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Watch Port Protection Alaska UNLOCKED, Season 4 Episode 9 on Dailymotion (2026).
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00:00Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada
00:31We just went through about a month-long cold snap,
00:34and I probably went through about two months of firewood
00:36in about two and a half weeks,
00:38so I got more sawdust in the front yard than I got firewood.
00:43Talked to my buddy Sam,
00:44and we're going to make our way down around the corner there
00:46and actually pick up some timber.
00:49Hopefully preparedness will meet opportunity
00:51and we'll find a little success,
00:53because right now my wood stores are completely depleted.
00:56Out here, you've got to have your house in order
00:59before your calamity hits,
01:00so it's do-or-die time.
01:11Morning, Sam.
01:12Well, hoping this wind lays down soon.
01:16Yeah.
01:17Supposed to be letting down,
01:18but lordy, she's kicking up her heels currently.
01:21Well, hopefully we'll find some easy stuff.
01:22Right.
01:23Something that's low effort per unit.
01:26Dave's out of firewood,
01:27which at this time of the year,
01:30bad situation.
01:31With any luck, we'll be able to get out there
01:32and load it up,
01:33and he can at least make it till spring.
01:35I've only got a handful of old staples,
01:38so I was just going to put together a few new ones at least.
01:42Right on.
01:44Necessity, the mother of invention.
01:47Coming up with what you need when you need it.
01:50There's a few basic things we have to make sure
01:53we check off our list before we get underway.
01:58There are no hardware stores to buy steel stock or metal.
02:02We have to make our own staples and chokers.
02:08It's not rocket science.
02:10You just have to break out some tools and go to work.
02:20I've been doing some scouting.
02:21I've seen a couple of really nice large trees
02:24along the shoreline there.
02:26I haven't actually gone out
02:27and verified how easy it's going to be to deal with them,
02:31but it looks like there's some good wood up there,
02:33a couple cords at least,
02:34and a couple of trees,
02:35so it's going to work out pretty well, I hope.
02:41Yeah, that's the one I was thinking about
02:42is that nice big standing dud right there.
02:45She's ugly.
02:47Hopefully she's not too rotten down at the base.
02:49Do you know what they call those, Dave?
02:52Widowmakers?
02:53Yeah.
03:09When you're dealing with dead standing trees,
03:12you have to know the difference between a tree
03:15that's basically just a big rotten hollow tube
03:17standing there waiting to kill somebody
03:19and one that's actually safe to fall.
03:22That is one big, ugly son of a...
03:26Yeah.
03:28I see a lot of conks growing out of her as well.
03:31Yeah, I can just tell by the way the bark's hanging off it right there.
03:33I think it's as rotten as rotten can be.
03:36Damn it.
03:38From the water, it looks a lot different.
03:39It looks like a much smaller tree.
03:41Yeah, look at that.
03:42See?
03:43Oh, that's coming apart like...
03:45That is.
03:46...nothing.
03:46Coming apart.
03:48Thought I spotted a good find.
03:51Well, you live and you learn.
03:54Yeah.
03:54I have a rule.
03:55If I look up in a tree, it's rotten
03:57and it's going to fall down and kill you in the process.
04:00I just put my saw away
04:01because you could very well end up being planted in the ground
04:05right next to the tree with the tree on top of you.
04:08Caution the better part of valor.
04:09So let's see if we can find something that isn't a widow maker
04:12I can drag up on the front for you, eh?
04:14Yeah.
04:16We'll find something.
04:24Living here in Port Protection.
04:26The weather dictates whether you get to do what you plan or not.
04:30So you've got to roll with it
04:32and use it in your advantage.
04:39Well, I've been looking at this thing for a long time.
04:42Today's the day I'm going to knock this thing down,
04:46collapse it to the ground, flatten her out.
04:52My greenhouse has dilapidated and it's fallen down.
04:56It's overdue to be replaced
04:58and I'm thinking I want to just knock this greenhouse down
05:02and start from the ground floor up.
05:05Well, there's not too much.
05:07There's a few 2x4s here I can save.
05:09But mostly it's wet down on the bottom, rotten.
05:13There's nothing left here to do except to demolish this thing.
05:17I'm going to go ahead and rip the plastic off
05:20and start doing some serious clanging and banging.
