How long do you have to talk about the long list of reasons for a Maine relocation? The fresh air, clean water, wide open space, low cost real estate and more elbow room is a big part of it. Being able to have peace and quiet and live in unspoiled, under populated surroundings smack dab surrounding by Nature is huge.
This blog post is more show them, rather than tell them about Maine.
If you’ve sampled a few Me In Maine blog posts, you know the focus is anything about Vacationland. Maine, just Maine all four seasons, every corner of the state is fair game for another blog post. Before some Maine images that say way more than a wall of words can, remember it’s not just what the state offers. More than the warmth of the small town rural Maine hospitality.
What people are leaving is pushing hard just as much as these images, community videos and blog posts is driving the big move to Maine.
So folks are ready, this move to Maine is not a spur of the moment idea that pops into one’s head. The relocation, the growing ready to go builds and festers inside a person thanks to earlier Maine vacation trips. These folks know there is somewhere better, more enjoyable than a sea of unknown faces. The crowd have been looking for a place to head and leave where they now live in their rear view mirror. The carrot is simple living in Maine. And all that approach to day to day living provides a person who is way more involved in small Maine town living. And ends up gleaning way more because of it.
So let’s start out with a few community videos of living in Maine that highlight why I love where I call home.
Let’s weave in some Maine photos.
Hard Work Raking Maine Blueberries On The Barrens.By Yourself Fishing A Maine Lake At Dusk. Welcome To Maine.Never Get Tired Of Maine Lighthouses. There Are Over 60 Of Them!Maine Only Has A Handful Of Cities. Over 400 Small Rural Towns Like Portland’s Old Port Above.Maine’s Mt Katahdin Is Almost A Mile High. Surrounded Like A Ring’s Center Stone By Lots Of Other Less Publicized Hill Top Trails To Hike And Explore.Maine Farm Pasture Field Of Red, White Clover And Wild Flowers.Which Boat Is Yours Parked On The Maine Harbor Coastal Harbor Town Public Wharf?
Why people move to Maine.
Lots of what we have, plenty of what we don’t that folks are running away from that city living dishes out around the clock. Hope heavy on the images, the community flavor videos do all the heavy living sending out the reasons people want to live here in Maine.
Thank you for following our Me In Maine blog posts. Lots of images of Maine sprinkled and seasoned through all the previous blog posts and future ones to give you idea of what’s it like here.
It takes many hardworking volunteers doing everything behind the scenes. Keeping the ITS trails groomed, twitching new ones is only part of it. Putting up signage, building bridges, feeding hungry trail riders. Raising funds to maintain or buy a new snowmobile trail groomer.
Cuffing Right Along Grooming, Smoothing, Carving Up ITS Snow Sled Trails.
Snowmobile clubs do their part to dovetail with local Maine winter community celebrations too.
They are welcome wagon ambassadors to the out of town or state sled trail riders. Sharing the natural beauty of Maine by suggesting memorable trail rides to not forget to experience.
The biggest issue for Maine snowmobile clubs can be Mother Nature and Jack Frost.
Like farming, depending on the weather is always a gamble. Feast or famine.
Maine ski areas put a lot of time into setting up the snow making nozzles on the slopes. Only to see above freezing, too warm temperatures mixed with rain, wind and fog arrive to wash it away. The same happens to well groomed snow trails when the red rises too high in the glass tube outside the kitchen window.
The price of gas was more of an issue when two cycle, mix the oil with the gas higher fuel consuming snowmobiles played on the ITS trails. The four cycle machines are more costly to buy, but easier on the wallet to feed the octane.
Not so much anxiety worried about topping off the tank as you prepare to head off into the “Great North Woods” where gas stations are missing.
By Yourself On The Newly Groomed ITS Snow Sled Trails. Nothing Like It.
This blog post looks at the dynamics of a small rural Maine snowmobile club. How they start, what needs to happen for them to survive.
Maine land owners to allow snow sledders access to their property is key. That is the first step to setting up a Maine snowmobile club.
Back in the early 1960’s when there were 50 flavors of snowmobile makers, you made your own trails. You broke down a lot.
You tinkered for two hours to ride for one because snow sleds were not so dependable for long distance trail riding.
And if you are cold, you are not dressed right today or then. The getting stuck and digging out, tugging up front on skis and tramping down around the snow machine work out keeps you warm as toast. You learn to stay on the trail. It saves getting a hernia digging out and also pleases your land owner that lets you use their land. IF you stay on the marked sled trail.
In the early days of snow sledding, it was stay pretty close to home and on hard pack surfaces when you headed out snowmobiling.
I remember those early Johnson Skeehorse days when you thought twice about heading out across a deep, bottomless snowy farm field.
I heard stories about old hardcore Maine snowmobilers taking annual sled trips up into Quebec, Labrador.
Hearing the stories about breakdowns, incredible scenery and how they planned for the out of the country snowmobile trip. What they plan to do next year the same or differently. Like many things, ideas start with seeing how they do it in other areas of the country. Lots of ideas learned from other Canadian snowmobile club trips. Those visits lead to let’s try to apply what we saw on the trail to our Maine snow sled club and backyard trail system.
When you snowmobile up in Maine’s St John River Valley, you enjoy twin lanes like the Interstate is divided.
Safer, more work for the groomer but just a different approach to laying out the trail system that goes in wide circles around the clubhouse.
So besides a network of Maine landowners willing to share their property with snowmobilers, a clubhouse for a home is needed.
