ADRIAN CHEVELLE_ROACH CHEVIE_ROACH EMRY_ROACH JOHNNY_ROLFE MARIO_QUEZADA NATHAN_BROWN SAMANTHA_BROWN SONTA_ROACH SYDNEY_ROACH CHEVIE ROACH There's so much country out there. There's so many places where those moose could be hiding. When I'm out with Sonta hunting moose, we're a team. That's a good spot to look right here. SONTA ROACH Oh, through that opening? CHEVIE ROACH Yeah. SONTA ROACH I kinda wish we had a little lower water. You can see a little bit more tracks out here but. CHEVIE ROACH Yeah, I know. CHEVIE ROACH There's not much bank to work with. You see something on the side of the river, it's going to be in the brush. If the opportunity comes up where she's the person that has the better shot, you better believe that she's going to take it. There's a bull. SONTA ROACH You see it? CHEVIE ROACH Yeah. CHEVIE ROACH It's looking right at us. SONTA ROACH It's behind these trees now. CHEVIE ROACH Maybe right in here, I'd go up into this brush. CHEVIE ROACH Cut it off. SONTA ROACH The later in the season that it gets, the more pressure there is for us to get this moose meat. I gotta, like, rock climb to get up that bank. I'm seven months pregnant, and while it might seem uncomfortable, I am more than able to contribute. SONTA ROACH Shh. Hey come here. SONTA ROACH Thor! Women have been living this way, working and living on the land for many generations. They provided for their families, and I hold that standard up. SONTA ROACH Okay, we'll just listen for a second. I come from a long line of hunters. And I'm able to look around in the woods. I know what I'm looking for. SONTA ROACH This is right where we seen it. SONTA ROACH And we were coming from that direction. SONTA ROACH We could see. SONTA ROACH The bull moving. SONTA ROACH But it took off already through the woods. Here's a spot where it was laying down. Now where's the best place to get down? He took off pretty quick. He was hanging out for a minute. We'll see you back here. SONTA ROACH Hopefully with some blood on our hands. NATHAN BROWN Up here in Alaska, if you have the knowledge and the right tools and the right mindset, you never have to go to the grocery store again in your life. NATHAN BROWN And that's really what we aim for up here. We have essentially a grocery store in our backyard. I have been eyeing this tree for a little bit now. NATHAN BROWN It's dead. Needs to come down. It's a nice straight tree. It'll work really well for like a support post. Leaning this way. So I'm just going to drop it that way naturally. We're going to build a mobile little mini chicken coop for our meat chickens. It'll keep them safe from predators. It'll allow them a new grazing ground every day. NATHAN BROWN This will work really great for a support post. And we're gonna build a little lean-to overhang onto the chicken coop for our layer end. Oop. Share that. That'll give them somewhere to go under, you know, in the summer when they don't really want to be in the coop and still enjoy the great outdoors like we do. I think I got the last log we're gonna need. So we'll pick three of these, cut them to like ten feet. SAMANTHA BROWN Okay. NATHAN BROWN I'll drill the holes for the posts in the ground and slap these logs together. SAMANTHA BROWN Okay. SAMANTHA BROWN This is like one of the big, big projects that I have been itching to do. And I'm so glad that we're actually getting it done. NATHAN BROWN Give a little bit of something for our layers. And then we get a little bit of something for our meat birds. SONTA ROACH I hope that this actually helps them in the wintertime because I know they like to come outside. But standing in the snow really isn't good for them. Winters shouldn't be miserable for the animals either. Oh, this is gonna look so nice. JOHNNY ROLFE It feels so damn good to be back out here. You think so too, Javs? Look at this place. JOHNNY ROLFE Alaska offers freedom. JOHNNY ROLFE It offers a place for my mind to expand. And out here in the Brooks Range, I've got nothing but open country, free mind to think, do, act as I want. JOHNNY ROLFE All right, Java, I'm really glad that you're laying right where I'm trying to dig. That's really convenient for me. Java and I came out to