Life Below Zero (2013) s01e03 Episode Script

1
SUE: With the storm
that's come in,
my visibility is going down.
I'm not just camping out here,
I mean, I have a job to do.
This is a functioning outpost.
I am a weather station,
a refuelling station
a search and rescue station.
There are so many things
that I have to do.
I can't just shut down.
I've got to keep
this place going.
That means I have to clear
drifts, check generators,
anything that hits the tent,
I've got to fix it.
You cannot just
close this down
and come back
and hope it's okay.
I need to stay here
and make sure it's okay.
This time of year,
the window of available
light is minimal.
The problem with a storm like
this is you can't see.
I have a runway,
from there it comes in,
I've got a little pad
with a fuel shed.
My dining hall,
which is where I live.
Three rows of trailers,
storage facilities for fuel,
generator shed,
outhouses back here.
From here to this source
of fuel is about 50 yards.
What I have to do today
is lay lines for my safety.
I will tie a rope from
one building to the next
or a length of rope
that I can follow.
In conditions where
you can't see this far
in front of your face,
all's I got between me
and the coast
is snow, ice, cold
and eventual death.
These are my lifelines.
You got to take baby steps
'cause I can't see
where I'm going.
That building right there
is about 30, 40 feet away
and the wind is blowing
so hard you can't see it.
I'm out of breath,
I'm tired from the wind
and the cold
and the pelting snow.
It just sucks every ounce
of energy you have.
But you got to keep moving
or else you'll freeze
right in place.
In storms like these,
you really have
to want to go out.
Mother fucker.
Even going that little bit.
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
I mean, I'm 30 feet
from my door,
40 feet my door,
but I'm tired.
But now I've caught my breath,
I'll try to
make the last push.
Right now it's 450 feet
of whiteout,
the visibility is so poor you
can't see where you're going.
I'm going to be using,
it's approximately
50 feet of rope.
I just need it to be enough
so I can find my way
here and back.
You fuckin' bitch.
All right, one rope down,
one more to go.
These ropes save my life.
I have to have these
or I'm dead.
I'd be one of them out there
out in the tundra
becoming a Sue-sicle.
I have to have my ropes
to know where I'm going
when my eyes can't do the job.
Your brain may think
you're going north,
south, east or west.
You won't know.
It's white.
The ground is white.
The air is white.
You are white.
The wind whips so hard
you can't keep your eyes open.
You have to have something
you can hang onto,
that says I can make it
from point A to point B.
(WIND HOWLING)
Every single day
that I wake up,
I may go out there and get
lost in a snowstorm,
it might be my last.
You know, you have
to be willing
and be very at peace
with the fact
that you're playing
with a real final edge.
You know every search
and rescue guide has a family.
Has kids and has a life.
I don't want them
to sacrifice theirs
just because I was a dip-shit.
ERIK: Up here in the Arctic,
you know, everything
is about efficiency.
You don't really put in
any extra effort
or use any resources
unless you have to.
Filled up my coffee pot
before I went to bed
with the last of my water.
So today's going to have
to be a water day.
Drinking water I haul from
the river, from the
In these jugs for,
for drinking.
(RATTLES HOLLOWLY)
Without water,
there's no coffee,
without coffee
nothing happens.
I was out trapping
the other day.
I rather unexpectedly
came across a open
lead in the river.
It was kind of a problem
while I was trapping
but it's a godsend now that
we're needing some water.
So I'm going to head back
to the same spot on the river
where there's an open area,
hopefully it'll still be open.
It's no good right now.
We get all of our water out
of this river here.
It's pure clean,
mountain water.
But right now this ice isn't
safe to go out onto the edge
and it's not thick enough
to cut a hole through it
to get the water out.
Consequences of going on that
are too severe, not worth it.
Here in rural Alaska
and especially in
the Arctic of Alaska,
come winter, there's virtually
zero daylight.
But you don't need daylight
to get water.
You know, I am a pretty
nocturnal guy here,
working on my own clock,
so, I get water
at night-time a lot.
Last water jug is empty.
Make a run down to the river
here and get some water.
A little bit different
than getting water
anywhere else you know,
can't just flip on the faucet.
