One, two, three, four.

Get my shoes on at the door.

Five, six, seven, eight.

Feels great.

I'm gonna sign up to do and guys aren't gonna do about to do what they do.

Yeah.

Look at this guy with the beautiful color about the and just for me he's gonna share it with another I got to show to get.

I want to finish.

I'll take a look at that beautiful morning that turns to a beautiful evening and look at the big beautiful light and then people wanna see the Carmello with me.

That's right.

I love everyone.

And thank you so much for joining us on another episode of Experience Michiana.

There are three of us here today because I'm Kelly Carthy and.

To find out all about the Barbados painting technique here and Happy Three studio in Warsaw, Indiana.

I'm super excited.

Do cancel tell.

I forgot my Bob Ross way.

I got your girl.

I had it, OK. And we're also going to be talking to Chris.

This is going to show us what Mishawaka Greenhouse is doing.

I'm all about sustainability, too.

And so you're going to see some ways that we're including sustainability here locally in Michiana.

It's a very important topic, especially right now.

But we're going to have a lot of fun because we're headed over to Pottawatomie Zoo.

Yeah.

Oh, you know, but let's not tell them.

Let's all just go together.

There's so many new things to see.

Check it out.

I'm so excited to be here back at Pottawatomie Zoo in South Bend.

And there is so many new things here to see and do.

Yes, there are.

And one of the things I heard is that they have a rhino that you can pet.

How do you do that?

No, no.

Me neither.

Oh, my God.

But like you said a lot.

I think there's a baby flamingo Oh, my God.

It is so cute.

I just seen it on all of their social media pages And this is going to be so exciting.

I know we were supposed to have Dee with us here today, but unfortunately we haven't been able to find them.

OK. Why don't we go on and have some fun?

All right.

Maybe he'll catch up with this later.

Maybe we'll see.

It has been a while for me, but just I'm so glad to be back here, Pottawatomie.

And it's good to see you.

Yeah.

No, I don't believe it.

Time goes so quickly.

I know.

It's so great to see you.

And there's so many changes to show you.

The last time I was here, what happened?

I was holding a little time to dry.

You know, that guy had to go to the restroom.

Not today.

Not today.

We got you.

We got glass in front of you today.

I told you, I really kind of want to take Fawn home with me because I'm sure people say that, you know what?

And I think you would regret it and see how it's eating the mice.

First of all, you'd have these guys eat mice.

So I don't know if you'd want to have to deal with that at home, but these guys are actually a wildcat.

So even though they're very similar to looking like house cats, they're called sand cats from Africa living out there full grown to they're a small cat.

But these guys are pretty ferocious.

Some of these guys can just leap in the air and grab birds in the wild.

And so they're they're pretty amazing animals.

But there's one of the new species we have here at the zoo So how long have they been here?

So we actually got a trio, a male into two males and a female.

As soon as they got here, they gave birth to a litter of four kittens.

So we have seven now.

So what you see in this exhibit here in our learning center is five males, but they've been here probably for about six months now.

So they've really started acclimating.

But you can see to keep what's really cool about these animals is just the care that goes into taking care of them.

The keepers, their diets are really important.

So the keeper actually has to hand feed each one of them to make sure they're getting the right amount of mice and everything out .

One would try to eat them all and try to keep the others away.

So.

So have you seen this thing on YouTube?

I think it's called the Circle Cat or something.

Did you see that?

I've seen that.

Oh, goodness.

They they vary like they take they can take a whole chicken and everything and eat it.

Are they kind of like that?

They are the power.

And cats are like I mean, if you've ever seen videos, I've seen leopards in the wild that have actually take like a baby hippo or a baby rhino completely up into a tree and eat it, just the strength that they have in their neck.

So even though they're a small little cat, I mean, yeah, they have a lot of power to them.

So what how what's kind of the way you take care of them?

I mean, are they kind of on their own or.

Yeah, I mean, like I said, he has to hand feed them.

They've got some really cool adaptations that come from really dry desert regions.

They can actually go with almost their whole lives without actually drinking water.