A local Ward log home maker donated a building the Meduxnekeag Ramblers in Littleton Maine use for their clubhouse. Many of the local snow sled clubhouses are made of logs because Maine is 91 percent wooded.
Maine has lots of log home and cabin makers willing to lend a helping hand to local snowmobile clubs.
Once the log home kit is secured, other local vendors will step up and help out with manpower and materials.
Here’s a video showing a typical Maine snowmobile club breakfast.
The snowmobile clubhouse also is used for weddings, parties, executive retreats.
The rental income helps keep the snowmobile club out of the red and keeps membership engaged beyond just the winter trail riding sled season.Reimbursement from the state of Maine for trail grooming expenses is key. It is a partnership of state and local snowmobile club to document expenses for reimbursement. Money from snowmobile registrations, local fund raising keep the trail system healthy. The local businesses that directly benefit from winter snow sledders step up and give back heavily too. The Maine Snowmobile Association helps guide the local sled clubs too.
Local motels, sporting camps have groomed sled trails right up to their doorstep.
These local snowmobile clubs deliver the sledding tourist right to their business operations. Gas stations, local snow sled retailers benefit from the network of trails Maine snowmobile clubs keep polished. These are new dollars plowed back into the local economy that turn over six to seven times which benefits Maine taxpayers. Celebrations like Moosestompers help the locals shake cabin fever around the first of every February up in Aroostook County Maine.
The Maine snowmobile trail maps are sponsored by businesses too.
You can quickly cover a lot of trails on say ITS 83 that uses old railroad beds. These winter snow sledding highways come complete with bridges to span waterways. They complement nicely the local landowner side trails and large wooded tracts opened up by loggers who are also “sled heads”.
I have had Maine real estate buyers surprised I would allow a snowmobile trail across my family farm.
Have A Snow Sled Groomed Trail Across My Maine Farm Property.
It is explained that landowners that add their acreage to the local snowmobile trail map are a valuable partner. Snowmobilers are reminded to respect the Maine landowner. That use of their private property is a privilege not a right.
Local snow sledders who love the winter sport are the glue that hold together the Maine snowmobile clubs.
Making Sled Trails, Carving New Snow Into Winter Highways.
Lucky to have had two uncles that were Maine snowmobile dealers.
Uncle Carl Hagan sold Sno-Jets and my uncle Cedric Benn peddled Polaris sleds and parts. As a kid, I learned a lot working on a 1966 Sno-Jet and before that an even older Johnson Skeehorse snow machine. Then Polaris machines after that with a couple Yamaha’s thrown in to the snow sled mix.
Ice Fishing Easier Thanks To Snowmobiles.
Growing up, I was also lucky to have neighborhood snowmobile enthusiasts who kept the area kid’s sled running like a top.
A local mechanic for the B & A railroad, Ronnie Brewer helped the neighborhood kids keep the machines running. He was like a shop teacher helping us figure out what’s wrong and
how to fix it. Friday night with all the kids lucky enough to have an early snow sled to use had it made. When the Sno-Jet metal gas tank rusted up, I decided to add a red side gas tank bungeed into place. The portable gas tank idea from Arctic Cat. It interfered with sitting down but no kid I knew in those early days ever sledded that way.
Early snow sledding was not sitting down and steering was narrow skis stance anyway.
To stay on the trail that you mostly made yourself, it was easy does it squeezing between tight spacing through the woods. You were on one knee. Or leaning, standing up and throwing the sled where you wanted it to go heading into curves. Before carbide ski runners and wider spacing up front, the snow sled steering involved way way more than just pushing and pulling your handlebar movements.
Bridges To Keep The Snow Sled Trail Connected. Clubs Work Hard To Build Them And To Mark The Trails, Put Up Signage.
Just like hockey games, you can not sit down and fully experience them.
It is on your feet every period and into overtime to experience it all. Early snow sledding was like that too. On your feet or on your knees ladies and gentlemen. You did not sit down on the job of maneuvering the snowmobile to negotiate turns, to avoid hitting trees. No one wanted bent straight up snow skis or a dent in their cowling. You did not have wide and handsome trails and it took more work leaning into corners. If you had a passenger on back, you told them to follow your move and lean too. Otherwise, the both of you would be out in the pucker brush and holding up the rest of the sled head trail gang.
Set Up, Getting Ready For A Snow Sled Club Breakfast. Trail Riding Builds Large Hunger Out In All That Fresh Maine Air.
We went to grass snow sled racers, over to Canada to watch the snowmobile circuit competitions at New Brunswick province community parks.
My Aunt Ruth’s partner was a big kid himself. Freeman Taylor kept our snowmobiles going and let us use a souped up 1964 Ski Doo and his 1973 Skiroule.
The former snowmobile was a bored out 10 horsepower cranking out 22 ponies with poor brakes and missing safety guards.
The old Ski Doo with a noisy straight pipe, a sprinkle of that red fluid labeled “fuel activator” sprinkled in the gas tank. Too narrow and loose as a goose to handle at higher trail speeds than the sled was original designed to be going. The Skiroule was modern and ran very well with its 25 horsepower engine. I think their RTX model was way ahead of its time like the Kawasaki snow machines and other notable snowmobile models.
New Snow Means Improved Sled Trails And $$$ In The Main Small Town Local Winter Economy.
Freeman also had an 80 horsepower Skiroule with three carbs, a rope wind up hand crank and ear splitting tuned exhaust pipes.
