Katy and Jerry Kowalski of Cedarville’s Hill Top Bakery say they enjoy the relaxing pace of life in the EUP. "Stop shooting, stop shooting," Jerry’s father called to him over the fence.

"I’ll never forget it, the first time I went game hunting with my dad," said Jerry Kowalski of Cedarville. "I was 12 years old, and I had my new 4-10. Dad said he would go around and scare up a rabbit; the rabbit came at me so fast that I emptied the shotgun before I realized my dad was calling to me. That was the most memorable event in my entire life."

Mr. Kowalski, originally of Coldwater, has been self-employed for most of his life, beginning his working career mowing lawns and trimming hedges at about 14 years of age. By the time he was graduated from high school, he had a crew working for him. His business grew into residential, commercial, and industrial lawn care. The equipment grew larger also, enough so that he could mow 10 acres in an hour. Before long he had almost all of the lawns in Coldwater, and was stretching out into the countryside. When the rising price of gasoline took away from his profits after 14 years, he sold the business.

He wanted more work.

From an early age, he could be found spending time in his mother’s cake and candy supply business. Soon he was helping her. Mrs. Kowalski would show people how to decorate cakes and make candy, then sell them or rent out the equipment to make the sweets. Her business, called Ele Nora’s Cake Shop, was operated out of their home. When his mother retired, Mr. Kowalski decided to take her name and opened Ele Nora’s Bakery in 1984.

With his wife, Katy, he continued to operate the bakery in Coldwater until 2006, when they sold out and purchased property in Cedarville, where they soon opened the Hill Top Bakery.

An early impression the couple had upon arrival in the Eastern Upper Peninsula, where they saw several signs advertising pasties, was, "Doesn’t anyone know how to spell 'pastry?'"

The couple met in Coldwater, where she was managing a local grocery store. They were married soon after, April 20, 1999.

Mrs. Kowalski was born and grew up in Chicago. She recalls her most exciting times as a youngster were spent when she visited her grandfather, Amos Yates, every spring. It took a long time to reach his home in the country, approximately 200 miles away in Fremont, Indiana. Her aunt was just two years older, and they enjoyed going there together. The girls would spend time in the garage that housed Grandpa’s old Model-T Ford. While sitting behind the wheel, they would pretend that they were traveling all over the world. Her grandfather, Mrs. Kowalski recalls, walked everywhere. He loved juice, and collected the cans, lining them up along the long kitchen farmhouse wall until the girls came to collect them for him. As an old man, she said, Mr. Yates still had bright red hair, and anyone could spot him walking to town.

Mr. and Mrs. Kowalski have four grown children, Aaron, 24, John, 39, Karen, 36, and Steven, 33. The couple are enjoying the slow pace of living here in the north, and say they find the people refreshing and friendly.

Mr. Kowalski has collected advertising pencils for a very long time. The grandson of Polish immigrants who settled in Chicago in 1901, his favorite hobby is genealogy research.