- [Voiceover] Coming up next on Wisconsin Life .
- [Pat] One time I just called us the "Blazing Babes"
and the name stuck.
- [Jesse] So like any good business,
it started in our basement.
- Some of the stones are in really bad shape
and I don't want them to be forgotten.
- And when I look out over the pasture
(goats bleating) it just makes you feel like,
"Yeah, this is where I wanna be."
(goats bleating)
(lively music)
- [Voiceover] Funding for Wisconsin Life
is provided in part by
Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
- I'm Pat Witkowski and this is my Wisconsin Life.
(car trunk opens)
You know sometimes I'm using some hand tools
like the pickmatics and some things like that.
You know in here I have a different bag
for every project I'm going to be doing.
- [Voiceover] You could say Pat Witkowski wears her passion
for the Ice Age Trail on her sleeve,
if it wasn't also on her shirt,
her backpack and all over her car.
- [Pat] This is the one I usually take
when I'm doing trail work.
It's just got saws
and nippers and all kinds of things that I might need.
- [Voiceover] Pat had never heard of the Ice Age Trail
before going for a run in a state forest with a friend
and passing by a trailhead.
- She told me that it was the Ice Age Trail
but to never take it 'cuz it doesn't come back (laughing).
- [Voiceover] Pat took the trail and her friend was right.
She didn't come back.
- [Pat] I kind of just decided
I was going to hike the entire Ice Age Trail
so over the next year I section-hiked
the entire 1,200 miles of the trail.
- [Voiceover] The Ice Age Trail runs through 31 counties
as it follows the edge of the last glacier
to form Wisconsin's landscape 12,000 years ago.
- [Pat] It highlights glacial features
because it goes where the glaciers push down to
and then melted and retreated.
- [Voiceover] Pat became just the 23rd person
to complete the entire trail.
After experiencing how poor the trail is in places--
- [Pat] Thank you guys for getting the new brushes.
- [Voiceover] She found a new passion.
- [Pat] I started volunteering almost immediately.
Okay, I'll just do clearing.
- [Voiceover] It didn't take long for Pat
to become the coordinator of trail maintenance
for the Waukesha/ Milwaukee County Chapter.
- [Pat] Keeping those trails opened up
is real important.
- [Voiceover] The best way to let people enjoy the trail
is to make sure they can find it and stay on it.
The Ice Age Trail crosses private, county,
state and federal land through downtowns and forests.
So trail markers are crucial.
- It's pretty easy to get lost.
At least back at that time it was.
- [Voiceover] Four years ago, Pat asked for volunteers
to help paint yellow blazes on trees and posts.
- [Pat] A small group said they were interested.
- [Voiceover] This group of ladies meets once a week
to paint and pull buckthorn.
- If you get them when they're babies,
it's a lot easier.
- [Pat] They have really set the standard for good signage.
We want the signage to be the same
throughout the entire 1,000 miles of the trail.
One time I just called us the Blazing Babes
and the name stuck!
- [Voiceover] The Blazing Babes don't discriminate.
- We don't exclude men.
My husband could be a Blazing, he's a babe.
(laughs)
But it just happens to be all ladies.
- [Voiceover] Pat says a lot of the trail work
is extremely physical, involving hauling logs
or using chainsaws.
Blazing allows them to volunteer
while they hike the trail.
- [Pat] It's slow, quiet work.
And it's just a great way to get outside
and people who can't do as physical of work,
it's just a great way to help with the trail.
- [Voiceover] The Blazing Babes do such great work.
They get requests from the less-populated areas
of the Ice Age Trail.
- [Pat] We've been invited to lots of other chapters
throughout the state
so we take a couple of road trips every summer.
When you do have to replace some.
- [Voiceover] Pat says many users don't realize
volunteers do most of the work on the trail.
- [Pat] Often when we're here
people think we're DNR employees.
They don't realize we're volunteers.
You never know.