It was fun watching Freeman race on grass or the circuit parks. But he had a heck of time keeping drive belts from fraying and failing before the end of the race.
Often many laps ahead of the field and often coming in a lower place pushing the dead sled over the finish line.
Too much power from the 793 cc Hirth power plant delivered to the clutching and drive track channel the problem.
Easier To Access Ice Traps Using Snow Sleds These Days.
When there is a snow drought, clubs still have the Christmas parties, mark the trails, keep the social element going.
“I Think We Take This Connector. How’s Your Sled For Gas Bob? Better Top Off.”
Maine is like that, feast or famine and we all adjust making the most of what we have. We are always grateful for what we have that is always enough. Take what you need, pass along the rest to someone that has less. Is it like that where you live now?
The sights you can see on a snowmobile out in nature in the middle of a Maine winter back drop are pretty moving.
Wildlife, snow covered mountains and trees surround you. Waterfalls, rivers, frozen lakes. Signs that someone was on the trail before you to break the way and make it easier sledding.
Bring your camera to capture those Kodak moments on and off the snowmobile ITS trail.
Through the woods, out over an open farm field, crossing a lake if conditions are safe. Tread lightly. Carry in and out. Stay on the marked snow sled trail. The experience is one of a kind and you can get places easily that are not accessible by car.
Maine is not just summer vacations and that’s all she wrote.
Get the whole nine yards, spend time in Maine all four seasons to experience Vacationland to the fullest. We local natives do and feel so fortunate to live in Maine full time, all year round.
l hope you get to see Maine from atop a snowmobile seat this winter.
Did you get a set of axles and and pretty much on your own created a soap box derby car to compete in a local race? Soap box derby race in Maine. Since 1995, downhill gravity racing in driver built kit cars re-surged around Maine.
Maine Soap Box Derby Racers Practice Good Sportsmanship. Derby Heats “Won” By Hundredths Of A Second.
This blog post is all about where we are today in Maine soap box derby racing.
Youngest Daughter Amanda Gets Advice Before All American Soap Box Derby Race, Akron Ohio.
Throughout the years since then, Maine communities joined together to field racers to represent Maine in the big national soap box derby race.
In my hometown of Houlton Maine, I run into hand built soap box derby cars stored away over shops and garages. They are hidden “up over head”. Relic, classic soap box derby cars just gathering dust since last used back in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.
These early soap box derby races had big national corporate sponsors like Chevrolet.
Local Maine Chevy dealers, our larger state newspapers too helped promote the big three lane race held in the Midwest.
My involvement in the Maine soap box derby cars was not because an older brother raced.
But my four children all raced soap box derby. How did it become popular again? In Maine, in 1995, it was a Camden Maine race caught lots of attention and started the grass fire of local interest in local soap box derby racing.
That Camden Maine derby car race funded by a credit card company, MBNA
The credit card giant earmarked the seed money, $20,000, and hired a New Hampshire soap box derby group to set up the 1995 race. By 1996, parents and fans who witnessed the Camden Maine race came back to their home towns to set up their own local derby program. The following year after that MBNA sponsored race, Maine started up five local derby programs that quickly took shape.
The soap box derby “locals” as they are called were in Brewer, Camden, Houlton, South Portland and Rumford.
Each derby “local” raised their own seed money to fund the race each year. Selecting a winning derby car driver(s) to present their local at the big national All American race in Akron Ohio. Besides the local derby races held around Maine each June, spring and fall “rally races” took place.
Older Soap Box Derby Racers Help Younger Ones.
These rally races help derby drivers sharpen their skills. To put more racing experience under the belt of whoever Maine sent to Akron Ohio be the best the state could send.
Rally race points were earned for each of their rallies. Some parents traveled to the sunny south, anywhere there was a rally race to gain all important points to earn a trip to Akron Ohio for the big national derby race.
Besides the stock, super stock and master soap box derby racing divisions, a child 7 to 20 can opt to take the rally point earning route to get to race in Akron Ohio.
To run a program year after year, the local Maine soap box derby local needs to have funding. Local businesses and service club groups sponsor cars and give money to the local to cover expenses.
Drivers are selected to represent the car sponsors and are expected to race fairly and to show good sportsmanship. The local derby winner gets lots of advice and financial support from the Maine community they represent for the big trip west.
Lots of mechanical knowledge is gained when a boy or girl builds and maintains a soap box derby car.
What’s a lock washer, which size bolt do the derby plans call for in the steering or brake assembly? Alignment, aerodynamics and consistency in racing all are big considerations building a derby race car.
The stock and super stock soap box derby race cars after launched, gain speeds of around 30 miles an hour.
Think of what if you were the eight year old racer inside the car you built and trust. Seeing out of the corner of your eye another derby car racer with the same hope to get to the hill bottom first.
Derby Hill, Houlton Maine Soap Box Derby Race Circuit From The Air At Community Park.
No roar of a motor, nothing to top off for a gas tank. Just gravity and the weight of the kid and car are the horsepower. Lubrication, storing the car inside and out of the elements. Not sitting on the car or kicking a tire by mistake and removing a wheel pin clowning around it.
Drivers who build their cars gain pride and respect as they get in the “derby zone”.
The families that field several drivers are the ones that derby rally race and travel to other locations to improve their driving skills.
