- Coming up next on Wisconsin Life...
- The idea that animals and people could rescue each other
really appealed to me.
- Yeah, it is.
The building, the place, my own music...
Yeah!
- People-- their mouths really open, then they are like,
"Wow, it's spectacular."
- So, it's imagining the future,
but from the perspective
of someone who lived in Victorian times.
§ §

- Funding for Wisconsin Life is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

- My name is Dana Barre.
I'm the founder of Heartland Farm Sanctuary,
and this is my Wisconsin Life.

- Nestled in the hills of west-central Dane County
is a barn like no other.
- It can be a little exciting and chaotic.
[chickens clucking]
[hog oinks]
- Lily came to us a couple of years ago.
We had to bring her in on a sled
because she was too heavy to walk herself.
She was just so scared of everything
and she was also blind.

- This is Dana Barre's dream project.
- I do remember growing up as a kid,
I always had a soft spot for animals.
[rooster crows]
- Since 2009, Heartland Farm Sanctuary
has been welcoming with open arms
injured, orphaned, abandoned, and abused farm animals.
- We're the largest shelter in Wisconsin for farm animals.
Wisconsin is home to between 50 and 60 million farm animals.
And yet, at the time Heartland was founded,
we were the only farm animal sanctuary in the state.
- On this day, Dana welcomes visitors from Chicago.
- Well, I'm vegan and I love animals.
- We have a lot of animals here that really touch our hearts.
- Dana begins her tour with stories of heartache
that evolve into heartwarming tales.
- This is our sweetie, Baine.
Baine was born without the use of his back legs
and with very limited use of his front legs.
The University of Wisconsin Engineering Department
worked with us over several months
to design and build a special wheelchair cart for him.
- He gets a bath every day.
Oh, my goodness.
I tell you, it's like a spa day for him.
Half the time, he falls asleep.
- So down here, we keep our large farm pigs.
- Good morning, Maxine.
- You are a big girl!
- So, they were found rooting up this woman's garden.
And we got a call from the Animal Control in Milwaukee.
We were very new at the time.
We'd never taken pigs in.
And I thought, "This sounds great.
We can help a couple of tiny little pigs."
So, I brought the pigs home in my minivan.
And now, they're probably 800 pounds apiece.

- And the animals just kept coming.
- We're very much like Noah's Ark, two by two.
Every couple of rescues,
we'd have to learn to care for a whole new type of farm animal.
The idea that animals and people could rescue each other
really appealed to me.
And that's really
why Heartland was founded.
- She was convinced her idea could be life-changing.
- We help special needs youth, at-risk youth.
We actually have programs for veterans
and a lot of other people
who could just find comfort in being with our animals.
Animals and people really aren't so different from each other.
We all have the same basic needs.
We have needs to be fed and sheltered,
and to feel safe and secure, and for love.
The animals turn around and rescue us,
in terms of whatever we might be dealing with.
- Dana just knew barnyard therapy
could be good for both animals and humans.
However, feeding her pet project would not be easy.
- There are days where we are wondering
how we're going to get through to see the next day
because it can be such a strain on our resources.
Taking care of abused, neglected, and abandoned animals
is hard work.
We have 15 different species
that all have different nutritional needs.
We get our food donated from the public.
They'll just bring bags of feed by, which is wonderful.
And then we get a lot of produce donated by local supermarkets.
I would say, for every animal we take in,
we probably have to turn away at least 20 or 30 animals.
Nearly all of these animals
would probably have been euthanized at a shelter.

- At the core of this rescue mission
are its volunteers.
They are what make Heartland tick.
- You'll always see lots of volunteers.
Heartland wouldn't exist without our volunteers.
Come on, Winnie. Winnie, Winnie.
She was a little piglet,
and was found bloodied and bruised,
wandering around on I-90, between here and Rockford.
So, we took her in.
And she grew from a 30-pound little piglet
to almost 800 pounds now.
And she loves people.
It's been a super-happy, happy story ever since then.
- Winnie now has a safe haven and a place to call home.
- We live in a state where farming is so central
to our culture, to our economy, to who we are as people.
And I love it when people come out
and they're fascinated, they're fulfilled,
and there's something very deep inside
that touches them about being at Heartland.
It's incredibly personal.
And I have to say, I don't know that
I've given anything else so much effort in my life.
At its core, Heartland, to me,
is a safe place for anybody who needs help and comfort.
[children doting] - Hi, Buddy. - Hi, Baine-y, how're you doing?
§ §

- My name is Manfred Schonauer
and this is my Wisconsin Life.