the Brooks Range a little earlier this year. We're itching to get back out here. Use this blue sled. I'm gonna do some fishing. That's gonna be kind of my hand to mouth food source. JOHNNY ROLFE And I'm going to set myself up with where to put the fish when I catch them. Place to keep them nice and cool. I'm going to be digging down to the permafrost level. It's only like two and a half, three feet (76, 91 centimeters) down. And that's what's going to keep anything I put in this hole cold. The question is, is this bear safe? See that dog over there eating berries out of the bushes? She will make damn sure that no bears come around this. That's why I'm building this in front of the cabin. Pretty good. It's important to have a place to store my food. Come on, Java. You know, if I don't store it correctly the food will go bad, I'd get sick. And being this far away from town, I don't want to put myself in a situation where I'd get sick. Okay. This'll actually be kinda nice 'cause I can use this as a ramp. Sled, my snow machine. In the wintertime, right from the frozen lake, right on up, so this is turning out to be kind of a double win. I'll take it. Java girl, come on. The permafrost is right below this. It's just right there. You can feel how cold it is when I put my hand down on this earth. I used to do a lot of digging when I was a little kid. I just, I always just loved digging. I'd make a lot of BMX jumps. I used to ride BMX. And I'd make all these dirt trails. Now I'm digging for food storage and preservation. But I'm still kind of exercising that young child in me, that, that dream of just being outside, getting my hands dirty. And what's going to be next? I have to put in logs as the border, and that's going to help it for my caving in and stuff. Making some good progress. MARIO QUEZADA To live a subsistence lifestyle, it takes work every day. MARIO QUEZADA And I need the smaller victories to keep me fueled up for those bigger victories. I'm just getting my pack raft inflated right now. MARIO QUEZADA Getting my rifle ready and my fishing stuff. I'm out here exploring the river close to my house and trying to see what resources are out here for me to take advantage of. Today I'm heading out on the Chatanika River to cover some new country. You know, ultimately, I'm looking for bears, but if I catch a few fish, that's going to be really awesome. I've spent quite a bit of time on rivers in Colorado and in Montana. MARIO QUEZADA So I'm hoping that my experience helps me navigate this river safely. The more you know out here, the more you really arm yourself to be successful. But I have to be careful because really it is just going to be me out here. You never know what you're going to see down here. You know, these rivers in Alaska, they just, they're the life source of this state. I'm hoping that with how quiet this pack raft is. I can look at these banks where the, the moose and the bear come down into the water and hoping that I come around a bank and see a bear at close range where I'm able to take a few good shots off. You never know what you're going to see around every turn. So coming up I have a spruce tree that fell across the river. Gotta shoot the right little gap right here. These are just kind of the dangers that you have on these rivers. I have to really get under it, to be honest. It's a little tight. Hopefully I can get underneath it. Right there. [COMMERCIAL BREAK] MARIO QUEZADA There we go. Not so bad. Yeah, there you go, you see? That's some nice fishing country right here now. Maybe I can get a nice little grayling or something just right here. This looks like a nice little gravel bar to pull off and fish at. It's been rowing for a little bit, so I'm gonna break here and make a few casts and hopefully catch some fish. I don't think I've ever been somewhere so wild and free and so full of open country than on this river. Oh, oh, had a nibble. This is a good spot. You know, all you have to worry about is keeping yourself safe. And I think I thrive in situations where I'm just providing for myself. The nice thing about being down here is that I can use my time to do two things. Even while I'm fishing, there's still the possibility