Original subtitles

[Marty] We're looking at the only water source

on this homestead right here.

-We have two families... - [clucking]

...livestock, we have a, 100 trees and an orchard.

I've forgotten how many times I've said, "Water is life."

But every once in a while I'm reminded that water

can also be death.

[man 2] There's disease.

He went cross eyed and had to have reconstructive surgery.

We have no food storage.

I wouldn't eat anything here.

There is livestock strewn all across this homestead.

Let's create you more of a homestead.

-Awesome. -What are we gonna do to really help these guys?

It's not gonna be a small fix.

One. Hold on tight.

Two...

[woman] This is like, the end of our a homestead dream.

[Marty] Three!

You're smart and you're a good man.

Both are getting really hard to find these days.

Wow.

[thuds]

[Matt] Welcome to the jungle.

[opening theme music playing]

[narrator] Marty Raney, master builder and stonemason.

[Marty] I don't see problems on homesteads.

I see challenges.

[narrator] Daughter, Misty, garden and food preservation expert.

[Misty] I believe you can grow food anywhere.

[narrator] And son, Matt, skilled craftsman and predator protection.

-[Matt] Wildlife is a constant threat... - [dog barking]

but I draw the line between their home

and your homestead.

[narrator] Together, they use Alaskan know-how...

Let's find some power!

[all agreeing]

[narrator] ...and ingenuity...

That's perfect! [laughs]

[narrator] ...to save the off-grid dreams

of desperate homesteaders.

We work every second we can, trying to help complete strangers.

That's who we are.

[Marty] Here's a little trivia for you.

In the year 1959,

Alaskans decided we will become the 49th state.

A few months later, Hawaii said,

"You know what, we're gonna sign."

So the 50th state, Hawaii, boom.

We've got a lot in common.

[Misty] Hawaii is up against it when it comes to farming

and growing anything.

They're just coming out of hurricane season.

Real high winds, and trees coming down,

and flash flooding, things like disease spreading pests.

There's not any big, nasty predators on this island.

But the jungle grows with so many invasive trees and plants,

it literally is like a predator that can swallow

your homestead up whole.

[Marty] Man, this place is crazy.

[narrator] The Raneys travel through the eastern lowlands

of the Big Island of Hawaii enroute to a remote homestead

fifty miles south of Hilo,

the wettest city in the U.S.

The rainy region faces extreme weather,

with frequent tropical storms and intense hurricanes

bringing 130 inches of rainfall per year.

But the excessive precipitation brings a hidden danger.

Diseased flies, rats and slugs,

which carry parasites that can be fatal

if accidentally consumed in vegetation or water.

It is in this taxing environment,

that the Gauss family tries to carve out a homestead in the jungle.

I'm Claire, and this is Max.

We live on a three acre homestead with our three kids,

and then my brother lives next door on his three acre.

I'm Harrison Gauss.

And I've been homesteading here

next to my sister and her family for four years now.

When we first got here and just I've got that feeling, like home.

What really drew us to our homestead was the fact that it did have soil.

There were some nice, deep pockets, and it seemed great.

[narrator] The property had the potential for a dream life off-grid until...

The family was surprised by the frequency

of Hawaii's severe tropical storms.

There are times of year where our goats are like, living on an island.

A huge storm smashed the roof in on the chicken coop.

Greenhouses collapsed in the rain.

Our driveway washes away.

We've suffered a lot of wind damage lately.

[narrator] With the wet weather came the pests.

[Harrison] Guava makes so much fruit

that the fruit flie just get out of control.

They just eat any fruit left out.

They just destroy everything.

Rats are a big problem here.

There's rat lung worm disease...

[Claire] A parasite spread by rats

to slugs, which then spread it to humans.

[Max] It is one of my major concerns,

especially with the catchment water.

[Claire] Our water is currently in a temporary water tank.

It's untreated.

I caught rat lungworm disease.

It really got me... really sick.

Had to be medevac'd to Oahu.

[Claire] He still deals with long lasting effects.

[Max] Homesteading has always been a dream of mine.

Walking away from that would be so heartbreaking.

[Claire] It would just be a soul crushing death.

Marty, Misty and Matt, please.

We need your help to rescue our homestead.

-Hello. -Hey.

Hey, you guys.

[Marty] How are you doing?

-Claire. Nice to meet you. -Claire.

-Max. -And Max.

-Nice to meet you. -And what's your name, please?

-I'm Harrison. -Harrison.

-Nice to meet you. -Yeah. Nice to meet you.

-This is my brother. -Very cool.

-How many acres? -Six acres.

-Oh, wow. Nice. -Uh-huh. Three acres each.

I was able to get this lot separate from them.

They're two separate lots.

How long have you guys been here?

-We've been on this property five years. -[Misty] Okay.

[Harrison] I've been here since 2020.

Our lot was completely raw. When we moved in,

We had to does a road just to get in, to start building.

[Misty] Through the lava rock?

It was mostly just really thick strawberry guava trees.

[Marty] Thick guava?

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Bad thing. They're super invasive.

They're fast growing.

Do you have any livestock here?

[Claire] The goats are always escaping,

getting into the gardens, letting the chickens out.

The little baby goats...

The goats eat our fresh plants that we plant and stuff,

but also, we have no food storage.

The infrastructure that we had to make happen right away when we moved in,

for the animals is now, kind of all, unraveling all at once.

[Claire] My brother and I grew up on a farm,

and then after my parents divorced, we moved out to Hawaii.

My mom bought an off-grid home.

But because she was a full-time mom and a worker,

she didn't really get to fully homestead like she'd want to.

When Claire and I first met, she told me of her mom's dream

of coming out here and living off the land.

My mom's dream was to be self-sufficient living off-grid,

but, um, her dream never fully happened.

[Claire] In 2019, she passed away from a heart attack.

So that's when... Hard...

[groans]

We try to continue forward,

but every big accomplishment is kind of...

sad...

[voice breaking] ...because I can't tell my mom. [cries]

I think Patty would have been so proud of Claire and Harrison

and all that we're doing here.

But I feel like there's always something going on.

Some of the hardships have been just planning...

We kind of just jump into a project to make it happen.

But maybe not the most proper way.

[Claire] Because a lot of our structures and things that we've put up are temporary,

a lot of what we're doing is constantly repair work.

Temporary tanks that we have to replace all the time.

Temporary animal coops that were constantly moving.

And then we end up steps behind because now we're having to repair

something else that broke in the time that we were...

fixing the other broken thing.

[Max] Everything affects our relationship as well.

Proposing to Claire,

it's been something I've been wanting to do for a long time.

It's kind of been on the back burner because, just life, you know...

At this point, we're such on the edge of just barely making it.

I'm afraid that this is like, the end of our homestead dream.

All right. So where are you taking me?

This is a good example of how the guavas are.

They're just like a, one big wall.

[braying]

[Marty] Even with these guys eating here, they come back.

Yeah. Or like, say, if I chop this live one all the way down

to a couple inches, the guavas, they just come back.

They're so tenacious. It would sprout right back up.

This is a nice citrus tree that was here when we moved in.

It looks like this tree is hurting.

Yeah, it needs some love.

-Okay. -For the most part,

when it is raining a lot here, they're taken care of.

But when we have a drought, they get really thirsty.

And we don't have a way yet to run water out to them.

Where's the water source?

-Can you show it to me? -Sure.

Okay. Show me that.

Okay. What's going on here?

[Max] The top blew off.

That's why we're seeing leaves and some guavas in there.

This pipe comes all the way down from our gutters

and fills this tank.

It doesn't last long when it is full,

with the three kids, and the lady, and...

...and if we are watering the animals and the orchard.

[Marty] So have you ever seen this water source go empty?

It gets low enough where we have to really conserve.

[Marty] Max planted fruit trees which are drying up.

The guava jungle's, overtaking their property.

And every year the water runs out on this homestead.

There's no doubt in my mind that Max wants this homestead to be maximum.

But after a tour with him,

all I can see is minimum.

