Troy's gonna be coming over here in a little bit,
and, we're gonna get this apparatus mounted on the boat,
and we're gonna do some subsistence Gill net fishing
so we can put some fish away for winter.
Perfect.
This is my roller assembly
for getting my subsistence Gill net back on board the boat.
These are gonna attach to my skiff,
this is gonna hang over the boat slightly,
and the net's gonna come smoothly over this
and stay within these two uprights
that I've got there, so...
Well, it looks like it's pretty much done to me.
There's an old adage:
You can give a man a fish
or you can teach him how to fish.
What I'm gonna do now is I get the privilege of teaching Troy
something that will help him survive.
One of the ways that we can make this community survive
is teach these young fellers everything I can.
There he is.
You're fired!
I was never hired.
Maybe you could come hold this for me
when you have half a chance.
If you want to do something you can't do yourself,
get a younger feller to come with you.
The straits are eight miles wide.
We've only got 150 feet of net.
150, okay.
- We got this little patch. - Okay.
So with any luck, we'll get a couple
every time we set it, you know.
We might have to set three or four times.
I've been practicing my fish call.
Good.
Solid as the rail.
I'm hungry for some salmon.
I think it's about time we get the hell out of here.
Most of my fishing prior to moving to Alaska
was freshwater fishing, lakes and streams and rivers.
I know nothing about this subsistence Gill netting,
so really looking forward to learning.
I think we'll go in by lab rocks for our first shot.
I like it.
The more feathers you can put in your hat,
the more self-sustainable I can be.
And winter's coming quick.
Man, I'm thinking this is far enough.
Calm.
I saw a couple fish jump.
Just angle towards the beach.
- You ready? - Yeah.
Just kind of idle back there?
You want me to give it anything?
No, just, just a dead idle.
The way Gill nets catch fish is they swim into it,
and just even a fragment of a Gill flap,
and bingo, they've got 'em.
Put it in the water at the right time of year,
you're basically guaranteed success.
And it went out pretty smooth.
Hopefully it's gonna come in smooth.
Almost like we know what we're doing, Sam.
We'll just let her fish.
People are getting softer,
and people don't want to live a hard life anymore.
You know, people need their comforts.
To really be successful, you have to not give a.
I don't think most people could do it.
Perfect.
Release the clutch!
The plan is,
now that curly's got the trees on the road,
Sam has built the hauler...
The last part of this process
is for me and Morgan to pick the logs up,
put them on the trailer, throw them in the water,
and bring them to my dad's sawmill,
cut them up into lumber for the new house.
I'm really impressed with this.
Yeah, I think Sammy did us a solid here.
Okay, go ahead and take, take up on it a little bit.
The log hauler is gonna be a huge help
to actually be able to build our house.
Our biggest goal is to get into the new house by winter.
It's gonna be a huge feat to accomplish,
but it's also something that we really want to work towards.
I think this is about as much as we want to take.
I don't want to break this tongue in half.
That would be really unfortunate.
Yeah, that'd put everything at a halt.
We'll try and get these off,
and then we're gonna come back and try and get the other two.
We'll wrap them up, take them up to the sawmill today.
We got to hit the tide right for getting these in the water
and for getting them to the mill.
Are we gonna be able to get all of them
down at the landing before high tide?
I think so, yeah. I'm pretty sure.
Pushing it, but
I am like 90% sure 60% of the time.
This is gonna be a big thing.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is about the biggest thing
I ever want to carry on here.
Anything bigger than this, I need a bigger trailer.
Watching the tongue on that trailer flex,
that's about a 10-foot stretch of steel there
that's not really supported by anything.
So I'm not 100% sure that would hold up
to a really hard hit on a pothole or something.
I'm just gonna go slow
and try not to destroy this thing
the first time I use it.
Okay.
Ha! We did it.
Good job, baby. I still remember how to drive a trailer.
You did a good job.
So, we got to figure out how to get these off here.
Part of the reason I live here,
because we have all these tasty treats
out in the ocean and in the rivers.
I have fresh food sources all around me.
Nothing.
Damn, these things are heavy.
What do we got?
There must be shrimp here.
Same old crap.
Son of a biscuit-eating dog.