of a bear coming up. Come on, baby. I got one. All right. Oh, no! No! Oh, that's a bummer. All right. That was a nice little grayling. I'm gonna make my way down the river. See what else I see. MARIO QUEZADA I'm gonna have my rifle ready here in case. MARIO QUEZADA I see a bear. NATHAN BROWN All the birds that we raise provide something essential for us. They provide meat, eggs, and they provide fun. It's something that I think every farm needs, and it's just a way for us to be as self-sustainable as possible. SAMANTHA BROWN She's a sweet girl? SAMANTHA BROWN Aw, yeah. You sweet girl? NATHAN BROWN All right. You just hold him there. Slaughter time. SAMANTHA BROWN All right. Oh, God, not with a chainsaw. That'd be too messy. Sorry, bud. NATHAN BROWN Yeah, it's horrible. SAMANTHA BROWN With our egg layers, we need a nice space for them to be outdoors. A little. Something that's gonna hopefully make them happy still and keep our coop cleaner. NATHAN BROWN If they have this covered area, at least keep a little bit of snow out of here. SAMANTHA BROWN Yeah. NATHAN BROWN It'll give them that much longer to enjoy the fresh air and the great outdoors. SAMANTHA BROWN Yeah. NATHAN BROWN Now at this point, we'll get all the rafters up. SAMANTHA BROWN Okay. Right now, we have 91 chickens and it's a source of our livelihood between being able to sell eggs and then, hopefully in the near future, we'll be able to sell chickens or hatching eggs. Nice. This feels like it's really solid here. I wouldn't be swinging from those myself, but. Oh, yeah, there you go. I mean, this is kind of what I dreamed of right here and I think it's going to serve the perfect purpose for chickens. NATHAN BROWN Yeah. Well, it's time to get a roof on it. SAMANTHA BROWN Close it. NATHAN BROWN I grew up eating eggs from the grocery store. Eggs raised on the farm are a whole different world. And I, I didn't realize it until I tried it. SAMANTHA BROWN I'm not struggling with it at all. NATHAN BROWN And that's what really kind of drew me in to raising my own chickens for eggs. What do you think? SAMANTHA BROWN I, I love it. I think it's absolutely beautiful. NATHAN BROWN Step one complete. On to step two, which is the chicken tractor. SONTA ROACH You're constantly scanning the land. You're scanning your surroundings. SONTA ROACH Once you've hunted, you're always doing that naturally. CHEVIE ROACH There's a moose standing out there, you just can't see it, that's for sure. SONTA ROACH This tree house is holding pretty good. Do you see anything up there? CHEVIE ROACH I see three swans and a couple dark spots. SONTA ROACH There'll be activity. SONTA ROACH So that's where a lot of moose cross through here. CHEVIE ROACH With Sonta, she's at a place in her life right now where, obviously pregnant. This is her country and her land where she grew up. And she's killed just as many moose as I have. Been doing it her whole life. SONTA ROACH There's a lot of traffic between this creek and another creek over in the flat here. CHEVIE ROACH That's the beauty about being at the cabin is we could come up, check it out, spend 30, 40 minutes, jump back down, make a move, go somewhere else. This cabin's in a great location for moose. There's sloughs and big flats to look at. A lot of animal movement around our cabin. SONTA ROACH They like all this willow in here too, huh? CHEVIE ROACH Yeah. Keep on watching the woods, you'll see something move. Their horns, you see their horns move. If they, if they're close to the river and they hear us, they start walking away. It's that dark spot up there straight ahead of us, see? Maybe a moose. Hold on. Shh. Shh. Quiet. SONTA ROACH You wanna go check it out? CHEVIE ROACH I'm just gonna go up here and look real quick. I just saw the back end of him. It was running through the woods. A little bull. It's a little bull or a cow, I can't really tell. Looks like a little bull. He's looking right at me. [COMMERCIAL BREAK] CHEVIE ROACH I think I should get one a little bigger than that one. He's pretty small. I'm obviously looking forward to a new baby. Got a little baby boy coming. And right now, having more meat is a priority. He must have just kept moving away. That's