05:27The growing season in Port Protection isn't that long.
05:31The greenhouse gives me an advantage
05:34where I can extend my growing season
05:36by at least a month and maybe two.
05:38It's very critical to a subsistence life.
05:42So there's a method to my madness here.
05:45Let me tenderly work on this.
05:54Hey, Gary.
05:55Hey, Matt.
05:56Well, it looks like you've got a project here, sir.
05:59Well, it is a project.
06:01I couldn't do this by myself.
06:03I'm not a builder in any manner.
06:05All I do is kill trees, saw them up.
06:10Got it.
06:12I can have some use for that later.
06:14Matt Carlson is a way, way better builder than I,
06:17so he's going to help me out.
06:19And I'm very thankful for it.
06:21This is like getting a pat hand there, have somebody help you.
06:29Okay, well, this might be a little rough around the edges,
06:32but we'll get it done.
06:34I've known Gary essentially my whole life.
06:37I think it's pretty important to be able to, you know,
06:40jump to and be Johnny on the spot
06:41and lend a hand when you can
06:43because you never know when you're going to need assistance yourself.
06:45I mean, it's, we could just knock it over.
06:49It's just the direction, which direction you want it to go.
06:52Yeah.
06:54I guess let's just get this sucker out of the way, huh?
06:57Demolition is definitely sometimes the funnest part of the process.
07:01It's not always the easiest.
07:04One, two.
07:05It must just be the, you know, the nine-year-old boy in me
07:08that likes to see things get blown to smithereens.
07:10Three.
07:14Boogaloo, baby.
07:20Now we just got to take her apart.
07:27So what's the plan for tomorrow, Matt?
07:30Tomorrow's going to have to be foundation work,
07:32so I figure if I just make a square and build from the ground up,
07:37it should have a structure in place in a day or two.
07:39I think I'm going to go get my tools,
07:42get rigged up, and start fresh Amari.
07:45Sounds like a plan.
07:56The winters are really hard on a guy around here,
07:59you know, both mentally and physically.
08:02You've got to just put your head down
08:04and battle the elements if you want to survive around here.
08:12Come on, Junior.
08:20Well, I think I'm going to go do some trapping there.
08:23It's a bit of winter right now, and the mink are all prime.
08:27I'm going to go out and see if I can catch a few.
08:32A handful of traps here.
08:36Usually, the mink, they down up until it warms back up.
08:39But right now, we've got a low-pressure move in,
08:42and there's critters moving everywhere.
08:44So now's the time to be doing it, and that's what we're doing.
08:49I just want to catch a few thinned out of the mink.
08:52They haven't been trapped in years.
08:54It's a good thing to kind of keep their numbers in check.
09:00The mink population around here really needs to be taken care of.
09:04They're a pesty little bastard, and they're really destructive.
09:07You know, get right up in your insulation,
09:09and they really wreak havoc.
09:11To me, they're just like a damn rat.
09:14Well, everything's good to go.
09:18Check this thing and make sure it's going to work.
09:23Let me see your stick.
09:30And it's game over after that.
09:33Go catch some bait and go set some traps.
09:40Usually, most every winter, you know,
09:42I'll go out and do a little bit of trapping at least.
09:46First thing I've got to do is go catch some bait.
09:49The fresher the bait that you use around your traps,
09:52the more successful you're going to be.
09:58The mink, they really like the fresh bait.
10:01Once it gets too rotten, they won't even mess with it.
10:09You've got to put your time in to make it pay off.
10:18You've got to have a lot of patience to do this.
10:20I mean, there's times that you can go days
10:24without catching nothing.
10:26You just stick and stay and make it pay.
10:31Damn, Junior.
10:34Doing a lot of fishing, but not a whole lot of catching.
10:40Junior, where's all the fish?
10:44I've got to have bait to lure them in with.
10:50But the secret to fishing, basically,
10:53is you don't give up.
10:57Oh, holy moly.
11:21You're getting to wonder if there's anything out here.
11:26Oh, there's one.
11:28Oh, there's one.
11:29Hopefully, we get enough for dinner and trapping bait.
11:32Hey, Junior.
11:33We got another one here.
11:36Black bass.
11:38Pretty good feeling to go from zero forever
11:42to a ton of fish in less than a half hour.
11:46Kelp greenling.
