Cold Storage - Thaw Project | Life Below Zero

It's nice soft dirt. I gotta save a lot of sand in it, or some clay—not much. Well, the point of having a fish rack and the point of having a nice cold hole to store things is to preserve stuff. If you've got all this food and you're trying to keep a surplus, you have to have a way of preserving it.

This right now is just about keeping what we've worked so hard to get ahold of in good condition to get it home so you can have it for the winter. If you have it just laying here on the ground, like a hole in the ground, your bear could just part it. Weasels can go in it, mice will fill it.

Old-timers used to make them around and make my square. It's got a lot more to go; I'm just getting a basic frame. No, I have a duel; it's almost there. I got the basic frame up, the idea of making, building it, and telling people the food's fresh and keeping all the mice away. So they'll go back.

It's part of living like we do, but so we don't have to depend on anybody but ourselves. Ain't much for jobs up here, so you got to make your own work. Kuta Nare is our youngest daughter, and it's always been a pure joy just to teach the kids. We consider this to be part of their education. They have to have local knowledge of the local materials and local foods, going to be there, what to do with them.

I have storm cut down these willows quite a while back, and they're useful for lots of things. I just need the willows right now to hold down the grasses that we've stacked against it for an insulated layer.

I'm done. Look it all the way up and back; it doesn't fall on your head. Not bad, huh? Yeah, you can get into gameplay, into whatever. I'm pretty happy with what's going on. I'll have a place to store berries and greens and use it like a refrigerator and have no mice.

And a place over here for dry foods. I know it's kind of small and narrow, but that's the whole idea. We made it really big; it would be hard to keep the cool until—well, it's big do, cause use a little lady.