Original subtitles

[instrumental music playing]

[Matt] We worked so hard, you know.

It's good to stop and smell the homesteads.

[Marty] Did you just say,

it's good to smell the homesteads?

-[laughs] -[Marty] Anyway.

It's easy to look back over all the homesteads

and all the work we've done

and remember the pinnacle moments.

But, it's also cool

to think about all

the moments in between

that nobody else has ever seen.

[Misty] Some of these moments

are kind of mind-blowing.

But big and small, they're all memorable.

[narrator] For nearly ten years,

the Raneys have travelled North America end to end...

We've been on this road before.

[narrator] ...visiting nearly every state in the country...

[Marty] Here we go!

[narrator] ...to improve the off-grid lives of homesteaders.

We have a future here and we didn't really...

[narrator] It takes ingenuity homestead hacks

and good old-fashioned help from friends.

[Marty] Three feet, two feet, stop!

[narrator] And for the Raneys

what didn't make it into the rescue episodes

it is inspiring and important to them as what did.

-[Marty] No brakes, no brakes, no brakes! -[engine sputtering]

Whoa!

[narrator] On this episode...

[Marty] Fore!

[narrator] ...the Raneys reflect on their

most memorable unseen moments from Florida...

-[Marty] It's a rattlesnake! -[man] Yeah.

[narrator] ...to Alaska...

[Matt] What is better for bear defense than using an actual bear?

[narrator] ...to Hawaii.

-[horn honking] -[Marty] Oh, Lord!

My mom, fifty years in Alaska just moved to your island.

[narrator] Lost scenes from rescues that have enriched the Raney's lives...

Good job!

[narrator] ...and inspired them to keep fighting

for homesteaders across the country.

Me and my dad, we started working on it.

[Matt] We should build this into the treehouse you always dreamed of.

Lift.

[instrumental music playing]

-[sheep bleating] -[Marty] We've been to nearly all of the 50 states

and every cross roads. Every hole in the wall,

postage stamp, little town in America

has a story.

[Matt] When we're on a homestead,

so many things happen

that nobody ever gets to see.

And we've been doing this for eight years,

visiting close to 90 homesteads.

[narrator] Last year, the Raneys added

a new state to their list

with a daunting rescue in Central Florida

where they find the Hass family

besieged by the swamp.

[Marty] Nice to meet you all.

[narrator] Known for tropical storms and dangerous wildlife,

-[lion roaring] -it's a region that challenges the unfamiliar Raneys.

[Misty] They have free standing water,

filled with gators.

I'm living in fear of alligators every day, by the way.

On that homestead, right, there was a what,

12 footer, in their front yard.

-[sighs] It's crazy. -[Matt] Totally insane.

[narrator] And in this lost scene...

[Marty] Hey buddy, flip that over.

[narrator] ...they come face to face with a new adversary

that reinforces their respect for mother nature.

[Brian speaking]

[Marty] What did you find?

[intense music playing]

[Marty] In Florida there was a this herpetologist

roaming around that homestead.

I have met more than a few reptile experts

and every single one of them has been bit.

[Brian speaking]

[Marty] Twenty feet? Copy that.

[Misty] What?

[Marty] What the...

-Oh my... -[Matt] It's a... it's a rattlesnake.

[snake hisses]

[Marty] Oh, my God!

This here is the eastern diamondback.

This is the largest pit viper in the United States.

[Marty] No. What?

[narrator] Found in the South Eastern United States,

the eastern diamondback rattlesnake is considered

the most venomous snake in North America.

With a maximum size of eight feet,

they can strike two-thirds of their body length.

Though most of the average 2000 bites per year do not result to death

a single diamondback bite can be fatal due to the toxins in their venom.

They kill red blood cells, cause severe tissue damage.

You just found it 20-feet from the garden?

[Brian] Yes, sir.

[Marty] That herpetologist,

he walked out with that snake on our exact path.

Crazy.

[Brain speaking]

Wait, aren't you afraid of snakes?

Everyone is afraid of snakes.

Just count your blessings, you live in Alaska.

Six hundred and fifty thousand square miles,

12,000 rivers, three million lakes,

the tallest mountain in North America,

a hundred thousand glaciers and did I mention

not one snake.

Ah! Alaska!

Home sweet home.

I'd love to come over and shake your hand

-and say thank you... -[Misty] It's rattling.

