One, two, three, four.

Get my shoes then out the door.

Five I'm alive, six, seven, eight feelin' great.

Nine, gonna shine, life is good I'm doing fine.

Ten, Gonna do it right then do it again.

Yeah yeah.

I look up to the sky with all the beautiful color but, there's more than just for me so gonna share it with another.

I got to show, to give, let out, I want to sing and shout.

Take a look and see A beautiful morning that turns into beautiful evening.

And together make a beautiful life.

And if you want see, then come along with me.

That's right.

Hello and welcome to experience Michiana I am really wondering how this looks right now.

I'm at the Hall of Heroes Museum.

Superhero Museum in Elkhart.

And next week on the show, you should tune in and find out why I'm here.

I feel deeply uncomfortable, and we might have to call the local fire department for the jaws of life to get me out of here.

But for this week's show, Courtney went along to the Woods Fitness.

Kelly was at The Olive Tale.

But first, we're going to iInRugCo in Mishawaka to find out what they do.

Today we are in downtown Mishawaka, checking out our awesome shop InRugCo's, a studio and gift shop.

There's lots to see and do here.

We have with us Lindsay, who is the manager.

Hi there.

This is such a gorgeous space.

Thank you.

How long have you guys been in this building?

We've been in this location for seven years.

But you guys have really been around for nearly four decades.

Yes.

Yeah.

We started out of a two store garage and we've been in several locations.

But this is a permanent one, so we're not going away.

And how did InRugCo start?

Okay.

So my mom wanted to stay home with her kids, so she got a little unconventional and started doing art and carpet and started designing customary rugs into people's homes.

And that sort of turned into a textile business for her, started making aprons and pillow covers and market bags.

And one thing led to another.

And we started a retail store where we realized we can't just sell the things we make because we can't make it quick enough.

Sure.

So we started dabbling into all we like this and we carry large cast iron because we as a family like large cast iron.

And it just has segued into all of these different things that is now become the gift shop that we are now.

These are a few of my favorite things.

Yes, exactly.

Exactly.

And you have some of the textiles up here.

This is great.

Have a handmade pillow cover.

Yes.

Yeah.

And so we we make three sizes and we have the forms or you can just buy the covers.

They're sold in sets of two.

And it's really great to get a good look for your couch and do things online for the while.

I know it's, you know, spring, summer is here.

It's time to put an fresh feel on everything.

Exactly.

To do it.

And aprons.

I love aprons.

Yes.

Kitchen aprons.

Yes.

And we have them.

So we make a couple different styles and those are modeled after our ancestors, like my grandma and my great aunt.

And so we have some that are if you're the hostess or some if you're nitty gritty and really a messy chef.

We have aprons for those ones that cover your whole body.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

Now, you guys carry some local artisans aware, too.

Yes.

Yeah.

So any time we have an earring line, we have a candle line.

So we love to support local artists when we can.

We're a big fans of that.

That's awesome.

And one of the new things that you've added, this looks delicious here.

Tell me where they go in 2021, we launched Lola's Bakery and so we put a commercial kitchen in and we are the bakers.

So we bake and we have delicious.

Everything is scratch made, nothing has preservatives, so it's very fresh ingredients.

We use seasonal fruit and all kinds of things.

So you can always find a good treat here.

That's awesome.

So people can grab a snack to go while they shop, even if they want to do that.

Yeah.

And actually the bakery has been going so well.

We're in a little bit of a remodel and will be renovating our bakery space, so it will be an even better experience coming soon.

That's awesome.

I love that and I know there are lots more to see and do.

So let's go check out some more things.

Sounds good now, Clark, thank you for showing us.

Is kind of this next area you're also second generation here, too.

Yeah, it's it's all in the family here.

That's awesome.

And this is kind of very unique, I think, because when you come to Michiana you really you know, South Bend is the overpowering city, if you will.

But we're in Mishawaka, so actually getting some Mishawaka merchandise.

That's fantastic.

Exactly.

When my sister and I started this, the idea was that, you know, if you're coming to South Bend, your normally going to get like a Notre Dame shirt or something or maybe the South Bend Cubs.

And we thought there's a whole other side to Mishawaka and Michiana and it needs some representation and t shirts.

So that was the whole idea.

