Author: Andrew Mooers

Winter Arrives In Maine, What Stirs Inside When Snow Returns?

To someone with no Maine winter snow experience, there are mixed emotions.

The reaction to the snow flakes in the weather forecast hits folks in many different ways. If you are not prepared for winter like most things in life, you get dragged into the experience. Rather than excited about a shift to a new Maine season that changes the look and feel of everything in Maine when the white wash happens.

Maine Winters, Life Does Not Stop But Changes It Up. Still Outside But Dressed And Prepared For It.

Jack Frost adds a new dimension to the place called Maine in winter.

Variation on a Vacationland theme seasoned with snow makes it more black and white simple. It keeps it interesting, new and different. The what we do for fun changes up big time as the temperature numbers shrink. Water skis swapped for cross country and down hill boards. The wardrobe gets layers added and legs, sleeves combined in what we wear to avoid hibernation. To enjoy the long wait until spring has sprung.

Cabin fever is a real ailment that must be avoided. The right outdoor equipment, the correct clothing is the sure fire fix for “stuck inside” boredom. Books and board games, knitting and cross wood puzzles can only help so much in a Maine winter.

Maine winters offer solitude, peacefulness, crisp air, blue skies with white powder and crystal sparkle enhancement.

The hunker down secure feeling inside your home as the winter winds howl around the exterior means you prepared for the season now playing. As you retreat inside with warm food prepared slowly from a quick trip down the stairs to the root cellar. Where the fruits of your canning and preserve efforts… the bounty of your garden, gleaning the Maine farm fields awaits.

For when chores in the farm barn are done and the animals are grained, hayed, watered for the night. You feel contentment, caught up and ready for earned relaxation. The focus shifts to the positive ions radiating from a hot stove or fireplace blaze as the outside landscape gets a thicker, continuous blanket layer of pure white everywhere.

Maine Winter Weather… It Creates White Dustings, Crystals To Sparkle The Maine Countryside.

Snow hides the scars of the landscape in a forestry wood cutting operation. Makes your backyard items disappear.

It helps you forget you did not get the fallen leaves of orange, red, yellow and brown raked or mulched up in the lawn surrounding your Maine home. Erased from view. Winter gives you a feeling of satisfaction when your wood supply is bigger than you will ever need. And the left over seasoned wood cut to fit your stove or furnace natural fuel of a renewable resource will be spill over and be welcome to use the next heating season.

When you don’t live in Maine, have not made a snow man of wet sticky winter white stuff.

If you have never driven a snow sled on a groomed trail or swish swished down a white mountain top with the chair lift rides back to the summit for do it again. Ice fishing in some pretty elaborate lake shanties is one way to spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Just check the depth of the sheet of ice as the water turns from liquid to solid. As you clear a patch to make a perfect place for a spirited pond hockey game or to ice skate in a winter landscape. Where everything that was full of color and lush and green is suddenly dominated by mostly white. But touched up here and there with some green, brown, gray and the skies of blue. You notice the change in the color scheme most hoofing it through a tree plantation on snow shoes alone. When the conversation you have are inside and pondered at a peaceful pace.

Maine Highways, Streets Are Kept Snow Free. We Know How To Handle Winter.

It is easy to feel the worst and think how dangerous old man winter weather would be to driving, to staying warm and on and on.

If you let those fears snow ball. Mainers don’t live in terror of winter, they embrace it. Sure we are careful to scrape and salt the walkways because no one wants a broken hip repaired with a big pin and a long recovery with a metal walker. To swipe a patch to see out of on all the windows of what we drive. We leave a little earlier on trips and errands around town, to get the kids to school if they are not seated in the long yellow bus. We watch the current weather forecast out of one corner of an eye to stay prepared from what is predicted to happen tonight, tomorrow and beyond.

Where I live, a national weather service reporting facility in Caribou gives me very clear expectations about how things will look in the hours and days ahead. Being on the Canadian border too allows tapping into other broadcast signals of another valuable source of weather information. And there’s always the farmer’s almanac predictions along with the conversations you hear in small Maine towns that point out how high or low the busy bees put their nest this year. Or other signs in Mother Nature’s world about what this or that means that occurs in the outdoors around us for what to expect weather clues.

Yesterday I felt the rush of a little kid’s reaction to the new white fluffy snow.

Snow Makes The Apples Left Hanging That Did Not Drop Look Even More Succulent. Maine In Winter Is Beautiful Not Stark, Not Bland. If You Look Harder, Closer.

As I ventured down around East Grand Lake, the northern tip of Washington County where it meets Maine’s Washington and Penobscot, there was lots of new stark, bleached white snow dusting. Tall fir and pine trees loaded and bending, drooping with white snow dropped from the skies overnight was impressive. Clean, pure, natural. Maine.

After every snow storm, especially when it is brand new, where no sign of man but lots of wildlife tracks are the only interruption to the white total overhaul of the winter landscape.

