Old cars, trucks, farm tractors on the edge of a field or caught by a web of wood lot trees.
The family wagon or pick up truck parked up back on the edge of a pasture. That sits, waits and nothing happens. Except rust and neglect as Mother Nature takes over. Young saplings growing up around and through the vehicle permanently putting in park mode. Maybe rodents using it for a winter Maine home. Hopefully the windows put up to keep bigger wildlife out of the snowy hideaway shelter on wheels.
People in Maine are not hoarders just because they don’t remove old vehicles from their land.
The longer you have a automobile, farm tractor or pick up truck, the greater the attachment. The intention to someday fix up what ails the old vehicle. It’s in the back of your mind. Or to cannibalize it for parts for a new version of transportation put on the road to replace the old faithful. The rusting iron gets visits with a tool box for the sampling of parts. For lots of reasons, it is hard to let go of the vehicles we depend on that get replaced but never forgotten.
What Year Is This Forgotten Pontiac?
Like a family pet, the abandoned old car, pick up truck, farm tractor is a big part of the family.
Have blogged before about Sally, the 1998 red Jeep Grand Cherokee bought new and stored, waiting for repairs. She got an eye poked out by a Maine black bear meeting.
In the rear woodlot of a Maine farmstead, you also find antique iron farm machinery. Plows, harrows, discs, diggers, hay equipment, crop sprayers, One or two row horse drawn or early farm tractor attachments hidden from view. These farm implements are a possible lawn ornament when pull out and cleaned up with elbow grease. To help remember how hard our farming and lumbering relatives worked with what they had at the time.
The Old Farm Machinery… Hidden In The Edge Of Maine Farm Fields.The Woods Growing Up Around It.
The wagon wheels with metal rings and various states of decaying wooden spokes. The better examples of early Maine farm machinery ideal to relocate to local agricultural museums. For the show and tell exhibits of what it was like farming the fields, harvesting the timber out in the woods.
All used back before six and eight row this or that for farming. Or for timbering with automated wood harvesting operations using expensive hydraulic pumps, whirling saw blades and riding on huge tires or rubber tank like tracks. All “won’t she go I guess maybe chummy” revved up with high powered diesel engines. To pull them back and forth and round and round fields and woodlots for food and timber production.
Whole or portions of old relic cars, trucks, who knows what else hiding in the Maine woods. Parked in what used to be a field that neglected long enough becomes a woodlot.
Perfectly preserved and surrounded by bushes, trees and often near rock piles. With farming a new crop of rocks or Earth apples always swimming to the surface. Frost is the propellant to create the rocks that can mess up a planter or harvester. Sometimes the abandoned vehicle or piece of lumbering or farming equipment not considered such an eye sore. Serving instead to remind the next generation what an earlier family members used to til the soil for planting seed, cultivating and harvesting the bounty. More abandoned cars, trucks images. (more…)
Halloween, trick or treating, door to door canvassing for candy.
Trick Or Treat! Small Maine Town Fun October 31st.
The goblins low to the ground, most eye level with the heaping bowls of sweets and treats. The high caloric ammo stocked up and ready to distribute in handfuls. To the motley crew of pan handlers.
Holding wide open loot bags or reflective buckets for the candy bars, gum, licorice, sweet and sour the home owner is dishing out this Halloween. If you holler loud enough in unison for all to hear and with plenty of enthusiasm the chant “trick or treat”. You get a tasty treat!
In your area of Maine or whatever your GPS planet coordinates are, is October 31st still a big deal?
As a kid was it a tradition not to be missed and looked forward to with excitement? Gathering your young friends, sisters, brothers and cousins to tramp a new or familiar neighborhood. Did you partake in the climbing up on lighted porches decorated in spider webs, orange pumpkins, the sounds of eerie music, high wind, howling and clanging chains?
Often, whoever answered the front door decked out and making an effort to play along. Wearing a pointed black hat or warlock cape or whatever creative garb. To show the kiddies they too were under the same zombie or witchcraft spell where candy is the currency? But no clown outfits this year please. The once friendly Ronald McDonald or Bozo clown persona is missing thanks to the clown’s with anger issues and not so slap happy easy going these days on the silver screen.
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.
