I can't stop looking at it.
My god!
This is a... a huge... It's a beast.
I figured it was gonna be rusty, but this looks like a
I don't know what I was thinking, but not this.
Here's what I'm thinking.
The most important part is that this is straight.
Yeah.
The metal's all still good for the most part.
We're gonna have to replace some bolts,
so we gotta get a new engine, obviously.
Everything's still packed with grease,
- so, I mean... - Wow.
- I... - I cannot stress this enough.
We try and buy this thing new, it's, like, $25,000.
There's no way. I mean...
Something I've definitely wanted to have for years
is my own house, my own property.
Now that Morgan and me have achieved that,
getting this massive sawmill up and running, hopefully,
is gonna be a massive asset to us.
And you know, they looks terrible,
but there's still a lot of steel there.
It's solid. Like, this moves. Yeah.
Yeah. That's the log dog.
And it'll, you know, propel us into
a golden, glorious future.
Well, now that I've gotten,
yeah, I guess used to the look of it,
everything's really sturdy.
And it's replacing some things...
The metal's good.
- Yeah. - All the metal is good.
The biggest thing is gonna be getting it over to the platform.
- God, this thing is huge. - It's kind of a monster.
Thank you guys. Seriously.
That's a whole slab on that still.
Yeah. Just kind of scoot everything back that way,
give us a nice working zone here.
Yeah, get the brush out, start from top to bottom.
I'm gonna start ripping that motor off,
try and get that out of there.
Alright, I guess I can get my torch,
- and see what we can get done. - Get that up there.
It might just slide off.
It might topple over. We don't know.
That's one of the fun things.
Yeah.
So, we need to get this whole sawmill over to our property
and onto this platform.
Go that way.
- Here in port protection... - There we go.
You get your buddies to come over
and feed them and give them a beer and try not to kill them.
Yeah. Try and torch that nut real good.
Once this comes off, it's gonna lighten this thing way up.
This whole sawmill is,
I'm guessing, around 1,000 pounds.
Ready? One, two, three.
- That's not that bad. - No.
Might be a little over, might be a little under.
So, I think our best bet is gonna be
try to flip the frame up on edge,
remove the head rig from the saw,
and take it in two separate pieces.
- Just set it right in here. - Here?
Yeah, that was a heavy piece of machinery.
There's a 150 pounds at least.
This bitch is coming apart.
I think the next most important step here
is getting those four bolts out
on those lower roller assemblies.
If we get those off, then this whole head rig,
I think, will just kinda tip this way
with a little assistance, you know?
- Alright, I'm gonna start torching. - Okay.
When Carl and I first moved into the new house,
it was just the bones of the house,
and so we had to build everything up from scratch.
We can't just go to a hardware store and pick up lumber,
so we were going over to Carl's dad's mill
and getting the wood there, and it was just a lot of work.
I could feel that.
So, the sawmill is really important just to be able
to build the additions to the house
and build a front deck, and Carl wants a man cave.
I want a nice bathroom.
I'm pretty excited about it
and looking forward to what our future holds.
One, two, three.
Okay. Down.
- I know. - Okay.
- This will work.
Let's do it.
Guys, be careful.
- We gotta keep it upright. - Heavy.
One, two, three!
One, two, three.
In order to get the sawmill over to Carl and I's property,
we are going to have to drag it through,
on a downhill slope, with no brakes.
One, two, three!
Woo! That is going!
Okay. Coming downhill on this end.
Whoa, don't go too fast, don't go too fast.
- Okay, clear. - And we have to get it
under a cable, and then over a two-foot bridge,
wait for the tide to come in, and into a skiff.
This is getting real tippy here, boys.
- Off we go. - Slowly.
Just nice and easy.
- Hold! - Holding. Alright.
Can we get the cable over the frame?
I don't know! We'll see.
- It's so close. - It looks...
- Not quite. - Son of a bitch.
I'm super stoked to be fishing with you.
You have a fishy reputation around these parts here.
That sounds stinky.
Alright. Here we go game on.
- Alright, we ready to cast off? - Let's go fishing.
So, put your line, set it in the water...
Attach that to the downrigger,
and then, we're gonna troll down the beach,
- see if we get lucky. - Awesome.
Jiggy has a reputation for being a pretty fishy guy,
which means he pulls in a lot of fish.
And today, jiggy is going to teach me
how to troll for king salmon.
There we go.
