WTIU members.

Thank you!

>> ASHLEY: Coming up... >> BRANDON: Brush up on a barnyard skill.

>> ASHLEY: Make some new four-legged friends.

>> BRANDON: And get yourself ready for the great outdoors.

>> ASHLEY: That's all on this episode of -- >> TOGETHER: "Journey Indiana."

♪ >> BRANDON: Welcome to "Journey Indiana."

I'm Brandon Wentz.

>> ASHLEY: And I'm Ashley Chilla.

And we're coming to you from Jasper Community Arts in Dubois County.

This amazing community space in the heart of Jasper is a haven for the arts.

Visitors can stroll through one of the many gallery exhibits, take part in a workshop, and even come out to see a show.

There's something for everyone's inner artist at Jasper Community Arts.

>> BRANDON: And we'll learn all about this creative place in just a bit.

But first, producer Nick Deel takes us to Tippecanoe County to learn how to fleece sheep of their fleece.

♪ >> ASHLEY: Wool has been used by humans for centuries.

It's a durable, versatile fiber that keeps us warm in the winter and wicks away sweat in the summer.

But the next time you pull that sweater over your head or put on those cozy socks, think for a moment about what it took to collect all that fluffy fleece.

♪ >> We're here at ASREC at Purdue University.

That's the Animal Sciences Research and Education Center.

They have the sheep unit here, which is Purdue sheep, used for research and education.

>> And today's education comes courtesy of the Indiana Sheep Association.

They've brought together a group of sheep experts to teach willing students the age-old craft of sheep shearing.

>> The Indiana Sheep Association holds events like these because in Indiana, there's not a lot of sheep shearers around.

It's kind of a nationwide shortage, but especially in the Midwest, we don't have a lot of people who know how to shear sheep, and every sheep with wool needs to be shorn every single year.

If you don't shear a sheep, it's a problem for the sheep and for you trying to manage that sheep.

So it needs to come off, and people need to be able to know how to do that, and there are very few that do.

>> While there are tens of thousands of sheep in the state of Indiana, there are only a handful of professional shearers, making it a vanishingly scarce skill.

>> Well, I think the reason there's not as many of them is just because literally, the skill -- like, something like this is one of the only ways to learn how to shear.

Also, there's been popularity in hair breeds.

So sheep that you don't actually have to shear.

And there's just fewer and fewer people who know how to do it to teach the next generation.

>> But there may be other reasons for the sheep shearer shortage.

>> I mean, it is a back-breaking job.

There's not -- there's not a harder job in the world than shearing sheep.

I mean, it's a -- you've got to have some tenacity to stay with it.

But if you want to do it, basically, you just got to shear more sheep.

I mean, that's the way you get better at it, by just doing it more is all.

And the more you do, the better you get.

I mean, it's just kind of like anything else.

>> Baaah.

>> So how do you go about shearing a sheep exactly?

>> Well, it's -- it's not a real complicated, you know, process.

People think that you use your hands a lot, which you do use your hands because you are obviously moving the sheep around and so forth, but you hold them with your legs.

I heard a guy say one time, if you are shearing properly, at any time somebody can say, hey, while you are shearing, and you ought to be able to bring both your hands up and still keep ahold of the sheep.

>> And it's that practical, time-tested advice that can be invaluable to someone new to raising sheep, or for those who only manage a small flock.

>> So the reason I wanted to come out and shear sheep today was because I work at a historical nonprofit farm.

>> That would be the farm at Prophetstown State Park, which we highly recommend.

>> And we have three sheep, and we decided that instead of hiring somebody, we felt like we wanted our staff to learn how to do it ourselves, and this opportunity came up, and we all three signed up.

I was, you know, very surprised that kind of the way their bodies can rotate and the fact that, you know, it's really hard to hurt them, even though the positions they are in do kind of look like it could be painful, but it's really just, you know, we're not sheep, you know?

So you kind of -- I definitely learned that today.

I learned a little bit more about sheep anatomy as well.

>> Now, you may be thinking at this point, this looks a little rough.

>> Okay.

Well, what I tell people is there is no way that you're -- if you shear sheep, that you are not occasionally going to cut them.

Sometimes they get cut.

They may bleed a little, but it doesn't really hurt, and we have to shear 'em.

I mean, if we don't, they're going to be miserable.

Trust me, they would much rather get cut a couple times than they would carry that wool around for five or six years, because I've sheared some like that, and oh, my goodness, they are just miserable.

