Narrator:
Previously on "Mountain Men," Morgan races the early melt... Snow melt's starting to happen. Narrator: ...to recover
a crucial lifeline... I got to get my traps
out of the creek before the high water comes,
and it'll wash away. Wait a second!
There's a beaver. Oh, yeah. Look at that. Narrator: ...while Marty
loses big in Alaska... What the heck! Crap! The machine's broke down. Narrator:
...and is forced to retreat. Can only do one thing at a time, and right now,
I got to get out of here. Try to figure out
what the next step is. What I'm gonna have to do. I can't afford for it,
it'll be game over. Captioning Provided by
A+E Networks Narrator: 200 miles south
of the Arctic Circle in Two Rivers, Alaska,
Marty Meierotto's losing valuable time
in his yearly race to make a profit from
the winter trapping season. He's returned home early
after a mechanical failure forced him to abandon his lines in the Revelation Mountains just as he was beginning
to make progress. Marty: Things are going good,
and I want to keep going. And then boom. [ Engine revving ] Come on, baby! Crap. It just got too hot,
and the engine seized. Narrator: Marty's season has
been plagued by costly slowdowns as his 15-year-old machine
struggled to navigate the record-setting deep snows
he encountered this year. But with just shy of five weeks
of trapping left to go, he's decided to retire
the old machine and head back into the mountains with a brand-new weapon
in his arsenal. This machine I settled on,
it's got a lot more power. I'm hoping that
this will work. All right.
Having this snow machine, I'm gonna be able to cover
a lot more ground, and I'll have a lot
more confidence. The cost of the machine
is a burden, but giving up's not an option. There's too much
invested already. What I need to do
is start trapping. Narrator: The new machine
is larger and heavier, weighing in at 500 pounds, which causes a major
logistical problem. A plane big enough
to haul the machine is gonna be far too expensive. I can't take it apart
in small enough pieces to fit in the airplane. To have it flown out there
is out of the question. So, I'm gonna have
to drive it in, and that's gonna be a giant task
in and of itself. In 32 years of working
in the Alaskan bush, Marty has never attempted
an overland journey to his trapping grounds. To reach the
Revelation Mountains, he's facing a 350-mile gauntlet through the treacherous
Great Alaska Range. From the air,
everything looks easy, but until you're on the ground, you have no idea what to expect. It'll be a story
to tell around the campfire. For sure. Narrator:
Marty will be blazing a trail
through unfamiliar terrain -- a trek that should take three
days in perfect conditions. But the mountains are
notoriously unpredictable. That should be good. Everything's a calculated risk. There's no guarantee
that I'm gonna make it, but there's still
fur out there, and if I just get this done,
I can continue the season. All right,
I'm ready to go, girls. You be a good girl
for Mama? Okay.
All right? You be careful.
I will, darling. All right,
love you guys.
Love you. Marty:
Every guy who has a family
wants to provide for them. You know, it's --
this is what I do. All right, one mile
at a time, I guess. Narrator:
In the Great Alaska Range, a coastal inversion effect has carried currents
of warm air into the valley
that Morgan Beasley calls home. An early spring means
rising temperatures, conditions are less
than ideal for harvesting and preserving meat. Morgan will have to act fast to make good on the first beaver
he's ever tracked. Morgan: Beaver is a great source
of food for Rufus and I, and the beaver fur
is really warm, and it'd be great
for some winter garments. I can't wait on this. The weather's so warm, we got to
get this beaver skinned up and cooked up and get the hide
stretched out and dried. These are nice and sharp. I'm gonna try to do
a real nice job skinning this guy off. Better job I can do
on this right now, the less fleshing
I'll have to do later. This stuff is bad. I can get it off. Beaver skin is really hard
to separate from flesh. It really was just sticky, but you know,
getting it off nice and clean will save me
a lot of time when it comes to scraping. Just when I think
I'm gonna feed it to Rufus -- I mean, he'll eat it all, everything but the skull and use
the brains to tan the hide. Did a pretty good job
of keeping the meat off. I got a little there.