[Misty] What is it like, um, raising kids here?

-They love it. I love it. -[Misty] Yeah. Yeah.

And I feel like it's really it's important for them,

but at the same time it's stressful, making sure we have enough food.

[Misty] So show me the garden.

[Claire] These green houses got demolished in hurricane weather.

[Misty] Wow!

They weren't strong enough to support the rain and they puddled.

And then collapsed in.

Have you had any dealings with rat lung?

Max. It turned into spinal meningitis.

So he was like, losing his mind.

They medevac'd him to Oahu.

-I think he was there maybe a month. -Yeah.

So he went cross eyed and had to have reconstructive surgery.

[Misty] Gardening here is very dangerous.

Why? Because of rat lungworm.

[narrator] Rat lungworm is a microscopic parasitic worm

that can cause an infection in the brain.

It is acquired by eating uncooked vegetables

that have come into contact with diseased slugs.

Symptoms include severe headache,

neck pain, vomiting

and vision changes,

which result in meningitis.

If left untreated,

it results in death.

[Misty] You're pretty apprehensive to grow certain things

or eat out of a garden that's not covered, or--

Exactly. Yeah, like we...

like to grow leafy greens that we can cook.

But then, even with, like our water supply,

washing things...

is still a concern.

[Misty] You see the crushed hoop house from the tropical storm.

You hear the rat lungworm story.

So by now I should, finally, once and for all, understand...

that Hawaii is just not an easy place to homestead.

[Harrison] So here's where the bunnies live, over here.

We have about five or six. We try and breed 'em a couple of times a year.

How does that go?

But the last time was a big bummer

because our fridge failed, right?

There was a propane fridge,

and, like half of the meat we had to feed to the dogs

'cause it just went bad in the fridge.

We didn't realize it was going bad.

It sounds like food storage is pretty short term.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely.

Especially like, cleaning the stuff, we don't have a...

proper place to, like, butcher 'em or anything like that,

usually do it in the back of my truck 'cause it's off the ground,

-and a little bit easier. -Oh, really?

I can wash it out. It's kind of like our little table system.

The chickens are a big part of the homestead as well.

-Chickens and goats. -Okay.

The goats are probably one of the biggest parts

''cause they actually do the most work, and, uh,

help us with the clearing and stuff like that.

And we really want to get milk and meat from them as well.

[Matt] Who built this thing?

Max built this.

It was their original greenhouse.

This thing is massive.

How come chickens inside and chickens free ranging?

Um, the goats can... bust this gate open.

-Oh, this is just broken. -Yeah, 'Cause everything, the, the moist air,

all that moisture just rots the wood.

I see...

-lots of bug destruction. -Uh-huh. Yeah, it's all full of termites.

[Matt] There's not like, hard, concrete sort of places for these animals to go.

They need to rein it in.

And we need to get all this livestock under control

so that they can be more productive from this point on.

[Marty] Look behind you.

Yeah, that's representative of orchard,

of water, of property.

Of everything.

That's it right there.

There's something physically built or attempted on the homestead,

but it has failed or in its death rows.

Walking around, Claire, kept hearing the words "Temporary." Right?

There's no such thing as a temporary homestead.

This was supposed to be temporary.

Water catchment was supposed to be temporary.

They had a brush with rat lung,

like major health scare,

so they don't even eat anything

when it does come out of the garden.

We need to create a safe 100% guaranteed garden.

Like, that's a must.

Yeah. So...

I took a look at the livestock situation.

There is livestock just kind of strewn

all across this homestead.

I kind of feel like this homestead is stuck in a groove

and they've accepted their livestock are,

you know, they're just going to live like this.

So they need a central area

to contain all the animals on this homestead.

So...

What are we going to do to really help these guys?

And it's not going to be a small fix.

[narrator] To establish a more permanent, productive and safe homestead,

the Raneys will help the Gauss family tackle three big areas.

Marty and Max will wrangle encroaching guava trees

that strangle the property,

as well as finding a cleaner solution for the homesteads water catchment.

Misty and Claire will focus on building a garden

that can withstand the island's intense storms

and protect against the rat lungworms,

spreading slugs of the area.

Matt and Harrison will build a secure livestock pen

to keep the homestead's variety of animals contained,

as well as a sanitary processing center

to provide the homestead with a protein source.

-Well, at first glance... -Yeah.

-...it's paradise. -Thank you.

-But after a tour... -[laughs]

-Yeah. -It's paradise lost?

Albeit temporary.

We're going to stop today using the word "Temporary", right?

We're going to stop today.

There's no such thing as a temporary homestead,

and everything from this point forward is perfect.

[Marty] The harder...you work,

the more it will get done, which benefits you.

It's that simple.

-[Harrison] Awesome. -It's a very simple formula.

On that note, are we ready to go to work?

-Yes. -Yeah.

-So excited. -[Harrison] Ready. Yeah.

[Marty] I'll see you in the morning.

[upbeat music playing]

[Marty] Here we go.

[narrator] In the eastern lowlands of Hawaii's Big Island,

Marty Raney goes to battle with the invasive guava

that has put a stranglehold on the Gauss homestead.

Let's create you more of a homestead.

Well, right over there is a great spot to start.

-Get over there. Let's go. -All right.

[narrator] Marty will clear a 300-square-foot area near the orchard,

which will let in more sunlight

to maximize productivity of their fruit trees

and help feed both homesteads.

[Marty] I have come to respect these homesteaders.

If they've been clearing this land by hand...

Whoo! I'm impressed.

[narrator] And at the current hoop house site...

Do you think we should take this thing down?

-I think this needs to... -To go.

To go. Yeah.

[narrator] Misty looks to repurpose what she can

before starting fresh on a new garden.

You have all these guava trees and they're actually pretty so tall,

-you're gonna see a lot of shade. -[Claire] Yeah.

[Misty] So let's move to the garden space.

Feel like we've got to get rid of some guava trees.

-And there's just a lot of work to do. -A lot of work. Yeah.

-You ready? Okay. -I'm ready.

[narrator] To give the Gauss family a safe, protected garden space,

Misty will clear guava trees, providing more direct sunlight,

and create covered, raised beds

that will withstand the area's extreme weather

and defend against rat lungworm spreading slugs.

[Misty] The Big Island gets me really nervous,

especially when it comes to gardening.

Rat lungworm is present and super dangerous.

No wonder these homesteaders consider salads a luxury.

I wouldn't eat anything off the ground here.

Are you excited to create, like, a clean, safe garden space?

[Claire] I am so excited.

And that was like the one thing I miss the most,

-is having a flourishing garden that we can eat from... -Yeah.

...and go out at night and pick stuff out of the garden

to make dinner with.

-I'm really glad we have gloves on. -Yeah.

Okay. I mean, this is kind of nasty.

-Don't get it in your eyes. -No. Or your mouth.

[Misty] But, man. It feels good to tear these things down.

'Cause not only are they ugly, they're dangerous.

They're just breeding grounds for these slugs, which is, in turn,

turning everything at risk for the rat lungworm.

But, yeah, here we go.

Just another day on the homestead.

Whoo!

[upbeat music playing]

-[Matt] Hey, how's it going? -[Harrison] Good.

[narrator] Over at the livestock pens,

Matt spots an interesting structure.

What is this space right here?

This used to be like a bathhouse.

This under here?

Yeah. This is a Japanese bathtub.

We might be able to use this.

-[Harrison] Yeah. Uh-huh. -This is still cool, right?

I like this area.

-It's close to your house, but it's not too close. -Yeah.

And I've also had that same feeling where I'm like,

-man, we really need to bring the animals together. -Uh-huh.

-For sure. -Bring them closer.

-Having a place where you can process the animals... -Yeah.

...and maybe even store the meat...

is a necessity,

and I think that's the only way we can really help you

-go to the next level with your livestock. -Yeah.

[Matt] This homestead has a lot of livestock,

and they need a central place where they can process the eggs,

the meat, the furs.