[Marty] But the rattlesnake's rattling, so...

[Brian speaking]

[Misty] He's saying goodbye. [laughs]

He's waving goodbye.

[narrator] This wasn't their only memorable encounter

on the Hass family's homestead.

[Misty] We've met a lot of people over the years,

but one of the best, cutest, sweetest

little homesteaders was Mini Marty.

[narrator] And in this lost scene,

Marty learns that even though this is their

first Florida rescue

the Raney's impact on homesteaders is far-reaching.

All right, so this is completely crazy.

Today one of the volunteers brought his son to work.

-What's you name? -Logan.

This kid is wearing a white cowboy hat, a white handkerchief

and a white shirt.

He reminds me of somebody,

I just can't put my finger on it.

Now, I don't want to get personal here but...

looks like we're dressed the same.

Because I like Marty Raney.

You like Marty Raney?

Why do you like Marty Raney?

Because I like his hat, his moustache.

How are doing on growing a moustache?

Say hello to your new little brother.

I have signed the adoption papers.

For us? Misty.

Misty, we're finally part of the family.

It's finally legal.

[Marty] I'm leaving Alaska in a couple of days.

You think your mom and dad will let you to come back to Alaska and work for me?

Um, she said yes.

-[Marty] Who said yes? -[Logan] My mom.

Your mom just said yes?

Let me think about that.

Okay? Jump off this log.

When we started travelling across North America visiting homesteaders

I never ever dreamed

that young people like this would

come along on the journey with us.

Thank you for that.

The greatest reward that I have taken away from all of this

is the fact that young people enjoy it.

So I hope we keep inspiring more people

and maybe someday the entire country

will be wearing white shirts,

white scarfs and white cowboy hats.

Hey, it could happen.

That homestead was cool.

[Marty] And speaking of places that have a pretty cool story,

I'm reminded of Tupelo.

[mimicking strumming guitar]

[Matt] Ask me if I like

the Tupelo hardware store.

[Misty] Do you like the Tupelo hardware store?

-Uh-uh-huh. -[Misty laughing]

[narrator] A region known for its fertile farmland and humid summers,

the Raneys travel to rural Mississippi

to rescue the Hill family,

where the team fights to keep a struggling

two-acre micro homestead viable.

[Marty] So it's not healthy for humans

-and it's probably not healthy for animals as well. -No.

[narrator] But when the Raneys find themselves short on parts

while building Marty's "Heartbreak goatel..."

[Marty] Let's go!

[narrator] In this lost footage...

[Marty] I'm all shook up.

[narrator] ...they retrace legendary steps to uncover a piece of music history.

What I like is a hardware store that sells guitars.

Once upon a time a mother took her little boy into that store.

He wanted to buy a BB gun and she was saying no.

And then the guy behind the counter said,

"Why don't you buy this guitar,

Elvis"?

[instrumental music playing]

[Connie] We are known of course for where Elvis got his first guitar

on his birthday in 1946.

This is known as the Elvis counter.

It was inside this counter.

-Where was that-- Was this-- -I tell all our visitors,

rock and roll started right there.

-[Misty] Oh my God! -[Marty] Right here?

[Connie] Right there. You're standing on it.

[Misty] We all gotta stand on there.

Give me your best Elvis dance.

[Marty] Elvis? Oh, man.

I'm not a... I'm not much of a...

Whatever you do, don't film his legs.

[dance music playing]

-[Matt] Wow. -[Misty] Mom had tickets to go see Elvis

and she got grounded by grandma bad.

So we're helping out a family that's got four kids.

Maybe we could buy

a guitar or two for these four kids.

We would love to give you one to take home to the children.

-What do you think? -[Misty] I love it.

-[Marty] That's pretty nice of you. -[Matt] Wow.

Well, it's pretty epic to go to a hardware store

for a set of hinges

and we left there with two guitars

-that they gifted us. -[Marty] Yeah.

That was a very nice gesture.

-[Misty] We gotta shop. -[Marty] Yeah, we do.

-We gotta shop. -Y'all got three buildings to shop in.

[Misty] Okay.

[Marty] We got our money's worth

when we went to Tupelo.

[Misty] So, I need a gate latch.

-Do you have like, any chain? -[man] Yeah.

[Misty] Little lighter?

We left with two guitars.