I grew up about a mile and half from town out in the country. Having mom and dad drop me off with my older brothers on the corner of Highland Avenue and Washburn Streets was a Halloween ritual. Combing forces to battle our sweet tooth addictions, the six cousins who lived in the yellow apartment house would combine and off we go. Systematically with pillow cases combing the streets. On the prowl for neighborhoods with plenty of lights on and avoiding the ones where everything in the house was pitch black and dark.
Halloween Trick Or Treating Is Big In Small Maine Towns!
As a little kid, I was amazed at the generosity. Of total strangers to me for the most part who took the time. To decorate, to purchase the candy or better yet make the
home made sweets hot out of their kitchen oven. To show you the light is on for a reason. We’ve got candy, even better treats than the other residents on the street beat.
The home owner in my small Maine town enjoying the orange, black, purple and green holiday as much as the munchkins marauding the neighborhood.
The excitement of all age monsters, cowboys, princesses, ninjas, ghosts and other forms of the living dead with cuts and serious disfigurements adding to the hysteria on Old Hallows eve. The door to door hit and run like a town wide magazine campaign. Or the Swan’s guy with the deep dish pizzas and five gallon tubs of ice cream, other treats delivered on a weekly, not just once a year basis. The mail carrier has to make the same neighborhood run but on a daily basis.
Halloween, full moons, graveyards, the threat of dastardly deeds happening if the home owner does not deliver on something good to eat.
Kids disguised to protect their real identities. Knocking loudly to holler the “trick or treat”? dentists ten to one warn to “easy does it”
on the sugar intake. The one holiday to be extra thorough in brushing after carefully flossing as you sample the haul next day?
What is your favorite Halloween treat?
For me it is peanut clustered Paydays, peanut butter and chocolate Reese cups. Anything but Sahara dry popcorn balls and no thanks to the apples. Not for fear of razor blades in my small friendly rural Maine town.
The other treats that warm the usually chilly door to door are fresh squeezed hot cider and the rolled out hand cut fresh baked donuts.
The kind that just hopped out of the grease bath to drip dry on the kitchen rack. The home owners that offer those want you to come in to the light of the living room. To take off the mask, put down your loot. To reveal your true identity
and figure out are you so and so’s kid? Sometimes you learned they were somehow related to your mom and dad or Uncle Bob, Aunt Janice. Family reunion time happens.
During a series of open houses a few weekends back in Boston to help daughter number one find a home to buy, one neighbor we purposely struck up a conversation with made an observation.
The neighborhood in Jamaica Plains MA said you can tell a lot about a neighborhood by whether or not they participate in Halloween.
If more often than not, there are decorations, dummies in porch chairs and signs Halloween is observed here, then that shows you involvement. Fun people who take the time, make the investment to make sure kids remember October 31st. They stick around and have the lights on, the candy bowl by the front door fully charged to hand out no matter how many kids storm their place this Halloween.
Last year on Halloween there was snow on the ground.
The white stuff that usually holds off until at least Thanksgiving week that improves your changes of banging a deer showed up early. October 23rd, 2018 there was a blanket of white stuff delivered that caught most by surprise. That did their fall leaf raking and burning the following spring instead of back in the customary fall. I remember a couple Halloweens where winter snow was present but we still trick or treated.
The Lights Are On, That Means Halloween Candy!
Today, in areas of high urban crime, where folks don’t hobnob or really know who lives two doors down in neighborhoods, trick or treating is threatened. Less homes per block are taking part. Plus kids are trucked to events, to larger gatherings inside for fun and games and bobbling for candied apples. Maybe it is helicopter or lawnmower parents that same mileage and can wrap it up quicker.
Halloween is a time where motorists need to have sharp eyes and to drive slowly or not at all down dark streets.
Where sugar buzzed ghosts and goblin monsters can dart out in front of you in th mad dash to door number 2,3,4 and beyond. I am excited about Halloween and setting up shop on Sterritt Street this year. With the old times munching on pizzas and manning the front door candy bowl. While I dress up, round up the kids and
The white stuff that usually holds off until at least Thanksgiving week that improves your changes of banging a deer showed up early. October 23rd, 2018 there was a blanket of white stuff delivered that caught most by surprise. That did their fall leaf raking and burning the following spring instead of back in the customary fall. I remember a couple Halloweens where winter snow was present but we still trick or treated.
The Lights Are On, That Means Halloween Candy!
