Adapt or Die (Full Episode) | Life Below Zero - VoiceTube: Learn English through videos!

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SUE: All right.
We got something just poked its head out of the ravine there.
I got a bunch of caribou and I've got a big ass bear coming in.
I got a bear over here and I got caribou over here.
He's actually quartering north,
so I'm sure he's trying to get around without giving his scent trail up.
He's damn close to camp, so, that's not safe to me.
My name is Susan Aikens.
I am the sole resident and owner of Kavik River Camp.
It's an old oil camp 200 miles above the Arctic Circle.
I'm the only refueling station and I do it on my own.
In order to run a business, I have to cater to the people
in the season that they're roaming around.
That's summer.
And in that June, July, and August,
I need to make enough revenue to support the camp
and get ready for the next year.
I am working 24 hours a day and then boom!
Winter hits.
I've got nine months of some of the harshest conditions on Earth,
and for the nine months or more that I'm totally alone out here,
I hunt for the meat that I eat.
I live by my wits and sometimes those are lacking.
The older I get, the slower I get, but the animals keep getting faster.
But, I rise to the challenge every day.
It's the challenge that keeps me going.
Welcome to Kavik, it's where I live.
I think what I'm gonna have to do is try to get down there.
Down the road a little this way.
If I scare all the caribou, I'm gonna scare the bear as well.
Either way I've got caribou to get, and there's a bear.
It may be a twofer.
Welcome to winter.
(theme music plays)
♪ ♪
SUE: Every caribou is staring at me.
Where is my (bleep) bear?
It's like he disappeared off the planet.
I've gotta get a little elevation here.
Okay, they're all coming towards me.
So, the bear must be on the other side starting to push.
All right, these are bear tracks, but this is a pretty big bear.
He's not a juvenile-long stride.
This is just King Mamma-Jamma slothing his way through.
But, I gotta get jamming.
This is a lesson in frustration, right here.
I'm trying to get the easiest place to get at this bear in a
100% open field,
without giving up 100% of my opportunity at caribou.
Whenever you're hunting bear, the longer you take, even seconds, they're gone.
Your hunt is blown before it's ever started, but I gotta try though.
Yeah.
They're cruising now for the river, which means they're in migration mode.
But, it's possible that the bear is up there.
I may just sit put and just see what develops.
The bear across this open ground, there's no way I'm gonna sneak up on him.
He heard me. He didn't smell me. But he heard me.
He probably saw the vehicle.
I don't have the tracks on the vehicle.
All's I'm gonna do is end up getting stuck somewhere and no way to get myself out.
That's not smart hunting.
Bummed out about the bear.
But not so bummed out that I'm gonna put my life in jeopardy chasing him down.
That just, that's a fool's errand.
All right, Mr. Bear.
Live to see you another day, man.
CHIP: Subsistence is basically just being able to make a living
from the land with the things around you.
And we do a pretty good job at that.
And, we mix it into a modern 21st Century.
Okay. We got one good one. Let's get another one.
What's up little guy?
You rolling up on us, seeing what we're doing?
We're making you a sled.
CHIP: We can make you a sled.
Tata and Carol are gonna make you a sled.
I'm gonna make a sled for Wade.
It's gonna be something that he can play with for a few years.
It'll be substantial.
It'll be kind of a big sled, but over the next few years,
he'll probably grow right on into it.
And plus, just to be able to drag him around will be a lot of fun, too.
I'm Edward Hailstone.
My friends call me Chip.
I'm married to Agnes Hailstone.
AGNES: I'm Inupiaq Eskimo, and I was born and raised here in Noorvik, Alaska.
We pretty much live a semi-nomadic lifestyle.
We just go from area to area depending on season.
CHIP: We're hunters, gatherers, fisher people.
AGNES: I'm hunting in the same areas that my parents had hunted for hundreds of years.
CHIP: We got seven kids together.
Three of them still live with us.
The four oldest have grown up and moved off.
AGNES: We pretty much try and teach our children everything I was taught by my parents,
and my mother and father learned from their parents.
It's very important for me to pass down my knowledge to my children
and to their children.
CHIP: Okay. What we need to do is go inside, since the sun's heading down.
And I think, actually, what I wanna do first is bend the boards I wanna bend.
You know what I mean?
CAROL: Come on. CHIP: Come on, grandson.
Let's go inside the house and go work on your sled.
CAROL: Come on, baby. Follow us.
CHIP: There you go. Ho, ho, ho!
You gotta walk on your own, crazy boy.
Open the door for Tata.
Hold it open. Hold it open. Thank you.
Okay. Carol, check this out.
CAROL: Yup.
CHIP: First thing that we're gonna do is make the runners.
CAROL: All right.
CHIP: We're just gonna start steaming these things,
and we'll be able to put foil over it to catch this,
and as soon as these are nice and soft right here,
we just have to make a bend up about yay far.
And we can make a sled about that big.
Just perfect for Wade to do his thing for a couple years.
This will do.
Basically, we're just gonna let all this stuff cook.
CAROL: Should we do the next step now?
CHIP: Yup. We'll start shaping the different pieces.
Carol. Yeah, sitting on this so, you would really help me a lot.
CAROL: It's always good to do activities with my dad, 'cause, like,
I get to learn faster.
CHIP: Grab me the, um, small diameter and thread it in.
CAROL: Okay. My dad, he has fun teaching me.
CHIP: See what you can do with that, love.
CAROL: It's real useful out here knowing how to build,
and being with my dad and doing the one on one work,
it's pretty fun.
I love it.
CHIP: Yeah, these are good.
Come here, bun.
I'm gonna pull this off, we're gonna take these two ends right here,
and put them in there, and I'm gonna ease 'em down this way.
If we hear any cracking, if we see any lifting, we stop. Okay?
CAROL: Okay.
CHIP: The runners have to be bent, and it's kind of a delicate process.
Because, when you bend them together, they're a match pair.
You can't duplicate, uh, another bend.
So, so the trick is to just do it right the first time as best you can
and make your bends carefully, and listen, and feel when you do it.