And so you guys actually come up with these designs or how does that process work?

Yeah, most of the designs, we just we get together and we brainstorm and we crack up and think, well, what if we did this?

Or, you know, what if we did that idea?

Now, some of the ideas come from customers.

Okay?

We had a large demand for the ball band t shirt.

You know, the former manufacturing site.

And that's really amazing because we have customers come in and they reminisce about how their parents used to work there or it's a Father's Day gift for someone.

So it's been a great way to engage the community with these t shirts, with some of your other favorite ones that you guys have come up with?

I think so.

The one that started it all was Keep Indiana Corny and it was a I love it.

It was a riff on Keep Austin Weird.

Now, the funny thing is we launched it and it totally bombed.

It was the first time we ever did a t shirt.

It was in the store for a year.

No one purchased it.

Oh, my God.

Why?

We bought it.

Well, thank you.

One time we said, Well, what if we make a sign and say, it's like, Keep Austin weird, and then it ignited and it went, okay, so that one is really popular.

And then anything with the Saint Joseph River because you know, we're right across the street from Central Park.

We love the river and quite frankly, we don't know why more people don't enjoy it.

So we love making anything that talks about the river because it's our resources why we're here.

Absolutely.

Absolutely now.

You guys even have some stickers?

Yes.

Stickers are a huge craze right now.

Yeah.

And Lindsey and I, we're those people with the water bottle covered in sticker, the cooler are covered in stickers.

So just like the T-shirts, it was like, we need all this stuff.

So, you know, probably our favorite sticker as of late is this one that riffs on Where are you from?

Okay.

Kind of the the old adage of you can't tell someone you're from Mishawaka, right?

You got to tell them, oh, I'm from Notre Dame.

Yep, yep.

Do you know where that's at?

Yeah, exactly.

Sure.

So these are probably super popular then, too.

Yeah.

And we have a mix.

You know, half of the stickers on here we've made and design and others are just ones that we like.

So we'll always have a huge sticker collection.

Now, do you find a lot of your customers?

Are they generally local people?

Are people coming in from out of town?

What have you found?

I would say as of lately, it's like a 5050 split.

We have a lot of locals, but we have people come from Kalamazoo.

We have people from Warsaw, I've had tourists from Philly, I've had a family from L.A. and here, and that is just for us.

Like, it gives us goosebumps.

Yeah, that they want to come to our little gift shop.

Absolutely.

And you guys have so much more to offer.

I know you have some specific brands that you carry as well, too, I think next we're going to go check outside with Lindsay perfect.

Let's head out there.

So, Lindsay, now that we've walked through the entire indoor space, you walk through the back door and are greeted with this beautiful outdoor space.

Yes.

So we love this space because we think it's like traveling to another world.

Right.

It just it makes you happy to come out here.

It's so bright and colorful.

It is.

So we open usually in May, the outdoor patio with a big grand opening.

We always have a big event and new with this sort of bakery, new transition.

We're going to be having a lot more events out in this space because it is a great event space.

We have a bar back there.

That's great.

So I've been here in the winter where I've had hot chocolate.

Yes.

Yes, we do that sometimes.

Yeah.

And Frosty the Snowman hangs out out here.

So we make it shoppable.

But we also will be introducing more events to this space in the coming future.

That's awesome.

And I know lots of people are looking for maybe some specific things and I know, you know, some of those pots and things.

Do you guys put those together?

We do.

That is one of my mom's many hobbies.

She has the best green thumb, so any plant she puts together, it will be much easier, much harder to kill.

And now she does a really good job putting it together.

So they're beautiful and they're for sale as well.

So that's a wonderful no.

Where can people get more information about your hours?

Sure.

So we we're active on Instagram and Facebook.

We have a website, Indiana run COCOM, and we are open Tuesday through Friday 11 to 530 and Saturday 11 to 3.

That's awesome.

So, so much stuff.

And I know you can even buy stuff online too.

So not somebody who's maybe outside of Michiana I Mishawaka area, if they wanted to go online, they can.

Yes, I know.

Yeah, absolutely.

We ship all over the world.

Oh, that's interesting.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, thanks for showing us around.

You're welcome.

Thanks for coming.

We are so thrilled to be here at the Olive Tail with Jenna, who is the owner.