Today, in areas of high urban crime, where folks don’t hobnob or really know who lives two doors down in neighborhoods, trick or treating is threatened. Less homes per block are taking part. Plus kids are trucked to events, to larger gatherings inside for fun and games and bobbling for candied apples. Maybe it is helicopter or lawnmower parents that same mileage and can wrap it up quicker.
Halloween is a time where motorists need to have sharp eyes and to drive slowly or not at all down dark streets.
Where sugar buzzed ghosts and goblin monsters can dart out in front of you in the mad dash to door number 2,3,4 and beyond. I am excited about Halloween and setting up shop on Sterritt Street this year. With the old times munching on pizzas and manning the front door candy bowl. While I dress up, round up the kids and
other adults who share the same excitement of the trick or treating ritual. The expressions of new little trick or treaters especially is rich and rewarding. They look around and get caught up in the night’s excitement. They quickly catch on to the harvest of candy treats.
The best trick or treating candy was from home owners who had the little bags with the witch riding side saddle on the broom and the full moon in the background.
Inside there were lots of carefully assembled delicacies. One time while taking my own four kids out on Halloween, one resident had forgotten it was the big day the end of October. He took the kids down the hall to the kitchen pantry and each came out with a can of vegetables.
The More The Merrier Trick Or Treating In Small Maine Towns!
Heavy cans for a little kid to lug along the candy land. To continue getting inline and running across yards on the crazy train route to connect the lights that up ahead. And not what the kids expected but he did not want them going away with nothing to show for the trick or treating adventure.
He might have been into the firewater sauce a little too. Sleeping it off when the kids arrived despite the front porch light not on. But it was all good and the exchange made. Then quickly on to the next home to collect the stuff to
sort and trade with their friends. When they take off their Halloween masks and traces of left over face make up tomorrow.
The Maine homeowner or apartment tenant who invests in the candy, risks their life hoisting the bigger than life spider up onto the side of the building.
They dress up. They are primed and ready and invested in the Halloween trick or treating. Weather could impact the hand out of goodies. Less customers. The local church or downtown events could slice off some of the foot traffic door belling ringing too.
I googled “Halloween trick or treating in America still popular?” and this is a link that came up in the search.
And also this Halloween post on best cities to drag the kids to trick or treating. But is there an age limit for trick or treating? How big a kid is too old to do his best to capture a sugar high from total strangers? I love being in the background and keeping the herd of kids
out roaming the neighborhoods together. To make sure they don’t dart out in front of cars or get too far ahead of the little ones in tow. I am excited about this year’s Halloween and know it is because of the generosity of those that made my childhood October 31st eve memorable.
In small towns you pitch in and contribute and maybe Halloween that is safe in a small rural Maine town keeps the haunting spirit alive.
I know today noon there is a local Rotary Auction meeting to attend to prepare for the radio/television/Internet event held for over 50 years the week of Thanksgiving. Tonight at 6pm, the Northern Maine Soap Box Derby committee meets to further hammer out details for the 25th down hill race to be held June 20th, 2020.
Small towns in Maine.
Dressing Up, Playing A Character In Halloween Parties, It’s Not Just A Kid Event. Me In Maine Blogger Andy And Meg Ham It Up.
The locals volunteer and maybe that spirit spills into the desire to decorate, to purchase lots of candy and to spend a couple hours and get over 500 trick or treaters.
Not because if you don’t, for fear of the trick part of the three word demand hollered on your lighted front porch.
Egging a house, wet toilet paper or vandalism to your Pumpkin Man or mock graveyard out front just does not happen.
The best trick or treating neighborhoods in my small Maine town are where four or more in a row property owners join forces. To make a Halloween Beetle Juice theme park of sorts.
Those attract carloads or trick or treaters that get more than candy dropped in their sack. Caskets with
live bodies and snakes, spiders and other things that go bump in the night.
The Monster Mash playing lowly in the background.
Someone screams when scared, jumped, startled two houses back or three forward from where you are. Then laughter is heard around the neighborhood in the ghastly front yard show played over and over all night long. To add to the Halloween trick or treat candy collecting harvest of sugar.
The amusement hooked to pulley with wires that dance up and down to make a young trick or treater wonder how do they do that? To think maybe this yard is haunted…nahhhhhh. On second thought, they are just pulling your leg, another gag. You see one of the adults grin who is having just as much fun as the trick or treaters traipsing across the series of joined back yard eerily lit displays.