Little did we know at the time,

they were gonna come in handy

because we used them as a distraction

for the homesteaders so they wouldn't

see those cabins come in.

[Marty] We thought that we'd get you guys a guitar.

-[woman] Oh, my God! -I'll take any chord.

[boy] G.

[Misty] Those guys couldn't make the hairpin turn and we were just like

song after song, they're still not making it.

So another song...

[Matt] It's so cold, you guys. [laughs]

[indistinct chatter]

It's just funny how everything...

it always works out.

[Marty] This company came forward and donated

each of the oldest kids a place to live.

I'm...I'm like, yeah.

It's so appreciated.

Thank you.

[narrator] Just a few hundred miles away

in neighboring Tennessee,

the Raneys recue the Robinson family.

[woman] Welcome to our homestead.

[narrator] Working to make them more self-sufficient

on their ten-acre homestead...

That looks like a 700 foot water line.

[narrator] ...the Raneys need lumber to build a workshop

for Corbin and Donovan.

It's a little small.

You can't stand up.

[Matt] We are on a homestead in Tennessee

and I turned a BP chain saw

into the classic Alaska chain saw mill.

[narrator] And in this lost footage...

Things are gonna start coming together.

[narrator] Matt passes down and invaluable tool

to the young homesteaders.

[Matt] You ready?

The way this works is

you gotta be able to fit a log in between

two pieces of all thread.

One through here,

one through about right here...

An Alaska chain saw mill

is something that you build when you wanted to be able to mill lumber

without a mill.

You take a log

-and you put a big plank over the top of it. -[drilling]

Your saw just has all thread going through the bar

and as long as your board is flat with that top board

you let that saw rip,

slide it across that flat plank, you're gonna have a nice flat cut

all the way through to the end.

You don't have to buy anything from the store.

You don't to have to like, a branded like,

"Oh I got this special chainsaw mill." No.

If you have some nuts, washers,

you don't really need that much

to make a chainsaw mill.

They are slow, but if you are remote

and you need anything dimensional or flat,

that mill does work.

-[whirring] -Look at this thing.

Have cut anything yet?

[machine starts]

[Matt] We've done a lot of crazy hacks over the years.

They help you get the job done.

And they literally combine like

so many different concepts

that you could do

the work of many people with just two hands.

[engine whirring]

[Matt] Flip it. Corbin, grab on.

You know what? I mean, it cut pretty nice.

[Misty] It's really special to see

generational homesteaders, right?

I bought this place in 1945.

[horn honking]

[Marty] Oh, Lord!

That's my mom, right there.

-Nice to meet you. -Hey.

[instrumental music playing]

[Misty] Over the years, we've met all kinds of people

and that's a huge part of it, right?

Just all the history there,

-all the stories. -Oh yeah.

Some of the little things that happen every day

on the homesteads,

things that they never put on TV.

[narrator] The Raneys have travelled

thousands of miles across the United states.

[woman] Thank you for everything.

[narrator] Though cameras document every step of the process...

Sweet.

[narrator] ...not all makes it into the episode.

And when the Raneys rescued the Bowers family

in the green mountains of Vermont.

Welcome to Vermont!

Marty Raney.

-Brian. -Brian.

-Lara. -Lara.

Mark.

[Misty] Remember the time in Vermont where we show up,

there is no access to the homestead

except for that little rickety foot bridge, right?

[Marty] You built all of this

crossing that bridge across the water

-and packed it up the hill? -By hand.

[narrator] They must help the couple restore access

to the remote homestead.

[Marty] Good job!

[narrator] And in this never before seen footage,

a trip to source lumber for the new bridge

gives Misty a firsthand look at one of the oldest mills in New England.

Your father, is he around?

Yeah, he's in the mill.

Oh, yeah!

We've met all kinds of people

travelling all across America.

One that stands out in my mind,

is the coolest

mill guy in the entire world, Floyd.

-Yeah. -I'm Misty.

-Yeah. -What's your name?

-Floyd. -Floyd, nice to meet you.

What a beautiful place you have.

It is.

-It's beautiful! -Yeah.

He's 102 years old.

Still working?

Yeah, with his son.

I've had 25 birthdays.

[both laugh]

-Huh? -[Misty] Yeah.

-Me too. -I was born on a leap year.

-Are you serious? -Nineteen twenty.