So today in Maine, where is soap box derby racing? The five locals have distilled down into one. The Northern Maine Sox Box Derby in Houlton is the lone local and the state of Maine racing venue. COVID threw a wrench in the cogs of the last two years like it has a lot of institutions.
June 11th, 2022 is the date for the next Maine state soap box derby race in Houlton ME.
No matter where you or your child racer live in Maine, you are eligible to race and represent your town or city in the big Houlton Maine local race this summer.
Like to sponsor a car? How can you help underwrite the Maine state soap box derby race? Lots of ways and please reach out to the Houlton Maine parks and recreation department. Contact number is 207.532.1310. More who to contact information at the Maine State Soap Box Derby website.
Check Your Brake. You Ready? First Time Racer Gets One On One Handling.
Why is Houlton Maine the still standing venue for soap box derby racing in Vacationland?
We built a hill for racing. Used every year for the June race and spring/fall rallies. A place for snow sliding during Moosestomper’s celebration of winter held each February. Some 4th of Julys, the Derby Hill is used as a fire works launching site.
The derby hill in Houlton Maine is 934′ long and just about everyone in the community had a hand in it’s construction. Hundreds of thousands of yards of gravel and fill.
Aviation grade paving and striping to delineate land one and two, guard rails for safety. Lighting for night rally races with a garage on top of Derby Hill “topside”. The garage with side and front openings to keep racers out of the rain. This garage to house the launch ramp, scales, safety cones for the bottom of the hill run out area.
Racers from around Northern Maine made the Houlton soap box derby local the largest in the nation five years straight.
The June 11th, 2022 soap box derby race in Houlton Maine needs your help. Please share this blog post and think of ways to promote the state of Maine derby race wherever you are located.
“The Thrill of the Hill” awaits in Houlton Maine’s state race and hope you can be some large or small part of it to continue the tradition.
Sometimes Weather Gets In The Way. Soap Box Derby Racers Plan On Rain, Blistering Sun, Any Weather. Tents Help Until The Showers Pass.
I was lucky enough to be a parent of two local derby race winners who represented the state of Maine in the national one in Akron Ohio.
Going through the All American Soap Box Derby Race Museum in Akron Ohio and walking up the hill can hit you hard. Lots of history and the Houlton Maine race through hard work and from surviving lots of learning curves has fielded national All American top spot and runner up race winners. It takes the “Zoo Crew” and roughly 60 volunteers in the beginning derby races to pull off the local race.
To get an idea of the state of Maine soap box derby program, tap a few past early race videos.
The videos show specially built car trailers and escort vehicles used to tow the derby cars and drives from the bottom to the top of the hill.
Maine Soap Box Derby Racing. The entire family has a role and can race.
Wheel swaps after each “heat” run are done to keep the soap box derby races fair and exciting.
An electronic eye determines who advances to the next pair up heat run. If you are thinking of starting a soap box derby race, remember your hill set up and tear down. As your race course crew ages, that extra work is what can kill a program the quickest.
Nothing eats up more time or tuckers out your soap box derby crew than setting up, tearing down a race course.
The Concept For Derby Hill In Houlton Maine. This Is Where “The Thrill Of The Hill” Develops!
Build your own to roll on.
Lot of logistics but think long term, want to keep the soap box derby racing program alive and growing. Rotary Club of Houlton has been a solid partner through the history of our local, from day
From Topside, On Houlton Maine’s Soap Box Derby Hill.
one to present. It was Rotary that sponsored cars, helped us build a garage, add lighting and more. Thank you for that support Rotarians!
Love to talk “derby”.
Getting an organization like Rotary, the Elks or area fire departments, local media outlets behind your soap box derby program. It all helps assure the funding, publicity and man power. To add longevity to pull off years of youth soap box derby racing.
Did you race or someone in your family or community was involved in the soap box derby program where you grew up or live now? Get involved and help jump start or give your local soap box derby racing program a big boost.
You have as much fun as the kid who derby races.
The sound of those wheels turning again when another soap box derby race gets underway. That kind of fun does not fade away and it is hard to stop being “Mr Goodwrench” for a girl or boy who loves to derby race on the hill.
Reach out, let’s connect.
I can’t wait to hear the derby car wheels rolling again for another local race. This 2022 Maine soap box derby race is important to get the word out and share. Please do. We want lots of derby racers from around the state of Maine to be in the Houlton Maine race. Again, please share the news of the June 11th, 2022 State of Maine soap box derby race held on Derby Hill in Houlton Maine.
Thought about taking life to a whole new level and dreaming of farming in Maine? The four letters “FARM” is a pretty big word. This blog post jumps into the topic how to start a farm in Maine. Reach out with questions about Maine farming.
Wide Open Unspoiled Farm Land In Maine. Want Some?
For starters, the farm up in Maine, are you thinking using the land for now on vacations?
With the plan to slowly pull away from expensive city living to trade it all in for wide open space, no locked doors, zip for traffic? Then Maine land, just land where you bring up the travel trailer RV camper and part it for low cost Maine vacations. Eventually, when everything in your life lines up correctly, you pull the trigger and build the house of your dreams. With everything you wanted that you never had in previous houses and a few items you did.
You will never go hungry on a Maine farm.
I did not eat a lot of rice growing up but we sure have a lot of home grown Maine potatoes. There are so many ways to cook and prepare a Maine potato and I know them all. On the family farm, we also grew soldier, yellow eye and Jacob’s cattle dry beans. Unlike potatoes, what you harvest one year can last into the next to sell. You just have to hope and pray it is not a wet fall when you have to harvest the dry beans.