Pass me another kit-cat bar would you Zeke? Someone gave you Smarties… a treat from over home in Canada, a relative. And I got to ask, when you eat your Smarties (the maple leaf version of M&M’s chocolate candies) do you eat the red ones last?
Where you are a jack of all trades and a major DIY kinda person.
Kids learn those kind of skills from their parents, grandparents too which is a good thing. And you hear plenty of stories while working together on projects. Had one to share from a local handyman that has a sore hip and announcing that he may not be able to get to the camp project as planned.
Lined Up And Ready To Scream “Trick Or Treat”!
We got talking about black bears, tramping the woods back when he was a Maine guide. I guess it was because I knew he had previously told me the skill saw would be buzzing and work progressing when he was caught up after hunting season. He hopes to be able to do some trapping and says he is not much of a hunter for deer and bear now.
When he ran a sporting goods store on the Ludlow Road in Houlton Maine, Brown’s Trading Post he says a man came in who had hit a black bear.
Needed to use the phone. George asked is it dead, thinking we better put it out of its misery if it is. The man said no, it was dead before he hit it. Say what? Evidently, someone staying at John Fraser’s bear hunting enterprise for out of staters had got their prize black bear. But it fell off the pickup truck and that is what was road kill that was already dead. The police came, ticket written, the hunters found and charged with failure to secure their load.
So this year what is your Halloween costume?
Not everyone is after the Halloween trick or treating candy. It’s a time for parties. To dress up in a costume and play a part, to be a character. My girlfriend is a painted frame of art work. I am Bob Ross the painter from PBS show “The Joy Of Painting. Should be a fun night with lots of good food sampled early and later with trick or treating for a wide age of pumpkin pail pan handlers.
Early radio, television broadcast stations in Maine, the history lesson.
In the beginning Maine news spread by neatly folded bundles of papers. Everything was black and white with a crease to open wide and read read read. Top to bottom. Side to side. The news print reporting happening weekly, maybe daily. The news and information always delivered in small intermittent installments.
Radio broadcasting started with crystal sets and eventually changed all that.
I remember my Dad sharing tales about his childhood experimenting with radio sets and searching for air wave broadcasts.
Experimenting with early radio receivers overhead the milk house on the Aroostook County Maine farm.
Building radio sets, learning about the antennae array that worked best for shortwave radio frequency reception. I developed the same fascination with certain combinations of signal frequencies, power and antennae height. And how they all affect the broadcast radiation output and reception of AM, FM and TV signals in Maine.
The Milk House On The Family Farm In Maine. The Upstairs Space Used As A Crystal Set Ham Radio Location By My Dad Back In The 1920’s.
By the 1920’s, fifteen Maine radio stations went on the air.
By the end of the decade only three in the group remained live and broadcasting a signal. Auburn Maine radio station WMB was the first in the state. At the time, nationwide, only twenty four federally licensed radio stations broadcast over the not so well regulated pioneer airwaves.
Early radio broadcasts in Maine came before television.
Had to transmit the latest government reports, weather forecasts, farm crop prices across the state and nation. Local doctors providing tips on better health happened too. Making house calls over the Maine transmitter frequency airwaves. Local Maine bankers would share the importance of thrift. Area music community orchestras would provide live programming for early broadcasts.
No tape recorders, no CD burners or other hard drive devices were available for programming early Maine broadcasting.
78 RPM records could be cued up. Storage “save it for later” broadcast options just were not around to be later broadcast transmitted as prerecorded events. It was live, on a record and that’s all she wrote. Live and local without editing options meant here you go. Ready or not, like it or not. Take it or leave it. Not Hi Fi, not digital and crystal clear but static, pops, drop outs as the frequency signal drifted in and out depending on the weather.
Broadcasting was not so polished and anything goes transmitting the live radio broadcast programing in Maine happened.
Licensed to the Androscoggin Electrical Company in 1922, Maine’s first radio station WMB broadcast baseball scores.
Pretty much the correct time and local news happenings only went out over the airwaves. Live and local and limited. Early radio broadcasters in Maine not allowed to sell advertising or play records in the beginning. The radio transmitter broadcasts were nightly. The frequency signals dark and stations off air during the day. It was hit or miss catching a broadcast with so few and the lots of “dead air”. (more…)
A lot of the folks who call Maine their home were not born here.
These transplants have birth certificates with hospital locations at birthing centers in city setting centers south of Vacationland’s Big Green Bridge. The state of Maine does not promote itself with heavily bankrolled slick publicity either. The home town proud rural nature of outdoor living, family first is kept a secret.
