While foraging and hunting are never easy, they can result in a sweet reward when everything comes together; the Kilchers make a true Alaskan feast from the stockpiles they've worked so hard to amass.

After a stretch of abnormally warm seasons, the Kilchers struggle to keep their crops and cattle alive with a limited water supply; they must get through get through some of Mother Nature's road blocks to replenish their supplies.

Accidents that prove fatal back in the modern world can be a catastrophe on the frontier; after a perilous fall, life on the frontier may never be the same for the Kilchers.