c) (gentle music) - Thanks for watching this episode of "My Wisconsin Backyard."

Hi, I'm Traci Neuman.

- And I'm Brian Ewig, and we're wrapping up season one with this broadcast special, showing some of our favorite stories.

- [Thay] Oh, bamboo is one of nature's most useful plant.

- [Brian] We'll show you how to make a traditional Hmong dish.

- [Traci] And we'll get you ready for the change of the seasons as we fly you over Wisconsin and learn more about fall foliage.

- So, Traci, what do you think we should start out with?

- I don't know.

I think I need a sign.

I liked all of our stories.

We got it!

- Roscoe!

- Let's leave with Roscoe.

- That's a great idea.

(Traci chuckles) (gentle music) - Oh, we're in Brookfield, Wisconsin, my backyard.

We got the ice rink.

And tonight, we got the Elmbrook hockey U8 Red Stars going.

(blade scrapes) (people hollering) My son got really involved with hockey, youth hockey, and hockey ice time is really hard.

And I saw it on the internet.

A lot of people are trying these backyard rinks and thought I'd give it a go.

So first year was a little sketchy but it's gotten bigger and better.

- Oh, Roscoe's here.

- Oh!

- So tonight the surprise was having the mascot from the Milwaukee Admirals, Roscoe, join us.

The boys were not, they had no idea.

So that was obviously a really big surprise to them.

- Well, it's awesome.

I mean, one.

it's fun, right?

So they're getting to hang out with themselves, and you watch 'em back here, they're just getting better, they don't even know they're getting better because they're skating around stopping and starting.

I mean, it's just, it's good exercise and they get excited too.

They get excited to hang out with their buddies.

- We've done this for three years, I think.

And I just was enjoying it a lot.

And I like it.

- What's really cool is the neighborhood has got involved.

I have a couple ladies across the street that just come and love watching the kids play.

My daughter loves it.

She's a little older.

She doesn't do hockey, but she loves anything artistic.

And she loves to skate.

- I just like to practice figure skating 'cause I do dance lessons.

So figure skating is fun to do.

- [Photographer] Smile Roscoe.

One, two, three.

- It's worth it because again, we get so much use out of it, and it's a great way to do something outside and have friends over.

(blades scraping) (gentle music) (birds chirping) (gentle music) - We work with young people throughout the City of Milwaukee to inspire, educate, and mentor them to find success in learning.

And the way we learn is through hands-on projects.

It can be, for some people, an almost transformative experience.

Plus we're building something real and authentic, a form of transportation that's been around for thousands of years.

- [Jalesa] It's a good way to stay out of trouble and have new hobbies that can benefit you further in life.

- [Lawrence] A way to learn different things, a way to learn how to do different things.

Like before I came here, I wouldn't have known how to build a boat, put certain pieces of wood together.

It could help me if I wanted to make that a career being a carpenter or something, if I wanted to do, just build something one day.

- [James] I not the best academically, but I do try my hardest.

I've really come to love this woodworking.

And it's opened a lot of career paths for me.

(metal chain clanging) - [Speaker] This is it.

(lighthearted music) - [James] The St. Ayles we've been working on for give or take, five, six years.

And we are at a really good place with it right now.

- So we're very excited about the launch of our largest boat.

It's a 22-foot, four-person rowing gig that was built over the course of five years here as part of an afterschool team mentoring program.

- [James] I am so excited.

I remember when there were huge holes in the boats.

So to see it not have huge holes in the boat and to actually be in the water is just really, really pleasing for me and really makes me happy.

- [Jalesa] It is really cool to see 'cause it's like seeing your own child grow up and it's like you finally get to say that I did it, I've built this boat and show it off to different people.

- [Lawrence] Getting older, I might go to college for and be a carpenter and do something where I can build stuff, and put stuff together or engineering type of thing.

- [James] I knew I wanted to do something with my hands but I didn't know quite what.

I think I want to try my hand at furniture-making.

I've managed to get the skills to create the things.

Now I want to create my own things.

(lighthearted music) (gentle music) - They're actually a very easy animal to take care of.

We had been living in Milwaukee and really enjoyed it there but wanted to have the opportunity to do more gardening, raise some animals.

