Alabama’s Stacey Loper doesn’t mince words on the first episode of “Back to the Frontier.”

“All this is way too much,” she says, fighting back tears. “What have I brought my family into? What have I done”?

Viewers will see Stacey, a Hoover therapist and counselor, get emotional during her latest venture on reality TV. In 2024, she won $25,000 on the Food Network show “Worst Cooks in America: Spoiled Rotten.”

Now Stacey is rocking a bonnet — yep, just like “Little House on the Prairie” — as she abandons modern conveniences and lives like an 1880s homesteader.

The Lopers — mother Stacey, father Joaquin, sons Landen and Maddox, and grandma Shirley — are one of three families featured on the new series, which airs on the Magnolia Network and HBO Max.

They’re joined by the Hall family from Florida and the Hanna-Riggs family from Texas, all of whom face culture shock as they settle into dilapidated cabins, raise livestock and grow crops in an undisclosed location. (It’s described by the show’s narrator as “10,000 acres of wilderness in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains.”)

“Back to the Frontier” makes its debut on Thursday, July 10, and will continue over an eight-week span with one installment weekly. Lifestyle titans Chip and Joanna Gaines, of “Fixer Upper” fame, are executive producers of the series. They’re the founders of the Magnolia Network, which is part of their Texas-based company, Magnolia.

Watch the trailer for “Back to the Frontier” in the video below.

“I am 21st century, hard-core,” Stacey says at the start of her journey, taking off her makeup and jewelry, then climbing into a covered wagon.

She might not be ready to use an outhouse or make do without a shower — Stacey has very specific standards for her bathrooms, as it turns out — but Joaquin says roughing it will have important benefits for their family.

“The biggest thing I want my kids to learn from this experience (is) humility and hard work,” he says on Episode 1. “I grew up on a farm with my mom, and this gives my kids a chance to see how dad really was reared. I believe it’s going to present an opportunity for us to grow closer as father and sons.”

The Lopers aren’t officially competing with their neighbors on “Back to the Frontier,” but to be successful on the show, all the families must complete three tasks during a single summer:

• Build a safe, comfortable home.
• Farm the land and harvest a crop.
• Fill a winter pantry with meat, vegetables, baked goods and dairy.

According to Joaquin, having his mother, Shirley Loper, on their side is a definite bonus.

“My mother is 72 years old,” he says on the show. “I truly believe what she brings back to the frontier with us, the knowledge, the experience, she’s going to be secret weapon. But she can only stay the first half of the summer.”

Shirley Loper has no problem milking a cow, for example, and can handle the rigors of a wood-burning stove. She’s familiar with the rhythms of farm life, and the idea of 19th-century homesteading doesn’t seem to daunt her.

“Before I leave, I want to teach them all the knowledge that I know and how to appreciate what they have now,” Shirley says.

Tough love and togetherness are at the heart of “Back to the Frontier,” along with its emphasis on homey skills such as carpentry and canning. The three families also must come together as a community, helping each other as they face difficult and unfamiliar tasks.

Previews for the series call it a “bold social experiment” and promise that the participants will be tested for strength, stamina and a sense of humor.

“They’re learning it by living it,” says historian Jacob K. Friefeld, who appears on the first episode as a consultant. “But can they survive?”

If you watch: “Back to the Frontier” debuts on Thursday, July 10, on the Magnolia Network and HBO Max. New episodes air on Thursdays.