All right.
Off we go.
I went up to this area two months ago with Morgan and saw five deer,
hopefully they're still here.
I'm, just gonna see, I'm getting hungry.
I don't have any food.
So just cover as much ground as possible.
That's the plan.
The wind's picking up.
I don't expect to see a bunch of deer prancing around.
But, it would be nice to walk up on one somewhere.
I heard a baby deer or something.
Little squeaky sound.
Sounds like we're gonna have a pretty massive storm roll through and
that usually brings with it all kinds of different trials and tribulations
but I'm gonna do everything I can to get a deer right now.
What can you do, it's Alaska.
But it's turning into a storm now.
I definitely am not gonna be able to hear anything moving.
But the plus part is they're not gonna be able to hear me moving either.
And it's blowing so hard I think it's just any scent,
there's nothing lingering so this weather might help me surprise a deer
but I have to find where they're hiding from it too.
Up in the alpine Meadow if you're in a, a legitimate Gale force storm
you better be there as short a span of time as possible
because you wouldn't want to get stuck up here in this kind of weather,
it'd be hard pressed to build a fire or anything else.
And you gotta worry about falling branches, falling trees,
it's pretty dangerous to be out there in that sort of thing.
So, I'm about to have a this moment.
It's getting rowdy, I'd say it's blowing fifty at least now.
If I shoot something my bullet's gonna go.
Making my serial killer glasses useless.
I need to keep moving because I don't,
I don't have the body fat to keep me, to keep me very warm very long.
Hopefully this weather will break but I don't know.
Living out here in the rough and wild, you really take to heart the fact that
everything is interlinked.
And I think that plays a part in our perception of community.
If you really wanna get something done,
it's going to take more than two paws
and a single minded attitude usually to get it there.
On this round of it, it's, seven and seven eighths so seven and three quarters.
- This is gonna be the. - Top end.
Just make a little flat spot on this, just enough to keep it from rocking.
All right.
Sam and squibb are helping me, build my very first cabin out here.
We got the foundation done, we have four walls up.
We now have to get the loft in and then we have to get everything skinned
and tar-papered and onto the roof.
It might look like it was handmade, hand crafted. Hand hewn.
This is a crucial time to get ready before winter really hits.
I mean it could come next week, it could start next month,
you never really know with mother nature so very appreciative
to have their help in this crucial time.
Now for the fun and fitness part of the hoisting
this bloody thing into position. Mother of glory.
So just muscle and a strong back. Yeah.
We just need to get it propped up on that.
Yeah, yeah no, I know. So it's as simple as that.
All right boys, simple as that. Okay.
Three, two, put it on your shoulder, up.
It's on my shoulder. Towards me. Towards me. Towards me.
Okay. There we go, let it down.
Are we ready?
Three, two, one.
Troy's got a good head on his shoulders
and we'd sure like to see him stay around.
Better check for level.
The pioneering spirit's pretty much, non-existent these days.
Okay, I think I'd butt it up against that other side.
Are you flush there? We're past flush here but that's fine.
Okay. We are getting somewhere.
So it's a good deal that he's here and we're gonna help him survive.
So now we can start, decking the loft.
It's just gonna be a plywood decking
but this ought to keep your fat tail from hitting the floor.
This belly grows, we'll see. Challenge accepted.
All right.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
Give me a sec Dave I'm going as fast as I can.
I'm looking pretty good on this seam down here.
I'm looking good up here too.
Son of a!
I see blood.
Part of keeping this place alive falls to me
and my friends and people my age that are living here and, and doing this.
The old timers are getting old and it's our turn to get the reigns
and kind of steer this town the direction we want it to go.
I knew about this property before I ever had the chance to buy it
and I always liked it, I kind of had my eye on it
and the opportunity came up and I bought it.
Had the house on it, totally unfinished, there weren't any windows,
it was just framed in, dried in.
It's been a project trying to get it ready to move into.
And the goal here before winter.
Fingers crossed on that. Is, for me and Morgan to move in,
so this next step is get it insulated.
Put on my suit so I'm not living in itchy, horrible clothes for the next few days.
I hate doing fiberglass, anything to do with it is god awful.