Looks like a real nice skin. It has a really particular odor, and I think the castors
and the oil sacs that come off with them
are the heart of all that odor. You got to be really careful. If a bear's waking up, this is a stinky thing
to have around camp, and that's another reason
to get it cleaned up. Narrator:
Morgan needs to work quickly. His homestead is located
in Alaska's bear country, where the beaver scent
is a beacon to hungry predators who can smell the blood
from as far as 20 miles away. The castors are the scent glands that you use to attract
other beavers with. This right here could lead
to a lot more beaver hides. Put these right up here
so Rufus doesn't get 'em. Start to dry. Get the head up here. Now I'm getting the hide
nailed down to this board. I'm gonna have to flesh it, and that can be a pretty long,
backbreaking chore. Fleshing, basically,
is using a scraper, and the board is
supporting the fur so you won't cut through it. This here is a little white gas. Degreasing the skin
with white gas helps to dissolve the fatty acids that can block the tanning
process from taking hold. From what I read,
the less grease is on that skin, the more the brains
can penetrate. It takes a while
to get good at it. I've only tried
this a few times, so I'm still learning. I shouldn't have
to use very much. Just a few tablespoons
'cause it's really volatile, and it'll evaporate
really quickly. If you drop the ball at any time
during this process, you might ruin the hide,
so I'm trying to be thorough and check all the boxes
and get it done. I'm gonna give it a pre-rinse
and let it soak till it starts to soften up. I'm gonna let that
slowly soak in. And then I can put it
in the bucket and take it back and give it
a warm wash with some mild soap. Then, when the hide is nice and
warm and rinsed thoroughly, I'll be able to spread
the brain mixture in and try to work it in. Yeah, that softened it up good. I'm gonna go get the kettle
and the board and the brains and move on to the next step. Narrator:
Back in the lower 48, Tom Oar has come to Idaho
on a tip from his brother, Jack, that the untapped bounty
of the Snake River could help turn around
his failing season. Early signs of mink and beaver
have been encouraging, yielding about $500 so far. Now with his traps left to soak
for the next two days, Tom isn't wasting his down time. He and Jack are setting out
to tackle a nuisance that requires
Tom's trapping expertise. Jack's meadow out here
is full of badger holes. It's just another opportunity for me to catch
a different kind of fur and pick up
a little extra money. Just go out here, Jack? Yeah. Yeah, go right
on out that way. Looks like there's
quite a bunch of holes. All these black spots
are all magical. So, it looks like
a fine opportunity to pick up a badger
or maybe two of them, even. Narrator:
Badgers hunt the prairie dogs that populate these foothills. When a badger finds
a prairie dog den, it burrows inside
to eat the young, leaving behind a landscape
dotted with divots that are a hazard for livestock. Tom: It'll get these holes
out of this meadow so my brother's horses
won't have to worry about stepping on these holes
and breaking their legs. Most ranchers don't want badgers
on their property just because of that. We don't know which holes
have a badger in it, but we're gonna come out,
put some snares on the ones that we think may have
a badger in it just to see if we can
pick up a badger. Ain't nothing in there, or else he'd knock
that snow out of there. If a badger lived in that hole,
and he came out and walked through this step,
he'd leave a path like so. Belly drag, right? Yeah, their belly
would drag, their tail would drag,
and they have real short legs. There's another one
right there. Yeah. We'll have
to just go around to all these badger holes and see if we see one
that's got sign in it. Ooh, there's a fresher
looking one. See that brown one
over there? It looks like it's drier
or newer or something. Let's see
what it looks like. There's no snow
in the entrance, the dirt's drier up here
like maybe it's fresher. The other ones look blacker,
like snow in -- Wetted, yeah, yeah. or maybe this is dry stuff that he's kicking up
underneath the frost line. I think this one
is the first one we found that'd be worth sticking
a snare in there. All right. I think this is
our best chance so far. I'm gonna put a snare,
which is made out of cable, over that hole. If that badger's inside,
and he comes out of that hole -- It'll hang right over
the hole like that, and when the badger goes through and pull right down
on him like that. You did a good job. That'll hold the badger
right there, buddy. Well, there looks like
plenty more holes. Yeah.
Go check 'em out? May as well. Narrator:
In Idaho's Lost River Mountains, Tom and Jack are trying
to pin down a badger that's been tearing up
the livestock pasture. Jack:
This one looks good. All right. I don't see
any snow in the hole, and it kind of looks
fresh up here where he's been digging. Look at the detail
in the dirt, the drag lines
look fresh. It looks like it hadn't had
any wind blowing on it and sun melting it. You can see belly marks.
Yeah. It looks like he came out
and was digging in this. See, look, that track comes
right up into here. Yeah. This is the freshest
one we've seen. Yeah, I'd say so. It's your badgers.
It's your pasture. I guess you can
set it, huh?
Yeah. Tom: My brother isn't
really a trapper. Got it like that.
Okay. He's an outdoorsman.
