Wisconsin Life

The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

Angela

This week on "Wisconsin Life," meet a shoe carver embracing a Dutch tradition, a couple reinventing their farm, a man preserving a historic home, and a talented artist exploring a very fluid form of painting. It's all ahead on "Wisconsin Life."

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Angela

"Wisconsin Life" is funded in part by Alliant Energy, Lowell and Mary Peterson, American Transmission Company, the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television. Hello and welcome to "Wisconsin Life," I'm Angela Fitzgerald. Today, we're celebrating Wisconsin's Dutch heritage at the Little Chute Windmill and Van Asten Visitor Center. This authentic 1850s windmill is located off Main street in downtown Little Chute. The windmill reaches over 100 feet tall, so it's hard to miss. It was constructed in 2011. Community members worked for years to raise funds to get it built in the Netherlands, then shipped it to Wisconsin and assembled on site. All the joints are wooden and locked into place. Just like it was done in the mid-1800s. For a small fee, visitors are welcome to tour the windmill, learn about the town's history, and even try their hand at a clog dance. On windy days a trained miller will let the sails fly and get the gears turning.

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Angela

It's a living museum in the heart of this village. Celebrations of Dutch heritage can be found throughout the state, including in Oostburg, where a wooden shoe carver keeps a centuries-old art form alive.

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Luke

I always liked wood carving. I did whittling stuff as a little kid. I'd met a guy named Bob Siegel, who was a master wooden shoe carver who taught me how to carve, so when I saw Bob doing this and it was something he needed help with, I just kind of figured I have nothing happening right now so I might as well help him out and see what happens. Fourteen years later, here we are. My name is Luke Traver and I'm a wooden shoe carver. I carve wooden shoes at events for basically the public to see the demonstrations, see how this has been done throughout the centuries. So the wooden shoe, or the klompen, is originally a Dutch shoe. As they were working in the fields, their leather shoes consistently rotted out on them and they always had wet feet. So somebody thought about carving up a wooden shoe which allowed them to work in a field all day long. At the end of the day, they can put their shoe by the back door, and it would dry out overnight. They could have a dry shoe for the next day. I only know of one other person that does this in America, who lives in Holland, Michigan. And he only comes out for the one show a year that he carves. I haven't actually met him. Otherwise, I don't actually know anybody else who does carve shoes. You start off fast and furious just knocking stuff out and getting as much into it, throwing in the power. That's really how, if you're ever gonna draw anybody's attention, you can have somebody walking 10, 20 feet away, you start axing on a chunk of wood and their spin their head on a swivel and figure out what's going on.

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Luke

Works every time.

chuckles

Luke

And then by the end of it you really are kind of messing with half inches and little things. You're looking up to lights and seeing if you see the light coming through. If you're quite there or not. You have to be really delicate by the end of it. Getting the arch in the right place and getting the right height arch. Getting enough space for everything to fit just right. It kind of gets really tricky. A lot of it is skill, but there is a little bit of luck of wood as well. I love the concept also that I can take a chunk of wood and turn it into a shoe. It's something that is still usable and still practical. When you get right and make a good shoe, I mean it's awesome. 'Cause you can make eight shoes in a day, you know, a shoe every hour, you can have two or three of them turn out. And it's just the greatest.

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Angela

We now travel to Edgar to meet a couple turning their third-generation dairy farm into a garden oasis.

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Angela

Drive through the dairy state and you'll notice the landscape is changing.

Debbie

It's really sad when you see our neighborhood that used to be full of small dairy farms, it's getting less and less every year.

Angela

Small dairy farms, generations in the making, are disappearing.

Dave

I feel bad for 'em because it's hard to make it go. You gotta do it because you love doing it. If you're doing it to make a lot of money right now, it's not in the books.

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Angela

For three generations, the Bauman family roots have run deep on this land and they're not about to let that change. Their name in German means "small farmer."

Dave

It's in my blood. My grandpa, he was farmer. My dad was a farmer. I farm with my brother. We've been farming our whole lives. I've always wanted to be a farmer.

