All Hands on the Float House Deck | Life Below Zero

COLE: Man, it's almost heartbreaking this is gonna go onto a deck instead of in the wall, in the walls in the house or something. It's just gorgeous wood. This western red cedar is expensive, but it's light, uh, and it's really rot resistant so it won't be no more sloshing and splashing when the girls are running around in circles out here. Hey Timber.

TIMBER: Yeah?

COLE: I'll have you be inside today. I'm gonna have to pull this whole, all this, all these bases, they're all rotten.

TIMBER: Yeah we, we don't want anyone to go blunk.

COLE: Nope. We don't need to be swimming today it's kind of cold.

TIMBER: Yeah.

COLE: Now, it's just destroy time. (grunting) Oh, geez, that thing is so rotten. (laughs) It's very labor intensive out here, to get anything out here is labor intensive. It just takes, uh, three times as long to get anything done, but all's we got's time. I ain't dying today. It's all gotta come up, everything is rotten and heavy. Holy. Every board I pull off I learn more and more about how this thing was put together and, and how to fix it. I'm tearing up a part of history, but I wanna fix it better than it was. Camp 36 is kind of the museum on water and I want to keep it as close to the history as I can. The sea life that's under here is just amazing. It's crazy. You know, I got sea stars, and mussels, and all sorts of things under here, we're just a floating reef.

Getting close to halfway done with this teardown, but the only tricky part is watching my step and not going in between the logs here. I'd like to get the framing down, and just get some boards throwed down up here so we can, we can still get around.

COLE: Whoa! That one's rotten. Might just be safer to walk the logs now. This is eyeball carpentry all day long. It's, uh, I don't think there's a level spot on this house, but it's just what it is. I mean even a house on land, you gotta replace decking. It's just the challenge of it out here is, you fall in the water if you fall off the deck, you know.

Contemplating my life decisions right at this moment. (grunts) Dang. I knew this one was gonna be tough. Since my wife left, I'm out here alone. Come off of there. That's the challenging part of this now, it's hard to not have that help. You know, I got the girls and they help when they can, but them little girls aren't gonna pack a, a four-by-eight post. Or a beam. I've gotta do all the backbreaking work. But it's also gratifying to know I don't need anybody. I don't, I don't have to have anybody. I mean I put the beams down, put my cross braces on. Look at that. That works.