I feel like I do look pretty cool.
You know it's plywood and t1-eleven right now,
cheap factory siding which doesn't hold heat well.
The insulation has to be done 'cause it's important to have a good warm house
for the winter so it's kind of hurry up and get it done here.
As with all projects out here, if you don't know how to do it, just go for it,
see what happens.
I've always just been squatting or renting or living on my boat
or something miserable and, but it's a whole new thing for me
to try and figure out how to actually build a nice home and make it what I want.
There's rarely a day that goes by you don't either learn something new
or improve on something you already knew, its constant evolution.
My electrical boxes will have to do a little cut out for
and trim for the wiring, okay. I think I can handle that.
Hopefully.
Currently Morgan's working at the store, at the trading post.
There's definitely a part of me that really wants to get this done for Morgan,
a place to build a life.
Do a little cut out, right there.
The float house is great and all but it's not a forever home
and that's what we're shooting for.
You know we want something that's built exactly the way we want it,
done right and we have the opportunity to do that.
I guess that's how you do it.
I'd really like to have something done here when Morgan gets off work.
So she knows I didn't just sit around and stare at it all day.
There's a wall.
You gotta be tough to live out here and it's taken a toll on my body.
It, I don't have any regrets whatsoever
and I'm gonna continue to live this lifestyle as long as I can.
Well, the weather has went from one extreme to another.
Right now, it looks like it's gonna be sunny
and now it's hailing like crazy,
hopefully that'll change.
Well, me and junior we're about ready to go do some duck and goose hunting, you know.
It's that time of the year and I guess this is it.
I always look forward to having a bunch of ducks and geese in the freezer.
Junior, just walk down.
There's something about a man and his dog, you know,
being able to go out in the field and to come home with dinner at night, you know.
Here.
It's a good feeling.
There he is.
Come here, junior.
Come here.
Junior still gets a little bit excited at first, you know, but he,
he's came a long ways in three years. Come here.
Good boy. He's become a very well-mannered dog;
he listens good and, for the most part.
Okay. Good boy.
But you know, he's, he's all about duck hunting whenever you're out there.
There's some merganzers that just landed, fishing ducks, ain't good for much.
I don't want to spook them though 'cause if they get up in excitement,
they'll spook mallards and everything else down below here if there is any.
Okay. We got these little sloughs ahead of us,
a lot of times they got birds in them.
There's a bunch of ducks, there's a whole bunch of ducks.
Stay low.
Coat off here.
Maybe we can just sit here for a while they'll come,
come winging over us.
Ducks galore.
Here comes one! Here comes one!
Here comes one!
Got him. Get him junior, get him.
Good boy, good boy.
Here comes another one.
Son of a bitch.
Hey go.
Go,
junior, go.
He didn't see it hit.
Where's the duck?
Go find him.
Where's he at?
Bring him here.
Good boy!
Good boy junior, good boy!
That's a ducky. Did you get a ducky?
Good boy, good boy.
Well, we got a hen Mallard anyway out of the deal,
it'll make a good meal and that, pretty bird.
There's a bunch of them, I should have had more than this but well,
one's better than nothing.
Pretty happy about junior, he got his memory refreshed
and we're ready to do her some more.
Definitely use that.
Yeah, that's, you're gonna drive your spikes.
Hey, hey, there he is.
Dude. Dude. Ha. Ready to go to work?
Well, we made a little bit of progress.
Hopefully I don't slow you guys down.
No, no, nope.
How do you do this with one person?
That is the question here.
Ohhhh.
Man, it's crooked as.
- How crooked is it? - It's crooked.
It's gonna leave two inches up on here.
Tack it where you can, if you gotta fold up there, you got a fold up there,
we'll deal with it later.
I see now why no one was jumping to
volunteer to come help me with this project.
I said hey guys, I'm insulating my house,
anybody want to come hang out and do insulation?
I definitely see why Matt would rather be hunting.
Well, the weather is just all over the place,
it's kind of cool this is the first snow of the season,
I'm interested to see what, what's going on up top.
The first snow of the season generally can give you an idea
of what's happening, you can have tracks that are definitive from an hour ago,
you can see quite plainly the amount of animals
that are moving through and the direction they're going.