Boy, I don't know if it's the right spot,
if it's the traps... What the hell the problem is.
I got to figure out what I'm doing wrong here.
I eat a lot of salmon and a lot of deer.
And I'm hungry for some shrimp, something different.
A little variety in what I've been eating lately.
You know, make a little michelada
and hang some shrimp on it.
It's a good way to start the day.
I've run into this problem before
where shrimp come through these holes.
I mean, shrimp ain't much bigger than your finger, and shoo.
I got this smaller mesh.
If I cut this up into pieces and line the floor with it,
then all the little shrimp will stay in there.
Everything out here is trial and error,
especially if you don't have somebody's brain to pick
to tell you, you know?
A lot of these things about catching and trapping and stuff,
you know, Gary was my go-to guy.
When Gary was alive,
he would tell me methods of going and doing things
and, you know, things that work for him.
So it's a bummer not having him around
to pick his brain on little things like this.
My poor hand looks like I've been playing with kittens.
It's all scratched up.
My catty's gonna think I've been cheating on him.
Say, "mom, what have you been playing with?"
They also make these little underwater lights
that attract the shrimp.
Put it right on the door there.
Beautiful.
This just might be the trick to attract the shrimp.
I don't know what the future holds
for port protection,
but one way or another there will always be
some scoundrel out here for sure, man.
I plan to be one of 'em.
Man, it's a nightmare to come in here
and take the whole day to do laundry
instead of being out there doing something else.
I mean, it's just, you know,
on a day like this I'd rather be doing anything but laundry.
Most people, I'm sure,
have a laundromat or a laundry machine pretty close by.
We have one close by, but it's a three-mile skiff drive
in snow, sleet, rain, or fishing season.
Out here it's definitely a set of challenges
just to find quarters alone.
You find yourself out on your boats,
you know, searching between your table cushions and everything,
you know, just trying to find the last quarter
to be able to scrape up for a load of laundry.
If I got 45 minutes of a wash cycle
and no beer to drink,
I'm gonna come out here and just dump a hook in the water,
that's for sure.
My mind will definitely be feeling better
when I get some fish on board.
You know, "cave man, I am man," you know?
Like, you feel that way, you do.
It looks really fishy out here, man.
I'm digging it, dude. I can't... yeah.
Birds circling, feed flipping.
Whales going up and down!
Dude!
We're in it. We're in it, man.
The whales, man. I love it.
Man, yeah.
I'm working my way out there to you, whales.
Don't worry, I'm a-comin'.
I'm a-comin'.
Ooh... flyer!
See what we got going on here.
Yeah, we got a fish.
We got a fish.
Hoo, doggy!
Come on, you're just a little salmon.
Why are you fighting so hard?
Come on up here, bugger.
Fishy poo!
We like fighting fish.
Ooh, it's actually, actually giving me
a little bit of a fight.
No, did it get off? No!
Man.
I wish we did catch something.
But it got me away from the laundromat
for 20 minutes to a half an hour,
so, anyway, I'm gonna jam back there.
Yeah, it would be nice
to not have to come into town once a week to do laundry.
I like town,
there's a lot of nice people to visit with there,
but, you know, I also love my house
and all the I got going on back there, so...
It'd be kind of sweet to figure out a way
to do that at home.
I got to figure out how to get these off here
'cause the tide is not yet correct.
No.
I think we could just push them.
Yeah?
- Yeah. - Okay.
The logs are getting to the sawmill
the way everything else moves around here
they're going in the water.
This one's gonna be... Heavy, heavy, bad, bad.
We want to be able to get them to the sawmill at high tide.
I'm gonna see if I can pull forward a little bit.
Okay.
See if they slide off.
Yeah, don't break our other taillight.
That's our last one.
We don't need 'em.
Sure.
If we don't show up exactly at high tide,
the logs aren't getting on the skid,
so it's essential that we're here at high water and no later.
You didn't.
Sweet.
I told you I wasn't gonna break it.
Ha ha!
Yeah, those will float, no sweat.
- Cool. - Nice.
Let's go get more.
Excited. I'm pumped, I'm pumped.
Our first, our first pull.
I'm seeing a few fish jump around us.
I'll bet you we have a couple anyways.