11:51It wasn't having any luck, and then, boom,
11:55it was like just about every cast
11:59was getting something.
12:02Well, I definitely got enough to go set some traps now.
12:14It's really hard to explain port protection to people.
12:17It's not something that you can really explain.
12:19It's just a feeling you get when you're out here.
12:25It's really coming down out there.
12:27Yeah, it's just nasty.
12:29So what do you think we should do today?
12:31Do you think we should kind of try to go over the boat?
12:33Yeah, we haven't been on it since October, so.
12:35Yeah, I definitely could use a good scrub down.
12:37And I'll go through kind of the systems,
12:38make sure the build is working, make sure she turns over
12:41and starts, because that's always a questionable thing.
12:44Yeah, it's a good thing.
12:45Our boat is a lifeline for staying out here
12:47in port protection.
12:48I mean, we make a living off of it.
12:50We travel all around just to get supplies.
12:52And so it's really important for us to keep up on it
12:55and keep maintenance up and just keep everything rolling.
12:59What's going on back here?
13:01Chaos, dude.
13:03Absolute chaos.
13:04This thing's got so much corrosion on it,
13:06you feel nasty it is.
13:07Oh, yeah, it is.
13:08You get a little bit of gasoline in it
13:09and just kind of push it through.
13:11Yeah.
13:13The winter definitely took its toll as far as, you know,
13:16pieces going bad and parts breaking on you.
13:18Now, I'd like to get the boat out for a shakedown cruise,
13:21kind of work all the bugs out of it.
13:27Oh.
13:28Wow.
13:29Listen, the valve's not even picking that bad.
13:31That's really a good sign.
13:32It was, kind of.
13:33We might make it to another season with this motor yet.
13:36Fishing season is coming in just a couple months.
13:39So we want to make sure that the boat's working well.
13:42So when it really does matter, we'll catch one.
13:47You want to work on something else with me here?
13:49I got to water this bilge pump and stuff.
13:50OK.
13:51What happened to it?
13:52Electrolysis just ate all the connections away.
13:54It's kind of what it looks like to me.
13:56The bilge pump pretty much is just sitting down
13:58on the bottom of our boat.
14:00So we need it to pump out the excess water
14:02that comes from the rain.
14:04It's really important to keep that working,
14:05because if we're out there on a trip
14:08and something goes wrong out there and it starts raining,
14:10we could sink.
14:13Is there smoke coming out of there?
14:15Looks like it, yeah.
14:17You know, while I'm here, I might as well just
14:19replace all these connections, because, you know,
14:20I'm thinking that it might have something to do with that.
14:25You have that torch, right?
14:26Yep.
14:27Kick it in here.
14:30The heat's shrinking them down.
14:32The heat shrink tightens on that wire,
14:34and it prevents the salt water from getting in there.
14:36Corrowing it.
14:44Sweet.
14:44Heat shrunk, waterproofed.
14:47Ready to go.
14:49Oh, ho, ho.
14:50It doesn't work.
14:51It's got water coming out.
14:55Sweet.
14:56OK.
14:57That's done.
15:02Now that the boat seems to be running pretty good,
15:04it's time to get out there and see what can go wrong
15:06and make sure all the systems are working.
15:14Living here as long as I have, I know that anything can happen
15:17at any given moment.
15:19That's why you need a backup to your backup.
15:26These are two downfalls from the wind.
15:29Actually, there's a big cluster of them here that got knocked down.
15:32Several small ones and a couple of big ones.
15:36It's definitely some good firewood.
15:39There's a spruce back there.
15:40It'd be pretty easy.
15:41The one that was right up here that was dead right down by the beach?
15:44Absolutely.
15:45The limbs are, we could cut them off, bucket off,
15:47step on the beach, cut the thing off.
15:49It'd be like a month's firewood for you or something like that.
15:52Go give her a closer inspect.
16:00I have a plan, Dave.
16:02Oh, good.
16:04I'm going to get a choker on the small end, limit,
16:08bucket off on the small end first.
16:11I have just enough room in here to give it a good jerk.
16:14OK.
16:15Well, here's some, uh, here's some leaders to extend.
16:18And there's any number of calculations you have to make
16:22when you're trying to pull a log off the beach.
16:35OK.
16:38Nothing ever happens without a little bit of thought
16:41and some elbow grease.