- In rural Polk County,
in a secluded spot miles from the nearest town,
nature's siren song echoes through the trees.

Twice a month on Saturday night,
§ [singing]
a 100-year-old schoolhouse becomes
one of northwestern Wisconsin's most unique music venues.

- I got the calling
and once you get the calling,
it's obvious to me that I have to answer it.
[singing] § I said flip flop and fly

- Manfred Schonauer grew up near Cologne, Germany.
The son of a musician,
Manfred discovered his calling at a young age.
- I wanted to be a musician, but
my dad said, "You gotta have a full time job.
Gotta have a real job."
You know what I mean?
That 'same old, same old' thing.
So he put me into a trade school to be a clerk,
an import-export clerk,
which I just hated, every single day.
- Manfred played gigs on the weekends
until he had enough money
to become a traveling keyboard player.
One day, after a gig in Spain, opportunity knocked.
- I got a knock on the door and the lady says,
"Manfred, they are regrouping a band
and they might have a chance to go to America."
I said, "I'm your man. I'm your man."

- In 1972, Manfred moved to America,
and eventually landed in Minneapolis.
- This is the band I came with to the Twin Cities.
- After a few years, he chose to trade Twin Cities traffic
for the country life in Wisconsin.
If home is where the heart is, Manfred decided
that's where his keyboards should be, as well.
- Let's look at churches, schoolhouses, factories,
whatever it is, but have a country setting.

And then, the ball started rolling.
In '87, we found this.
- The Pipe Lake Public Schoolhouse
in eastern Polk County.
It's so remote, it's almost hard to find by accident.
The closest town is nearly 10 miles away.
Manfred not only performs here, he lives here.
- Had a refrigerator, stove, toilet.
Not much more that you need.
I didn't know anything about heating or plumbing. [laughs]
When we moved in, yeah, it was a lot of work.
§ [harmonica warbling]

- Manfred gave the two-room school a makeover.
He turned the upstairs classroom into a concert hall.
§ [bluesy harmonica]
- This is now the kitchen.
It used to be the original kitchen, too.
- The basement became a living space for him and his wife.
After years as a transient musician,
Manfred was finally home.
- It's inspirational.
You know, and it's just--
I just love it really.
I mean, there. [bird chirping]
Listen to that. It's just great.
- His dream realized,
Manfred renamed the building the Pipe Dream Center.
- Here it is: the building, the place, my own music,
yeah, you know.
It grew from there.
§ [synthesizer music]
- I started writing my own music,
electronic music.
§ §

This was my first setting for my first concert.
Lot of people showed up, and I played electronic music
and people wanted to hear Beethoven and Mozart.
Ooh, I was in trouble. [chuckles]
- Manfred wanted to keep the crowds coming.
And so the Boogie Nights concert series was born.
- § [singing blues]

- Boogie Nights are kind of loose.
We don't have a set list.
You know, number one, number two, number three.
We never know the next tune.
I call 'em out and we play what we feel like.

- Twice a month during the summer,
Manfred brings musicians from across the Midwest
together for these Saturday night jam sessions.
Fans pack the house, literally,
to hear Manfred's version of schoolhouse rock.
§ [glitzy piano music]
- Somehow, they find their way to the Pipe Dream Center.
That's really kind of cool.
That's really kind of neat.

- Some say you shouldn't bring your work home with you.
- § Ah things are getting funner ¶¶¶all over the world.
- But for Manfred Schonauer,
working from home suits him just fine.
- In the beginning, when I had to do
all this physical work here,
the floors and the walls and everything else,
I thought, "Is there ever gonna come a day
when I can just go upstairs and play?"
And the day is here.
[applause] That day is here.
Holy man! How 'bout that?

- Still to come on Wisconsin Life...
Meet a trio
of serious senior ping pong players
who decided it's never too late to take on the competition.
I said, "Well, I'd like to go to nationals just once
to say, 'I've been there, done that.'"
Find out what happened
when Velma Burke and her two table tennis pals
went to the big show.
Later, on Wisconsin Life...
§ §

- My name is Martine Anderson,
and I am the proud owner of Fragrant Isle,
and this is my Wisconsin Life.

