4/12/16 Alaska: The Last Frontier, Are They Smarter Than All Of Us?

    I have been binge watching Alaska: The Last Frontier over the last couple weeks and I like what I see.  The show follows the Kilchers, Otto being the patriarch, but his brother Atz also is an important member.  In reality, this type of living works because they all contribute to the workload of making for the 8-9 months they are living below freezing.  The narrator constantly tells us they have roughly 4 months to do as much as possible outside between seasons of terrible coldness.
    Otto spends his days tending to his cows and making their life better by building contraptions which are supposed to make things cleaner and better.  One of those is a milking station, to try and get milk from the cows before pieces of mud and or poop fall in the bucket.  The latest one was building a feeding station so the precious grass that they grow and save for the winter months doesn't all get trampled and become part of the muddy goo the cows walk on.
    Atz seems to spend his time out with the cows "range riding", protecting the cows from wolves and bears.  Atz Lee is one of his sons married to Jane who came from the city.  She is not new to a lot of what is going on, but she does like to fish, and is proud of her skills bringing in more than 300 pounds of fish a year for the family.  An interesting sidenote, Jewel, the singer, is one of Atz daughters.  She is not involved with the show, but it is cool to know these are the people she grew up with.  Otto, also has a couple sons, Eivin has the biggest presence on the show.  He is married to Eve who had a son in season four.  Him and Atz Lee roam around helping where needed, going off usually on hunts for meat.  Eve stays home tending to their garden and their flock of chickens, ducks, and even turkeys.  They mostly get eggs from them, but if the bird stops being productive, then they chop off its head and the bird becomes a meal.
    They live in a miserable place when it is cold, but if they have prepared well, they are basically indoors with their family and that can't be all bad.  I ask if they are smarter because they work for themselves, they depend on each other, living as homesteaders they don't waste much.  In a perfect world, I wouldn't mind a scenario where we had a few hundred acres at our disposal.  I like that they get to not only eat cow and chicken, but bear is regularly on their menu, even octopus and clams are items they go after.
    I read that in reality, they are actually well off, and that is good, but I don't see them flashing money to solve problems.  If they need to build something, they figure it out.  I just don't think I could handle the months locked in the house, due to the weather.