So my wife and I are doing some Army retirement planning.  One of the places were considering is the UP.  She has family that lives in Michigan and lived in Michigan as a girl.  I am from the south, 50 degrees is frigid type southern boy.  Our goal is 40-80 acres a modest house and a self sufficient life style.  I will have about $3,000 a month from the Army, so would like to find some part time work in the $1500-$2000 a month range.  For those of you knowledgeable about the UP what potential pitfalls do you see?

You're going to need to lower your temperature range. Close to zero isn't at all uncommon here in the Lower Peninsula, and it gets a wee bit colder up north. The job market is pretty limited. I don't know what kind of work she does or you want to do.

She stays at home and raises kids.  I'm an aircraft mechanic, I'd be looking for handyman/construction/wrench turning part time.  Like I said I only need about $1500-2000 a month and health care is not an issue.  I know I'm gonna have to get used to the cold.  I've worked in -25 before so I'm not a stranger to it.  I'm just curious about the feasibility of living there.

The UP is great.  The winters can be a little long but if you want wilderness it's FIRST RATE!  The western half is the better half (IMHO).

The land and a modest house should be easy to find, and for a very reasonable price. But there's a reason its so cheap, there are not a lot of good jobs in the UP. Finding a part time job, about 20 hrs a week, that pays 17.30 an hour is really good money in Michigan, especially in the UP.

Check out the Kinross area south of Sault Ste Marie or Escanaba, both have airports and may be able to provide you some work. Neither will be warm, be aware that winters in the UP are a very different animal than south of the bridge.

There are nice little airports in Sault Ste Marie, Iron Mountain and Marquette too.

The Sault area is a good bet. State Prison is near for possible work. You could reach down into the northern lower (Gaylord, Petoskey, Traverse City, Alpena) for work if needed. Just know that the Mackinaw Bridge can close during the winter for a day if the weather is bad. You could easily get stuck at work overnight.  As stated the Escanaba area is good too. Not too far from Green Bay. If you want to be even farther north, look towards Houghton/Hancock.

Id have a job lined up before deciding. As stated land is cheap up there but jobs are scarce.

Is her family in the UP? If not, no point in living there, winters are brutal and you will be many hours drive from just about anything in Southern Lower Michigan.

You might check out the thumb area and this company:

http://www.kalittaair.com/

Property in the area is reasonable as long as it isn't on Lake Huron or Saginaw Bay and weather there doesn't involve "lake effect" snow.

They have a huge maintainance facility at Oscoda located at the former Wirtsmuth AF Base, I believe they have about 650 employees there. It appears they have some openings there and in Ypsilanti.

http://www.kalittaair.com/JobPostings.aspx

http://www.kalittaair.com/Events/MRO2012.pdf

My Sister and her Family live in Escanaba and it's a nice community.  It's large enough to do shopping and still know your neighbors around town.  They also have an airport where you might find a new career...  
Good luck and enjoy the opportunity,
MichDefender

I would suggest Escanaba
They have an airport, also look into paper mills for jobs.

It's going to be near impossible to make that much money. Aside from the 5 larges cities, most of the area is destitute. (And I say that with much love for the Upper Peninsula.) In nearly every small town there is a gas station and/or bar/grill. The only people that work in the town work at the 2 businesses, and most everyone else in the area is on pensions, living off retirement, or on some form of social safety net.

Absolutely beautiful and wonderful area though.

I lived in the UP most of my life, and am originally from Gladstone.  I'll be the first to say that if I ever come upon a job that allows me to work remotely i'll be back in a heartbeat.  Houses and land are cheap, people are honest and nice, and it's one of the best places to hunt/fish/camp in the US.  Winters are, in a word, terrible.  Anywhere you go they're going to measure snow in feet, not inches.

If i had to recommend any city it'd be Marquette.  It's centrally enough located that you're not far from anything (in so far as the UP is concerned).  It's gorgeous.  There is a ton of land around it that sells for between 700 and 1200 an acre.  Plus you can fish on Lake Superior, in any number of fantastic rivers, and you're nearest anything resembling civilization up there :)  And that means more jobs.  KI Sawyer airport is close, and there are a few big box stores (Menards, Best Buy, Lowes, Wal Mart) that oughta be easy enough to get a job at.  Unless you can get a gig utilizing your mechanical talents though, I'd expect to make about 10-12 bucks an hour working part time.

As someone mentioned, unless you're looking to live very, very far away from anyone/anything, I'd be looking near the following areas:  Iron Mountain, Marinette/Kingsford, Escanaba, Marquette, Houghton, Sault Ste Marie, and...that's about it.  