This area where the Japanese tub is, with that pavilion,

is the perfect place to build a processing station.

Here's my crazy idea.

These guava trees are invasive.

-They're invasive as heck. -Yeah.

But...

they're also a thing that could be used as fencing.

-Mm-hmm. -Okay.

-I want to create like, an open space in the middle... -Mm-hmm.

Basically like a guava tree oasis.

-And then have a perimeter of guava trees as a fence. -Mm-hmm. Okay.

-What do you think about that idea? -I think it could work.

The guava does kind of rot pretty quick.

-So... -What if it's still alive?

Oh, definitely, that could work.

You'd have a live in fence

that'd basically be like

take a tree, bend it down

start weaving trees together.

-Yeah. -Like something more permanent and safe.

What do you think?

I definitely like that idea a lot.

[narrator] Matt's plan:

cover and build out the Japanese tub into a sanitary processing station,

and nearby, they'll clear a space in the guava thicket for a livestock oasis.

Turning the problem of the tall, pliable trees

into a solution by using them as a living fence,

an arched entrance to protect the homestead's invaluable livestock.

Making this like a living, fenced-in area for livestock that consolidates everything

is gonna help out a lot and I'm glad you're on board.

-Yeah, I agree. 100%. -Let's get to work.

[Marty] Okay, Max.

[narrator] With guava cleared back enough for extra growing space, Marty and Max

check out the Gauss' most valuable unused structure,

a cinder block foundation from an original building that predates this family.

This was a very significant water catchment system.

-You can see the filters right here. -Yeah.

And stuff that used to be protected.

But just looking at the block work here,

this is an excellent job.

It's grouted. It's perfect.

After pushing that guava back, creating more land

so they can make a bigger orchard, I realized that the number one problem

on this homestead really isn't the guava jungle.

The number one problem is lack of safe water

to sustain not one, but two homesteads.

-Let's see what's going on here. -Okay.

Don't fall in!

Claire and Max did carve their homestead out of a guava jungle.

Right next door, Harrison bought a property

where once upon a time, somebody thrived.

I might be looking at 2,000 gallons of water right now, buddy, come on up here.

A 3000-square-foot home and, more significantly,

a state-of-the-art concrete water catchment system.

Now I'm going to need Max to step up to the plate,

and show me his skills.

All right, so, I've done the math.

5,000 gallons of water here.

And 5,000 here.

So there's 10,000 gallons of water, potentially.

[Max] That's a lot.

If we could have water security here,

that would be amazing.

Knowing that we could water our livestock and us and our trees.

It would really take a lot of stress off us and it would really help our relationship.

[Marty] This is the water future of this homestead.

[narrator] To utilize the old concrete water catchment,

Marty will first pump out the old stagnant water,

and then either reuse or replace the plastic liner,

and finish things off with a roof

to protect against storms and disease-carrying pests.

The roof will be slanted, depositing water into a gutter system

that will transport it into the storage tanks inside.

If successful, it will provide the Gauss family

with up to 10,000 gallons of clean water storage.

[Marty] We're gonna save a little water that's in there and use that water

to power wash this building, getting this homestead safe,

sanitary and ready for the next step.

Look at that cleaning the dirt off. Good man.

Whoo!

Good job.

[upbeat music playing]

If you're okay with this whole island of trees to go?

-I'm perfectly happy with this whole island of trees to go. -Okay.

[narrator] On the Gauss' Hawaiian homestead,

Misty and Claire have identified the new garden space

just 20 feet from their cabin.

-It's going to get rowdy. -Okay.

-Ready? Okay. -Yeah.

I'm ready. I'm a little scared, but I'm ready.

-Okay. I'm a little scared. And also I'm ready. -[Claire laughs]

Let's hit it.

[narrator] Now, Misty works to clear the overgrown guava trees

and will use the timber to her benefit.

My favorite thing on a homestead is when you turn the problem into the solution.

All of these guava trees have to go,

but in the meantime, we're gonna mulch them

so they'll break down and give us some soil.

[narrator] While strawberry guava is Hawaii's most invasive species,

it can be utilized for helpful purposes.

Its wood is compact and durable, making it an ideal candidate for garden mulch.

When used properly, mulch cuts down on the time

it takes to water and feed while deterring pests in a garden.

Mulch also discourages weeds and improves the soil

as it decomposes and can slow soil warming.

[Misty] Full disclosure, I've never used a commercial mulcher before.

[engine starts]

I'm just mowing and plowing through these guavas

with this giant mulcher and they are so difficult.

[snapping]

-[thud] -Whoa.

I just took a branch in the glass like really hard.

People have no idea when they hear the word "mulcher" what's about to happen.

It hits the glass, like, so hard.

Look down here and tell me why you think it's hitting the glass?

-It's going under. -You've got to keep it down.

-I know, but... -Come out of there.

Dude, it's scary.

I kind of feel lucky to be alive.

So, note taken.

Got it. You know, keep the guard down.

There's your product. Is that what you're looking for?

Yeah, I'll take it.

All right. How much do you need?

I mean, there's one big brush pile here.

Is that gonna be enough for this area?

As long as I can get this flat and the brush pile gone,

I'll consider that success.

That said, Clint? Where's Clint?

[Misty] This is actually really scary.

-Where's Clint? -Clint's too scared to come over here.

You want me to fire this up with you there?

All you need to know is that whole thing right there is dangerous.

[clucking]

[Matt] Well, hey, let's not waste any time. Let's get to work.

[Harrison] Cool. Awesome.

[narrator] Over by the guava thicket,

Matt and Harrison get to work by clearing some much needed space.

Welcome to the jungle.

So Matt's going to go get the excavator right now to haul out these trees.

My mom brought us out here when I was five years old,

totally got us into this lifestyle, and now we're upgrading.

I wish my mom could be here to see it.

Okay, we cleared a lot of trees.

It's looking good.

I was hoping that we could use the remaining guava trees,

and I think it'd be really cool if we made, like,

a grand arched entrance

with these live guava trees.

-What do you think? -That sounds really cool.

Grab a ladder.

I'm gonna get some bathing wire and let's twist this guava into an awesome arch.

[Harrison] Sweet.

The higher we can get up in these trees, the easier it will be to bend them.

[Matt] Oh, my gosh. Oh, wow.

And Harrison is scaling and climbing these trees like a spider monkey.

All right. Let me get the end.

You are tough!

-That did not look easy. -[Harrison chuckles]

Matt was definitely surprised at how quickly I climbed these trees and brought 'em down.

All right, hold on tight, spider monkey!

[Harrison] I've been climbing trees since I was little, so that was just nothing for me.

Been a lot of fun doing that.

[Matt laughing] Yes.

-Nice. -Okay.

[Harrison] I was a little skeptical about it at first,

but bending these guava trees into an arch

was a pretty cool idea, it's looking beautiful.

-I don't know if I can climb this thing. -[Harrison chuckles]

[Matt laughing] Oh, my God.

As much as I want to have all the fun

and climb these trees, I think I'm gonna keep my feet on the ground

or on the ladder, and I'll leave Harrison

to the climbing of the trees because he's like a machine.

-Yes. -You all good?

Yeah, that's it.

All right, ratchet strap engaged.

We're really starting to get this thing looking like an arch.

All right.

Looking good, man.

-It's good, it's an arch. -It's art.

We're like forming these trees into artwork.

Yeah, it's great.

[Marty] Every once in a while on a homestead,

I'll make a decision without consulting the homeowners.

I'm about to do it again.

Let's go!

[Claire] What is happening?

[all shouting and cheering]

[upbeat music playing]

[narrator] It's Day 4 of the rescue.

[Marty] So let's hit it.

[narrator] And Marty and Max discuss next steps.

-[Marty] That was completely nasty. -[Max] It was.

You never complained, and you guys nailed it.

So do you understand what you have here now?

Now we're looking at a clean

space to store

10,000 gallons of water

and actually have some water security.

[Marty] If we are going to keep it clean,

we have to make some decisions.