So, ready. Let's give this a try.
(mimics dramatic music)
CAROL: Are you sure you're gonna bend it that way?
CHIP: I am sure. I know exactly what I'm doing.
CAROL: Hey, stop.
CHIP: That's all right, it's not decent.
Okay. There we go, there we go, there we go, there we go.
Gently. Okay, I don't hear any badness.
Now go choke up these two together.
CAROL: Yeah. CHIP: These two right here.
Okay, right there is perfect. Absolutely perfect.
Tighten it. Okay, that's good.
Okay, that way they have the same bend, and the same place,
and the same time, same bat channel.
We just have to let it dry now.
CAROL: All right.
CHIP: That's all we can do.
CAROL: So, we're done for tonight?
CHIP: We're done for tonight.
This needs to dry and tomorrow we'll, uh,
we'll take it off there when we have everything else prepared,
and this will be the last thing that we mount
and that we fit everything to.
CAROL: All right.
GLENN: Wherever you are, there are dangers.
If you don't wanna take a risk, don't get out of bed in the morning.
But the reality is, that knowledge will protect you
from the dangers in your environment.
About 1,000 feet above lake elevation here.
Hey, there's the camp.
I can see it. See it, Amelia?
AMELIA: Yeah.
GLENN: I got my own airplane this summer.
The nearest road is a 60 mile walk from here.
If you wanna get somewhere, you're not gonna drive.
You gotta fly or you gotta walk.
Those are your two choices.
AMELIA: Feels good to be back at the Brooks Range, huh?
GLENN: Yeah.
NARRATOR: Before dark winter hits,
Glenn Villeneuve and his family return to their cabin in the Brooks Range.
Glenn will hunt for a bull moose,
an important supplement for his family's diet.
GLENN: Okay. Landing gear is up for water.
We got four blues.
Can you check on your side, make sure it's up?
AMELIA: Confirmed on my side.
GLENN: Looks good on my side.
First thing I do when I fly into camp,
I always like to make a pass over the cabin,
look down, see what's going on.
Anytime I leave camp, even like now, when it's only for a couple of weeks,
I have to check things out when I get back,
because things happen when I'm gone.
That's when bears are more likely to come into the yard,
that's when things can get damaged,
that's when things can cause problems.
I didn't see anything from the air,
but when I get up to the cabin,
I'm gonna look for smaller details.
Things can happen here that I can't see from the air.
I don't do what I do because it's easy.
I don't do what I do because it's hard.
I do what I do because I have a lot of fun doing it.
Everything is a choice.
I chose to live in the Brooks Range.
I choose to hunt for my food,
and now I choose to have an airplane.
It all goes together for me.
My name is Glenn Villeneuve.
I live in Alaska.
I moved up here almost 20 years ago,
'cause this is the only place in the world where
I could live this lifestyle I'm living.
I built a cabin in Fairbanks, I got a place in the bush,
and I live half the time in each of them.
There's no other place on this planet Earth where
I could live the way I live here.
I'm in control of my own destiny.
I decide where I'm gonna go,
when I'm gonna go there, what I'm gonna do.
Nobody is telling me what needs to be done.
I just see what needs to be done and I do it.
My family is growing.
I had a new baby born last summer, I got four kids now.
It was always my dream to have my family in the bush with me.
It took time to achieve that,
and there were times when I had to set the priority on
being out here even though I didn't have anybody to share it with.
I've spent a whole winter out here by myself,
but it gets lonesome.
I mean, I'm only human.
And now I got everything I want.
I got the wilderness, plus I got my family with me.
Made it back to the camp.
There you go.
TRISHA: Camp looks good.
AMELIA: Hey, dad, it looks like the meat pole is knocked down.
GLENN: What happened here?
Our meat pole got knocked down.
This has never happened before.
There are not many things that can reach up there and knock that down.
That's been up there for 10 or 12 years.
Wooden pegs snapped right off.
There's only one thing that could've done that.
AMELIA: Bear.
GLENN: Exactly. There's not a bear behind every bush, but there are bears around.
Look, something walked right here.
That's a bear track, headed right up toward the meat pole.
This here looks like a sow with a cub.
And they can be very defensive.
If you're out here playing in the yard and,
all of a sudden a sow with a cub walks into the yard,
you could get into a dangerous situation.
You gotta keep your eyes open.
Well, I better get to work fixing up this meat pole,
because I wanna start moose hunting tomorrow.
Why don't you go back over to the cabin, open it up,
and get a fire going.
If I can get this all fixed up this afternoon,
then tomorrow morning I'll go out and start looking for a moose.
JESSIE: Every year out here, you know, I just grow.
And I learn how to be more prepared and ready next season.
All right. Right now, we got an amazing time of year here.
Definitely waiting for the winter to get going.
Right now, we have some pretty strange weather going on,
and it just hasn't froze up.
It's more later in the year than ever seen.
So, we got some open water here on the slough back behind my house,
and I got a little time where I could go out and set some beaver traps.
While I'm out there, I'm definitely gonna take my gun with me
because I'm gonna be covering a lot of country today.
I might see some rabbits, or grouse, or even ducks along the river bank.
So, I'm looking to go get some traps set,
but also come back with something fresh for my frying pan.
I'm Jessie Holmes.
I'm a professional dog musher.
I'm very blessed to live a subsistence lifestyle on the banks of the Nenana River.
When I came to Alaska, I didn't know exactly what I was going for.
I was just going for something different and, you know,
I didn't expect to become a competitive dog racer.
ANNOUNCER (over PA): Jessie Holmes, rookie of the year.
JESSIE: Now I'm here, and it's become a huge blessing
and it's allowed me to live the lifestyle that I envisioned.
I chose to live this way because I appreciate simplicity and I cut wood,
haul water, run dogs, procure resources.
It's just incredible to me and I love it out here.
I personally don't think you're ever ready for winter.
Whoa.
I never know what winter has in store, so I don't try to second guess winter.
All I can do is just be in a really good mindset.
Have my mind cleared and ready for what winter is gonna bring.
