Building a Business

Busy, busy, busy....seems like we are always busy these days.  Buying a house, selling a house. Too hard to rent a house in the snowmobiling capital of the planet, so we are buying a fixer-upper with the intent of fixing it up a little and eventually renting it to SNOWMOBILERS.  Ironic, huh?  Never mind, real estate is ridiculously cheap here compared to Iowa.  Imagine how it would seem to someone from California!?! 

It's been interesting and strange and scary to sign up or apply for stuff and list myself as "Self-employed."  Wow...that has never happened to me before.  And I LIKE IT.

My creativity is SOARING!  Nick helped me design a logo for our business and it looks like THIS:

Notice the purple and green.  Big surprise, huh?  Nick's idea to put the UP map in the middle.  I think that's soooo cool.  Aspen leaves are my idea.  All in all, I think turned out nice.

Soooo, you are asking, what is the business that we are advertising?  I call it a "Creativity Outlet."

See, the UP wasn't always what it is today.  First it was a wilderness of virgin White Pine forests.  And COPPER. 

Actually, copper has been mined on the Keweenaw Peninsula for 7 THOUSAND years.  In fact, the earliest examples of metalworking in North America come from Keweenaw copper.  Is that amazing?

In about 1770, an Englishman named Alexander Henry tried to start mining copper here, but it was too far removed from civilization at the time, so therefore proved too difficult. 

The big copper rush started in the 1840's, and the last big mine shut down in the 1960's. Over 10 BILLION tons of copper was mined during those years.

There were once millions of acres of virgin White Pine in the UP.  It was the best kind of wood for loggers, because it was a great building material and it FLOATED well.  So, loggers clear cut mostly everything, and eventually, farmers took over the land.  After the Great Depression hit the UP hard, many people lost their land and it returned to forest.  National and State Forests were developed.   Over six million acres of Michigan land are State and National Forests

Anyway, the point of this history lesson is to show that the UP has changed.  Many people are bitter about it.  There are signs in people's yards promoting the return of mining to the area.  Many people bemoan the loss of the virgin forests. 

But while some people are complaining and bitter, many people, in fact most people I have met here, LOVE the UP.  And their love for it shows in many ways.  Many people take advantage of all the outdoor activities that the UP has to offer.  Many other people are inspired to live their lives CREATIVELY here.  For some that means homesteading, raising their own food, making items that enhance their lives, living off this beautiful land.  Others use native materials to create objects or are inspired by the beauty of this area to make works of art.  Big industry is gone, but LITTLE INDUSTRY is thriving.  I think it's the new heart of the UP.  And because there is a new heart, things are turning around.  Towns and areas that have struggled are starting to find themselves both in terms of happiness and financial stability as well. 

I am inspired, daily, by everything that's happening in the UP today.  And I would like to help.  Soooo I am starting a creativity outlet. 

What's a Creativity Outlet, you ask?

Whatever that is, and how it will play out, is still partially a mystery, even to me.  Oh....I have ideas. First, I have the shop in Ontonagon.  I am going to give lessons there.  I am going to write music there.  I am going to teach others there.  And I am going to invite many people with the same creative UP spirit to do likewise.  And we will just see where it goes from there.  Oh....I have ideas....stay tuned!

Little Red here doesn't care about my ideas, just whether or not I put seed in the BIRD feeder.