So now that I've convinced Max

that the answer is right here, 10,000 gallons of water,

potentially, could be captured right here.

But we've got to protect it.

Otherwise, that water doesn't help them.

In Hawaii, it would not take long

for 10,000 gallons of water to become contaminated.

[Max] Yeah, we need some way to contain it.

So what's this building need?

It needs a roof.

You're gonna go from tank cleaner

to roof builder.

-Okay, let's do it. -Fair enough?

The roof is gonna help keep all the debris

out of the tank and out of our water

and it will be safer and cleaner and just

10 times more better.

[Max straining]

All right. What do I like about this homesteader?

He's not afraid to work.

He's a man of action.

He got right in there.

And trust me, it was gross.

And it was not fun to clean this building out.

And now, hey, we're set up for success.

No, coming back up. Right there.

Good.

[groans]

[upbeat music playing]

[Matt] Okay. This is how we do it, baby.

[narrator] Over at the livestock oasis

that will house the homestead's goats and chickens,

Matt and Harrison build a coop that will be protected from the elements

and make collecting eggs a breeze.

[Harrison] We've cleared out a nice space.

Our archway in the front looks amazing.

[Matt] We decided to start from scratch

and build something that is easy to maintain.

It's going to keep animals out of the weather,

and makes taking care of the chickens and getting those eggs a lot easier.

All right, shaping up.

I like it. It's looking awesome.

I love the open kind of bus stop concept.

The only thing that's left is to get the roof on.

So climb up there, I'll pass you a sheet of metal.

[Harrison] Cool, let's do it.

I love Matt's design. It's super cool.

[Matt] As long as there's just a little lip over here,

-we're good. -I'm on two inches, it's perfect.

All right, screw it.

[Harrison] It's coming out really well.

I think the chickens are gonna be really happy in there.

We slapped in a 4x8 sheet of plywood

as a base for our chicken coop and nesting box.

But ever since I heard of the term "rollaway nesting box,"

I'm never looking back, because when a chicken lays an egg,

you want it to roll right out into a nice little trough

where you can pick it up just like this.

Okay. All right.

That's the perfect channel we need at the bottom.

And now, we'll bring in our wood from this side, get it in place

at all of our scribed lines for each of our partitions.

Because every time a chicken lays an egg and it stands up, it rolls right out here.

See if this feeds in there.

[Harrison] It's going, it's going.

The new chicken coop is such an upgrade from the old one.

Matt came up with such a cool idea for the egg collection.

They just roll into a trough and kids can walk right up and open it

and you don't even have to enter the chicken coop.

[Matt] Everything you need to keep a chicken

and collect eggs is ready.

[Harrison] Cool. Yeah. Great.

Okay, so now we're gonna shift our focus, right?

We're gonna make some garden beds.

And they're basically gonna be these little boxes that are gonna be raised beds,

and we're gonna figure out some stilts, maybe.

-I trust you, and I'm excited. -You trust me?

Are you a little apprehensive of how we're really gonna

keep out slugs in real time?

Yeah, I'm excited to see what your method will be to keep them at bay.

We're gonna start with building the boxes,

-and then we're gonna move to slug patrol. -Sounds great.

First things first. Do you ever use a skill saw?

I've never used a saw.

So, my dad cut off his hand with a saw.

So I have been terrified of using power tools.

Claire...

-Like, his whole hand? -His whole hand.

-What? -Yeah.

What is that story? What happened?

He was building furniture and was distracted.

I'm sorry. That's crazy.

It's crazy, so I'm just like, even when Max is using it,

I'm like, "Please be careful. Do not get distracted."

So I always have this fear, like, I don't know.

It's just terrifying to me, but I can learn.

-That's pretty intense. -Mm-hmm.

So you don't have to use the skill saw.

-Okay. -Let's put you on an impact.

-Great. Safe. -Okay.

Hearing what happened to Claire's dad and recognizing that maybe that fear

has kind of taken over is 100% understandable.

But maybe getting Claire to a place

where she's comfortable using some of these power tools this week

is kind of my goal.

Anytime you learn all the safety features

and just take everything really slow and have somebody with you

that's the time to really grab the bull by the horns.

If you do all of these things correctly, not a whole lot can go wrong.

You'll have somebody hold the board for you, which would be Max forever.

-Yeah. -You don't ever have to touch the wood.

-You don't ever have to put your hand near the blade. -Okay.

And all you're doing is pulling the safety with your thumb, push...

[saw whirring]

And then you start the saw off of the wood. You never want your saw...

-It'll, like, kind of kick. -Yeah, have it spinning before you go.

-So always cut where the tail can fall. -Okay.

And then put your hand on the safety grip.

-And then it's just follow-through. -Yeah.

Just push slow. Nothing can go weird.

You just push and you follow through.

-Awesome. -Then you just let everything go.

Yeah, see, that doesn't look so scary.

Well, you tell me. What should I be doing right now?

Okay, safety, you want to have it flat and level to the wood.

Yup.

You want to start before you hit the wood.

-And you want the tail to be able to... -To fall.

-Otherwise it'll kick back. -Okay.

-Okay, here we go. Perfect. -[saw whirring]

And follow through at the end.

-All right. -Ready?

-You make it look so easy. -[both laughing]

High five!

Great, we built one. We'll throw some studs in here, done.

We'll build a second one, some ends.

-Sounds great. -Here we go.

All right.

[upbeat music playing]

[Marty] We're doing something major.

[narrator] It's Day 5 on the Gauss' homestead.

And while construction continues on the roof of the 10,000 gallon

water catchment, Marty splits his time to address

another pressing need for the family.

Every once in a while on a homestead,

I'll make a decision without consulting the homeowners.

I'm about to do it again.

Clint!

-Let's go! -Wasn't an expression.

On the very first day on this homestead, I went on a tour with Max.

Yeah, he's got a toilet, but it's primitive.

It's not big enough for this family.

[Claire] What is happening?

[Misty] This is the bathroom.

-Oh, my gosh! -Here's john-y!

I thought it was awesome seeing that house come up the hill.

I had no idea what it was gonna be for.

But when Marty popped out of it, that was the funniest thing ever.

We're thinking, since we have this amazing water catchment system

that we're trying to clean up, we might want to upgrade the bathroom.

-Yes. -I would love an upgraded bathroom.

I'm down there all the time with the kids

taking three trips a day, if not more.

To an upgraded bathroom sounds amazing.

Okay, young man, would it benefit you

if we brought this toilet up and gave you your own toilet

-up here at your property? -Yeah, definitely.

-Give you your own privacy. -Yeah, for sure.

[narrator] To give this family of six a much needed expansion and clean bathroom facilities,

Marty will build a brand new outhouse structure

near the water catchment building.

Then he'll haul the old outhouse to Harrison's land for his own personal use.

[Marty] Are we all on the same page?

-Yeah. -Sounds great.

I'm so stoked, I don't have to share with three little kids anymore.

All my toilet paper will be in its place and not strung all over the place.

I'm excited to not have to wait for him

all morning to use the bathroom before we can use the bathroom.

Remember, all of you guys.

The job's not done

until the paperwork's finished.

[all laughing] Gross.

Clint!

[Misty] Yoo-hoo!

Right, done, down.

Nice, Claire.

Okay. So, I've got a little more work to do with the rocks

but this is pretty much the space.

-You like it? -Yeah. I love it.

All right, so we have eight of these beds, right? Four by eight two feet deep.

I'm gonna put ohia posts underneath every single bed.

Because when it comes to rat lungworm, the fact that it's no joke,

having these just sit on the ground, all this contact,

where slugs can move in, get in your garden, we're gonna limit it, right?

So we're switching gears and it's not gonna be a one solution,

it's gonna be a three-solution to the big problem of rat lungworm.

-Awesome. I love it. -So we're gonna put

one foot sections of those ohia posts,

screw them on, line these things with metal,

and move them all in position of where they go,

and that's what we're gonna spend the day doing.

-Great. I'm ready. -Ready? Let's do it.