Just hop on my snow machine
and go maybe
a half a mile over
to a particular spot
on the river
that I that I do well
with the water at.
The river conditions,
just like the weather
conditions here in the Arctic,
they control everything.
Sometimes it's real easy
to get water
and other times
it's very difficult.
Sometimes, it's kind of,
it's kind of dangerous
depending on
the ice condition.
Getting water from a river
that is partially
or completely frozen, you need
to always think about
shelf ice and thin ice.
It's no fun to take a,
take a dip.
Standing on a little bit
of shelf ice here.
The water level
is actually lower
than the bottom of the ice,
so there's air between
the water and the ice.
There's always the danger
of it breaking
the whole shelf.
(ICE CRACKLING)
A lot of people
make a lot of fuss
about the way I live
and they think
that is so hard and all.
If I didn't like it,
I wouldn't do this.
This doesn't bother me.
I like being outside,
it's a nice life.
I think it's about
1:30 a.m. right now.
I'll probably go home
and work on things
for another two
or three hours.
Time is kind of
insignificant here.
ANDY: When you live out here,
we don't have roads.
In Alaska, most of the rivers
are the highways
and we live along
an interstate, you know?
What do you guys think?
Tea, you want to go
to Eagle today?
Hey, Tea. Hey, girl.
(DOG WHINING)
You want to go to Eagle?
Hey, Ram, you guarding her?
Every year when the river
freezes, the ice packs in
and blocks our path to town.
Whoa! God.
The main problem
with getting to Eagle
is jumble ice and thin ice.
Look at that.
That ice is only
about two inches
thick or so right there.
We're definitely not going out
on the ice around here.
It's just not safe.
I think with the snow,
I think I'm going to go
up to Eagle.
I think I'll get through
that jumble ice.
I got a report from town that
it's good once I get up there.
Okay.
I got to get plastic,
got to get mail.
Take your time and don't go
beating up no sleds
-on that ice.
-Yeah.
All right, that sounds
like a plan then.
Okay, Burny boy.
Ready to go up to Eagle, huh?
You look so excited.
Yay, yay.
Yay, Cougar.
We're going up to Eagle today.
Let's go!
Hup, hup.
That-a boy, straight ahead.
(DOGS HOWLING)
Gee, gee, gee. That-a boy!
All right, let's go.
Let's go, on by. That-a boys.
That-a boys,
straight ahead now.
Little gee, little gee.
Good, perfect!
All right. Hup, hup.
You gonna go Haw!
Iceberg, Tiara.
Haw, haw! Haw, haw!
Haw, haw! Whoa. Haw.
Right there. Okay, everybody
stay here. Everybody stay.
So right after freeze up,
I tried coming up river
and right at this point here,
the river ice had packed up
right into the willows
and it cut me off,
basically created a barrier
of pretty big jumble ice
so I couldn't get by.
So today, I decided I'm going
to cut my way around it
and hoping to have a pretty
good trail to Eagle
but I don't know what's
ahead of me right now.
Time to make
some trail, you guys.
CHIP: I'd never live
in the lower 48 again.
Because a man can always hunt
and a man can always fish
and a man can always
go get wood.
Caribou over here
on my rack running thin,
and I think what needs
to happen is
we need to go get
some fresh meats.
There is a lot meats close by.
Um, we plan on going in much
further to go get fresh meat.
But, um, luck and the caribou
are with us
and we don't have far to go
and our chances at success
are almost 100%.
What's been stopping us lately
from hunting caribou
is the river needing
to freeze.
We're looking at open water
in that refroze,
open water that's refreezing.
I can see some thin ice over
here that I wouldn't go on,
I'm not going to go on.
The caribou are stuck on
their side of the river
-and we're stuck on ours.
-(SIGHING)
But now that
the river is frozen,
everybody can cross,
us and the caribou.
I really enjoy working
with Agnes
because she is very
professional about it,
she knows exactly
what she's doing,
she's been raised this way
and our kids are old enough
that we can leave them behind
and they can go to school
and I can enjoy my time
with my wife.