Like Christmas morning,
I just want to cheat and start looking ahead,
take a little... Unwrap the presents a little.
Take a little peek.
Making a washing machine out of 55-gallon drums.
Be a little happy camper sitting right here,
happy as a pig in.
Boom, just like that.
P-P-P... Killed it.
This one is quite a bit heavier,
but still not as heavy as that next one,
so see how it goes.
Good.
It'll be fine.
Let me see if I can take the other taillight out this time.
No.
He says with confidence.
I've tweaked these pots a little bit,
and I got enough lights to put in all my pots.
It's just another thing to make it look, enticing.
Hopefully it works for me.
Go, baby, go.
Last pot down.
That's gonna be a dinner pot.
Should be able to get out of here pretty fast.
This tide's coming in quick.
Yeah.
Just tie it off so we don't lose it.
Yeah, let's try and get out of here
before the tide gets any higher.
It's gonna be way the hell up here
by the time we get back this, this go-around.
Okay.
Moment of truth coming up.
I'm not seeing any fish.
Our first skunking.
Well, the main thing is is that everything worked.
Yeah, no, that's, that's positive.
Well, let's run up the beach a ways
and slap this thing back in the water.
Then we'll go over that way a mile or so
and pitch her out.
We got the rest of the day to put some fish in that tote.
Now for the big one.
Well, like I told Sam,
if anybody can break this, it'll be me.
And if any of these logs is gonna break,
it'll be this one, so.
I saved the biggest log for last.
I know it's probably over 1,200 pounds,
and the trailer's only rated for 1,250.
I'm a little nervous.
I wish I had a better idea how this was gonna work,
but I think it's gonna be okay.
It's fine. Let's do it.
Crank on it.
I don't know how well this is gonna handle this.
Fortune favors the bold.
I'm pretty sure this is the biggest tree
I'm ever gonna put on here.
I never have any idea really how anything is gonna work out.
Until you put a plan into action,
there's no telling.
I can see the whole thing flexing.
I'll just kind of wiggle it as it comes in.
That peavey.
If that's the only thing we break today, I'll be happy.
I did break the peavey.
It was bound to happen.
Wood handles are useless.
Just throw 'em away.
It's firewood.
This is kind of heavy.
How many f-bombs can you drop in a sentence?
A few more than that.
We'll be fine.
I'm not too worried about it.
Now with the trailer,
knowing me and Morgan can do this by ourselves,
I think my construction timeline has moved up drastically.
So, we'll be building our empire here right quick.
Nothing broke.
God!
Small victories.
Well, now that you've seen it happen a couple of times,
it's gonna be your turn to help let the net go out.
Okay. Keep an eye on me, tell me what I'm doing wrong.
I'm good at that.
So, this here
is gonna be the inside of the washing machine,
and it will spin on an axis inside of
this barrel.
I'm glad they're finally gonna get used up.
It's gonna be sweet to get them out of my woodshed
so I can fill it full of wood again.
Look at that, they all just peel out so nice.
I think we got high tide on the money here right now, so.
- Yeah. - Is it?
- Yeah. - Perfect.
Yeah, we'll get to the skids just right.
Yeah, this is where all the magic happens.
This is where
we're building our future, basically.
Right.
One, two, three, four logs.
All strung out.
Yeah, they look good.
We brought logs.
This our spot?
This is the spot.
All right.
Yeah, just crouch up there in that corner,
and got to make sure you cover up those bolts.
I've seen Sam do it now.
I think this is something I can do myself,
fingers crossed, so let's see how it goes.
I want this on the left of this.
Make sure it doesn't go over the cork line.
I want it on this side.
Sam definitely has a way he wants things done.
I wouldn't say his way or the highway.
The only reason I wouldn't say that
is 'cause we don't have a highway.
Pitch the cork line,
now that the lead line's going by itself.
There you go.
What's great about Sam
is he's done so much of this stuff so many times
that he's already made a lot of the mistakes,
and he's saving me from making a lot of those mistakes.
That's going out like a dream.
Like a dream.
Troy's doing really good.
I think he's picking up all the important details
that he needs to learn to do this by himself.
That was pretty good.
It, it's just hard to get started.