Water is not your friend when dealing with dry rattling beans inside pods that wick the water and start to swell.
You want that process to begin when soaking beans for the Saturday night supper meal. But not out in the field when trying to have a dry harvest.
Here’s over 80 acres of Maine farm land for sale, watch the real estate video.
The three buildings you saw and heard about in this Maine farm video can be worked into an agricultural use.
The pasture farm fields are seeded down, all bush hogged and ready to go. Maine land that is totally wooded means clearing the forest, removing stumps and lots of prep work ahead. Maine farm land that is high test soil and maintained makes the lifestyle change go a lot smoother. Buying a farm in Maine is done for a lot of reason. The land investment gives the owner a piece of mind, security. It is purchased by many as an insurance policy for life. It is the next step and helps a person knowing where they are head. Slowly or quickly if things go south where they live now.
Real estate buyers also purchase farmland in Maine for multi-generational use.
So everyone in the family can have an acre or two to build a camp, home, heck put up a yurt. Gram and Gramp are on the farm up in Maine too. I had one couple who had both sets of in-laws with them when they purchased 115 acres on a river in Oakfield Maine. There was a house and the plan to slowly create more. Lots of auxiliary buildings around the Maine farm house happens. The emphasis is on the Maine farm barn, the machine shed, the chicken house, all the other pens with standing or box stalls.
Where I Grew Up, Your Me In Maine Blogger. On A Farm In Maine.
When you get the itch to start a Maine farm, when there are no buildings, the first one you construct is usually a barn, machine shed.
The emphasis is on the farm, living off the land. Making a paycheck by tilling the soil, managing the wooded sections is priority one. Or staking the pastures with fencing to contain the critters. There are many who start a farm in Maine that bank everything on the plunge into agriculture. But it helps if one person in the couple has a real job with benefits and a steady income. Or if you are retired and going small scale, micro farming, you have a “ticket”. That retirement income helps stabilize and keep the farm dream alive and well.
The big post and beam barns on Maine farms are like dinosaurs.
Slowly going to their knees and dying their last waspy breath due to lack of use and maintenance. Large round bales, not the small square or rectangular ones for hay have taken over. Putting hay up in the loft of a gable or gambrel roof barn is not done so much now. Labor costs are rising and if you can see daylight through holes in the barn roof, it’s whoa. Wet hay molds. Hay cut, conditioned, baled and put into storage with moisture in it can heat up and even cause a barn fire from spontaneous combustion.
Lots Of Full Time New Agriculture Producers Springing Up With Amish Farms in Maine.
Starting a farm in Maine, it’s not all fun and glamor.
Might want to wear your old clothes. Bring an extra set of gloves. Eat a hearty farmhouse breakfast. You are dealing with the weather in Maine that is always changing and unpredictable. Those totally surviving off the Maine farm land have worked a forty hour week by Tuesday noon. Spring planting and fall harvest of crops is never ending. Everything is counting on getting the seeds into the spring time ground and harvested off the land in fall. Frost going in or out is to be avoided at all costs.
Before you farm anything on for animals or crops in your pasture fields, where is your market going to be on the farm in Maine? You invested a lot of time, money, seed, fertilizer, etc for nothing if you can’t sell what you produce. You May be super duper at growing a crop but if no one wants to buy it, that’s no fun. That won’t keep the wolf or the bill collectors from your farmhouse door. Farming in Maine rides on a business chassis.
You have to be an accountant, good at marketing, a master at cruising the farm operation looking for loose ends and an expert at cutting through red tape.
All the time and it never lets up. Farming is a jealous master unless you have a ‘ticket” and keep it a hobby amateur operation.
Local farmers market like this one below create a sales outlet as shown in this Maine community video.
Local sales in the center of a small Maine down town. Thinking small potatoes, know your buyer and they know their local farmer. But something more grand, of growing large scale in mind? Not just selling out of the the Maine farm land or your garden. So now we’re talking about raising something on the farm in Maine that will need storage? To peddle and put up for the trip to some far away food market. For beyond the traditional growing season and not just field run to sell it as fresh as it will ever be. Okay, do you want to grow slow and nice and easy? To avoid a big bank mortgage that keeps you tossing and turning awake nights?
Unfortunately there is a cheap food policy in our country.
Big Barns In Maine. They Fall To Their Knees If Not Maintained.
That is why it helps to live where the cost to do it is lower to the ground. Maine is just such a place and blessed with hi test fertile low cost farm soil. Like most small businesses, is it volume. Getting bigger, watching your costs knowing the profit is in the expenses. That’s why earlier in the blog post on how to start a farm in Maine asked you if you were talking small or jumping in hook, line and sinker.
The most home grown and do as much yourself as you can without hiring out kind of Maine farming is the most enjoyable.
Small, controllable and you are hands on involved in every aspect of the farm in Maine operations. It also makes it new and always something new needing attention. Your kids growing up on a Maine farm learn worth ethic, skills, and healthier living being outdoors. Off the device, off the couch and self absorbed. That’s not the lifestyle when there are chores to do on the Maine farm operation.
No farmer, no food and more folks are realizing how to be self sufficient, independent means learning how to feed yourself.
Thought About Starting A Farm In Maine?