Figure it out.

[both laugh]

I bought this place, I got discharged

the second of November, 1945.

I bought it the 17th.

This is actually of the old saw mills,

actually it's one of the last of this type.

[narrator] Since the advent of the circular saw

in the industrial revolution

milling technology has continuously evolved over time.

While today's mills have highly efficient

computer controlled machines,

the saws themselves are very similar

to their obsolete predecessors.

Many older mills like Floyd Van Alstyne's

are still fully functional.

A testament to the craftsmanship

and ingenuity of the time.

Man, I wish you guys could've seen that mill.

So much history, so much life and stories and love.

[Floyd] This mill here was made up in Montpelier, Vermont.

It's probably older than I am.

Yeah.

[machine whirring]

It was like one of the most unbelievable things I've ever seen.

And it's so terrifying.

And so loud.

I need lumber. I need four by four posts,

some one by and two by fours.

It's always really special to see

generational homesteaders, right?

They're still a family owned and operated business.

Like, come on.

Was his dad working on it that day, too?

I mean, man, there's longevity in that family.

[Misty] Okay, so, go get the long four by fours,

two by fours, and some two by six rafters.

[instrumental music playing]

[Marty] How crazy is it on the road of homesteading that we've been on,

we show up in Ohio.

A really nice family

decided to build their home out of...

30,000 tires.

[narrator] Nestled in the dense farmland,

populating Ohio's central region...

This is the craziest thing I've ever seen.

[narrator] ...the Raneys help the Broadhead family

fulfill their desperate need

to reinforce their home

made almost entirely of tires.

Straight out.

-That's straight out. -[Misty] Straight.

-[Marty] Okay. -[Misty] Wait!

-Holy crap! -[Misty] That's good.

A house built out of 30,000 tires?

Covered with cob.

Covered with cob, an earth home.

[narrator] The ancient building material known as cob

is still used around the world today

due to it's low cost, sustainability

and ease of application.

With a long lifespan in a variety of climates,

cob provides excellent thermal mass,

keeping home interiors warm in frigid winters

and cool in blistering summer heat.

This is it, a little mud and a little straw,

they bind together and then smear it on the building.

Kind of cool.

And that's when we found the "Cob father".

[narrator] And in this extended scene,

Marty meets an off-grid expert

who teaches him an essential bit

of homestead ingenuity.

-[Marty] All right. Who are you? -I'm Mudd.

Mudd. Your mom and dad

saw you come out

-of the womb. -They named me Mudd.

[Marty] Let me guess, it's because you--

[Mudd] It's because I build houses out of mud.

-For real? -All over the country,

Caribbean, teaching people how to build houses

from sandy clay soil and straw in their own yards.

-[Marty] For real? -For real. Yes.

[Mudd] There's houses 700 years old

in Yemen, seven stories tall, made out of this stuff

and people still live in it.

-Well, you are the "Cob father". -Yeah.

[laughs]

-[Marty] Let's see the "Cob father" at work. -[Mudd] All right.

We got our mud, we got our straw.

And if we're feeling dainty and we don't wanna get all muddy,

we actually go like this with the tarp

-and squish it in. -Oh no, that's not what I want to see.

-[all laughing] -[Mudd] That's right. I thought you'd say that.

-[Marty] Shoes are coming off. -[Mudd] You got it.

Anytime someone shows up on a homestead with their craft

that they really believe in

it's really kind of interesting. It's exciting, right?

-[Mudd] This is my wife. -The "Cob mother".

Yeah.

-And this is Sarah Mudd, she's our... -The "Cob daughter".

[Misty] The "Cob father" shows up with his family.

It's fun. You're mixing with your feet,

you're mixing with your hands.

And at one point you smeared,

God knows what's in the mud, across Matt.

[Marty] Matt!

Dude, this is epic.

-All I got to say Matt is, good job. -[laughs]

[all laughing]

This guy and his family travelled across America

smearing mud on the surface of a building,

swearing it's the best thing to put on it.

It's a technique that's been used for a thousands of years.

[Mudd] Once you get your hands in the mud,

it's addictive.

The Cob father, he made us a batch of mud

-we couldn't refuse. -[Misty laughs]

[narrator] Coming up...

[Marty] They had an old truck.

The problem is, it was quite a drive down there

and the old truck had no brakes.