Couple prints. They're older but from today.
Looks like it cut the snow, that's a Doe
but, heading down.
Something.
That misfired.
Can't believe it.
This measurement's critical.
That's good.
Keep going, just a little bit more. Fifty-three.
That's the, about as close as you're gonna get probably.
At forty-four.
We're getting closer, everybody's getting a little fatigued,
all right gonna need a ladder.
I'm feeling a little puckered on one thumb but you know,
we're, we're getting closer to the finish line. All right.
- What up man? - Scribble this down
on a piece of that board for me.
Seventy-one and a half, fifty-three and forty-four.
Is that our ages on this job?
I don't think anyone here is seventy, seventy-one and a half but,
it just feels that way currently.
It just feels that way. All right.
Well we're gonna build the, the gable ends in a couple pieces
so we don't have to erect scaffolding to get up there
and skin them and tar paper them later so we can start working on the roof.
We all love this dream of living out here by ourselves
but it's always good to have someone there, you know,
this community out here that we can rely on if we have to because you know,
as much as you want to do it alone, no one can do it all alone.
Can you throw us the hammer up here? Yup.
Everyone has their own chores and stuff
to get done to get ready for the winter to actually, you know, be comfortable
and, you know, these guys over here have been working on this for a while
so if I can come over and just kind of help them out for a little bit
to get things done faster that's probably the best way
I could help this situation out.
This is a man size Jigsaw puzzle.
So, I'm gonna pass this up to you, let me know if the,
four-foot Mark works out for the plywood.
All right.
Just kick that in.
There's something wrong, I don't know what.
I don't know why, that shouldn't be that way.
See that's a half inch high.
Which is weird it measured seventy-one and a half.
I drew that line. That's the top.
I understand that but when I measured it down here
it was seventy-one and a half from end to end. With the square?
It's a quarter inch out, over six inches.
- And it's all. - Which inches?
Half inch too tall too, we're gonna have to take it apart
and shorten it up a little bit. Why?
'Cause it's not square or plum.
Nobody's getting mad at each other but,
frustrations are definitely going up.
All right, here we go again.
Everyone can kind of hear the clock ticking in the back of their head
and everybody has the best intentions.
What a pain in the yarbles.
We're, just give me, I want to get on the bottom.
Sam, squibb and Oliver and me, we all want the best end result here.
She's all yours gentlemen.
I'm gonna go up there. All right.
Kick it out Troy and pull it back in. Yup.
Get that edge over.
It looks pretty good.
Okay. Hold on to that side and I'll move this end out. You got it Dave?
Nope, we've lapped the tar paper in there we go.
Sweet.
We are getting closer to somewhere.
You good for me to start angling? Yeah.
Now we really want to get the rafters in place
and on layout so that we're not cheating death
by trying to screw down roofing in terribly slick conditions.
Okay, Oliver. Hoist this one up.
Rafter coming right behind you, don't hit your head.
God, what the!
God! Are you all right?
It was a glancing blow, I'm like Mohammed Ali.
My god Sam.
How did that happen? Did it, did, what, did you bump it or?
I bumped it in the back and just came out. Yeah.
We gotta stick this thing in.
As long as everybody's still in one piece we're all good.
And it didn't knock any sense into me I guarantee you that much.
Put one there. When I first started to build my house,
it was basically a rush job because I had a family,
a new family and it was time to get them out the little tiny boat we were living on.
If I wanted to keep said family.
Winter is coming.
All right, last one coming up.
So, we have to get this done pretty much pronto.
I say we quit now Dave and just let him do the rest.
I'd like to see the roof not cave in
and be fairly square so maybe we shouldn't call it quits just yet.
Ba det, ba det, ba, det, ba, det, ba, det boo.
Ducks coming this way.
Trying to come out.
All kinds of them, just out of shot getting a reach.
I love hunting. I live for hunting and fishing, you know.
I think I was like seven or eight years old
when I first went out hunting with my dad.
I can remember as a young kid that was fifteen years old
that one of the few times that I've ever had a really bad flu in my life,
and it was during deer season,
and I was so broken hearted because I couldn't go hunting.