Angela

Like many small family farms, Debbie also worked off the farm and got her hands dirty as a landscaper. I like to use rocks. I love using old pieces of farm equipment or I'm working with somebody who has stuff that they got from their parents' farm, and I'm incorporating that into the landscape. A lot of it was self-taught. I'm not an artist, but I said, in a way, I guess I'm an artist with the plants. I was driving around looking for plants all the time. I thought, what better way to make my landscaping easier, if I had the plants here? "Here" is where her dream came into focus. Right in the middle of their dairy farm outside of Edgar. Debbie, along with her husband Dave, turned her seed of an idea into a business. This is my passion, but he's jumped in.

Dave

I was gung-ho on it. I backed her always. She helped me for many years and do what I wanted to do, so I thought I'd help her and follow her dreams and do whatever she wanted to do.

Angela

The cows are gone. The barnyard animals these days are more decorative. And the plants come with names like hens and chicks. We didn't want to move off the farm because we were still farming the crops, so it's like might as well make use of what we have. And so that's why we have the cow lot as the nursery. So we ripped out all the feeder that ran down it and made that into a place to put plants on. From cows to coral bells, farmer Dave is growing into his new role.

Debbie

It's always kinda fun watching him learn. It's a little out of his comfort zone. He knows corn. He knows seeds and soybeans and stuff.

Dave

I didn't know there were they many different perennials...

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Dave

...and trees and shrubs. She says just pot 'em and I pot 'em. I'm told what to do. Hey Dave, you want to give me some hose?

Angela

The concept of running a nursery and a farm are one in the same. The Baumans are just growing a different crop.

Dave

We still gotta look at them every day. Take care of them in the summertime. Make sure their watered, fertilized. Just like all our other crops. Think these got too dry is the way it looks to me.

Angela

Their still watering, weeding and watching the weather in all seasons.

Debbie

You don't know what the weather's gonna bring. We didn't get the frost blankets off 'til the beginning of May. And we had to shovel three feet of snow to get them uncovered. I'm like, "Oh my goodness! We're supposed to open." The whole lot was under snow yet.

whistling wind

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Angela

Today, business is blooming, making this nursery a proven winner. So your gardens all ready for the year? Well, pretty much so. Looking back now, the Baumans are satisfied to see how they reinvented their farm.

Debbie

But it's really hard for the small dairy farmer to actually make a go of it right now. And, a lot of them don't have the option to probably do what we are, like turned our farm into a nursery or follow their dream, that way. They have to find a different occupation.

Angela

And Dave found that he can still do what he enjoys. We can do our field work yet and still run a nursery. It's all we knew how to do. You never know what the future's gonna bring. It was a good life. It's still a good life.

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Angela

I'm in downtown Little Chute exploring the Dutch heritage of the area. You can't miss it. Right off Main Street, over 100 feet tall, the Little Chute Windmill. It's a beautiful piece of craftsmanship that Gene Janssen, long-time volunteer, helped to bring to the village.

The drive behind the windmill here is

a while back, in 1999, a group of us went over to Holland, and we came back and decided to put this windmill in our town because of our Dutch heritage. So the ladies mostly started the Little Chute Historical Society. And a group of us started getting this windmill.

Angela

Over several years of fundraising a windmill was finally ordered from Holland. So, we got seven different countries that we get the wood from. It was built in Holland and they assembled it in Holland. And disassemble it. They put it on a boat and five containers, and shipped it to Chicago. And we picked it over here and Boldt Construction reconstructed it. Well, we had groundbreaking in August 2011. So, and that took a while. This is going on our fifth year that we're open. Congratulations. - Well, thank you. We had a lot of help and we still need help to keep this thing going, like everything else, you know. Once the mill was constructed, it needed two things to get it up and running. A miller, and the right weather. The miller is trained by the guy from Holland and certified by the guy from Holland. However a miller has to have wind to operate this. This is not by electrical switch. I know the history and we've got wind. So who better to get the mill running than Gene's son, and head miller, Larry Janssen. We want to see this windmill in action. So what part are we looking at, right now? We're on the second level of the windmill. This is the large gear that drives the grinding wheel. A shaft here goes onto the grinding wheel. The gear teeth have here go into the wallower-- that we have over there, that drive the grinding wheel down on the lower level. Also, up on this level, we have a board system that actually holds the wallower in place. This shaft here goes up to upper level, which is attached to the blades that our sails are on.