Those times of feeling the winter wonderment flood back into the brain to remind all Mainers of the excitement to what it feels like to get outdoors happens. A kid again. Rigged up with ski pants, a winter coat, mittens your grandmother knit along with the scarf wrapped around your neck. You slipped on your boots and exiting the home in search of friends, shovels, sleds, skates. To dig the tunnels, build the forts. Slide like running and surfing on a stretch of ice lubricated even more by the new snow that only polishes it even more slippery slick.

Or reaching up to gently pull away a long shard of ice hanging off a dripping roof eave. Thick on the top and pencil tip sharp and pointed on the bottom. The sounds of winter are the whisk whisk friction sound of a child walking all bundled up in their snow suit. The site of seeing them sampling an ice shard stuck to their wood mittens or coat cuff as they dream, gaze and everything stand sill in deep thought.

Things To Do For Fun In Maine During The Winter. Strap On A Piece Of Bear Paws.

And at the end of the day come back to the warmth of a home kitchen with pink cheeks, a relaxed feeling to remove the layers that protected you outside. To sample something hot out of the oven or cooling on the rack just bake homemade using an old family tested tradition recipe.

Closer to the magic of Christmas, the sugar cookies with colored icing and sprinkles in the shape of bells, trees or stars. Helping your Mom roll, cut the dough and decorate was more fun when the restlessness of being inside was released with the exercise outdoors. After you come in from where you can see your breath, your wet mittens steaming. Where the fresh air tastes like winter green or spearmint fresh, cool, tasty.

Mainers Are Trained How To Tame The Snow Of A Maine Winter. We Put Snow In It’s Place And Life Goes On Without Missing A Beat Or Shedding A Tear Of Lament. Thank You Maine DOT Highway Crews For What You Do To Clear, Salt, Patrol Our Extensive Network Of Roads.

Wet outerwear when you do retreat inside hung up on a wooden rack to dry in front of a wood heater. To have it ready for the next trip outside to hear the crunch crunch crunch of snow under your winter boots with the felt liner inserts.

Dry and warm trumps wet, cold and heavy any day of the week in any Maine weather. Interior Maine winters are dry humidity and not damp unless you are along the coast. It’s like Arizona vs Florida for humidity and dryness. And the Eskimos are right about 50 kinds of snow. And what happens to snow when it is left to harden or crystalize.

A Maine winter is hot chocolate, bonfire outside, long underwear. It’s holiday lights of all colors. It’s angles on tree tops, larger ones made by kids on their backs staring up. Using their legs and arms like ping ball machine levers to leave shapes in the powdery snow. Maine winters are crust layers over loose snow made from melting action like a meringue sealer.

Winter is the smell of pine, fir, holly and mistletoe. Of fudge, pies, holiday turkey, whipped potatoes, green bean casseroles. The smell of soups and chowders. Of Christmas movie reruns of Rudolph or old black and white traditional flicks. The sounds of Christmas carols. Reminders of lost loved ones spiked by the memories of winter growing up in Maine. Winter means egg nog, cuddling, pulling the covers up and over your ears. Winter can be dogs and cats in sweaters walking their owners. Or is it the other way around in Maine?

Winter in Maine is snow on trees that release with a puff of dust. It is a time of candy canes, making New Year’s promises, to prepare for spring’s re-birth. It’s Christmas, Santa, a new born baby in a manger. Winter is no mosquitoes, heated car seats, turtle neck sweaters. It’s school snow days. It’s messed up hair days and scratchy heads under wool hats.

Maine Is Snow Sled, Snowmobile Heaven. Ride The Trails That Connect The Small Towns Easily On Your Ski Doo, Polaris, Yamaha, Arctic Cat Or Older Machine. Maybe A Snow Jet, Skiroule, Moto-Ski Or Maybe A Rupp, Kawasaki, Ski Whiz Or John Deer.

Maine winter means grilled cheese or tuna or chicken sandwiches and steaming hot tomato soup in a bowl or a mug. It’s thermoses of piping hot coffee served up outside during a work break. It’s a hot tub to soak your bones, the same ones warmed up another way next to the wood cook stove.

Winter is big bowls of hot spicy chili or cold micro brew at a Maine ski lodge. It’s playing cribbage at a snow sledding cabin just off the trails. Where your cell phone signal is sketchy. But you enjoy the break, the real freedom from mobile devices. Winter is taking a card of a giving tree and then setting off to find a toy or something warm for clothing for the age on the card of the child you do not know.

Life does not stop for winter.

But you change inside to adapt to the weather change. Winter keeps it new and different just like the habits of spring, summer, fall in Maine offer different experiences of the same places. Weather changes everything in a good way to keep boredom from happening of the same ole same ole meh. There are lots of things to do for fun in Maine during the winter.

Think of the bird’s searching for food and hang up the suet, the feeds with seeds. Take your dog with you on walks. Turn out those barn dwelling cows and horses, pigs, boats and sheep. Watch them roll in the new snow. See and hear the happy kids getting exercise and pushed off the couch to make snow angles. To make perfecting hand crafted ammo for a snow ball fight.

Winter in Maine is a time of reflection, a period when your senses sharpen and everything is real.

Happy To Be Alive. To Survive The Long Slide Down A Very Steep Hill. Sliding, Playing Outside And Dressed Warm In Layers For Maine Winter Fun.