Birds all over the place.
You gotta really, really keep an eye out, especially them teal man.
They're there and gone before you even know it, you gotta be on your toes.
Come on.
Some more.
Here we go.
Damn! I need some slower moving mallards, I can hit them.
Right there.
Son of a bitch, they're hard to hit.
- Hello? - Hello.
You're just in time to come help me. Wow.
'Cause I am having a hell of a time getting this stuff up myself.
- This is nice. - Isn't it?
You see I got the whole back wall done now.
Yeah, all around the stove too. Yeah.
Perfect, right there. Okay.
Try and get in there and hold that up.
Like right here. Okay.
It's so much easier, my god.
We are done with the loft now so we can move on to the vaulted part of the ceiling.
Watch your face. I think it's just moving.
- My god! - Be careful.
I definitely knew from a young age that I was never really meant for town life.
Carl and I are doing this from scratch, this is a dream that we both have
and the new property is only the beginning.
Last one.
So that's it? Yeah, no, I think we're done, that's it so.
Nice. Well, do you want to fold the plastic up and then go get furniture?
- Just about high tide. - Go do a skiff load.
I think I'm on a good, good edge view of the timbers.
Good, good long view.
Blow that crazy death call and see if anybody comes to the rescue.
It's a little disheartening.
I expected there still might be critters running around
but I see no signs of motion whatsoever.
I guess I'm gonna go back down below the snow line and
check out the next layer of muskegs so, that's my plan.
I got a Doe right there.
Just walking up...
In that way.
There's another deer.
It's a mom and her baby,
daddy could be close by.
I might have missed.
Nice and easy.
. I saw a three point,
and I took a shot but I might have been too shaky.
I went right for his head, I might have pulled to the left.
I need to do a complete sweep of the area,
make sure he's not just laying somewhere.
I just walked about three hundred feet in a circle in the general vicinity
where I shot and I don't see him anywhere.
I don't see any fur or anything.
I think I missed.
Matt got excited for the first deer he saw,
anyway you take a bad shot like that it,
it's gonna mess me up for the rest of the day.
It's gonna haunt me.
There are deer here so I gotta come up with a plan b.
I think we can get the chair, couch and the rug in one trip.
Hold on, I'm losing it. Okay, I got it. Okay.
- Move dogs. - Throw it in the bow.
Can I just sit up here on the ride back? Yeah, go for it.
Another miss. A lot of times, you know, you get a shot
and it gets the birds to moving and eventually more will fly over you
and you can kind of keep it going sometimes just by shooting.
Now we're standing on the loft about to put on a roof.
One of the few times in life I'm glad to be short 'cause this loft is,
it's built for the hobbits. Do you have hairy feet?
I have hairy feet like a hobbit.
I got some hair on the top of the toes.
Yeah, all the way down man.
- I'm Frodo's cousin. - That's right.
Okay, I'm going into the skiff.
You don't hire a moving company to bring your stuff over in a Van
to your new house out here, it's get in the boat,
load what you can, carry it up the hill.
I put that rug in right when I bought this place. Really?
I haven't seen this floor in five years.
- I can tell. - Yeah.
It feels really good but it's kind of, it's a little sad, like, I like this house,
you know, it has its problems but, you know, it's served us well.
It's definitely treated us well.
There we go.
Get 'em junior! Get them!
Go! Go!
Go!
There he is. Good boy! Good boy!
Get him, get him!
Good boy!
Good boy. What you got?
What you got?
You got a little green winged teal.
They're good eating they're just not a lot on them.
They're a pretty small bird but he got him anyway.
What is that?
Get him junior, get him!
Good boy! Bring him here. Come on.
Good boy.
Good boy. Good boy. Another teal.
That's three junior. Almost at half a limit.
Where'd they come from?
Junior come here.
What happened here?
, really.
Had a shell cycle and something went haywire with it here.
I got one that spit out through the magazine already
and it's wanting to go in there.
I gotta get this out of here.
Look at this. Mallards, they were coming right here too.
Come on, dang it.
They're taunting me.
That sucks.
This is kind of scary at the same time.
I got live ammunition in there.
I can't push it down any.
Come on.