Right now, this is a transition time of year.
You can't really get out and travel because nothing's froze up
and it's not really good boating, but really,
it's a good time of year to make the best out of the last of fall here.
Like, I'm gonna go up the slough now that the water is dropped
and I can actually access the slough, and I'm gonna go see what's going on.
Yeah, this looks real good.
Definitely some active beaver sign around here.
That's a pretty good-sized feed pile.
There might be four, five beaver around here, so, once I get over there,
I'll be able to find where their main exits are.
Set up all four of these traps.
The more traps I put in this area, the better likelihood I got of catching a beaver.
And the traps that I'm gonna use are lethal.
That thing is alive right now.
They're not only lethal to the animal,
they're very dangerous to yourself if you mess up when you're setting them.
They're designed to crush bones.
These traps are very effective.
Once they trigger this, it kills them.
It's got so much power, but that power could be a problem if it sets on me.
I've got three traps set over there close to the feed house
and now I'm looking for one last spot to put this one.
Okay. All right.
So I'm gonna set this one kind of right in the edge of the water, here.
I've never tried to do this before,
but trying new things is what keeps you learning, you know.
See if maybe this works, with some bait behind it.
Catch him right when he's coming out
of the water he might walk right into this here.
All right. I got my last trap set.
It's looking good.
I still got plenty of daylight here, and what I'm gonna do is cut across this slough
and get into the woods and see if I can come across any rabbits, spruce grouse,
anything that I can eat.
For me, it's a mission to get a beaver,
but a lot of things are out moving in a hustle getting ready for the winter to come.
Right now, this is time where you're waiting for freeze up to come.
It's looking like it might snow today,
and it might be my last chance to be able to see some rabbits.
The whole thing about hunting rabbits right now is they're white on this dark ground,
and normally, they're white in the snow.
But, uh, this is kind of a late winter this year,
so the chances of seeing them is way greater.
Right there's a rabbit. I see one.
(makes rabbit call)
Dammit.
(makes rabbit call)
JESSIE: Dammit.
It's right there.
Got it.
Wait. Oh, I see another one.
Got it. I got two rabbits.
Getting two rabbits down when I was just trying to get one,
that's called a two for one, and that gives me a real good feeling.
I still got plenty of daylight and the rabbits are out.
It's so thick in here I literally have to crawl to get to the rabbits.
All right, there it is.
Man, that is a beauty.
Oh, he's fat.
I'm gonna throw this in my pack, go over, and get my other rabbit.
I'm in kind of a hurry right now because
it looks like the rabbit hunting is good right now and
the snow could fall tomorrow and I won't be able to see them like I can now.
Okay. I see the other one right over here.
Luckily, it's not so thick right here that I gotta crawl.
Wow, that's another nice looking rabbit.
Man, these guys are in really great shape right now.
This amount of meat's gonna make six meals for me.
So far, it's been a really good hunt, but I'm trying to keep my eyes out,
because there's rabbits all over right now.
I still got about an hour and a half of daylight left.
I'm gonna hunt until it's as dark as it can be.
(makes animal call)
It's a long shot but, if I go in, I'll probably scare him so.
This is great.
I got a third rabbit.
This one's even fatter than the other ones.
This is just such a good resource right now.
I didn't get to come away this fall with a bear or a moose
and I didn't get to put the kind of time I wanted to go out big game hunting.
But, just knowing the land around me and using the resources around me,
I've been able to be successful with lots of small game.
I still got an hour of daylight left.
I'm just gonna keep moving and make the best out of this resource while I can.
SUE: I don't have any interest in obliterating the species in my ecosystem,
but I don't have any interest in being obliterated.
I have to get past this area.
Ooh, can I even get across this?
No. I cannot go that way.
NARRATOR: With bear tracks near Kavik River Camp,
Sue continues her perimeter check to gain a different
perspective and observe the caribou migration as her
window to hunt is quickly closing.
SUE: I have a myriad of tracks I'm looking at.
The snow really shows who's walking around your neighborhood,
much like the silt does, but besides the tracks,
I've gotta watch out for all these drifts.
I no longer have a clear line of sight where my ditches are.
So, it's a little hazardous.
I'm right at the top end of not being able to use the Argo to go do these things right,
you know, anymore.
All righty.
And all this is prime territory for a, a bear.
I'm not really seeing anything that screams,
"Hey, I'm over here, I'm hiding out. Come shoot me."
Since I'm not seeing a lot of signs up here, I think if I were a bear and
I'm thinking like my opponent, I might get down into the river bed.
Animals tend to use the river as their highways as do people.
I always say, get in the river if you don't see anything get in the river.
It's probably running the southern bank, so it's time for me to get in the river
and run the southern bank.
See if they're running around.
I can see from here that there's quite a bit of water flowing still.
Little leery of getting too far out.
Well, I think if I'm gonna surprise the bear at this point,
I've gotta do something he doesn't expect.
The last thing this bear would expect me to do is to be floating down the river.
I got a new raft and it's an avenue I haven't tried and why not.
I'm not gonna go for a 30-mile trek.
I have a perimeter that I see as an area that's viable for me to worry
about what's running around in it.
Within two miles, I definitely have my hackles up,
and then a mile to a half mile, I've gotta be all over it.
But at five miles it's knowledge.
But for me this is simple.
Get in, float down and just see.
I'll be able to see it.
I'll be able to tell what direction he's going.
If I don't see any of his tracks going this way,
then he's still on my side of the river and I'll have to take mind of that.
So the plan for me right now is get to Little Red, get the raft,
get it together, get in the water, get some information.
AGNES: I don't know what the future holds for the next generation.
All we can do right now is just teach and teach and teach and care and love.
Yeah, this pile.
IRIQTAQ: Uh-hmm.
AGNES: Yeah. Yeah, that one's a good, good seed, like two of them.
NARRATOR: While Chip and Carol build transportation for Wade,
Agnes and daughter Idi source materials to make
another essential tool to survive the Arctic winter.
AGNES: Today, me and Idi are going out back and picking out some caribou skins,
and we're gonna be turning them into a parka for Wade Kelly.