And now, I'm gonna adjust the drag using the star,
so it has some resistance.
That's pretty good. Put this one in.
This is cool, jiggy!
I am not excited about the idea of killing fish,
- killing whatever to eat. - Alright.
Pull a little more line now, go a little deeper.
But, I know it's gonna help me,
ultimately, be successful in living out here.
Okay. We're set.
Alright, Veronica, if we do get a fish on,
it's important with salmon, keep the rod tip up in the air.
- Okay. - As you're reeling.
You always want tension between the rod tip
and the fish.
I think Veronica must have some balls.
It's a huge leap of faith to leave
the comfort of modern city life
to the wilds of Alaska.
Come on! Let's rip some lips!
Come on, fish!
There's a lot of lessons that one has to learn
in order to feel comfortable and survive out here.
Looking alive out here.
We got a couple eagles flying around.
Shallow up a little bit.
Fish on! Here!
- What do I do!? Okay. - Hold, hold it.
- Okay. Alright. - Hold it there.
- Okay, keep the rod tip up. - Rod tip up.
Just let him take line.
- Okay. - If he eases up, reel faster.
What is it gonna be?
- What happened? - He just tugged really hard,
- and then I lost him! - He got away.
But, something went right. Look at that. We got a fish on.
- Yeah, that was pretty awesome. - That was exciting.
Aw!
That's alright.
We'll just set the line back in the water and try again.
Let's get some more!
Dang, it was so close!
One by one, they shall fall to my will.
I've got a pretty robust alternative energy system.
For about eight months out of the year, the array I have up
keeps me in power 24/7.
However, during the depths of winter solstice,
I'm still pouring a gallon of gas
into the generator each day.
So, what I'm gonna be doing is adding another six panels
to my southern exposure. Hopefully,
that'll keep the house running through the dark of winter.
I got 10, near a dozen little pecker polls here,
which are actually obscuring my southern exposure.
So, I'm gonna drop a few trees on the south side of the house
to catch my winter sun
and put up six more solar panels.
I'll just start taking these out one by one.
After they're dropped, it'll be shining just fine
on the homestead, you know?
Increments of progress.
Baby steps towards tomorrow.
And every little bit helps.
So, a lot of folks are worried about bumping up their 401,
and their retirement packages and all that.
My whole retirement plan is just a matter of incrementally
increasing my self-sufficiency.
I've saved probably
six grand in fuel bills just this last year,
and this is gonna probably take off
another $1,000 worth of fuel.
So, dare say I'm collecting
better interest than they're willing to pay out.
Ha, ha!
Who's next?
Man.
What a rat's nest.
Man, that sucks.
I got a tree here that's kind of pretty much nightmarish.
I got two different actual trunks
coming up out of the ground,
and it's hard to Gauge what the heaviest part
of that whole morass coming up into the sky is.
So, I've gotta figure out where I can put this thing
without it coming down and whacking the house.
So, I think I might take out the base of this one
that grew into it,
and take a look-see from there. Man.
One hurdle at a time.
Helping hand.
It is bowed pretty heavy off this side.
So, I think with a minimal bit of tensioning,
I should be able to get these to fall this way.
I'm just worried 'cause there's so many limbs off to this side.
The guns are all dialed in.
Yeah.
Well, I guess wander down this beach
and see if we can see some tracks.
- Yeah. - See if we can make it
to the Meadow and take a peek.
That looks like bear sign to me.
Yeah. To me.
Me and Breanna, we went out last year
and tried out first bear hunt.
We didn't actually connect the dots on that.
It's not really a good idea to just keep repeating
your same mistakes over and over
and hoping for a different result.
So, we're gonna go out and try hanging out with Sam
and have him show us his ways,
and hopefully get some meat in our freezer.
You know, I can't wait to actually be able
to taste some scrumptious corned bear.
A nice black barrel. I gotta go check that out real quick.
We said black bear, not barrel.
This thing is rad!
I'm gonna stick this down here a little lower on the beach,
and we'll come back for this.
It's a win already today, boys.
- Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. - Let's go.
Well, I know I'm looking for black bear with him,
but I found a black barrel,
and I'm pretty stoked about that.
We'll kinda cut into the woods
and just go for the path of least resistance.
Alright.
- Back to hunting mode now. - Get serious.
Whoa. Bendy bit there.
Living out in the middle of nowhere basically,
it's a hard choice to make.
You have to really want to do it.