all right. He'll be bigger next year. JOHNNY ROLFE It took me a lot of fighting. It took me a lot of pain and hardships. To get myself free from the city. But I made it out here. I got out to the Brooks Range. I made the life that I wanted. Next thing to do, I'm just gonna line the perimeter with all these logs. That's gonna keep the dirt from caving in. JOHNNY ROLFE I'm using spruce poles to line the refrigerator in the ground. I want really dry wood that's going to absorb any moisture. If it's too moist in there your food can mold pretty quick. JOHNNY ROLFE I got the frame done on the inside. That's looking pretty sharp. Next thing to do is get some moss. Java, you staying or you coming? You don't want to come? Fine, I'll get it. This is what I'm after right here, these big beds of moss. They always grow on this little slope because it's the north side. Nice getting just what you need right from the land. It's like carpet. That's amazing. There it is. That's the best one right there. Just gotta hike 'em back and start making the lid. All right. So all I gotta do now is just build a lid, and that lid's gonna just go all the way around the top. And I'm gonna put moss on it, and that moss is gonna insulate the lid. And it's gonna keep it dry on the inside. Let's get to building. You're so interested in what I'm doing. And this lid's going to be pretty big and sturdy. But I'll never really build things that last forever out here because everything's made from the earth. There it is. You know, all this stuff's going to rot eventually. And it's like, well then I have to build a new one. But that's what this lifestyle's about. This is my job. Wow, this big piece right here almost covers the whole dang thing. Fill the gaps in like that. This one, it's not going to last as long as a factory-made refrigerator, but my job isn't to pay the bills to keep it running. My job is to work on it right here to keep this one running. Oh, that's a heavy door. All right. I put this thermometer in there. 39 degrees. That's perfect temperatures for a refrigerator. Now I can take a break from hunting or fishing three days, four days in a row because I have a place to store food. You have an idea of what's going in here, don't you? You know what's going in here, don't you? That's my fridge. Wanna go catch some fish or what, huh? MARIO QUEZADA To say that a life in Alaska is simple and easy is entirely wrong. I would say that keeping things simple ensures that there's a lot of hard work to be done. MARIO QUEZADA Here we go. MARIO QUEZADA Catching up on some swift water here. This is coming up right here. MARIO QUEZADA You know, I feel excited pretty much around every turn. You never know what you're gonna see. So, I just found a nice spot. I'm gonna go ahead and venture off to see if I can't find any sign of bears. Holy smokes. These are really big wolf tracks. Right here. I mean, that's just as big as my hand. Wow, that's a big predator. And then right here, you have the moose calf. The tracks right here, and it's, you know, these wolves are chasing these moose down and trying to get their calves right now since it's calving season. It's really neat to see the, the story of, of what's going on here, written in the sand. I haven't seen any bear sign, but catching fish is going to be something that's keeping me going. Oh, there's a bald eagle right there. That means there might be fish. Oh, oh, yeah. There you go. So I found a nice little side spot to fish. So I'm gonna stick around here for a little bit and hopefully, maybe I can catch a grayling or a nice pike and have something to cook for myself tonight on the water. Hopefully, I have a little better luck today than I did yesterday. There we go. All right. Come on. Come on. Oh, I had him. He's right there. Oh, look. There's a pike following right there. I see it. Oh, (bleep). But he's in there. I'm gonna get him. Ah, there we go. Oh, shoot. Holy smokes. There we go. Caught one. Oh, I hope it doesn't break. Oh, (bleep). [COMMERCIAL BREAK] MARIO QUEZADA Come on. Nice. Come on. There you go. All right. Oh, nice. Awesome. So, I just caught a nice big pike. It's my first pike. Oh, it's crazy how grateful you can feel