Sometime this past spring, right before I started writing my Alaskan novel, I got hooked on “Dr. Oakley: Yukon Vet.” I’ve always enjoyed a good vet show, but Yukon Vet is so much more. She seems to be an amazing veterinarian who does it all: reindeer/caribou, bears, lynx, eagles, owls, ferrets, dogs, moose, cats, chickens, porcupines, wolverines, cattle, horses, and muskox. It seems that if it lives in Alaska, she’ll doctor it.
It has been fun watching the participants mature and change over the years. I’m rather attached to a reindeer named Chuckles at the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center who has the most massive (and problematic) antlers. Snickers the porcupine is another. When I get up to Alaska someday, that is high on my to-do list.
I don’t know that I learned anything useful from Yukon Vet for my book. Nut-to-Nut and a dozen ways to get a tranq dart into caribou is great, just not useful. The scenery the producers can capture with drones is amazing though. That gave me a better sense of the landscape and proportions. Just like it’s hard for people who have never been to Japan to imagine the crush of people in Tokyo, it’s equally difficult to imagine the vastness of Alaska.
I would say that Yukon Vet was my gateway show into Alaskan reality TV. I’m not an expert, I don’t watch most of them, and some have been downright stupid; but, I have an ever growing love of Life Below Zero.
Life Below Zero is a show that follows the daily life of 4-5 people in different areas of Alaska. There is Sue who lives alone on the North Slope at a hunting camp called Kavik River Camp. She was attacked by a bear before, alone, at her isolated camp. Was able to crawl back to her camp, and was found 10 days later (by a pilot, I assume). There’s the Hailstone family in Noorvik. Chip Hailstone is from the lower 48 but has lived there the last 20+ years with his Inupiat wife, Agnes, and their children. Andy is in Eagle, over near the Canadian boarder on the Yukon River. Erik is the youngest character, and is a hunter, trapper, and hunting guide.
Is there drama in each episode? Of course. I’m sure the producers ensure there is to keep the audience entertained, but the characters seem to be authentic. Other online reviews by Alaskans seem to agree, of the many Alaskan reality TV shows made, Life Below Zero is one of the best.
Beyond enjoyment, I watch a couple episodes each week because I learn useful tidbits in each episode.
Did you know: it takes the fur of 6 caribou legs to make a pair of winter mukluk, but summer ones are often make of bearded seal skin? Did you know about the dangers of break-up? You know, that season that we in the lower 48 call “spring.” Did you know that Inupiaq are allowed to hunt for mammoth bones in the exposed permafrost along rivers?
Now you know! (And knowing is half the battle).
I’ve read in books how to preserve fish by drying or smoking, but Life Below Zero showed me how. How to build the rack, how to gut them using an ulu, how to hang them, and how to make a smoking cover. Having pictures and footage while an expert is demonstrating is just priceless when Google keeps coming up empty.
Yet even beyond enjoyment and knowledge, I think Life Below Zero has changed me. I am more aware of our dependence on others. Very little of what I have, I’ve made. It’s always bought. So now I have my garden and I upped my canning this summer. I’m up-cycling items and repairing instead of replacing. I’m breaking out my 7th grade sewing skills, rusty as they are, to sew Halloween costumes, pillowcases, and pajamas. And crazy enough, I volunteered to help my father-in-law butcher their cow.
I think the offer of butchering stems from a few things. The people on Life Below Zero are often poo-pooing people in the lower 48 for not knowing where their food is really coming from. The way I hear them speak, it seems like a gauntlet was thrown. I feel a need to prove them wrong. And I do love a challenge.
How is that for an insight into my character?
Northern Skies Publishing 