- When we came, we just fell in love with the place.
- This place
is Washington Island,
at the northernmost tip of Door County.
- We wanted a place where first, it was pristine,
nothing on it.
- Martine Anderson, and her husband, Edgar,
are creating an island oasis.
- We bought a property when we retired here.
And I planted lavender because
I used to live in the south of France.
- Growing up in France,
Martine made a career in high fashion.
It's a far cry from farming lavender fields in Wisconsin.
- You cannot be naïve going into this type of business.
You need to make your research.
You need to learn how it is handled, before you jump.
We discovered that the soil here is perfect for it.
So when I came here, that was like, "Hallelujah.
I can finally do something I want."
- Her dream came into focus in 2013
with row after row of lavender
creating a purple blanket on the landscape.
- You know, lavender,
it's an easy plant when you know the basic of it.
You have 48 different variety and they're English lavender.
And then you have white lavender or pink lavender over there.
It's the biggest farm in the Midwest.
We have around 16,000 plants, between 14 and 16.
You cannot sit down here, look at it,
and not really appreciating the beauty of it, of the plant.
- That beauty also captures the attention of island visitors.
- People-- Their mouths really open and then they are like,
"Wow, it's spectacular."
I don't think in the Midwest,
you don't see lavender farms this size.
People smile when they come here.
And that's another aspect of dealing with lavender.
I cannot take all the credit.
My husband designed the garden.

What I see here is just so beautiful.

- It takes 40 pounds of lavender
and this copper still
to create just 16 ounces of essential oil.
The lavender buds are both beautiful and edible.
- You can see this is culinary lavender.
It is way bluer than your normal aromatic.
And when you take this, and it's very fluffy,
it's almost like cotton when it's clean.
- The sweet lavender aroma
can be intoxicating.
- But if you crush it, you know,
you just release the oil in your hand.
Now, it's heaven.
It is unbelievable.
That's why we grow lavender.
- Harvesting and processing lavender can be labor intensive.
- Because we are a commercial farm,
we have to collect the plant.
And it's basically done by hand.
I love this plant.
§ §
- Hand-cut, hand-tied and hung up to dry.
- It takes 5 to 6 weeks to dry the bundle.

Ah, yeah!
- Martine will use this dried lavender
to make soap, sprays, and other lavender products.
- When you take out all the work and really think of it,
it's happiness, it's relaxation.
It's nice, it's beautiful.
- And organic,
with an eye toward preserving the environment.
- I think that's part of the charm of the island.
It's still very pristine.
You don't have a lot of development.
And I think we all want to keep it that way as long as possible.
I mean, you have good soil in Door County.
It was never sprayed,
so you get a natural way of growing the lavender.
I think people are going more and more in that direction.
- And the environmental stewardship is a selling point.
- For me, it's a choice of life.
Try to do it the right way.
And that's what we do here.
You can do business on Washington Island,
be successful at it.
You know, sky is the limit.

I get emotional.
I just grow lavender and I love it.
I get emotional about it because
it took us a lot of work,
a lot of dedication, I think.
At the end of the day, what I have accomplished...
Well, another dream of mine.
You take life once at a time, at my age, and just enjoy.
And I think that's what I do.

§ §

- I'm Velma Burke and this is my Wisconsin Life.

- Monday mornings at the Janesville Senior Center...
- One, two, three. Scissors.
- are a symphony of shuffles, claps, and beats.
§ [dance music]
But around 10:30,
[wheels wobble and squeak]

another group of seniors dances to a different tune,
the sound of swing.
§ [swing music]

This is home of the Janesville Senior Ping Pong Club.
It's where the table tennis trio
of Velma Burke, Larry Hynek, and Mike Nelson
spin their own version of the hits.
Velma learned about the club
after a night out roller skating with friends.
- One of the gentlemen that plays ping pong said,
"Velma, why don't you come down and play ping pong?"
because I had to give up tennis because of my knees.
- She traded in her racket for a paddle.
- I got hooked. I really enjoy the game.
- Like many seniors,
Mike and Larry were looking to stay active.
- It's something to get me out. Something to do.
I just don't like sitting around.
I'm too antsy.
- I've been able to keep my weight down
and I think ping pong does help.
- The club meets three times a week.
Those mornings,
the table tennis trio and up to two dozen of their friends
are here sharpening their skills.
- Ohh!
- We've got guys that come down here with canes,
and put their cane down and play.

- Come health or high water.
- We have Tom that is--
Actually, he's going to have hip replacement this month.
And he will be 92 in July.

I just think it's a great sport.
Of course, I like the competition, as everyone knows.
I'm competitive, you know.