They can just collect the moisture from the food that the that they eat in the wild.

So they've got some pretty cool adaptations.

You know, we just have to really manage, especially for the breeding programs and everything I've talked about before in the past, the species survival plans and accredited zoos.

We don't buy and sell our animals.

They're all part of these important breeding programs to keep the genetics and the diversity.

So these guys are part of that.

So we're really excited to just be part of another breeding program here at the zoo that's going to I see that the trainers not afraid to be in there with them.

He's very cautious.

You know, training, though, is very important, you know.

They are wild animals.

We don't want to cuddle and we don't want it.

You know, it can be dangerous.

But being able to have this relationship with them, we can get weights on them.

We can check it.

You know, there's so much we can do just for their health and everything.

So this kind of behavior is really important with the keepers doing right now.

And that's one of the things that's really important to do here, is that you really take great care at the animal.

We do.

Yeah, people.

I mean, there is there is programs.

I mean, we work with a 250 fifty accredited zoos across the country.

So as soon as we got these guys, we're talking to other zoos, what do they do?

What's the best care?

Making sure that they have sand to dig and just providing all those natural things that they would have in the wild.

Is that what they call Sam Kafe?

Love being in an.

Well, they come from the desert, so they're called so they're called sand cats just because they live in reall humid and hot desert.

So, yeah, dry desert part of Africa So you can find these guys in Kenya.

They're different kind of sporadic parts of Africa, but definitely the hot, hot region.

So that's Sahara Desert to big one where they're coming from.

Hi, great.

Well, I know there's lots of good things here at the zoo, so let's get going because I hear there's a little baby flamingo.

There's a baby flamingo.

Yes, yes, yes.

And we're going to introduce you to one of my favorite animals.

We're going to have a little meet and greet with one of our top animals here at the zoo.

So we're reall excited about that.

I going to do a ruby yellow with in a way.

Let's wait.

So there's this awesome new experience here at Pottawatomie Zoo.

Oh, they have the experience.

Listen, following on to say is I currently have my hand in a rhino's pit.

OK, so I got up close and personal.

Josh, what is this rhino's name?

So this is Mosaab.

He's five years old and this is actually the year since you've been here.

I don't think you met the rhino yet.

Yeah.

You got to touch them.

OK.

He actually came to us a little over a year now.

He's like, I can now see, I'll turn around.

He'll come back.

But this is really exciting.

This is actually an opportunity that people that come to the zoo can have.

You can go online and register and actually come and meet the rhino.

Hi.

And what was the rhino's name?

His name is Matt Sombat.

So, yes.

Yeah, like I said, he came to us about a little over a year ago.

We've never had a rhino at the Pottawattamie Zoo.

So this is a pretty exciting animal in addition to have here And he came right to you and you call them like it was like a dog.

You were just calling a dog over and you want it.

He doesn't want food from you or anything.

He just wants these scratches for everybody to understand.

We just got to we got to keep scratching our yard.

Walk away.

Yeah.

Right.

But you can say he's been digging.

He digs holes and he's got a mud.

So here we are kind of talking about that level of care that we provide to animals.

And he he loves the mud ball.

Oh, so, yeah, I mean, it wouldn't be uncommon for him to come up here and just be covered in mud.

His face is much softer than his body.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now, but this similar to what an elephant would even feel like or what an elephant feel like.

It's almost kind of that leather feel.

But these guys.

So if, you know, the northern white rhino actually went extinct this past year.

These guys are talking about a hundred thousand left to the southern white rhino.

So they're critically endangered because of that dang horn up.

There has no medicinal uses whatsoever.

It's made out of the same thing as your fingernail.

But there's many cultures that believe it does put it in soup and stuff.

So unfortunately, they're still being poached at a at a high rate.

So that's why zoos are important to get people here to educate people about what's happening with rhinos in the wild.

It's quite a shot he's giving us right now.

Okay, you got that right?

Yeah.

Yeah, he definitely does.

Yeah.

Now it's awesome.

All right.

I know we're going to go and have a look at some place, Pink Flamingos now as well.