The alpacas do very, very well in Wisconsin, actually during the winters, since they're natives of the Andes Mountains, they're used to being in colder climates.

- I've been out here when it's zero and they're sleeping outside.

They're not in the barn.

And it's more the summer months that are more of a a problem for them just because they can't deal with the heat as well.

- [Cheryl] This time of year, they go grow quite a bit of fiber that keeps them warm.

- When we sheer them, there's about 10 pounds of fiber on them per animal.

So that's why they look so big now but they're pretty tiny underneath.

They're only about 150 pounds.

- We sheer them once a year, and these are high quality fiber males, which means that they have a very dense fiber.

We usually try to sheer in May or June.

So that way throughout the summer when it's hot in Wisconsin, they stay nice and cool.

Then usually as the days start getting shorter in fall, their fur starts growing.

So you can see that, you know, this truly is a white animal, his hair right now, his fiber is about an inch long.

And within the next month, his fiber is probably gonna grow to about three to four inches.

(gentle music) - So this is the raw fiber.

You can see how crimpy it is.

It has that wave to it.

You can also see how this is just right off the animal.

So this is the blanket that comes off this.

So the blanket is the entire back of the animal.

So it's the top and kind of around the sides.

And that's the most, that's the desirable part that you want to use for things like yarn, and things like that because it's not been, you know, laid on.

It's not been like rolled around in the dirt, and things like that.

So this is the best fiber that you can get off the animal.

They eat grass in our pasture.

We also have hay bales.

The three of them will probably only eat about five hay bales a month.

So they don't eat a lot.

They also are in the same family as llamas and camels.

They share a lot of the same genetics but they're just a smaller version of them with fluffier fur.

They're great animals to raise.

They're easy to take care of for the most part.

They're pretty robust as long as you have a great place for them to live and they have adequate pasture space.

They're gentle creatures.

So, you know, it's just, you know, that calming, relaxing nature about them just kind of wears off.

(pan sizzling) (pestle tapping) - My name is Thay Yang.

I'm Hmong American here, living here in Milwaukee.

And today, I'm gonna show you bamboo stir-fry with ground beef.

Bamboo is really abundant in Southeast Asia, and it's a staple meal because it's so easy to get.

I have a special friend that brought this all the way up from North Carolina, 'cause they harvest it down there.

So they package it up and they get 'em right when they start shooting off of the ground.

Basically, we just take the bamboo.

I blanch it first in bowling water and then it just take it out here, and just start slicing it into thinner size like this.

Now, bamboo is like one of nature's most useful plant 'cause you can eat it.

You can make shelters out of it, structures out of it.

Even the board that I'm cutting on here is made of bamboo.

Back in our country, we didn't have that much protein such as beef or pork or chicken.

I mean, we use them sparingly.

So a lot of the vegetables kinda takes place of, you know, filling your stomach.

Let me start up this wok.

And, you know, a lot of Hmong families here in this country like to cook outside because it's, you know, first of all, it doesn't smell up your house.

And second of all, you know, we like the high heat stuff.

Add in a vegetable oil.

You control your heat.

So this is why we like to cook outside.

And, you know, a lot of times we cook this, we start, I usually start it pretty slow.

Let the meat cook slowly.

This is like a mushroom seasoning.

So it kind of acts like a blender, just a little bit of that.

And added some garlic, just (knife tapping) throw it in.

Stir around.

As you can see, it's pretty fast.

So, you know, heats up pretty good.

Just kind of stir it around, and then gonna start prepping some of my onions here that I'm gonna throw in there.

And these, I usually like to chop up sideways like this, so that it's easier to chew.

And we eat fresh onions like this, kind of, you know, big.

So when it goes to the stir-fry, it shrinks up a little bit.

And then this is oyster sauce.

Just add a little tablespoon in there.

This is one of our sauce that we use here that kind of gives a unique Asian or Southeast Asian taste to stir-fry.

We kind of just stir around, and this is what's so nice about it, with the wok is, you know, you can just cook it thoroughly.

Everything, the meat is all brown already.

So just throw in the bamboo.

And one thing I like about this plant also is, you know, during the time of the Vietnam War, when the Hmong refugees were persecuted for helping the United States, I think, you know, the bamboo, and they had to run into the forest and, you know, escape Laos to seek refuge in Thailand.