Safe, Uncrowded, Low Cost. Growing Up In Maine, That’s The Big Pull To Raising Families Here.
The gravitational tug to Maine was not caused by ad agencies glossy four color brochures but word of mouth. Most found there way because it did not get the commercial advertising and hype hoopla.
Hunters, fisherman that discovered the North Maine woods decide they need more than a long weekend of stretch of seven days a year of Maine. Others found their way here on a cruise ship off the coast. Or figure if the Bush family have a Presidential vacation home in Maine. If folks like Martha Stewart, Teddy Roosevelt, horror writer Stephen King, Ted Williams spent time here, they conclude they should too.
Many of these new to Maine re-locations happen at retirement. When picking the best wholesome location to raise a family. Getting more for less, to gain four season clean outdoor living for the little money investment.
Maine. The Fun Is Outdoors Year Round.
All recreational trails lead to Maine. Yesterday an 83 year old from Rhode Island man, raised on a farm in Cranston was a tour guide. To locate a new Maine listing back in the woods. In a township six by six miles square with less than 126 souls populating it full time. It is nice to solicit the help of a local who knows the lay of the land when dealing with a new real estate listing smack dab in his own backyard.
This man of Swedish descent helped me locate the land and cabin of a friend of his who has died. The family wants to sell the property. It is located quite a hike in off a maintained roadway. Say two miles of not the best path even for a Jeep. Up the hilly, twisting seasonal dirt road in a small rural Maine town of Haynesville. More a recreational trail than roadway is what protects against getting too much company.
Have you heard the song about the Haynesville woods, the place up in Aroostook County?
The one loaded with buried truckers up north on that lonely stretch of woods called US RT 2A? The song made famous by Dick Curliss of Fort Fairfield that had one good eye. One under a patch and parked from use to navigate.
The gracious guide that signed on to help me locate the new listing in Maine raised on a dairy farm.
Being brought up on a potato and grain farm myself, we had a common bond of the work ethic both were exposed to early on. This fellow wore plaid pajamas in Irish green color. They looked pretty comfy but were not limited to inside use.
His wife shared with me that in Clearwater Florida, their winter home as snow birds, he wore shorts. But up at the camp-like routine living in Maine, it was comfortable soft flannel plaid PJ’s put on daily. That was her husband’s wardrobe of choice.
The most interesting people you meet in Maine are not all born in this state.
It is refreshing to learn of the steps taken, the course of any person’s life when they are willing to share the story. This couple, in a second marriage, loved the same things. The wife a retired teacher, the husband making a career in promotional advertising items. To help folks expose their brand through a myriad of ways.
The couple owned a Cessna 182 and flew around New England. The husband took a trip to Alaska that was quite the adventure he willingly shared. Their home in the woods in Maine has power that they paid sixteen thousand to bring in the lines to get it from US RT 2A.
Like I said, the location is in a willy wags, not exactly over populated with people.
Lots of four legged furry neighbors though and the pile of apples collected, dumped out back attracted black bears, white tail deer. The husband is an avid hunter. They consume a lot of cider and like the apple juice pure and natural.
After locating the hidden listing, the land in the rain on a Saturday afternoon, I captured all the images. Scribbled down the room dimensions. Collected from the field all the local property information needed to get the details online. The couple wants my girlfriend and I to see where they lived and over an hour was spent touring, sharing, talking in their hand made log home. They invited us into their dwelling to sneak a peek. The vacation home in Maine polished rustic decor with all the creature conveniences.
There was a sauna house.
Got Your Towel? Crank The Music And Settle Into Hot Hot Dry Sauna Heat!
The sauna, pronounced like the female pig… “SOW-nah” was a source of pride and joy. Used to cleanse the body, a component of the husband’s Swedish background, the sauna housed in the a separate screen house.
With tunes, power, the sauna made of native cedar with a heater. Loaded with hot rocks to pour ladles of Maine spring water on to create the hissing steam.
The dry heat and sitting in the sauna session finished with rolling in the snow in the white of a Maine winter.
Or dashing yourself with cold water to rinse off after each bathing experience the other three seasons. To force the body’s toxins out through your pores. More than relaxation with tunes and the dry heat and social aspect. The clean up, personal hygiene happens with the scrubbing up and all the hot heat too.