OK, the squawking is very loud.

They're very excited.

And we're in the Flamingo.

I guess this is kind of a makeshift end.

Why are they in the den right now?

So we have lost because we are very excited to announce that we have a little check this year.

Look at that.

And you know what?

We had actually a Rantel hawk that nested in this area this past year.

And the juveniles, they're not very smart and they're flying around here a lot.

So just to be safe until he gets a little bit of weight on him, we just want to make sure he's protected from the hawk.

So we kind of made this little outdoor area that they come in to, and that's great.

And when was the baby born?

So this baby now is about four weeks old now.

But what's really cool about this is it usually takes about twenty to twenty five flamingos in a flock to be able to hatch.

There's something about the mating ritual and everything.

We only have 11.

So this is a very special chick that happens How often do they meet?

So every season they they build these babies, they build these big mounded nests inside and they hatch out the eggs.

So so this is kind of a cool thing, even in the zoo world that we have a check this year.

Yeah.

And obviously the baby check looks very different from the adult version.

Tell us how that how it changes over time.

So over time, it's going to start getting this pink color here.

I'm going to grab that.

We've got some attack flamingos coming over here.

They're very protective of their baby.

But you can see this pink color that actually comes from the Creole that they eat in the wild.

So as she starts to age, he'll stay white, they'll believe or not for a very long time.

So we'll actually almost be the size of a flamingo, still be white.

And then slowly start getting that color, OK?

And the beak is different, too.

I know.

That's one of the things that changes to the me.

This is another interesting thing.

You know, like a lot of birds will feed worms and stuff like that.

These guys feed a crop milk.

And it actually it's weird.

It looks like blood.

It's really weird.

It's red and it's dark.

It comes out.

They feed the baby chicks.

So if the baby chick had this curved beak, it wouldn't be able to be fed by the parents.

So as they're young, they have that beak so that they can easily be fed.

OK, so hanging out, just hanging out with the flamingos.

Yeah, I know we've been really excited about this because I mean, we kind of had this kind of the same flock for so many years and start getting some babies in here.

And I know I mean, I've been coming to the zoo for years, too, and you can see them through the windows, too, with all the nests.

And so it's really been interesting.

I love seeing everybody share their experiences and watching the process of of egg and adventure becoming an actual baby.

So this is pretty cool.

Yeah, this is we got it.

We got a ham over here in the camera.

I'm like, yeah, these are one of my favorite people out of the flamingos.

So I do, too.

And now that I know they're actually as tall as me, this is really cool.

Yeah, that's what I told myself.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's great.

Oh, this has been another amazing day at the zoo here for us here.

And Experience Mici and I know all of our community would love to come in and enjoy this, too.

You guys have later hours available this year, too.

We do, yes, this summer.

So it's basically June through August thirty.

First we stay up until eight o'clock.

Just gives, you know, parents that are working and opportunity to come to the zoo.

And so on.

August thirty first will stop that this year.

But we plan on just keeping that is a tradition here at the zoo.

That's fantastic.

And you were saying another fun fact about the baby is.

Yeah, I mean, we and we weren't mentioning that.

So we actually moved that we had to move the.

The parents that laid the egg wasn't really taking care of us We moved it under this pair who's never had a fertile egg.

I'm just experiment to see what happened.

So they actually hatched it out and are raising it.

So they're kind of like surrogate parents for this for this chick.

Yeah, it's kind of a cool, cool thing That's awesome.

Is there anything else that you want to share with us about what the zoo has coming up?

We just I mean, you know, we've got the draft construction happening, so they're hoping for the drafts that are going to be coming in as it is just under a revitalization period right now You're going to see in the next two to three years, we've got a plan for brand new concessions.

We're bringing bears to the zoo, brand new habitats for the lions, brand new habitat for the tigers, getting away from the old school cages and actually having natural environment for the animals.

So we're this is definitely a regional destination now, and we're really excited about it.

It is.

And, you know, I have kids we've been coming here for years, too, and we just got our zoo membership again after the last time that I was here and I brought the kids and we were just amazed how many new things that there are here, because we showed some today.

