

He had a little neighborhood.

He had friends to help him lift logs onto his cabin.

Those days have passed.

We're pretty much the only homesteaders out there anymore,

So we got to turn to each other for help.

And without my wife, it wouldn't be possible.

We're a team in this.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Brittany: Here we are.

We were only in town for about 24 hours.

I definitely wish that we could spend more time there.

I don't know when the next town trip will be.

But this is really my home, and I'm really glad to be home.

Man, it's slick!

Can we put some of those chains on my feet?

Kaleb: Good to be home.

(brittany laughs)

Brittany: Very good to be home.

Alex: If you're gonna live out here,

You have to kind of have a mindset of a perpetual growth.

I'll ask a question, you know, like,

If these trees had something to teach me about life,

Like, what would they say?

I think trees would tell you

Growth is the most important thing.

As long as you grow a little bit,

You're doing as good as you can do,

You know, you're making progress.

♪ ♪

Today was a good day.

♪ river song's gonna pull me through ♪

♪ the rest you can't save ♪

♪ oh, my lord, take this soul ♪

♪ lay me at the bottom of the river ♪

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