Nothing is neglected inside or outside as you keep up with the new snow storms and what they leave around our homes, that needs plowing in our roadways and streets. Understanding winter is hard for someone that only reads about it.

But visit a Maine lighthouse in winter and you will see what the temperatures can do to sharpen the experience. Or looking out over the mountainside when you are pole planted and developing a thousand yard stare. That kind of detachment and letting go is the most incredible feeling of serenity that I know when all this beauty of unspoiled Maine is displayed around us. Images of winter solitude.

Look up at the stars during winter in a Maine sky. It’s powerful stuff when no light pollution or smog happens to diminish that wonderment. See how new snow changes everything in your familiar surroundings that magically change your outlook when you live in Maine. Winter means we still go to school, have to go to work. But you will not find a more beautiful place than Maine in winter to live, work and play.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

November 18, 2018
Let’s Do Lunch! Meals On Wheels In Maine.

No one should go hungry and in Maine so many volunteers make sure the local population does not.

Local Maine farmers gladly welcome gleaning the fields and hand off the kitchen grade food to lend a hand to what’s put on the table. Children from families that are struggling get back packs for kids delivered by school bus. Reduced hot lunch programs for breakfast and lunch are available.

No Matter What The Weather, Like The Postman, Delivery Of Meals On Wheels Happens In Maine.

And seniors, the shut ins get meals on wheels. Many of them are Veterans who served and deserve good hot nutrition.

As a volunteer delivering meals on wheel lunches you meet the lady with the walker and southern drawl from Texas. Knocking on her door to deliver the meals on wheels pick of the day offering to pop in the oven or microwave, she flashes a smile as large as the lone star state logo on her apartment door entrance door mat. She is glad to see Meg who like clockwork shows up with the container of filled with what’s for lunch today.

Always cheerful despite being house bound, enduring her share of aches and pains and loss of mobility.

The meals on wheels delivery person is this widows contact to the outside world. Especially when a Maine winter shoves its way into the calendar pages hanging in her apartment unit kitchen. The days locked up at home can slow to a crawl and seem to never end. When you can hop in your car at the drop of a hat it is easy to forget what it would be like for those who can not run the roads.

Gassing Up To Deliver Meals On Wheels. (Ding Ding)

On to the next stop, reaching into the insulated black zippered square box with the shoulder strap. The couple out in the country on a dead end road knows she is coming before the tap tap on the back door at the top of the wheelchair ramp. Before being passed the meal of the day or opening the freezer compartment to tuck it away for tomorrow.

Peggy the old black family dog with graying around her mouth gets animated and signals we have company.

Looking for her green tennis ball while the lunch containers are distributed. Just in case the meals on wheels delivery person might then take time to play toss and retrieve. Her master is confined to a bright red scooter chair with the motor. His wife busy taking care of him but also nursing her own long list of ailments caused by plain and simple accumulated years. And being a round the clock care giver. Contributing to her meal schedule helps lighten her load tremendously. One meal a day is someone else’s responsibility by someone other than me, myself and I in Northern Maine.

They all agree, the food is excellent. I’ve tried one that was left over and no one home to put it in a freezer. The ones in our area from the Aroostook Agency on Aging and all home made tasty. Nothing like the tinfoil hungry man or Swanson TV dinners I sampled in college. Great variety, grateful recipients and a friendship forms between the lunch or breakfast meal provider and receiver. Home bound individuals in Maine who can not get out to attend a facility prepared lunch at a senior center and who have difficulty preparing one appreciate meals on wheels.

Meals on wheels is more than helping avoid hunger than millions of American fear.

It helps with reducing the isolation and belief no one cares. Sadly 8 out of 10 senior citizens suffer from food insecurity. They don’t receive the home delivered food they need. Twenty five percent of the elderly citizens live alone. The meals on wheels program helps keep a home owner in their house as they struggle to make ends meet. More statistics on Maine’s meals for wheels program.

Mainers Volunteer, The Village Meets The Needs Collectively. From The Cradle To Senior Citizen Shut In.

It’s not one size fits all either. The meals on wheels selection work around dietary restrictions. Get heart friendly, diabetic sensitive, vegetarian, gluten free and lower sodium lunch time selections. Take a peek at all that is offered for Maine made meals on wheels lunches.

Are you retired, do you have some time each week to volunteer and give back to your local community? Breaking the cutest, most delicious small loaves of home made bread and sharing meals delivered by you to the home of someone needing them is a unique highly rewarding experience.

To partner up with the meals on wheels program, you only need a valid Maine driver’s license, background check, a reliable vehicle. Volunteers can be paid 42 cents per mile for reimbursement, but volunteers in southern Aroostook County where I live have not asked to be compensated.

It’s more than just delivering a meal, you are checking in on a friend and neighbor.

Maybe the only person besides Bob Barker, whatever talk show host or soap opera star that meals on wheels receiver may see all day long. Meals are delivered one day a week, with five meals presented to each participant. Volunteers are also needed to make phone calls to the many seniors. For more information, tap out the number sequence 1-800-439-1789. More FAQ meals on wheels program details. And if you are in the Portland area, click here.