AGNES: I really enjoy
hunting with Chip
because it's a rare time
we can spend alone together.
CHIP: Right now, she's doing
the shooting,
which is no pain in my butt,
because I like to take
them apart.
Dissembling animals is fun.
We're going to stop over here.
That's my idea,
that'll keep the wind
off of us
and hopefully
that'll keep the wind
blowing our noise away.
And then we can get up
on the bank
-and take a shot or two.
-Yeah.
Let's give it a try.
AGNES: Chip and I
are a strange couple.
We do like to do things
certain ways.
I always do the shooting
because I'm a good shot
and I've been shooting
since I was a little kid.
Probably since 12.
(WHISPERING) They are right
in front of us.
(GUNSHOT FIRED)
They were right
in front of her.
The wind took you off
about one foot.
They're going to go
right over the hill.
Let's just go back
to the snow machines
-and go meet them
on the other side of the hill.
-Okay.
-The wind is too stiff
for this kind of range.
-Yeah.
But she's a good one.
We'll pick her up.
-Grab your glove. Let's go.
-Okay.
AGNES: Safety first.
CHIP: Safety first.
The caribou have been
spooked a bit
and what they like to do
is run up hills.
We got a hill between us
and them right now
that they're heading up,
we get around the hill
and let the caribou come
down to us, real natural like.
What's at stake
is our economy here.
If I go burning up gas
and bringing home nothing,
then I'm wasting my time
and my trip and my effort.
Caribou can live without us,
but we can't live
without caribou.
(GUNSHOT FIRED)
(CHIP SPEAKING)
It's not got off
to a very good start,
but the best way to get out
of it is to work hard.
It's like anything in life.
You got to work hard.
ANDY: I've come to realise
when I'm mushing my dogs,
it's kind of a meditative
state for me.
My dogs are my therapy.
(SIGHS) Son of a gun.
(PANTING)
This year the river ice jammed
up right to the bank
and cut me off from getting
to Eagle with a decent trail,
so we've had a lot of snow,
we've had a lot of wind
and I'm putting a trail
into Eagle now
so I can haul supplies back.
I guess maybe
I should have bought
some snow shoes with me.
Now I got to figure out
how to get through that.
There's a lot
of hollow ice here.
This is the stuff you've got
to worry about with the dogs.
Right there.
They fall into that
and that's when a shoulder
gets blown out.
Here we go, this is what
I'm talking about.
This hollow ice. Feels like
another crack right there.
Jumble ice poses as a couple
of different problems.
I can get through it
but it's very easy
to hurt a dog
when you're going through
rough jumble ice
and I'm really concerned about
taking care of my dogs
'cause they're my work force.
They are, they are everything
to me in the wintertime.
Making sure
they don't get hurt
is critically important to me.
You can see right here
there's a bunch of hollow ice
under here
and I'm definitely going to
have to get this broke down.
I don't mind doing the work
if there's a payoff for it.
Just don't do anything stupid.
-(ANDY LAUGHING)
-No, I'm serious.
ANDY: Whoa! God.
I hate doing work twice.
You know, you've always
got to be the first person
on the river,
when it's ice or water.
ANDY: I screwed up.
KATE: You live anywhere
like this,
something can always go wrong.
Sometime I think Mother
Nature is going to win.
All that work and I can
still see home.
(LAUGHS)
Man, sometimes it feels
endless out here.
I think the boys want to go.
We'll try and go nice
and slow through this.
Everybody stay.
That-a boys, okay.
Let's go to Eagle.
Come on, boys.
Hup, hup. Here you go.
Haw!
Iceberg, Tiara!
That-a boys. Pack it out.
Let's put a trail in,
you guys.
That's my boys.
That's my boys.
This year the river ice
jammed up and cut me off,
so I'm putting a trail
into Eagle now
so I can haul supplies back.
Easy, easy, easy.
Watch the cracks,
watch the cracks.
Up you go.
Nice and easy.
Easy. Easy.
That-a boys. Easy.
(TUTS) Whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa.
That-a boys.
Okay, everybody, whoa.
Whoa. Good job!
Yeah. Good boy.
You guys are
trail-breaking machines.