Today is the day we're moving into the garden.

We built all of these amazing four by eight by two feet deep raised beds.

But we're not gonna just sit them on the ground

and have that much contact for slugs to move into the garden.

So the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna set them on ohia posts.

-Watch your fingers. And the other side. -[Claire] Okay.

And then, I would hide the log... There you go, babe.

'Cause it's not exposed to moisture.

-You're doing it. Good job. I'm so proud of you. -[Clair] Here, here.

In log building in Alaska, we use these crazy screws.

-These things are expensive. -Yeah. These are long.

-Yeah. Put some back into it. -Yeah.

And go straight down. Nice.

There you go.

The amount of work that has happened in just such a short amount of time.

Every one of these projects would have taken us months,

if not a full year, just saving and then working to clear the space

and then finding the materials and putting them up on the weekends.

It takes so much time.

My mom would be so proud.

-[Claire] Perfect. -Perfect?

-Love it? -Love it.

Okay. So we have the bed, we've got the ohia post,

now it's time to line them with metal.

-So let's go cut the metal. -Great.

-[Misty] In the shade. -[Claire] In the shade.

-[Matt] How's the water? -[Harrison] Yeah, not existing anymore.

I think we should actually develop this Japanese bathtub

into an actually working wood-fired bath.

That would be unbelievably fantastic.

And then use this space as a place to process all your animals.

Yeah, that would be awesome.

Someone spent time building this really cool outdoor Japanese tub,

before Harrison bought this property.

It's laying in waste.

I wanna make it Harrison's private bath.

But I'm also building an adjoining station to process meat,

and both have to be completely separated for sanitation.

So the processing station will be enclosed,

protecting it from pests and bacteria,

with the table and sink for sanitary processing.

I'm gonna call that good.

[narrator] While Matt and Harrison worked to revamp the tub...

[Claire] On this way you'll meet Misty.

[narrator] Max and Claire introduce their young ones to Misty.

-Oh, hi! -Hi!

[Misty] What?

I've been hearing so much about you guys.

This is Misty, tell her your names.

-Bluma. -Bluma?

-I'm Nayeli. -Nayeli? And?

-Gus. -Gus!

Ooh, Gus is a good name. Hi, you guys.

Oh, my gosh, I have to call Matt and my dad.

-Matt! Dad! -Hi.

-Dad. -Hi. My name's Matt.

[all laughing]

-Oh, my Lord. -Dad, meet the fam.

We finally get to meet the homesteader kids.

What do you think of your new garden?

This is where the new garden is gonna go.

-Do you think it's big enough for everyone? -[Nayeli] Yeah.

I mean, there's a lot of mouths to feed.

What do you think about all this crazy work happening? I mean, you're the oldest,

The chicken coop is gonna be way easier that we don't have to go inside each day.

The door on our old one is already breaking,

and when I try to go in, I scratch my feet every time.

Nayeli, what do you think about gardening standing up, you don't have to bend over?

That's nice, too. I'm really excited for everything that's going on.

Kids. I got some good news and bad news.

The bad news is your outhouse, your toilet,

-isn't there anymore. -[Nayeli chuckles]

-[all laughing] -What are you laughing at? That's the bad news.

So anyone going to the bathroom is gonna find out

that the toilet completely disappeared.

-[Misty] I think she thinks you're kidding. -No, I'm not kidding.

[Misty] Or she's really happy...

-[all laughing] -I am not kidding. I am not kidding.

But there is some good news.

Maybe we'll make a bigger one.

Maybe a better one. Maybe a cleaner one.

-Is that something to be cool? Yes? Yes? -Yes.

[Misty] Does that sound good to you guys? A big bathroom?

[all chuckling]

-Okay. -How about you? Yeah?

I had no idea that you had such a beautiful family.

-Thank you. -You're a rich man.

I am blessed.

When I see my children running around,

and getting to be home with them every day,

and doing the things that my mom loved,

I see me living out her dream that she

wanted more than anything.

What do you say? What do you guys say?

[Misty] Aw. Are you just so happy, Nayeli?

That's okay, honey. That's okay. We're here to help you.

If you're that happy right now if you're that happy...

[Marty sniffs]

-[Misty] Now everybody's falling apart. -[all laughing]

-Everybody's falling apart. -Okay.

-[Claire] Get out of here. -I promised myself I wouldn't cry.

I think for my kids, like they're pretty used to this lifestyle.

You know, she's grown up in tents and she's grown up camping,

and now she's like on the verge of becoming a teenager.

I think just having that little upgrade makes her feel so proud.

Excited.

[Marty] If you're that happy, young lady, then you've made us happy.

So thank you very much.

When a 10-year-old gets emotional,

you realize that you might be on the right track

and that you might be actually truly helping her,

and the rest of her family.

-On that note, we're going back to work. -[Claire] Thank you.

-Thank you. -Thank you.

Wonderful meeting you.

-Will you say, "Nice to meet you"? -[Misty] Making you cry.

Aloha.

[upbeat music playing]

[Marty] Let's go.

[narrator] At the site of the future bathhouse

Misty checks in on Marty's build,

and flags a problem that could affect all projects on the homestead.

For me, the old water catchment system was at the top of the homestead.

And now if it is moving to the bottom...

I'm uphill from you.

The catchment system my dad's putting in has moved.

I thought it was at the top of the homestead.

That massive catchment system is great,

but the problem is, is it downhill from the garden?

Bear with me. We're gonna catch a lot of water.

[sighs] Yeah.

I'm just thinking to myself,

did I just waste days of my time on this homestead,

creating a garden that possibly has to be moved

downhill from that catchment system?

We have to figure out how we're going to pump it.

You have to figure out how you're gonna pump it

or I'm up a homestead without any water.

[upbeat music playing]

How's it going?

[narrator] On the Gauss' six-acre Hawaiian homestead

Marty gathers the families to discuss how to pump water

from the catchment system throughout the property.

[Marty] If you look around here, a lot of stuff is happening.

We're in the process of building a huge roof

that hopefully will catch 10,000 gallons of water.

-Amazing. -Good answer.

But I think we need to start asking you guys

what you have in place for pumping water.

What kind of power do you have on this homestead?

We have just the most basic 12-Volt systems.

Well, I'm telling you right now, that you're not gonna pump water from here

to that house and that house with 12 Volt.

So I called the Hawaiian man and his crew,

that have helped us in the past, on at least two homesteads.

-Hello, you guys. -Thank God, James is here.

What he does, he doesn't do it in a small way.

It's always like a million guys, and it's not just the basic system.

It's like all-in you could power a whole town system.

-Mahalo. Thank you so much. -That's amazing.

So this is James.

-Nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you.

-Thanks for coming. -Hi.

Nice to meet you.

What are you guys here for? What are you doing today?

What we're gonna do today is we're gonna put an 8,000-watt system on the water tank.

-Wow. -We're gonna install the power in that room.

We're gonna actually span, install capable power

at two houses and hopefully, gonna bring power to anything else that you need.

Kind of at a loss for words, you know, uh...

I'm the big crybaby, but thank you guys.

[James] You know, if we can help in this little way,

at least get some comforts, we're happy to.

Okay. We'll let you, guys at it if you will,

and if you need anything throughout the day, let us know.

-[Marty] Thank you, Crew. -[Harrison] Yeah. Thanks, guys so much.

Amazing.

[Harrison] I'm so happy. This is like the biggest dream

come true I could ever imagine.

I can't wait to be able to store my food and just use electricity,

[Claire] We're like living out of a cooler,

and we have all these animals that are there and we're not utilizing that.

So having that refrigerator and freezer space where we can harvest,

the animals and the fruit and vegetables,

and keep them for more than a few days would be amazing.

Okay. I say we just start right at the end of this arch and we just find

a straight path through the guava trees and use them as post.

Cool.

-I like that. That one's like weaved through there. -Yeah.

My goal is to build an oasis in the guava trees for livestock.

We've cleared out a nice space, our fences are going up.