But there's a baby red panned out there to be panda as we got Chinitz in the learning center, which are a new animal to the zoo.

We've got Bush babies coming.

Yeah, we've always got some new animals coming in and changing.

That's awesome.

Well, thanks for being such an awesome thing in our community.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We are so happy to be experiencing the joy of painting, which I feel like bringing it back to PBS roots really is.

It is.

I mean, and you have the t shirt today.

I have the t shirt.

Proved it.

Yes.

We're here at Happy Tree Studio in Warsaw, Indiana.

And we're going to learn more about the Bob Ross technique.

We have with us, Tanisha, who is the owner here.

This is so exciting.

To have something like this in our community, I think is the only one I've ever heard of I didn't even know they had something like this.

Oh, yes, they have.

Keri's throughout the United States and some of the country.

Awesome.

And now you just opened recently, right?

Three or four weeks ago.

So what inspired you to want to open up?

And we know it's Bob Ross right here standing there with a man.

What was it about you that kind of really endeared you to it all?

I watch PBS growing up and, you know, every day that he was on, I watched him.

And I would love to learn to paint like him one day.

And my husband found it online and it all went from there.

So you're actually certified in the Barbaros Technique.

Where did you get certified?

I got certified a New Smyrna Beach, Florida, at the Bob Ross Art Workshop.

They actually have like a workshop where you can get trained yourself and set up in 1992.

And so all of the paintings here that you do, there's some that are Bob Ross inspired for some of the shows that you may have seen at home.

You but you also have some of your own inspirations, too.

Yes, it's done on the Bob Ross technique still.

But I do Bob Ross originals and then my own and then what I'm with and we love that you called that Happy Tree studio, because that's one of the things it's all about the joy of painting and it is so happy.

And that's something that you want to kind of pass on to everyone that comes here.

Yes, I want everyone to enjoy themselves when they come here.

I don't want them to feel pressured.

And everyone comes out with a great painting that there's no mistakes, just happy little and no mistakes.

It's good to tell that I'm feeling no pressure here because Quami is an artist.

She called Get Daughter, Paint My Daughter.

I'm not that good.

I mean, they're pretty good, you know.

But do you think that you can learn how to paint Yes.

Like Bob Ross in one day.

One day?

Yes, I live about an hour.

We got.

About 10 minutes.

That's that's awesome.

And so you do have group parties here, but you can also do some other things, too, for people who want to come and learn to write.

Yes, I can do one on one.

You can learn specific things that you want to learn more like trees or mountains, and then you can pick whatever pain you want to paint And we'll paint a painting and there's just more one on one, just me and you know.

Right.

Well, there's two of us.

I've been doing like the same style of trees my whole entire life.

It's just like one art, one tree and ranch, and then the leaves everywhere.

So this is really exciting.

So what are we going to do?

Do you want to paint Season six, episode one of Bob Ross's two seasons?

It's going to be the winter one.

Oh, I love that way.

And it's only two colors, so that's great.

Oh, super easy.

That's it, I can't give up two colors.

I know, right?

You're right.

We're going to make happy little cloud.

You can put one cloud, you can put two clouds, you can put three clouds.

There's many clouds in there.

You're going to walk.

I can spend all day doing clowns.

And I'm going to start putting in my first peek.

Why do mine look like Band-Aid straps?

Now we're just going to blend these mountains.

Down into the canvas.

And once we have our mountains, we're going to add some snow.

And always helps to make noises.

Sure.

Here's what we're going to it out like that.

There's our mountain.

And we're just tap, tap, tap tapping into the canvas.

And pull down.

Instant reflections.

Just straight liquid white, and we're going to grab that.

Roll pain again.

We're going to cut right into that canvas and make a water line.

Touch, touch, touch.

Tanisha, I have to say, like Bob Ross, you are a miracle worker.

Oh, thank you.

You guys may be using a master artist now.

Oh, I'm so proud of myself.

I don't this.

No, I've never I've never done anything like this and I never thought I could.