And I feel really good just knowing
that there are still some young people
that are willing to,
basically, put in the hard work
it takes to live in this part of the world.
Just go over here and sit down for a little bit for now,
and look at what we can actually see,
- and wait maybe a half an hour or so. - Yeah.
It makes me feel good to be able to pass along
some of my skills that I've acquired
over a lifetime of living here.
I'm a veritable fountain of information.
I think I just found my spot, you guys.
This is it right here.
This seems like a good spot
because there's a lot of grassy area
that they like to hang out in,
and there's just water access.
So, it's kind of a place the come down and feed.
Bear, bear.
Bear. Do you see it? No.
You see it?
I see it.
- I see it now. - Yeah.
It doesn't know we're here at all.
That's what we want them to be like.
We wanna be just cool as a cucumber.
Well, I'd say that's 300 plus yards.
Almost four times as far as our shooting range.
That's a little bit too far away to be shooting at.
- Yeah. - It is.
We just gotta wait for him to come in closer,
so we can get a shot at it.
He's trying to take a crap.
Is it? I want to watch it.
Always wanted to see a bear take a in the woods.
Hell yeah. A bear does in the woods.
I never actually get to see a bear in the woods before
so today's a big day for me
'cause no matter what, how the rest of this goes,
that's checked off the bucket list.
I've actually seen a bear in the woods now,
and I feel fulfilled.
- Pry it over! - Get it together!
One, two, three!
There it is. Whoa. There it is. Okay.
- Power cord is over. - Power cord, hold!
There we go. Alright.
One, two, three!
Watch yourself! Okay.
Hold on, let's cross.
I'm waiting.
One, two, three.
Let's let her down gentle, if we can.
- Okay. That's good. - Yeah.
If I manage not to bust my tail, this might work out for me.
Come on. Sticky, sticky, I know.
Now that I've taken off some of the exterior of this mess,
I'm gonna put up a tensioning line
just to make sure that it goes where I need it to.
Because I really don't want this thing
landing in my kitchen.
- I'm seeing this... whoa. - What is this?
- What was that splash? - I don't know,
but I saw two jumps, one there and one there.
Yeah.
Not seeing a bird surface.
I'm wondering if maybe there's a fish over here.
- Come on, fishy. - Let's go put our lines
- closer to the activity. - Yeah.
What is it?
Got that little excited feeling,
- like anticipation. - I know.
Let's start aiming it to the stern.
Just like that. And then, keep going forward.
- Okay. - Okay.
- That's good... coming down. - Let's lay it down.
Feeling good, feeling good, feeling good.
- Man. - She's there.
Let's get out of here, I guess.
- There he goes. - I think he's on the other side
of that little clump of trees now.
I guess we could try walking across that log
- and crawl up to him. - Sounds good.
Maybe we'll catch a glimpse of it, a little bit closer.
Yeah, I'm down to make a move.
Sketch doggie! Sketch dog.
We kind of live by the tides out here.
If you gotta move something big and heavy,
you always want to do it at high tide.
Especially on our beach 'cause it's just so long and flat...
Trying to move anything up it is an absolute nightmare.
Alright, buddy!
We're not gonna have a lot of time.
- How's the day? - Long.
Almost halfway there though.
So, it's kind of important we get this done
as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Hand you that. Pull us in a little bit.
Guys, we got about 40 minutes
before high tide, so we got limited time here.
Let's get the outta here then.
Okay. Rollers, pallets.
Right on top or what are we doing here?
End-to-end.
Stand it, slide it.
We get it on the pallets.
The tide ain't coming in much more.
We can get it up on the deck tomorrow.
- Ready, set. - One, two, three.
Let's come back this way again.
That's it right there, that's our line up.
One, two, three!
Okay, you're on.
Rolling like a dream now.
Yeah.
Perfect!
- Okay. - There it is.
We got a half hour till high tide.
We've got a little less than that, so
I think we try and get that head rig,
and then we don't have to do this again
tomorrow night at dead low.
Let's go see if we can do it.
Troy, you can ride. Jump in.
Nobody's got a hernia yet?
- Not a new one anyways. - Alright, cool.
Woo! That wind feels good.
So, this should be enough to...
Get some tension coming this way hopefully keep
the whole Mary-Ann from jumping off
and squishing me into the bush.
There we go!
Yeah that was...
That was pretty stressful. Like I say, that was...