Our archway in the front looks amazing.

-Yeah, I think that looks pretty good. -Okay, let's do that.

We have a living fence with guava trees as posts.

We have a living arch and projects are getting done.

Things are all coming together.

I love it. These arches are really coming handy.

-Little triangle. Oh, sorry. -That's okay.

I'm seeing incredible changes, and it's gonna be super cool for a long time.

Don't pinch yourself!

[Harrison] I think we're accomplishing Mama's dream.

It's amazing.

Okay, this right here has to be a gate for you to be able to get in

because I really like the access from that direction.

Yeah, definitely.

If you work side by side with Harrison, you're gonna realize

that he is full throttle all the way,

he never stopped working, just hold on tight.

Watch out, this guy is coming in and he's gonna work hard.

Okay.

-If there was some concrete... -Yeah.

Hit that with concrete. Let's go.

[Marty] That should be cleaner than a whistle.

[narrator] While Marty and Clint install a liner to protect water

in the catchment facility...

Take it right to that side of the anchor bolt. Thank you.

[narrator] The new solar power system allows Misty to continue at her garden site.

And she's ready to implement her next defense against disease-carrying slugs.

-All right. What do you think? -It's amazing.

-Yoo-hoo. -Beautiful soil.

Oh, yes!

-[Claire] It's beautiful. It's like some of the nicest soil. -It's amazing.

-[Misty] Yeah. This is some local compost. -Yeah.

We're to a place now where the beds are built, we have the soil.

We have to deter all the slugs.

It's not gonna be one thing, it's gonna be three things.

-So let's start with the first one. You ready? -I'm ready.

I'm excited to see what it is.

-Okay, let's start at the ohia post. -Okay.

And obviously, with the post that stilts, we've limited the points of contact.

Have you ever heard of using copper in your garden to deter slugs?

I think I've heard of it a little bit, and I was excited,

-and hoping this was maybe gonna be one of the solutions. -Okay.

So rat lungworm is this crazy parasite

that the slugs are picking up from the rats,

and then they're transferring it onto the plants through their slime trail.

That slime trail, has some reaction to copper tape,

-So we're gonna create a six inch band. -Okay.

[narrator] Slugs use hemocyanin proteins in their blood

to transport oxygen throughout their bodies.

These proteins contain two copper atoms,

causing a sensitivity to ingesting additional quantities of copper.

The excess copper cuts off their oxygen supply,

which is fatal unless they flee to safety.

[Misty] So we have about 50 posts to wrap.

We're gonna hit each point of contact

with this copper, and this is just step one of three.

-Ready? -Okay. I'm ready.

-I'm passing it to you. Let's go. -[Claire grunts] Oh.

Hey, Marty, I got a question for you.

-You need something? -Just have a question.

Or a favor.

Something that I've been putting off for way too long,

and I'm just wondering if it would fit with what you guys got going on here.

If I could propose to Claire,

announce it to the world,

my love for her, I know it would mean a lot.

I think it's amazing and we would be honored to be a part of it.

-Thank you. -Yeah, I think it's really cool. Congratulations.

[Marty] When we rolled onto this homestead, I thought,

"Were these guys here just temporarily?"

Today, when Max asked me if it was cool,

to ask Claire to marry him while we were here,

that's all I needed to hear.

Because marriage is permanence.

It looks like Max is here for the long haul.

And this is an investment.

You're smart and you get stuff done.

You're a good worker and you're a good man.

-And both are getting really hard to find these days. -[Max grunts]

So, thanks.

[Max] I wasn't sure if proposing to Claire would,

you know, fit into what's going on here.

But what the Raney's have come and helped us get done,

has definitely taken a lot of stress off.

It's been something I've been wanting to do.

I just thought I'd go for it.

Congratulations.

-Thanks, man. -See you tomorrow.

-Talk soon. -Amazing.

[upbeat music playing]

-Max, climb up here, we got it. -[Max] Okay.

[narrator] With only 48 hours left to the rescue...

Frank, get in here! We stand on the wall, thank you.

[narrator] And the brutal Hawaiian sun beating down,

Marty takes on an ambitious challenge.

One. Two. Three. Easy!

Two builds at the same time...

the water catchment facility, and the new bathroom structure.

We're gonna get this family water.

But why not take it to the next level?

Let's upgrade the toilet, the shower.

Where you at, big guy?

We are plumb.

Marty is a character, but I enjoy working with him.

I enjoy working with hard working people.

This is money.

[Max] You don't need to say much.

You kind of know what needs to be done, let's get to work.

Done. All right.

-Is that a big enough window? -It's huge.

It will let in light.

Yeah, it'll let in light and it'll pass the air right through here.

Okay, so what I have is a used

upcycled, recycled, free cycled window

-that's an opener with a screen. -Great.

Same matching on the other wall.

Trade winds are gonna blow right through that doggone living room.

Family room, a gathering place. I don't know what it is.

-But clearly you see what's going on. -Yeah.

This is much more than an outhouse.

We're not only gonna upgrade the water catchment,

but we are going to take this water and sanitation to the next level.

That means now we have to build both of them at the same time,

in the hot sun, but things are moving fast.

My efforts here are trying to achieve a 100% guarantee

that these garden beds are free from rat lungworms.

-We did step one of trying to deter slugs. -Right.

The second step is gonna be, that's ready.

-I want to bring a little Alaska to the island. -Okay.

Building little A frames on top of

-these beds -Okay.

and actually enclosing them,

using screen, shade cloths, something sturdy enough

that is going to keep pests out.

I was really hoping it was gonna be something like that,

because we get, like, even more than the slugs, like moths,

that come in and eat stuff and so this will be perfect.

-[Misty] It's just never ending, -Never ending.

Lifting the beds off the ground, I think, will make a huge difference.

And then the copper, all these steps make vegetables and harvest it

and eat it, like Misty was saying, out of the garden as we go

just have it more peaceful and, like safe. It will be huge.

[Misty] The finishing touch for step two,

It's gonna be to screen every single door, right?

We're gonna fully enclose the A frame with screen.

-Which will also act as shade. -Right.

I keep thinking of more and more reasons why I love it.

[Misty laughs] Tell me!

Slug-proof. Chicken-proof. Cat-proof. Moth-proof.

All right, so we've added the screen doors.

We're slowly but surely, closing in each one of these garden beds.

So, step two is almost to a place where these are gonna be safe enough.

For Claire and all the kids, and Max and Harrison.

What do you think? Look around you.

-I love them. -Right?

-They're cute, they're functional. -Little A frames.

-Like this is becoming one of my favorite homesteads. -Aw. Thank you.

Because, the brother and sister homestead.

What was it like growing up with Harrison?

He was a big jokester.

-Who's older? -I'm older by two and a half years.

-Oh, this is me and Matt? -Yeah.

-Okay. So you're the big sister. -I'm the big sister.

How has this week been for Harrison?

Um, I mean, you can definitely see he's stoked.

He's like running around and ready to be in everything.

-And I think he also kind of felt, too like stuck in a rut. -Yeah.

-Everything was just kind of at a standstill. -Yeah.

So I know, for him, this is, like, huge.

And then also in the back of his mind, he's thinking

how proud our mom would be to see that we're like together,

-and we're doing this and... -Oh, man.

-Yeah. -Yeah.

How's he been doing with the whole thing?

-He's the one who found her... -Mm-hmm.

So I know it's really hard for him, like, that's heavy on his heart.

-Really traumatic. -Yeah.

And so I'm just so happy that

he can get gifted something like this.

Yeah. Yeah, he deserves it.

-Like he's been through a lot. -He's been through a lot.

-I'm so happy for you guys. -[Claire] Thank you so much.

-I'm so happy for us. -[both laugh]

I'm like, how did this happen?

I actually just remembered.

Bluma made you something.

So, I have to give it to you.

-Can I go grab it? -Yeah.

Okay.

Hi, Bluma.

Make it up this way safely.

[Misty] What are you doing?

I like your necklace.