16:44Sam's throwing a rolling hitch on that.
16:49I imagine, uh, even if it takes a little to do it,
16:51we'll probably manage it.
16:54Whenever you're in tight quarters like this
16:56and you're trying to jerk up tight on a good bit of weight,
16:59you got to worry about hazards under the water,
17:02hazards of rope snapping,
17:04hazards of, uh,
17:07stuff getting caught in your prop.
17:11Whenever you're dealing with windfall,
17:13it's often a game of pixie sticks, you know?
17:15You got one log on top of the other,
17:17and, uh, it can be rather interesting
17:19trying to figure out how you're going to get stuff out of the way.
17:22And it's, uh, quite an adventure at times,
17:24and it's definitely not for the faint of heart
17:26because, uh, things can go wrong in a hurry.
17:29It's going to happen real quick.
17:32Let's hope.
17:41Okay, hold up.
17:42I'm going to adjust the, uh, line over the, uh,
17:45deadhead here.
17:46Okay.
17:48We're the only game in town,
17:49and if you have a life-threatening injury,
17:52basically you're going to be a goner.
17:54I can give it another pull, Dave.
17:56Yeah, give her hell, Sammy.
18:00You.
18:12I can give it another pull, Dave.
18:14Yeah, give her hell, Sammy.
18:17You.
18:21Hold on.
18:22Stop.
18:24Stop!
18:36Well, I had about the worst throttle accident
18:39I've had in a skiff yet.
18:40I, uh, ended up doing a nice little donut
18:42and ended up on top of the log I was trying to push.
18:46All right, the log should be coming now, though.
18:49No, I'm sitting on top of it,
18:51and it's pinned on a tree over here.
18:56Clear.
18:57Well, at least you stayed in the boat.
18:58Yeah, barely.
19:00It was a pretty good adrenaline rush kind of moment there.
19:04Good lordy.
19:08Clear.
19:09Okay.
19:13Still got all my bits and pieces in the boat intact.
19:15One log richer.
19:18That's going to be a lesson
19:19that Dave's going to remember for quite a while.
19:22If he'd have been by himself
19:23and he would have actually ended up out of the skiff,
19:26I'd give him, like, a 50-50 chance
19:28of surviving something like that.
19:31We got one log in the kitty,
19:33but it's going to take a lot more
19:34if I want to keep the wood stove fed.
19:36So we're going to keep on going.
19:43A lot of people are fascinated with our life,
19:45and in the back of their mind, they think,
19:48I think I'd like to go to Port Protection
19:50and live like those guys do.
19:52But out here, you've got to be prepared for everything,
19:55and that's hard to do.
20:02Good morning, Trapper.
20:04Good morning, Gary.
20:05Good morning, Matt.
20:07My friend Gary's got some work to be done
20:09on the greenhouse project.
20:11The first thing I need to do
20:12is establish what my structure's going to be.
20:18I'm just trying to get
20:19the basic rudimentary foundation laid out.
20:24It's going to be bush construction.
20:32Well, I never thought it would go this fast, Matt.
20:36Well, I'm happy to surprise you.
20:42It's a funny life we have, Matt.
20:44But it's kind of satisfying there
20:46to, you know, help somebody out.
20:48Absolutely.
20:49It's an important thing to show my daughter
20:51as she grows up.
20:54I get a big rush out of helping people.
20:57I think it's the way to live.
20:59It always comes back to you.
21:00My mom taught me that years and years ago.
21:03Somebody needs help, help them.
21:05You go home that night, you have your beer,
21:07and you think it's a reward for helping somebody.
21:10You don't feel guilty about it at all.
21:11So I think a lot of people should look at it that way
21:15instead of the almighty dollar.
21:22Grab the ladders, and we'll get our peek.
21:28I feel like it's going to snow.
21:30Matt and I both know that the weather's going to change.
21:33The most important thing for us
21:35is to get that roof up before it snows.
21:37As much help as you can give me now
21:39because that weather's changing.
21:43Okay.
21:44Sounds like I hear the wind up in the trees.
21:48We need to get this roof built up
21:51because working with that plastic with ice on it
21:55is pretty slick,
21:56and it's just not a place you want to be.
22:01and it is actually coming down now.
22:08There you go.