- That competitive spirit inspired Velma
to enter table tennis tournaments around the state,
including the annual Senior Games in Madison
and the Senior Olympics in Milwaukee.
She's won multiple gold medals in both competitions,
making her one of the most accomplished ping pong players
in Wisconsin.
In 2013, Velma and Larry took their talent across state lines
and qualified for the National Senior Games in Cleveland, Ohio.
- I said, "Well, I'd like to go to nationals just once
to say 'I'd been there, done that.'"
- Velma finished eighth in her age group.
However, it wasn't a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
In 2015, the tournament came to Minnesota.
- We went to Minneapolis.
We hadn't planned on going again, but we said,
"Well, as long as it's in Minneapolis, we're going to go."
- It's just like the first time you go to Las Vegas.
It's an experience.
The venue is huge.
- Yeah, it was just fun being there.
It was real fun.
And the people we played were all real real nice people, too.

- This time Velma served up a sixth place finish.
Mike and Larry had success, too.
- When you go up there, you want to win at least one game.
Mike and I won a game in doubles.
Velma and I won a game in mixed doubles.
All I wanted to do is be able to beat somebody, which we did.
- Velma never imagined that one day,
she'd be competing against the best players in the country.
- Absolutely not.
I didn't even plan on going to state or anything.
I mean, I just came here for the fun of it.
It was a good outing, and now, like I said,
I play three times a week and I'm pretty faithful.

- Velma, Mike and Larry all say,
"It's not about the accolades or even the game."
- I would've never went by myself.
We got up there, and we went out to eat,
and did a little sightseeing,
and played some ping pong, and had a good time.
[ping-pong, click, ¶ping-pong, clack]

- It's just a real good group of people that
I think that's why I enjoy coming.
- We laugh and joke and clown.
I think that's good.
Laughter's good for a person, too, no matter what age you are.

- We just have a lot of fun.
§ §

- My name is Anita Peterson
and this is my Wisconsin Life.

§ [whimsical music]

- Generally, it's a sub-genre of science fiction
and maybe some fantasy,
that is based on 19th century ideas
about industrial technology.
So, it's imagining the future,
but from the perspective
of someone who lived in Victorian times.
It's pretending to be proper.
But, of course, you're completely improper.
§ §

My name is Anita Peterson.
What got me involved in steampunk was the creativity.
Steampunk is hugely broad.
Some people are into the role playing.
Some people are into the music.
Some people are into the manners of it or history part of it.
Myself, and a lot of other people,
we're into the making of it.
§ [old-fashioned ¶¶¶piano music]

[metal clinking together]

I kind of really like my jetpacks.
To me, they're a wearable piece of art.
So, it's definitely kind of a
work on it for a little bit, leave it,
things marinate,
put some more junk on it, [laughs]
and then it's too heavy.
There's a lot of experimentation which is a lot of fun.

I make a lot of accessories.
Like hair accessories, a lot of times.
Like clips, I made all the clips I'm wearing.
I make little medals.
I made this one.
I made this, too, but this one's more exciting.
It's a little medal I made.

I enjoy looking at something,
be it an outfit or an object,
and thinking, "How is that made?"
"Oh, hey, that's just a brass washer you put on there,
isn't it?"
Or, "That's part of a clock."
It's that sort of "tinker mindset" that got me into it.
§ §

The steampunk community is awesome.
What I really like about steampunk is
it seems to be very accepting.

There are babies.
There are teenagers.
There are people who look like they're 95.

All different body types.

All different genders.
You actually have a lot of fun with it.
The differences are fun!
§ §

Steampunk has given me a focus.
But it's kind of given me a reason
to indulge in my tinkering.
Because, frankly, if I didn't have this,
if I didn't know this existed, and that I could make
some strange thing that didn't have a purpose,
I wouldn't make it.
I would try to make something more functional.
I wouldn't be able to do it and I'd be frustrated.
So, it's allowed me to be more creative.
It's so nice to go to a place where,
at least in some ways, you can sort of control things.
It's freeing.

§ [piano glides over high notes for song end]

- Curious to know more about Dana Barre,
Manfred Schonauer,
Martine Anderson,
the trio of ping pong champions,
or Anita Peterson?
You can go to WisconsinLife.org to learn more
about the people featured in this week's stories.
And remember, we want to know:
What's your Wisconsin Life?
So send your ideas to us at
WisconsinLife@wpt.org.

Finally, we leave you this week
in Richland and Crawford Counties
with some photos sent in by trout angler, Len Harris.
He takes us to some
of the Driftless Area's prettiest trout streams.
Part of our Wisconsin Life...

§ §

- Funding for Wisconsin Life
is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.