I should have
a pretty good trail.
I mean, I think I just went
through the worst
of it right now
and I know that people
up in Eagle
probably have some
trail laid up there,
so soon as I connect
up with their trail,
I should have a fairly decent
trail into town.
One way or another,
I'm going to make it.
That sun is starting
to dip down
and I got to get going
'cause I don't want to be
running through this crap
at night in the dark.
So I'm burning daylight,
I'm going to Eagle.
The boys are ready.
Everybody stay.
Everybody stay.
Head out, let's go, boys.
Hup, hup! Yeah! Let's go.
ERIK: Everything I have to do,
I have to do for myself
and build for myself
and create for myself.
These coals stay hot
for days and days.
I only light
a few fires a year
because the fire
just keeps going,
but today we're going
to change the stove pipe out.
It's kind of beat down,
a wind storm damaged
the old one
and I had to scab together
these pieces here
out of some pipe I had just
laying around to get through,
but it's a real fire hazard.
Could easily burn
my house down.
This is going to be the piece
that's right above
the stove itself.
So we need to put a hole
in the centre of the pipe
and it's essential
that the hole
is centred and straight
and that's where our flue
is going to go, our damper,
and that's how you shut
down the stove
so that you can control
the temperature
at which it burns.
My little way of putting that
hole in is with .22 handgun.
Got to make sure
it's perfectly straight.
We're going to centre
it just right.
(METALLIC CLANKING)
And let's see how we did.
Pretty good!
Let's go put it in.
Take the old pipe out.
Try not to make a mess.
(GROANS)
Make a mess.
We are north
of the Arctic Circle
and it can get to 60
below zero here,
so staying warm and
having a good wood stove
is really important.
Looks good. I'm happy with it.
Light the virgin fire here,
appears to be
drawing well.
Get back to doing
some other things.
Some people think
I'm crazy to want
to live out here in the cold,
but any day that I get to sit
on the edge of a mountain
and look out over all this,
is a pretty successful
day to me.
I don't need
to shoot anything,
or put up any meat,
add any fur to my catch
for the season
just get to walk around out
here in the quiet
and be alone.
You know there's no
interruptions or distractions
from my thoughts.
This is my church here,
I feel really, really blessed
and really, really fortunate
to be able to live as close
to nature as I do.
If you didn't have a clock
or anything right now
and you looked around,
I don't think
it would've looked
a bit different 500 years ago
and that's what I really like.
SUE: The last person I see
is the end of September
and the next is May
or June so, nine months.
It's just me, totally alone.
The weather is poor enough
outside that the risk of life
and limb
is a little bit large.
It's keeping me from working
on my runway and what not.
And this is the weather
we're looking at right now.
This is the low front,
this is causing
a lot of problems.
You know we're still going
to be 40 below zero
and maybe 50 below zero,
60 below zero,
you know once you get that far
below zero who really cares.
Useless for me to try
and get out there
on a piece of equipment
and try and make any headway.
Even with the hand lines up,
it's far too dangerous
to go out in this weather.
You've only got five,
10 minutes
and your skin
is going to freeze,
you're gonna have frostbite.
You just can't do it.
I have no choice
but to hole up
and hope that
the camp survives
without a day of upkeep.
But, that's just what it is,
I mean, to make the decision
to live here, you know,
you're deciding that your
going to pit yourself against
some of the worst shit that
Mother Nature has to give
and why do I do it? I mean,
the jury's still out, really.
It's damn near impossible
to try and keep track of
all the things that is trying
to kill me out here.
You can put up your hand.
You're gonna
run out of fingers.
You've got the wind,
you've got the cold,
you've the bears,
you've got the polar bears,
you've got the wolverines,
you've got the wolves,
if you get sick,
the doctors aren't around,
you're 500 miles from
I mean, you can just
keep going with it.
There's more stuff
that wants to eat me
then I want to be eaten
by out here.
It's always a challenge.
Staying alive, day-to-day.
Each one of these guns
has a different home.
It likes it there and has
a purpose in where it lives.
All my weapons are usually
locked and loaded,
they only safety is,
don't touch it.
This is a .45-70.