Junior, come on, get over here.
I got it.
Kind of mangled it, but hopefully that doesn't happen again.
But now, it's ready to go again.
Back in business.
- You ready for this? - Yeah.
- Yeah? - No doubt. I'm ready.
We'll get it done.
Furniture, beds, you know, all of our various items,
we don't have to lug through the woods in the rain.
Hopefully we've cut out a big part of that with the hoist.
Yeah, let's see if the hoist survived that last wind and rain storm,
the troller looks like it got a little wet but
hopefully it's built for that sort of thing.
We'll find out.
The hoist is really necessary to, to life for us out here,
just because packing up this hill is really hard
and we don't want to break our backs too soon.
We've got the next thirty years to build this house
and we built the hoist to help us not only with moving in but with everyday life.
Need a little more?
No, but let me clear out.
Ready to see how it lifts? Yeah.
No, but yeah.
It's swinging pretty good.
Holy.
Woo!
- Look at that. - Look at that!
So you want to come down and do another load?
Yeah, you ready to go get the bed? Yeah.
- Okay. - Let's go get the bed.
- Let's do it. - Then we're done.
- Sam! - Yeah.
Are the safety lines good and secure on the one end?
- Both ropes are secure. - Okay.
We've been going full tilt boogie
and I've been lighting as big of fire under these boys
as I can to try to get this done before weather shuts us down.
Well, it is not safe, no but it's the break we're getting.
It has been raining cats and dogs.
She finally calmed down.
It's time to get up there and get this tar paper down.
Woo-hoo.
Dude I'm telling you, this spot right here is where the real.
- A little precarious? - Yeah.
I started working construction at sixteen, I did it every summer through high school,
winter time too on the days after school.
I've definitely got my fair share of experience on a construction site.
But being on a roof that's wet is nowhere you want to be when Jesus comes back.
I mean I'm telling you it's slick, it's deadly,
it's nothing that you want to have to deal with.
Yeah. The precipitation is lightening up considerably,
so we might be able to get this tin screwed down. No, you're crazy.
I know I'm crazy but you know, I just want it done, damn it.
Me.
No. When I see deer, everything I look at it's gonna be a deer
for the next two hours.
To get one shot and you miss it and then you just get like this wave of crushing
hopelessness but, still got a lot of ground to cover.
Might as well keep moving.
Some people have extremely good deer Karma.
Like deer just like leap out of the woods at
them, sometimes that happens to me but it's,
it's pretty rare but, this trip's proven to be a little, a little formidable.
Me,
I felt something kind of do a tearing feeling. Okay.
Something in the top of my foot.
Ooh, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, this is not good.
I'm gonna manifest it into not being hurt because I'm a long way up in the woods.
Daylight's fading, I gotta get back to the skiff.
This is dismal.
I've never had a hunting season ever where I went out every trip and got a deer
every time I tried. Ooh.
Got a mile and a half to walk.
Should be fine.
Maybe that's happened to some folks but not here, not in this country and not to me.
But I'm gonna get a deer, it's just a matter of time.
Man.
The one thing about this is it bends.
It does bend.
Okay.
This is it, except for the cat and dog.
Are you sure that's gonna hold?
No, I'm definitely not sure this is gonna hold but we'll find out.
This skiff is just big enough to handle the bed.
Just barely.
I think we got pretty much everything we need to move and
just gotta get a fire going
and see how we did insulating, we set up our furniture and we're in.
The generator is really hating this.
Come on baby keep running.
Come on.
My god. It's not gonna hold.
God, I can't look.
My god.
Woo!
Woo, boy. Good generator, dear god.
That was scary, I didn't think the generator was gonna do that.
I need a slightly bigger generator for this winch.
Yeah, well it's a goal.
Yeah. I think for the first time in my adult life
I have my home and I have my property,
that's my castle.
It feels awesome.
- I'm done. - That's it?
It'll be nice when we have the windows up there,
we can lay in bed and look out the mountains.
- I like this. - Me too.
This is good.
- I like it. - Good job.
All right. Let's go bring the rest of it in. Yeah.
And try to pay attention to which way they're coming up 'cause
if we gotta flip them around up here it's gonna be a lot more difficult.
