Saskatchewan’s north and the struggles of running a fishing camp are the focus of a new made-for-television reality series called “Nordic Lodge”.
The show gets its first public screening tomorrow night at 10 pm on City TV.
The owners of the lodge sold their family farm near Humboldt and decided to embark on an adventure that has been both trying and rewarding.
Jennifer Hukulak Kimmel and her husband Darren are quite a story themselves. Last year, they were saddled with a $1 million medical bill after their daughter was born prematurely while they were vacationing in Hawaii.
Now they are risking everything they have to take over Nordic Lodge.
Jennifer says running the fishing camp is tough enough, but it is even tougher with a camera in your face all the time. She says the stress was almost too much.
“Absolutely, about halfway through the season we just about kicked the TV crew out of camp,” she said. “We had had enough because it is a lot of added stress. Any down time you have at camp, which is short enough, you give up to them.”
Partners in Motion came up with the idea. Producer and director Chris Triffo says he toured about 28 camps to find the right chemistry for what he had in mind. He says Nordic Lodge on Reindeer Lake and the owners were just what he was looking for. He says the series is also a look at what life is like in northern Saskatchewan.
“Southend is right near, a great little First Nations community, and that is where they get their guides and housekeepers — and so that was interesting, as well,” he said. “So I thought how could I show this. Almost an anthropological look at the north, but in an exciting way. And that’s the thing — it had to be exciting and entertaining. And then Jen, when I met her, I thought: ‘If anyone can scrap their way through this, she can’.”
Eight episodes have been put together. Triffo is confident they will be picked up by American broadcasters, displaying the grandeur of Saskatchewan’s north to a huge audience. He has his fingers crossed that Jennifer can be talked into doing another series.
Meantime, the medical bill dispute has still not been resolved. Jennifer did not want to discuss it, except to say it is in the hands of lawyers.