This is probably one of the plants that probably saved their life from starvation.

I mean, they could find it in the forest.

So it's a survival plant for a lot of other people too, you know.

As you can see, the liquid is starting to melt down a little bit.

Add a little bit of cooking wine here.

So the thing is, you know, cooking outside, there's a high heat like this, it gives you the nice charred flavor into your stir-fries.

It's not like where you're cooking inside electrical stove or anything like that.

This is why we like to cook outside.

It's just because of this high heat.

(food sizzling) (gentle music) And that's it.

That's your bamboo stir-fry with it's ground beef.

(gentle music) - Hey, Roscoe, did you know you can watch us weekly on milwaukeepbs.org?

- Or you can check us out on Facebook and Instagram.

(bright music) (water swooshing) (crank creaking) - MAST race committee, MAST race committee.

This is Antonia 15214 checking in.

- Racing is where you're trying to get around the race course as efficiently as possible to beat the competitors.

(upbeat music) The smaller boats start first, and then the medium progress to the next start.

They're five minutes apart.

We're one of the last boats to start because we have a bigger boat.

In light air sailing, it's more relaxed.

You have more time to plan your moves.

It's less stressful, less equipment failure.

As you get into stronger winds, more things can go wrong.

Things happen faster.

Equipment can break, possibility of collisions when there's more boat speed.

(upbeat music) It's a combination of tactics, luck, crew work, equipment, and the conditions.

(upbeat music) (crank creaking) Nice job, John.

- Yeah, you too.

- [Dick] It's challenging.

There's always something different every time you come out.

It's beautiful to be out on the water, just looking back as the sun is getting lower in the sky, I never get tired of it.

The water is relaxing.

- Jibe, jibe ho.

- The air is fresh out here.

I just enjoy it.

(metal ringing) The best thing I think is that you make great friendships with the people that you sail with.

You work as a team, you try to help each other, and you get to know them.

And it's a great way to meet people.

(upbeat music) We are competitive, but we are here to have fun.

I'm in my 70s, I've been doing this since the early 1980s.

Let's get the jib down.

I believe anybody can do this with proper instruction that you can start at a young age, and you can sail all your life.

(upbeat music) - I just think there are fewer boats in the water.

Don't you think, Jenny?

(indistinct) Jenny and I were both born and raised here, you know, in Franklin.

And after college, I moved to Minneapolis.

We weren't close when we were kids.

I mean, we were always at each other's throat.

And I think there's something, there's just something about that as a child.

I think that's what makes great humans, you know, when we have those siblings and those rivalries, Jenny, the runner was, she was amazing.

She was a rockstar and an inspiration.

Once she hit college, you know, you knew that there was something special there.

(gentle music) Jenny, in 2007, was out on a training run.

She was training for the Olympic trials at that time.

And she was on Brady.

She was crossing a street.

She was struck by a car.

She ended up in acute brain rehab.

She had a broken neck and a brain injury, a TBI.

And, you know, it was a really tough recovery.

It took her a couple years just to get out of acute brain rehab.

And, you know, it's been like that.

And I make it down every two weeks.

(uplifting music) - I like to bike almost everywhere.

I like to be outside.

But running is my favorite sport or biking's awesome.

- We get out biking quite a bit.

And in the summer, it's great because it's warm and Jenny loves the heat.

We got this great bike that has a wheelchair front-end and a bicycle back-end, and we can get out and we can lock the bike up, and then push the wheelchair around.

- Peter Crain is a great guy.

Peter and I can get on all these bike trails in Wisconsin.

It's so great.

I love to be with our whole family together with Peter, my little brother, Scott, and me and my mom and dad all together, that's great.

- It's all about getting outside.

I mean, we don't, in the winter, we're all cooped up, you know?

So this is nice to be able to get out and spend some time with people.

And Jenny loves saying hi to people and waving to them on the bike trails.

For anybody to go through what she's gone through and to come out on this end of it, and, you know, her mental attitude, and, you know, just day-to-day has been great.

And it's a challenge.

You know, everything's a challenge with her.

But getting out makes us feel a little more normal.

I guess I don't view this as something special.

I just view this as something that everybody would do for their sibling, you know, if they were in the same position I'm in.

