All language subtitles for Homestead.Rescue.S12E09.1080p.WEB.h264-FREQUENCY[EZTVx.to]_[English] (SUBRIP)

[dogs barking]

-[growling]
-[dogs barking]

[man 1] Boys! Boys!

Boys! Boys!

-[Marty] Holy smokes.
-Look at that thing.

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

This is the worst bear threat
I've ever seen.

We've had bears
make it over electric fences.

-[man] Hey, bear.
-[dogs barking]

We've even had them
under the house.

[Misty] This is pretty scary.

Bears have moved
into this homestead.

[man 2 speaking]

-They were asleep in their
tent and a bear attacked them.
-Mm.

[Misty] There's nothing in
the freezers.
Zero food stores.

There's just nothing.
It's empty. This is
an impossible homestead.

[Marty] Here we go.

This homestead
will actually resemble

a fort that bears
cannot penetrate.

Drive it in!

There is a problem bear.
This is his homestead.

Dude, are you serious?
You've got bears in here
right now.

-[bear growling]
-[Marty] Bear!

[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.

But I draw the line between
their home and your homestead.

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

-Let's find some power!
-Yeah!

[narrator]
...and ingenuity...

It's perfect. Ha-ha!

[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.

[Misty] You've got to
love Alaska.

Fall moves very quickly
this time of the year.

You have to be
completely ready
to survive the winter.

I love fishing here.
Every time we fish here

and every time we come here,
though,
you see a lot of bears.

As winter
gets closer and closer,

and the leaves fall,
bears can get desperate.

[Misty]
It happens really quick.

-Wah!
-Oh, my God.

-Did it get you?
-Yeah.

Let that be a lesson.

That's how it happens.
Just like that.

[Misty]
That was really scary.

[narrator]
The Raneys are responding
to a remote homestead

high above the Kenai River.

Located in
Southcentral Alaska,

the region is a rugged
and wild mecca for flyfishing

and a spawning ground
for salmon.

The area also attracts
a heavy concentration

of one of North America's
largest predators,

the Alaskan brown bear.

Recently, the bears
have been driven closer to
the human population,

threatening homesteads
and killing pets
and livestock.

It's in
this dangerous environment

that the Harpes struggle
to hold onto their
off-grid dream.

-I'm Jen.
-I'm Mike.

-And we're the Harpes.
-[Jen] And this is
the Harpestead.

We purchased this property
17 years ago.

There wasn't really
much to it.

We've just kind of
whittled away at it.

We try to monopolize
what we can of the acreage,

and we've been running it
as a farm
since about 2006.

[Mike] Things were really
rocking around here.

We had, you know,
up to 12-plus pigs
on property.

Some of the best pork in
the valley.

We had over 50 meat birds
that we would process
every year.

Our gardens were flourishing,

and it was just some really
productive years for us.

But after the fire in '19,

things really dropped off
around here.

The Swan Lake fire
burned for five months.

It was doing
unprecedented activity,

and we were just
a valley and a ridge away.

-[siren wailing]
-We had a lot of waiting
to see where it would burn.

[narrator]
Over 170,000 acres of pristine
wilderness were destroyed,

which brought even more
dangerous consequences.

Displaced wildlife
was forced into the region
around the homestead,

bringing with them
Alaska's apex predator.

The bears, they kind of
just funneled their way
up here.

[man 1] Boys! Boys!

We've definitely had bears
actually get into the coop,

to the point that
they ended up killing

quite a few
of the chickens in there.

[Ted] That bear got into
Jen's beehives.

Our high tunnel
got broken into.

We've even had them
under the house.

[narrator]
The increase in bear activity
over the past three years

has threatened
this once-thriving homestead.

But bolder aggression
recently has paralyzed it.

This year,
we had a bear show up
in the early spring.

It didn't seem to have
a lot of fear for the dogs

and didn't seem to respect

any sort of boundaries
that we had in place.

[Mike] At this stage
right now, to put any
livestock on this homestead

would be detrimental to
the animal.

[Jen] And having a child
on this property,
I am very fearful

that he opens the door
at the wrong time

and comes into an encounter
with a bear.

It's personally
happened to me.

Homesteading here
has always been a lot of work,

but unfortunately,
with everything compounding
over the last couple years,

it's getting to the point that
if something doesn't
change shortly,

I don't know that
it's something that
we'll continue pursuing.

[dogs barking]

-[Marty] Hello.
-[Misty] Oh, my gosh.
It's like a dog party.

-[Mary] Hello.
-Well, hello there.

-Is it safe to get out?
-It's safe to get out.

[Matt] Hello.

-[Misty] How's it going? Hi.
-Jen.

Jen. And...

-Mike.
-Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you, Marty.

-Ted.
-Ted. Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.
-How are you guys?

-[Jen] Good.
-[Misty] How many dogs
do you have?

[Jen] Uh, we have ten
right now floating around.

I train dogs, and so I tend
to accumulate a lot of them.

We also have our son
who's nine. He's at school.

Okay. How do you fit
into this program?

So I became friends with
these guys a couple years ago.
Live in a yurt up there.

I'm originally
from St Louis, Missouri.

And the last three years,
Jen and Mike were

teaching me how to homestead.

I do fear for my safety
out here because of
this aggressive bear.

It's super destructive,
and I'm constantly on
the lookout.

I have definitely noticed
quite a bit more wildlife
recently,

-especially some bears.
-Why is there
an increase of bears? Why?

A couple years ago, in 2019,
there was the Swan Lake fire.

Massive forest fire
over there in the refuge.

And that kind of destroyed
a whole bunch of habitat

for those bears
and other wildlife.

And ever since that fire,
you'd notice an uptick
in animals

migrating from over there
to up here where it's still
fresh and green.

Uh, we also have plenty
of rivers around here

that have a lot of salmon.

Have you actually
ever thought about how big,

how tall the brown bears are
in Alaska? Look at this tape.

-That's so scary.
-Oh, no. I'm not done.
You ready?

Right... there. Ten foot.

That's how big
the brown bears are in Alaska.

[narrator]
The Alaskan brown bear
grows up to ten feet tall

and can weigh 1,200lb.

With a bite force of over
1,100 PSI,

these apex predators
could crush a bowling ball

or a human skull
without flinching.

This time of year,
before hibernation,

they're most aggressive,
as food becomes
its number-one priority,

making it
a real and present danger
to wilderness homesteads.

-How long have you lived here?
-2006.

[Marty] Did you build
the house too?

[Mike] Yeah.
It was a family event.

-Jen and her dad designed it.
-Nice.
Is your dad still around?

He is not, unfortunately.
He just passed away
this spring.

-Oh, I'm sorry.
-Yeah.

This spring, unfortunately,
I lost my father, um,

which was a very,
very hard thing for me.
Definitely Daddy's girl.

He was kind of the person
who made me who I am.

He always had faith in me.

He helped me do all of this.

The way that my father

was an influence
and a parent in my life,

I hope that, in turn,
I can pass that on to my child

so that, hopefully,
he fondly looks back

and remembers me the same way
I remember my father.

[narrator]
But with nature reclaiming
the Harpes' homestead,

cutting off
their main sources of income,

Jen has been forced to find
another way to make
ends meet.

[Jen] I did take a job
that leaves me away
from the property quite often

so that we can pay the bills
and keep the roof
over our head.

It leaves me
pretty disconnected
from the property.

I would absolutely
hate to give up
on the dream of being here,

but I feel like I have
one foot in and one foot out.

[Marty] That whole area
down there

you cleared off,
what was this all about?

[Mike] So this here
is what we ended up with

as the final corral
for our livestock.

We've reared up to 15 pigs,

and we've had
four to six goats.

We lost our last goat,
um, this last spring,

and we have lost poultry.

[Marty] There's no question
that these homesteaders
have a serious problem.

I'm thinking that
the pig pen is too far away.

I'm thinking that
the chicken pen
is too far away.

Right now, today,
if a brown bear
came to this homestead,

it could come
right to the edge of
the property

and have bacon and eggs,
and not one person
would have a clue.

They wouldn't know.
And bears avoid people.

At some point, we have to
talk about the fact that you
bought the side of a mountain.