And Jenna, I thought, what an appropriate name for your business because you truly have quite the story of resilience and overcoming.

And it's something that you didn't even really see that was coming into your life.

So tell us a little bit about it.

Okay.

So my dad passed away and I, I dealt with that with drinking.

And so I started drinking a lot, dealing with the grief and the sadness and I just I needed a better life.

I needed something else.

I realized it wasn't what I wanted, and I just started messing around with paper.

In January of 2020.

I needed something to keep my mind and my hands busy.

We all did too, in 2020.

Oh my goodness.

What a great and horrible time to start a business.

But I didn't see it becoming what it is.

You know, I was just thinking I need to keep my mind and my hands busy and stay out of the bottle.

And I just started messing with it because I had boxes of greeting cards from my husband.

He is the best card picker that all the husbands have been.

Mr. Olive is great at picking cards and now it's like, okay, I have to let him sit for at least 24 hours and he knows that.

So he's like, I didn't really pick it for the words I picked it for how it looks, right?

So anyway, so I had boxes of cards, I had scrap of paper from when I used to scrapbook, you know, before I got a cell phone and gave that up and I just started messing with it.

Now, the materials, I mean, those are very, very unique materials to work with to make jewelry.

Is it is it difficult?

I've been teaching my sister, who I've hired, to actually make the jewelry.

And she said, I make it look easy.

So apparently it's difficult, but not for you.

Not for me.

Apparently, she's like, you go really fast and they're all so perfect.

And it's I mean, it was not like that in the beginning.

So tell me, how did it.

Okay, so you have something like paper.

Yeah, you said and then you're just looking at it.

What made you think like, huh.

I think I can do say I think this might.

Yeah, like so.

Okay, so here's this piece.

When I'm cutting paper, I just start cutting them.

Right.

But I was looking at the greeting cards even from when I remember, my granny would give me cards and I would look at them and think the cards are so pretty and then you put them in a box or you put them in a drawer, you know?

And I just thought, there's got to be something that I can do with this.

And I love jewelry.

I love earrings, especially the bigger the better.

Yes, but I agree.

I totally agree.

And I have short hair even like shave the side so I can see the earrings more.

But I, I wanted variety.

I wanted a different pair every day.

And it's like the only way I could afford it at the time was to make my own.

And I, I mean, just walking into your studio, I mean, the items that you have, they're so unique and so one of a kind.

And you actually can custom make pieces as well.

Yes.

Yes.

So people contact me all the time.

Can you do this?

I have like a wedding invitation.

My daughter's getting married, like we talked about.

And I can make jewelry from just.

Just about anything.

That's paper.

A lot of people will contact me for my new book, Jewelry, and I'll say, this is my sister's favorite book.

I had someone where the crawdads sing.

That's the new movie coming out.

Her favorite book, I'm making her earrings for her birthday.

So if it's I can always say I can try.

Now not all paper is created equal so there's some doesn't work most of the time at us right now.

Where can people find you?

Because we actually first heard about you at InRugCo in.

Right?

Yes, yes.

Indiana Rug Co Mishawaka.

Yeah.

So but you you're really all over the place.

Yeah.

So well, first I had my own website.

I went from Etsy, that's where I started.

And now I have my own website, the Olive Tale dot com.

I'm a regular vendor most weekends at Skip's European Farmers Market in New Buffalo.

I'm in like 15 stores, but locally I'm a Indiana rug company.

I'm at the botany shop and there I have plant themed earrings.

So the only thing I have there has to do with leaves and flowers and plants and greenery.

So those are great.

And then I have some actually at the St Joe Hospital, the gift shop.

Oh, that's great.

So I have some there.

But throughout Michiana I have like 15 stores.

One of the things you do too is you custom make, but you also people can come and make the earrings you actually have.

Do it yourself, kits Yes.

So I call your DIY parties.

So it's great.

For the last one I did was for a 15 year old birthday party.

Her and some of her cousins and friends came and they make their earrings.

So they pick from the paper pieces that I offer.

And then all of these drawers are filled with I call it flair.

Yes.

And so you add the paper pieces to whatever flair you want, you can stack them.

They get so creative.

It like it helps me be creative because I look at what they like.

Right?

And so they'll stack them up and they'll do two or three pieces.