He's out all the time. But yet, he's never set a trap
to catch an animal in, you know? Just set it down in there,
and try to just prop it up. Put maybe the bottom part
just a little bit lower. You got to keep the locket
right at the top of the snare. Yeah.
Like that? Yep. Yep. Looks like you're gonna be
a trapper some day, you keep this up. Maybe when I grow up. [ Laughing ] Yeah. Jack:
This is a good opportunity for me to be with my brother, learn his tricks of the trade, and maybe some day,
I'll do some trapping. Get that stake in. I may have to. You have to protect
your things, you know? Knowledge is good. It should work. Yeah, well, we got
a bunch of snares out, so... all we got to do now
is just wait. Narrator:
Deep in the Alaskan interior, Marty's making good headway on the trek back to his trapline in the Revelation Mountains, covering nearly 50 miles
of flatland in record time. Marty: The bush of Alaska
is just a mess. It's beyond any scale
most people ever see. It really makes you feel
small and insignificant. It's just so...big. Caribou. This high country,
as sparse as it looks, actually has a lot of critters. Seeing animals,
caribou, it's cool. To me, that makes it
all worthwhile. But now the easy
stuff's behind me. From here on out, it's gonna
be a lot more challenging. Narrator: Sitting
between Marty and his trapline is the great Alaska Range -- 400 miles of high peaks that carve a rocky spine
across the landscape. Marty: I've got to break over
the spine of the Alaska Range and drop into the north side. Narrator: To stay on target, Marty needs to punch through
the mountains before nightfall, but he begins his ascent with
only two hours of daylight left. Marty: As I'm coming up
off the rivers and getting into
the actual Alaska range, the trail starts getting worse. It's probably gonna be a pretty
ugly section of trail going up into Rainy Pass. The only cut through the range
for miles around, Rainy Pass is known
for its rugged terrain -- a slalom course of snow dunes that will put Marty's
new machine through its paces. Marty: It's so rough. I drop in a hole, and then I got to jerk up
out of the hole and drop into a hole. Boom, boom, boom. And it just goes on
forever and ever. Narrator: The steep hills
and declines in this region cut Marty's speed
to a virtual crawl. Marty:
350 miles is a long ways, but you drive at a decent speed,
you're gonna be okay. If you're only doing
three miles na hour, it's gonna take forever. I don't know how long
this section is. Hopefully, it doesn't
last too much longer. I'm real paranoid about it now, 'cause I've only got
a little bit of daylight. Crap! Narrator:
In the Great Alaska Range, Morgan is hard at work
breaking down his beaver kill
into usable parts. With the hide drying in the sun, the next step
is to harvest the meat. Morgan: I think beaver is
probably Rufus's favorite food. I'll get all this cooked up
and keep it in a cool place. It'll feed Rufus
for a couple of weeks, really. He loves the beaver meat,
and it's very good for him, so I'm gonna cook it
with a couple cups of rice to balance things out, and he'll be eating good
for the next week or so. I'm gonna see
if I can get the brains out of this beaver head for tanning the skin. The brains have
a magic property -- I don't know
the chemistry behind it -- that somehow soften the hide
and help preserve it over time. So, you get a useable, soft fur. Just pop the back
of the skull plate off, and there's the brains. Mmm, beaver brains. I need to get all of 'em
out of there so I have enough. They say that every animal
has enough brains to tan his own hide. I want to get every
little speck out of there. Okay. I think that's all of them. Not a whole lot
of brains to a beaver. Hopefully it's enough. If it's not enough, then the
hide won't really get tanned. I'll mix these with some water
to thin 'em out so they get all the way
across the hide when the time comes
to actually tan it. Okay, those are nice and warm. The flies are gonna like this. Really, you want to get
as much penetration with those brains as you can. You want every last bit of skin to be soaked
with the brain solution. So now I have to keep it
moving as it dries. So what the rope's for. If at any time I don't
keep it moving, basically, those brains
will start to set up. Pulling it over the rope
and stretching it, it's making the skin fibers
kind of come apart and take in more brains. Just keeping it moving, make it dry into a pliable form. It's almost there.