The Bob Ross technique is so easy and so fun to learn.

I need you guys.

Both did a great job.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much.

I can hear what actually made a tree that didn't look.

I mean, I do have some stuff for your tree thing.

These are no, these are great.

Everybody's mountains.

It's like mountains.

They're bushes, looks like bushes.

You did really great.

And then it's just like you said, when everyone leaves here with their painting, they are really happy.

I mean, I'm very happy.

Yes.

I make sure everyone gets the attention that they need.

If they're struggling on something, you know, I'm there for them, whatever they need.

And they come out with a great painting when I leave.

How can people get in touch with you?

Internation Habitrail studio acom.

All right.

And all your information is there to sign up for classes and dates and times So was so much fun here in Mausi, Indiana.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you so much.

We're happy.

Hey, that's one of my favorite things has been to show you how you are experiencing sustainability, Michiana.

And you don't even know it.

So right now, I'm at the Main Street underpass in Mishawaka, which is a prime spot where you can experience sustainability.

It's not about the road.

It's about what is right next to the road.

So I'm going to talk with Jake Crawford.

He's the landscape manager for the city of Mishawaka to tell us about the landscape that we're looking at right here next to the underpass.

So, Jake, there are pears on this tree and it's making my mouth water.

Could I just pick one when they're ready or what's going on here with all this?

So this whole location here, including the greenhouse and our fruit orchard, is all a community, Yup'ik vegetable fruit garden that's just available for the community to enjoy.

This project was started with the Mishawaka High School Landscape and Garden Club a couple of years ago.

In twenty nineteen, we finished construction on this whole area, transforming just an empty space into a high production garden and community asset.

What it really is producing a lot.

I see beds and beds of food over here.

And so I could just come and pick food here.

So the model that we want to have for this is one that is community engaging.

And so people can volunteer to help take care of the vegetables here.

People can also help themselves to the produce we have.

We have a lot of different items of zucchini, potatoes, different things like that that people from all over the community are enjoying now.

And people are welcome to help themselves, too.

So what if people don't know if it's ready or not?

How would they learn a little bit about, you know, what is that plant?

Can I eat it?

How do I eat it?

Is that something you can learn here?

So most often we'll do posts on our Michelago parks page, letting people know when when food is right.

Sometimes we do put out little signs into our beds.

Let's say I'm right pickney or I'm ready.

So you can look for those as well.

And usually my crew, my staff and I are here usually in the morning from seven to seven thirty, and then also about two, 30 to three at the end of the day.

And those are great times to just connect with the landscape staff from the city as well.

So I noticed something over here that's a little weird.

I think we should take a look, because I do know what it is an when it's ready.

So what if I want to share what I know about this strange vegetable, the kohlrabi, which I love?

And this one does look about ripe.

So I know that it's ready.

How to harvest it, how to cook it.

Is there a way that I can help out in this garden?

I mean, it's a gorgeous space.

I kind of just want an excuse to.

Yeah.

So we are always looking for volunteer help and people to engage with for the community.

We have some volunteers that help in other parks, but we currently don't have any major volunteer activity here at the Green House.

So if you're really interested and you want to become more involved, if you want to help shape the landscape and what goes in and all the all the planting ou here, just get a hold of the parks department.

And that's a great way to connect with me and the others that help take care of this area.

So one thing I wanted to share with folks about is how they can experience sustainability in action.

So we've talked a little bit about, you know, fresh, healthy food that's really important is sustaining people.

Right.

It's also free, which makes it much more economically possible to to eat healthy.

And then there's that social aspect, too, of being able to help out in the garden.

He talked a little bit about what used to be here.

Can you tell me a little bit more about how this is actually improving the environment here in Mishawaka?

So around the greenhouse, as we move our way around there, we have quite a mix of different plans to help our pollinator communities.

We get a lot of bee and butterfly activity around the greenhouse, probably more so anywhere else in the city, except for maybe Betr Park, which has pretty extensive flowers as well.

And so I think that's really one of the best areas.