-Yeah.
-Because it's steep.

-I mean, look,
I'm standing next to you.
-Yeah.

If we're going to do
anything on this property,

we're going to have to get
these structures closer to
the house

and create some level space.

Tomorrow, I'm gonna be sitting
in an excavator,

resculpting this five acres.

[dogs barking]

-[Misty] Oh, my word.
-[Jen] This is
the high tunnel.

[Misty] Look at this thing.

[Jen] It's a little
overwhelming right now.

-[Misty] How big
is this thing?
-[Jen] It is 30x72.

[Misty] What a crying shame
an empty high tunnel is.

It's harvest time. That thing
should be packed to the brim.

Explain to me why this looks
the way that it does.

For sure,
I honestly didn't even
come in here much this spring

once issues with
the bears started.

It was just kind of low
on the priority list

as far as things that
I was able to get to.

Did a bear ever
try to get in here?

-Yeah, I can show you.
-You wanna show me?

I had suspected that
the bear might have gotten
into the high tunnel.

-[Misty] He went in?
-[Jen] He went in.

It was probably
only about six weeks ago.

-Only six weeks ago? What?
-Only six weeks ago. Yeah.

We're talking about
a bear that is,
like, almost four feet wide.

This is
an impossible homestead

'cause you're dealing
with an impossible predator.

So you combine that with,
oh, yeah,
and they have a kid,

these are major,
major problems that do not
have easy solutions.

So as far as food goes,
you're heading
into wintertime.

Right now.
Snow in the mountains.

What are the food stores
looking like?

We normally have about
three-plus freezers filled.

And what do you have now?

Um, anything that
we have left over
is left over from last year.

So we really don't have a lot.

[Misty]
They're going into wintertime
with zero food stores.

They've canned nothing.
There's nothing in
the freezers.

Just nothing. It's empty.

So we have to figure out
another food source,

because the season's over.

[Matt] What is this tent?

[Ted] So this is where
anything that, you know,
you want to eat

over the course of the winter
is stored here

in freezers and refrigerators.

They're mostly empty now.
But chickens, fish, the pigs.

Okay. So this seems like
a pretty important structure

to have a tree smashing it

or potentially get smashed
by other trees
that I see here.

[Ted] Yeah,
this is kind of like
the lifeblood of the property.

Ted showed me
their food storage,
and it gave me bearanoia.

It's not even a shed.
It's a glorified tent.

It's not manageable.
There's zero bear protection.

All it takes
is that one bad encounter,

and things aren't gonna go
so well.

It's only a matter of time
before this thing
gets ransacked by a bear,

-and then you don't have
any more food storage.
-Yes.

Okay. There's a lot going on
on this little
five-acre homestead.

Yeah, the forest fire
came and went.

And that fire went out
and I think, at the same time,

their homesteading dream fire
went out as well.

Everything you have
in your homesteader
back pocket

on bear defense is exactly
what this homestead needs.

[Matt] Yeah. And I think
our biggest thing we need
to do is

consolidate everything
and create usable space

where all these animals,
anything that
we're gonna introduce,

could actually have a place
that's manageable.

[narrator] To help
the Harpes reclaim their
Alaskan dream from bears,

the Raneys will design
and build a homestead fortress

enclosed with an
eight-foot game fence.

First, Marty will scratch
a new foundation

into the mountainside
to consolidate the homestead

closer to the human footprint
of the house.

Misty will move and redesign
the existing chicken coop,

strengthening, expanding
and bear-proofing
the exterior.

While Matt will
focus his attention

on building
a new food storage locker.

It might be
the most challenging
thing ever to say that

you're going to bear-proof
a homestead,

especially in Alaska.

We can do as much
as we possibly can
to deter a bear.

The more we can kind of
layer up the defense,

then we can make it
as bear-proof as possible.

It's not like I can't relate
to this property on
a mountainside.

Crazy driveway. Bear problems.
We have it all.

What you have going for you
is you have Alaskans

standing at your doorstep.

So everything
we've learned together

on how to deter bears
is what we're gonna do.

-Excellent. Yeah.
-So are you prepared
for a little bit of mayhem?

-Absolutely.
-[Marty] Okay.

Committed 100%.

-Okay, so thank you.
-Thank you.

And we'll see you guys
in the morning. Fair enough?

[bear growling]

[Misty] Head on up.
Head on up for a sec.

[narrator]
In Southern Alaska,

with reports of
more aggressive
bear encounters in the area,

the Raneys bring in
a local bear expert

for a refresher on safety.

So whether you see a bear
close or far,
three simple rules.

Rule number one is don't run.

Rule number two,
don't scream or yell.

Rule number three,

if you do have a bear
approaching you,
raise your arms up.

Just try to
make yourself appear
as a larger entity, right?

And then start talking
to the bear in a stern,

you know, meaningful voice.

At that point,
you should already
have your bear spray out,

and be ready to deploy it.

And if you do need to
spray the bear,
just keep doing it

until you empty the can
if you have to at that point.

Listen to this story.
Jamie's worked with us

on other homesteads
in this area
in the Kenai Peninsula.

And I was listening
to the news one day,

and there you were.
What happened?

Well, we were camping
out in the Skilak Lake area.

-About 15 miles from here.
Okay.
-Yeah.

And I swore I heard
three distinct blasts

of a safety whistle
followed by, "Help".

I started hollering out
to the people
to see what had happened.

They were asleep in their
tent, they heard something,
and it was, of course, a bear.

And unfortunately,
when they heard it,

it startled them awake
so they both sat up.

It surprised the bear.
The bear attacked them.

And even though
it said I had no signal,

the 911 dispatch
emergency patch
did go right through.

He's gonna have to have
a few surgeries down the line,

but at the end of the day,
we have living friends.

That bear safety meeting
put a lot of things
into perspective for me.

It just goes to show
that bear encounters

happen at a moment's notice.

-Thanks for
the good reminders.
-Absolutely.

-Thank you so much.
-Yeah. Thank you so much.

-All right. Back to work.
-All right.

[Marty] Everybody have
bear spray?

[Misty chuckles] I want some.

[dog barks]

[Marty] All right.
Here we go. Careful.

We're fortunate enough
to get a excavator

to move a mountain of dirt.

Get out in front of me.
Get out in front of me.

It will take the excavator
to tweak, bang and clang

because we need to consolidate

all of the creatures
on this homestead

where they can be observed
and they can oversee
any activity.

So my goal
is to give them flat surfaces

on a mountainside homestead.

[narrator] To carve out
a new homestead footprint,

Marty will grade and level
two separate
30x60-foot terraces

directly in view
of the main home.

One for immediate use,

and the other for future
livestock grazing
or expansion.

Then once the homestead
has been consolidated,

he will enforce
the perimeter with
an eight-foot game fence.

-[Mike] Yeah. Bingo.
-Next!

[Mike] The fencing here took,
you know,
four of us ten-days-plus.

And to see Marty take it down
in a matter of minutes...

he's making it look
pretty easy.
Pretty amazing.

-[Marty] Whoo!
-[Mike] Yeah.
That's the real deal.

[Jen] So this is
the old chicken coop.

This is the first
structure that we built,

-the first barn that we built.
-Okay.

[narrator] On the edge of
the homestead, by the Harpes'
former chicken coop,

Misty and Jen look for ways
to restore the structure

for the reintroduction
of livestock.

So this is pretty scary to me.

[Jen] You do see bear
pawprints on the glass.

He broke one of the windows
in the back of it,

got in there,
chased the chickens around,
killed some chickens.

-That's really wild.
-Yeah, yeah.
It's pretty scary.

[Misty] This is one of
the most intense chicken
coops I've ever seen.

There is a problem bear.
He lives here.

This is his homestead,
not theirs.

And I'm thinking to myself,
"Okay, this place,

this homestead, it needs food.

But if we bring
livestock here, how are we
gonna keep it safe?"

-We're really far
from your house.
-Yes.

-We need to bring food here
this week.
-Yeah.

What is that animal?

-It's gonna be livestock
of some kind.
-Yeah.

Do you think
if we try to move this,
it will stay in one piece?

That's a valid question.