More drivers are needed and they have the meals to deliver. If more go between connections can be made to link up the delivery person with the hungry lunch receiver.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

November 10, 2018
When You Are Lucky Enough To Live In A Small Maine Town…

It’s the little things and you feel the connection living in a small Maine town full time.

Like during a local movie, when you are at the snack bar as the lights dim. The movie coming attractions begin the splash on the silver screen. Before you can maneuver back to wherever you and your clan are sitting in the dark as the inside of a cow theater setting. As you slow to a creep on the tilted runway carpet when you ask yourself “isn’t it right around this row some place where I need to park?”

Maine, Drop Dead Gorgeous. Low Priced Property, Lacking Crime, Crowds, Traffic.

And then you hear a Psst… a whisper from the folks two rows back that nicely help you get your bearings as the lobby bright light wears off. “Andy, next row, one more.” Thank you to film patrons about to enjoy the same flick.

Or tragedy hits, your cat or dog is hit by a car, drowns in a swimming pool, something takes away the family pet. You get a call, neighbors rally to help you with the loss, know who’s cat or dog it is and help you with the arrangements on what do do now. They feel badly to be the one to announce what happened and continue to say a little prayer. To keep you in their thoughts in the tough days ahead.

Or months, years after a loss in a family out of the blue this and that community member who doesn’t need recognition for an act of kindness drops off tonight’s supper. Providing another meal next week because others surprised them the same way when down and out discouraged.

Energy, Promise, Exercise, Discipline, Entertainment In Small Maine Towns! Our Youth Provide It In Maine Communities.

The grateful recipient not sure who is responsible because so many doing the same meal time pitch in and help ritual. Because they have all been in a tough situation and out of the woodwork many hands helped to collectively pick you up from a life low point. And abundant gardens, making two casseroles instead of one happens in a small Maine town household. And someone else is taking care of desert, the bread or another side dish. Take what you need and share the rest. Amen.

Ask for directions when new to a small town in Maine way of living. Folks are super helpful, often say follow me, I’ll tractor beam take you there right now to avoid delay or chance getting lost. But other times the how to get there from here involves old businesses that are long gone. The former building owner is referred to and old names die hard.

In my home town where Western Auto was or Ames or Chain Apparel were located don’t help much in a search when lost. Hannaford is still called Shop N Save when you need groceries. Some remember it as Sampson’s or can mentally look further back because this is and has been their home town for a long long time. Even though University College now takes up that space, not aisles of groceries or Plaza Pharmacy that had a cure for what ever ails you. If your daughter was on birth control pills, a different pharmacy handled the prescription filling for the sake of appearances for your regular druggist I was told by one local who had more than one outlet for medications for a reason.

The Irving Big Stop though is still called Traveler’s with the green snack bar counter tops even though the Texaco brand of gas and diesel have not gushed in the fuel lines for decades. Whoever has been at a business location longest in your memory is who you associate the GPS coordinates giving directions to the tourists.

Where was Panther Fuel again… you know, the building on Bangor Street with the hand painted drawing of a black as midnight cat wearing a chain with the green emerald. The using landmarks long gone can work with a local giving directions. But telling a lost motorists to head past the Miss Aroostook Diner to the Gulf station at the triangle where you turn left to head past Houlton Truck Garage is not so effective when all the landmarks you refer to are gone or renamed.

Maine Community Bands, One Of The Many Perks In Small Communities That “Band” Together.

Small town community members know and trust each other.

They work on local events, some are relatives and attend the same weddings, funerals, family reunion shin digs. Folks know what others are struggling with and it’s not kept a secret. Working together on this activity forces you to know others on a personal level. You know who to call for anything needing attention because you have first hand experience with others in your small Maine home town.

You don’t just know their name, you know how many kids, their names, stuff about them. Who the third owner back was for this house, that home. What used to be in the empty lot that was lost in a fire or just wore out and went to it’s knees like a dinosaur.

Someone is stopped along the road, we slow and roll down the window to ask need help? Jumper cables ready and held in both hands like shocking paddles to get you back in the flow of traffic and moving. Had a mason tell me today about living in Rochester New Hampshire where on the way to a job there was a car on the side of the road with steam pouring out from under the engine hood.

We Should Take This Route Over By Bible Point When President Teddy Roosevelt Started His Vacation Day Hunting / Fishing In Maine. See? It’s Right (Squinting) There On The Trail Map.

He stopped to ask how he could help, what they needed, what was the problem to offer his assistance. The car owner cowered, did not roll down the glass to create the door opening to talk. And wanted him to go away, not trusting him to be of any help with a fearful leave me alone reception shared.

Trying to help lend a hand does not play well in areas where crime is heavy and your sincerity is questioned.

Don’t get involved becomes the order of the day to play it safe for your own survival. To avoid a set up in situations where everything is not as it seems.

Maybe we are naive, too helpful and trusting in a small Maine town. But I am glad we are and it is sad everyone is not no matter where they live on the planet. Always carry a set of battery jumper cables, have a willingness to share a cell phone to make calls. Hide a tow rope in the back to use pulling a vehicle out of a ditch or stuck in a snow bank. Let’s try a bottle of dry gas, pump the hood and let’s hunt for loose wires or an easy fix to the current vehicle problems.