Not the... Not the straight and true tree
where you can drop it right where you want to necessarily,
but it did go where I wanted it to.
With a little help from a come along.
Woo!
Look at all that sunshine on the back!
We'll be cooking without gas. I like it.
It's butt first.
Yeah, at least you got a dead stop there.
Yeah!
Did you hurt your shoulder?
Yeah that hurt really bad.
Woo.
You got it.
I'm sorry you fell.
Oliver was a little robust.
Take your time coming up through here.
There's lots of for your toes to catch on.
It was really nice to see a bear right off the bat.
Unfortunately, the small bear that we saw
basically left the building.
Elvis has left the building.
So, we're gonna work our way over there and keep looking.
I can see where he took a.
- I can see the bear's in the woods. - - Fresh poop.
- I'm just feeling good about that. - It is still warm!
See? I told you the bear was taking a.
We got a bear track right here.
Yeah.
Maybe he just wandered along through here,
and then popped out over there and then kept on going.
I agree because that's about the same size of the tracks.
Yeah.
Those are very fresh, too.
- They are. Big time. - Yeah.
The likelihood of actually stalking a bear in the forest
and finding it once it's disappeared on you,
I would say, is slim to none.
Let's walk down this way.
So, we're just gonna keep moving.
With any luck, we'll get lucky somewhere else down the road.
Maybe we'll walk out to the end end of that little peninsula,
that post up out there
where we could see a little further down. Yeah.
Yeah, I'm done for that.
I'm looking forward to maybe
some corned bear in the smokehouse.
- I could go for that. - Yeah.
Is everyone ready?
- As ready as we're gonna be. - Okay.
- One, two... - one, two
- my god! - You guys on?
Okay, now nice and slow down to the skiff.
Better, faster.
- Okay, slow, slow, slow. - Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
When I first saw the sawmill,
it definitely looked like a trash heap,
but being able to actually see what we're working with,
I can see the potential that Carl's seeing.
One, two, three.
And forward. On there.
- Okay. - We've got a goal
to keep building the house.
Bring her forward. Okay.
So, it's gonna be a huge game changer for us.
Let's pivot this way.
- Clear! - Well done, guys.
Alright, this seems totally safe.
Super safe. Osha approved.
It's happening.
We're getting everything tonight!
Ten minutes till high tide, you guys, so it's just...
It's perfect.
God wills it.
God wills it! God wills it!
You got it from there, Dave?
- Yeah. - One, two, three!
It's off the board. You're good. We'll get it back on.
Start going forward. One, two, three!
Okay.
You got a free pallet?
The aging population in port protection
is not getting any younger.
One, two, three!
And people are moving out because the hardships,
they can't do anymore, so we're losing people.
- We're on the pallet. - Okay, hold that steady.
Morgan and Carl are a building block
for port protection in the future.
One, two, three!
And so, nobody has any problem helping.
One, two, three.
Alright. That's where she gonna sit. She's solid.
Woo! Hell yeah.
- Good job, Dave! - Thank you, everybody.
Thank you, thank you. Hell yeah.
Yes!
It's a slapping party!
We got the parts on the beach,
which was a huge struggle,
now from here on out, everything's uphill.
Rough day!
- I know. - I'm about to leave.
- See you! - And I'm out!
We're gonna switch tactics a little bit,
try and get a winch set up
'cause I know I'm feeling it,
and I think everybody else is, too.
I hate to say that might've been the easy part, but
I know.
I think that might have been the easy part.
Fishy, fishy in the ocean.
Come put my rod tip in motion.
Down south, a lot of my life was focused on work,
raising my kids, paying the bills,
and I didn't have a lot of free time
to do things or pursue my interests.
It's kind of looking like there's some feed.
Yeah.
So, coming up here,
it's like I have this gift of time and freedom
to do what I want.
So, it's like I'm in my 40s,
but I feel like I'm in my 20s,
discovering what I'm gonna be.
What was that? Got a bite.
Come on be a winner, be a winner!
Here we go.
- Got something on there. - Jeez!
Rod tip up, rod tip up.
Wow!
He's still tugging. Wait, slack.
That was cool!
Jeez! Gotta keep the rod tip up, rod tip up.
- Just play him out. - Don't rush him to the boat.
Woo, he's a-tugging!
Rod tip up, rod tip up.
Yep, yep. You remembered the lesson.
Lot of slack, lot of slack.
What's happening? What's going on?