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Angela

Gene reminds us visitors can take home more than just freshly ground flour. I have yet to give a tour that nobody did not like this place. They were welcomed and they are gonna bring other people back, and that helps, too. Believe me, we make it satisfying. We got more here than people think we have. There really is so much history to discover here in Little Chute. Let's continue exploring our state's history. As we head to Genesee Depot, to tour a famously theatrical home and meet the man dedicated to preserving it.

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Angela

The images come right out of Broadway. Whimsical, colorful and dramatic. Much like the owners of this property.

Randy

They were theater royalty.

Angela

They were America's first couple of theater. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.

Randy

And the reason why they're remembered by so many people, 'cause they went to every little small town. They didn't just do Broadway, they acted everywhere.

Angela

When the Lunts weren't on the road, or doing Broadway shows, this is the place they called home, an estate called Ten Chimneys. In this country setting, just outside Genesee Depot. Good morning, Janice. - Good morning, Randy. How's life? Randy Bryant is the president and CEO of the Ten Chimneys Foundation.

Randy

It's a true love. I enjoy every day coming into work. Oh, Janice, make sure you water the plants. I'm a preservationist and architectural historian, and a theater lover. So, it really feeds all of my passions. Alrighty, take care. Bye.

Angela

Randy's mission is to help restore, preserve, and share this world class museum as a national resource for theater education.

Randy

Many actors make a pilgrimage here 'cause it's ground zero for American theater. Just as when the Lunts were here, you had Helen Hayes, Sir Laurence Olivier, Katharine Hepburn. All would come out here and they would spend their summers here at Ten Chimneys.

Angela

Come along on a tour with Randy and you'll hear his commitment to preserving the Lunts' lifestyle. After Lynn died, Alfred Lunt's brother-in-law, George Bugbee, he understood treasure that was there and really wanted to protect it. He basically locked the house up with all their possessions into it. All the way down to their underwear, to their mouthwash, toothbrush. Everything you see is exactly how the Lunts left it.

Randy

Alfred was a Le Cordon Bleu trained chef. He loved to cook there. To this day that kitchen remains as just a beautiful kitchen with stainless steel top.

Angela

The dining room was the heart of this home.

Randy

Dinner is served. The main room of the house really was the dining room, because that's where they would entertain their guests. They felt that the perfect setting was six to eight, no more.

Angela

Today, the number of guests has grown. After extensive renovations in 2003, Ten Chimneys opened to the public.

Randy

What inspires me is when I see others become really excited about what we do here. It is a place that was intentionally created to be this way. Everything about it was created by Alfred and Lynn.

Angela

A favorite story for Randy is how Lynn was meticulous with detail and each room is created like a Broadway stage set.

Randy

Being theater people, they gave a lot of thought to each piece. Where it should go. What should be there. And that's where it was placed. Just as a stage set, only what you can see was painted. As you go behind the sofa... nothing, it stops, so all the painting's over.

Angela

Paintings are a major focal point for this Swedish-inspired manor home. Enter the drawing room. When I think the main house, I can't help but to love the work of Claggett Wilson. He did all the murals in the house. This is the original and we just have to clean it. But, we left a patch. That patch is right here. We call it the nicotine patch, because this shows how much soot was here from smoking and the fireplace burning and all that. One of Randy's special gathering spots is the piano, which became another treasured piece of art.

Randy

Claggett Wilson also painted the Steinway piano. Let's see what I can remember from my days.

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Randy

I don't know if my piano teacher's going to like that. Let's try this.

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Randy

Well enough of that.

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Randy

Prior to being called Ten Chimneys, it was called The Farm.

Angela

And that farm life continues to this day. I like it to be authentic and organic. When I first came to Ten Chimneys, I decided, let's bring this around to farms. I went out and got the 18 chicks and they were one day old. People went crazy over it.