Wolverine skin, a beaver skin, and two caribou skins.
It's getting cold out and the conditions for traveling is coming up,
and we just wanna prepare ourselves for winter so Wade Kelly will be just as warm as
us when we're out there with our parkas.
Okay. We're gonna have to turn these two skins into the back, front, hood, and sleeves.
TINMIAQ: Yeah.
AGNES: We cannot mess up when we start cutting because
we have only these two skins for right now.
TINMIAQ: Yeah.
AGNES: Ready? Who's gonna be the marker?
Where'd the pencil go?
IRIQTAQ: You are. AGNES: No mistakes.
IRIQTAQ: The parka we're going to be making is traditional.
What, you know, what our ancestors used out here.
It's gonna take a lot of stress off my mind knowing that he's a lot warmer
than he would be with these store-bought jackets, you know.
They aren't made for this kind of winter.
Could you pass that knife back to me, please?
TINMIAQ: Be careful. IRIQTAQ: Okay.
AGNES: Be really careful.
Awesome.
TINMIAQ: Yay, Idi.
Now you gotta open it, then you have to.
AGNES: Oh! Got a rip.
AGNES: Oh. TINMIAQ: Ripped it!
AGNES: Uh, we made a rip, and once it starts, it just goes on.
So, we have to, uh, stitch it back up and
just close it before it becomes a real problem.
We have to start being careful until we put all the trims around it,
so it just doesn't keep ripping.
These trims are what's gonna hold it together.
Once we get thread and stuff all around it, it'll be good.
TINMIAQ: Okay.
Now, let's get this (bleep) back together.
AGNES: It's important that we all work together and, um, of course it's a family effort
to just prepare ourselves for winter and, uh, I'm glad the family's, uh,
doing everything they can to prepare for winter.
That almost looks like a parkie, huh? Already.
TINMIAQ: Yeah!
I mean we still have a lot to sew, but dang guys, we're already halfways done.
IRIQTAQ: I love sewing.
If there's one thing I could sit down and do all day,
you know, once I start sewing,
I don't like to stop until my projects are finished.
But, uh, I do have a son running around that does need taking care of.
WADE: Yes! AGNES: Yes, it's your parkie!
TINMIAQ: Hey, adore. WADE: Parkies?
TINMIAQ: Wanna work on your parkie so you won't be cold?
AGNES: While your Tata work on your sled.
WADE: Huh? AGNES: It's a surprise sled.
WADE: Surprise sled. TINMIAQ: Uh-huh, sled.
AGNES: And it's a surprise parkie!
IRIQTAQ: I do sit down as much as I can and I sew what I can.
And, uh, a lot of times he understands I'm busy and he allows me to sit down and sew,
but little boy like that needs a lot of attention.
AGNES: Uh, no! IRIQTAQ: No! AGNES: No!
TINMIAQ: Here, here you go.
IRIQTAQ: Go check if your Tata needs help.
WADE: Up.
AGNES: So I'm just gonna finish up,
I just got one little patch left to go for the sleeve.
TINMIAQ: I'm almost done sewing the armpits and then I could sew on the sleeves and,
uh, then I could help you with the hood while she works on this wolverine rough.
IRIQTAQ: It's a lot of work but work isn't work when you're having fun.
AGNES: Made with much love for Wade Kelly by his Anna, his mama, and his auntie.
TINMIAQ: Yeah. AGNES: Now, let's go. We can do this.
GLENN: If you don't want your meat to get away,
just go to the store and buy it.
If you want the challenge of having to outsmart the animal to get your meat,
come out here and hunt.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: At the break of dawn,
Glenn heads out into the Brooks Range in hopes of harvesting a bull moose.
A successful hunt will provide Glenn and his family with
an ample source of protein necessary to make it through dark winter.
GLENN: Ice already.
Couple more weeks, the lake's gonna freeze right over.
Fall's my favorite time of the year because there's a lot of action.
Everything's going on in the fall time.
Winter's coming soon, moose are rutting, that's the time to hunt.
This is really when it all happens.
This is the best time of the year, and this is when I go out
and get the biggest animal that I hunt all year long.
Okay. I see a couple of moose, looks like they're both cows.
I'm confident with those two cows right there that there's a bull not too far away.
Bulls are a little more wary though.
There he is! That's the bull!
He's got his antlers up towards me.
He's got at least three cows.
There's no way I'm gonna call him away from those cows.
I gotta go down there and pretend I'm another bull that
wants to fight him in order to get to mate with those cows.
That's my only chance.
You've gotta learn how the animals behave.
And as much as you learn and as much experience as you have,
you're still often at a disadvantage because the animals are actually very
smart and they're very well adapted to evading predators.
These moose are getting hunted all the time.
They've evolved to escape from predators, and I'm the predator.
They're completely adapted to evading me.
I've gotta adapt to succeeding in catching them.
There's a moose right up here ahead.
I'm gonna take my antler off now, pretend I'm a bull.
That might get the bull interested.
He might come out and try to chase me away.
This antler works.
I've caught a lot of moose with this antler.
When they get close enough to see it, it often draws them right in.
It fakes them out.
They see this antler, and they think I'm another moose.
I've gotta fake this moose out, make him think I'm another moose.
I hear a bull.
He's grunting back. He heard me raking.
This could be a little tricky, this brush is pretty high.
He's gonna have to get real close for me to get a shot.
I'm gonna walk this way slightly.
I wanna get him as close to the lake as possible.
Here he comes. I see him.
(antler raking)
You see him? He's right there.
♪ ♪
(gun safety click)
(gunshot)
♪ ♪
(gun safety click)
(gunshot)
GLENN: He's down. Got him. Whoo.
That was pretty intense.
Called him right out into this open area.
I could see him, but he didn't have a very good view of me behind this tree right here.
I was just waving that antler around, that's about all he could see.
He thought I was another moose.
It's a good spot.
Close to the lake, not too far from camp.
I'm gonna call up Trisha, have the family come over.
They've never been at a moose kill site before.
They're gonna love this.