The most effective way to keep
your livestock alive in Alaska

is to have the pens
really close to the house.

I wanna save myself
a ton of time,
a ton of materials, hopefully,

and just hook onto
this chicken coop and
move it to a better location.

[narrator] Misty and Jen
will first dismantle
the dilapidated lean-to

before moving the coop
to its new home

within ear and eyeshot
of the Harpes' house.

Then they will add
a fully enclosed chicken run

that will extend
beneath the coop structure

before reinforcing the walls
with a layer
of bear-proof armor.

[Misty] When was this built?

-It's probably been up
for about ten years.
-It's made it a while.

[Jen] This is one of
the first structures
we actually put on,

and it was just kind of
the start of
homesteading here.

I would absolutely love to
see kind of the first thing
that we've done here

actually successfully move,

um, and be able to
keep it here
on the property.

There you go.

[Matt] Sweet. That's good.

[narrator]
Across the homestead,

Matt and Ted break ground
on the new food locker.

[Matt] Now I feel okay about
building something here.

One of the hardest things
to find on this homestead
is flat space.

But we're making progress,

and it's gonna be
a perfect footprint

to build a shack for all the
food storage to be bear-safe.

[narrator] Matt will start
with a raised
10x10 foundation

before installing
a sloped roof designed
to shed winter snow.

Then he will fashion
a locking mechanism

for the handmade door,
durable enough

to withstand the force
of a brown bear.

You can't start building
a shed

unless you have some kind of
foundation in,
which we do now.

We got all our pier blocks in.

-Now we're gonna build a deck.
-Okay.

So grab that saw,

and we'll just start
cutting everything to
the perfect size.

And then we'll start
slapping it together.

-You in?
-Yeah, I'm in.

Cool.

When I first came to
the property, it was more
of a functional homestead.

I was learning a lot
from both Jen and Mike.

And then things kind of
just started slowing down,

and the nail in the coffin
was the bears.

[Matt] That is
a beautiful cut right there.

[Ed] So I'm super excited
to get this property
up and running again.

Part of the reason I moved
up here was so that I could
learn how to homestead

so that maybe
I could do it someday myself.

All right. Sun's out.
Homestead's out.

Okay, so let's screw it.

Okay, it's gonna work.

[Marty] What I'm doing now is
I'm just trying to figure out
what we got for material,

but there's just enough
rock in it.

[Mike] Yeah,
it will be grown over.

Picasso would have loved
this piece of property.

Why? Because
it's got steep angles
everywhere you look.

-Can that stump go?
-[Mike] Get her out.

[Marty] Our job is to create
our own masterpiece,

take those steep angles
and make them flat.

Hm.

Where's that water
coming from?

That can do a lot of damage.
It can saturate a lot of land.

I hate showing up
on a homestead,
and the terrain is that steep,

and then I start digging
knowing that I'm gonna

probably find springs
and create more of
a problem,

and that's exactly
what's happened here.

[narrator]
Snowmelt and heavy rain
can saturate the soil,

eroding the foundation,

causing a catastrophic failure
in ground stability

or even a mudslide
with the potential

to wipe out
the entire homestead.

[Marty] We got to find out
where it's coming from.

We gotta figure out
what we're gonna do with it.

Not good.

[Marty] I don't like it.

[narrator] While grading
an area for the new
homestead footprint,

Marty has encountered
standing water threatening

to further destabilize
this steep
mountainside homestead.

Okay. So we got a culvert
that's basically dry.

-Yeah.
-It's dry in there.

[Mike] I know.

And a trench full of water.
I mean, how deep is this?

If you don't have to have
standing water
on your property...

-Yeah.
-...let's get rid of it.

I agree.

-Fair enough? All right.
-Yeah.

We'll jerk that culvert
out of there,

-set it off to the side, dig
the trench, put it back in.
-Yep.

Wanna just look at
the slope of that
or put a level on that?

[Mike] Let's do it human eye.
I'm all about it.

-That's cowboy construction
there.
-Amen, brother.

All right, let's hit it.

I'd venture to say that

at least one million culverts
have been put in wrong.

Fire in the hole.
Make it a million and one,

'cause the one
right over there
on this homestead

wasn't even functioning.

That's a nice culvert.

Now I'd like to get
a strap on it.
And don't get killed.

-And, hey, partner?
-Yo.

-Wouldn't break my heart
to double it.
-Okay.

Our job was to rip it out,
dig it deeper,

fix the trench,
give it a good fall line,
and...

[Mike] Here it comes.

...try to drain the swamp.

That's running like
a son of a biscuit.

-Let's put a culvert in.
-Let's do it.

There you go. Take her down.

What we're doing
is digging it out
to get that water moving.

And we'll reset
the culvert here
and put some fill on top.

[Marty] How are we doing?

-[Mike] We're getting
some good flow.
-[Marty] All right.

[Mike]
What I saw go on here today
made my head spin.

I mean, huge progress.

And, you know, at times,
it's hard to
see things change,

but you know
it's for the better.

We've got water. Looking good.

[Matt] Okay.
Let's stand these walls up.

Awesome. Good job.

[narrator] At the site
of the new food locker...

[Matt] This is called
a sheetrock scribe.

[narrator] ...Matt gives Ted
a crash course
in homestead construction.

You make your mark
on this seam.

Use your finger down here.
Some people use
a block of wood.

Sometimes you'll need to,
'cause you will get splinters,

-depending on
the type of wood.
-Okay.

Working with Matt Raney
has been great.

He has so much information.

-[machine whirring]
-[Matt] Something
sounds weird.

[Ted] Yeah,
I went in a bad angle.

I can't wait to see
what else he has
in store for me.

[Matt] Okay. Now screw
this wall into that wall.

It's extremely important
that we work alongside

every homesteader
on every homestead

and make sure they have
the skills to take
ahead into the future.

And when
I started working with Ted,

framing up
this structure here,

I realized
he had no experience.

Good.

I'm teaching him from
the ground up how to build
this shed from scratch.

-Let's start working on
the rafters.
-Sounds good.

[Matt]
It's a great way to learn

because you're not gonna learn
any bad habits.

And Ted is really getting
a ton of experience

that's gonna help
this homestead a lot.

-That feels good.
-All right.
We got a really nice template.

Let's start rolling
out these rafters.

[chainsaw whirring]

[Misty] All right,
I got the trees down.

[narrator] A few acres away,
Misty and Jen prepare

to move the coop
closer to the house.

I feel like
we can use the skid,
hopefully lift the structure

and kind of feel it out
to see if it can be moved.

I feel like it can be.
But even get
some skids underneath it,

rig it with these logs.

Get it to a place
where we can hook up to it

and just yank it out of here.

-Uh, but in the meantime,
we'll just keep moving.
-Okay.

-That sounds like
a plan to me.
-Let's do it.

[Jen]
So the plan that we have
going on right now is that

we're trying to basically
build something
underneath this coop

so that we can hopefully
pick this thing up

and move it to a new location
that's more convenient.

Okay, here we go.
We're gonna lift.

[Jen] There you go.
Oh, you're under it.

[Misty] Okay. We're ready
to move this thing.

-How's everything looking?
-[Owen] You gotta turn,
like, right now.

One thing about visiting
homesteads in Alaska is,

we can tap into our community
of friends and family.

So I have Maciah,
I have Owen,
and I have Jen.

So between the four of us,
hopefully we can
move this chicken coop.

It's, like, not gonna be easy.
The building's old.

But for Jen and Mike,
it's really important.

Here we go.

-The thing is on the move.
-[Jen laughs]

[Maciah] Good job, Misty.
Looking good.

[Jen] It's very important
to me that we'll keep

-some of the structures that
I previously had.
-There you go.

[Jen] My father taught me
the knowledge and
the skillset that I have.

And he and I built
a lot of this.

[Misty] Okay, moment of truth.
We gotta do
a wheelie over the ravine.

[Owen] Oh. Hold on.

Uh...

Sure enough,
the chicken coop's
pulling away

and sliding down the mountain.

It looks crazy.

We're, like, inching
down the mountain.

Should I lift
on that close strap?

[Owen] I don't know.
It's really wanting
to go down.