I'm really nervous about the brakes.

Ready!

-[Marty] Uh-oh! -[engine sputtering]

Brakes are off.

We lost it!

The brakes, the brakes.

[instrumental music playing]

There's more things that happen every day

on these homesteads that are just like

stuff that nobody ever will see.

Remember that homestead in Oregon

in the Emerald Valley, the Knighten family?

So there was something a little bit outside

of the main focus of the homestead

but it was super important

to see the young homesteader, Liv.

[narrator] In America's Pacific northwest,

hit with an annual rainfall of up to 90 inches per year

the Raneys battle Oregon's coastal climate

while rescuing the Knighten family,

whose patriarch is in recovery

from a life threatening accident.

Andy had his electrocution.

What? What electrocution?

12,000 volts, buddy.

And you survived it?

Well, I died.

[narrator] With Andy debilitated

the Raneys fortified the infrastructure

from washing away on the homestead.

[Marty] People on the bridge!

It's forever etched in my brain, Misty driving a

frame of a car with no motor across this sketchy bridge.

[Marty] Watch out, honey. Watch out. Whoa!

[narrator] And in this never before seen footage,

Matt takes on a personal project

to fulfill the youngest homesteader's dream.

All right. Let's talk about this treehouse for a second here.

This thing is looking pretty unfinished.

-Yeah. -[Matt] But also looks pretty awesome.

Not everything on a homestead is all about livestock

and gardens.

Sometimes you have to do something

that inspires the homesteader

to want to be around more.

So that when they're done doing their chores,

they have a really nice place

where they can go and hang out.

Me and my dad, we started working on it

but then stopped.

-Yeah, and that was a terrible injury too. -Yes.

I think it's time that we start working on this thing again.

What do you think?

I really have been wanting to finish it.

Come on, I'll follow you.

So Liv is an artist.

Liv worked with her dad trying to build a tree house.

She actually wanted to turn it into an art studio.

This is like big enough for a tree house, house.

You could live in here.

I do plan on sleeping in here.

What's with these walls?

[Liv] This is kind of where we stopped.

We were building this wall for right there.

[Matt] I mean, we should start closing this in

and build this into the treehouse

you always dreamed of.

-Are you excited? -[chuckles] Yeah.

I am very excited for my treehouse to get done.

I'm excited for me and my friends

to be able to hang out in it.

-[Matt] You see this right here? -[Liv] Yeah.

It's basically like getting your brace on there

before you stand the wall up

and you don't have to worry about that wall falling off.

[Matt grunting] All right. Lift! Lift! Lift!

Think there's any spiders?

Probably.

We stood that wall up. Nice!

We're taking out this wall.

-It's actually supporting this roof. -[Liv] Yeah.

[Matt] So we're gonna use these two by sixes.

[drilling]

-[Liv] Oh. -[Matt] Pull it back.

How many spiders am I getting?

[Liv] So many.

All right. Perfect.

-Look, it's like really open. -Yeah.

We knew it was important to you and Liv.

When we left that homestead,

that treehouse is one of the coolest treehouses

we've ever built.

[Misty] This is cool!

Oh, it has a door!

Go for it. Go in!

[Liv] Oh...

[Misty] It's... what?

[Marty] Now, the word on the street is,

-you're an artist. -[Liv] Yeah.

[Marty] I saw some of it.

-So-- -There's one right there. [laughs]

What kind of medium do you usually work in?

Acrylic.

-She looked so happy. -Yeah.

She gifted me a painting. It hangs on my wall today.

That's cool.

You were Liv Knighten's

knight in shining armor, Matt.

-[Marty] Is it cool? -I love this.

This is amazing.

Oh that's the biggest smile I've seen since we got here. It makes me happy.

[narrator] But not all of the Raney's unseen projects

go off without a hitch.

Seven hundred miles northeast of Oregan's Emerald valley,

and over 250 miles from the nearest major city,

the Raneys rescued the Welchers in Montana.

Could you guys have picked a further out in the middle of nowhere place to live?

[narrator] Where the family needs logs for a new cabin

transported to a lower parcel of land.

[Marty] They had an old truck.

The problem is,

it was quite a drive down there,

and the old truck had no brakes.

[narrator] And in this lost scene...

[Marty] Oh! The brakes, the brakes, the brakes!