Trisha! Just got a moose.
And he's not too far from camp, you can come over.
TRISHA (over radio): Where are you on the lake?
GLENN: Just past the outlet.
TRISHA (over radio): Great, I know right where that is.
GLENN: All right, see you in a little while.
I'm so glad I was able to get this moose close enough to camp that Trish
and the kids can come over.
Hey, Trisha!
Right over here!
You made it!
Your first moose kill!
This is gonna be great for them, and we've been talking about this for months.
They're really interested in hunting, they wanna see how this works,
and they've never been able to come over to a moose kill site before.
Look at this moose, it's beautiful!
Got a nice-sized bull.
GLENN: Agatha, look! It's a moose!
TRISHA: Want to touch it? No.
GLENN: She shook her head no. TRISHA: She said no.
GLENN: It's okay, it's dead. Animal food.
Okay. I gotta get to work on this thing.
What do you think Amelia, you wanna help me cut this moose up?
AMELIA: What I really want is the back strap.
GLENN: Okay.
I do the things I wanna do in life.
But, as much as I enjoy doing them,
I enjoy it even more when I have people to share it with.
Wanna pull on that a little bit?
AMELIA: Ooh, that's heavy.
GLENN: Yeah.
Amelia's been here in Alaska now for four years
and she's picked up a lot.
Just by being around me, operating out in this environment,
she notices things.
Hey, Amelia?
The main thing is, by scooping the blood out carefully
I can preserve some of the fat in there better.
Keep everything cleaner.
I think what's really important for children isn't so much the practical skills
that they'll learn out here, although they'll be a lot of them.
But it's just the attitude and the mentality that develops.
Because living this lifestyle you get a lot of confidence,
you get a lot of independence, and you can take that wherever you go.
AMELIA: A lot of my classmates don't realize that,
how much work it takes to get all the food they eat.
It's not like you just go to the supermarket and get your food.
People have to grow it, pick it, process it,
before it gets to the supermarket.
GLENN: Hey, Amelia! I'm gonna cut the tongue out!
AMELIA: Hmm! GLENN: This should be tasty, huh?
AMELIA: Uh-hmm. GLENN: Boiled tongue.
Want a little moose tongue, Agatha?
Everybody in the family likes tongue.
Got it. Tongue.
It's a delicacy.
So that's going on the first load.
First load down.
TRISHA: Glenn, I think we're gonna head back.
GLENN: What's that?
TRISHA: I think we're gonna head back.
She's getting a little fussy.
GLENN: Yeah. Good idea.
TRISHA: Close to bedtime.
GLENN: Yeah, it's already getting late.
I gotta keep working on this, but you can head home and.
TRISHA: Good.
GLENN: Get a fire going and Agatha!
You gonna go home and get a little sleep now?
Been quite a long time over here at the kill site, huh? Yeah?
See you when I get there!
TRISHA: See you later.
GLENN: See you, Amelia!
It's coming apart, slowly but surely.
SUE: Before somebody puts that little thing across my body six foot under the ground,
I wanna know that I climbed every valley and looked over every hill.
This is the, the Sue raft.
The pon-Sue-n.
I've got this bear that I've been after.
Found some tracks out this way.
Um, went out after him but all's I'm doing is pushing him.
So for me, um, my thought is I wanna get into the river.
The Argo, is blam, blam, blam, blam blam!
Making a lot of noise.
This will be hopefully a lot less noise.
And it's a chance for me to try it out and see how it works.
So this is actually a trial run and a bear run.
Ready to go.
Let the winter bear sneak-a-thon start!
NARRATOR: With limited time before bears go into hibernation.
Sue is desperate to locate the predator and
tries a new tactic to gain a different perspective.
SUE: My objectives from this float is, uh, I'm looking.
I really wanna see if I see signs, is there evidence that he's still here?
Every year, we lose people on the rivers here.
That is not 70 degree water, 80 degree water.
That's hovering right above freezing.
If I fall in with that icy water, I'm done for.
I'm a little nervous about getting on this ice.
Come on. Okay. Turn in. Okay.
I have a perimeter that I see as an area for me to worry
about what's running around in it.
I'm not gonna go for a 30-mile trip.
I'm gonna go within reason of camp.
I wanna see the five miles around camp.
I'm just getting to the area where I think the bear,
you know, is kind of his hangout zone.
The caribou kind of came through this way.
And, uh, they just thundered right past this area.
I think, uh, I think I'm gonna start seeing more sign.
Oh, oh. That's hella fast!
Turn in. Come on, get control Susie!
Ugh, come on!
I have a big problem. I'm having troubles now.
SUE: I got it.
That was, uh, a little intense maybe.
Um, not bad.
Just, I'll have to work on maybe how I wanna place the oars
and the seat and everything.
When I'm right in the middle of the faster water, and I'm doing this,
uh, it's really difficult.
I've seen a few caribou tracks, there's another set right there.
It looks like they came this way and went "Yeah, not today."
And went back. Don't see any bear prints here,
but I wanna get out and check.
There we go.
Well, this is kind of the area that I saw the caribou tracks.
And this is the first place I can pull over, you've got a wide shelf.
It's a great spot if you're a predator to ambush something and eat dinner.
I can see some tracks here and here already.
Looks like I got some foxies.
This is very definitely wolverine right here.
I'm seeing a lot of good activity here.
What it isn't is a bear.
Everything here wants to survive and it's a tough environment to do it in.
And this right here just says it all.
You've got the fox looking, you've got the wolverine looking, maybe a small wolf,
and caribou.
And, you know, I'm looking for bears.
There's a bear pushing everybody around earlier.
So, I think what I want to do.
My daylight is fading.
I'm gonna get back to the Sue-craft.
I don't want to be caught out here at night because then the tables have turned.
Doesn't matter if I'm holding a gun if I can't see what I'm shooting at.
Do I feel safe from the bear?
I feel like I wanna be vigilant.
The moment you let yourself go too lax out here, it's gonna be the death of you.
If he's a problem, if he's absolutely rogue,
he'll visit me and I'll deal with it then.