for one fish, you know. I mean, these are pretty big fish. Look at these. These are pretty good-sized meals, to be honest. I'm gonna try and catch a few more of these guys so I can have some to take home, potentially, but I'll definitely have enough to cook up by the water. You know, this fish seems big enough to make a nice dinner for myself. It feels good. It feels really good to succeed like that. NATHAN BROWN Here on the farm, we're edged up against the largest wilderness in North America. So, we're constantly looking at new ways to protect the animals. NATHAN BROWN It's going to be a pretty intricate build. Um, chicken tractor, you know, it's essentially a mobile chicken coop. SAMANTHA BROWN Uh-hmm. NATHAN BROWN Um, for our meat birds and allows us to move them around from spot to spot, so they have, uh, new areas to kind of pick around for bugs. We move them each day to a new spot, and the cycle repeats. First step is just getting the, uh, bottom part of the frame laid out. NATHAN BROWN It's important that we get this, uh, chicken tractor ready. Because we currently have 25 meat chickens inside the house in a brooder. And so we need to get this thing built and ready for them so they can be moved into their new home. So this will allow the chickens, when they're pooping, the poop will fall through and it will fertilize the ground. All right, that's stapled on. All right, I'm starting the A frame. SAMANTHA BROWN Uh-hmm. NATHAN BROWN Go. So we're gonna have five, uh, 2x4s going up on each side. This part's gonna be the tricky part. I gotta cut these really odd angles at the top. Let's give this a shot. Moment of truth here, see if they fit. See if they'll do what we want them to do. That slant's a little wonky, and this is the most important part, seeing if this is gonna sandwich in between. SAMANTHA BROWN That's pretty much a perfect fit right there. NATHAN BROWN Yeah, that 2x4 fits perfectly. I think this one's our template right here. What that means is we need five boards on each side. SAMANTHA BROWN All right. We'll do it. NATHAN BROWN We might need an extra hand from Adrian holding these up. SAMANTHA BROWN Adrian! Come help please! NATHAN BROWN So we're gonna have you hold some of these in place. Adrian's just a huge help around the farm. We're feeling like he has the potential to do a lot more and help out in a lot more areas. You know, handing him a drill and letting him get to work, it's uh, it's something I think every father wants to see. You know, it's really rewarding. SAMANTHA BROWN Now it's an actual A frame, look at that. NATHAN BROWN Yeah, pretty good. SAMANTHA BROWN This is gonna be so cool. I'm so excited to see this when it's done. NATHAN BROWN Yeah, me too. JOHNNY ROLFE It's just beautiful being out here. You got the fall colors, the foliage, and the more time I spend out here in the different seasons, the more I learn about the land. JOHNNY ROLFE Get my waders on. Do a little fishing with you, Java. Go riding real, huh? All right, Javs, let's go catch some fish. Come on, girl. So, I got to the Brooks Range a little early this year, and I don't have any meat. Right now, the goal is to go catch a fish before the lakes freeze. I've never caught a grayling in this lake before. I've never caught a grayling ever, to be honest, and I think it'd be pretty sweet to pull a couple grayling in. What do you say, Javs, you can go catch a couple? Let's go. We can catch more than one now because we've got a nice, uh, cold storage to put the fish in. This to me is paradise. This to me is where I belong. There's only so much I can learn in winter. But in the fall, I'm learning about new resources. I'm learning about these grayling. You just gonna lay there the whole time? It's a lot better than walking around so you don't tip my canoe. There we go. Did it get off? Aw, damn, he got off. Bummer. I've seen grayling around here before. Oh, that didn't work so well. Oh, one hit it. Oh, come on. Damn. Got off right at the end there. That's crazy, they're right here, they're just not wanting to fully commit. They chase it, and then they just don't grab it. I think I've just been using too big of lures. They got small little mouths. Let's get