And so I have information about how to schedule a DIY on my website and basically you can, you can come here or I can come to you.

I can also do it in kind of a neutral place, like a library or a restaurant.

Okay, so you're going to teach me how to make some earrings?

Yeah.

So you're going to design the aisle.

I'm going to get you help me a little bit.

Yes.

I think I'm an artistic person when it comes to things like this.

I don't feel like I'm no, I'm like a that so, you know, help me out.

Yes.

Okay.

So if anything is calling to you, so if you have a certain color, if there's something specific that you're looking for, like these are little spacemen and these are little dinosaurs and paper airplanes and tacos.

So I just have the most random.

But then also the most classic, like black and white stripes.

This is some rose.

It's really you know what I love, Rose Gold.

Yeah, that's like, totally my favorite.

So I'm going to go with the Rose Gold.

Okay.

Yep.

So then you have your pieces and then you just you come over here and you're like, okay, do you like plastic?

Do you like metal?

Do you like wood?

I like kind of natural.

Like a very natural look.

Like yours are adorable.

Oh, okay.

But I also like metal like, you know, so.

Right.

And you can you can stack it so a lot of my wood pieces are here and so you can see you and you can do this until fun.

That's adorable.

Oh, my God.

So I'm using it with this really big cue and there.

Oh, really?

Okay, I want these.

I changed my mind.

Look at that.

And I just and I just got these.

So you're the first one is picking up.

Oh, I love those so much.

I know.

I'm just like my happy earring dancer.

Yeah, it's gonna look, you know, I just love that it's custom made.

Like, this is exactly what you want.

Because sometimes you have this outfit and you wish that you could find earrings for the app, and you just can't.

I know you really can't experience make an outfit.

They really do.

I cannot believe how fast you whip these up.

Oh, my goodness.

And look.

Okay, you know what?

I'm taking these out real well here, and I'll give you some of these.

Let me see this little rubber back.

Let me see.

And here's a mirror if you need them.

Yeah, you know, because it's a little hard sometimes.

Ladies, you know.

You know, it's a little hard.

You need that mirror to get the earrings in.

And then here's the little rubber bags if you want to put those on.

Okay, now look at this.

Look at that.

This or this definitely is so cute.

Is wonderful.

Oh, thank you so much, Jenna It was wonderful meeting you.

And I just want to say thank you for not only your jewelry, but for being an inspiration to our community.

We need more people like you.

And so just thank you so much.

And I just have to say, today at The Olive Tale, I met Jenna, who truly is a boss lady.

Boss lady.

You know, you're an olive, and now I'm.

Oh, my God.

You're welcome.

If you like the outdoors and if you like to get active, this is the place to be.

Today we are up at the Woods Fitness Park and I have with us Mike, who is the owner here.

This is a really unique space that we have in Michiana.

I'm not even sure if we have anything else like this.

I don't think we do.

This is amazing.

And you've put this together over the past couple of years.

How did that come to be in 2020?

We actually didn't have a lot of snow, so we run a snow plow company.

So we just started building obstacles for me to train and we kept building and building.

And then before you knew it, by June we had opened up a course with 50 obstacles.

So there's a lot of obstacles.

And for those folks who maybe don't know exactly what that entails, what does a typical obstacle course look like out here?

Okay, so out here we have it's three miles of wooded trails.

There's obstacles like rope climbing, monkey bars climbing up and over.

And then we also have workout stations where you'll stop, you do some jumping lunges, you'll do a burpee, you'll do sit ups, push ups.

And like I said, you can just walk, you can pick your obstacles.

It's different weights.

There's different heights from I mean, we've had one two year olds out here with their family, to eighty year old people just coming out to walk to get in the shade.

Yeah.

And that was how I found out about this.

I have friends who came out here with their family and had a great time doing it.

And.

Are you guys open all year long?

We are.

We're open sunup to sundown pretty much every day.

It gets a little dark in there towards nighttime.

And then in the wintertime, you know, if it's you can still do the obstacles, you can come walk.

It is pet friendly.

So people bring their dogs out.

You can train with your dog.

There's a lot of dog friendly obstacles.

30 or 40 dog friendly.

Probably not my dog.

I have a little Bijan.

You can carry them.

So yeah, but there is options for that.