Yeah, that's why I flipped that one.
Didn't think I'd make such good friends out here, lifelong friends out here,
and I really came out here and, and found a community.
We're gonna line up the first piece of tin
so that we got that one bend part and I'm gonna need you down there
and then we're gonna try to get two inches off the edge.
They're doing this just for me, they're not doing this for, for their benefit.
Yeah, it's looking good, it's going down quick.
It's gonna be a shiny one. It will be.
I'm so appreciative and it it feels great.
Where do you want her? There you go. Hold on.
Damn it. Damn it, damn it..
Boy, it is starting to get slick right up here.
Yes, it is. Up a little. Okay.
Come on baby. Getting a little dicey man.
It's getting a little dicey man. That's a fact.
All right. One more sheet to glory. One more, man.
Okay, just, man, it is getting just bloody well precarious.
Whatever makes you feel any better,
if you do slip and fall I am posed to catch you right here.
Let's try not to test that theory.
Every time I try to push down on a screw head I feel myself lifting up
- and starting to slip. - Ooh, me!
So I've got one hand on the edge of the roof,
one hand on the screw gun hoping that I don't go for a ride
'cause it is not a nice landing zone.
Man.
It was a little harrowing.
But we got her all in, she's all screwed down now.
Here's to perseverance.
This is the worst part I have with heights.
Dude is getting on and off the ladder.
And I'm head over heels for these guys,
this cabin is beyond my expectations by a long shot.
Yes. Nice job fellas.
Just constantly racking my brain thinking how I can repay them.
Well, you should be dry now.
At least until we cut the hole for the chimney. Yeah.
I'm excited to light that stove up.
There's a whole bunch of them.
We got three birds, a Mallard, and two green winged teals.
Let's see most everything's getting up over here.
All them sea gulls got up over.
Still hoping to get another duck or goose.
Yeah. There's a bunch of ducks that got up over there too,
or is them geese and that.
They're coming back this way.
Come on.
Keep coming.
Keep coming, here he comes junior.
He's down. He's down.
Get him junior!
I don't know if my dog's gonna find that one.
That's a tough one there.
We'll just have to take junior over there and go find it.
This first hunt was pretty good.
Go.
You know I had a few quirks in it but, I killed four ducks.
Go.
There was, one Mallard and three green winged teal.
I think it's the beginning to, an awesome hunting season.
He's on something.
Ha, ha, ha, ha good boy!
Good boy junior.
By golly you found it.
You did a good job.
Yes, you did.
Go home and get out of this rain. These wet clothes off. Ooh.
The decision to move to port protection it fell into my lap.
I fell in love with Carl and I wanted to see where he came from
and I wanted to be there with him.
I kind of just took a leap of faith.
- It feels like a house. - It does actually.
We got a view. Look at that there's trees.
That aren't, like, moving 'cause, yeah.
We're not moving with the tide?
And I couldn't have asked for a better
place to be and to live and to build a home.
- We did it. - Yeah, we did.
Quick and easy. It's a good feeling.
Yeah, it is.
I absolutely love being out in the forest and stopping
and slowing down and just being a part of this place.
This beach and my foot do not get along.
It has this very ancient, almost menacing feel when you're by yourself out there.
But it's still absolutely gorgeous and it's why I live here in port protection.
When I lived down in the lower forty-eight
it was pretty tough even getting people to help you move for a day.
It's a different breed up here for sure.
Whatever it is that you need somebody's gonna be there to help you out.
Gonna hand you over the keys.
It sounded like keys.
Yeah.
I mean if I have any advice for you, Troy.
It's just be careful where you put your toilet, you know,
you always want a nice convenient but not too close to your bed, so yeah.
Words of wisdom right there.
This is my roots; This is more or less the real start.
It's absolutely everything.
I don't know, it's hard to pick and choose,
duck season, deer season, elk season, moose season,
all of it, you know, it's all my favorite.
Got some nice yellow fat on him.
Nice and healthy looking.
Here in port protection, it just puts you right in the middle of everything,
right in my backyard, it's something I dreamt of doing all my life,
is living in a place like this. I couldn't live any other way.
I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.