22:08Well, that's it.
22:10Okay.
22:11You have a roof.
22:12Yeah.
22:14I'm very thankful that you got the roof on, Matt.
22:17I think that's a stroke of business for today.
22:21We might as well just wrap it up and hit the road.
22:23Yep. Yep, I'm good with that.
22:25I'll see you tomorrow,
22:26hopefully not in a foot of snow.
22:27Oh, don't even think about it.
22:36It's pretty nasty out here.
22:41Mother Nature has no mercy on anybody.
22:49Well, here's a bunch of fresh mink, Jack.
22:52They're probably just a few hours old.
22:57Well, we're on the right track anyway.
22:59You know there's critters around here.
23:01I know they're moving.
23:04Makes me feel pretty hopeful,
23:05especially when you see tracks showing the sign.
23:08I mean, the snow tells the tale, you know,
23:10what's moving around out there.
23:14In port protection,
23:16thinning out the mink population
23:18helps minimize the damage they cause to key infrastructure.
23:22To increase his odds of success,
23:25Curly will set a variety of foothold and conibear traps
23:28along the wooded shoreline.
23:33kind of a good spot here.
23:37He's a bait here that will tuck it up under there.
23:43Anchor a crap and set it.
23:47He'll go by and he'll smell that bait
23:50and he won't be able to resist sticking his nose in there.
23:55Okay.
23:57I think I'll go this way
23:59and see if I can't find another set.
24:02I was nine years old whenever I started trapping.
24:06I can remember my first mink that I ever caught.
24:09Man, I was about the happiest kid on this god's green earth.
24:14There we go.
24:16Now, if I was a mink, I'd go into that.
24:21Okay.
24:22On to the next spot.
24:29Let's see what's going on over this way.
24:34This conibear trap,
24:35it's a dangerous trap to be set and where I'm set.
24:39Visibility is so poor
24:41that I got to just go by feel and that.
24:43You don't want to be getting caught in there.
24:45That's for damn sure.
24:48Spring's positioned right.
24:51If you get caught in a conibear,
24:53you better hope you got your wire cutters close enough
24:56because that trap's going home with you.
24:58You ain't going to pull it off by yourself.
25:02Dude, my hooks come off.
25:05That ain't cool.
25:16That'll make your heart skip a beat when you got to...
25:16I'm going to get the trap back in there a little bit.
25:19I don't want to be getting caught in there this for damn sure.
25:21if the spring's positioned right.
25:28Dude, all my hooks come off.
25:31That ain't cool.
25:33Whew.
25:37That'll make your heart skip a beat when you got a spring that's live.
25:43I don't really care for the fact of crawling around in these little tunnels.
25:47They give me the creeps, kind of.
25:49But if you want to be successful at trapping,
25:52you got to do what you got to do.
25:55Spooky messing with these big traps.
25:58Locked and loaded now.
26:00I mean, he's ready for action.
26:02Well, I'm going to come back first thing in the morning
26:05and hopefully we'll get one.
26:15Part of living here is work.
26:17So if you're looking for an easy life,
26:20you're not going to find it.
26:26What do you think?
26:27I think I'm going to start at the bottom,
26:28work up to the top so it's got the overlap.
26:30Let me get my bearings.
26:32Yeah.
26:33So I got the roof up and it's nice and dry in there.
26:37I need to wrap the material around the sides of the wall.
26:40How far down there?
26:41Just right.
26:42Yeah, that looks like you got it.
26:46I can see this greenhouse is going to be a big improvement from what I had.
26:51I'm looking forward to the spring grow season.
26:55Well, I got the hydroponic grow tower ready to put in.
26:58That's exciting.
27:00It is actually.
27:01It's innovative how that kind of business works.
27:05I'm a dirt farmer,
27:07but I'm kind of fascinated with hydroponic growing there.
27:12If I have a real nice, tight greenhouse,
27:15I'm thinking the hydroponic thing is the future for me here.
27:23Come on, Gary.
27:24I think that's it.
27:26Cool.
27:30Wow.
27:31Look at that thing.
27:32Look at all this stuff I can grow in there.
27:34Very, very happy with the greenhouse.
27:37This is the nicest greenhouse that I ever had.
27:40This one will last the rest of my life.
27:42Thank you so much, man.
27:43Hey, absolutely.