And you guys actually have an event coming up to you.

An obstacle with your dog.

Absolutely.

We have the first it is the Midwest canine obstacle run October 22nd.

Okay.

And it's it's a race you do with your dog.

You can walk, you can run, you'll go over your dog or at least here you're going to go over ramps.

You'd be crawling up and over things.

It is a really cool event for the whole dog community.

People will be camping, will have food trucks, live music all day long.

We hope to have hundreds of people with their dogs out here having a good time and for people to participate in obstacle course.

How do they do that?

Do they register?

What's the pavement so they get right online at the Woods Fitness Park Ecom you can go right on.

We kind of made it touch free.

Okay, you go right on.

You fill out your waiver, which is good forever.

Once you fill it out, you can pay right online or there's a cash drop box if you want to pay cash and then the park is yours all day.

That way you can work at your own speed.

We hope to have music playing out here soon.

So, I mean, it's just kind of like an outdoor gym that's yours all day.

Work at your own speed, go your own pace, come out with friends, come back later, bring some more friends.

Yeah, yeah.

But even without the music, I mean, just listening to nature.

Absolutely.

I mean, that's so peaceful, right?

Absolutely.

It is.

It's beautiful in there.

We have families of deer and their animals everywhere.

Don't be scared.

We do spray for mosquitoes.

Okay.

I was going to ask that.

Do we need to bring our bug spray with us?

I have bug spray here.

We do spray, but obviously it's it's 25 acres of woods.

But we do spray.

We try to keep the ticks, mosquitoes, everything away.

We do a lot of work in here, trimming everything back to keep everything so poison ivy.

I guess if it leaves the three of us, that's a good thing about the landscape company.

We're all licensed to do all the training, so the two kind of tie in really?

Well, look at that.

Well, hey, I would love to check out some of these obstacles.

Absolutely.

You have out here.

Are you ready to get back?

Let's go.

All right, let's do it.

Okay.

Can you start us off easy here?

Absolutely.

So this is the first obstacle kind of to get everybody warmed up.

It's a 1938 aerial speedwagon.

That's awesome for everybody to see.

Not many around anymore, but it's a simple up and over obstacle that everybody can do.

Just get you warmed up.

All right, let's do it.

Follow you.

Should I skipped steps to make it fast?

That is.

Watch me fall down the steps this way and so.

All right.

All right.

Time to get that heart pumping.

Okay, now we're in the tire run.

So is the goal to go fast or just get to do whatever you want?

Okay.

Just as fast as you want without tripping.

Okay.

That's the goal.

And if you don't want to go through the tire run, there's other options too, right?

Sure.

You can go around on the outside.

Every obstacle has a way to go around it.

If you don't feel comfortable doing okay.

So there's accessibility.

So maybe if somebody has a stroller with them with the younger kid, they still have an option or a little bit of off road rough riding, but they can do it.

Absolutely.

All right.

Let's see what's next.

This is the kid's favorite, usually just because they see on TV.

I don't know if I can do this.

I mean, it's tough.

You can get him doing it.

So that's what kids see on the TV.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's like that's like a typical ninja warrior kind of style, right?

There's a lot of obstacles out here that relate to Ninja Warriors.

So I know a lot of kids are into that now.

So absolutely.

My my one of my grandsons is actually doing ninja classes.

So awesome that he loves it.

I don't know if I can do this though.

I want to as far apart.

Okay, ready?

I can't jump to it.

I know that it's a ways.

It is too far for me.

That tells you how tough it is when you watch it on TV.

They make it look so easy.

Yeah.

So it's a total body workout because obviously this is an upper body workout, but you're still using your legs.

Oh, okay, good.

I'm going to do the right one.

Okay, so hoist to the top.

Let down easy.

No bucket dropping.

Yep.

Oh, that was easy.

Where's my easy button?

All the way to the top, all the way.

And when it stops, you got to bring it down nice and slow.

That's even is just as much as it is workout, isn't it?

Well, it's even a thigh workout.

I mean, really, you get a great workout.

Absolutely.

Full body, plus you're getting three miles of walking, jogging, running, whatever you want to do.

So get your steps in for the day.

Absolutely.

All right.

That's pretty cool.

I like that one.

