Life Below Zero

The National Weather Service

has issued a fire weather message.

This is for the northern and interior Seward Peninsula.

Moderate to strong gusty winds

will increase tonight through Wednesday.

That's not gonna be good.

And it says a Red Flag Warning,

means that conditions are occurring or will occur

which could lead to the development

of large and dangerous fires.

Sounds like we're stuck at home.

Red flag.

Red flag.

Like we're stuck at home.

Red flag.

Red flag, I know.

For three days.

I should go get firewood,

and we should go get a couple of days' worth of something to eat.

Either caribou or a few ducks.

Yup.

The Hailstone family spends their summer

living in Kiwalik,

away from their home in their native village of Noorvik.

This nomadic lifestyle allows them to live off the land,

and stockpile resources for the harsh winter ahead.

We got to start tying down the tents and the teepees

and the kitchen.

Yeah.

We got to make sure everything is put up.

We got 40-mile-an-hour winds

coming for the next three days.

In the next three days, we're gonna need heat,

we're gonna need some fresh meat,

and we're gonna need to just basically secure our stuff.

These are tents. They can just blow away.

And they can end up in the river,

they can end up in the willows.

They can end up destroyed.

We got to get busy.

That's really what we got to do.

You guys listened to the weather report?

We have a 40-mile-an-hour wind warning with gusts,

so we're gonna just hunker down for a couple days.

It ain't gonna be any good to go out in the ocean,

it ain't gonna be any good to have fires.

Probably ain't gonna be any good to fish right now,

'cause it's gonna be such a low tide with the north wind.

Me and Jon are gonna check, take off.

We're gonna go look for the ducks, geese,

whatever's in the river.

A few more logs.

Yup, a few more logs.

And you ladies can just tidy up camp.

Anything that's loose and stuff has to be picked up.

Anything that's up on the rack up there,

that's gonna have to be nailed down or secured, alright.

Well, I'm gonna go get ready for boating.

I got to go get wood, I got to go get meat.

They're gonna secure the camp around here

and make sure that everything's picked up and put away,

and nothing's gonna blow away.

'Cause we can't just go to the store and replace things.

And it's just on us.

Carol. Huh?

I'm gonna come in with these big rocks, okay?

Yeah.

These are what I'm gonna be tying your tent down with.

Yup, it's gonna get really windy here pretty soon.

I'm pretty much just gonna tie the whole teepee down

and prepare for the real high winds that are coming.

How fast is the wind gonna be?

It's gonna be like 35 to 45-miles-per-hour gusts.

The cold is coming.

Almost like back to winter.

So I'm gonna use these right here

to hold you girls' tent down.

If it starts to get funny or untied,

you girls fix it to where it won't come, just come off.

It should hold.

We have to always just be prepared,

because once your shelter start blowing,

it's pretty hard to keep all your stuff

dry, clean, and together.

So we're just trying to make sure we have food security,

our shelter is secured, and we have enough heat.

There.

Now fix your hair.

That should hold.

I'm gonna take the chainsaw for wood.

Looks like you're ready for geese and ducks.

We'll see what we can come home with.

I'm sure we can fill the boat with something.

Looks like the wind's already picking up.

This is kind of nasty.

We've gotten my son Jon to go boating with me today.

We've got firewood to collect,

and we've got some meat to secure.

We know the weather's coming.

We know what to do to prepare for it and we get with it.

What'll kill you isn't the weather,

it's not being prepared for it.

And if you don't prepare yourself

and you don't go get the things that you need before it happens,

you're gonna have to do it while it's happening.

And that's when you can get nailed.

There's always lots to see out here.

There's work to do, but there's also just a lot to learn.

I'm getting ready to go out and cut some firewood

in a new area today.

The ice has just melted off the lake and broken up.

So I can use the canoe to get out and access an area

where I don't normally cut firewood in the winter.

And also go see how the fishing is

over on the other side of the lake.

I don't do much fishing all winter long,

but in the springtime, once the ice breaks up,

that's when the pike are spawning in the shallows.

It's a good time to go fishing.

Feels nice.

During the winter I deplete the firewood close by my cabin.

I'm always cutting close by the cabin,

because I have to drag all the wood home in a sled.

This time of year I can get out in the canoe,

and I can access an area further away from my camp

so that I don't deplete the firewood right around camp.

The best thing about this time of year

is everything coming back to life after a long winter.

Great to be out canoeing again,

because it's a different way of getting around.

See the world from a different perspective.

Just looking along the shore.

Looks like some deadwood right up here.

Think I'll go ashore right around in here.

I've never cut firewood right here before.

I still use a lot of firewood

in the summer and the winter, all seasons.

If I don't cook on the wood stove,

then I burn firewood outside when it gets too hot.

I have to burn an outdoor fire to cook,

and that uses even more wood.

This is a twisted tree, like most of 'em out here,

which makes cutting harder.

'Cause the grain is not straight, the grain is spiral.

That's the way it goes.

Things are twisted up here.

Drier wood actually produces more heat for the cabin,

because if you cut a green tree, it'll burn,

but it takes a lot of heat

just to evaporate the moisture out of it.

This is gonna provide me with heat.

I'll be able to cook my food on it.

I'll be able to heat hot water with it.

It's just converting it into another source of energy.

I'm gonna cut down another tree and get another couple of logs.

This is Alaska,

you know, you're supposed to be free.

This is the Last Frontier, I'm gonna treat it like it.

Along the Tanana River,

Jessie Holmes relies on fishing

to feed himself and his team of sled dogs.

With the chum salmon run in full swing,

Jessie must get his fishnet into the river

or risk losing out on vital food and protein.

I see people got their nets out.

I can't just sit easy.

I need to catch some fish right now,

feed my dogs and feed myself.

I'm gonna go take a look at this net

and hope it's not as in bad a shape as I remember it is.

I got this old net, I'm not too excited about using it,

you know, but I'm gonna mend it and repair it,

and make the best out of it.

Try to get the most life I can out of this.

So, there's no telling how long this is gonna take me,

'cause this thing is in pretty bad shape.

But I'm that kind of person,

I won't throw something like this away.

It might not be perfect,

but you see there's still a lot of mesh left

that can catch a lot of fish.

This is not something that I enjoy dealing with, fishnets.

It's a hell of a task for me to have to deal with on my own.

But sitting back at home talking about fishing

doesn't catch fish.

Gonna get nothing if I don't try, so.

Getting out here, making the best out of what you got,

is what's gonna catch fish for me.

Like, a new net would be pretty nice probably.

I don't think I've ever had a new net.

I just use whatever I can get my hands on.

I'm all about not relying on others and relying on myself,

that's why I live this lifestyle.

This lifestyle, I value it.

It's important to me to be truly subsistent.

Alright, so now I've got this net mended

to the best of what I want to do it, you know?

The amount of time I have to spend on this project,

and it turned out a lot better than I thought it was going to.

Actually looks like a fishnet again.