27:45I'll see you in a few weeks for some lettuce.
27:47I think I'm on my way.
27:55What it takes to thrive out here is being able to adapt
27:58and learn how to not panic when things go wrong.
28:06The plan is to go out and basically shake down the scene,
28:09make sure all systems are a go on the boat,
28:11kind of ready for fishing season.
28:15The shake down crew is basically just thinking of it
28:17as kind of picking up your bad kid
28:18and holding him upside down and shaking him
28:20and all the bad things fall out of him.
28:21That's kind of the way I can describe it.
28:23All right, you need to steer a little bit
28:24while I get some stuff sorted out as far as gear goes.
28:32It's very important to go out
28:34and make sure your fishing gear is working
28:36before you try to go make money with it.
28:39It's really good.
28:40It looks good out there.
28:42This boat is ready to go out and be on the drag again.
28:46You just kind of shake your boat around a little bit,
28:49get it sloshed around, just kind of see what can go wrong
28:51and make sure all the systems are working.
28:53You want to go back out and, like,
28:54maybe flip the build switch up?
28:56Yeah.
29:01Yeah, I don't think it's working.
29:04What?
29:05Let me check that out.
29:06Come steer.
29:11Not only are you shaking down the scene,
29:13but you're kind of just, like, taking yourself out there
29:15and you're getting yourself back in the groove.
29:19I think it might have just been a claw.
29:20It came on for me.
29:22Must have the touch.
29:22I shook it, but cool.
29:25Glad it's working.
29:27I'm glad I did that.
29:31I'm kind of curious on what it's going to be around the corner,
29:33though.
29:33That's where it can really change in a hurry.
29:36The looks are deceiving in the bay.
29:37That's for sure.
29:41This time of the year, out in front of the bay,
29:42you could be looking at any number of things, you know?
29:44It can go from being a nice, calm day
29:46to a raging storm in a real, you know, real hurry.
29:51I don't know, man.
29:52It's kind of sketchy out here.
29:53I can feel the wind pushing the boat
29:55and laying it over a little bit.
29:57Gives you that weird feeling in your tummy, kind of.
30:03As soon as we turn around the corner here,
30:04it's pretty much nothing between you and Hawaii.
30:07Yeah.
30:07I definitely don't want to push any limits.
30:11It's not just our lives when we're out there.
30:13It's our boat, and it's our equipment,
30:15and that's everything to us to make a living,
30:17and so there's no time for mess-ups.
30:22I see some huge waves way out there.
30:28I would say my boat's a real trooper,
30:30but it's not necessarily built for dealing with rough weather.
30:33We just kind of don't like to mess around
30:35in that kind of season, the small boat.
30:36Oh, yeah, whoa, yeah.
30:38This boat's starting to get a little bit wobbly.
30:40I don't like the size of those waves.
30:42I don't like, no.
30:43Ooh, that was a bearing in the bow.
30:46I really kind of could use the protection,
30:48the port protection right now.
30:49I'm kind of looking for my spot to turn around.
30:51Yeah, okay.
30:52Oh, just hold it.
30:52Babe, I need you to do that anything goofy, okay?
30:55Just one.
30:56Oh, get out there as fast as possible, please.
31:02Holy.
31:10Get out there as fast as possible, please.
31:14Holy.
31:17I got to time this right, because if I don't,
31:20it gets really, really uncomfortable.
31:24Oh, yeah.
31:25No reason to be out in this .
31:27Yeah.
31:28I don't want to be out in that kind of nonsense.
31:30It's just like tempting fate.
31:32Yeah, anything can go wrong.
31:32You know, I'm just not really into that.
31:34When you have to deal with bad weather,
31:36there's, you know, just any numbers of scenarios
31:38that can go wrong.
31:40And I generally tend to call it when you bury the bow
31:43in a big swell, no reason to tempt fate.
31:49We want to be safe than sorry.
31:51I mean, it's our boat, it's our lives,
31:53and nothing's worth our lives.
32:00Boat seems to be running just fine.
32:02Yeah.
32:02Fires right up.
32:03Everything.
32:04Everything seems pretty sound.
32:05Seems to be going good, yeah.
32:07Yeah.
32:10That's a welcoming sight right there.
32:13It is.
32:14Yeah.