Locked, loaded,
ready for action.
Safety's off.
When I'm in bed
and laying here
first thing my hand does
is grab the pistol,
the next thing
the other hand does
is grab the gun, you know.
So, this is where they live.
Had an incident years ago,
bear came right through
the wall over here,
I used to lay
with my head here
and (GROWLS)
Came right through
at 2:00 in the morning,
got hung up on the bars,
but I was able to lift my head
put my feet right in my boots,
grab the rifle and run.
Stark naked, ran up
to the perch
and as I threw my rifle up
and pulled myself up,
you know, she took her claws
and got right in between
the sole of my rubber boot
and my foot yanking me down.
I have fat calves
and just went
And the boot came off,
I scrambled out, shot,
she went (GROWLING), ran off.
And I never did find my boot,
but in the morning
here's an ear with a tag.
So I never sleep
naked any more
and I never sleep with
my head towards the wall.
I changed it,
I got my head up here,
my pistol here,
the rifle's always
stayed there.
You know, it's what I
I may never need it again,
but I thank God I had it
when I needed it.
You point a gun
when you mean it.
Something big is chasing me,
a predator at close range.
Boom.
You're dead.
10 below, 13 below.
Thursday is 25 below.
Well, when you have
a bad hunt,
you've wasted resources,
gas, good weather, time.
But that's just
the way it goes,
you have to accept it.
Clear enough, just
going to be a little funny
to see, that's all.
Overcast will turn
The weather is everything.
We go with the weather,
it doesn't go with us.
Weather is looking like
it's going to get colder
and hopefully clear up.
Right now, we got
a lot of overcast
and it makes it very difficult
to see the snow
that you're driving over.
If it's an unbroken trail, you
can get into some troubles.
Back past Melagivik Lakes
over toward the base
of the mountain
all along this area,
there're supposed
to be lots of caribou.
Maybe 1,000
of them down there.
We've been hearing
caribou are a little
south of here,
not very far away, so
our best bet is to have a look
over down at these lakes
in an area called Melagivik.
-Sound good to you?
-Yes, sounds good.
CHIP: My wife has
the most experience
with hunting in this house.
Her family were a family
of hunter gatherers as well.
AGNES: Chip and my dad sat
and visited for a long time
with maps in front of them
and my father passed on
a lot of traditions
to my husband.
My wife's family is probably
responsible for 90%
of my knowledge about
this region around here,
and if it wasn't
for her father,
I'd probably still wouldn't be
doing things right.
ANDY: The more independent
you are,
the more freedom you have
and that's what
I want in my life.
I want freedom.
Straight ahead. Good boy.
All right. You guys got
us to Eagle now,
good job, you guys.
All right, straight ahead.
It took a little longer than
I expected to get to Eagle
but I finally got
a good trail in,
that makes me feel good.
Now I can get my supplies
and head home.
I'm going to go
to my school bus first
to get my dog food.
This is an old school bus
converted into a storage unit.
I go to Fairbanks to buy
dog food and stuff.
I can't bring it
all down the river,
so I got to have
a place in Eagle
where I can store things.
Hup, let's go, that-a boys.
I'm going to head over
to the post office,
pick up my beer supplies.
Hi, Andy, are you
making beer?
-Oh, yeah.
-All right, well,
there you go.
-All right.
-Enjoy making beer.
Hey, man, you know what?
How many times
have I ordered stuff
and it's taken like,
three weeks to get here
-Yeah.
-I order this on Monday.
-Isn't that amazing?
-Yeah.
The final trip is to pick up
my plastic to build
some new sleds.
Hey, Linda, I'm going
to pick up my freight
out of the pool hall, okay?
All right, thank you.
There's nothing
like the north.
Every time you
freight something,
it's a new challenge
on how it get it home.
Ah, we'll make it work.
Whoa, whoa.
You going to go haw.
You going to go haw.
That-a boys, haw, haw.
Good boys.
ERIK: What gets people
is in their mind
and either you have it
or you don't have it
to live in Alaska.
When the temperature's
extremely cold,
I might fill my wood box
three or four times a day.