It's nice and dry. It's really supple and soft
and strong, too, so I'm gonna go grab
a few things and get it ready to smoke. I'm gonna make a little dome to go over a low fire to hold the skin up
above the fire so it can get smoked well. Okay, there it is. There's the framework. This fire I need
to build here needs to be really low
and very little heat -- as little heat
as possible. the thicker and more
pungent the smoke is, the better job it'll do
at preserving the hide. But if at any time the fire flares up
with open flame, it'll actually kind of
cook the hide. Another way to ruin it
is to expose it to open flame like that. See that dry moss
burns away too good. If I were to just
put the hide over that, you know, much too flammable. This is the last step here. So, once it's smoked
and tanned with the brains, it should be soft,
and it should be preserved, and it's ready to use
to make into whatever your little heart desires. So, I just hope that
this smoke works out good. What the heck was that? Rufus, come! Nothing good here, bear. Rufus, no! I fired a shot just
to defuse the situation before the dog
and the bear get too close. Rufus is on its trail.
Rufus, come here! Rufus took off,
and I'm really nervous. I don't want him
in the brush with that bear. [ Whistles ]
Come on! Leave it! My focus got so intense. It's the first bear
that come into the yard, and I didn't know
what he was doing. Good boy. Boiling beaver guts
on the fire, that's got to smell
pretty distinct to a bear. The horses were all
staring at something. Finally there it was,
a big dish-faced grizzly head looking right across the creek. Nothing good here, bear! Maybe it was all
the beaver stink, or maybe it was
just coincidence. I don't know,
but I need to be real careful. He might come back
through the woods. A big wake-up call is to see one
right there in your yard. I want to follow his tracks or her tracks to make sure
it's not circling the house. I want to make sure that it's
leaving the country, you know, and getting the picture
to get out of here. Narrator:
Morgan must tread carefully. Alaskan grizzlies
can cover 100 yards in less than 6 seconds. Their jaws have a bite force strong enough to crush
a bowling ball. And worst, even if Morgan scores
a shot to the heart, a surge of adrenaline
can keep a grizzly alive long enough
to tear its killer apart. You can see
the amount of damage he did. Ran right through here. See the trees knocked aside. What I don't want to see is
the bear circling back around. I'm gonna follow just
a little further to make sure
he's staying on a course that takes him
away from the homestead. And you can see
the bear's tracks have gotten a little
closer together. So, he's slowed down his pace. It looks like he's just
going straight away from the homestead still. That's good.
I'm just a little bit further. Oh. Okay, sorry, nothing. Just a little jumpy, sorry. Not the bear,
just a stump or something. Tracks got closer together
and closer together until he's just walking again, and that was probably a half
a mile from the homestead. And at that point,
he was just going straight. Narrator:
Even for apex predators, finding food in the Alaskan wild
is a constant struggle. Bears have adapted by becoming
opportunistic hunters. Once they discover
a food source, they're likely to return
until it's depleted. I think he's just out of here. His course has stayed the same
for, like, half a mile, and I don't think he's gonna
circle back around, but I'm not gonna
sleep very well tonight knowing that he's around here. I better get back, make sure
he hasn't doubled back, but I think he's just gone. Everyone's gonna be
on their toes from now on, I can guarantee you. Narrator:
In the northern foothills
of the Great Alaska Range, Marty's just over 50 miles into his overland track back
to the Revelations. But the steep up and downs
of the snow dunes of Rainy Pass are putting his new
rig under stress. Crap! My hitch gave out on me. I was hoping it had
come unhooked, but it broke. Man, I didn't count
on that breaking. But she broke. Narrator: Marty packed
a spare hitch in his gear, but it's the only replacement
he has on hand. You know, on a trip like this,
you bring a lot of stuff you don't need
'cause all of a sudden, it's the most valuable thing
in the world. Okay, so that works. But that hitch breaks,
I got problems. The sled back there is heavy. I got a lot of gear on
for this trip, you know, and it's just constant
banging and slamming, and it just beats
the hitch up. Just got to go slow, and I need to get through
those mountain passes before it gets dark. Narrator:
Night time temperatures on the
north face of the Alaska Range can dip more than 20 degrees
colder than conditions on the southern side
of the mountains. Marty's looking to break
through the pass to make camp on the warmer side, where it's 30 degrees. Whenever you're
in the mountains, things can change
drastically fast. Typically, this north side
has a lot of wind and pretty tough
to see anything. Hopefully it won't get
worse than this. Coming down pretty good. Hopefully, this blows over. Up in the high country,
it would be an all white-out, and I'm having a hard enough
time finding the trail. We'll give it a try. Climbing up into this
high mountainous pass, once you're in it,
you just got to keep going. In Alaska, Marty climbs
through Rainy Pass hoping to reach the south face
of the Alaska Range before the snowfall
blocks his way. One down. I know
it's gonna get a lot worse. We'll just see
how it goes, I guess. If it gets bad,
I'm in trouble. When you're in a whiteout,
you can't even see the trail. Everything's just white. If you can't see,
you're probably gonna crash. So, I got to get out of here. It was nice to get through, especially with the way
the weather was. I'm through the pass. I'm back into the timber.