-And then we're gonna lose it.
-[Owen] Yeah, down that hill.

Sit. Sit. Sit.

Stay.

[Misty] The worst thing ever
would be

to have the chicken coop
roll down the side
of the mountain.

I'm gonna need backup.

-[Marty] What have we
got here?
-So we got a little sideways.

-[Marty] It's like a luge.
-Yeah, we're at
a tipping point, Dad. Look.

Look at the log. So we can't--

-I wouldn't be
on that side of it.
-I know.

It's not great,
but we're doing really good.

-This thing was over there,
right?
-Yeah, we're doing good.

-We've had
some highs and lows.
-Keep telling me that.

Here's what I've heard
all morning.
You're doing good.

-[chuckles]
-But this building's
about five minutes

-from rolling down
the mountain.
-[Misty laughs]

And how about this?
I'll come alongside you
and just hold it here.

I'll get right down here,
put my bucket here.

We might need a tire.
Stick it in between that

and the building,
I'll be real happy.

In a normal family,
the daughter runs up to
the dad and says,

"Hey, can you help
me with my homework,

or change the tire
on my car?"

But in my family,
you get requests like this.

-How weird is this gonna get?
-[Maciah] I don't know.

[Misty] The building's
completely sideways,

and I'm pulling
with the skid steer,

and my dad is holding it up
with an excavator.

There's a tire involved.
I hope we make it
in one piece.

Okay. Dad, that's as far as
I can take it.

You gotta take over.
I'm passing the baton.

Cut it loose
and get out of the way.
Thank you.

On a homestead,
if you come together
and work in harmony,

you can move a chicken coop

any place
to your heart's content.

[Misty] Yeah!

-[Marty] Where do you want it?
-[Jen] That's looking good.

-Yoo-hoo!
-What do you call that?

I'll tell you.
Poultry in motion.

[women chuckle]

Now that it's in its
new location, you can see it
from the front door.

We need to bear-proof
this thing, so that's gonna be
the main focus.

-Okay. Yeah.
-Ready?

-Let's do it.
-Sounds great.

[Misty] We did it!

[bear grunting]

[Marty] We've been digging,
and pretty sure
we've discovered

where all of the water's
leaching, right?

In our quest
to give them flat ground,

there must be
half a dozen areas

where water's seeping out
of the banks
that I've exposed.

So we have
trenches everywhere.

But at some point,
those trenches
have to go somewhere.

I've brought in
a 20-foot culvert,

but we've got a problem.
We have a 20-foot culvert,

but we have to span 32 feet.
So we went into cowboy logic.

Um, do you have
any roofing material here?

I got some, uh,
sheets available.

[Marty] You bring them
down here, we'll make

-a homemade homestead culvert.
-All right.

[Marty] Hey, he's got old
roofing material that
he salvaged God knows where.

Yep, perfect length.
I'm impressed. Good job.

But that old roofing material
is going to be used

as a extension on
a 20-foot culvert.

Grab the end of this log.

We're gonna set that
right on that metal.

So this old-school way

of doing things
the homestead way...

Pull that over.
Get it to fold under there.

...not having
all the right materials

directly off the shelf,
brand-new, from a store,

this cowboy mentality,
that's what I'm all about.

Oh, love it.
I didn't save those things

for eight years
to let them just sit there.

Ha. It's good to see
they're getting put to use.

Yeah, that's looking good!

[machine whirring]

-[Matt] It's working.
-[narrator] Up by the house,

Matt puts
the finishing touches
on the food storage locker

with a doorway strong enough
to keep out a ravenous bear.

Okay, I got a crazy idea.
Oh, yeah.

A lot of people don't
know this, but I recently
took up blacksmithing.

I'm gonna try to make
a bear-resistant latch

to prevent bears from getting
into their precious
meat storage.

On this homestead,
there's no anvil.

But I do have
acetylene torch...

an excavator
and a big, heavy hammer.

That's all I need.

We're actually starting to see
a piece of rebar

turn into a really useful,
strong tool

that's gonna prevent bears
from getting into that food.

All right.
Now we're bending steel.

I think this is gonna work.
Whoo!

We got a hole going
straight through
into the wood.

I'm gonna put
a pin in this way.

It will be easy for
a human being
to just pull that pin out.

But a bear's gonna be
wracking its brain,

making itself tired
trying to bust into
this hinge,

going through
the heavy-duty steel.

Awesome.

[dogs barking]

[bear growling]

[dog barking]

[Mike] This is good
bear travelling country here.

[narrator]
After hearing noises
on the homestead overnight,

Mike takes Marty
into the surrounding forest

in search of signs
for the potential culprit.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
What's all the activity?

This is almost like
a natural game trail
right here

at the bottom end
of the property.

Over here, Marty.
Look at this.
Got some older sign.

And then we got, it looks like
some little bit fresher tracks

right in here. Look at that.

-[Marty] Yikes.
-[Mike] Yeah,
that's some old brown bear.

-Yeah, this is-
-Ho, ho, ho.
I got it right here.

-Holy cr...
Dude, are you serious?
-[Mike] Yeah.

Not far from this homestead,
there's world-class
fishing rivers.

These bears know
human presence.

But we've taken it
to the next level.

Chainsaws and Skil saws
and banging and clanging.

In spite of all of this
unnatural noise,

these bears
are still right here.

Pretty impressive.

You got bears
in here right now.

This is a really high level,

really crazy
bear activity homestead.

You know, after we leave,
are they gonna be
fully prepared?

Are the coops or the pens,
is it gonna be
secure from bears

and the Harpes
are gonna be set?

[Marty]
You gotta think about
the Alaska brown bear.

It's a very aggressive animal
at times.

The question is,
at those times,
are you prepared for it?

That's kinda what
we're dealing with here.

There's three types of fences
laying in a pile right now.

I ripped them
out of the ground.

They had the traditional
electric fence.

They had an upgraded
high-tech electric fence.

They had six-inch squares,
right? Hog panel
or farm fence, whatever.

All of them clearly failed.

There's one fence that I would
recommend for this homestead.

It's the fence that
we put in at our property.

And that is
an eight-foot tall,
higher than that,

eight-foot tall,
high-tensile strength
game fence.

[narrator]
Traditionally made from steel

and stretching anywhere
from four to ten feet tall,

a proper fixed-knot game fence

differs from
a traditional fence
in both strength and stature.

While more common uses
range from managing livestock

or lining rural highways,

high-tensile game fences
are used in zoos
and wildlife preserves

to keep more dangerous
animals at bay.

May not be a cure all,

but it's better than anything
these guys have ever tried.

When you combine that
with other bear deterrent
methods,

it definitely helps.

And I also have
bear deterrent ideas,
but mine are old-school.

I'm just going
with what's tried and true.

Have you seen how close
the coop is to the house?

Like, that alone
makes all the difference.

So we're halfway there
for bear security,

but I have a few ideas
as well.

I wanna know how prepared

the homesteaders
themselves are when
it comes to bear encounters.

I wanna test
the homesteaders and see

if they can actually
hit something with bear spray.

-Cool.
-Have you ever done
a bear spray?

Um... [laughs]

I did everything
the guy said not to do.

-The wind was blowing.
And then it--
-You got it on yourself.

Nothing hit the bear,
and I was like this, crying.

Couldn't see a thing.
Waiting for the bear
to maul me.

Yeah. So the first time
you used bear spray,

-like everybody,
was when it was do or die.
-Yeah.

And so why don't people train
how to use bear spray?

-That's a good call.
-Let's get back to work.

-Sounds good.
-All right.

All right.
So let's talk a little bit.

[narrator] With
the two terraces complete,

Marty and Mike move
onto the next phase

of the homestead fortress,
fencing.

[Marty] And you've probably
seen that around Alaska.

Comes off of the oilfields
up in the North Slope.

-We call it drill steel.
-[Mike] Uh-huh.

I wanna install
a lot of fencing

all under the banner
of bear-proofing.

We're not gonna build
a four-foot-tall fence.

We're gonna build
an eight-foot tall fence.

-[laughs]
-We're gonna stick these
in the ground four feet.

We'll probably go
every 20 feet.