All right, first time setting a subsistence Gill net.
Check.
Now all we got to do is just let it soak.
First things first.
Step one, sharpen pencil.
All right, step one, check.
What am I doing now?
Building a stand is what I am doing.
Don't complicate this, Oliver.
Ooh, four feet. Barely. Hell, yeah.
But, yeah, dude, check out this, man.
Breanna got me a new saw for the old anniversary.
I think it was 12 or 13.
I can't remember anymore
but, yeah, I mean, I mean, I know I'm in.
You know, she's a keeper?
But, yeah, this thing rips.
I started working construction at 16.
I did it every summer through high school.
Having those kind of skills are definitely necessary
to be living out here if you want to be self-sufficient.
I think it's coming together now officially.
It's official.
My brain's out on the water.
My whole, like, everything
is just thinking about fishing and making money,
and I know that's where I should be
and what I should be doing.
Cool, sweet, baller.
All right.
But if I take the time off to do this right now,
you know, I can actually save time
and possibly do, you know, other things later
instead of going to town and doing laundry.
All right, gave it some sturdiness there.
That's good.
We do need that.
Well, all right, that looks like a stand to me.
Now, hopefully this jug fits.
Real pain in the ass if it didn't.
What the fizz?
I'm just going to whack those nails off
and start right over real quick.
Yeah, yea.
Watch out. Ch-ch-choo.
I'm fat, always have been,
so I know how to take my sweater off
without showing my gut.
It's a trick.
All right.
There we go. Okay.
On to the next step,
which will be kind of cutting a lid out of this thing
and sticking that barrel inside of this barrel.
So basically what we're gonna do
is create the whole housing,
the basket on the inside that's gonna turn,
the agitators, make a real crude version
of whatever you all have in your own washing closet.
Okay, what am I doing here?
Gathering a little bit of hardware now.
I feel like I should do that maybe,
or should I drill the holes?
This project's coming together
just like all my other projects do.
I mean, it's a little messed up along the way,
but at the end, it kind of, well, will work out
so that's what we're hoping for.
Okay, the laundry basket is holey,
and now I think I am going to start attaching the doors.
Okay, well, shh-bb-bb...
All right. It's time, dude, all right.
Black barrel inside of the blue barrel.
There we go.
Fired away.
All right.
Sweet.
Pain in the ass anyway.
We got this, dowel here.
It's the axle that these both will ride on
and, where also we will attach our handle
to give it a spin.
All right! Heck, yeah!
We're onto something here now.
I think it's about ready to wash some clothes.
Couple latches and a handle,
and away we're gonna go.
Woo-hoo!
Get that to me without knocking me off this log, Carl.
Yeah.
Okay, you ready for us on the beach?
Yeah.
Nicely done.
It's like you know what you're doing, Carl.
Sometimes.
Yeah.
So, this is my dad's sawmill.
He's had it longer than I've been alive,
and it built everything here when I was growing up.
Built their house, their shop,
and, hopefully it builds all my stuff, too.
We'll see.
All right, we're coming.
People meet my parents, and they're like, wow,
these are very well-adjusted, normal individuals.
Your problem?
Starting to get some lumber.
I'm excited about this.
They claim I'm not adopted, so, yeah, I guess
I guess I'm theirs, I don't know.
Good lord.
Somebody's gonna have to crank,
and somebody's gonna have to be down at this end
and make sure they stay on the skid.
Yeah.
I vote for not cranking.
Great. I'll crank.
Big, strong man, you got this.
I'll crank. Okay.
This is a heavy log.
Yeah.
My favorite part.
When I was growing up,
I lived kind of in an attic above the kitchen,
and, my dad told me, he said,
"well, son, when you're old enough
and you can't stand up in there anymore,
we'll build you a new bedroom, and you're gonna help."
Starting to sweat already.
So, you know, when I started walking around like this
in my bedroom,
you know, I couldn't straighten up, it was time.
We went out and collected all the logs we needed
and cut the lumber.
Yeah, so I built my middle school bedroom.
Tomorrow's leg day.
I've developed a serious appreciation for the sawmill
now that I'm a property owner.
Just opened up a, yeah, a huge world of possibilities.
Perfect.