a grayling, Java. That'd be awesome. I just saw one splash over there. There we go! [COMMERCIAL BREAK] JOHNNY ROLFE Got him! A little grayling. Cool, man. It's not huge. We got this cool dorsal fin. That's my first grayling in this lake. I'm stoked. You know, this one's a little smaller actually. I think I'm going to put this guy back. God, you move around so much. He's kind of a little too small. I'm gonna send him back in. Let's get another one. I think the reason why I wasn't catching them earlier is the lure was too big. It seems each year I'm just checking off the list of species of fish in here. Yeah, better size. Nice. And today I got to check a new fish off the list, it's the grayling. Nice, look at this guy. It's a good size. Might be a little fish. But they are damn tasty. So I've heard. I've actually never eaten grayling before. I'm happy with a couple grayling. That one's a little bit bigger than the first one. I'm glad I put that smaller one back. 'Cause, uh, I'd rather that one get bigger, catch it another day. And then I'm graced with a bigger one, you know, it's like, that's how it works out here, you see. You give back to the land, the land gives back to you. Hungry fish, huh? Nice. Lake trout. A lot of this is just a, a personal mission. See what I'm capable of. Mission accomplished. I got food, I got grayling. I can have lunch tomorrow, dinner tomorrow, lunch and dinner the following day. Because I have my cold hold storage. SAMANTHA BROWN One of the things that brings us the most joy is just knowing where our food comes from. So, raising my own, I get to know exactly that. And I get to build a connection with it. I get to have loved it. And I think that's really important too. NATHAN BROWN So now we need to, we'll do hardware cloth right here, so these will be our open sections on each side. NATHAN BROWN And then it'll be covered on this section. So, you know, let's just staple the end and we'll roll it. Chicken tractor is really just a mobile chicken coop that you can move around from spot to spot. We'll move it every day, give them new grass poking through to eat. We'll move it through our pens, it'll fertilize the pens. If we want to go buy a chicken from the store, it's a good 75 mile (120 kilometers) trip, both ways. So, we're talking about 150 miles (241 kilometers). For us, it just makes sense to raise our own chickens considering we're a farm. SAMANTHA BROWN I almost feel like we would want to put it so the this is like flat against it. ADRIAN Shade. NATHAN BROWN But when they start getting bigger, they start getting really stinky, you gotta get them out of the house, gotta get them into their grow out pen, and it's something that we have to do. So, this is just our ridge cap to cover the top. SAMANTHA BROWN Uh-hmm. NATHAN BROWN Keep the water from seeping in. SAMANTHA BROWN Oh, so little left. We're so close, I can almost taste it. NATHAN BROWN A few more steps and we're, uh. SAMANTHA BROWN Homeward bound. NATHAN BROWN Cooking with chicken. SAMANTHA BROWN We're what? NATHAN BROWN We're cookin with chicken. All right, let's see. Ooh. This swings beautiful. SAMANTHA BROWN Yeah? Smooth. NATHAN BROWN Yeah. SAMANTHA BROWN Sweet. Look at it! NATHAN BROWN Yeah, I'm excited to get these, uh, meat chickens out of the house and in their new coop. SAMANTHA BROWN Me too. NATHAN BROWN This is gonna be awesome for them. SAMANTHA BROWN Yeah. NATHAN BROWN And for us. SAMANTHA BROWN And for us. NATHAN BROWN Well, let's get some wheels on this thing. SAMANTHA BROWN Yeah, sounds good. Uh! NATHAN BROWN All right. SAMANTHA BROWN We got a chicken tractor. It's done. CHEVIE ROACH Subsistence hunting. That's the way that Sonta grew up in her family. Her dad's from this land. Her grandpa's from this land. It's in her blood. CHEVIE ROACH She knows when to squeeze the trigger. CHEVIE ROACH He's still there. CHEVIE ROACH I see his, just see his horns flash. SONTA ROACH Okay. CHEVIE ROACH Against that other tree line over there. SONTA ROACH Is there water between us? CHEVIE ROACH I think there might be water between us. CHEVIE ROACH Check it out really good. SONTA ROACH Yeah. Today is the opportunity for Chevie and myself to be out and hopefully