[narrator] ...Marty learns that when working on a remote homestead...

[Marty] Not good.

[narrator] ...for better or worse

you have to make do with the tools available.

[Marty] It was next of the last day before we left.

I was running out of time.

So the fastest way to get materials from point "A",

the top, to point "B", the bottom was just

get it down there on the back of that old truck.

I'm really nervous about the brakes.

I'm thinking about putting a rock behind it as a drag.

What do you think of that idea?

It's a good idea.

[Marty whistles]

[Marty] So I thought, Oh, I'll be really smart.

I'll tie a big rock on the back,

it'll serve as a drag.

What in the H-E-Double hockey stick!

[Marty] Welcome to my life.

-[engine starts] -Ready!

Drive.

[intense music playing]

The wipers work.

[laughs]

Whoo!

Nothing can go wrong until...

the chain came off the rock.

-And then you were just... -Gone?

[suspenseful music playing]

[Marty] Uh-oh! No brakes.

Oh the gate!

[engine whirring]

Whoo! [laughing] Whoo!

Uh-oh.

Where's my rock?

Oh! No brakes, no brakes, no brakes!

Oh.

[engine sputtering]

We lost it!

No brakes.

[intense music playing]

[engine stops]

That was not good.

[Misty] You could've got hurt

or worse.

And I'm glad you're okay.

I do have to say, your version of brakes...

Rocks!

Your version of brakes is like,

you're bringing it back to the Flintstone days.

'Cause who ties a rock to the back of a truck

and thinks that's gonna go.

[Marty] I'm just saying it was a little sketchy.

[Matt] I think we're gonna really have our work cut out for us.

Holy smokes!

Aggressive.

Look at that thing.

[Matt] Seven strand electric fence,

that's gonna protect the bees from a bear encounter.

[instrumental music playing]

[Marty] There's 50 states.

When you think about all the cool little towns

and what they're known for,

we've got the Oregon trail, they've got Lewis & Clark.

Abraham Lincoln's property.

But we've been places that nobody has ever seen.

It's pretty epic.

[narrator] Stretching the continent,

the Raneys travelled to North America's most extreme region, Alaska,

where the artic temperatures and sudden flooding

wreak havoc on Kristi Adams's remote homestead.

[Marty] Oh, yeah!

[narrator] And while Marty digs a new well to supply clean water to her cabin.

[Kristi] Flood water is coming through the outhouse and out.

-Ouch. You can't even prepare for it. -No.

-That's terrible. -Yeah, it's gross.

[narrator] In this lost footage...

So, most people put a pump in like this.

We're gonna put this pump in the bottom...

like this.

[narrator] He brings an out of the box idea to the installation

of the well pump.

We don't want this to get full of sand, right?

But there is some homestead hacks

on how to keep sand from getting in here.

More than one well driller has told me

that one of the best screens

that you can put on a well pump

to protect that pump from getting sand in it

is a garment that women might wear more than men,

but hey,

it's the 21st century...

[sighs] I guess it's up to me.

I'll do whatever it takes and wear

whatever it takes

to get the job done.

[Misty] Oh, my God. [laughs]

Dad, I can't unsee this.

[Matt] Wait, did it go all the way up and around

and come down the other side?

[Marty] Please slide it over the pump.

-[Misty] Dad, you wear nylon? -[Marty] Hey.

-Have you been wearing-- -There are some things

I've not told you kids,

but from time to time they come in handy

when I'm putting in well pumps.

[Misty] Dad, we have so many questions.

[laughing]

Like, if you lift your pant leg up right now,

what am I gonna see?

[Marty] The quality of that. Look at that, doubled-up.

Old school well drillers have done this hack.

Does that mean all old school well drillers

were wearing pantyhose?

We never tell.

Has Clint ever seen this hack?

Perhaps.

[Marty laughing]

[Matt] Dad was doing a chainsaw carving and he goes,

"Ah, I got to run in my pantyhose."

[Misty] What you do, Dad, a little homestead hack

if you get a run in in your pantyhose?

You just do like a little bit of a nail polish

on the top of the run, and it stops it from running.

-Really? -[Misty] Yeah.

-What kind of nail polish? -Any kind. Any color.

Any kind of nail polish for the next run in my...

...pantyhose. Okay good.

[Misty] Dad, what are you gonna wear

now that you don't have your pantyhose on?