I grew up on the farm in Maine above and here to help with pointers and advice. Like people, Maine farm soils are different. I just happen to know a dependable Maine real estate broker with fire in his belly about farms (blushing ten shades of red). Reach out, let’s talk, learn more about how to start a farm in Maine no matter what size or kind it is! Thank you for stopping by and learning a little more about how to start a farm in Maine.
It’s happening and it’s not a fluke. This blog post is a look at why the former trend of outward migration and population loss is reversing in my small town rural area of Maine. I see it and hear the reasons why every day as a Maine real estate broker. The call of the country and simpler living up in Maine. It’s all causing the relocation to Vacationland pace to pick up speed.
The Village In A Small Maine Town Raises The Kids.
The tug on the heart strings to move back to Maine small towns.
For some it is an easy decision to make.
They remember growing up in small Maine towns and know what they are missing from first hand experience.
Jobs and financial career goals the only reason that forced the move away from small town living in the first place. It was a reluctant but necessary natural progression. Population centers offered the largest variety of good paying jobs. Maine is a great place to live, always has been. But the catch is you have to be able to make a decent wage.
You gotta eat and want more than a hand to mouth existence if what you or your parents did for employment was tied to farming, fishing, mill work or cutting pulp in the Maine woods.
Bustling small Maine towns before the Interstate and Internet were vibrant with flourishing small Maine businesses. Working hard with the owner in the store dedicated to serving your friends, family and neighbors. Performing with fierce pride in your local school sport teams too. Maine rural communities offer a tightly connected small town way of life.
Able to telecommute to work online remotely during COVID was the dress rehearsal.
Folks everywhere across the land and around the globe learned we can do it from the comfort of our own home sweet home. We’re moving. Lower overheard for companies, happier workers not wasting time socializing around the water cooler. No hassles with traffic, crime, carrying a tazer. It all helped fuel the migration to Maine. Packing the Worldly possessions along with the current job and heading North up the pike to to work remotely in Maine. IF that last mile of Internet broadband connection is long and strong in place to make it a viable relocation option.
You are no longer in a city skyscraper corner office when the kids come home after school living in rural Maine.
The kids can now walk home from school because everything is so close in small Maine towns.
Picking Maine Potatoes, My Entry Level Job That Taught Me So Much.
A block to the store, two blocks to school, and kids hoof it rather than parents providing the valet drop and pick up daily dance. Multi generations living together is more efficient and the kids benefit from the wisdom of older family members nearby or sharing the same roof line. You don’t have the giant city salary but your expenses are way way lower to the ground. No worry about a white van kidnapping your kid either. The village watches and raises all the children.
You do more for yourself than hiring it out in small rural Maine towns.
The cost of living is lower in small town rural Maine because insurance is cut in half. No white vans lurking near your home that you worry about snacking your kids in the 4th lowest crime state either.
So so many Maine vacation places overhauled to be way way more than a three day or week long take a break stay.
When the COVID sky started falling and toilet paper was scarce. As the initial wave of adjustment to life as we knew it hit, anyone with a Maine coastal, lake shore, riverfront, woods retreat toyed with the thought.
What if I packed it in and headed up to Maine as my refuge to regroup?
To weather the COVID storm and tough it out for a spell until things settled down. But COVID is the hangover that did not go away. The virus is not a temporary condition and forces everyone to consider where they hang their hat and why for quality of living.
Perkins Cove Maine, Boats Anchored For The Night.
For many close to retirement, the memory of sea gulls and lake loons on Maine vacations is the all natural pure and simple drug. A carryover flashback OF memories of good times enjoyed during time spent here on the fun Maine rest and relaxation stint. For young folks struggling to make ends meet in the city, getting more for less financial overhead in small Maine town living has appeal.
Less people, more down to early friendly folks and all this four seasons outdoor unspoiled natural beauty.
Maine is a place you love her for what she offers and what she does not at the same time. Less traffic, lower crime, cheaper to live in Maine. That coupled with the friendly people and more elbow room. The ability to pitch in and feel you can make a difference as you add your talents to the mix. You are needed in the small Maine town special home grown connection. The village raises the kids and you are closer to the day to day action in smaller circles you travel in small Maine towns.
Older Teach The Younger. Small Maine Rural Towns Are Tight Family Connections.
When COVID’s trapped inside living stress doubled up, the little space with far too many people in the city made urban dwellers hanker low population Maine.
The common sense and pitch in to help out approach to living in small Maine towns looked pretty darn appealing. Small Maine towns are really like large families. You don’t pay to attend events, you are working them behind the scenes year after year.
Kids Helping Area Maine Farmers. Learning Work Ethic, Responsibility Early On To Benefit For Life.
Home grown beats store bought and the hands on to make the next event even better causes others around you to dig in and do more. That’s how small Maine towns work. You don’t just live and work there. Instead, you are the small Maine town and go above and beyond to maintain and increase the quality of life for others.
The polarity and division of the last national election just added fuel to the fire to pick up and move to Maine.
Feeling like buying 40 acres up in Maine might be the answer caused more emails, texts, office visits and phone calls to pour into our small Maine town real estate office. Land big and cheap. To plant a large garden, to cut, split and stack the winter wood. With next year’s stash for heating your home already steadily added to to be boy scout prepared.
Halloween Is Big, Trick Or Treating Is Safe.
Migration back to Maine for locals that had picked up roots and moved.
That’s part of the Maine real estate market activity. Others buying vacation property that could be more if the new owner decides to head to Maine. This market segment hedging their bets and looking for a fun but sensible insurance policy investment. Maine land is way way under valued and boy can you produce a lot of farm to table food if you work it. Enriched living, everyone from the smallest to the oldest family member has a role in the household.