CHIP: Living, what does living mean?
It means I ain't dead!
I'm healthy, I'm happy, and I'm home.
It's all good.
Come on, Carol. Let's have a look-see.
I think these have been drying long enough.
CAROL: Looks already bent, Dad.
CHIP: They look fine to me. CAROL: They look the same.
CHIP: Yeah. That worked out very well.
NARRATOR: Continuing to prepare the youngest family member Wade Kelly for the
harsh winter elements,
Agnes, Idi, and Ting work on a caribou skin parka.
While Chip and Carol start to assemble the sled after bending the runners.
CHIP: Well, the next thing to do is to put this together.
Then we can glue it. We can drill it.
CAROL: Okay.
CHIP: Yup. Then we can start putting our tie downs.
So, if you want to get all the small parts and bring them up here to the table,
we'll start putting this thing together.
We'll mark all these properly.
CAROL: Want me to get a pencil?
CHIP: Yeah, please. CAROL: I got it.
CHIP: Carol's, uh, a very able bodied, uh, helper right now.
She's not somebody I have to talk twice to.
I don't have to watch her.
She's been in, uh, woodshop in school.
She's had the basics down on making these kinds of stuffs.
She also saw me for years doing it too, and, uh, she'll be able to, someday,
to do all this stuff herself.
He's gonna love this gift, isn't he Carol?
CAROL: Uh-hmm.
I'll probably get to ride it, too.
CHIP: Oh, I'm sure you will.
He's gonna think we made him the best little toy in the world, I bet.
Looking good. Looking real good, Carol.
You can see how these are gonna go, right?
CAROL: Yeah, I know how it goes, it's easy.
CHIP: Well, this is the tune eliter, you know.
What it does here really well is that it's springy.
So we can tie it really tight, as tight as we possibly can, and it'll,
it'll give just a little slight ever bit but it won't let things break
so energy kind of passes with this stuff.
And we'll tie this whole thing together.
We'll work from the back forward, okay?
CAROL: Yup.
CHIP: People have been making kids' toys for forever.
Caveman probably had a big ass rock he like, beat things to death with,
gave his kid a rock, you know what I'm saying?
So that's how I look at it.
I wanna make the kid happy.
If, uh, that sled is beautiful in the eye of that beholder, then I'll be glad.
Wade can play with the thing, and then they can always throw him on it and drag him around.
It ain't gonna be so small that they'll be fragile.
I'm gonna make this sucker tough.
Okay! We are done!
Let's clean up.
Wasn't that worth just, the time we've put into it?
CAROL: Yup. CHIP: Good little sled.
Okay, I'm gonna go set this out there and
try not to let Wade see it so he doesn't want to play with it yet.
Making things is how we've made a living, you know?
Instead of buying sleds, we've just been able to obtain wood,
put some work into it and make sleds.
So, if you really want to have the best, you'll make it.
If you want to have it at all, you'll make it.
If I want my grandson to have it, I'll make it.
GLENN: Whether it's a human preying on them or a pack of wolves,
you're never going to find a moose out here in this country dying of old age.
That's just all part of the natural cycle.
(bones cracking)
(groans)
There.
NARRATOR: Glenn has successfully harvested a moose,
providing his family with a winter's worth of much-needed protein.
With the meat processed, he now begins the back-breaking
task of transporting each large segment home before darkness falls.
GLENN: There! I got it!
That's the last piece I had to separate.
Okay. I've got my moose all cut up.
Thankfully, Trisha, Amelia, and Agatha came over with a sled.
One of the biggest challenges of moose hunting is just getting the animal home.
After I get it down, I've got an awful lot of weight to move.
First moose I ever moved out here, I carried the entire thing on my back.
Eleven loads, and my back was in such bad shape after that
I laid in bed for about five days.
Couldn't move.
Then I got smart.
I got a sled the next year.
A simple thing, a plastic sled.
But it sure can help out.
There's the canoe!
So far, so good.
But I got hundreds and hundreds and pounds here to move.
I need to get it to where my family can make use of it.
(Bleep). Totally broke my sled.
That neck is the heaviest, most difficult piece of meat for me to get in the canoe.
Only way I was able to get it in there was to drag the whole sled in,
and I broke the sled.
Not very nice.
Hopefully this is still gonna be adequate to get the rest of the meat down.
But that's what I got to deal with.
This sled is necessary for me to get this moose out of the woods.
Without it, I'm gonna have a big problem.
A sled's a basic piece of equipment.
It's right up there with my rifle, my knife, and my canoe.
Basic transportation.
I got eight or nine loads to go, hopefully this thing holds up.
There. Looks like my sled's in three pieces now.
But it's still helping a lot.
Broken sled's better than no sled.
Really my biggest concern at this point is just getting
it back before any big scavenger finds it.
I mean there are definitely bears around, and wolves, or wolverines.
If any of those animals find this meat before I get it all back into camp,
they'll destroy it.
What I've got to think about is getting the job done before anything else gets to it.
This thing is falling apart.
♪ ♪
GLENN: This thing is falling apart.
Sled came apart.
Oh, boy.
This sled's busted right in half now.
This is gonna be a problem.
Sled broke, things happen, you gotta find a solution.
I got to make some kind of emergency improvisation here.
See what I can do.
If I can just get this the next 75 yards down to the shore,
I'll have a full canoe load.
I can go home.
I got another sled there I can bring back over.
Problem is just getting this, I can't lift it up
and carry it across this tussocky ground down to that beach.
No way.
But I might be able to do something here.
This is the biggest piece.
Put a hole in there.
If I just shingle it like this, I'm taking the two biggest pieces,
overlap them, try to latch it back together.
Put the heaviest part of the meat right here in the front,
have the hoof dragging out the back.
I think I might be able to make it to the beach that way.
A lot of times I've been in difficult situations and not had much to work with.
But if you stop, think about it, and use your head, you can find a solution.
Hey, it's sliding.
It's a funny thing, I've been doing this for years.
And every year, it's difficult.
You have to wonder, like, why am I making getting food so complicated?
