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Welcome to Michigan.  You made a wise decision living far from Detroit.

I don't know who told you that bullshit but rest assured you will never be a Yooper.  Every single Yooper I know says that to be a Yooper you had to be born here and your parents had to be born here.  My only saving grace is I'm not a fucking troll.  Welcome to the UP we moved here (Alger County) 2 years ago and have no plans to ever leave.

Keep the tradition alive!

Quoting for January.  

I will also be retiring to Michigan. The family has a 2nd home in Mecosta County, on a lake near Big Rapids. I think that place will suit me just fine when retirement comes.

I might agree with you, native Yoopers won't.  What percentage Finn are you?

Nice.  

From CA to the UP. Welcome.
Enjoy the winters. Lmao.

Very nice cabinet!  Welcome to Michigan!  Now get that Californian abomination off that FAL and throw it in the trash!

15% Finn mix?  Don't even mention it. no Finn flags and no SISU license plates without at least 75% Finnish blood.  I know a guy whose Mom is mad that he's 75% Finn and she's only 50%.  Seriously though, enjoy this place.  I know you think you've seen winter, it's not that it's colder here or has deeper snow it's that it starts snowing in October and is still snowing in May.  Get a sauna routine going and it won't even matter.

Welcome to MI. I travel to Munising for work a couple times a month and the UP is truly "God's country."

Interesting thread Paul. Sounds like you're not too far from me, I'm in Vilas County WI, and you and I came from the same place we were in years ago (my wife of 49 years is one of those Polish Blondes from a Chicago burb, I'm German & Swedish).

I just saw this when I posted one about my daughter, who moved to the U.P. last week, and I had some firearm related questions. She now lives on the shore of Huron Bay, northeast of L'Anse, Baraga County. She grew up in Vilas County WI, across the state line from the U.P. She was 8 when we moved here,  from the burbs of Chicago (the "same place" I mentioned above). That was 30 years ago. I'm originally from WI, so I'm a bonafide 'cheesehead'. She's lived in MN since 2000, when she went to U. of MN., and stayed there after graduation, in a burb 35 miles south of twin cities. She's wanted out for a few years. Then came the rioting bullshit. Not close to where she lived, but it was close to where she worked. But due to covid, she found a job working online from home instead, a good paying job that she's been at for a year now, and is permanently a work from home gig. That was her ticket out of there.

3 years ago, she bought 62 acres of land, with an 'off-the-grid' cabin and garage, west of Watersmeet in the Ottawa Natl forest. Why did she move to the U.P.? She loves being in the woods. She LOVES snow. She has run the 80 mile Tuscobia Trail winter marathon here in WI 3 or 4 times, and the Arrowhead 135 in International Falls MN (in January!), twice. She was registered to run it again this year, but covid cancelled it. She's been snowmobiling since I bought her a Kitty Kat when she was 5, she now has a Polaris in her garage in Watersmeet. She has 2 Huskies, she wants more, so she can get into dog-sledding. They pull her on her CC skis.... there's a name for that, I forgot what it is. She's in the right place for it now.

You will love the U.P. And if you hear anything about the formation of "The State of Superior" movement, support it. I've been supporting it since the 1970s. You know the difference between a Yooper and a far-north cheesehead? We have a license plate on the front, you don't. (And I also drive a Rubicon btw ).

If you're near Vilas County WI, as in Iron River, Watersmeet, Bergland, Wakefield, Marenisco, Paulding, Bruce Crossing areas (all within the area I work in), we need to get together for some Old Fashioneds or Brewskis. I've been as far as Ontanagon, Mass City, Kenton and Sidnaw on service calls.

Good to hear you are settling in!

We need more "good guys" here.  The wifey and I were just talking about packing the dogs up and doing a week or two camping tour of the UP.  I miss going up there to enjoy the sights and sounds just like you get to do everyday from home!

When I lived "down there" in Fibistan, I was a hot-tar roofer for 20 years. So I developed a profound hatred of hot, sunny weather. Give me zero degrees and 3' of snow anytime.  Thankfully I got into another trade after my pension was vested, and a few years later moved 'up nort', when I realized there was a dire need of someone with my newly acquired skillset up here (I'm a locksmith/safecracker)... that was my ticket out, and I've been as busy working here as I ever wanted to be, for the past 30 years. It was a good choice, zero regrets....except, I wish I did it sooner.

I hear ya about everyday being saturday & sunday when you retire. I'm now collecting a pension from that roofing job (it was union) and my S.S. checks come every 3rd wednesday of the month. I now only work a 20 hour week MAXIMUM, and being self employed, I choose when those 20 hours are... and you can bet the farm they will never include a weekend or holiday again, not in what's left of my lifetime. Nor will I ever work during gun deer season, spring turkey season, first 2 weeks of duck season, etc... Nor do I answer the phone after hours. That 24/7 emergency service isn't for us old dudes. I'm only working now for "toy money" anyway... there's still some empty slots in gun safe #3.

Glad you are enjoying the new house paul

I have made up my mind if i ever get sick of life i am just going to build a hut in the middle of the forest up there

As a filthy troll I have a fondness for the UP

That's the only reason I'm not fully retired yet at age 71. If I "crack" one safe per week, I'm as happy as a pig in shit. Hard to believe I still get paid big money for doing this shit.