get a moose. SONTA ROACH It's still there. SONTA ROACH There's two. There's a cow. SONTA ROACH The cow just got up. SONTA ROACH Okay, it's moving back. SONTA ROACH It's out of here pretty fast. CHEVIE ROACH Did you have a decent shot? SONTA ROACH For a second. Sometimes you only have a half a second, if that, to shoot. Looks at you. It runs. I've been in those situations. You're chasing its antlers through the woods. CHEVIE ROACH It seen us. SONTA ROACH Yeah. SONTA ROACH It seen us. SONTA ROACH It watched us come up there. CHEVIE ROACH Keep on going? SONTA ROACH Hmm. CHEVIE ROACH They're probably going. SONTA ROACH I don't think it will come back. CHEVIE ROACH Let's keep on going. It's one of those things where, you've put in the time, you've been hunting, it's gonna happen when it's gonna happen, and it's gotta be the right time. There's a bull. [COMMERCIAL BREAK] CHEVIE ROACH Good shot, baby. Were you just giving it a fair chance on that first shot? SONTA ROACH 375. That's what it does. CHEVIE ROACH Down. Good shot. Good size too, not too big. SONTA ROACH No, I know. CHEVIE ROACH Nice bull. SONTA ROACH That will be good eating. Yeah. CHEVIE ROACH How's your baby doing in your tummy? Is it moving around? Is it excited? SONTA ROACH Yeah. I'm always ready though. You can't just let me go for a ride and say I'm not gonna shoot something. CHEVIE ROACH I've seen you putting those shells in that gun. CHEVIE ROACH A few wetlands back. SONTA ROACH The land provides, and today was just no exception. It was perfect timing, perfect location. Couldn't ask for a better opportunity. CHEVIE ROACH Good old neck shot? SONTA ROACH I think so, yeah. Looks nice and fat. CHEVIE ROACH Yeah, it's a big body. SONTA ROACH Big body. Let's get it cut up before it gets too dark. Good size, good eating. Everything's gonna get kind of bloody. CHEVIE ROACH Don't work too hard, you know. SONTA ROACH All this work is good for my body, good for my own mental health, too. Being out here. Ah, it just smells good out here. Feels good out here. It's not just about the hunting. It's about the food that you get. It's about feeding your family. And we're not sport hunters. You know, we're providers. And there's a big difference. We need your sharper knife up here to cut through the skin. CHEVIE ROACH Here, use my knife. This thing's sharp. SONTA ROACH Really? CHEVIE ROACH Yeah. SONTA ROACH You might need to turn on that light, too. It's getting dark, I'm going to turn on my rain jacket. CHEVIE ROACH I'll even start the boat so we don't have a dead battery when we go home. SONTA ROACH Right, we can't just use the light. Oh, wow, that's bright. That's nice light. CHEVIE ROACH Put your rain jacket on. NATHAN BROWN How's that there? SAMANTHA BROWN It's good to me if it's good to you. NATHAN BROWN All right, let's put these birds in. SAMANTHA BROWN All right. Experience freedom, guys. NATHAN BROWN It's a lot better than that little tiny brooder. SAMANTHA BROWN Oh, yeah. NATHAN BROWN I am ecstatic to get these meat chickens out of the house and into their new home. We needed to get these birds out, and now we're getting them out there, and it just feels incredible. SAMANTHA BROWN All right, guys. Have fun. Enjoy your new home. This farm is really hard, so I am amazed that this lifestyle is everything that I have been seeking my whole life. We just finished the shelter, and the birds already seem so much happier. They seem to love it. CHEVIE ROACH Happier birds mean happier food. SAMANTHA BROWN What do you think? Good? MARIO QUEZADA Yeah, they got a lot of bones. A little tougher to get into their innards, but look at all that nice white meat right there. It's going to be good eating. I'm going to eat a pike for the first time. And, you know, I now know where I can catch these fish. You know, it's a whole experience. It's not just some, a piece of food. It's an experience. It represents a couple days on the water. Going around every bend that you didn't know, and to catch this is, it's a real treat, and to be able to have enough to take back home to share with Clare, it's really rewarding. Ooh, it's still pretty hot. It's pretty good. Ooh, there's chunks of meat. This is the good