But after it's all done and you're sitting down there, eating that tenderloin.
You forget all this pain and suffering.
It all goes away so fast.
When you bite into that first juicy steak, there's nothing that tastes the same as meat
that you hunted yourself and put the effort into getting back home
and putting on the table.
There. Okay.
You get attached to your tools out here.
I get attached to my tools because I depend on them so much.
This sled right here, I've had it for years.
I've moved literally thousands of pounds of meat with this sled,
and that's the last load of meat this sled's ever going to move.
We shared some pretty good times together.
I've been working 18 hours.
I got to grab a bite to eat in camp, get a little rest,
and get back as soon as I can before anything gets that meat.
I've always operated alone, so I'm used to taking that risk.
JESSIE: I enjoy the uncertainty that winter brings and I enjoy just stepping up
to the challenge of whatever it brings.
Getting my dog food, uh, cooker loaded up with some wood before I head out to go
check my traps and see if I got any action out there.
Set some traps a couple of days ago.
So, hopefully I got something in those traps.
The temperature has dropped, so definitely gonna probably be seeing a lot of changes out
there and a lot more ice.
Uh, definitely feels like winter has finally got here.
Get this fire going here and, uh, that way my dog food will be cooked this evening
whenever I get home and, uh, it's kind of the start to every day around here.
Get a good routine going, and then you can, uh, be able to afford some time to go out
and hopefully get some beaver right now.
It's a good time of year to be able to be out watching what these beaver are doing.
If you don't get out and look around, you just don't know what's out there.
Opportunity is all over out here you just got to get out and go out and find it.
I mean, when I go out there in the woods, opportunity tends to cross my path
and I'm the type of person that takes advantage of that.
I see some movement up there.
Looks like a grouse.
I'm gonna try to take a shot at it with my .22 here.
(gunshot)
Got it! All right, man! Awesome!
I haven't seen many grouse around this year.
Come out here to go check my beaver traps, brought my gun with me, found a grouse.
With the snow being on the ground, and this bird being dark,
it stuck right out to me, you know.
And I was able to see it out of the corner of my eye moving.
Just like I was the other day, using my surroundings to my advantage with, uh,
hunting the rabbits because they're white on dark ground, this is the reverse of that.
Clean, organic meat right here.
This is the best.
This is just a bonus for going out here to check my traps.
This is gonna be delicious.
Gonna eat this first thing tonight.
One of the things that I love about living out here is you just get out in the backyard
and you start putting in some effort and you can come away with something to eat,
and that's a very pleasurable feeling.
It's a valuable use of my time.
I love to just go out and walk and hunt.
Opportunity presents itself, come away with a bird to eat.
Getting closer over here to my first trap.
Hoping to get at least one beaver would be real nice.
Trap number one, the moment of truth.
No, nothing in there.
We're gonna go check the other ones.
Definitely froze up overnight.
Hopefully those beavers came out for one last snack on the bank.
Before this ice froze up.
Yup, nothing in these traps here.
This is trap two and trap number three, nothing in there.
Still got one more trap to check.
I'm going over to check my fourth trap.
It's not like the other three traps.
I put this one under the water so it's under the ice so there's a way bigger
chance that I'm gonna have a beaver in this set than
these other sets cause these beavers,
they can't come out up on the bank anymore with this ice, so.
Oh, wow. There's definitely some broken up ice over here.
I might have something in this one.
My trap is under the ice right here.
I can't really see underneath this.
It's frozen pretty thick.
There's the trap.
JESSIE: This is definitely my highest hopes for
having something in this trap right here.
There's the trap and there's nothing in it.
I thought we had warm enough weather that this ice wasn't gonna develop.
This ice right here prevents the beavers from coming up
into my traps that are on the bank.
About in one more week, I'll be able to walk out on this ice
and I can set some traps underneath it that I know are gonna be productive.
I know I'm gonna get these beavers at some point.
I come out here and I found a good location.
That's a good thing to have in my back pocket and know that it's out here.
With the way the conditions are right now there's no point in leaving these traps here.
These traps aren't going to do any good here so I'm gonna spring them,
take them home.
Didn't come away with any beaver,
but as soon as that ice thickens up,
I'll be able to go out there and reset those traps.
Right now I got, you know, some nice rabbits to cook up
and a nice grouse I'd picked up on the way.
And I'm about to have myself a meal.
Looking forward to going home and having a nice fire
and cooking up some of this fresh meat.
This is one rabbit and this grouse here will be a couple days' worth of food.
Putting in the effort, come out with the reward.
Now, I get to enjoy the reward here and, uh, eat myself some fresh rabbit.
Hmm. That's good, real good.
My grandpa really liked hunting rabbits.
I feel like if he was here,
he'd be real proud of the way I'm living and that makes me feel good.
This is a real transition time of year here.
It's gonna be winter real soon.
You really just gotta adapt to living by the cycles of the land here,
you know, and the seasons.
And the, know where the animals are, and know when you can get them.
One of my biggest beliefs out here that's really helped me with everything is to devote
yourself to the perfection of whatever it is you pursue.
To pursue everything with hard work, dignity, integrity, and persistence.
Maybe sometimes I'll have a little luck but that luck is a residue of design.
Every time I go out there, things are gonna happen.
But I got to go out there to make them happen.
And I enjoy that kind of lifestyle.
That's a lifestyle that always keeps you on your toes, always keeps you moving.
I had my trials and my tribulations but I kept coming at it
and kept coming at it and here I am now.
Learning every year how to thrive and survive more.
GLENN: Many years ago, I had a vision of what I wanted to do.
To live off the land.
Hunt for my food, live in the wilderness.
And the Brooks Range is the place.
This weighs about 100 pounds.
Pretty big head.
NARRATOR: After hunting a bull moose, Glenn places the final piece on his meat rack,
culminating in a winter's worth of protein for himself and his family.
GLENN: There! Got the meat hung up.
Air can circulate around it.
This is good, it's already getting a dry crust.
And that's the key to preserving meat.
So this meat's gonna be okay.
