[YooperFuture]

My wife and I recently had life line up where we are without work. We currently live down south in Michigan's LP. She is a highly skilled individual though, so we feel fairly comfortable over several months she can land a job in the U.P for close to what we are making down here in the lower part of the state. Before moving up there though we have been scouring these forums, talking to family and just trying to fill our well on what its going to take to live up there. We do have some questions still though that we are not seeing info on here at the forums!



- We have never been hunters in our lives. But we want to learn! What are some of the best game to start with? Up north I know there are all sorts of options and the animals range in size. I also know that knowing nothing and stumbling around in the woods is a good way to get ate by a bear! Our preference would be to do something we can be active and moving though as opposed to dear hunting which I did briefly try and loathe as a child. Id try again to help my family out....but not happily. One note here. We are happy to use bows, guns, slingbows, whatever!


- Classes/Facilities/Programs you appreciate or recommend for hunting, cpr, gun handling and all the other basics we intend to take before really getting out there.



- What should we expect during the winter time when it comes to removing snow from a roof? Are most roofs built to hold up to the dozens of inches piling up, or should we expect to have to get outside and remove snow not just from our drive but the roof itself?


- Are snow removal services fairly common? I wont lie, im not above paying a few hundred bucks if it fits into our budget for someone else to remove snow from a roof or drive on a regular basis.



- How many miles outside of the city can you live outside of the city and still expect emergency services during winter time? I imagine not more than 2-5 heh!


- What are a few of the best hospitals in the U.P? Both for general emergency care like a bad cut or unknown stomach pain or for intensive care stuff like heart attacks?


- ....ok....tell us honestly....just how bad are those deer flies? And other than them and the mosquitos...what other fun little biting/stinging insects can we expect?


- Imagine the poison ivy is prob worse up there too? Anything other than ivy/oakes/nettles specific to the U.P?


Thanks in advance for any help!

[homeschooldad1]

Probably would help of you told us where you will live and be able to get a job. Its interesting to hear about what trolls perceive life to be up here. Any hospital up here can do decent emergency care and deal with a heart attack. The bigger hospitals do offer more services such as neurosurgery if you happen to be planning on having brain surgery. If you are a city slicker, probably best to stick to Marquette which is the biggest city up here and about the size of Adrian. If you like the remote country side, then think about some of the smaller areas such as Iron county which is one of the cheapest areas up here and a very nice place to live.

[YooperFuture]

I did not mention specifically where we are living, because we have no place specific yet. We will go where work takes us as long as it seems a remote/safe place to live. Currently my wife is up for several jobs and they honestly could take us to Marquette, Escanaba or numerous small towns. She is also up for a job that would be traveling all over the UP and we would be allowed to live where we please. So finding a town really is in this case about weighing all the pros and cons like hospital service, remoteness, resteraunt/shopping choices etc etc. We are even considering a few places outside of MI/WI but we are being really selective on those.

[Meemur]

Please do your family a favor and find work in Grand Rapids, which has a decent economy, or look into Madison, WI if you can stand the cold.

I can tell from your questions that the UP is not going to be a good fit for you. Consider living a little outside of a mid-sized city on several acres or near a national forest. This placement will give you the best of both worlds.

[YooperFuture]

Thanks, but we are already in that area and not happy with it. We have lived in the city and just outside of it. For my anxieties alone id be set on moving to the UP. Adding in air and water quality, the extra snow, wild life and other factors...its just such a no brainer for us. We are just trying to be well prepared, think things out and as as many questions of as many people as we can. Funny thing is one person reacts like you telling us we dont have the hair on our kremschkas to handle life up there, then the next will react like the previous poster suggesting all trolls overblow how bad U.P living is.

[homeschooldad1]

The upper peninsula is very diverse in terms of places. The banana belt around Escanaba gets very little snow. The Keweenaw peninsula has the most snow. Interior UP is colder in the winter but has very warm summers. No one worries about shoveling the snow off their roof unless they have a poorly designed roof and live in the Keweenaw.



Culturally Marquette and to a lesser extent Houghton are university towns. Marquette also has a significant hipster presence. Some like that while others don't. The eastern side of the peninsula is more tied to lower Michigan while the central and western peninsula have strong ties to Wisconsin. For example, I head through Green Bay about every other month but only down to lower Michigan once a year as I live in western UP. You don't need to know CPR or have hunting skills to live here and emergency services will come if you can call 911.



My personal advice, if you don't have strong ties to the lower peninsula, avoid the eastern UP as its flat and rather boring in scenery compared to the rest of the region. Then determine if you want a small town environment or a bigger city environment with Walmart and large grocery stores. I prefer the smaller towns as you know everyone and don't have to worry about getting stuck at a stop light on the way to work. Then decide if you prefer the beach towns which tend to have more summer tourist or the quieter interior towns. Let me in know what you like, I have been to every nook and cranny around the region and know the area well.



I wouldn't recommend you focus on learning to many skills before coming up here. But do learn what level of remoteness you can live with before you buy a house. The number one reason people leave the region after they move here is that they over estimate their attachment to the big city. If you are thinking of living in Marquette, thats similar to Adrian in size. If you'd like a more mid size city like houghton or escanaba, then force yourself to stick with shopping in only Lapeer or a similar city for a while. If you want a small town, make yourself drive an hour to walmarts or the grocery store for a month before you make that jump.

[homeschooldad1]

It would help also yooper future if you mentioned where you live so that I have an idea of your reference point of things.

[Vegabern]

Don't move to Escanaba.

That is the best advice I can give you. We just escaped 7 months ago.


Also, your snow and remoteness worries are way overblown.

[jdhpa]

Originally Posted by Vegabern

Don't move to Escanaba.

That is the best advice I can give you. We just escaped 7 months ago.


Also, your snow and remoteness worries are way overblown.

Just curious, what didn't you like about Escanaba?

[leebeemi]

I have a friend that moved up here & married a Yooper, and she picked up on hunting really fast. I don't hunt, by my father & son do. My husband would shoot birds, but he's more into looking for morel mushrooms in the spring & thimbleberries in the summer.


There is excellent advice upthread. I would really suggest listening to the advice on the remoteness. It's not how far you live from "town." It's the relative remoteness. It's a long way to a real city, so that's something to consider. If you need a regular infusion of urbanity, own it & find somewhere else.


"Deer flies" are not the big problem up here. Blackflies, mosquitos, and sand flies are. The biting insects have been worse the last couple of years because of a decline in the little brown bat population. Last year saw a small bump back in the bats. Time will tell this year--it depends on how they overwintered. When the bat population is low, the bugs are really bad. I went out hiking last weekend and didn't have any bugs. It could change in a snap! The bugs can be bad. If you are hunting or fishing spring to fall, it can be a real problem. By November, it's frozen a few times, so the bugs are gone--usually!



I agree that emergency services are not an issue unless you are REALLY out in the middle of nowhere. And we do have those places. But most of us are in close proximity to emergency services.



Oh, and if you're stumbling in the woods, I wouldn't worry about the bears. I've lived up here most of my life & only seen 2 bears in the wild. I've heard a handful more. They don't want to be anywhere near you. Your stumbling will make them head for the hills!