Well, he's swimming up towards the surface,
or maybe at you a bit.
Man!
What if I lose him?
- Well, don't worry. - Don't worry about that.
Okay. Total slack!
Total s... wait, nope. He's still on.
See, I think he's a skilled fish, jiggy. I might...
Alright.
What's going on?
Just shaking out! My hand was cramping up!
- You're doing great. - Okay.
You've got good poise.
When he swims up, start reeling fast,
and then when he pulls, just stop reeling,
keep the rod tip up.
Okay.
Nice. Let's see if we get a good look.
- Wow. - That's beautiful.
Okay, ready? Yep, keep swinging him around.
Swing him around.
And now, I'm gonna dispatch him with the gaff hook.
Okay.
Hoo, hoo! Fish on.
- Gotta love it. - That's exciting.
Isn't that cool? Thank you, fishy. Thank you, fishy.
Pulling that king salmon up, I feel accomplished.
I actually did it!
I can catch a fish.
I mean, jiggy was helping me a lot,
but I learned enough that I could take this knowledge,
go off on my own, and most likely be able
to do it again.
And then, enjoy the beauty of nature
all around me while I'm doing it,
this is the life.
- That was awesome, jiggy! - Alright.
- High five on that. - Boom!
This looks like a nice spot.
Over there.
There's a nice deer.
Nice deer just came outta the woods.
- Two deer. - There's two deer, yep.
There he is.
There might be something chasing them.
That's good. We know that bear eat deer.
- We're looking good! - Perfect.
90% of my body hurts.
Did not wanna get outta bed this morning.
No. Are you ready?
I think we're ready!
This is a lot easier going
than huffing and puffing.
It's nice and light again.
Eight inches, six, four, three, two!
Holy.
Bit more.
I'm mounting my brand new charge controller
for my secondary solar panels.
With this extra secondary array,
I'm figuring probably about 10 months out of the year,
I will not be pouring a drop of gasoline
into the generator to keep the house running.
It's taken a long while to get here,
but it is an accomplishment. Nice.
Well, now that you caught a fish,
you gotta learn how to clean it.
- Yes, yes, I do. - I'm thinking we oughta head to the beach
- and have a lesson. - Awesome. Let's go.
It seems like we're kind of
working against the clock here. I don't know why
we don't see anything step out,
but they can't be everywhere.
They're somewhere, but just not here right this minute.
Maybe we'll pull the plug and get the hell outta here.
Maybe we'll see one on the way home or something.
Yeah, we'll get moving, but we won't call it quits
- until we tie it to the dock. - Yeah.
- Go ahead and get cranky! - I'm cranky already,
- so tell me when. - Go ahead.
We got the head rigged to the platform,
- and that went really smooth. - Hold on.
The next challenge is to get the frame to the platform.
My line's starting to pile up,
- and I can't do it. - Want me to help?
Yeah, if someone could
- guide my line for me. - It's gonna be tricky.
I'm thinking that this frame weighs
quite a bit more than the head rig.
Okay, start cranking!
It's also longer and more cumbersome.
I can't.
- Can't? - Nope.
I am not strong enough for that.
No shame in admitting that.
It's harder to deal with and keep balance.
Hold! Need help with the roller.
I'm just holding this up right now.
I don't wanna let go.
This thing's tippier than at the moment.
Okay! Okay. Whenever you're ready.
One, two, three.
Okay.
- Couple more cranks? - Yeah.
So, the winch itself is working a lot harder now.
Does that fit on there? Yeah.
Like I said, that's gonna pull us out of alignment,
but I want a safety on this, too.
I just want a little extra pull.
The length of the frame
is definitely proving to be an issue.
Yeah. It's tippy as hell,
weighs, like, who knows how much?
800 pounds, you know.
- This is so tippy. - Yeah, it is.
You got it, Carl? I mean, I don't know. More or less.
This is
I'm gonna let it lay my way a little bit.
Yeah, just take that out.
It.
It ain't doing anyway right now, so
- son of a bitch! - Did you just grab the pokeys?
- Hold. - Yeah.
I just ripped my thumb open.
- Son of a bitch. - Game off.
Ooh.
I just ripped my whole thumb open.
- I am gonna need a minute. - What happened to Morgan?
Metal on the end of that board to the thumb.
All jagged where you pound it into the board.
Yeah.
That's huge.
I can't look at it, or I'll pass the out.
I'm one of those people.