Sometimes a post goes in in a half hour.
Sometimes it's a three hour job.
- [Voiceover] Pat has put in more than 4,000 hours
of volunteer work in the last few years.
- [Pat] I probably put 20-25 hours in this week.
- [Voiceover] But she gets paid back in a different way,
which is an odd thing to say
when digging post holes in the summer heat.
- [Pat] Just a great way to be outside
and then you feel like you're giving back,
which is huge.
It's really rewarding.
- [Voiceover] The other Blazing Babes share Pat's feelings.
- [Pat] They're there to work, and they work really hard,
and we get a lot accomplished
but I think we sure make it fun as well.
Look there (laughs).
Aww, you guys are the best.
The segments are about three or four miles long.
And after about a month or so
we're usually able to finish a segment.
And when they do that
I hide a cooler in the woods.
We have a wine and cheese party in the woods
every time we finish a segment.
I think it's staying put now isn't it?
- [Voiceover] Pat knows these posts will likely be around
long after she's gone.
- [Pat] That feels pretty good.
It's kind of a legacy, I guess,
to be able to be lucky enough to get to do this.
- [Voiceover] And that makes it worth the work.
- [Pat] You're building something
that's gonna be there forever.
And people and my grandkids can enjoy it.
Why wouldn't I want to do that?
(Pat chuckles)
(lively music)
- I'm Steve Latham. - And I'm Jesse Darley.
And this is our Wisconsin Life.
- [Jasper] State quarters.
I just like to collect them.
- [Voicover] Like most kids,
Jasper Darley likes to collect things.
One summer, he started picking up
all the bottle caps he found at picnics and cookouts.
- [Jasper] I just really asked them for their beer caps
and they gave them to me.
(beer caps clinking together)
- [Voiceover] His storage device wasn't very sophisticated.
- [Jasper] I just kept them in a plastic bag.
- Did you have a favorite cap?
- That one.
- [Voiceover] So, Jasper asked his dad, Jesse, for help.
- [Jasper] Dad, can I have something
to put my beer caps on?
- [Jesse] Got it?
- [Voiceover] Fortunately for Jasper.
- [Jasper] He's like, "Sure."
- [Voiceover] Jesse is a mechanical engineer.
- [Jesse] We have a laser cutter at work
and I just made him a Wisconsin map.
(music with cymbals)
- [Voiceover] The map got filled up with caps...
and went up on the wall in Jasper's bedroom.
Then, Jesse's co-worker and friend, Steve, came over.
- [Jasper] And he was like, "I need one of these."
- I came back the next day to work
and told Jesse, "We should, we should sell them.
"Or, at least, you should cut me a 'Missouri'
"so I can take it back home to my wife's family."
- And then, he just started a business.
- [Voiceover] Beer Cap Maps was born.
- [Jesse] So like any good business,
it started in our basement.
- [Voiceover] The premise is really simple.
Each map comes with holes for bottle caps.
Simply press them in and fill up the map.
What makes it work...
is the endless number of bottle cap designs.
- [Jesse] And bottle caps themselves
are just great looking.
So, thinking about putting them geographically somewhere.
You know, "This is a New Glarus beer.
"This is a Capital beer.
"This is a Lake Front beer from Milwaukee."
- Then, once you have it in your hands,
it's just a matter of deciding,
"Do I want to do it by region? Do I want to do it by color?"
- [Voiceover] The maps wouldn't have been
so popular just a decade ago,
when the number of beer choices was limited,
but the craft beer movement has exploded.
- [Jesse] We cut our Wisconsin map,
and it had about 100 holes in it.
And we looked online, and tried to figure out
how many breweries there were in Wisconsin.
And there were about 95.
And then, we just looked again,
this is a few months later, and now there's 113.
(energetic music)
- Cheers! - Cheers!
- [Voiceover] Jesse and Steve say part of the fun
is trying new beers or bottled soda with friends
and having a way to display that experience.