32:15This test run is definitely not a waste of time.
32:18The rough weather forced us to cut
32:20our little operations short.
32:21But the fact that we didn't sink and come apart
32:23tells me that everything's good to go.
32:25It'll be ready to go out and slay some fish
32:27and make some money this year.
32:29I'm glad to be tucked back into the bay.
32:39It's always good to have a plan B around here
32:42and probably even a plan C can happen out here.
32:47And if you're not prepared, things can go wrong in a hurry.
32:55Well, the weather really warmed up last night.
32:58And with that, you know, the maker really going to be moving now.
33:03You know, I mean, they'll be out in full force.
33:04And it rained really hard last night.
33:07Well, that's going to wash the human odors away from it.
33:11And they're going to be way more apt to come into my set.
33:26Well, they look like anything's been into this set.
33:32That hole goes way back in there.
33:34And the other masters at stealing bait.
33:41He came into the set all right.
33:43He came right up within an inch of the trap there with his front feet.
33:49And then he found another way into the bait.
33:52And my bait is gone.
33:56He outsmarted me.
33:59Oh, well.
34:01Move on to our next one.
34:03This ain't the first time I've been outsmarted by a mink.
34:31He's a nice dark one, too.
34:35Holy cow.
34:38That's awesome, man.
34:40Now, by golly, we got a mink in the last trap there.
34:44They're already dead, it looks like.
34:46So it's pretty important to trap them.
34:50An area can only sustain a handful of mink, you know,
34:54if there gets too many of them.
34:56You know, they just get into everything.
34:57You can't leave nothing to lay.
34:59Nice big male.
35:01Wow, this is a really, really beautiful mink.
35:04I mean, this is just 100% prime.
35:07He's really dark colored in that.
35:09And to the right person, a tanned up.
35:12Maybe I can pick up a little bit of extra money, you know?
35:16I choose to live the subsistence lifestyle.
35:20And with that comes learning how to be patient
35:23and being very persistent.
35:25Let's go.
35:27Come on.
35:27Sometimes it doesn't always come easy,
35:29but if you keep after it, eventually it'll pay off.
35:39You got to keep advancing your skill set out here.
35:42Conditions change, so must we.
35:47Why don't we drop this one, see where it lands
35:50so we can get that limbed up.
35:51Well, we just need to get as many as we can.
35:54Guess we better get on it quick then,
35:56because the tide be rising.
35:57Yeah.
36:02For residents of Port Protection,
36:04having enough firewood to last through winter
36:07can be the difference between life and death.
36:10With only one log secured,
36:13David Squibb and Sam Carlson
36:15must continue to scour the shoreline
36:17for enough timber to make it through
36:19the remaining winter months.
36:21I think I'll try to drop it over this way a little bit more.
36:25Just be safe.
36:27Will do.
36:34Firewood doesn't have to look pretty.
36:35You know, it can be an old scabrous piece of something.
36:38As long as it burns, it'll suit its purpose.
36:42Be it hemlocks, spruce, or cedar.
36:45If she is accessible, she's coming with me.
36:53Yeah, we're trying to just focus this one middle area here,
36:56get as many on the ground as we can.
37:00If you're going to do it, you might as well do it right.
37:24You can just go down to that cedar and start on it,
37:26and I'll start here.
37:28What's nice about going out with a good two-man team
37:30with the right equipment is we can take a fair volume
37:33off the beach in one run.
37:35In the firewood game, it's all about volume.
37:40So that's two more.
37:41Yep.
37:42Well, shall we start working on getting that terrain put together?
37:50Tide's coming in pretty hard on us now.
37:52We're going to go ahead and prep for pulling it off
37:54so we can hanker him out in the bay there.
37:57We live in environs where we've got 20-foot tide swings,
38:00and you've got to use them to your advantage
38:02or you'll be cursing them all the day long.
38:07When you live out in the bush,
38:09you're always under pressure to get things done in a hurry,
38:11it seems like.
38:17The seaway's starting to stack up.
38:19Looks like our window's going to close
38:21and close hard real quick on us.
38:23We did pretty well in the short bit of time that we had,
38:25but it is time to go.
38:28I've only got one more.
38:29See if we can get this thing out before the tide's actually in.
38:33Okay.
38:34You ready?
38:34Good.