Mid-winter here,
I'm running low,
I've been burning
a lot of wood,
I'm getting pretty low.
I'm down to about nothing.
Well, there are two types
of firewood that
we cut here in the Arctic.
One is dead-standing spruce.
The other is green birch.
Good to go.
It's about zero this morning,
so we're good to go.
It's a nice temperature
for cutting wood
and go get it done.
A little different
than other places
where you just
flip a switch for heat.
Go cut trees down
and buck them up
and chop them up
and bring them back
to wood stove.
This is a glacier creek.
Basically turned
into an ice waterfall
or an ice fall.
There is wood up here
that's not available to me
any other time of year
and, you know, when I cut
in the fall or spring,
there's no snow and ice
to get up this creek.
We'll get these home and
(MOTOR STARTING)
Keep moving.
(ENGINE REVVING)
It's fucked.
Mother fucker.
Anytime you're up on something
that's a precipice like this,
it's a bad situation.
Here in Alaska, you know,
I, I hop on my sled
and I go find some wood
and cut it down
and drag it home.
A lot of time a lot of energy
just to do some tasks here.
You sleep when you're tired,
you eat when you're hungry,
you work when there's
work to be done.
Got plenty of water.
Got some firewood,
now I'm going to split a few
pieces up real small,
spark my sauna up
and take a nice relaxing steam
and get a bath.
I rarely know
what day of the week it is.
I usually don't know
what time it is
and I don't care.
Had a successful day
cutting wood.
Got some good high-quality
dead-standing spruce here.
Chop a little bit up.
Nothing I rather be doing.
If there was something
I'd rather be doing,
I'd be out doing it,
I do whatever
I want, literally.
I enjoy living here very much
and I wouldn't trade
this life for anything.
My day can be made
just by seeing a moose
and watching him walk
across the river.
I don't know, maybe
I'm simple-minded.
ANDY: What I find
really satisfying
is building a life
you want for yourself
and then living that life.
Straight ahead. Up we go.
(CLICKING TONGUE)
Hup, hup, that-a boys.
I just picked up
my supplies in Eagle
and it feels good to be headed
home, away from civilisation.
The world is becoming too
homogenized for my taste.
Everything you do outside of
where we live costs you money.
Park a car, costs you money,
got to have home insurance,
got to have car insurance,
got to have health insurance.
We don't have to worry
about that out here.
I figure if I got sick,
it's up to me to deal with it,
if I get hurt, it's up to me
to deal with it.
Kate and I both agree that
quality of life is measured
by how much free time you have
to do what you want to do
and if that's the measure
of life's quality
then we have an extremely high
quality of life.
That-a boys!
Let's go. Hup, hup.
Hup, hup, let's go.
Let's go. Hup, hup.
That-a boys.
Hup, hup.
Cold?
Ah, here, why don't you
wear that for a minute?
Nice hat, buddy!
Oh, yeah!
-You look like
the long shoreman.
-(DOG BURPS)
Oh, my God,
he burps like one too.
Can you swear like a sailor?
Huh?
We got some mail,
some supplies,
and most importantly,
we got our beer malts.
Got to have beer malts here.
So I'm going to brew up
a batch of beer tonight.
I don't know if you're
going to get your
beer tonight, babe.
KATE: What do you mean?
I think the root cellar's
freezing up down below
'cause I got a little bit
of frozen beer
in this tube here, so
KATE: Can't you just
open it up?
-Dip it out?
-Yeah.
-No.
-Why?
No, it would be all
over the place.
It's wanting to.
It's like there's ice in there
or something.
KATE: Go on.
ANDY: Ice-brewed Yukon beer,
look at that! Oh, it's going.
-KATE: Yay!
-(ANDY LAUGHS)
This beer tastes way better
than anything
I've ever bought.
Tell you the truth
I mean, honest to God,
this is the best beer
that I've ever had,
and I think it's because
I can brew it myself
and it cost about half
as much to make
and it's better than
what I can buy.
Look at that.
KATE: That's the way
a beer should look.
ANDY: Perfect carbonation.
You da man.
All right, there's your
break up brew.
Cheers, babe.