Ice Cold, Low Temperatures Cause Migration To Saunas, Wood Stoves.
More on saunas. I have had many Finnish property owners who all installed a sauna at their homes. More on the history of saunas. Maine has lots of natives from Scandinavian descent. I have blogged about the love affair with a Norwegian wood stove made by Jotul.
There are lots of Swedes in New Sweden, Stockholm area of Maine that never lost their old country traditions. Down hill skiing, cross country skiing, the biathlon alpine experiences live on in Maine. More on how to build a sauna from scratch for inspiration. More on a sauna off grid operation,
It was the woods, the streams, rivers, lakes that attracted this pair to Maine.
The vacation-land location for retirement was lower cost and fit their budget too. What is your favorite part of Maine? What’s your attraction beside less people, no traffic, the four seasons natural beauty? Pure and simple. Maine is the way life should be.
Well water in Maine, it is not the same here as you find in other places. Drink up.
Vacationland has lots of clean, fresh water to guzzle. The eight glasses a day kind you and I are suppose to be chug-a-lugging to stay hydrated.
Clean Maine Water! Above And Below The Ground.
Maine is loaded with clean, unspoiled recreational water too. All kinds of it in the form of lakes, ponds, streams, rivers, and ocean front h20 kind.
Lack of water of any kind in Maine does not happen. Yes, it is one more way we are truly spoiled living here in Maine.
In our real estate job of marketing Maine property listings, the question “what about water wells” comes up a lot. Because where the buyer is moving from has there are big time water problems. It is very expensive to drill a water well.
I hear horror stories about horrendous water quality and low quality issues outside of Maine. How hydro-fracting is messing up the water table. And man is polluting their over tapped water supply for domestic and recreational use.
Opening up the tap and a steady stream of clean fresh water is the dream for folks moving to Maine. The private drilled well water without the municipal taste of chlorine and flouride is one of the perks with Maine country living.
If you plan to raise animals on a farmstead, water has to be plentiful, clean, available round the clock.
No one can wait for a gone dry water well supply to return so they can water the thirsty livestock. Irrigation happens to help regulate some agricultural crops but what Mother Nature supplies the farm fields and pasture land usually does the trick.
Float Your Boat In Maine Water!
Cows don’t get their drinking water out of a stagnant pond. Fencing down to the water’s edge means the water can get contaminated with animal waste. The same warm pond water where frogs live is not used for organic farm irrigation either due to concerns about food safety and bacteria, e-coli, etc.
Besides wanting to see a moose or whale, to eat a slab of blue berry pie or to sit down to a feast of steam clams or lobsters. The vacationing visitors also want. to see a lighthouse or two. The relocating, moving to the Pine Tree state folks also ask how’s the water in Maine? It’s on their minds because it is it is part of the reason for the heading to Maine.
I talked to Jamie Watson of Watson Well Drillers in Littleton this afternoon.
To get his perspective as a 6th generation Maine water well driller. Jamie told me in southern Aroostook County you can hit granite but that northern sections don’t have it to contend with drilling wells or chewing up bits.
The deepest well he ever drilled was 800′ business application used at Freddy Valshing’s sugar beet refinery in Easton Maine. But Watson says that the typical well in Northern Maine he pokes int the ground is 150 to 200 feet deep. That depth of drilled well provides plenty of water to serve your needs.
Water Pockets Around Coastal Rock Formations In Maine.
Uncle Sam says the minimum gallons per minute for a drilled well has to be 2.5. And there needs to be adequate depth to create a reserve to draw from when water is needed in a household or business.
I have a private drilled well that is 60 feet deep at Drews Lake, am on public water next to my office at an in town residence. A family farm has a couple wells and the main one is 225′ down inside a hatch in one of the auxiliary buildings. A hand pump on top of a rocked around well is down by US RT 2. Another one was filled in with gravel that we could clean out if we ever wanted to put back into service.
Watson Wells owner said the biggest problem today is kids that don’t conserve water.
That make little effort to time those showers and that must have amazing water heaters to keep it hot hot hot. Growing up on a farm, we did not waste water. Even if it was plentiful you lead your life in moderation, easy does it mode.
Water On The River In Maine!
Water collected from roof gutters connect to feed a rocked cistern in the farm home basement. Rain water is soft, not hard. Probably started before the days of drilled well that could deliver more water quickly.