38:41Hold on, let me get the peevee and pop the nose off.
38:44That son of a bitch is heavier than I thought.
38:47When you're trying to pull lots of weight,
38:49you definitely have to have the right equipment.
38:51I think she's just heavier than you think.
38:54If you have a line that stretches like a rubber band,
38:57and if it snaps, it can knock you right out of the boat
38:59and take your head off.
39:01There we go.
39:02Let me get out of the way.
39:13See if we can get this thing out before the tide's actually in.
39:17All right.
39:18Let me get out of the way.
39:19Okay.
39:20Attention.
39:32Fortunately, when I heard that yoke line snap,
39:35I've well trained myself to actually duck and cover.
39:39Because you only got ten fingers, ten toes, and a couple limbs.
39:43You want to protect them out here, especially when help's so far away.
39:46That little son of a bitch must have some knots sticking down off the bottom of it.
39:55All right.
39:56Let's see if the third time's the charm, Sammy.
40:07Sweet.
40:13I can see a good bit of a storm cloud on the horizon.
40:16We got about four-foot rollers coming in now.
40:20So we got to get this tow home.
40:24Well, let's give a listen to the weather forecast.
40:28Very strong low pressure system.
40:30Uh-oh.
40:31Seas further offshore will go to 35 to 40 feet during this time.
40:3540-foot seas?
40:36Well, I've heard all I need to hear.
40:38Yeah, we got no time to dawdle.
40:41We're gonna try to get this raft made up.
40:43It's gonna be a lot of weight.
40:45And with the forecast, we have to get these puppies headed for the barn.
40:50I'm gonna use this floating line here,
40:52and we're gonna try to lash them together two by two
40:55so that the logs up in front will be breaking the seaway
40:57for those that come behind it.
40:59Should, uh, tow a lot better for us.
41:02That one's tight as hell.
41:04That one's got a staple.
41:05That one's got a staple.
41:06You can kind of see everything looks good.
41:08It's all stretched out straight.
41:10Once we start towing, then we'll know.
41:14Hopefully, we don't get our asses handed to us.
41:17It's feeling a little chilly.
41:20Smelling a lot like snow.
41:2140-foot seas.
41:22You don't hear that very often.
41:25I'd say it's time to bat in the hatches
41:27and get these doggies in the corral.
41:32And the wind can come up at any given moment.
41:34No place to be in a small boat with a lot of logs behind you.
41:38Wind's going this way.
41:39Water's going that way.
41:40Poof!
41:42It happens.
41:45And you'll lose all your logs.
41:46They'll be scattered all over hell and creation.
41:57So far, so good, man.
41:59She's towing like a dream back there.
42:01Straight as a string.
42:02Knock on one.
42:13It's always a sweet feeling once you enter the harbor.
42:17You can stop gritting your teeth.
42:19You go, okay.
42:20We're going to live.
42:25I was down to the gnat's tail when it came to firewood.
42:29I'm really, really glad that we got this done.
42:36It's a ragtag bunch of stuff, but what the heck?
42:39Hey, man, it all burns.
42:50I was born like 100 years too late.
42:53You know, I've always read mountain man books
42:56and loved Grizzly Adams and Jeremiah Johnson
43:00and all them trappers.
43:02It's just something I always wanted to be as a kid.
43:05And here I am.
43:06I think this was meant to be living here in Port Protection.
43:10You know, living in a place like this,
43:12people from the outside world view it as a place that,
43:16you know, maybe not everyone can make it,
43:17but the select few that choose to do so thrive at it.
43:21It's just kind of who you are and how you want to live.
43:25Port Protection's my home has been for a long time.
43:28I know this place like the back of my hand.
43:31It would take me many, many moons to know any other place
43:35as well as I know this.
43:36I don't think I'd want to live anywhere else.
43:41There's a lot that can go on out here,
43:43and there's definitely obstacles to overcome,
43:45but, you know, it's fulfilling when it actually comes to a point
43:49where you have most of your needs met by what you have around you,
43:52and you actually have the skill sets to make it work for you.
43:55This is a major priority on the to-do list.
43:59It's going to save my bacon in February.
44:02This is definitely a nicer home
44:04than living down in the ration royal of humanity.
44:06Now we'll be able to go back to the next part.
44:06First, we'll have to give you the full experience.