You have front line first hand information on the lay of the land and everyone in it past and present in a small Maine town.

That makes it like David and the sling slot quick to fix and repair a need. To know who you gonna call. In city urban living you don’t know the others on the crowded sea of faces on the sidewalk of asteroids coming at you. And you hunker down, look low and don’t want to, don’t need to, don’t care to because it’s cold and impersonal rules the day.

People care about the individuals in a small Maine town.

The circles we travel are smaller so you bump into people you know more often too. The population is more spread out and the landscape slightly sparse in rural areas. Most of Maine are small, many teeny weenie. A little out of the way on the road less traveled. The locals know why the little league field is named the way it is. Steve Porter was a veteran lost in the Vietnam War who was a heck of an athlete. More than just a solider who gave all.

911 addresses are not used by all who still prefer to call the McSheffery Road the Hogan Road. Most back roads and town streets had another name or two or three in Maine communities. The locals knew the names, the standardization happened for those who did not in Emergency service providing.

Parades For Causes, To Increase Awareness And Show Support! Small Maine Towns Are Like That When Lucky Enough To Live In One.

Working on local fund raisers, sporting events, community projects makes the connection with others in your area even stronger. The connection increases the longer you live in a small Maine town. That’s your ball coach over there, that man in line at the grocery store ahead of you is the son of your town manager. The lady behind you gets a smile, nice day and you receive a comment back about community theater, the canoe race, the upcoming holiday.

Something is discussed with others you meet in your travels to the hardware store, popping into a local business for a product, service repair, whatever. And no one is ignored or avoided in small Maine towns. That would be rude when you do know each other right?

People let others go ahead of them in the banker teller line. They smile, wave, are friendly and seem happy. The elderly shut in are worried about, looked in on and you don’t want them breaking a hip and needing a pin because they slipped on glare ice hidden under a blanker of new white fluffy powdered snow that only makes it more polished and dangerous.

You serve on boards, rotate into new ones and know how small towns rock and roll. You face new challenges together when the economy dips. You share joy in hard fought battles to fix problems and belt tighten where there is waste in public spending. Frugal is not the same as cheap. Nothing sucks the life blood out of a small Maine community faster than duplication of services.

You feel the joys, the pain, whatever happens in a small Maine town as a group, as one unit in this all together.

You know who is driving many of the cars and trucks approaching you on a highway. And instinctively know old Mr. Jackins has poor vision and to give him a wide berth. Maybe pull over to let him pass by with an accident. Plus he is driving a pickup with an angled your direction bright yellow Fisher snow plow blade up front that demands your attention.

You Can Hear Yourself Think! Ever Thought Of Living In A Small Maine Town?

Small rural Maine locations also help you find solitude when loneliness requires it to heal from a loss. They knew your parents, you remember theirs long after they depart this Earth. Everyone pulls together, leans in to begin the steps to process grief when it arrives right on time as it will in any person’s life.

In small Maine towns, you share the joys, experience the low points and have historical perspective on the folks who live two houses over or the next road up in your country location.

You know others from serving on sports or music boosters groups. From capital campaigns to raise money for something very needed in the local area. Working behind the scenes makes you pulled deeper. As the investment in your local community tugs on each and every one of your heart strings.

Is it like that where you live? Do you have this kind of view? Lots of low priced real estate inventory to select from in your area? Do you lack crime, traffic, the sounds of airport jets or EMS vehicles where you call home now?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

October 26, 2018
New Shortwave Radio Station In Northern Maine.

Drive up US RT 1 in Aroostook County and glance to the east for something very large, red and white.

International Super Shortwave Radio Station WBCQ Goes Live Sometime This Fall With A New Curtain Broadcast Tower In Fall Of 2018!

Over toward the province of New Brunswick Canada in the distance. Take a peek out over the right hand side of the highway to see the new shortwave radio antenna dominating the landscape. With a large red and white center tube on the bottom, the wide tall antenna array in the same two color scheme on the top is hard to miss. It could be mistaken for the super structure used to attach to a modern drive in movie theatre outdoor silver screen.

WBCQ”s New Super Sized International Radio Station Broadcast Complex In Monticello ME, Aroostook County.

The International super station under construction in Monticello Maine on the Britton or East Road by WBCQ will wire the huge antennae system when completed to relay the power of a new 500 kilowatt short wave radio transmitter.

The unique curtain radio broadcast tower came over from Switzerland. The count down to throwing the switch to go on air live is expected in the fall of 2018.

The signal transmission broadcast funded by private investors aims to promote free speech. By adjusting the powerful shortwave radio signal beamed from the super station antenna, the press release I read claimed the ability to reach any country in the World when the station is operational.

Getting Ready To Go Live, WBCQ Short Wave International Super Radio Station In Aroostook County Maine Is Under Construction!