- [Jesse] There's so much passion
for the people that are drinking it,
the people that are making it.
You know, it's fun to be around
and fun to learn about those different breweries.
- [Steve] It is letting people express their passion.
- [Voiceover] Jesse and Steve have found a way
to mix the maps into their parties.
- [Jesse] As close as you can get to Door County.
- [Voiceover] With guests filling the map,
as the evening goes on.
While Jasper and his bottle cap collection
may take credit for the maps.
(laughter)
- He talks about being the founder
of the company, sometimes.
- [Voiceover] The guys know it's the grown-up kids
who will like collecting the most.
- [Steve] That whole collecting theme that goes through,
you know, kids to adults to everybody
just wanting to collect things
that they think are cool and show 'em off.
- The participatory art is really when people get it.
It becomes their own thing.
It's not like they're consuming.
Our maps are really not much without caps in 'em.
- [Steve] And, it's out there making somebody happy,
and then they're recommending it to a friend
that they think will be happy.
And that's a ton of fun.
- [Jesse] Cool!
(guitar music)
- Hi, my name is I'm Lynne Grasse.
I raise Nigerian Dwarf Goats
and this is my Wisconsin Life.
(cozy music)
- [Voiceover] Drive by this quintessential Door County farm
and you'll discover goats under the willow tree.
Look a little closer and you'll see Lynne Grasse
in the middle of her treasured Nigerian Dwarf Goats.
- [Lynne] I think when people stop along the road
and you see them peacefully grazing.
I think they just kind of look like a walking flower garden.
- [Voiceover] This garden is also known as Grasse Acres
near Ellison Bay.
- [Lynne] Okay, these are my little buds.
(goats bleating)
They'll follow me everywhere I go.
- [Voiceover] Lynne traded in her work
with kids in the classroom
for a different kind of kids in the barnyard.
- [Lynne] I did teach kindergarten for 19 years
but instead of continuing on in that field
I decided to just do this.
- [Voiceover] This has become her passion.
- [Lynne] I started with this in about 1997 actually
with my three sons.
So we got a couple of goats and I thought,
"Well, that's a good idea."
It will help them to learn to be responsible
and respect living things.
But as time went on, it was very clear
that I was the one that had the passion for them.
People will say, "Why goats?
"Why do you want goats?"
They hear old stories
and they think of them as being dirty and stinky.
But the bucks are what give goats a bad name
because they are stinky.
But they are just as sweet and loving as the girls are.
Usually at the end of the day
my hair is all chewed up and gnarled
and I got little hoof prints all over my clothes.
(laughs)
Don, my husband, is wonderful
at making sure that they're fed.
And he grows most of their feed that they eat
and the hay.
With him enjoying the growing aspects
and with me enjoying the animal aspect of the farm,
I think we make a pretty good team.
- [Voiceover] And as a team they care for
and nurture their dairy herd.
- [Lynne] Now we're good.
Alright.
Let the milk flow.
They have a high butter fat content,
so their milk is very sweet and rich.
- [Voiceover] The goats' milk is used to sustain
a more natural, healthy way of life on the farm.
- [Lynne] There it is.
Time to eat!
(goats bleating)
- [Voiceover] It's all good and the baby goats
get to enjoy it at feeding time.
- [Lynne] And a few too many.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Another one too many.
Come here, everybody's hungry.
Everybody's starving.
So this is a ten kid feeding bucket
so I can feed ten of the babies at once.
When I first started with the kids
I had to do individual bottles.
It was hours of work.
And now I'm done in minutes.
That's the way it works.
And the babies are happier too
because they get to eat faster.
It is a feeding frenzy.
(laughs)
Oh, look at the milk moustache.
- [Voiceover] And the Nigerian Dwarf Goats
are getting Lynne noticed.
She's now breeding the goats
and sending them coast to coast.