That meat's not gonna spoil.
As long as it's kept dry and clean, hanging there with good air circulation around it,
it'll be just fine until it freezes.
Nice chunk of fat right there.
What an awesome hunt!
Walking around this lake, looking for this moose.
Unbelievable, gorgeous country.
I sure got my exercise.
It was a lot of work, but this is the payoff.
AMELIA: Agatha, you're gonna eat a tongue and tenderloin.
GLENN: All right. Let's have some dinner.
TRISHA: Yum. GLENN: Yeah, it's finger food.
TRISHA: It's finger food. GLENN: Moose tongue!
AMELIA: (Inaudible) of course. TRISHA: Oh, lucky you.
GLENN: Hmm. Moose tongue, it's been a year!
Makes me think of the first time I ever got a moose out here.
And, uh, I put so much energy into it.
Hunted for about two weeks, got a moose and I was just sitting here enjoying all the
different tasty tidbits for the first time.
But I was all by myself.
Didn't have anybody to share it with.
This is so much nicer, having you all here.
TRISHA: More? Oh, my goodness.
GLENN: Oh, she's totally into it!
More, more, more.
TRISHA: Show Mommy what you want.
GLENN: Isn't that good, Agatha?
Yeah? Moose tongue!
It took a while to get it all together, but you know this was my dream.
It's what I always wanted to do, live out in the wilderness with my family.
One of my basic philosophies in life, know yourself, know what makes you happy,
and then pursue it.
And that's what I did here.
I wanted to live in the wilderness.
I wanted to have a family out here.
And I have it.
I have everything that really matters to me.
SUE: No matter where you are, home can be the coolest place on the planet of the Earth.
But it's good to get outside and get a stretch of the legs.
I've got my ptarmigan in there.
The oil, that's actually bear fat that's rendered down.
Some spices, I'm adding some spinach from my garden.
I take it and I freeze it.
These are some mushrooms I got earlier in the year.
It was a good day.
Did I fail at killing the bear, taking, harvesting the meat and the fur?
Yes, 100%. But, is it really a failure?
No! I got my, my little Sue-craft out and got it together.
Went down the river in it, got a whole new perspective.
There's definitely predators up around and walking, walking the riverbank.
A little white wine, some for the bird, some for me.
What did I learn out of the whole event?
I better keep myself prepared.
If I want to live this lifestyle for a long time, I've got to remember.
You've got to be prepared.
It's not just for the moment.
You got to be prepared for anything.
Nature always wins here.
CHIP: I want my kids to take what they have got and start their own.
I don't want to run them out of the house, but I keep encouraging them.
I want them to succeed.
IRIQTAQ: Wade, come here! Wade, Momma wants you!
AGNES: Your parka's done!
These last few days, uh, we've been putting all our attention to our, my grandson.
We just put a parka together and Chip and Caroline built him a sled and, um,
it's good just to see my whole family help raise up my daughter Idi's son.
CHIP: Oh, wow! That looks real fluffy too!
Yeah, are you gonna try to put it on?
AGNES: Yup. No need to worry about you.
CHIP: Yup, nobody can worry about you when you're wearing this!
TINMIAQ: And if you fall for some reason in the water, you'll float, hi, baby!
CHIP: Oh, there he is. Turn around, let's see!
There you go. That's really good.
He can pull his arms in!
And if he had to, pull his cuffs down.
Yup, he's ready to go out, isn't he?
IRIQTAQ: Come and put your boots on, right there.
TINMIAQ: Wear your boots.
CHIP: Come on, I'll put my boots on real quick.
I've got a sled out here you're gonna like.
IRIQTAQ: Gonna play outside with your parkie.
IRIQTAQ: Ooh, Dada got you a sled!
(barking)
CHIP: Come on, jump on board!
IRIQTAQ: Wow!
TINMIAQ: Wanna go like that? One, two, three!
IRIQTAQ: Whoa! Wow, perfect!
Want to try again?
CHIP: Me and Carol got together and we made him a little sled, and then, uh,
the ladies took some skins and threw together a nice little parkie.
And when the deep cold comes, he'll be able to travel and
stay with his mom and dad no matter what the temperature is.
We don't have a worry in the world.
So, that's what you want for your children.
Give them the best, make it yourself if you have to.
IRIQTAQ: Whoa!
CHIP: What more could a little kid want?
And as long as you can give a kid a little something, you know,
let him know you appreciate him, he'll enjoy it.
I don't know if he knows the concept, but he'll figure it out.
AGNES: He loves it!
Even your parka!
As an Inupiaq Eskimo, it's very important for me to
pass down my knowledge to my children.
And we all worked together on this project and we all just managed to put it together
and made a parka that fits the boy so perfectly.
And, uh, he'll be nice and warm, and, uh, every stitch was made with love.
TINMIAQ: Let me slide with you.
Come on, feet up.
Make room for me! Make room!
AGNES: Wow, even auntie could fit.
TINMIAQ: Woo! Yeah!
IRIQTAQ: It's, um, it's always great to see your, all your own kid's really happy.
He loved the parkie, he's gonna use it all winter.
And all of our hard work came together and it made a really great parkie that my son will
love and appreciate and will have for a very long time.
Just a perfect parkie for the perfect boy.
AGNES: Wow.
CHIP: Hey, you're gonna drag him the whole way.
Well, we'll let them play, huh?
TINMIAQ: Yeah. AGNES: Yeah.
CHIP: You, guys, wanna go inside?
AGNES: Yup.
CHIP: We'll be inside making lunch!
IRIQTAQ: Okay! I'm gonna play out here for a bit.
Growing up going back and forth to camp, you know I grew up
learning a lot of traditional and cultural ways of doing things.
I've grown up where I've eaten the cultural food and I grew up
healthily and happily off those kinds of things.
For my mom to be able to teach me something like making that parkie,
it's, you know, it's touching.
I love that I'm able to do something like that and be able to
make it as beautiful as we all made it turn out to be.
So I'm really thankful for the way that my parents have raised me.
And I'm thankful that I'm able to pass that on to my son.
Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.