stuff, the meat without feet, baby. JOHNNY ROLFE Oh, yeah. So I got the trout here. Yeah, listen to that sizzle. And this is the grayling here. Skin comes right off. Yeah. These grayling are smaller fish and they just fight like hell. I mean, it's impressive how much tenacity they have when you have them on the end of your pole, and you know really it reminds me of myself when I lived in the big cities in the lower 48. I fought so hard just to get out of the city because I knew if I gave in and I accepted it I would never leave. That's what got me to living the lifestyle that I want to live. That is excellent. Normally, I catch a fish or two, I gotta eat them in the same day. If I don't, they just go bad, they rot. Now I got a fridge box. That's pretty sweet. SYDNEY ROACH Okay. What meat's that? CHEVIE ROACH This is your mom's moose. This is for dry meat. SYDNEY ROACH What part of the moose is that? CHEVIE ROACH Front shoulder. This will grow a strong person, you know. SYDNEY ROACH Wow. It's a huge piece. CHEVIE ROACH You can't get any better meat than this, so. SYDNEY ROACH Yay! CHEVIE ROACH There you go. That's the way to pack meat right there. CHEVELLE ROACH Mama. SONTA ROACH Ready to hang the meat? Processing the food with my family. Look at that. This is what I've come to expect and appreciate. We eat the heart, we eat the tongue, we eat the kidneys and the nose. CHEVELLE ROACH Fish! SONTA ROACH Good job! There's really not a lot wasted at all. So this is our little drying rack Chevie built and makes it nice and tasty just like jerky. Should we lock it up? CHEVIE ROACH Yeah. SONTA ROACH I think we're good. So we have meat in the freezer. Meat in the smoker. I think we're sitting pretty good. All stages of processing. This knowledge will be passed down for generations. It's a bigger story than us. It's also this connection to the past. SONTA ROACH Their ancestors, my ancestors, that they're a part of. And no one's going to replace that. We're just going to build on it. There's really nothing like eating our own moose from the land. EMRY ROACH Tastes fresh. SONTA ROACH Tastes fresh. CHEVIE ROACH You can almost taste the story in it. SONTA ROACH All that hard work, this is one of the best payoffs. CHEVIE ROACH I know. [SNAP-IN] SONTA ROACH Here's a nice little bit. And we're gonna do some jerky. Look, you see this part right here though? This is how you can tell we don't want to eat this part. It's damaged meat. That's where, around where it got hit in the neck. Even though a little bit of the neck meat got damaged, we were able to get some meat from there. And we really enjoy dry meat, so right now we're just making sure this meat is brining and we're going to put it in the dryer and smoke it. It's a lot of work, but a great payoff. So, one of my favorite parts that I enjoy when looking for moose or taking care of moose is processing the food with my family. Thank you. CHEVIE ROACH Hi, baby, how you doing? Are you helping mommy? SONTA ROACH It's just wonderful to see them engaged in the process. There's certain parts of the moose you want to get put away fast. You know, you don't want it to go bad. And they'll also see the fruits of their labor as well once they can eat it. I feel like I've been cutting more than I see here as a result. CHEVIE ROACH I know, that's the thing about cutting dry meat, it's like your hand gets sore after a while. It's a lot of cutting, but we'll have a 30-gallon (113 liters) bag full of dry meat. SONTA ROACH Yeah. I mean, this will feed us all winter. That's pretty good for us. Pretty good for our family. CHEVIE ROACH There's so many different ways, and I think that's the important thing is that you know, we're dealing with this moose for a month or so until it's all put away the way we like it. And it mixes it up, you know. We eat moose a lot of different ways. Whether it's dry meat, pressure cooked, or making corn moose meat, or curing it with salt. Whatever it is, there's just a lot of different ways to eat it. You eat well and just kind of spend time with your family and visit. And that's what it's all about. Put away a lot of good, good meat. SONTA ROACH It'll be really tasty. I'm looking forward to it. [END]