I'm not gonna push my luck. a great spot to reset. Set up camp, get some good rest. Tomorrow's another day, and we'll deal with
whatever comes up then. But the hardest stuff is coming, and it's gonna get a lot worse
before I get there. Narrator: In Arkansas, it's been seven weeks
since Jason Hawk led his family to a new life
in the Ozark Mountains. In the time they've spent
building up their homestead, the family's food supply has dwindled
to the barest essentials. Well, we're
getting down there, but we knew it was gonna be
like this heading out. Yeah. Jason: It's always rough getting
settled in on a new homestead. Open up an infrastructure,
getting power, running water, finally getting
a sink in the house. And where we're at, it's hard. It's hard to get by. Well, we're all right
on the staples. We're really low
on fresh produce and meat. Narrator:
To sustain a life here, the Hawk family needs
to establish a steady source of food. Jason: Things we're getting
there, but we need stock -- mules, chickens, cattle,
get in some goat. We don't have milk right now. Eggs, we're having
to trade with neighbors and try to get
some things done. Really need to get
the barn shored up and get it ready for some stock. Homestead without stock
is just camping. Narrator:
Livestock will feed the family in more ways than one, providing meat, eggs, and dairy, and also a steady
source of fertilizer to help grow crops, but it's been decades
since the 160-year-old barn on the property has been
in working condition. Jason: There's sections
of the roof that's missing, portions of the support beams
that are rotted, areas that are off
its foundation. In order to bring
it operational, there's a lot of work. John is my uncle. He's come up to help out, and around these parts,
you need a hand with something, you always call a buddy
or call your kin, and they'll show up
and give you a hand. All right. Digging tools, hammering tools,
sawing tools -- What are you
getting me into? I didn't tell you
about this already? You said Mary had food,
that's why I'm here. Well, she does...
and there's a barn we got to do. Okay. The whole thing
is kind of -- Catawampus would be
the technical term. John's been a commercial
builder for years. Carpentry, construction --
The man knows it inside and out. If it shifts anymore, it's gonna be straight off
the foundation, and I don't have
time for that. Well, it's not gonna
be getting done by us
just standing here. That's for damn sure. Well, let's
get out of here. A build like this, there's several things
that need to be done. The first thing,
we've got to make sure that the downhill foundation that's supporting
the most weight is secure. I think
we're starting to see a little bit
of the problem. Yeah, we have
a problem here. Narrator:
Ozark settlers built barns on stone foundations
to prevent contact with the moist soil
and prevent rot. But after more than a century, the downhill half
of Jason's barn has slid to the edge
of its foundation and is at risk of sliding off. I wouldn't pull on anything
too terribly hard. Jason:
There's a lot of clay in here. It's been pretty wet. So, what happens is
every time it freezes, water expands when it freezes, and it's pushing this barn
off its foundation. Right now, it's hanging
by a thread. It's amazing that
it's still standing. I figure, first thing is
to get this thing jacked up, get everything
back under. I'm gonna have to get in and lift the entire side
of the barn. Just take her slow. [ Exhales deeply ] She's creaking
and groaning now. It's starting
to get heavy. We cross our fingers?
Yep. Narrator:
In Idaho's high country, Tom's making the rounds
of the snares he set earlier to see if he's caught the badger that's been tearing up
the grounds on Jack's land. The main animal I came down here
for is beaver. We've been rather
successful with them. So, now we're just hoping
that our good luck carries us through with badgers. Not very good for livestock to be run on these pastures
where these badger holes are. Let's see if we can clean up
this pasture a little bit. They got to be
in one of these damn holes. Looks like we got one,
and it looks like he's dead. Apparently, he's come
from the outside and gone in and must have caught him
right around the neck, and he's choked to death. Looks like a nice badger, too. Got good fur on him. I feel real good
about catching a badger. It's been three years
since I caught the last badger. All right, that's
just another paycheck added to the beaver skins. Narrator:
In the Ozark Mountains, Jason's lifting his 160-year-old
barn off its foundation. It's starting
to get heavy. But finds that with
a structure this old, it's a fine line
between repair and collapse. Jason:
We cross our fingers?