The powerful signal, the programming all interest this Maine blogger. The ability to transmit thousands of miles from the small Northern Maine town of Monticello is followed with keen interest. Had early involvement with radio broadcasting before the switch to real estate listing twisting selling. Read more about the historic WLW AM radio station that was pumping out 50 kilowatts back in 1932. WLW was more than a local radio station, broadcast at 700 on the AM dial. Check out that antenna design and size with this WLW radio broadcast tower photo collection.

The Cincinnati Ohio broadcast facility’s propagation area covered much of the United States making it a one of a kind signal power house. With it’s first of it’s kind power and antenna combination that made radio history until the plug on so much power and signal strength was pulled.

Stay tuned for more developments on this exciting broadcasting project in Northern Maine. WBCQ is the brain child of long time Maine radio broadcaster Allan Weiner. The reach of the new 500 KW transmitter broadcasting from elevated land in Northern ME to points around the globe is big news when protecting free speech. There was a transoceanic radio relay telephone station in the Houlton area used back in the 1930’s that still has evidence of it’s two mile long radio system when we list and tramp woodlots in the Southern Aroostook County area.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

October 14, 2018
Living In Maine, Sometimes There’s A Fly In The Ointment.

Small town rural Maine is simpler living whether you are on vacation or considering moving here full time.

And even though the fresh air, blue skies, clean water and friendly people are on the list of perks, sometimes pests need to be handled. We’re not talking mosquitoes and black flies this time around blogging. Maybe it’s Canadian geese on the war path leaving their calling card on your Maine lake property front lawn.

Stay Outdoors Mr Chipmunk, Mr Squirrel. Pests In Maine, The List Includes Beavers, Pigeons, Canadian Geese, Ducks! But We Are Missing The Poisonous Ones Other Hotter, Humid Population Centers Have.

And everyone knows the mother duck with the babies in tow out front the waterfront cottage are a cute but returning bothersome fertilizer depositor up on shore or covering your boat dock. Think about what happens after the introductory feed of stale bread to the quackers. And if you don’t, how do you feel about swimmer’s itch? Pass the medicated lotion please. At least the singing or crying Maine lake loon stays out on the water. Can not walk or come up on shore to be a nuisance.

Raccoons, porcupines, noisy crows, ravens on so big they seem to be on steroids. Maine black bears thrashing around in your garden’s fresh on the stock corn that go wild in a feeding frenzy. Whooping it up late at night. Over eating and making a mess of things. It happens. Just keep the red fox or coyote out of the hen house because they like you and I love chicken dinners too.

What other pests can happen in Maine?

Well, colder winter temperatures help curb lots of what other hot and humid areas can offer you for pest irritations. We lack the poisonous snakes, the large array of spiders that bite you just once and that’s all it took. Call the funeral home. Make the arrangements.

More Animals, Wildlife, Less People. Maine Does Not Have Gangs, The Crime Element.

Sometimes a relocating Maine real estate buyer moving is from an area where there are termites eating their woodwork. Those folks can infect their own household in Maine with what hitch hiked up I-95 hidden in the trailer or truck load of personal belongings.

I have not seen evidence of termites in my travels but around a lake with wet decaying wood a carpenter ant, a cousin to the termite can leave their calling card of handiwork. Powder post beetles I have heard of attacking a barn in Maine but it seems isolated, less occurring. I bet Jack Frost and old man winter help keep the pest uprisings to a minimum in four season Maine. More on Maine pests.

Pigeons, they are peaceful and don’t appear to be the smartest bird in Maine.

But once they decide your property is a good place to nest and rest, word gets around. More show up and then what do you do? You may not want to remove them using firepower and a bee bee gun is not the weapon of choice to encourage them to move along. When they are high up on a farm barn that can be fifty or more feet in the air. Just a tad out of reach with the Daisy red rider rifle copper pellets.

The Wildlife Were Here First. We Try To Live Together, Just Keep Them Out Of Our Maine Homes.

Live trapping the pigeon is an option. The cage large enough for eight to ten of the pigeons. Who swoop down to see what’s being served up for a snack inside and behind the wire cage with fresh popcorn, peanuts or something that welcome them in. To the Hotel California in Maine that you can enter any time you want but you can never leave.

Don’t pigeons know how to fly long distances? They are used by some to carry messages on their stick like legs in a capsule delivered by air mail. What’s to keep them from flying back? It’s what homing pigeons did over and over before Express Mail, next day Fed Ex, drone deliveries, pony express right?

Heck even beavers that are causing the waterways to back up behind your Maine homestead in the brook or stream that becomes a growing larger pond from their paddy whack dams. They too may need to be relocated, the dams removed so the flooding water can return to normal level conditions. But I know of one person who had the animal control folks trap and take a trip. To release a beaver transported thirty five miles from where they were caught in the live trap. And it only took three weeks after the open the door, here you go relocation into the deeper wilds of Maine. As they go over hill and dale to return to the original home they were evicted from not so long ago. Did you miss us while we were gone? The pests sure did you at the home sweet home they were forced to leave against their wishes.

How did the Maine property owner know it was the same not a new beaver?