-How are you? -Playing in the dirt.

Yeah, me too.

What is... is this for me?

Who's that on the front?

Oh! [laughs]

Is it Misty?

-Oh, man. -Did you draw Misty?

Are you kidding me?

These little things make my whole day.

And now, like, I know what I have to do,

is I got to get back to work

so Bluma can actually have a garden

she can eat from.

When we plant, will you come help us plant?

You want to come help us plant all the plants?

[Misty] My dad's gonna be so jealous.

[narrator] Across the homestead...

[whirring]

Matt and Harrison put the final touches on the livestock oasis.

We're building a jungle barn

for the livestock oasis.

You could put any livestock here.

It can keep chickens.

It can keep rabbits.

We also have a nice gated fence for the goats.

And just like any old barn,

it can contain all the animals on this homestead.

[Matt] Welcome to the jungle.

We've made a jungle barn.

-[Matt chuckles] -[Harrison] Mm-hmm.

[Matt] And I think it turned out really good.

[Harrison] Oh, One hundred percent.

This is such an upgrade. It's so cool.

I think the kids are gonna really love this.

Yeah, me too.

It's so cool that Matt made

the chicken coop so easy

and accessible for all of us

and the kids like...

This is going to be so much easier, doing chores

and just taking care of everything.

[Matt] What do you think about this space?

[Harrison] It's pretty sweet.

You need this place now more than ever

to process all your animal needs.

I'm glad that we got to the point

where we could build this table.

There's a sink in here,

and the bugs and stuff

are gonna definitely not be as big a problem.

You have so much electricity potential now

with your new solar system.

This is going to be, really come in handy.

One hundred percent.

[narrator] One week ago, the Gauss family

had temporary livestock pads

that were falling apart

and no sanitary space to process meat.

Now, they have a one of a kind livestock oasis,

complete with a chicken coop

and a living guava tree fence

to house their goats.

Nearby is a new meat processing station

and a private bath for Harrison.

We're like there, we're almost there

to have this amazing homestead.

My mom would be so happy

and amazed by everything.

Having this amazing property

that we can and flourish on

for the rest of our lives,

and I just can't believe

that her dreams are coming true for us.

It's just so amazing.

There's nothing you can't do on your homestead,

right here in this little shack.

Yeah. No, this is awesome. Thank you so much.

-You're welcome. -[Harrison chuckles]

[Max] Thanks to the Raney's

I get to let the whole world know

how much I love you.

Claire...

[Claire gasps] Oh, my...

[upbeat music playing]

[Marty] Hit it.

[narrator] It's the final day on the Gauss homestead,

and with just seven hours

until the Raney's hit the road.

This is incredible.

If it's getting the UVs, it's charging.

[narrator] Marty, James and the power team

finish installing the new solar system

and the vital water pump.

[Marty] Coming in, coming in.

Not a game changer,

it's a life changer for these families.

-Definitely. -Thank you so much.

[narrator] And at the garden site,

Misty employs her final step

to safeguard against pests.

Step three involves digging a massive hole.

Step three is the cherry on top.

Ducks. And I have a specific breed in mind.

Muscovies.

And they're gonna be like, the perfect solution

to keeping this garden ultimately safe.

-[Misty] We're hot and we're sweaty. -[Claire] Yep.

But guess what?

-You have safe food. -Yes.

[Misty] You ready to put in some plants?

[Claire] I'm ready.

I will forever remember Claire saying,

"Salads are a luxury."

And we are planting all types of greens right now.

Kale, arugula, swiss chard, romaine lettuce,

We kind of went all in when it comes to salad

and hopefully in the next couple of weeks,

Claire and the kids and Max and Harrison

are all eating one big giant salad.

[Claire] Bluma, do you wanna come help us plant?

Bluma, are you kidding me?

Like, so precious.

Go like this with your hand.

For me, it's just really important

to take a moment out of our day and out of our time.

and teach these kids

the homesteading lifestyle.

Seeing her reaction and just,

you know, creating this safe place for them to plant food

and all the things, everything matters.

Your mom wasn't joking.

You really are a good gardener.

Man, look at your spacing.

It's perfect.

Everything has room to grow.

[Bluma speaking]

And there's a little rock

Sometimes that helps with drainage.

Is it really big?

I'll get it. Wait.

I'll get it. Okay. Keep digging.

Thankfully, steps one and two were a hit with Claire.

I think she's going to be pleasantly surprised

with what I have planned for step three

All right, Claire.

I got a little present for you.

[gasps] Oh.

I got a little present for you.

-Muscovies. -Muscovies.

-And they eat a lot. -Right.

So, these guys, when it comes to slugs,

are gonna clean you out.

You know, I was really hoping

-this was the surprise. -[Misty] Really?

'Cause I was like, it'd be so great

if we had the ducks up in there

and they could just eat

-all the slugs. -Yeah.

-So, I am so happy? -You like it?

Muscovy ducks are a hard livestock to keep

because they eat too much feed.

So, they're the perfect solution

to exterminate these slugs.

So, we have our three step protection.

when it comes to these slugs.

Elevated beds with the post,

with the copper bands,

we have the A-frame screens,

we have the Muscovy ducks.

We're all set.

I just need one person

to sign off on it.

Would you eat out of this garden?

Yeah. I would. I think slugs are gonna have

a real hard time getting up there.

That's like music to my ears.

-That made it all worth it. -Yeah.

[narrator] Seven days ago, the Gauss family's

garden was in tatters,

constantly taken down by storms and animal intrusion.

While being exposed to rat lungworms, spreading slugs.

Today they have a central elevated garden,

complete with copper-lined posts,

A-frame coverings, and a Muscovy duck pond

to protect against the threat of disease.

[Misty] I have a really small, little engagement present.

It's not wrapped.

Okay, It looks wrapped.

This is great.

Yeah, congratulations.

-[gasps] It's a salad bowl. -[Misty laughing]

Oh, look. My gosh.

This is beautiful.

-Thank you so much. -You're welcome.

[quacking]

[Marty] Isn't this ironic? Look at this.

[narrator] At the catchment facility,

Marty has an unsettling realization.

[Marty] Check it out.

Solar panels, there's power.

There's a pump.

There's a pressure tank.

There's new water lines,

but there's no water.

We've cleaned this out.

We've bleached it.

You could eat off the inside of these tanks,

but it hasn't rained one drop.

This home stays out of water and we're leaving.

That just can't happen.

All these Hawaiians are telling me

that this is unusual weather,

and in fact, it's raining on some parts

of the island, I heard, but not here.

Here we are trying to water this homestead,

and there's no rain coming from the sky.

Look at all the effort that you

and Harrison went through

to cleaning this out.

It's looking great now.

Looking great, but it's dry.

It's hot out here and we're building containment and catchment.

And building gardens.

You bring in animals.

Everything we're doing is just add water.

And if you don't, you've got nothing.

But now the island of Hawaii takes care of itself.

Back it up. [whistles]

-[woman] Hi. -What's your name?

My name is Brenda.

-Brenda. -Brenda.

-How many gallons you have? -Four thousand?

-[Marty] Four. -Four thousand.

I understand that...

you donated this water?

-Yes. -Why would you do that?

Pay it forward.

I gotta say, every time I turn around,

there's a Hawaiian trying to help us out.

Yeah, well, we gotta take care of each other, right?

These homesteaders need water, and there's no rain.

[Marty] That's the bad news.

But here's the good news.

It actually rains 130 inches a year

it's over 10 ft of water.

It's coming.

This should sustain this family until the rains come.

[Marty] Here comes the water.

-Hey, Max. -Hey.

Take a look at that, bud.

[Max] Yeah!

It's so huge to have clean water.

We've been storing water

in those little dirty tanks,

open to the slugs and mosquitoes.

It's a life changer.

It looks so clean.

Makes me thirsty.

Have you ever had this much water on this homestead ever?

No, we've never had this much water on the homestead.

-Okay... -And never, never this clean water.

It's... it's life.

Check it out.