Holy.
Poor guy.
You want to crank the next one up?
God. Slave driver.
I got that salt water on my hands
where I got all those little cuts.
They're just burning.
You take the high road, girl.
Mommy take the lazy road.
While the shrimp pots soak,
I got to do something about these cuts on my hand
that I have from modifying these pots.
I got this special moss that grows all over in the woods,
and it has healing powers
that prevent bacterial infections and fungus.
Here's some of that moss right here.
It's growing all over.
You just rub it in there... And it cleans it up.
Knowing these little bits of information
that have been passed down for years and years
will help you.
We're so far away
from any kind of doctors or hospitals or anything,
and, getting an infection can be dangerous out here.
Even a stupid scratch on your hand.
Come on, pipes. Let's go for a walk.
Look what mama's got. Look what I got.
What have we got here, roxy-pie?
That's a good barrel, man.
Look at that, rocky.
You don't know what a good find this is.
These things are so handy.
I'm thinking they'd make good planters,
and I want to plant some wildflowers.
Can we throw this on our shoulder, roxy?
Maybe so. Creak.
I think I can do this, rox.
Let's go.
Okay, we got this, we got this.
I am definitely excited
to see if this thing is gonna work
like I hope it does.
That would be awesome, man.
God.
Yeah, these definitely need washed.
Fish goo galore. Fish goo galore.
If this thing works,
I'll never have to go to town to do laundry again.
Come on, the moment of truth here.
Something's gonna break or move.
I'm thinking positive.
Shrimp are gonna be in the traps.
Nothing.
Nothing at all, even with the light.
Time to feed the fishes.
I just wish Gary was around.
He'd tell me what I'm doing wrong.
Every time I went fishing with Gary,
you came back with something.
You never came back with empty pots.
And he'd just have that grin.
"I told you I'd get you shrimp, Mary."
I can hear him saying it.
Bless him.
How do you like your new office?
Hey, put it this way:
Isn't this a hell of a lot better than an office?
My god.
I would take this, take this office all day long.
You're glad you're not in the financial industry anymore.
Yeah, the pay is not quite as good,
but the payoff is as good, I think.
Yeah.
I think you're stuck with me.
Well, many are called.
Few are chosen.
A two-speed bike.
Downshift going uphill.
I would say that's about it, Carl.
That's about it.
All right, cool.
All right, we'll check this stuff,
See what we got.
Yeah, stuff's starting to look agitated,
starting to look like it's getting soap on it.
Heck, yeah, man, I'm digging it.
All right. This is sweet.
All right.
Whoo! Sweet!
This spout here is to drain the dirty water.
Look at that, yeah, that's gray water.
I would call it gray water.
I mean, at least that dirt isn't in the clothes anymore.
I'll take it as far as clean clothes goes.
Ba-doop, ba-doop, boo!
I think it'll work.
Cool, well, I'm tired now.
Now you can learn how to use the mill.
I'm gonna step back and stay away from that.
But you have fun.
Are we ready to get started on this?
- Okay. - All right, let's do it.
I see it.
If you see the corks bouncing,
that means you got fish.
There's just enough waves,
I can't tell if it's the waves making the corks bounce.
It sure feels heavier.
Could have some gold.
We got a little problem here.
Lots of kelp.
Yeah, that's the problem with Gill net.
Anything that gets near it gets caught in it.
There's a big old kelp chunk coming.
That's not a good sign.
We got a lot coming up here.
I don't like that at all.
I hate to spend half a day cleaning this thing out.
Not seeing any fishies.
I see a fish.
First fish of the day.
Look at that.
- Woo-hoo! - Straight from the sea.
Ocean-bright chum salmon.
Can't beat 'em. Silver on the tail.
I can actually feel something wiggling on here.
You probably feel another one.
Yeah.
- Another chum salmon. - Another good one.
Hey, look at that.
Two beautiful chum salmon, man.
I thought I saw another one.
Yeah, he's right down here.
There we go, this is the one I feel thumping.
Yeah!
Chum dog.
Yeah.
Silver bullets.
Hey, I'd say we're kicking some ass
and taking some names here.
Living out in the wild in Alaska
has been a dream for a long time.
