Alana Logie lifts her heavy gingham skirts and apron to flash reporters a glimpse of her bloomers.
Her corset, she reports, is still being fitted.
For the next year, Logie, 28, will be living like a Red River sodbuster, circa 1870.
She is one of four people chosen to travel back in time for a television series designed to breathe life into prairie history.
Winnipeg’s Credo Entertainment Corp. is spending $1.3 million to get the experience just right – and show it to viewers of History Television.
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“Rather than reading about these events, we’ll be able to experience them in a real way,” said Jamie Brown, creator and executive producer of the series.
Alana’s husband Frank, 25, sweats in the long johns he wears beneath his denim overalls as television cameras and reporters swarm around.
“You’re going to see us do stuff you’ve never seen anyone do,” said Frank.
They patiently answer questions about why they’ve left their jobs as registered nurse and millwright near Guelph, Ont., to board a Red River cart with a ration of supplies that the real settlers would have carried.
But they were itching to get away and be finished with the trappings of the 21st century.
Location unknown
Last week, Alana and Frank traveled to a 40-acre isolated, undisclosed location somewhere in Manitoba.
They have oats and barley seed, a wooden pitchfork, old tools, 13 chickens and a rooster, a milking cow, a bred sow and a cookbook from 1863.
They started out living and working with Tom and Pat Ziolkoski, a couple in their 50s from Dugald, Man.
But after a day on the range, the Ziolkoskis withdrew from the project. Last week, it was revealed that Tom had been charged with sexual assault. He received a summons the morning of the news conference. He denies the charges.
The Ziolkoskis were to be replaced by runners-up Tim and Deanna Treadway of Kenora, Ont., on June 12.
Tim, 49, is a carpenter whose great-grandfather was one of the original settlers north of Winnipeg. Deanna, 47, is a dental assistant. They have traveled extensively to developing countries and enjoy hunting, fishing, camping and gardening.
Both the departure of the Ziolkoskis and the arrival of the Treadways will become part of the finished TV program.
The pioneers said they have a lot of ground to cover this summer.
Their first priority will be to dig a well, then break 20 acres of pasture and plant crops. They will be living in a tent and sleeping on straw ticks with wool blankets until they build a house, later in the fall.
Frank said he knows they’re off to a bit of a late start, but that adds to the authenticity of the settler experience, he said.
An avid black powder shooter, he plans to hunt and trap game. He and Alana have spent a lot of time camping, hiking and canoeing.
The couples will have $500 to buy items at 1870 prices from a “store” set up by Credo.
They spent their first $50 trading in oxen for a pair of Percheron horses.
The couples agree their biggest challenge will be getting along in close quarters and meeting pressing deadlines.
“The four of us are pretty outspoken. We say what we feel,” said Frank.
Brown said it wasn’t easy to winnow out the right people to take up the challenge. Credo was inundated with more than 1,000 applications.
They ran candidates through medical and criminal record checks, probed their farming knowledge, and consulted a clinical psychologist.
“We’ve tried so hard to make sure we have people who are going to stick it out,” said Brown.
The program, called Pioneer Quest: A year in the real west, will begin airing in October. Viewers can also keep up with the pioneer’s progress at www.pioneerquest.com.