- [Lynne] Kidding season can happen at any time,
day or night.
One of the things I have installed was a barn camera.
There she is.
No babies yet.
As soon as they're ready, I'm out there catching babies.
- [Voiceover] Her biggest batch of babies found a new home
just south of the Wisconsin border
at the Brookfield Zoo outside Chicago.
- [Male] First of all we're looking for
a really high quality herd
that we found up in Wisconsin.
And this is the name that kept coming up
was Lynne Grasse up in Door County.
- Here we are with (laughs) 30 kids.
And most of them were born in March and April.
This was definitely a spring with a purpose.
- [Voiceover] It's their gentle nature and curiosity
that make these dwarf goats
a good addition to the petting zoo.
- [Male] She does an outstanding job.
She's a very ethical goat herder.
- You're such a pretty girl, aren't you?
Are you such a pretty girl?
Yes, you are.
They are such a wonderful, peaceful,
calming part of my life.
They really fulfill something in me.
A need to nurture.
And when I look out over the pasture
and I see them out grazing,
it just makes you feel like,
"Ya, this is where I want to be."
Come on babies.
(goats bleating, hands clapping) Come on.
- [Voiceover] Still to come on Wisconsin Life ,
author Patrick Rothfuss explores the hidden power of games.
- [Patrick] You learn how to solve problems.
Frustration teaches you a lot.
(video game bongs)
- [Voiceover] Could the game of Life change your life?
Find out later on Wisconsin Life.
(guitar music)
- Hi, I'm Frank Germanson
and this is my Wisconsin Life.
(piano music)
- [Voiceover] Their stories told in stone.
- [Frank] August 16th, 1906.
So she's married, and she's dead in her 20s.
(piano music)
- [Voiceover] And pledges to remember.
- [Frank] A dad and a daughter.
The German phrase on the bottom,
that's what I was, I don't know how you say that,
but that's probably an indication
that the parents at least came from Germany.
- [Voiceover] Several days each week,
for three years now, Frank Germanson has made his way
to old cemeteries around Milwaukee.
He walks the rows, takes in the quiet,
and reads the stories.
- [Frank] When I was first getting going,
I don't remember the name,
but there was a husband and wife,
and they had 10 infants' gravestones around them.
All their children that died at birth,
and that has to be just terrible.
I just can't imagine that.
And I can feel how they felt,
you know, it just sounds really strange,
but it's almost like I go in there
and look over their shoulder when they're grieving.
- [Voiceover] But Frank doesn't come to mourn the dead.
He comes to make a record for the living.
At each grave, he stops, pulls out a camera,
and captures a photo.
(camera clicks)
It's a practice Frank began three years ago
when he started looking for his family's story
on a genealogy website.
- [Frank] When I retired,
I started working on our ancestry tree.
And I was working on it,
and one time I got a hint on "Ancestry,"
and it was from "Find-A-Grave."
- [Voiceover] Frank had discovered
an online database of grave stones,
valuable information for an amateur genealogist.
- [Frank] I signed up to be a volunteer photographer.
So, if someone from out-of-state wanted a picture
somewhere around here,
I would take it and put it online for them.
Didn't last long, because I couldn't see any point
of just looking for one
in all these treasures.
So what I have done since
is I go and I take entire sections.
- [Voiceover] Since then, he's spent a few days each week
working his way through old cemeteries,
photographing one section at a time.
Those photos are adding up.
- Last count, I just rounded 17,000.
And that's in three years.
I've taken over 21,000 pictures.
(mouse clicks)
- When he gets home, Frank uploads his latest photos
to the "Find-A-Grave" database, where researchers and families
around the world can find them,
and the information they display.
- [Frank] Their birth date.
Their death date.
Places.
I had two sisters from Switzerland
send me an email.
And I posted a picture
from Woodlawn Cemetery,
and it just so happened
that was their great-grandmother's sister
that moved to Wisconsin at the end of the last century,
1800s, and they lost contact.