Sometimes a poor producing well is because the foot valve is not low enough in the casing. Like a straw not hitting the lower portion of a glass, you suck air, not fluid. Good, clean potable water is a must for healthy living anywhere on the planet.
Dug wells are not that uncommon in Maine.
If you dug down 14′ or more and put crushed rock on the bottom, piling concrete tiles on top of each other. Adding a lid on top with a hand pump. That does your time up at camp in Maine just fine. A lake or pond cottage draws the water from what’s out front.
I have tested lake water and had it come back fine and dandy for drinking, for all the domestic uses. Some argue the water tastes like Mercury, Honda, Suzuki or Yamaha though. (Smile). Dug wells are created by hand shovel, a back hole and lined with concrete tile, rock and mortar walls. Topped with a protective cover. Some call dug wells a ground water magnet. Sealing them in the best you can will help lessen the chances of contamination. The walls of a dug well must be solid enough to keep them rigid and from collapsing.
The average household does not just abide by the one Saturday night bath whether you need it or not. How often do you shower a day and for how long? How many loads of laundry do you produce and are they full loads?
Do you hang those fresh, wet clothes out on a line to air dry on a breezy, sunny Maine day? Or does Suzie need her favorite pair of blue jeans washed all by themselves with much panic involved because the high school dance is only a few hours away?
Clean, Fresh, Fast Moving Water In Maine.
I was not brought up to do one item wash loads and the household was not turned upside down until the coveted article of clothing was washed, ironed, folded and tucked away.
In the Oakfield Maine area, along the Mattawamkeag River, there are many driven point wells.
What is a driven point well? You see them used around soft sandy ground where the water table is high enough for an adequate supply. The driven well point is placed in my experience 12 to 25 feet deep but work fine and are typical to certain areas of Maine.
This blog post on well water in Maine concentrate more on the supply and how deep to expect. Granite, bedrock can add to the cost and depth of a well and this geological formation is more difficult to drill according to Watson.
Testing your water for bacteria, for hardness, for arsenic, radon, high iron or sulfur content and other elements can avoid health problems later. The cost to put on filters, to add reverse osmosis units and other water softeners and conditioners can cost a pretty penny. Plus they need regular maintenance to continue to do their job. It is not once and done… someone has to make sure they keep doing their job with the filter change and charcoal cleansers.
Most of the water tests I have taken over the years have been sent to Northeast Labs in Waterville. I have had super success with the turn around times, the advice from helpful staff at Northeast Labs if you are looking for a reference from personal experience taking well water samples.
How many gallons per minute is another helpful statistic to know about when learning about an existing drill water well’s performance statistics.
I have seen 30, 50 gallon per minute private drilled wells. And you hear the term a lot talking about true artesian wells. Not every drilled well is an artesian well. Here’s the definition of an artesian well.The difference between an artesian well and other types is the pressure, the flow that naturally happens.
Playing On The Maine Waterfront In A Raft!
I had listed a home in Ludlow Maine. Where the water flows without aid of a pump and empties out of the well cap into a pond feeding a brook. I timed the amount of water per minute and found four gallons was the flow.
No jet pump, no submersible pump down into the drilled well… but all by itself siphoning action happening out of the side hill. Often you hear the term artesian well used on all kinds of drilled in the ground sources but only a few are the real deal. Where positive pressure causes the water to rise and empty up and out of the well cap.
When a natural spring is dug out, it too can be a water source. Where the water naturally bubbles up and fills the reserve used for drinking and domestic use. The drilled wells I see used in the area are six inch pipe iron casing on the top fitted with a shoe where the metal meets the rock formation below.
Problems with drilled wells that had the cap cut off below the ground’s surface are a trouble maker down the road.
Sure you don’t back into the metal above ground casing or have to mow grass around the drilled well protrusion.
Water From The Sky! The Snow Flake Kind!
But finding when the foot valve or pump needs replacement becomes more of a mystery. And bacteria seems into the well head vent when the wood or whatever material decays used to protect it.
These wells get dug up and PVC piping is added like a sleeve around the iron or steel casing to make it easy to spot. And a snap to put a quart of bleach down into them for disinfection to happen when a bad test and high bacteria cut comes back from the water testing lab.
In another blog post on well water, I promise to have a discussion on the quality of what we drink.