And what's neat about that is the landscape design there was done by the students in my landscape and gardening club when we planned this.

They were really proactive in shaping what would go in, and that was a big component that they wanted to include in this project, was a way to kind of help our environment with native plants and pollinators.

So the use of Mishawaka actually invested their time and knowledge to improve the environment here.

Let's take a look at some other flowers.

Oh, gosh, it's just really beautiful here.

I mean, if you do come up off of the underpass, you're you'll be stunned by what you see right now, especially at this time of year.

Well, thank you.

A lot of what is in here is a mix of some native, some non-native, but all very showy flowering plants.

Every year we leave some open space for students to put in annuals, things that they've grown in the garden club program.

And then we also just have a mix of perennials that we like to hold on to as well.

But it's very densely planted with a very large variety.

And we did that just to diversify our planting, just not only for color and show, but just for our pollinators to be able to have access to flowers for an extended period of the season.

Yeah, it looks really thick with plants that are blooming, which takes down on the weed weeding work.

I would suspect because there's no room for them to come out and much more beautiful, rich ecosystem than an empty lot.

Right.

You know, originally this was all just grass, this entire strip here with just a few trees.

And so now it's a it's a pretty rich, vibrant asset for the community to enjoy.

Wow And this was really started by the community.

This wasn't just something you said, hey, this be cool and the kids want to do it.

This I'm looking at a lot of names on your signs here.

Yes, folks, that helped out.

This was a big community type project.

The Meshwork Education Foundation was the chief sponsor.

We also had significant donations from many others as well.

Students helped design, build, fund, raise everything for this, and they helped maintain it currently.

And all the names here on these signs, all these people contributed to help make this a reality.

And so it's a really it's a big win for the community with so many people coming together to make it happen.

Wow So it's summer now.

I don't really want to hang out in the green house at this time of year, but you do have a year round thing.

What else going on inside?

Yeah.

So we can take a quick look inside.

Like you said, it's I turn the fans off.

It's probably pretty toasty as the inside of our space during the summer.

The landscape department primarily uses it just as a hub for storing plants as we are doing renovations and moving things out into the parks.

We do offer some classes periodically throughout the year, but primarily the space is used with school settings, Mishawaka with the young adult services class and my garden club.

We're trying to kind of expand some of those programs to engage the community in different ways.

But we have pretty limited staff.

And so trying to fit all that in, we need some community partners We partnered with Uniti Gardens and a few others to do some classes in here as well.

Oh, makes it hard to do classes in here when it's over 100 years ago.

So primarily most of our class activities would be outside during the summer months.

Well, this is really a fantastic resource.

Jake, thanks so much for encouraging the kids to carry this dream forward, to provide, you know, great free, healthy food for the community, a place to learn and socialize and really beautifying the environment.

So folks should get off the road, turn in, take a look and hang out, have a snack.

There's some peaches out there, too.

Yeah, they're getting close to being ripe.

So definitely come check those out.

Cool.

Thanks a lot.

Yeah, thank you.

Should we show that?

OK, here's the final product.

Where are these?

Can you believe it?

I am so proud of myself now.

And I just can I just love on my cell phone.

You can totally out of myself.

I've never been able to paint anything in my life.

And what did I see?

Mountains.

I can actually visualize the interior ministry.

A mountain.

I know.

I know.

It was so much fun and furniture was great.

She really knew how to walk through it.

Yeah.

And I had so much fun at the zoo.

I can't believe we got to pet a rhino today.

So I thought I was kind of a little a little antiemetic.

But he was so sweet, he was filling in the flamingo, gave me a little haircut, filmable somewhere to get a selfie with you.

Well, this is all about it.

Well, don't forget that you could always share some experiences that are in your area.

We'd love to check them out, too.

So go on to our Facebook page experience, Michiana, and let us know what we can visit to know when we've been experiencing a lot of great things lately.

The yoga, the paddle, your one.

I'm still sore from that.

And now here, this wonderful painting.

Can't wait to see what we're going to experience next week and make sure that you guys join us so we can all experience it together.

We'll see you then.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.