Dangling, Handling The Ball To Advance Up The Maine High School Soccer Field!
Taught how to do it, to develop the right attitude for success. To approach a task carefully and perform it slowly. Easy does it. Like the early on advice to never run with scissors and to avoid getting hurt. But with expertise to plan your work and work that plan learned from past experience growing up in small town Maine.
Everyone is assessing today what exactly “quality of life” really means.
How to achieve it, maintain it, make it last. Maine small towns have far less obstacles and in most cases, money is not the deciding factor on where you live anymore. We Mainers are more hands on, have a skill set and don’t have to wait around for others to do everything for us. Raised in Maine, kids learn work ethic, gain self confidence and are shaped for adulthood. Happier, independent, not blaming others for why their life did not turn out the way it looks around the artificial social media circuits. “If it is to be, it is up to me” and being grateful enriches your life and those of the folks around you.
Any Season, Any Angle, Mount Katahdin Captivates A Person Any Age.
When you live in a city, the options to provide kids with their own hard earned money are not so common. Obstacles to work… that’s part of it. But also parents that don’t push for Jimmy and Jane to do chores and hold down entry level jobs. COVID fear make parents hover even more but also work legislation restrictions threatens skill building and opportunities first jobs.
In Maine small towns, kids mow lawns, deliver newspapers, have odd jobs around the neighborhood and bag groceries, stock shelves. If kids work out in the gardens, stack wood, pitch in with daily chores around a Maine household. Good things are going to happen.
Maine Home Offices, Working Online From Home Sweet Home Up In Maine. No Worried About FOMO Because We Are Grateful.
But if mom and dad hand you $20 bills and Zeke or Pebbles’ cell phone and car are better than their parents have.
If teenagers are not cutting grass, flipping burgers, delivering papers or helping area farmers, small businesses. Oh oh.
When they don’t babysit and are slumped on a couch peering into an eerie blow glow device, a full and rich dynamic life is not automatic. No skills, lazy, depressed and not able to connect the dots why happens.
Kids suffer when adults are hired to do those jobs they need to learn self sufficiency … that’s another part of it.
Outward migration from say Florida with over 400 people per square mile or California at 250 plus or New Jersey with over 1200 head count.
That’s another piece of the labor shortage puzzle. And why employers are paying so much to attract a labor force. That means the cost of goods and services provided will be sky high too.
A kid getting $14 an hour or higher working at a fast food outlet is too much and only going to lead to wanting higher wages than the job warrants.
The raking blueberries, picking potatoes, apples, working on a farm in Maine builds stamina, responsibility, develops a hustle in your step. You earned every cent you made when it is the sweat of your brow manual entry level kind.
My rural Aroostook County area is growing with folks rethinking where they live in a crowded areas with high cost of living, traffic, crime.
Mid Coast Maine Lighthouses. Lots Of Them To Collect Easily From A Boat Ride.
You will never ever see local signs stating “no one wants to work” because lazy is the by far worst label anyone could wear.
We are not lazy. All raised to work hard, pitch in and make a difference. The local Louisiana Pacific plant is expanding, Smith and Wesson employee numbers are going up and small rural areas a
Pitch In, Help Out, Make A Difference. That’s Why Maine Small Towns Quality Of Life Is Rich And Tightly Connected.
Some of the reasons to explain the move to Maine population increase numbers.
A change of pace and getting healthy by hiking, biking, skiing, kayaking and daily exercise. That’s another perk living in big and beautiful wide open Maine. Maine is the way life should be. Life longer, live better up in Maine is the conclusion more folks are drawing these crazy days. Recreation is second to none on your own and the parks and rec programs are extensive. Lakes, rivers, mountains, scenic trails, picnic spots. Our backyard is outdoors everywhere you look out over the land in Maine.
This blog post nails down the reasons for why people moved away and now are returning to small town rural Maine.
Why new to the area folks are picking Maine as their next mailing address. Real estate inventory is being snatched up to meet the demand and the transplants from out of state are so amazed at small town living benefits. Their kids are learning the skills to be successful adults for wherever they end up living from growing up in small Maine town communities.
Halloween trick or treating in a small Maine town.
Halloween is a big dea in Mainel. I know in large cities, parents worry about sending their little goblins, witches and monsters out on the door to door candy parade. But in small Maine towns, the trick or treating tradition is big. COVID caused a wrinkle. But with precautions in place, the candy show knock knock tradition continues in Maine with individually wrapped treats. The excitement starts early. Planning for what to be this year for a costume, a theme is part of the fun.
Everyone Puts In A Lot Of Thought For Halloween Trick & Treating In Small Maine Towns.
Do you remember trick or treating on October 31st Halloween growing up?
Did you or do you enjoy taking out your kids, grand kids to canvass the neighborhoods around you for candy collection? What was your favorite treat? Which stop growing up along the hop up and off open porches with lights on do you recall as your favorite?
I remember the Chamberlain sisters who lived on the corner of Frandklin AVE and Court ST in Houlton Maine. The pair made the Halloween holiday effort.
Each Halloween the sisters were as excited as the door knockers out front their gorgeous Maine home. Word gets around and you remember last year’s visit to each and every small Maine town home. So this house stop’s popularity only grew greater. Lining up to sample their home made donuts. The warm cider to wash it all down was another treat as they invited you in to their large Victorian Houlton ME home.