>> At the end of the day, the sheep are shorn, and headed back out to pasture while the wool is collected for composting.

And these students are a few sheep closer to becoming master shearers.

>> So the goal here is hopefully a professional shearer will come out of this.

If not, we hope people will shear their own sheep.

That will take some pressure off of the professional shearers.

And if, you know, that's not even the case, they'll -- they'll learn to respect their shearer because it is an extremely hard and strenuous job.

>> ASHLEY: Brandon, I watch this art, and do you know what I think of?

This is oddly reminiscent of trying to get a toddler dressed in the morning.

That's what I thought.

And, you know, you want to talk about hard jobs, both of those, hard jobs.

>> BRANDON: I feel like I would be pretty good at this with the exception for the fact that I'm allergic to wool.

I feel like that might be detrimental to this skill set.

>> ASHLEY: Yeah, it might not be the job for you.

>> BRANDON: Yeah.

Want to learn more?

Head to Indianasheep.com.

>> ASHLEY: Earlier, we spoke with the folks here at Jasper Community Arts to see what gets their creative juices flowing.

>> Jasper Community Arts is headquartered in the Thyen-Clark Cultural Center, which is in downtown Jasper.

We opened here in January of 2021.

So the goals of Jasper Community Arts at their core is to provide opportunities and experiences in the arts that would otherwise not be available in a community of our size.

The Thyen-Clark Cultural Center is comprised of multiple different spaces dedicated to the arts.

The biggest of which would be the three gallery spaces we have.

There's 6,000 square feet of exhibit space here at the cultural center, and that's just wall space.

That doesn't take into account the ceiling heights that we have for installations.

We also have a black box theater, along with multiple workshop studios and private studios that house different art entities.

The kinds of artists that we have on display in the galleries range in terms of discipline, geographic location.

There's really not much that we can't display here, given the size of the exhibit spaces.

We source most of our artists from an open call that we host.

So anyone is welcome to apply.

There's no cost to submit your artwork for exhibition, and we run that for three months out of the year, and then we also have some instances, some specific exhibits where we reach out.

And then we try to find those one off unique opportunities.

We're able to bring those opportunities here.

So those folks that live here, would not otherwise get a chance maybe to travel somewhere, pay 20, 30 or more dollars to see an exhibit like that, can come in and see it for free.

We have about 18 exhibits in total each year.

There's always a new exhibit on display every month.

So if you come this month, don't think you've seen everything for a while, because it's going to be brand new the next month.

Jasper Community Arts offers classes for people to learn about a lot of different type of art styles and skills.

Clay is extremely popular, it's probably the most popular workshop that we offer.

We have different skill levels that we accommodate.

And in addition to that, we offer open studio time.

So for a small fee, you can come in and take what you have learned in a class and just play, and just have fun with it.

So a lot of folks, they have that artistic side, but they don't maybe have the materials at home, or they don't have the space at home, or they really don't know how to get started.

And being able to mingle with others who have a like interest, but maybe come from different backgrounds as well, really gives you that sense of space and community.

So that's really important.

And, again, it comes back to providing that opportunity to have that experience that you may not otherwise have.

Jasper is always moving forward.

And we're not just going to be the same community that you thought you knew when you lived here 10, 15, 20 years ago.

It's always changing.

It's a dynamic community, and we are not shy about investing in ourselves.

What we do should not be possible in a town of this size, but it works, and I think the community is better off for it.

>> ASHLEY: I love when an idea meets an opportunity.

So I have talked about wanting to throw pottery before on this show, and how I've never done it, and how I would like to.

We can do that here, Brandon.

>> BRANDON: Yeah, it's amazing the number of things you can learn to do here and then do here and then show off here.

>> ASHLEY: Want to learn more?

Head to Jasperarts.org.

>> BRANDON: Up next, producer Brian Johnson takes us to Franklin County to join the pack at the Wolf Creek Habitat and Sanctuary.

[ Howling ] >> Well, there's a stigma about the middle child, and I'm proof of that.

It seemed like I was the one that got in trouble all the time.

So I treat the wolves like they're a middle child.

>> In the small town of Brookville, Indiana, lies Wolf Creek Habitat and Sanctuary.

Owner and operator Kathy Baudendistile has dedicated her life to the preservation of wolves.

♪ >> My name is Kathy Baudendistile, and I'm a/k/a mama wolf.

>> Aren't you gonna talk to mama?

[ Howling ] Oh, I love yous.