Don’t they all look alike, the same thing the wildlife says about us? One beaver in the exodus had a white spot on it’s nose which I am told is rare like two eyes each a different color David Bowie, Jane Seymore were born with for peepers. I don’t think they checked the DNA to be sure but all I know is they’re back. The beaver returns or more just like the ones evicted showed up to keep the water rising. We all know how hard beaver work around the clock like a Maine farmer who has logged a forty hour week by Tuesday noon.

Wild Turkeys In Maine. You Can Have To Pile On The Brakes When Around A Blind Highway Corner Too Many Appear. And Don’t Move Fast Making Way For A Speeding Vehicle.

Have had a woodchuck under a building that liked nibbling on the flower garden bloom that was live trapped. Then set free in an unorganized township. It did not return but that does not mean another that gets the same idea to dig in and hang around won’t do the same free loading on the Maine farm. Ever heard of the Colorado potato beetle?

Winter approaching means lots of rodents want to hurry scurry to get in under cover for the lower temperatures and blanket of snow days forecasted ahead.

The two legged animals bank their Maine homes, pile the firewood, dig out the snow shovel and wool socks, mitten, head wear. It’s called survival right? Pass the acorns, nuts, berries and hunker down to hibernate until spring returns.

Where did I hide the Jiffy ice auger for winter lake fishing and the cross country snow skis? Up over the garage or was it down in the basement? Mainers are outdoors year round. Just dress a little differently to reflect the changing seasons.

Chipmunks are cute but very destructive inside a Maine dwelling of any kind. Show of hands of anyone feeling differently that has had them move in and take over. No one wants to see a red squirrel take up residence either inside the walls or up over the ceiling of where you live. And where you try to sleep when the lights go out as they run back and forth, up and down all around you, keeping you up at night. I have one older daughter living in Boston who says newer cars have wiring made with soy that attract city rats. Her 2009 Subaru has been spared when others parked around it were targeted. Peppermint oil is supposed to help thwart the rats and cause them to move along looking for another vehicle to nibble on when it is meal time.

City living getting you down? Maine, small town simple living. Looking for a piece of that?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

October 5, 2018
Maine Is Mostly Small Maine Rural Towns.

Maine small town living involves lots of volunteers working together for the unique quality of life experience.

And when local festivals or celebrations are started, the tradition needs protection to keep them happening year after year. New laborers and creative minds introduced to help the event expand and to replace those that have to step back and pull away. The events build, even the date they are held becomes sacred. Because folks plan their vacation routines around working the local small Maine town celebrations or attending them. Many travel long distances to come home from far away year after year. Both natives and new to the area folks that enjoy the experience. But the dates are what cause so much to be done to build around them.

Merchants plan their retail sales around the event. Motels and other lodging options get reservations in advance preparing for the local special event. Lots of publicity promoting the dates and times of the local community activity are put into print circulation and with online electron mass media transmissions. Social media outlets are set up to spread the word across the land. But based on a particular date in time that drives all that is planned around the event.

The Black And White Realities Of Running A Red, White & Blue Maine Small Town. Providing The Family Fun Without The Big Price Tag.

There are 25 state fairs in Maine.

And each one is special, hand made, a clever grass root creation unique to the area it reflects. The communities in Maine are not just the empty buildings on Main Street, town hall, schools, churches and houses but the people who live in the small town. The folks that invest their creative spirit and financial, time resources into everything that goes on in the small Maine town. There is nothing stronger than the heart of a local Maine volunteer with fierce pride in their home town. It is a sad day when another community threatens another’s labor of love activity in the same Maine county.

Like small plant seedlings that need protection from the elements until they gain strength and stamina, small Maine towns face lots of challenges to keep the event that swims in the local economy going. To weed, feed, water, guide and groom the festivals that struggle due to the dwindling economy. Whatever recreational, educational, sporting or amusement, all the local events and any annual celebrations that improves the quality of life are the spark of the community spirit. So many of the happenings to improve living in the small Maine town are 90 percent volunteer home grown effort and ten percent actual infused upfront monetary subsidy. Hard work trumps writing a check to pull off the event annually.

So when year after year a Maine town sponsors a festival, celebration, event, that town putting on their all out best effort for any local well planned activity, it is a beautiful thing.

It’s an example of local team work. Until something ugly happens. When a county town is pushed and they return the shove that affects another community in Maine. That’s what is happening concerning the 4th of July Houlton Maine Agricultural State Fair and the one held later the same month in Northern Maine Fair in Presque Isle. The latter is touted online as “always the fourth Friday in July to the first Saturday in August”.

Houlton State Fair, Lead Off Of Maine’s Agricultural Fair Schedule Over The 4th Of July.

The Houlton celebration a licensed State of Maine Fair since 1981. The fair, parade, retail sales in Midnight Madness in Market Square, Demolition Derby, truck pulls, horse shows, the craft fair in the park and more offer amusement and entertainment for all ages around the 4th of July. The 4H exhibits and demonstrations of all kinds, the musical acts, demonstrations, rides, games, vendor food make it a memorable experience for old and young alike. The local tradition does not just happen and is worked on and attended by most of the population in the surrounding Maine communities where it is hosted.