Then we're gonna put
a high-tensile
commercial game fence

that's eight-foot tall
in profile.

We're gonna pull it tight
with an excavator
and secure it.

Keeping a bear out,
this is kind of
the go-to fence.

-We're going in straight.
-Yep.

-Fair enough? You ready?
-Oh, yeah.

[Marty] Okay,
straight up and down
from my perspective.

-[Mike] Looks good here.
-A lot of rock.

-[Mike] There she goes.
-[Marty] Now that we've built
a place of refuge

for chickens, goats,
whatever they wanna bring
to this homestead,

we took it to the next level.

Eight-foot-tall,
high-tensile strength fencing

is a deterrent for anything.

Grab a pipe. Here we go.
Ready? Going in.

-[Mike] Towards you
just a little bit.
-[Marty] Thank you.

[Mike] Looks good.

Watch out, my friend.
Watch out.

[Mike] The tall game fence
is something
that we've always mentioned.

You know, "Wow,
wouldn't that be great,
to have a game fence?"

Especially with a lot
of the critters

that we've had here
over the years.

Just something
of this magnitude,
this is top-notch.

This is exciting,
to get a fence.

[Mike] Yeah, it is.
Especially a game fence.

Yoo-whoo!

It's one thing that
I don't have to do now.

[Marty] We've got limited time
to provide this homestead

with bear-resistance.

The clock's ticking.

[Mike] Keep going. Keep going.

[growling]

[narrator] Later that day,
with the fenceposts installed,

Misty aims to level up
the chicken coop.

[Misty] All right.
Is that long enough,
you think?

I love the new location
of the chicken coop.

It's right out their
front door. You can see it
from all their windows.

And it just gets
an incredible amount of sun.

But I just need to figure out

what kind of bear protection
are we bringing to the table?

Because, obviously,
there's a bear problem.

This coop is made
out of 17-year-old OSB,

which is this pressed,
engineered plywood.

It's not meant to last,
so I wanna beef it up.

I wanna put on
my chicken coop armor.

We actually scored
from the mill
that's right here

a bunch of rough-sawn lumber,
and I wanna use it as siding.

I was thinking
it might be easiest
just to throw some metal up.

Like, do, like,
a little metal wainscot

and then, like,
plank siding above that.

[Jen] I think that's
a great idea. I like it.

-[Misty] Okay, here we go.
-[Jen] Yeah.

[Misty] So we're gonna
eyeball this right now.
Here we go.

Working with Misty is fun.
Really fun.

Getting to work alongside
another woman
who knows carpentry,

she brought
things to the table
that I had no idea about,

as far as trying
to defend everything.

It's really fun
to get taught that.

[Misty]
Let me stand back and look.

Oh, yeah.
It already looks better.

[Jen] Truly, there's things
that have been on my plate

that I have wanted to do,
I've dreamed about doing,

and I've not ever
been able to find the time,

the money, the resources
to make happen.

Um, so having them come here
is absolutely amazing.

And it's even more important

because I have
to leave, unfortunately.

I work remote at one of the
gold mines up in Alaska,

eight hours away from here.

And I have today and tomorrow
with you guys,

and then I will be
pulling out of here.

-[Misty] Oh, my gosh.
Two more days?
-Yeah.

That's crazy to find that out.
That's good to know.

-I'll make sure my dad
and Matt know, right?
-Okay.

Like, we're pretty similar.

That's probably why
we get along good.

-Is that the way it works?
I don't know,
-but it's been fun.

-But it's been... It's like
hearing myself talk.
-Yeah.

So, like, it's not...
You gotta have
some really thick skin.

-Yeah.
-Be really tough. [both laugh]

I'm sure it's been really
difficult for Jen to be,

like, this thriving farm that
the community depended on,

to being like, "Man, we had
a rough spring and summer,

so I gotta go to work.
I gotta find a job."

But hopefully, that's
a very short-lived thing,

and she can come back,
next spring, hit it hard

and just get back on step.

Um, so, you know,
I'm entrusting you guys

-to do this. [both laugh]
-I'm gonna miss you.

I know.
I'm gonna miss you too.

It's been fun.
It's been really fun.

Oh, no. Our time is cut short.
And then there was just me.

-[laughs] Yeah.
-Oh, man,
I can't believe that.

We're gonna take this
over to that, grab that end.

We'll take it over to
that fence.

[narrator] Less than half
the week remains
on the homestead,

but the workforce
is about to gain
another member.

Hey, guys.
Someone's home from school.

-[Misty] Yay.
-I want you guys
to go ahead and meet Bayne.

-Hi
-Yay. Hi, Bayne.
How's it going?

I like your freckles.
I'm a big fan of freckles.

We've heard a lot about you.

-It was all good.
-[chuckling]

-How do you like living
out here? Pretty crazy?
-Mm-hm.

-You guys have a lot of bears.
-Yeah.

We have a lot
of bears, too, but I think
you guys have bigger bears.

Dealing with a predator
like a big brown bear
in Alaska,

not one, not two,
but many is really difficult.

And Bayne's really young.

He's an only child
out in the middle of nowhere,

and I think that's where,
you know, the pressure lies.

You wanna come work with us?
We could use
an extra set of hands.

Wait, I could use
an extra set of hands.

-Wait, wait.
-Probably be an operator.

Ooh. We should
rock, paper, scissors
of who gets Bayne as a worker.

-All right. Hit it.
-Okay.

Rock, paper, scissors, shoot.

You guys don't know
about excavator.

[all laugh]

Matt gets Bayne.

-I win.
-Wow.

Oh, wow.

[Matt] A bear will
charge at you
35 miles per hour.

Bear!

[Marty]
You can come to a property.

But it really means nothing
if the homesteaders
aren't invested.

I'm about to give them a test
and the only grade that
I'm going to accept is an A.

-Okay. So we got some 16-penny
nails. You got your hammer?
-I got my hammer.

Jen's been a huge help
every day.

And unfortunately,
she leaves tomorrow.

We still have
a ton of things to do.

We have insulation to finish,
perches, laying boxes,
chicken run.

So for me, we gotta split up.
We gotta divide and conquer.

And it's gonna give me
a chance to really see
what Jen's made of.

So I would love to be able
to make bear-proof shutters

that we actually attach
to the outside of
the structure.

I've seen them in Denali Park
with cabins with, like,

bear claw, like,
scratches on the cabin,
and the cabins are intact.

So if it works there,
it's gonna work here.

Okay. Let's make one.

Okay.
So this ain't no joke, folks.

Making a bear-proof shutter
is literally...

When you flip this up,
every point of entry

will have bear shutter on it.

And as soon as they reach up
and they put their paw
on that...

Touch that.

-Yeah, I wouldn't
wanna do that. Yeah.
-Yeah.

So we're gonna pound
about 100 nails
into this one shutter,

and it's gonna be random,
and every, like,

couple inches,
we'll just go for it.

So I'll take one end,
you take one end.

-Okay.
-Okay. Sounds great.

[Misty] How are you
keeping livestock alive
on the Kenai Peninsula?

It's not one thing,
it's multiple things.

It's combining, you know,
fencing with live wires
with bear shutters.

Obviously, Jen knows
the importance

of bear-proofing
the chicken coop.

They've had
a lot of bear activity
with the chickens.

Uh, for me, it's about,
"Hey, let's try
this technique."

She didn't know.
She's never done
a bear shutter.

-Let's flip this thing over.
-Okay.

Okay, here we go. [grunts]

Oh, yeah. That's medieval.

[Misty] Little tricks,
especially when
it comes to bears

are gonna be really handy
on this homestead.

You have a window
that's 12 inches by 36 inches.

So it's like a long,
skinny guy.

And I want you
to make the bear shutter.

-Okay.
-All on your own.
Can you do it?

I think I can do it.

Misty went ahead and
taught me how to build
these bear shutters.

And so I'm just trying
to get a couple more made

so that on the chicken coop,
all the doors and windows
are gonna be covered by them.

-Misty, you wanna come
check this out?
-Yes.

-I think I got it.
-All right.

Yeah. Yeah.

-What do you think?
-I love it.