My favorite threads in GD are the "safe threads". I usually laugh my ass off at all the bullshit in those threads. Like "sandpapering your fingertips" for a better "feel"... and using a stethoscope to "hear the tumblers". PURE Hollywood fantasy.

I love my time in the UP.  If I wasn't fully planted in Northern MN that'd be my second choice.  I go back to visit and hike often, my wife's family is in Dollar Bay.  We were just there this week over the holidays.  I learned my lesson traveling through Bruce Crossing on 4th of July a few years ago.  The parade shuts down the highway so we were stuck for an hour.  First traffic jam I've seen in the UP outside of the Copper Harbor fireworks.

I drove through Bruce Crossing twice on Saturday. Going up to L'Anse in the morning, and coming home in the late afternoon. There was ZERO traffic on M28... but I was a day ahead of the parade. I was pulling a 6x12 utility trailer loaded with furniture going up, empty trailer coming back so I could travel faster. A grand total of one vehicle passed me coming back, on M28 between Sidnaw and the 141 junction. Speed limit there is 65, I was going 70-75, Dodge Ram was doing about 80 that passed me. I actually saw a state trooper too, between Watersmeet & Land O Lakes WI. They're a rare sight up here.

The only traffic jam I ever encountered in the U.P. was near Paulding, July 2002, when "The Rainbow People" held their national gathering there, in the Ottawa Nat'l Forest, just outside of Paulding. It was a "mini Woodstock" with about 12,000 hippie types gathered for about a week to 10 days.

Glad you're enjoying it.  Its truly low key lifestyle up there.  Between that and the vast wilderness, you can't beat it.

I'm living in Duluth now, certainly changed a bit from what it was when I lived here 30 years ago, but most places have.  It's a little too much hippie mentality to me, but that's why I've got a cabin up north to escape to.

Most of what I open are gunsafes or business safes. Either an unknown combo (owner died and it took it with him) or an electronic lock that quit working. It's very rare in my 35 years at this job to need to drill a manual dial lock due to a malfunction. You know that casino in our "neighborhood"? A few years back, they got a brand new TL15 money safe delivered. It was about the size of a typical gunsafe, but much more secure. They were moving it from the loading dock to the cash office when they dropped it somehow, and it landed on it's face, breaking the opening handle off. I was in it in about 15 minutes, had to order new handle parts, but it wasn't transformed into a boat anchor. Same type & size safe in a local Home Depot had it's electronic lock fail. That one took me about 20 minutes to get in. Just recently, local store had a name brand  "Fat Boy" gun safe that wouldn't open. Brand new, but bad e-lock. Rather than ship it back to the factory several 1,000 miles away, safe company told corporate they'd send a new one as a replacement, just dispose of the old one in the store's dumpster. Huh? An employee disposed of it, to his garage, and called me. I had it drilled open in 30 minutes, replaced the lock, and he got a real nice $1200 safe for $400. I've got dozens of these "stories". I once opened a wall safe, in a newly purchased "fixer-upper" home, sold from an estate,  that had 200 1oz gold Krugerands inside. This was roughly 8-10 years ago, when gold was $1,335 per ounce (I looked it up that day afterwards). How you'd like to buy a $120,000 house and find $267,000 worth of gold hidden in a safe in a closet wall? Old guy that lived there hoarded gold coins for years, died leaving no heirs except a great great grandson somewhere out west, who promptly sold the place cheap, without ever even seeing it. Finders keepers. Have you checked your closet walls?

Welcome from Kalamazoo!

Yellow jackets or those big black assholes with white stripes on their heads, that build their paper nests under the roof eaves? Those are called "bald faced hornets" and they're very common in this area. They have a very nasty disposition. Yellow jackets typically nest in the ground.  

I destroy (with absolute joy in my heart when I do!) several black hornet nests every summer, beginning in late July.

Wait until dark when they're all inside the nest, then spray it with wasp & hornet spray. "Black Flag" brand works the best. And whatever you do, don't shine a flashlight on it afterwards. If any survive, they'll instantly zero in on that light and attack "it" (and you!). Don't ask me how I know.

I've seen some that were close to 50lbs, so they're all likely the bigger variety.

Quoted for truth, and for when the snow starts

Dam paper wasps keep building a nest in the LPG Tank Cover.

If they're bigger, then they're not "yotes".

My daughter has 2 Siberian Huskies. The bigger male is about 65 lbs, female goes about 50lbs. But she has sent me pictures of paw prints in the snow, taken by her place west of Watersmeet (in the Sylvania) last winter, that are twice the size of those of her male Husky. Prints are side by side in the picture, there's no doubts what made those tracks. Canus Lupus. She hears them howling at night, gets a glimpse of them occasionally.

She was out for her morning walk on a nearby Nat'l Forest Road, fresh snow cover from overnight lake effect. Tracks weren't there on her way out. But there were 3 sets of fresh tracks, following hers, on her way back. They left the road and went into the woods about 150 yards from where she stopped to turn around and go back to her cabin. Both dogs were clearly "spooked" when they got to those tracks (which no doubt had some fresh scent). It was apparent the wolves followed her, and detoured off the road when she was coming back.

What are your heating options for this winter?  Propane, wood, pellets?