- Yeah, I'm gonna wanna rinse it. - Yeah, let me see.
Alright, you have a good Jagger there.
- How deep is it, baby? - It ripped her open pretty good.
You know, Carl is one of the manliest men I know,
and he is always doing big projects
and just dirty all the time.
I'd like to look at it and see,
but I think I'll probably get all woozy.
- I don't do well with blood. - Don't do it.
- Yeah. - But, as Carl's gotten older,
he can no longer look at anything bloody
or anything gory.
He can't watch movies like that, or he'll pass out.
This is a bush band-aid.
- Okay. Ooh. - Is it gonna stay there?
Just keep it above your head for a little bit.
Yeah.
Sit down and take a break.
First blood on the sawmill.
There's this nice log up here on the beach.
We can probably clean it up on the log.
And so, with your knife, we put the knife tip here.
- Okay. - And you make a slit all the way up
between these two ventral fins.
All the way up to here, cut the gills out,
open this all up, so we can get all the blood out.
And do I have to be careful
not to mess up the innards inside?
Yeah. You don't really wanna be
cutting into the stomach and the spleen and stuff.,
so, keep your knife tip close to the skin.
Okay.
And then just try not to get
- the knife too far into the belly. - Okay.
This is hard!
To butcher something that was alive a second ago...
You're doing great.
I am very cognizant
that I'm taking a life of a living being.
And it... It's creeping me out a little bit,
but I'm also very grateful, and I will not
take for granted what a gift that is.
I'm sorry, fish. Okay.
I'm just gonna put him out of its misery.
Right. You wanna cut in around behind these. Right?
- Okay. - So... I think it's good
that I'm gutting and cleaning my own fish,
so I could understand
if I'm gonna take something out of the ocean
and kill it and eat it,
you have to take the responsibility for that.
And I like that part of it, but I'm not excited about...
Ripping the guts out of this beautiful creature of the sea.
Wow.
This is one of the most beautiful fish around.
Having them share their life with us is pretty cool.
Yes. Thank you for your sacrifice.
Why don't you carry it to the water, give it all a good wash.
Good wash.
We're done gutting and gilling.
I think we should pack up our stuff and get in the skiff.
Okay. Get that in!
This method is called just beach cruising.
You find a big bay like this,
and you just kind of hug around the edge
until you see something, you put ashore,
and stalk up to it.
- You've got the best view from the boat. - Yeah, I like this.
Not seeing any bear yet.
We can sit and wait for a little while,
see if anything steps out.
Yeah, anywhere in here would be a good spot for critters.
Ooh!
Yeah.
I can breathe so much better.
Well, we just spent the better part of a day
back up in the grass flats there.
Saw one right out of the bucket, and haven't seen one since.
Hopefully, we can catch one out rolling a rock over here.
All you can do is look, cover as much ground as possible.
See a black dot all the way at the head of that bay up there,
- on the right-hand side. - Yeah, I do, too.
Looks like a half a mile.
Yeah. It's a bear though, for sure!
- It's a big one. - It's a nice one.
I-I just wanna be ready.
It's kind of a screwed up spot.
Try to sneak up on him anyway.
Really hope that we can get it.
I can't help it, but I just want to blast him.
You know, I can pull right up that creek.
You think that's far enough?
It's illegal to take a shot off in a boat
while you're still moving.
Be nice to get a closer look at it.
So, we're gonna need to move a little bit closer
and try to set up another spot.
There he goes in the woods.
They don't jump up and run
like deer, you know. They just kind of amble off.
Hey, Breanna, lemme see your deer call.
I'm just tweeting the deer call here.
Maybe I can get this bear to turn around
and come back out and check out what this sound is.
This is kind of a hail Mary shot here, but maybe it'll work.
I think he pretty much disappeared in the woods
like a fart in the wind, man.
- I bet you he caught scent of us. - Yeah, I'm sure he did.
Or he saw us just blowing right his way.
And they got really good noses.
Bears have such a strong since of smell,
and the wind's kinda blowing off the water
and towards the beach, and so he can smell us.
And when he steps into the woods, he's gone forever.
He just kinda becomes like a ghost and just blends in.
It just goes to show
they can be just about anywhere.
Well, that's cool. It got my heart going a little bit.
I like that. Got me back in the game. It was exciting.
Welcome to the school of hard knocks.
I think we all graduated with flying colors.
We should probably grab that barrel on our way home.
