Wouldn't You Like to Be a Yooper, Too--I Would!

May 23, 2014 was a day that changed my life.

It was the morning (early EARLY in the morning) that we got in our two vehicles, Nick and I in the Envoy, and Bob and Jordan in the Grand Prix, and made our first 600 mile trip from the corn and soybean fields of Iowa to the Upper Peninsula.

It had been an emotionally crazy year before that. We had made a trip around Lake Superior the summer before, which confirmed something we already knew about the area...that it was calling to us...really.  And so I started with some dreaming, and a lot of  Googling. I Googled every UP real estate agent I could find online, pouring through listings, looking for our own little piece of the UP. And suddenly, it seemed like it could become a real thing.

Property prices of land in Iowa were so out of sight at that time.  10,000 dollars an acre was fairly common and about half the record high price.   So in comparison to what we were used to, UP land seemed like a bargain. So I looked and looked and established a checklist of what would make a property our dream. Forest, yes, but also cleared land to build and garden on, proximity to water, within close travelling distance to Lake Superior and other beautiful sites.  And...cell phone service. See...we are techies...the whole family...and so being separated from every form of technology was not something we wanted. BUT if we could be surrounded by national forest land, that would be wonderful.

You would think that's a very specific list. But I was a woman obsessed...so I found it:

this is it

80 acres, surrounded on three sides by national forest.  Secluded, private. A creek in one corner, probably about 70 percent forest, the rest cleared. Close to lakes and waterfalls and the big lake.  Cell phone service anywhere on the property, and a town a couple of miles away (closer as the crow flies, or as the man hikes...through alders and aspens...oh my).

Our plans for this property was a little fluffy at the time of purchase, but it was something along the line of using it for a camp until our son was out of high school back home in Iowa, then building a nice cabin and retiring there...2018 or so.

One thing you can never see is very far down the road, both literally and figuratively.

In December of 2013, my mom passed away. We had just bought the property in the UP, so we put our happy thoughts of that aside for a while. But they waited for us. and eventually, we planned our first vacation to the UP.

On that early early morning in May, we took two very loaded up cars up to the UP.  Nick drove us through Iowa and Wisconsin.

my son, Nick, and the dawn's early light

We made lots of stops, potty breaks, food stops, and arrived late in the afternoon at our property (we don't say "camp" in Iowa) I get "car stomach" (which is our term for that butterfly feeling you get in anticipation of something good, or something bad) just thinking about those last miles through the UP to get to our camp (now I say camp).  Was it stupid to buy property sight unseen?  I mean, we had pictures, after all.  About 12.  I know, it was crazy.

When we got to our road, it was red muddy clay.

this is the start of the road...you can see where the gravel gives out, a curve in the distance, and a deer (this is on a dry day)

May 23...after a winter of even more snow than usual.  I had been watching the snow depth report all through April, and I knew it had only been a few weeks since the last of the snow was on the ground.  Nick had never gone "mudding" before, so it was a scary drive for him to get to our property, But it wasn't so bad...there was a sprinkling of gravel here and there, and we made it.

Our first camp was really RIGHT off the  muddy road.

Nick's tent

 We didn't know how far our vehicles would take us into the property, although an old logging road runs through the center of it.  We would later make the decision to trade the car off for a Silverado, so both our vehicles would be four wheel drive.

Our first, and lasting, impression of our property was, and is, THIS:  It is WAY better than we imagined. It could easily have gone the other way, but it didn't.

I could describe it, but it would take forever.  I love it so much.  The right mix of forest and fields, and creek and marsh and flowers and birds and....wow.

we call this Mystery Meadow, because it's hard to get to without a compass...or WITH one, if you're me

I know these pictures are not the best.  Those were the days before I carried my Nikon everywhere.

We set up camp (not super well, but we learned some things along the way not to repeat the next summer), and turned in for the night.

The next morning, after digging something of a firepit, we made pancakes and started our first day on the property.

it WAS blueberry pancakes

I think I was trying to take a picture of the BIRD in that aspen tree...NOT the portable potty...and NO....I can't see it, either!