Yep. Whoa! Ah, it's all good. Oh, man.
It slammed that down. I felt it go
straight up my spine. Narrator:
Raising the foundation caused one of the rotten support beams
in the roof to break. Now the section
it was supporting is at risk of falling apart. Jason: Before we can even take
the weight off the foundation, first thing, we've got to get
out the rotten log. Jason and John decide
to bring the roof section down in a controlled fall,
starting by removing the remains of the rotten support beam. Tie it on that one so that the rope
loops around on the outside so that I can get a pull on it
so when it comes loose, I can pull it
back that way. John's gonna get it from the
outside so that when I cut it, it moves forward
and away from me rather than rolling
on top of me. 'Cause right now, it's pretty
much sitting over my head, and I got nowhere to go. Right about there? I think that'll be good. This has the potential to drop into a disastrous set
of circumstances pretty quick. We're trying to do
whatever we can to actually make
everything as safe as possible on a job
that's just sketchy as hell. You throw that chain saw
if you have to. Okay. Perfect. Cutting the roof
has to come in next. It's just hanging up there, and it's gonna squish one
or both of us, so it's time
to get it cut out. The crossbeams allow you
to nail the roof board, the sheet metal on the outside. Problem is this old oak, it's so
hard, that it's holding it up. [Bleep] Good thing is nothing
came crashing down on us. Bad thing is nothing
came crashing down. Bad to worse. We need a plan B. John: Might be able
to get up on top. There's only one way at
this point for me to get at it, and unfortunately, that means
getting my ass up on that roof, and I'm not particularly
fond of heights. That sucks. Narrator:
In the Little Lost River Valley, Tom returns home with a victory. Hey, buddy, I got
a surprise for you. Oh, what did you get? We got that sucker. You did?
That badger? Is it a nice one?
Yeah. You gonna be
skinning that badger today? Yeah. Yeah,
we need to skin it. All right. Probably only trapped
four badgers in my life. This was really neat. I was tickled to death
to make a good catch. Narrator: A typical
badger fur is worth $25, but Tom's expert skills
increase the value of the pelt. He's able to keep the badger's claws attached using
precision knife work. Tom: I'll probably just tan this and sell it for a wall hanger,
and whoever gets it would surely would to the feet
on it, you know? The meat and the fat comes off
a badger hide real easy compared to a beaver. Narrator: Tom can now sell this
badger fur for up to $150. Tom: To pick up a badger,
that really worked out good. That's just another
little spot of money that'll make for me. The more fur that you take,
the more money you can make. That's a good feeling
of success. Nice fur,
ready for the stretcher. Narrator: In the Ozarks,
Jason needs to cut loose a rotten section
of his barn's roof in a controlled fall before it collapses and causes additional
damage to the barn. And the only way to do it
is to climb up the 160-year-old roof beams. Jason:
There's some old pieces of pine that are nailed
to the top of the roof, just from repairing
kind of things. They're weathered, and I just
kind of hope they'll hold. That's [bleep] reassuring. Great. [Bleep] This thing's
still hanging here. It's at a dangerous point. Now I'm down to the one scenario
I didn't want to be in, which is actually
having to reach up and grab things out
from under it. [ Grunts ] there we go. It's kind of like you expect with a lot
of these old projects. You think things
are gonna go one way, and they don't. [ Sighs ] I call that a finish. John:
Oh, I've had a blast. I know. The hazards are gone
at this particular point. The next thing we need to do, we've got to actually move
the foundation stones back into place
and reset everything down. There we go.
All right. John: Let's do this. Let's see what happens. I'm gonna keep an eye
overhead of you. Let's get this thing done. All right. Slow on the down. Let's see what happens. When nothing's in square,
nothing's level, and nothing's solid,
is it scary? Yeah. There you go. I don't hear any
loud noises or popping. We're solid. I think that'll do it. Yep.
Better than it was. Narrator:
With the foundation secure, phase one of the repairs
is complete. Jason: It's only half
of what needs to be done. So, I've got to get
to the other half. We need to get
some stock moved in. I've had enough
for one day. Narrator:
Next time on "Mountain Men," Tom returns to the Snake
to find out if his gamble paid off... Tom: If I don't make a profit,
could be bad trouble. Narrator: ...while Jason forges
a new source of income... Jason: Hammering steel,
it's my passion. ...and Marty
goes through hell... Marty: It's scorched earth. Narrator: ...to make it
back to the mountains. Marty: Large-scale fire
ripped through here. If I don't have snow,
it's over.