If you decide to take the leap, enjoy God's Country.

I don't live in the UP, and honestly don't know much about it.

I do however live in the northern lower.  Somewhere between Traverse city, Grayling and Charlevoix, depending on the time of year.

I'm sure you can come up with a long list of likes and benefits from living there or here, as many have already done, and not that I want to.....I feel the need to try to talk you out of it.....for your own good.   Not that you shouldn't but just so you think about it long and hard before you make any serious commitment.

I'll just ramble my thoughts in no particular order......

Seasons......well....whether it's a textbook season or not there are really only two seasons up here.  1. Predominantly nice, and 2. Predominantly shitty.  
    Springtime starts off with no rain....this ain't "spring" season, it's FIRE season.  Be prepared to watch all your dreams go up in smoke because some city chimp had to roast a marshmallow, or some moron had to burn his leaves....hell maybe it'll be an act of god.  Any way it's EVERY year.

    Then it's nice for a while decent temps, and some rain maybe.   Life is good for a while.

PLANTING season is late, and GROWING season is short.  You'll be all smiles when it warms up in April you'll see your trees start flowering in May and maybe get your garden planted right before that June freeze every night for a week that kills everything.

Then the bugs come out, spiders, bees, skeeters, flies, ticks....you get bit....it gets hot and humid, man you can't get away from it.  This is AIR CONDITIONER season, while you hide from it all..... but then it turns to TOURIST season  and every fucking idiot you tried to move away from is doing donuts with his dirtbike trashing your dirt road.  
 Summertime heat mellows outmaybe late August or so and it gets genuinely beautiful outside.  For about a month.  Late september the rains start and before you know it it's October.  
 Mid October SNOWY season starts and it turns kinda pretty off and on  between the rain and the mud, but it's enjoyable.  Sometime in November, right around the time a million drunk dudes start wandering the woods with guns, it starts to snow.  It snows some more......and some more......and some more and the temperature goes down  and down and down, and it's still snowing.  Maybe you got out there and enjoyed it a bit....did some sledding, skiing, snowshoeing, made a snowman.....woohoo  and it was even a white Christmas. Sometime in January the fun wears off, you get tired of being cooped up hiding from the cold, and you can't walk anywhere without snow shoes or a snow blower in front of you.  Winter will break sometime.....it's been warm the last few days, I can't wait.
  But, now its February and it's still 30 below, and you realize you didn't push your snowbanks back far enough so the driveway is shrinking.  You'd push em back, but that 70 degree day a while back got them to malt a bit and turn to ICE.  Your stuck with it.  You wouldn't mind it so much, but the ole lady's been driving ya nut's and you don't live close enough to town to get high speed internet.  I'd go somewhere and find some entertainment if I could, maybe buy a model airplane, but the road on the 20 mile trek to town is snowy and icy, I bet if I slid off the side of it nobody would find my body for months.  Well maybe it ain't worth dieing for.
 Thank god for March, it's finally warming up....the snow thaws a bit, the world turns to mud.....then freezes again and snows some more.....fucking snow.....I hate snow....50 degrees today, and I watched the runoff from the drive wash out $250 worth of gravel out of the driveway.  supposed to get cold again and SNOW for the next few days.....
 April showers bring May flowers.....right......well no....they bring more mud.....your drive is just two ruts now, and the road is a friggin washboard for a mile or so down to the blacktop.  but Springtime's here.....sorta....

Buy a digital scanner for fire season.

Keep enough food and fuel to be snowed in for a month or so.

Buy a generator....maybe two

Buy a plow truck.....maybe two

Buy a snowblower.....maybe two

Buy a 4x4.....Two.....

You get it......yeh, one's enough, but you need another to dig and pull the other out.  You can even call yourself a "prepper" or a "survivalist" or "self-sufficient"....whatever name you need to put on the box.  It's just common friggin sense......It's just the way it is....do it, or take the chance on being dead.  Cold kills....

It's a long walk to the auto parts store if you only have one car and nobody to call for a ride.

Keep plenty of gas on hand......it's a shitty feeling when you drive 20 miles back home and realize the gage is on E.....gonna be a long walk.

Move somewhere you know someone.....it sucks when the nearest person you can call for help is 80 miles away.

Sooner or later you're gonna forget the milk.....and have to make the 40 mile roung trip back to town for a $2 spark plug, or a 12 cent bolt......it ain't the time thats the problem......it's the fact you spent 15 bucks on gas for that 12 cent bolt.