It takes a lot of work to live up here.
A lot of this was brand spanking new to me,
so having a good teacher like Sam
is absolutely essential in my survival up here.
Well, it's your turn to get the fish out of the net.
Seeing as how we're at the end of it.
Put two fingers through it and just go snap.
There you go.
Now you should be able to get him out now.
See that, brutus?
That's a successful day, if you ask me.
Yeah.
To be honest, I'd have to say that after today,
I think that young Troy,
he's gonna be fully capable of catching fish for himself
with a Gill net.
Productive way to fish.
Well, if you're gonna get fish to eat,
it's the right time of the year,
yeah, you can't beat it.
Yeah, thank you, Alaska.
And thank you, fishes.
I think I'm gonna go do something fun
and go plant a Gary garden.
What do you think, girl?
Want to go plant some flowers?
I think that's what we're gonna do.
Okay, rox, danger.
Danger.
Gary and I, we both loved flowers.
When I first moved up here, he'd take me out on the road
and show me where to get wildflowers
and wildflower seeds.
And this is gonna be my little Gary tribute garden.
How 'bout that?
I think I'm gonna have some hummingbirds
that are gonna like my flower garden, too.
I treasure those memories of being with him
and all the knowledge that, he's given me
to make my life easier here.
We used to go in the fall or the end of summer
when all the wildflowers go into seed.
You just go shake the buds and get the seeds, you know,
and plant them next year,
and that's something we did together, and...
Here we go, I'm planting 'em, Gary.
Boy, I hope all these come up.
It'll be beautiful,
and they'll always remind me of, my cherished friend Gary.
Let's make a cut.
Should be good right about here.
That'll be our first cut.
- Okay. - There's your beam.
Cut six off the rind?
Yeah.
You have a system.
Now you just drop the clutch and start pushing, yeah?
I've been here for 36 years now.
I just kind of had this vision of, building a home here,
and I pretty much started from scratch.
Andrea had the same interests as me
to come out to port protection
and make it an adventure and start a life
and build a home.
Carl, of course, he grew up,
just kind of experienced all of that.
Now he's starting out on his own,
building a place.
There you go.
It's starting to look like a piece of wood.
Carl and Morgan's getting together
kind of parallels Andrea and myself.
They are just about the exact same age as Andrea and I
when we kind of met and got together.
Morgan kind of brings to the relationship
more of that sense of adventure that Andrea and I had
because this is kind of new to her.
Yeah, I think Carl and Morgan are gonna follow that same path.
That's a nice beam.
It is. I don't want to carry this up the hill.
- It's a good start. - I think it's a good start.
- It's a good start. - It's a real good start.
Yeah, we got more, more to cut.
Yup, yup.
So, yeah.
I mean, I'm good with this for a skiff load for now.
This was a good day's work.
Yeah, and I'll come back for more.
I haven't seen what's going on over here yet.
We did a thing.
That's perfect right there.
Wow!
Yeah, it's the start of it.
Cool, so we're good to go throw these in the boat?
All right. Well, I guess that's that.
Thank you, guys. This is amazing.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Couldn't have done it without you.
Just show up with logs anytime.
All right.
I get a fairly decent sense of satisfaction
when I can show something to one of these new folks,
Troy in particular,
on how to do something so he can become more self-sufficient.
It's the right thing to do.
It can be a lot of work, you know,
but, it's always, always worth it in the long run.
If the work pays off like it did today,
then it's work I'm willing to do.
Boy, look at that, man.
I couldn't have planned anything more perfect.
Just about right!
Fire, dude.
I would call today a marked success, man.
The washer's working, the clothes are clean,
I'm happy.
Gary would be proud to see me keep trying to win here
and not giving up.
If you're gonna give up, you got no business being here.
My parents, they actively pursued this life,
and I think sometimes those of us that grew up here,
I think we take that for granted.
People moved away and left
and found something they were looking for elsewhere.
I went, I traveled, I looked around,
and it just wasn't for me.
I came back, and I'm not going anywhere.
I think, with the logs we got on the road still
and what we cut,
I think we got enough to do our additions.
Yeah.
It's good, we might be able to move in by this winter.
This is exciting.
- Did good work. - Yeah.