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Angela

Alfred had the White Rock chickens. He started with 18, so we started with 18. He grew to 200. We're at 140 right now. After a hard day of farm work, the Lunts could take a dip in the pool. Ah, the swimming pool, has seen a lot of action. And... it's not just any pool. The first "L" shaped, in-ground pool, in the state of Wisconsin, was installed 1932. Life on the farm wasn't all work. There was a lot of play, as in rehearsing their plays, in a building called The Studio. So this the Lunts' studio and this is where they would love to come and practice their lines, and dance. With all the windows open and the wind blowing, the chandelier just chimes. The stage is also set outside, across the landscape of Ten Chimneys. Oh, it's nice and warm in here. I come out here and I love being here every day. There's no other place like it. I love the grounds, in terms of beauty, the aesthetics of the buildings. They were so dedicated to making sure that it was a perfect environment. It's a way in which I love living life.

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Angela

Now, we visit a painter in Cumberland, using alcohol ink to create vivid wildlife portraits.

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Jan

Ever since I was little, I loved animals. It is just in me through and through. I was the kid that somebody would find a bug in our house and says, "Oh, there's a beetle here." And I'd yell, "Don't kill it!" And I'd be running over and I grab it and put it outside. I've always been that way, so I can't explain it.

laughter

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Jan

I'm Jan Killian. I'm a full-time artist. I live in Cumberland, Wisconsin. I paint wildlife.

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Jan

I love painting birds... and frogs......and turtles. I take my own pictures and paint from that.

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Jan

Okay... I paint with alcohol ink. Alcohol ink is just a dye-based ink in an alcohol solution.

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Jan

I'm not much of an abstract artist. I paint more realism. A lot of alcohol ink is done with just abstract, because it is so hard to control. It's like painting with water. Basically, it moves on its own. It dries within probably about seven seconds. I did a lot of research online and looked for other people that were painting with it and I couldn't find anybody. It was basically abstract.

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Jan

Just the difficulty in it. It was such a challenge. And I just love challenges. Finally, just through my own determination I figured out a way to control it. When I want to start a painting, I start with the eye. If I can get that eye perfect, so it draws people in, you can basically do anything else you want with the rest of the painting, because the eye is telling the story. And, yeah, the rest of it just comes along. I do my best to wrangle it, to get control, it just depends upon the subject and the detail and how the ink is flowing that day, 'cause it definitely has a mind of its own. I've known a lot of other artists that have said, ya know-- They see my work and they think, "Oh this would be so much fun to try." And then they buy the inks and they say, "There's no way. "This is crazy, I can't do it."

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Jan

But a lot of it, is just determination.

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Jan

I love doing the process from taking the pictures... Here chicka dee-dee-dee.

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Jan

...to creating the artwork and having my soul go into each piece.

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Jan

It's just... Yeah, I couldn't be happier.

laughter

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Jan

Wisconsin's communities are full of treasures, including right here in Little Chute. If you'd like to learn more about the stories you've seen today, including the Little Chute Windmill, check out our website at WisconsinLife.org. While there, you can access all of our digital content, including our food traditions series. An exploration of food, family, and culture, around the state. Here's a look back at some food traditions stories we've shared in the past.

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Monica O'Connell

All right, cake time. What I want to recreate is just that feeling of deliciousness and welcomeness.

Kennia Coronado

I realize that there are many commonalities between my hometown in Mexico and my hometown here. It's important to highlight that we are here and that we do have a very rich culture to share with other Wisconsinites alike.

Laila Borokhim

I really have a wonderful family. I think there's forces at work here that you'll always end up finding us having dinner together.

Lucy Lor

For me, cooking is like art. My pan that's my canvas. And then, my ingredients; that's my ink.

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Lucy Lor

Well, cooking in my kitchen, it's, it's like therapy.

Kennia Coronado

For me, I've been able to see how much the land means to our family and how much land is important for the production of the food that we eat. And I think that the best way that we can talk about our culture is through sharing our food.

Angela

We're always seeking stories and recipes. So if you have a favorite dish, tradition, or any other story idea to share, email us at [email protected]. That'll wrap it up. I'm Angela Fitzgerald and this is our "Wisconsin Life." Bye!

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Angela

"Wisconsin Life" is funded in part by Alliant Energy, Lowell and Mary Peterson, American Transmission Company, the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming, and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.