CHIP: Getting animals
for food,
you start to appreciate that
animal much, much, more.
So far we've blown
a couple chances
of getting caribou,
and it looks like we've got
one more chance
before the sun goes down.
I'd say the females
are at the back.
AGNES: Yeah, that was
the very first one,
just standing there.
There is a shot I think.
CHIP: Usually we try to shoot
them in the head or the neck
but we're usually much closer
and being as we're close
to a village
and these animals have
This herd has been hunted,
they're what we call
educated.
So the distance of shooting
is much greater.
(GUNSHOT FIRED)
CHIP: Yep, she's limping.
She'll go down.
She's been hit all right.
Just got to give her a chance
to calm down and settle in.
She'll lay down
and we'll go get her.
Me and my wife, we do this
quite a bit together.
Right now it's my turn to do
the work, she's done her work.
It's a division of labour.
In this society
that we live in,
woman hunters are just as
viable as man hunters.
'Cause what matters is there's
meat on the table.
Killing things
isn't so pretty.
We came up here and finished
it off by cutting its throat
'cause it wasn't
going anywhere.
That's just the way
we do things.
A lot of people don't like
the way it happens,
but they can always
pay the butcher to do it.
No different.
We're not trophy hunting.
Our trophy is the meat.
The fat meat.
The females are starting
to put on a lot of fat
from all the grazing
they've done in the dark.
They haven't run it off,
she's a perfect cow.
This is what we call
the mess of success.
When we're cold sometimes
we have a little bit
of the kidney,
kidney warms real good.
Liver.
We have a bite of the liver.
If you're cold and hungry.
SUE: Nature does not want
you to succeed.
If I went somewhere
and it were all easy,
I'd be on Xanax and, you know,
in la-la land in a heartbeat.
I would not be happy.
The blizzard is over
and I can finally go
outside safely.
It's, uh, nice and calm.
I mean, it's 35, 40 below,
it's not bad weather.
Being holed up for too long
is not how you script it,
but I'm my own master.
I tell the ship
which way to sail.
But, you know,
you get a nice day
and, yeah, you just
bounce around,
you want to be outside.
You go check all your drifts.
I took the snow off
one side of the building
'cause it was getting
too heavy.
But, I mean,
who else has an office
this nice, you know?
Nobody I know of.
My foot has been aching
since the surgery
and so one of the first things
I want to do now
is go out and
get some willow bark.
Willow has a component
to it called salic acid.
The salic acid in willow helps
eases your aches and pains
and I'll take it and boil it
up in some water
and make a tea,
and it helps me sleep a little
better at night.
Every year I have the concern,
how adept am I
at my own survival?
The mind says, boo-yah, 18.
10'-tall and bulletproof.
But the body says, (CHUCKLING)
gravity happens.
I'm a poster child, you know.
Even though they did surgery
on the paw
and it's feeling all right,
it is now a liability.
It's been cut on,
it will develop scar tissue,
it will develop arthritis.
I mean, every year
it's something.
I did try to live in town
and slowly but surely,
it was killing me.
I don't understand
where people want
to be mean to each other,
I don't understand
where gossip
and you're not fitting
into the mould
and why is there a need to
tear apart
the fabric of society
instead of making it so strong
that we all support
each other.
And I don't get that.
I'm no good
at the social games
that the rest of
the world plays,
I don't understand it,
I don't get it,
I'd rather have
a very honest relationship
with something that
wants to eat me.
This I understand,
bears want to eat me
and I don't want them to.
It's real simple,
it's logical.
The environment itself says
get the fuck out
and it's my nature to say,
make me.
ANDY: There's pretty much
no place left on Earth
except for interior Alaska
where you still have
the freedom to pursue
this kind of a lifestyle
the way we do.
You guys ready for your fish?
All right, get some whole fish
for the boys tonight.
Today was a really great day.
I just got back from Eagle,
the dogs did really well.
Now they deserve
a really good treat.
There you go,
let me see that fish.
There you go, buddy.
After a long, hard day,
I like to sit back
in a nice, hot sauna.
There's no better way to relax
at the end of the day.
Yeah, buddy, look at
the northern lights. Whoo!