See this?

-Jet pump. -Nice.

-Pressure tank. -Huge.

So the second you plug that in,

we're gonna be pumping water.

The entire homestead will be pressurized.

From this epicenter of water,

You guys could run,

24 hours a day, all of the taps.

Open them up.

You're not gonna run out of water.

And you're not gonna run out of power.

That's how set up this homestead is right now.

[Max] Amazing.

You know what I like about these homesteaders?

[Misty] They're a brother and sister.

[both] Aww. [Matt] Wow.

Let's hug.

[Misty] And they still seem like

they like each other.

You're my baby brother,

and you try to act like the boss.

But really, I'm the boss.

Hey, Matt, I need your help.

Misty, I drove across this thing. No problem.

I don't act like the boss at all.

Now just go then, dude.

You got it.

[Misty] Whoa! What's happening?

[Matt] Nothing.

[Misty] What's happening?

[Matt] Nothing's happening.

Once you are a big sister,

it doesn't matter how big the beard gets.

This brother-sister power is gonna push this homestead.

straight to the Moon.

[Misty] We're like a shining example

of what a very healthy,

happy brother and sister relationship looks like.

Absolutely.

Ma'am, please come over.

[narrator] With work complete on the rescue,

Marty assembles Max, Claire and Harrison

for one last special surprise.

After meeting you guys

and hearing a few stories

of how you got started on this island,

I thought that I would give it a personal touch.

-Okay. -Uh-huh.

[Marty] Claire and Harrison's mom had a dream

of building a homestead.

Unfortunately, that dream never happened for her.

[Marty groans]

But I can see her spark ignited in the whole family.

So based on some stories

I've heard from you and you

I thought this might be appropriate.

[Harrison] Oh.

Aww...

-That is perfect. -That is beautiful.

[Harrison] Wow, nice.

[sniffing]

[sniffs] Thank you.

[Harrison] If my mom saw this going on,

she'd be so proud of us.

She'd just say, be so thankful

so happy for us.

Living the dream that she always wanted.

I know she's up there in heaven...

smiling down at us

and enjoying what we have going on.

I know she's here in spirit.

-Yeah. -I'm so proud.

[Marty] See if you can make your way up those stairs

with that little landing.

Okay.

And let's look and see.

-[Marty] Come on, Max. -[Max] Okay, right behind you.

[Marty] Come on.

-I like it so far. -Isn't it cool?

-Yes. -Full of space.

[Claire] Big windows.

These are 6-foot windows.

The trade winds can come right off the ocean and blow.

You want to look behind door number one.

Okay. I'm really excited.

[Claire gasps]

Oh!

Okay, we got the washer and dryer...

and a shower.

-[Marty] And a sink -And a sink.

-[Marty] And last but not the least. -And a toilet.

-[Max] Okay. -[Claire] I love it.

[narrator] Seven days ago, the Gauss homestead

was overgrown with invasive guava trees,

had no clean water source, minimal power

and only a small outhouse

for the entire family of six.

Today...

the guava trees have been cleared back.

They have a water catchment system

capable of holding 10,000 gallons of clean water.

Six thousand watts of solar power,

and a sanitary bath house,

complete with a toilet, shower, sink

and washer and dryer.

[Max] Thanks, Marty.

You ready, guys? You guys ready to go over there?

Go check out the chicken coop.

It's not every day that we show up on the homestead,

work hard, trying to help the homesteaders,

and then we find out they're not married,

but he wants to propose.

I'm so excited and nervous.

[Harrison] Take some flowers.

You guys, come over here. Take some flowers.

Thank you.

Thanks to the Raney's

and everyone who made this possible,

I get to let the whole world know

how much I love you.

[speaking softly] Oh, my gosh. Just shut up.

[Max chuckles]

I love you so much!

We fit together.

You're an amazing mother,

an amazing human being.

Thank you for taking care of us

and keeping our lives bright.

[chuckling] Oh, my God.

Claire,

please do me the honor

and marry me.

[sniffling]

Will you be my wife?

[sniffling] Come on.

Which finger does it go on?

[Claire chuckling] Come on.

[crying]

Are you serious?

[all cheering]

[Claire chuckling] You're so excited.

[kisses]

[Misty] Congratulations.

[Marty] Congratulations.

[Claire] I am in shock.

I was not expecting Max to propose at all.

[Max] I'm feeling very emotional.

Oh, yes? You're gonna cry?

I guess I'm trying not to, but... [sighs softly]

She deserves all the love.

I'm so proud of my sister and Max.

And yeah, so happy for them.

[Claire] Thanks, Harrison.

We are a family unit now

and I couldn't imagine doing it without the kids here.

[Marty] Why are you laughing?

i just... I'm so happy.

[Misty chuckling]

That makes me happy that you're happy.

I'm so happy. I never thought

that my dad would do that.

Especially on TV.

I can't tell if this is real or not.

-[Misty chuckling] Aw. -Honey...

Ask this man right here. Is it real?

-For really, real. -[Nayeli chuckling]

Nayeli's been bugging us.

Since she was probably three.

"When are you gonna get married?

I want to have a wedding."

So, I know she's ready to start planning.

Should we hug again?

[all laughing]

[Matt] Time to go, folks.

[Misty] It's time to say goodbye,

which is so sad.

[Marty] Probably never have seen

any homesteaders this dirty?

[Misty] Yeah.

[Max] Thank you, y'all.

So do you guys, work really hard.

This was a rough homestead

'cause we're dealing with a parasite

that literally

attacks and infects your brain,

and that's, that's no joke.

And to hear the garden is Max approved,

-it's like... -I love the garden.

It's official. You have safe food.

-All of you. -Awesome.

Sky's the limit, you know?

Now that you have the ability for cold storage.

You can process a lot of meat.

[Marty] I'm not worried about those tanks filling up.

You're never gonna run out of water.

And as long as that sun is shining,

you're never gonna run out of power.

That's amazing.

Appreciate you guys...

from the bottom of my heart.

I could've never expected this much

to happen in such a short amount of time.

And I'm just excited for our kids

to get to, like, see us happy

and having fun with them

and not always stressing about the little things

that we need to fix to make it

you know, safe for them.

[Harrison] Yeah, I just have to say thank you guys so much.

And I just feel so blessed to have you guys help us.

Couldn't ask for anything more.

You guys are amazing.

And I love you all.

Aw. [chuckles]

I'm not sure we can top that statement.

[Marty] Max and Claire and the kids

came to Hawaii

and picked out a little piece of paradise.

They brought over the brother, Harrison,

and he started clearing land.

But the homestead was temporary.

Now here they are, with everything

it takes to successfully Homestead.

These homesteaders they're gonna make it.

[all] Aloha!

[Max] Aloha! Aloha, Aloha,

[Harrison] How cool is that?

-[Claire] We did it. -High five.

[Harrison chuckles]

[Harrison] Since the homestead has all of its improvements,

it's been really nice.

-[Max] It's been going great. -[Harrison] Yeah.

The catchment has been full.

It's stayed full.

[Max] The catchment can pump the water

all over the property.

[Claire] The water has stayed clean,

and we're actually able to drink it now.

[Harrison] All of the animals seem super happy.

The goat pen is better,

the chicken coop's are really nice.

[Claire] We've got some deep freezers.

So now we can store all the meat.

The gardens are doing amazing.

We've had lots of harvests.

We've probably eaten out of the garden

every day, something from the garden.

The bathroom structure It gets a lot of use.

Everyone who comes over

and knows my mom is so happy

to see the "For Patty" sign

Making plans for the wedding.

We're gonna keep it really simple.

I still can't really believe it.

[Claire chuckles]

[Max] It feels more secure here

and been able to focus on some newer projects.

[Claire] Spending a little more time with the kids

and working on projects

that are like, more creative.

We're definitely living what my mom was hoping for.

What she dreamed for herself

and what she dreamed for us.

[Harrison] Thank you to the Raney's.

Huge Mahalo!

[Harrison] Such a dream come true.