You know, don't wanna go home too empty-handed.
Yeah.
We could use that for sure. You always need a barrel.
Was unsuccessful again, but not really so much
because we got to spend time with Sam,
and we got a lot of knowledge. I feel like we learned a lot.
It's really cool to learn anything you can
from old-timers that still live out here
and have all this knowledge that all of us young people
can really take advantage of and continue
this lifestyle out here.
Well, thank you for taking us out, Sam.
We appreciate it. I know that.
Yeah, we're that much ready for our next hunt.
Yeah.
It's just a matter of putting in the solar panels.
The first of six.
So, I'm just gonna bring them out one at a time,
get them wired into series,
and then drop it down to my breaker box.
Gotta make sure I get it all properly done.
Alright.
Onto the next.
I came up here better than a quarter century ago
with a good friend of mine
from my early days out there
full of piss and vinegar, shouting at the world.
To work some property and build a cabin up here,
I found island time, and ever since, man,
it has been my speed and my pleasure
to kick about this particular patch of dirt.
Got all this sun right where I want her.
That's a good feeling.
Well, I'm gonna sweat and bleed
to make something move forward in life.
I'm hoping that most of those gains
I see personally, not somebody else.
Last panel.
Getting these solar panels up
is just another stepping stone to greater freedom for me.
Making sure I don't have to punch a clock
to enjoy the quality of life that I demand.
And that's the only way to live.
This is my retirement power bill in working order.
From here in perpetuity.
That's a pretty slick feeling.
We're almost there guys, almost.
We're almost up to the tipping point. Okay.
- Almost there. - You guys are starting to shift this way.
- I can move it. - Okay.
Okay, we're good.
We're on now, boys and girls.
- We are on. - And hold!
We're just gonna get it back as far as we can,
and then, we gotta rotate the bitch, so...
Buying a piece of property and working on a house
has kind of been a dream of mine for a long time.
This is going beautifully!
Okay, hold, hold, hold.
Nice and gentle.
We built this bad-ass deck,
and we got this huge piece of machinery somehow on here.
Yeah, there's some parts to replace, obviously.
But, I look at this mill,
and I see something that I can make run.
Every step is just one more move
towards building my empire for me and Morgan.
We did it!
Yeah!
Woo!
- Holy. - That's awesome.
From the weeds to the deck.
Yeah.
- And we only had one tiny injury. - One.
You were the casualty.
And no broken equipment.
I am absolutely blown away right now.
- We actually did this. - What do we say?
God wills it!
- Let's get outta here. - Yeah.
- Great movie. Anyway. - Awesome movie.
Ooh, we got some fresh salmon!
Well, I hope you learned something through this process,
and if you ever have any questions or ideas,
you know who to call.
Aww, thanks, jiggy.
Making a move like this has been something
that I've thought about for a long time.
I've been learning so much since I've been out here,
and I'm super appreciative
how welcoming the community has been to me.
Now that I've done it, it feels amazing.
I followed a calling is what I feel it was,
and it's been working out
better than I could have imagined.
Overall this hunt, I've had a total blast.
Maybe we didn't get a bear,
but we got a barrel to take home.
If I have to go into town and buy one of these frickin' things
it's 100 miles each way
and $50 for it when I get there,
so I might have to walk a little ways down the beach,
but this is definitely a lot better deal.
It's a bargain deal, I'd say.
I got a couple things cooked up I might do with this barrel.
Anytime you can beachcomb something like that,
that's money in the bank.
Low and behold, still there, right where I left it!
Got 51 winters under my belt,
and definitely not the young jedi anymore.
Takes a little longer to break the rust off in the morning,
but I feel so connected to everything
and everyone around me.
- There's nothing like life out here. - Look at that!
Yeah.
- Char-grilled, baby boy. - We got stuff for fish tacos.
Living in port protection,
I definitely didn't expect it to be as isolated as it was.
But, we still have our neighbors,
and it's a good feeling to be able
to have friends in the community
and people that are like family.
We clinking the forks together for a toasting moment.
Ting, ting, ting!
You go and lend a hand to somebody,
and later when you need a hand, they come and help,
and that's just how we all work out here.
Neighbors, friends, all of you,
good work. My god. We did something
I did not think was possible.
We wouldn't have been able to do it ourselves.
No. No, this was not a two-person job by any means.
So, thank you, seriously.
Cheers!
Captioned by point.360