In August of this year, Smokey’s Greater Shows and the Northern Maine Fair agreed to petition the State of Maine to have their fair operate from Friday June 28th to Saturday July 6, 2019. Smokey’s is telling Houlton Fair to change the long time tradition July 4th schedule as the first state fair on the schedule. Recreate everything July 11th through the 14th, 2019. Whoa. And if we don’t, Houlton Maine won’t have them for a carnival amusement ride and game provider next year and for subsequent years. The hearing on the state level for such a move is considered October 12th at 10 AM in Augusta.

Tourism in Maine is strongest the closest you get to population centers out of state.

Where people in the urban areas can and do travel across the big green bridge to the south. To access the beach regions of Maine where the cost of living is a little bit steeper. To venture into the handful of cities small rural Maine has dotting the map. Up into the interior, the further north, east, west you go into this under populated New England state the flow of money slows, the economy is more rugged. But the community spirit and real not spun grass roots things we do for fun take place.

A bean supper, a fishing derby, an opening day of hunting season for someone with say a moose permit is a big deal. The lumbermen’s or agricultural museum reflect the traditions surrounding those two big industries where hard working Mainer’s earned their World wide known and respected work ethic reputation. Regional and state sporting competitions of any kind are a big deal in small rural Maine!

Maine, 108 Small Towns, Villages, Vibrant Communities.

With farming, timbering forest operations getting bigger in size and fewer in the actual company numbers, the scramble to find anything to replace the loss of jobs and our Maine heritage is a hard fought struggle.

The push for speed of thought Internet connectivity. The “bring your job with you to work online remotely” for members of the audience considering relocation here to Maine is one highly important segment to court and woo. Bragging up Maine’s small town wholesome values and building work ethic spirit, a quality life skill sets for young families members to benefit from is another trumpet blast being made daily from Vacationland.

Spelling out the lack of crime, traffic too and availability of quality health care for the “new at being old” elderly members out in the wild blue yonder are another important marketing target to keep the US census numbers up around the state of Maine.

Those retired transplants moving, relocating to Maine bring skills and donate their free time now that they don’t chase the dollar in the work world. They contribute their free manpower and creative ideas from a new area of the planet to add to the small Maine town way of life. All of us are ambassadors of Maine. Each and everyone of us wants to help spread the word on why we live here, what we love most about Maine.

It was sad to hear this week of a move underfoot to undermine the Houlton ME State Fair by another state fair venue in the same county. There is pressure from the carnival provider to make the two events closer together to justify the spin up into Aroostook County. The trip for just one outing is not cost effective, we get that. But for the Presque Isle Fair along with the carnival provider to petition the to change both venue dates is concerning.

Small Town Parades Over 4th Of July Special!

I am hopeful something can be worked out in the spirit of compromise to help both venues continue their years of tradition providing family fun. But not at the expense of either state fair venue’s historical success. And to avoid doing something that ends up hurting both communities because of the programming just too closely to give locals a chance to feel the need and to afford each of the area events.

The licensed Maine state fairs are an excellent educational and amusement entertainment value!

Carnivals in Maine have suffered from the high cost of insurance, difficulty getting quality employees for seasonal work and meeting the demands the public expect in their hungry as a horse entertainment appetite. Like most things in life now profits are smaller and businesses have to be keenly run. Your profit is found in your expenses. Volume, higher user numbers grease the gears and in a small population rural state like Maine located quite a ways up the pike, there’s the rub. The distance away from major markets helps insulate and isolate at the same time.

To step out and find a new replacement carnival circus amusement provider is difficult when the number of shows up and running is a low one. And when you read comments on the social media sites of state fairs, the public is very vocal and some very critical.

Being a volunteer on a Maine event is a thankless job and you must be tough skinned, tender hearted. It is harder to please the public members who want something for nothing or just don’t the money needed to take in multiple days of a celebration. Pride you gain from a job well done is the reward and don’t expect attention and praise from other community members who are working just as hard or putting even more effort into their list of community events.

Here’s the 2018 list of Maine’s State Fairs and their dates.

Another Hot Sausage Smothered In Onions, Peppers? (Burp) Excuse ME!

I am sure all the other state fairs, festivals in Maine that build around amusement rides that a carnival operator provides are feeling the same pinch. How to keep the well establish date for the celebration but to modify the schedule of events to make it something for everyone. Without going head over heels in debt that would kill the past time completely.

Leaving one big air sucking hole in the local fabric of life in a small Maine town proud to be the sponsor of the year after year event.

Where late night meetings, study of other venues, where planning for the next celebration or festival starts the day of the last one. It never stops and you work the event for life because looking behind you shows no person or a very short line of new blood willing to step in and work behind the scenes forever.

Writes your letters, show your concern and in the spirit of cooperation hammer out a plan to show how to preserve the state fair experience in Aroostook County, any county. Done with the least disruption to all the hard working volunteers feeling threatened and territorial that put their back into the local event that helps keep their town on the Maine map! The effort should be plowed back into the event not spent with the politics of how to poach, protect and maintain what we already have to avoid hard feelings and resentment.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com | MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

September 26, 2018