What the issues are and how to tackle them for safe drinking water. This blog post was more to help someone brand new to Maine know about the types of wells, how they work and where their application is appropriate. Thank you for stopping by to read this blog post on drilled wells in Maine.
When you make the switch, find yourself moving to a small town in Maine.
Everything is not going to rock and roll the exact same. In small town Maine living, you enjoy the lack of traffic, the low level of crime.
Rafting Down Whitewater In Maine. How Many Times On Which Rivers In Maine?
The way small town folks wave at you and smile. Let you go first at a four way stop sign. Or hold a door open so you can scoot in or out. They are helpful and polite. That can change a little if you are a complainer. Or start finding fault with the small town living.
Comparing Maine to where you used to live before the move in a negative light is not pleasant. Makes the locals wonder why did you move here then? They can bitch and moan but for the first year especially ease up on the whining yourself. The locals are proud of their area, worked hard to get it where it is. They want you to pitch in, not take pot shots and put down the small Maine town.
Right off the bat you notice a friendlier atmosphere in Maine.
Lower cost real estate, access to the great outdoors happens easily. No matter which direction you head out of town to experience the country. The woods, water, wildlife are on all the well connected recreational trails.
But. When it is time to call a plumber, electrician, carpenter or mason. It could take a little time to get a response or the job you need done performed. Why? If someone is skilled, charges a reasonable price, they are in demand in a small Maine town. They are worth the wait and you learn to plan for the project renovation.
Maine, Drop Dead Gorgeous. Low Priced Property, Lacking Crime, Crowds, Traffic.
Something major for building construction means being the first guy out of the gate in spring. Finishing off that new addition in the middle of winter when work slows down and it is easier finding your tradesmen. Or Maine is all about doing more yourself and relying less on others.
Money is tighter in a small Maine town and we are raised to be jack of all trades.
Hiring everything done and wearing out the yellow pages is not the Maine way. You miss a lot of the satisfaction when you are not hands on and knee deep involved in the repair or renovation.
Live And Local. You Are In The Front Row Of The Event Working It Happens In Small Maine Town LIving.
You might think if there is lag time getting a tradesmen to arrive on the job at your place in Maine that more of them are needed.
Feast or famine happens in small rural areas of Maine. In the dead of summer we could use another two or three players in every profession layer. Around February, after the pair of holidays at the end of the calendar year, the shortage disappears.
Availability improves and you learn to go with the flow. You catch the rhythm of the local work force. And like the best time to vacation around the shoulder seasons going in and coming out, expansion projects need planning. To get who you want, at a price that is best for the quality of work received.
Once you get your local small town professionals working for you, don’t put them off getting settled up.
Pay them what the bill that matches their estimate spells out. Don’t make them wait, don’t play any games trying to get something extra or stringing them along with payment.
Come And Get It. Fish For Free Are Fresh In A Maine Lake. Adult Loons Are Excellent Anglers To Feed Their Young!
Word gets around in a small Maine town quickly. Good or bad your new to town reputation is golden or tarnished due to how you treat the locals. Unlike a city where you find the list is long. To one by one track down someone that can come right over to fix that leak. Or help get your furnace purring and heat restored.
The remodeling or any much needed repair in a small rural Maine town can require lots of patience.
Some Maine construction companies prefer to do large jobs, not the little ones. When they are away on the road, not enough professionals can be in the small Maine town to handle the workload.
The one man shows, where you know exactly who you are going to get and what quality of work for what size bill are super. They are affordable because their overhead is under control. But they are busy and worth waiting for if you can.
Sugar Coated Maine, Don’t Miss A Season, Make Winter Sparkle Part Of Your Vacation Plans.
When you learn a project was canceled and your local carpenter, plumber, electrician, whatever profession is available, you jump on the change to invite them over.
To tackle your job jar items bigger than your expertise level.
In health care facilities in small Maine towns, there are times when the work load is enough for one and a half specialty doctors but not quite two. Timing is everything when you get sick or need an operation. Doctor vacation schedules can mess up life for those in small Maine towns needing medical help.
The Maine Blueberry Crew Field Rakers Are a Motley Bunch.
Moving to a small Maine town.
So much to like about the pure and natural, the unspoiled outdoor living. The relationships are deeper because you are more involved in small town living. Especially living in small Maine towns under 4000 population.
The circles you travel are smaller and less people means you get to know the others around you. You will be serving on local community boards, working in service and civic clubs, school and church projects in a small Maine town.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