-Think it'll work?
-Yeah, let's go
hold it up in the window.

Okay.

This is new. I personally
didn't know they existed.

Um, so it is something that
I think we'll be implementing

on kind of all the coops

and, you know,
really anything that we can
to help deter the bears.

-How are we fitting?
Yeah, man.
-I like it.

-Okay, we'll put some hinges
on it or a little slider bar.
-Okay.

-And this thing
is the new bear shutter.
-Okay.

-[Matt] How you doing?
-[Bayne] Good.

So I'm really glad
you're here, Bayne,

because I've been thinking
about this bear danger
on the homestead.

-[Bayne] Mm.
-And we're gonna do
something special,

-and I think something that's
gonna be really important.
-Mm.

Many Alaskans bring bear spray
with them in the wilderness,

and they use bear spray
for the first time

when they have an encounter
with a moose or a bear.

I think it'd be
a really great idea
to train using bear spray.

Something that's safe
that you can
shoot around your property.

It's not gonna
mess with your dogs.
It's not gonna attract bears.

And it's not gonna
make you go blind
for a long time.

One thing I know about bears
is their noses
are real sensitive.

So if you can get something
that irritates a bear

-really bad on their nose...
-Yeah.

...then you can get that bear
to go away and move away.

And that's why
they invented bear spray.

So this is
a training canister,
which means if I spray this,

it's not gonna
mess with our noses, it won't
mess with a bear's nose.

That way, you can spray
and test our skills
with bear spray.

First things first,

a bear will charge at you
35 miles per hour.

What they do is
they put their head down

and get
whatever they're going for.

If a bear is gonna charge you,
where are you gonna aim?

-Probably down.
-Exactly.

And that's why I put the X
on the bottom.

Basically, you start low
and go high.

-Are you ready
to start spraying?
-Yeah.

Bear's coming for you.
What are you gonna do?

-All right.
-[Matt chuckles]

That's a good spread there.

That was pretty good.
All right, Bayne. Okay.

That was good.
Sometimes it's just
a little shot,

and sometimes you have to
just empty the whole can.

Well, check this out. I wanna
make this as real as possible.

When the time is right,
you're gonna have to
draw the bear spray

and defend yourself
from something big.

We got a high level
of bear danger
on this homestead,

and I wanna see how prepared

these homesteaders are
for a bear encounter,

whether the bear encounter
is nonchalant

or it's full-on crazy.

-Okay. Are you guys ready?
-Yep.

Give me a second.

-Bear! Bear!
-[Ted] Oh!

[all chuckling]

Using myself as a target
inside an inflatable bear suit

sounded like a really
good idea at the time.

Get me out.

But when I ran in there,

I think I trained
Ted and Bayne
a little too well.

Unzip it.

Because they sprayed

the ever-loving heck
out of that suit.

Bear!

I think Bayne went in
the hardest

and just unloaded the whole,
entire canister
right into my face.

-[laughs]
-[Ted] Good shot.

Oh, wow. I gotta tell you.
I got sprayed real bad.

You both did amazing.
[chuckles]

After seeing how well
Bayne and Ted
performed with the bear spray

when they were
really put to the test,

shows me that
they're a lot more prepared

to face a bear
on the homestead
than they've ever been.

I feel good about where
this homestead is
with bear preparedness.

Our work here is done.
Let's get back to
the projects.

[Marty] Clint, we'll hook
this one on right here.

[narrator] With the homestead
fortress on hold

as Marty and Mike wait
for the fencing to arrive,

Marty has a plan to build
some much-needed

covered storage
on the lower terrace

while also
putting Mike's off-grid
building skills to the test.

[Marty] Sometimes
I move a little fast.

I never talk to the people.
They don't know
what I'm up to.

It's one thing
to cut beetle-killed trees,

protect the homestead
from the next forest fire,

but it's better if you can use
those trees
to build something.

In fact, I approached Mike
with that scenario.
He was all in.

But what he doesn't know
is I'm about to give him
a test.

This is really
a lot about instruction.

Yeah, encouragement,
inspiring,

but what are we
actually teaching you?

You got a roto hammer
in your hand.

The bit is sitting on
a rock...

and we just moved
four logs into place.

What do you think
is gonna happen?

-Probably secure these logs
to the rock.
-With what?

-Drilling a hole
and some rebar.
-I love it.

So do me a favor.
Find the center of that

and see if you can virtually
bury that bit.

I'm gonna cut some rebar.

[Mike] The skillsets
that Marty has,
it's incredible.

It's very inspirational.

See if that will go down
that hole and you'll know
when it bottoms out.

You'll know. Hear that sound?

-Oh, yeah.
-Done.

You can come to a property
and build structures,

create fencing,
and move a mountain of dirt.

You guys communicate.

But it really means nothing
if the homesteaders
aren't invested.

Okay, hold right there.

Can you bring it down
just easy?
Nice and easy, bring it down.

-Okay, we're on it.
It's in the hole.
-[Marty] If it's in the hole,

then hold that thing vertical
and he'll hit it with an ext.

[Mike] Yeah. There she goes.
It's going.

There it is.

We have a structure
going in there,
using some primitive

materials that
we've gathered here.

And it'll have a roof on it
and be dried in.

Every covered area
in a homestead

that keeps stuff dry
is super valuable.

So your job is to set it
on top of there.

-Okay.
-[Marty] Take that level
and push it up.

He's got it close.

Some people are fully
immersed in embracing
the homesteader life.

It's perfect.

I got that feeling from Mike.

You're strong. I like it.

As this whole project's
taken hold,
you get excited.

You feel the motivation,
the energy.

And these people
bring a lot of that.

-You're clear.
-[Marty] Money. Done.

Grab us another log!

-[Misty] All right, Jen.
-[Jen] Hey.

[Misty] You ready to, uh...

-Wait, my foot's stuck.
-[Jen laughs]

-Wow.
-Like--

[all laugh]

[Misty] Not even kidding.

Whoo.

Yay!

Wow, this is, like, the second
damsel-in-distress moment
this week.

[narrator] With only two days
left in the rescue,

Marty, Matt, and Misty
are ankle-deep in projects

designed to bring
the Harpe homestead
back to life.

[Marty] Hey, come on over here
for a second.

[narrator]
Including the addition
of a brand-new well pump

that will greatly increase

their water flow
for future livestock.

We've pulled the pipe and
the pump all the way out,

knowing that
we needed to replace it.

-We put a one-horse pump
in there and motor.
-[Marty] Wow.

[Dave] And then we added
seven sticks of pipe

to get us back down
towards the bottom of
the well.

So right now, how much water
do they have
on call right now?

You'll have about 600 gallons
of water per day.

-Awesome.
-That's what
this thing makes.

Oh-ho-ho.

-That's huge. Yeah.
-That is--

-[Marty] 600 gallons?
-[Mike] That's a win.

-That's awesome. That's huge.
-[Marty] Wanna do laundry?

-I do, yeah.
-You wanna get goats and pigs
and chickens and dogs?

-I do.
-More dogs?

Yeah, all the dogs.

-[Dave] You got enough water.
-That's awesome. Thank you.

All right, let's go down here
and see what's happening.

[Marty] Look at that.
The strongest fence
that money can buy.

Ready? Let's roll it
over here a little bit.
[grunts]

[narrator] Now that
the fencing has arrived,
it's time for Marty and Mike

to wrap it around
the newly installed posts.

I think we're ready
to manhandle this

down to the other corner.
Ready?

Bears will walk through
most fence.

But this is the go-to fence

if you're trying to keep
something big in and out.

Oh,
this is real-deal stuff here.

-You love it?
-Yeah.

Makes me feel good.

-Yeah. Yeah.
-If you'll hand me a board,
board one.

-[grunts]
-Watch that bear window.

I wanna put the screws
on this side of that wire.

Anybody building a fence knows
at some point,
you gotta stretch it.

Chicken wire,
you might stretch it by hand.

Bigger fence,
you might pull it
with a four-wheeler.

I've pulled it
with a snow machine.

But we've got an excavator

and the most skookum fence
known to man.

And we're gonna pull it hard.

You're gonna be able
to play a tune on this thing.

Give it a swing, Clint.