I'll go get you some socks.

Or do you prefer panty hose?

[Marty] Don't worry about me.

There's another homesteader out there somewhere

that needs his well screened.

[narrator] This isn't the only time

Alaska challenged the Raneys ingenuity.

And while rescuing the Harpe family homestead

on the Kenai peninsula

-the Raneys get up close and personal -[bear roaring]

with Alaska's most formidable foe.

Look at that thing.

Remember that Harpe family homestead in Alaska?

It was in that mountain valley.

There was lots of salmon and trout

which brings in a large population of bears.

I think we're gonna really have our work cut out for us.

[narrator] While the Raneys helped the Harpe family

fortify their homestead from encroaching predators.

[Marty] Look how big this area is, my gosh!

[Matt] It's a BFZ, Bear Free Zone. It's incredible.

[narrator] The property's lifeline beehives are ravaged by the local bear population.

[bees buzzing]

[narrator] And in this lost project...

Matt helps aspiring homesteader, Ted,

convert an unused playhouse into an apiary

imparting the importance of bee keeping as a resource.

[Matt] All right.

What we can do with this apiary

is slow the bear down as much as possible

by having a nice strong structure,

where all the hives exist inside of.

An electric fence that is stretched around that apiary

like, seven times.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven strand

electric fence.

I really do believe that it's gonna protect the bees

from a bear encounter.

[narrator] The practice of housing beehives in an apiary

is used across the globe and predates ancient Egypt.

By mimicking the natural cavities

where bees build hives in the wild,

apiaries offer protection from predators

and adverse weather conditions.

For commercial beekeepers and hobbyists alike,

apiaries are an indispensable tool

for maintaining healthy bee populations.

I had bears and bees on my mind

for the homestead

and I really wanted to do something

to keep these bears at bay.

[Matt] What do you think?

[Ted] Yeah, like a week ago,

I didn't even know what an apiary was.

There's bees in there.

You got some live ones?

So, come over here.

These tubes are pointing in

to these two hives and there's bees

-in both of these hives. -Sweet.

With honey and insulation and all the things

that these bees need to survive.

One last thing...

[whirring]

[laughing]

That's terrifying.

That was genius!

Listen, that scared me.

If a bear nosing around there

and gets near that and that bear pops out of there,

that bear is gonna have a mental breakdown.

And he's never coming back.

What is better for bear defense

than using an actual bear?

-That thing is terrifying. -Yeah.

[Matt] Oh, my God.

[Marty] It's time...

to tee off.

[narrator] Sometimes, the Raneys take homestead hacks

to a whole new level.

Like when Marty attempts to string a guide wire

across Alaska's Matanuska river

to reconnect homesteader Garret Wolf to his property.

Follow me, come on.

I'm gonna tie a 100 pound test fishing line

to the golf ball.

We'll tie that fishing line to the main rope,

get it across, and we'll tie the main rope to the cable,

get it across, hook it up and we're golden.

[instrumental music playing]

[man] So close.

That was a warm up.

Ready?

You ever played golf before?

Little bit.

[crew clapping]

[Marty] That was good.

It broke the line.

It's too much shock, yeah.

[instrumental music playing]

[Marty] "No man is an island", no family.

Namely the Raneys are saying, "Look what we did!"

Because we know that a long list of people

supported us in the clinch.

[narrator] While Marty, Misty and Matt

have helped hundreds of people realize successful homesteads across the continent...

[all cheering]

[man] Yeah, that's awesome.

[narrator] ...the friends and family viewers don't always get to see,

are sometimes the glue keeping Raney rescues on track.

[Melanee] I would be stocked to check out your tank

-and see what it looks like. -All right. Let's do it.

[Misty] I like when family shows up.

Because you trust them.

And you know what they're capable of.

[Melanee] I can't imagine that that's clean.

So you know you're set and everything's gonna be okay.

Oh, no! Where's my ladder? [laughs]

[narrator] 2,400 miles from mainland United States,

Hawaii's tropical climate leaves inhabitants

like the Anh family vulnerable to high tides and hurricanes.

So the Raneys turn to a local Hawaiian for help.

[Misty] So I'm sorry

it's absolutely 100% true

nobody's helped us more

when we're in a pinch than Maciah.

[Marty] He's always got a smile on his face.

Very talented, very hard worker.