These are kind of the place I like because there's tougher stuff like monkey bars, there's speed ropes, there's a workout station, there's up and out jump bars as a cross.

There's a whole lot of stuff to do.

Yeah, there's a little bit of everything.

So if you're in a group to go over there, to go over here, you can use this as a work like a gym.

Okay?

You can use it as a facility.

People are over here doing jacks, two people are doing the monkey bars, two people are doing box jumps, two people are doing it.

So we can do box jumps, probably high.

Maybe I can get off of there.

That's the shorter one.

And once again, you can do any I mean, you could do a step up, you can do a high leg lift, you can do a regular one.

Oh, there's all different variations.

You can do what some people can't, so they just step up.

Perhaps we can do that to step up.

Step down.

You can step on the side and you just hieroglyphs, huh?

Keep you high leg lifts, all different activities to do so you can basically do a different routine every time you come to an obstacle.

Okay.

Which makes it a great variety to change it up every time you come out here.

Absolutely not.

Tell me, what were these once again that when you call all the way under, okay, we're not doing that.

That's the one you didn't want to get dirty and don't know if you've ever done ropes before.

That's the new thing that everybody advertises when it comes to like CrossFit is the new thing.

But sure, but I don't know.

Many outdoor places they have ropes.

But once again, it's you just or double or shoulders or you can vary it up and do jumping jacks.

So there's so many things you can do at each station.

Absolutely.

You have a good variety.

Absolutely.

Now, that looks like it's taller than me.

So that's not going to have you have like a kids version, right.

So we go over here and kids can put you know, they can put their feet on here.

I put different grips up.

Okay?

We added more grips for shorter people.

Try to make it kind of vertically challenge.

I don't even know if my arms.

Oh, my gosh.

Okay, here we go.

All right.

That works.

I can do that.

That's just so much fun.

I really feel like I'm getting a workout here today.

So the big kids.

So all of this, it's how long does it take to do the whole process?

Oh, I would plan on between an hour and 2 hours.

Okay.

You can leave whenever you want.

You're never more than a quarter mile away.

Oh, that screams right where you park.

So you can go back in any time.

Okay.

Like I said, it's really user friendly.

You can come if you have a half hour spend.

If you want to spend 2 hours here, you can go through twice, three times.

It's all day.

And the map was out front too.

So if you're like, Hey, on Mondays I'm going to do this, and then on Tuesdays I'm going to do that, and then you can kind of focus that that way, too.

Yeah.

And there's some days you want do the obstacle, some days you want to do the workout stations.

Yes, you can do whatever you want.

So that is so awesome.

Well, where can people get more information?

Once again, everything is right on the Woods Fitness Park, dot com, pictures, videos, everything you want to see.

Okay, perfect.

Well, thanks so much.

Hope you can join us.

We're up here in Benton Harbor.

And if you want to get physical or just come out and enjoy the trails, you can do all that.

Just go on to the website and check it out.

So don't forget to tune in next week to experience Michigan and to find out all about the Hall of Heroes Super Hero Museum.

That's where I am right now.

It's a really great place.

And don't forget, if there's something that you think we should experience, use the hashtag experience Michiana or just send us a message on Facebook.

Hey, guys, there is so much going on in the Michiana area right now this time of year.

We just wanted to let you know about a few more things that are happening this weekend.

A reminder that Michiana vegs fest is happening this Sunday from 11 to 5 at the Century Center.

It was featured a few weeks ago on experience Michiana And it's a free event.

So be sure to check that out.

Over in Shipsheewana, the Machina Event Center or the MEC The circus is there and it's in town now through Sunday.

The Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum in North Judson is giving rides on their pumpkin train this Saturday and next Saturday.

The rides are on a steam train and enjoying the fall scenery and you end up in the pumpkin patch also at Eden Springs in Benton Harbor.

They'll be doing their annual Halloween train rides this Saturday and Sunday as well as next weekend.

Also, look out for their Christmas themed train rides will be happening later on this year.

We hope that you get out and Experience Michiana and all the great things that are going on and if you do remember post about it, use the hashtag experience Michiana That way we can see what you're up to.

Well, until next time, have a great weekend, everybody.

experience Machiana is made possible in par by the Community Foundation of Saint Joseph County and the Indiana Arts Commission, which receives support from the state of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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

Thank you.