Some of them towns up there have some decent stores available......sure.  But not everything.  Sooner or later you'll have to drive a hundred or more miles for something.



Living up north is great, just not for everyone......All I'm getting at is  spend a lot more time considering the bad aspects than the good.

ETA......I ain't trying one bit to shit on your retirement dream.  I didn't grow up here I moved here from Metro Detroit, Westland actually.  I hunted , fished, and played up here for 28 years before I made the move.  It all sounds romantic, happy and fun, when you're a weekender....just be prepared for quite a shock if you try to build a life.
  I have a remote hunting place way out in the woods....I wouldn't want to spend all my time there.  I have a Fishing cabin on a chain of lakes, and I wouldn't want to spend all my time there.  I also have a house in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Traverse City.....I don't want to spend all my time there.  Between the three, it ain't bad.  Always something to do.....except February-April, thats why I like the house in town.

Best of luck to you.

I have lived in iron Mountain all of my 59 years, the winters have been getting better and betterr every year, less snow and warmer winters, I'm a 2nd generation auto mechanic and I have been doing this since I was 14 years old part time after school, I can tell you from a business standpoint winters were my busiest time every year,now because of the warmer weather and very little snow fall it is my slowest time of the year, Iron Mountain seems to be in the bannana belt as far as winters go, we seem to miss all the snow storms, almost forgot, in March we had a day that was 80 degrees.
kenner

Thanks folks, you have certainly given us some points to ponder.

I lived in Marquette for 4 years while going to school.  If I could have found a job that wasn't in the mine I probably would have stayed.  Based on your past experience, there might be some employment opportunities at KI Sawyer south of Marquette.  It is an airport and while I was there I was told it was also used as a place to do a lot of airplane maintenance.  I think they actually flew a lot of planes in there for maintenance that couldn't be performed elsewhere, but I don't know much about that type of thing.  

Good luck.

I've lived in the UP all my life (29 years) except for just recently when I moved to the metro Detroit area for work about a month ago.

It's a great place IMO, and I'm not sure I would have left if I could've further my career up there (software development). The winters are cold/long but not as bad as they were as when I was a kid. You get used to them, at least somewhat. ;-)

Let me know if you have further questions and I'll try my best to answer them. There's a lot of pros about the area (I lived in Escanaba; I'd suggest there or Marquette as they're the bigger cities and would probably have more employment opportunities) but the lack of jobs is the worst thing about it. Not that you can't find a great job, there's just less there.

IM sent.  

The area I live in would be a good place to look for a home and a job.  Gaylord, Petosky and Cheboygan are not far away.  It's at the upper part of the lower peninsula.  Fishing is great as is the hunting.  No inner city problems as the towns are small. Cheboygan, Emmett, Otsego county area.

My wife is from the UP (Sault Ste) area.   One the biggest mistakes of my life was not moving up there.  I regret it eveyday.  If it wasnt for my job here in Ohio, I would move back up there in a heart beat.  I SERIOUSLY hate oHiO with a passion

Houghton/Hancock have some employment possibilities as well. We own a couple places up in the yoop and plan on retiring up there, wonderful place to live. You guys are talking about winters of the past, they really have been quite mild lately and mostly the snow is only deep in the northern half, aka the snow belt. Being a sledder, I could not be more sincere about how the winters are not like they used to be up there, I hope they come back!

I grew up in the UP (Chassell), but haven't lived there since I left for the Navy in '87.

As stated above, if there were any real jobs up there, I wouldn't be living in the armpit of MI right now.  I'd be up there.

The OP's primary concern will be finding a part time job paying what he wants.  Never know, you might get lucky.

Escanaba would be a good pace to start...the company I work for has an office there (we are an architectural / engineering firm).

Or...lnorthern lower peninsula....Gaylord area (we have a office in Gaylord to....that they won't transfer me too)...use to live there (Johannesburg actually)  still have family there...love it...great community good schools.

Plus they have an airport that UPS flies out of...You may find work at the Harley shop....but there's lots of wrench turner and some oil field work....especially for a vet.

Lots of snow. But it's a light powdery type snow mostly...tons of groomed and un groomed snowmobile trails...lakes up the wazoo...great hunting and fishing. Close to da u.p., eh!

Shit....now I'm homesick!

Good luck!

Chris

 

Just in case you don't believe that winter can start in October



We were supposed to be Partridge hunting the second week of October 2007.











Then again, it may just stay nice.  This was 2008.