[narrator] And in this lost scene...

Maciah provides his construction knowhow

by helping suspend a garden trough...

[Misty] Babe, watch the tree.

[narrator] ...above a potential floodplain.

We built a flying food canoe with a sprout rigger.

-Not an outrigger? -[Misty] No.

Ah.

What happened?

Oh, dang!

It severed the plastic.

[Misty] Then of course, a plastic coated cable,

with hardware U bolts on it,

it has potential for it to sever,

and the whole thing's gonna slip.

Okay? And it happened.

[Michail] So these things aren't gripping on--

they're not gripping on, they need to go metal to metal.

-You know what I mean? -It runs up and down like--

Sh...

Okay, I'm gonna get the ladder and we're gonna restring it.

It's like a whole thing.

Whoo-hoo!

[Misty] You don't see blueprints for flying food canoe with a sprout rigger.

But, the weirder it gets, Miciah is just all in.

He's like, "Okay, yeah that makes sense."

-[Miciah] You wanna lift up. -[Misty] Okay, here we go.

[Miciah] Oh. Come up easy

'cause your bucket is tilting, yeah?

[Misty] Dude, this beam might break.

So Maciah grew up in construction.

And he's kind of like the guy that knows how to do it all.

He can problem solve on the fly.

Now you gotta be over there doing it.

[Miciah] Look, I can only do one.

[Misty] If you break it we're not friends anymore.

[Miciah] More?

Yeah, go some more.

[Miciah] Lift more.

[Misty] Mama pajama.

You can give that a try, what do you think?

So, to suspend something like that into the air

and have Maciah by your right hand man,

you couldn't ask for a better guy.

Oh, my gosh, Maciah. Good job!

[narrator] Three hundred miles away

across the undeveloped jungle,

covering approximately 97% of Hawaii's Big island,

homesteader Annie Ridgely fights to keep her off-grid dreams alive

while providing for her four children.

[Misty] How's it going?

[narrator] But what wasn't seen

is a surprise visit from a memorable member of the Raney clan

who thought Marty everything he knows.

One of our most memorable visits

to any homestead is when grandma came.

Hoist up some screws, please.

Thank you.

-[horn honking] -[Marty] Oh, Lord.

Hello!

My mom,

50 years in Alaska just moved to

-your island. -Hi.

Nice to meet you.

[Marty] This is the first time ever

my mother came to a homestead.

She's the hardest working, smartest person in our family.

What people don't know,

she was a trained concert pianist.

And she was my student.

What kind of a student was she?

My daughter-in-law was fantastic!

[both laughing]

Granda is the funniest Raney hands down.

Why?

Can we call grandma

and see if she has like a daily joke?

[Pamela over phone]

Hey, you probably don't remember me.

[Pamela laughing]

We're calling you because we need a good joke.

[Pamela over phone]

-Wow! Yeah! -Wow.

You made that up?

The one thing he was really right about was the cheesy jokes.

If only my mother had a sense of humor.

[man] Well, your mom does have a sense of humor.

She had you.

[all laughing]

[Marty] So everyone's against me.

[Pamela over phone]

-[Misty] Love you. -[Marty] That was fun.

She writes her own jokes.

Yeah, she writes her own jokes.

I probably learned more from my mom than my dad.

The cool thing about my mom is she is... always like this.

-She's always friendly, she's always nice. -[man] Wow.

Everybody that's in our inner circle

is nicer than us, smarter than us.

And when we're singing the praises of this team

it reminds me of how we're quite blessed.

[Marty] Well, I have to get back to work sadly.

-Oh. -You're welcome to hang out.

Okay, I'll let you know.

In fact, the homesteaders are quite blessed

to have this barrage of talent.

-[man] It's nice to have met you both. -All right.

Okay, nice to meet you.

It does in fact take a little help from our friends.

[instrumental music playing]

[Marty] All right. So, how was it?

Driving down memory lane, was it cool?

[Matt] I don't wanna get out of the car, man.

I can stay here forever.

[Marty] It might be a cliche but,

it's the little things

that really keep you going.

It's the little things that matter.

[instrumental music playing]

Okay. Come on over here, family. What's that say?

-[woman] See ya later alligator. -Exactly.

[woman] Love it.

[Marty] It was nice to take a little bit of a break.

But now it's time to head to a homestead.

Let's go.