We had had a portable potty brought in (which I don't recommend to anyone!!!) for our camping season.  And we started to explore.   I will have to say, I was the first to find IT.  I walked down the logging road, which curved through some regenerating forest and suddenly there IT was.  A clearing with a semi-circle of tall whispering pines in the middle of a prairie.

a picture doesn't do it justice

The other direction opens up to a view across the property, a valley of alders and willows, and even taller trees, large aspens and balsam firs, in the distance. Beautiful.  A perfect place for a cabin someday.

neither does this one...come visit and I'll show you

Anyway...that was the setting for our first camp summer. We only got to spend a few weeks there, a couple of different times, probably a total of five weeks, if you include about 10 days of ME being there ALL ALONE....THAT was an experience I need to write about sometime!

We packed up in August, rented storage for our stuff, and came home to Iowa.  And mourned.  I was a woman obsessed.  I carried this around as my key chain:

 I drank coffee from  "I heart the UP" mugs.

I drove my co-workers crazy with my one-topic-of-conversation theme. I papered one of the bulletin boards in my classroom with pictures of our "vacation," but it was so much more than that.  Pretty much every spare moment I had, I was plotting our return.

We planned for the following summer by getting bushwhacking done in the cabin clearing, and an outhouse built.  So funny, that our first building would be an outhouse.  But it seemed we would spend several more summers on the property before we would move there permanently, and an outhouse is a BIG improvement over a portable potty.  BIG.  Especially if your outhouse is huge and has pretty log siding, a frosted window, and green shingles.

our bathroom, shower, laundry area....and yes, I know I'm crazy for LOVING it!

We set up camp using all the experience we had gained the year before.  It was nice and relaxing, and allowed us to see and hear and enjoy the flora and fauna surrounding us.  My husband suspended his job so we could stay and stay.  We got a 4 wheeler, satellite internet, and a little generator, so our son wouldn't die....sigghhhh. And we love love loved our first month in the UP.  We loved it so much that the end of June, we started talking.  Could we do it?  Could we give up everything in Iowa and make the move, reinvent ourselves and our jobs, and become Yoopers?

And how does anyone BECOME a Yooper?  Because I found out, carrying a key chain around is not enough.  Even one of THESE

is not enough, which is why I haven't put it on the front of my car (one REAL license plate on the back of your car is all you need in Michigan).  Because I have learned that you have to earn it.

And how does one earn the title? Some people have told me you can't.  If you weren't born here, you'll never be a Yooper.....sigghhhh.

For many people, your initiation is all about winter.  You have to make it through x number of winters. Some people say one....whoo hoo...almost been there/done that!  Some people say 10.....sigghhhh again.

Some people say it's all in your attitude.  You have to be resilient, have a good work ethic, love the outdoors in all seasons, enjoy a pasty (with ketchup????), be respectful of animals, even if you are hunting the tasty ones. You need to be kind to strangers, willing to go out of your way for a friend, enjoy the hometown-everyone-knows-your-business (Mayberry) attitudes of people, yet maintain a healthy sense of caution about "Newpers" coming in to take advantage of (think rape and pillage) the natural resources here.

Is this a complete list of requirements?  I don't know.  But, if it is those things I just talked about, there is hope for me.  If I have to be a native, then it isn't going to happen.

And why do I want to be a Yooper so badly?  I want to be able to say to people that this is my forever home.  Because it is.  And though things have not gone exactly like we planned, I would say, generally, things are going well.   It's not 2018, and we are NOT retired.  Our son still has mixed feelings about moving here.  We are living in a house on two acres in Paynesville, instead of at our camp, which is still a camp.


So, all you (real) Yoopers out there, I'm sorry, but we are not going away. We are not just going to spend our money and leave.  We DID spend our money, just getting here, getting our businesses rolling, paying for lots of things we didn't see coming and so contributing to the economy of the UP. We plan to continue to contribute.  I LOVE to teach people things, or just create stuff that I think people might like.  Bob loves (I think "love" is the word) helping people through his job as an attorney.  We both would love to do more things in service to others, as long as we can eke out a living here, too.  Eking is fine, by the way.  If you know anything about us, we don't need a lot of stuff to be happy.

And someday I'm going to retire.  In my little cabin in the clearing with the whispering pines, in the middle of the forest.  With cell phone service and satellite internet. And birds and deer and a few predators, and the summer and winter and fall and spring. And even if I am only an honorary, or even a fake Yooper, I will feel in my heart a part of the place that is now my home.  I'll probably drive around with a green front license plate, though.  If you get to know me, you might approve, or not. Either way, I can live with it. In the UP :)