Don't be shy. Hold.

Perfect. Let's see
if we can pull this up.

Ready? One, two, three.

-You see how cool it is?
-Mm-hm.

Isn't that amazing?

-Okay, you wanna go
around that fence.
-Yep.

Pull it as hard as you can.

[grunts] And then
we're going to pin it
to the post.

Guess what?
I want one on every one.
Can you handle it?

-I got it.
-Okay. I'll be down here.

[Mike] We're just securing
the fencing here
to the posts.

This is about as good a fence
as you're gonna find

right here for big game.

This is used in our
Alaskan animal sanctuary

just over the hill here
to keep all of Alaska's
animals in.

So for us,
it's gonna be keeping
all of Alaska's animals out

and keeping our critters safe.

Okay, turn. I have an idea.

I wanna take just, like,
an hour

and try to bang something out.
So here we go.

[narrator]
On the main driveway,
with Jen preparing to leave

for her remote job
eight hours away,

Misty has a final
going-away surprise.

I like this.

We don't have a ton of time
to do anything extra
on a homestead,

but I think it'd be worth
a couple hours

to do something nice for Jen

and recognize your dad's
such a big part of
this homestead,

even though he's passed.

Okay, that was really heavy.
Okay, I'm gonna go get Jen.

I have high hopes
for this homestead.

And maybe Jen having to
go away to work is
a very short-lived thing.

And I 100% think
that this place will be...

thriving one day very soon.

I just wanna show you
something really quick.

-I made you a little present.
-Oh.

-Thank you.
-You're welcome.

-Do you wanna try it out?
-I do.

[both laugh]

I just thought it'd be worth
my time to

just like spend a couple hours
and do something nice.

I really appreciate it.
Like, really appreciate it.

-I'm gonna bawl.
-[both laugh]

Did you learn everything
from your dad?

-I learned everything I knew
from my father.
-Really?

[Jen] From day one,
I was in the garage
with him fixing vehicles.

Um, I was building sheds.

I was working on the house.
I was doing all these things.

Um, and... [sniffles]
...you know,

he'd just...
I was his constant sidekick.

I mean, honestly, like,
I watch you and your dad
work together,

and it was a lot like that.
This really means
the world to me.

Mostly coming from you, too.

-Good.
-Truly.

-Thank you.
-You're welcome.

So the Harpestead
is complete now

-with this little bench,
I feel like.
-It is.

-Thank you.
-You're so welcome.

[both chuckle]

Oh, yep. I love it.

My father was, obviously,
a huge influence in my life.

Um, and, it just...
You know, I hope that

somewhere, somehow, you know,
he's seeing this
and is proud...

'cause it really does mean
the world to me.

I will be leaving
to go back to work.

And, you know, it's
kind of a lot of weight

on my shoulders
to walk away from all of this,

um, and to know
that my husband

and my child are here
and keeping up with it.

-Packed up
and ready to head out?
-I am.

-All right.
-I'll see you
in a couple weeks.

Drive safe.

-Bye.
-I love you.

-Give that little guy a hug.
-Be a good boy.

I've really enjoyed
working with the Raneys.

I think it brought in
a lot of motivation,

a lot of energy, um,
and a lot of great ideas.

From the bottom of my heart,
I can't thank you guys enough.
Truly.

I am hopeful that
this job that I've taken is,

you know, a transition
back to the property,

so that I can be home more
with the family.

We'll actually take those
like a log cabin style.

It will resemble a fort
where the bears
cannot penetrate.

The goats just showed up.

It's freezing.
Snow line's moving down.

So they need heat.
They need protection.
They need a cool place.

What are you asking me?

I need room for two goats
at the manger.

In here?

[Marty] How's it look?

-[Mike] There you go.
I like that.
-[Marty] Thank you.

[narrator]
On the upper terrace,

after installing
the high-tensile fence,

Marty and Mike race the clock

to complete the final step
of the homestead fortress,

protecting the vulnerable
entryway.

[Marty] You got some more
hooked? Thank you.

Well, I told Mike,
"I'm gonna build you
a fortress."

I built him
the same fence that I have,

except he has something
I don't have,

and that is a huge pile
of telephone poles.

We're gonna use them.

It will actually resemble
a fort where the bears
cannot penetrate.

We'll actually take those
like a log cabin style.

We'll just notch 'em
around this.

We'll lay 'em right there
since they're treated
telephone poles.

-Yeah.
-Lay it right on the ground.

We'll notch,
notch, notch, notch
all the way up here to there.

No bear will ever get in.

-No bear will ever
go through that.
-Okay.

[Marty] I know you know how
to do log work. You've got
a log barn down there.

-Okay, let's go.
-All right.

-Give me some saws. Quick.
-Let's do it.

When they were doing
some pole replacement

here in the neighborhood,
they needed to get rid

of old poles,
so we gladly stored them here.

They've been stowed away
for about three years.

[Marty] Got marks.
We've got marks.

-Right here.
-Thank you.

Whoo!

Ready? Follow me.

I think compared to anything
that we've had
on this property,

this is gonna be as good
as you can find.

You wanna flip a switch
from knowing that

you're behind the eight ball
to all of a sudden,

you're getting lifted up
and put back on your feet.

[Marty]
That's gonna hold a bear.

It's almost dreamy.
It's overwhelming.

There's so many emotions
that you go through.

Little telephone hardware.

-So this will be a cool place
to hang a light.
-Yeah.

Did I ever tell you I was
a professional logger once?

Oh, yeah.

See a bear get through that.

What we're trying to do
is put the spacing of
the poles here

so there's no room
to reach through.

This is gonna be great.
This is awesome.

[Marty] But it's not finished.

-Well, how's she look, Ted?
-That's solid.

[narrator] By the house,
Matt shows Ted

the homestead's new
and improved food storage.

This is a lot more solid
than that tent.

This is not just a place
where you put freezers.

You could put
vacuum sealers in here.

You could put everything
to process meat

and freeze meat, store food.
And the most important
part is,

this is a lot more
bear-resistant
than that green tent.

If a bear comes up here,
it might be able to,
you know... [grunts]

But it's gonna have
a really hard time

pulling this little homemade
cotter pin that I got here.

Pull the pin.

-Still can't get out
until you pull this.
-Okay.

And then
you gotta pull the door...

like so

and then you can get inside.
What do you think?

Wow, yeah.
That will keep them out.

[narrator] Six days ago,
the Harpes kept
their hard-earned food stores

in an outdoor tent

vulnerable to the elements
and invading wildlife.

Now with the addition of
a 10x10 reinforced
food locker,

the Harpes have a safe space
for food storage

that won't attract
unwanted guests.

This is much safer.
That's for sure.

The shed with the freezers
is such a huge improvement.

I feel safer that
we have all of our food

in a much better structure,
as well as a processing area.

A lot of fish
go through this property.

So I can't wait to just get
to vacuum sealing and storing.

I think things are gonna run
smoothly from now on.

-All locked up.
-Food's safe inside.

-Feel good about this.
-I feel great about this.

Alaska is a tough place
to homestead.

And these homesteaders,
they had a bad year.

And I feel very privileged
to have helped them

to get this homestead
squared away
and ready for winter,

so that when Jen comes back,
things are a lot easier.

Thanks for being
a great teacher.

I'm looking forward
to everything else
we have to do.

Yeah, man.
That's the right attitude.

-[Marty] Misty.
-[Misty] Yeah.

How's it going?

Well,
I got some interesting news.
Ready for this?

Fresh, like last night
or this morning,

bear tracks right behind
that old chicken coop.

-[laughs]
-Not kidding.

I'm so glad we moved.

I'm not kidding you.
That's not the best news.

But the fact that you did
move this for that very reason
is amazing.

Also,
the goats just showed up.

[goats bleating]

-Nice.
-Well, it's nice,
but it's freezing.

Snow line's moving down.

And one of those goats turns

-eight weeks old today.
-Oh, they're young.

So they need heat.
They need protection.

They need a cool place.

Okay. What are you asking me?

I need room for two goats
at the manger.

-In here?
-Yes.

-Okay. Well, this definitely
changes a lot of things.
-What does it change?