>> Our story began back in 2001.

We rescued an Arctic pack.

The guy had a heart attack and he couldn't take care of them anymore.

So he gave us all this fencing.

We went up and got the boys and girls.

As the guys were up there, they found a den of babies.

So we ended up with -- there were five adults and six babies.

Some of our wolves here are descendants from them.

♪ >> I had a lady one time bring her husband for her birthday.

And I says, aren't you going to go out?

And she says, no, I'm scared to death.

And I says, do you trust me?

And she says, yes.

And I took her out, and I set her on the tank.

And they all came up to her, and they were so gentle with her.

They -- they gave her kisses, and when I brought her out, she was crying.

I says, now you can go back and tell everybody you set with a pack of wolves.

The people that come consider this a very spiritual place.

They come because they know.

Our wolves know when you're sick.

They will come up to your mouth, and they'll -- they'll smell your breath.

We had a lady here one time that Arrow did that, and he wouldn't leave her alone.

He'd just come up and smell her mouth.

And I says, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?

And she says, sure.

I said, are you sick?

She says, yes, I've got leukemia.

So they know that.

And she just passed away a few weeks ago, and her husband sent me a card to tell me, thank you for making that the last thing on her bucket list.

>> We operate on donations.

There's people that will sponsor a wolf.

That helps a whole lot.

We sell a lot of stuff out of the gift shop, and all of that goes back to the wolves.

There's a lot of maintenance to take care of this place.

We don't charge anything to come and see them because we have the nice observation deck.

If you want to interact with a wolf, it's $50 a person.

We have very wonderful hunters around here.

They bring us everything that's left over after they take the meat that they want.

We have processors that do the same thing.

If they ever have anything extra, they will -- they will bring it out.

We have -- one of our sponsors, he's amazing.

He brings stuff from the food bank down in Cincinnati.

Our wolves eat better than we do.

This place, we're hoping, will be here for a lot of years.

The last time we bred was seven years ago.

So we don't do it just because.

We do it to keep this place going.

And most of these wolves out here, unfortunately, are going to not be here in five years because of their ages.

They live to be about -- in our place, because they are so big, they tend to pass away anywhere between 10 and 12 years.

Average out in the wild is 5 to 6 years.

If you ever hear them growl, they are never growling at us.

They are growling at each other because they're jealous of each other.

All of them have a different personality.

They'll either kiss you to death, or they're going to just be nervous because we're out there.

What we see that is so special about our wolves is they're unconditional.

No matter how you feel, if you walk out there and you're depressed, they take all that away, and it makes you feel so good.

I can't imagine not doing this.

We've been doing this for 26 years.

So they are my middle children.

Yeah.

They're my middle child, every one of them.

>> BRANDON: Okay.

So unlike a lot of the things that we share with the audience here, I've actually been to this place before we went for the show.

It's amazing!

If you have the opportunity, you should go.

I can't recommend it enough!

Want to learn more?

Head to wolfcreekhabitat.org.

>> ASHLEY: Up next, producer John Timm takes us to Bartholomew County to learn how to camp in style with Hiker Trailers.

♪ >> How's those potatoes coming along?

♪ >> Hiker Trailer is generally called a teardrop trailer, referring to the style.

♪ People that don't want to camp in a tent, you have a self-contained vehicle that basically you can sleep in with comfort, including the comforts of heat, air conditioning, 12-volt power.

♪ Hiker Trailer allows you to go anywhere your vehicle can, including off road, and is great for those people who do everything from hiking, biking.

It lets you get out there and have a mobile, safe, secure, comfortable place to sleep.

♪ >> Hiker Trailer originated about 12 years ago.

The concept -- there were a couple of guys.

One of them here, an Indiana native, started the concept of building teardrop camping trailers out of his garage.

That evolved to a small location in Noblesville, which three years ago evolved into us moving the production here to Columbus, Indiana, establishing our dealership here.

And since then, we have grown from operating out of a garage, out of a small location, to the location we are in today, which is approximately 90,000 square feet here in Columbus, Indiana.

We operate a couple other companies in Columbus, Indiana.

One is in manufacturing, one is in fabrication.

We do machining.

So we got involved with Hiker Trailer actually building the frames for them.

Being an avid outdoors person, lifetime camper myself, the idea was very unique.

We saw the value in it.

So we actually moved forward and acquired the company from the original founders.

And from there, have really launched it with the disciplines we had in manufacturing, quality, sales and marketing, to really grow it where it is today and produce a great product.