So they thanked me profusely.
- [Voiceover] As useful as Frank's work is,
it's also becoming more urgent.
The ethnic groups that built many of these cemeteries
have long moved on.
And nature is slowly wearing away the monuments themselves.
- [Frank] Some of the stones are in really bad shape
and my goal is to get them
before they can't give any information.
- [Voiceover] And while Frank gathers that information
for the living, he's doing something else
for those whose names are on these markers.
It's something simple but rare.
He remembers.
- [Frank] Well, when you think of the United States
and all the people that made it great,
and these are just some little pebbles in the mosaic,
and I don't want them to be forgotten.
(piano and string music)
(lively music)
- Hello, my name is Patrick Rothfuss
and this is my Wisconsin Life.
- [Voiceover] I think most of us grow up
doing board games with the family.
(shaking dice)
You know, Candyland.
Monopoly.
(dice rolling on board)
Those games are mostly an excuse
to hang out with people that you love.
- Ask for Candyland.
It's fun.
- [Patrick] But like as games that teach you
any sort of skill, Candyland,
it's not a game.
You don't make choices in Candyland.
What it's good for is it gives you something to do
with your child other than watch TV.
(zapping sounds)
- [Voiceover] And it teaches your child
how to operate within a framework of rules.
But will this teach him problem solving?
- Off you go on a thrilling trip.
Up over the gumdrop mountains.
- [Patrick] No, no it won't.
All through high school I played,
they were called text adventures.
And those were fantasy games.
"Zork."
(foreboding music)
And it was like living in a novel
'cuz it was all text.
You would read the description of the world.
And then you would try to solve the puzzles
by typing in instructions.
(chip music)
And they taught huge problem solving.
I literally worked for years on these games.
You'd try something.
You're like, "What am I not seeing?"
(scream)
And then I would go to school
and I talk to my friend Chad.
And we would talk about this.
It's like, "No, I tried that with the dragon.
"It doesn't work.
"No, I tried that and then I died."
"How did you die?
"Maybe that will give us a clue, you know?"
I played so many of those.
And I have still not seen them equaled
in terms of the problem solving you needed to engage in.
And that frustration I experienced.
I lament the fact that my child
will never be able to experience that level of frustration
playing a game, because these days if you get stuck,
you Google it up, and then you just move on.
Frustration teaches you a lot.
(bing)
I'm really looking forward to
my son getting old enough to play some of these games,
because you learn how to solve problems.
Systems manipulation.
That's what I tend to think of it as.
And that means you have to learn the rules
and figure out your optimal strategy.
Tell me that isn't going to be useful
your whole life every day.
(sad note sliding down)
Dealing with failure.
Dealing with disappointment.
That's really important to learn.
That you can lose and you play again and you win.
And losing wasn't the end of the world.
I mean, I know some adults who haven't learned that.
And it paralyzes them with fear.
They're so afraid to try anything
for fear that it might not work.
Not realizing that if you don't play at all,
you've lost right at the start.
Honestly, the world would be a better place
if more people played games.
(affirmative computer sound)
- [Voiceover] Curious to know more about the people
featured in this week's stories?
Go to [WisconsinLife.org]
to learn more about Pat Witkowski,
Steve Latham and Jesse Darley, Lynne Grasse,
Frank Germanson and Patrick Rothfuss.
We want to know: what's your Wisconsin Life ?
This week, we'd like to share some of the entries
from our Wisconsin Life summer photo contest.
You can see the winning entries
by going to [WisconsinLife.org].
Congratulations to the winners
and thanks to everyone who entered our contest
and shared their moments of Wisconsin Life.
(relaxed music)
Go to [WisconsinLife.org] to find out
how you can have a chance to see your Wisconsin Life moments
featured in an upcoming program.
(relaxed music)
- [Voiceover] Funding for Wisconsin Life
is provided in part by
Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.