The take off your mask, show us who you really are under the Halloween trick or treating costume routine.
That happened in their formal Maine home living room. Kids escorted in and out and everyone got a home made from the kitchen treat. Sugar ed or plain, it’s up to howling werewolf. Looking back, what an effort this sister pair put out to add to the Halloween trick or treating in my small Maine town in Aroostook County.
I used to come in from the country where I lived on a Maine farm to trick or treat.
Not many homes along the Maine rural landscape when you are a couple of miles away from town. And out in the dark, on a busy highway is not a good combination for someone trying to navigate. Carrying candy loot and trying to get your bearings. Wearing a mask with just two small eye holes and maybe a flashlight in the other hand. My cousins lived on the Highland Avenue in a large yellow home that was always the beehive of fun growing up. Seven kids with one pair of identical twins in the mix, I would pair up with my cousins to ply the streets for treats. We covered a lot of ground, hit a lot of houses. Like a politician campaigning for a vote, it was all for the treat.
The Adults Snack Too, Lots To Eat For Treats At Home Or On The Neighborhood Candy Trails.
Some houses had the self service bowl of candy on the table to help yourself for a handful of Halloween treats.
Others decked the place out with a lot of time spent to create the spooky look. To make you question your judgement to really take the dare or not to ring the door bell or apply the knock knock knock. Many of the door to door candy vendors wore a costume too. You could tell who really was a kid again and made the effort to put on a show for the trick or treaters. Boo. Made you jump. Here, let me help pick up the spilled candy.. pretty dark huh?
Give Me A Musical Beat To Go Along With The Sweets. Light Shows For This Halloween Trick Or Treat Pit Stop On Commonwealth Avenue.
With my own four kids, I really looked forward to the door to door.
One of my favorite holidays really. You see other parents as you advance up the small Maine town streets. Say hello, hey there’s an old classmate or another relative walking across the lawn you just visited. Someone you work with is doing the same October 31st tradition. Orange, purple, weird eerie glow of green, it’s approaching. Halloween trick or treating in small Maine towns across the state. Do you stay at home and turn on your front porch light to attract trick or treaters?
Boo. Scared Right? Hey, You Gonna Eat That Snickers Bar?
To let them know you are open and now serving come one, come all as a cavity creators Or do you lay low, act like no one is home? Maybe high tail it to another candy central location to help dish it out and have a Halloween party of treats for all the supporting cast at the home away from home?
I remember one man, Forman Swallow who worked for Nabisco I think. He and his wife lit up their driveway with the weighted paper bags and flickering candles inside.
Dishing out large size cookie packages and candy like you used to only be able to get at the movie or outdoor drive in theatre. Looking back, you want to thank them for creating the experience of Halloween trick or treating for your kids.
Some households would have the apples, the century old dry as dust popcorn balls.
Others would give out a collection of treats in the orange, black and white bags with the witch on the front riding her broom. Someone took a lot of time, spent much time and money to hand out a quality treat. I remember one house stop, the kids waited, waited and were about to nix this visit to go on to the next porch.
The owner finally opened the door, seemed surprised and had forgotten it was Halloween.
He may have had a few too many barley pops and snoozed off watching “Wheel of Fortune” or Gunsmoke reruns. But he insisted, no candy treats to dish out but he pulled the five trick or treaters in the gang down to his kitchen pantry.
Lots Of Spooks, Might Be Halloween Haunted This Patten ME Home.
Each kid came out with a can of vegetables to show for the Halloween stop.
Makes trick or treating a good work out when hefting a couple of cans of corn, peas, green beans or carrots. Boo hoo if your arm gets tired and the next guy wants to give you a piece of firewood to
Yours Truly. Small Maine Towns, Everyone Gets Into The Spooky Halloween Mood.
lug back to the candy beehive. One household, the manager of Shop and Save Grocery store gave out cans of soda.
Hope you have a strong bag to carry the loot load.
Others with the can giveaway choice would strap and wrap a dollar or more around the cylinder. Nice.
Thank you very much. No eggs or toilet paper you older trick or treaters up to mischief for this five star Halloween eatery.
One group of three houses joined forces to create a theme park for Halloween.
Ultraviolet lights and snakes on a pulley. Giant mutant spiders from some other solar system climbing up the sides of houses.
An army tent with a casket and other skeletons, Halloweeen haunted house devices to entertain and scare. My youngest in his bat mat outfit taking it all in and jumped a foot when the body in the casket elevated to say “good evening”.
Some Maine neighbors cause the biggest flock of trick or treaters from their set it up and then tear it down production. Attracting hundreds of costumed characters to visit to pan handle for candy.
Trick Or Treat…Don’t Forget To Say Thank You!
What are you doing this Halloween trick or treating season? Individual wrapped and no handfuls from a bowl to be sensitive to COVID protocols.
What do you dress up as around your place of work or are you thinking just too old for this Halloween trick or treat game of make believe?
Anyone with grandchildren, young kids of their own will be swept into the holiday mood of Halloween living in a small Maine town.
There are a lot of folks with a sweet tooth across the Maine landscape. Trick or treat and go slow motorists to make it safe for all the ghosts, goblins, witches, fairies and super heroes with a candy craving.
Have a candy basket in the real estate office and folks reach for the candy corn, anything chocolate. The house hunters get hungry really from tramping properties and enjoy the treats year round. What’s your pleasure for a Halloween treat?