When we first came in to the ownership role of Hiker Trailers, they were producing about eight a month.

We have since, you know, doubled that thing twice.

So we have produced 50 a month.

I think our plan this year on average is 50 a month.

The choice to build trailers in Indiana is very simple.

Indiana is the RV capital of the world.

So every vendor you could possibly need for your materials, aluminum, steel, you know, Midwest born, it's here.

It's within a couple hours' drive.

We're able to literally go pick up our materials from our supplier.

♪ >> The uniqueness of Hiker Trailer versus other mass produced trailers is just that.

We are custom-made trailers.

>> So from ground up, essentially, you know, it really starts with the initial customer order.

Then once we place the order for the frame, you know, exactly what we need, we get that from our sister company.

They make metal.

Once that bare frame is here, quality is good, then we start wiring it, getting it on wheels.

We build the box.

Once that's together, and it kind of starts looking like a trailer, then we put the rear galley or the kitchen area into the back, put the front shelving in.

Any interior cabinetry, and then from there it moves on and actually gets the side aluminum on, gets the roof, the doors, the windows on.

From there, the next step would be doing all the electrical work, both interior, exterior, and then installing all of the exterior components, like awnings, the roof rack systems, and then the final stage would be all the siliconing, cleaning it up, making it pretty, presentable, and ready to actually be seen by the customer.

♪ >> Each customer is unique.

And we like to start our experience with our customers is, what do you want to do with your Hiker Trailer?

♪ >> We have worked with disabled veterans who needed special access to their trailer.

We have people who want to go long-term off grid.

We have a couple of people, believe it or not, who are living in their Hiker Trailers.

So we like to build a trailer that fits their needs, rather than them have to fit their needs into a trailer that's already there.

It is rewarding to see other Hiker Trailers, and for them to recognize the product.

And in some cases, we've done enough video, YouTube ads, things like that, been to shows, that they recognize myself and who we are and what we do.

>> There's never an unhappy customer on pickup day.

We had, you know, one gentleman come in here and he was literally so overjoyed, because he was just thinking about all the memories he's gonna make with his family with the Hiker that, like, he was literally tearing up.

And it's just always a happy experience.

And that makes everything worth it.

Knowing that I'm giving them a product that they are going to be able to make those memories with their families and themselves, you know, for years to come.

I think that's my favorite aspect of this job.

>> BRANDON: Are you much of a camper?

>> ASHLEY: Brandon, I think you know the answer to that question.

Not -- not necessarily.

>> BRANDON: Yeah, but would you camp in style?

>> ASHLEY: Absolutely!

If I were going to camp, this would really probably be the only way I would do it.

>> BRANDON: Yeah, like, I don't like sleeping on the ground.

I love camping.

I like being outdoors, but I also like sleeping in a place that's maybe a little climate controlled.

>> ASHLEY: Want to learn more?

Head to hikertrailers.com.

>> BRANDON: And as always, we encourage you to stay connected with us.

>> ASHLEY: Just head over to JourneyIndiana.org.

There you can see full episodes, connect with us on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, and suggest stories from your neck of the woods.

>> BRANDON: We also have a map feature that allows you to see where we've been and to plan your own Indiana adventures.

>> ASHLEY: All right, Brandon, we're all about making dreams come true on this show, and we're about to make my dream come true by going to play with some clay.

>> BRANDON: All right.

Well, we will see you next time on -- >> TOGETHER: "Journey Indiana."

♪ >> ASHLEY: How -- how are you doing, Brandon?

>> BRANDON: Not too bad.

What are you making?

>> ASHLEY: A clay structure.

[ Laughter ] I'm gonna be really generous with myself here and just say a clay structure because whatever it turns out to be, I'll be right.

It will be totally what I meant it to be.

What are you making?

>> BRANDON: Hmm, some kind of a something to hold a something.

>> ASHLEY: You could make a dog bowl for your dogs.

>> BRANDON: Oh, I could.

>> ASHLEY: I think they would love that.

I suppose maybe you should have, like, a vision of what you want to do before you go into it.

I'm, like, I'm just making this.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

[ Laughter ] ♪ >> BRANDON: It has become slightly misshapen.

>> ASHLEY: It looks beautiful.

>> BRANDON: Okay.

There we go.

What dog would not want to drink out of this?

>> ASHLEY: True.

♪ >> Production support for "Journey Indiana" is provided by WTIU members.

Thank you!