Um, the chickens and the goats
will have to be separated.

They're young enough where
they can pick up disease
from the chickens.

So it does change my build
on the last day.

So I'm gonna...
So I'm gonna get to work.

-Are you upset about it?
-No.

Well, if you are,
this is the heartbreak goatel.

[chuckles]

This is, like, really crazy.

We pull out of this homestead
in a few hours.

And this whole build,

when it comes to
the chicken coop,
has to change.

What I thought
was gonna be a pretty easy day

has now become
a really hard day.

No pressure, Misty.

When you encounter a bear,

it's not gonna be
on the golf course.

This is where
it's gonna happen.

The thickest brush you're in
is where it's gonna happen.

[growls]

-[screams]
-[Matt] Bear!

-[laughs]
-Look at it.

Look at it.
That's how it's gonna happen.

That's how it's gonna happen,
right there.

-Oh, nobody
pulled their spray.
-No.

[Marty] The Harpes have
about a half a dozen

bear encounters
they've captured on video.

I have to get them prepared
for anything and everything.

All right, so what happens is,
boom.
My hand's behind my neck.

Now try to flip me over
like a bear. Try to flip me.

You're not gonna flip me.
You're not gonna flip me.

If he can't flip you over,
if he can't get you,
then you might survive, Okay?

On that happy note,
back to work.

[Matt] That's terrifying.

This thing is becoming
a pretty cool pen.

We're gonna take it
one step further. Stand by.

Clint, drive it in!

[narrator] With only
hours left before
the Raneys hit the road,

Marty, Mike, and Clint work
to enclose
the homestead fortress.

Come on over.
We're going for it.

I do not think that
I shall see a thing
as lovely as a tree.

Here we go.

Every tree is beautiful
in its own way,

even one with a gnarly
little dogleg in it.

That tree
will be there for decades
as a monument to the insanity

that took place here
over the last seven days.

I wanna believe that a bear's
gonna look at that and go,

"What? Things have changed
on this homestead."

So whether it's the fencing
or the telephone poles or
the logs,

they all work together
in staving off the neighbors.

-I like it.
-Oh, dude, that's money.

[Mike] That's what I'm saying.

-It's money.
-Yeah.

[Misty] Whoo! Crazy day
on the homestead.

The chicken coop now needs
to house a couple of goats.

This was a pretty crazy day.

My dad walks up to me just now
and says, "Hey,

I think we need a place
for these goats to go."

And I'm like, "What?"
I need to build, like,
a little goat pen

inside the chicken coop.
No pressure.

But we have to make it happen.

You wanna help me
with some stuff?

-Yeah.
-Yeah, come on in.

Thankfully,
I have my dream partner.
It's Mr. Bayne Harpe himself.

I'm gonna ask your dad
, but have you ever used
a nail gun before?

-Uh, I don't think so.
-Okay. They're really fun.

They're really easy.
So I think
you're gonna be fine.

Remember,
never use these tools without
one of your parents' help.

So you push the tip down
and pull the trigger.

Done. Do the other side. Yep.

We had so much work to do,
and he was so fun
to work with.

I just am, like, so happy
to have a helping set
of hands.

And I know when Jen
comes home, she's gonna be
a very proud mama.

Nice. Perfect.
Okay, give it a jiggle.

-Good enough for chickens?
-Yeah.

I'm thankful for the Raneys
to come and do a lot for us,

and help us get the chickens,
the goats, everything.

-[Misty] Is it Bayne-approved?
-[Bayne] I like it.

[narrator] A week ago,
the Harpe homestead
was devoid of livestock

and slowly being reclaimed
by nature.

But now,
the outbuildings have been

consolidated closer
to the house,

allowing for
a safer environment

for the family
and future livestock.

And the new goats
and chickens

can flourish in
or out of the elements,

safe within
the fortress walls.

These guys need names.

This is a farm
where they don't name
any of their livestock

because there's so much loss.

-Want to sit with them
for a sec?
-Yeah.

[Misty] That affected Bayne.

So for the first time, to have
animals you can actually name,

he's gonna spend a lot of time
with these animals

and be their caretaker,
and I think
that's really good for him.

You know, these animals,
they're gonna have
a good life.

-What do you think?
-I like them.

-Are you happy
to have goats back?
-Yeah.

All right, buddy.
Log and stone.

-What do you think?
-[Mike] Oh, this is
incredible. Whoo, yeah.

A few hay bales
or farm equipment
or a trailer.

This has got a lot of future
ahead of it.

So here I am, the bear,

and I've got a fortress
of telephone poles.

I come around here.
I've got eight-foot-tall

high-tensile strength
game fence.

And now I'm thinking, "Whoo,
things have changed here."

I think this will
keep the bears out

and this will allow us
to definitely rear
some livestock

and not have
that stress and feeling
that they're vulnerable.

I mean, look how big
this area is. My gosh.

-[Mike] It's a BFZ,
bear-free zone.
-[chuckles] Bear, BFZ.

[narrator] Seven days ago,
the Harpes were besieged
by bears

decimating their produce
and livestock,

forcing Jen
to take a job off property.

Now, with the new
30x60-foot homestead fortress

and the additional terrace
for expansion,

the Harpes will be able
to protect their produce

and bring animals
back to the property

for themselves
and their community,

eventually allowing Jen
to return to the homestead
full-time

while also making the property
safer for their whole family.

Anything else we can do?

I think we're
looking good here.
You got us back on our feet.

I'm excited about the future
of the Harpestead.

-[Marty] Hey, gang.
-[all] Hey.

Raise your hand
if you're tired.

[all laugh]

-Tell my dad what's here.
-Baby goats and chickens.

I saw them and
your dad saw them.

You can tell he's happy.
Look at your face.

-Look at Ted's face.
-[Misty laughs]

Bear preparedness
is at an all-time high
on this homestead.

I agree. Also,
there were three eggs today...

-What?
-...in the coop.

-Are you serious? Wow.
-Already?

-Oh, that's breakfast.
-That's cool.

Got three eggs already.

I think my mom will like eggs
a lot. [chuckles]

So there's food
on the homestead.

To me, it's, like, significant
of the things to come.

And I think
that's really exciting.

I mean, it's incredible to see
what happened here.

When I hear
those chickens and the goats,

it's an inspiration
and motivation right there.

I mean, it's...
We're back on track.

-I can't wait for the eggs.
-[all laugh]

[Mike]
Before the Raneys got here,

this homestead
was at a tipping point.

After getting to spend
a week with the Raneys,

we are at a way better spot
for our animals.

The rejuvenation
that has gone on in my heart,

and I know my wife and my son,

this is something that
could really keep
those dreams alive.

So on that note,
we say goodbye
to the bear homestead.

And I have to get my bearings

to find my way back
to Hatcher Pass.

So thank you very much.

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

-And thank you.
-Anytime.

And you are everybody's hero.
You're this, like,
this cool guy.

A lot of dirt got moved
on this mountain.

A lot of structures
were either
moved, built or resurrected.

All of it under the banner
of bear-proofing.

But something else happened
that I witnessed.

A change in the homesteaders.

There is a spark
that's been ignited
in the whole family.

If you can get in here
and resurrect
a homesteading dream,

that is hitting the ball
with the big end of the bat.
[exclaims]

Bye.

[dogs barking]

Since the Raneys left,
we've been really enjoying

all the animals,
and the eggs
have been relentless.

We've been distributing
throughout the community.

We always wanted to make sure
that our child knew
how to do chores,

so he's kinda developed a bond
with the animals,

and he's done
a great job with them.

One of the nicest things
that the Raneys came in
and did was a fence.

The animals
have remained safe.

[Mike] And we've been
bear-free. No visitors.

The process and
preservation shed,
or Ted shed,

as I like to call it,

has become an integral part
of this property.

[Mike]
It's provided great security

for all of our
processed chickens
we eat throughout the year.

[Jen] I was able to actually
square away the same job

that I was doing up north,
but here.

And now I get to come home
every night,
focus on the property

and the animals
and the family a lot more.

I'd like to, once again,

thank Marty, Misty, and Matt

for kickstarting us

and bringing this place
back to life.