You know, you look back and I wish I would've done that prior to the accident and spent more time together.

But, you know, it is what it is.

And now we have this opportunity to spend a day together every couple weeks.

(gentle music) - In Wisconsin, we celebrate our seasons as really the foundation for our natural diversity.

And autumn sets the stage for one of our hallmark phenomena, and that is the fall colors.

Wisconsin, we're positioned at about 42 to 47 degrees north latitude.

And that combined with the inclination of Earth's axis, as we're revolving around the sun, leads to climatic patterns, mostly temperature and precipitation among others, that dictate what we have in our Wisconsin forests.

Our Wisconsin forests are typical of a deciduous, temperate biome, including a lot of maple trees, oak trees, beech, birch, aspen.

These deciduous trees are those that lose their leaves annually.

(gentle music) As we head towards winter, and Earth is leaning away from the sun, and winter's coming, these trees receive signals, shorter days or declining photoperiod, coupled with cooler temperatures, which are really like a call for preparedness that winter is coming.

And the first things that the trees do is stop a production of chlorophyl, which is that magic pixie dust required for photosynthesis.

When they stop producing chlorophyll, all the greens turn to yellow, orange, brown hues.

And we also see a lot of bright reds, pinks due to chemical changes within the tree and within the leaves that are required to retain nutrients throughout the winter.

Now, because Earth has a pretty consistent physiographic location, we tend to see that same change in the leaves every year.

Okay, the only variability would be related to maybe some cooler temperatures from one given year to another.

But that peak fall color in the northern half of the state is going to reveal itself around the first or second week of October.

And in the southern half of the state, it comes shortly thereafter, maybe about the third week of October.

What really leads to the most brilliant fall colors in our Wisconsin forests are wet spring, moderate summers, and then cool evening, but not freezing, but cool evening fall temperatures.

(gentle music) The reason our deciduous trees lose their leaves is really threefold.

Number one, during the growing season, the leaves are harnessing energy and sharing that with the rest of the trunk and the branches.

And during the winter, they want to shut that valve off, and shut that passageway off so that the rest of the tree, the branches, the trunk can conserve that harnessed energy.

So they lose their leaves to shut that off.

And secondly, it's a way for the tree to conserve and preserve moisture within the branches and the trunk.

And lastly, the tree needs to lose its leaves because without the leaves on the branches and the trunk, it can withstand the strain of the strong winds associated with Wisconsin storms.

While we see these colored and fallen leaves often as a nuisance as they're clogging our rain gutters and our storm sewers, and cluttering the lawn, being tracked into our house, they're actually a really vital part of our Wisconsin woodland ecosystem.

They support biodiversity and they provide an intangible resource.

First of all, the leaf litter protects plant roots and conserve soil moisture during the winter.

And it also suppresses the invasion of non-native species.

And ultimately, that leaf litter and the mulch breaks down into plant food for the next year's growing season.

The fallen leaves also provide important winter habitat for all kinds of woodland animals.

Small mammals to microbes, spiders, amphibians, insects, other pollinators, all depend on that leaf litter, and the associated stems, and pieces of bark as critical nesting material and insulation all winter long.

(gentle music) And the intangible value of our fall colors to Wisconsin residents may not be as easy to determine because we truly can't grasp it or contain it.

But the scenic beauty that they provide is there.

I mean, we know it when we see it.

Wisconsinites and friends from neighboring states take day trips or even weekend getaways from the Southern Kettle Moraine northward to the Eagle River, Minocqua area, from Door County westward to the bluffs along the Mississippi River, specifically to take in and enjoy the turning leaves and the fall colors in our forest.

So because of that, we really need to recognize that our fall colors are truly an important part of our ecological culture.

And they're an important intangible resource whose value can't be over-appreciated.

(gentle music) - 98, 99, 100!

Whoo!

There that should get us in the mid-season shape.

(Roscoe claps) Well, Roscoe, any advice you have for us as we start our new season?

- Brian, you know, Roscoe doesn't talk, right?

- Oh.

- I think he's saying you can watch more of our short stories on Facebook and Instagram or milwaukeepbs.org.

- Well, thanks for watching "My Wisconsin Backyard.'

(gentle music)