One Week Down in Da U.P.!

So we've officially been Yoopers for one week now!


(Well... Dave reclaimed his Yooper status after a 10+ year hiatus in East Lansing)

Let's start near the beginning - After five years together of being students and working in the Lansing area, we recently uprooted and moved to Marquette County to "officially" begin our lives together. It's been a whirlind of a year - We got married last September and both finished up graduate school this spring. Being alumni of Michigan State University, the name for this blog stemmed from the nickname of our alma mater we love so much - "Moo U" (Deriving from MSU's beginnings in 1855 as our country's first land grant college when it was named "Michigan Agricultural College"). 

Ever since we started dating, we wanted to move up north to begin our careers. We're very excited that an opportunity here presented itself. Tracy started as an associate vet at Bayshore Animal Hospital this last week while Dave is busy studying for the upcoming bar exam and therefore becoming quite familiar with the Peter White Public Library in Marquette.

After a week of packing up our place in Lansing (thanks to a lot of help from our family and friends - Bonnie, Wayne, and Mike) we made the drive to our new home - a farmhouse in Skandia, Mich. Compared to the small Cape Cod style home we were renting in Lansing with a backyard just big enough for our border collie mix, Thule (A.K.A. "Tool-man"), this new, albeit old place is gargantuan! With the exception of Dave making a few casts for native brook trout in Nelson Creek (really just creating a feast for the mosquitos), we still haven't even touched the 150 acres available for us to play on. 

All of last weekend consisted of unloading the van and moving truck (thanks to another set of family and friends: Patti, Dave, and Brett), but thankfully we were able to relax and take in Marquette a bit with a few draughts of blueberry wheat beer made locally at The Vierling, followed by a bonfire at the home of our friends (and soon-t0-be newlyweds), Brett and Kelly. 

Work went great for Tracy in her first week as a vet - she's meeting lots of new people and animals, performing some surgeries and getting comfortable at Bayshore with Dr. Tim Hunt and the awesome staff. We both enjoy a new morning routine - our commute together on U.S. 41 to Marquette as Dave drops Tracy off at bayshore on his way to "work" (studying) at the Peter White Public Library. It's an abrupt change for Dave to switch from working at the State Capitol for MUCC to burying himself in bar prep books all day, but the new view overlooking Lake Superior from his favorite 2nd floor study spot softens the adjustment.

The goal was to get this blog up and running during the move, but needless to say we had (and still have) our hands quite full with getting acclimated! After a week living out of boxes while slowly unpacking and hanging pictures after work and studying, our farmhouse is finally starting to feel more like a home. 

Just as it is for anybody else, moving has been a bear - we've been quite busy working hard to adjust to our new work and home environment and getting everything settled. But we've managed to have some fun mixed in-between. An attempt to see Dave's old American Legion baseball team (Gladstone Indians) play Marquette unfortunately was rained out by a torrential downpour. Later in the week we witnessed another Lake Superior induced weather change with a 40 degree temperature swing in the matter of an hour as fog engulfed Marquette Bay, but it couldn't damper a fun midweek night out with old and new friends. We were also able to make it to the weekly Saturday farmer's market in Marquette as Tracy was pleasantly surprised to encounter a treat from "home" - Southwest Michigan (Eau Claire!) strawberries. We picked up plenty of plants for our garden, which was completed this last weekend. We'll have to see what kind of green thumbs we have attempting a variety of peppers, tomatoes, beans, peas, herbs, strawberries, pumpkins, zucchinis, and squash. 

We experienced farm life also with our first trip to the self-haul town dump and driving a riding lawnmower, which decided to quit on us halfway through the giant yard.  We were also able to eat well with good ribs at Up North Lodge (thanks for the gift certificate Erik!) and breakfast at a locally famous hole-in-the-wall with our brother and sister-in-law, Brad and Erika. We also participated in their couples' baby shower. Not too bad along with still setting up the house just as we want it! (Well, almost...)

We're sure the adventures will only continue to mount as our time in God's Country moves on. We're missing all of our family and friends "downstate," but cannot wait for everyone to visit. We have lots of wildlife friends living near us with multiple deer in our apple orchard, but the resident black bear on the property continues to be elusive - probably scared of big bad Thule!


Thanks for reading our "blog" - The idea of a blog is a bit narcissistic, but we think it will be a fun way to keep in touch and record our new "journey" along the way!