For many it is a lot of little things. But always, a major part of the pull to Maine is the friendly nature of the small communities that dot Vacationland
Lots of space, plenty of fresh air, clean water and drop dead gorgeous Maine scenery.
But it is more than the elbow room and hard working family oriented folks that call Maine home.
Horsing Around In Maine. What Is Your Hobby, Passion, Pastime That Recharges You?
The location wedged up into Canada adds a two nation vacation aspect to those who discover Maine. The state of Maine can boast 3,478 miles of rocky, sandy, scenic coastline. That weighs in more than California and if you add in the islands, the shoreline tally jumps to over 5,000 miles of land bordering water. Water fixes everything remember?
And lakes, think there is enough waterfront to enjoy with 2677 lakes or pond in Maine? An extra 222 lakes or ponds without names are on that list too if you add them in to the tally. There are also another 1022 too small lakes that were catch and released, thrown back in small fry.
But there is more than the blue green of the water and heavily forested lush landscape of Maine to grab your attention on Vacation here. Hiking up Mount Katahdin or a slew of other trails. Ski Sugarloaf USA or Sunday River or one of the smaller low cost family friendly peaks.
Explore, Discover Maine. The Back Roads, The Hiking Trails, The Water Ways. We Are Outdoors More Than Inside All Four Seasons In Maine! Like That Where You Hang Your Hat Now?
Biking around a Maine island that a ferry delivers you to or sitting down at a snow sled club or grange hall type public supper to get close to the locals breaking bread. That is the best way to go to a deeper level with the Maine natives. That often leads to more than vacation visits but a permanent relocation to Maine when the timing is right to head north. And leave the city crowds, the urban hustle and bustle, shuck and jive behind in the rear view mirror as you head up I-95.
No mortgage and being free and clear is a better feeling than saddled with debt. You can enjoy living more, avoiding the race through life if you don’t have to hold down three jobs to barely cover expenses. To keep the wolf from your door. You don’t need to make a lot of money to live in Maine because the outdoor recreation does not come with a high price tag to sample. And people help in the DIY, pitching in to help with house hold projects, splitting winter heating wood. Everything is community minded and the folks are intimately connected. It is home grown not store bought and more involved. The kids have work ethic, everything is not handed to them and there is less entitlement in Maine small town living.
Loons On A Maine Lake. They Put You To Sleep. Sometimes They Wake You Up! Maine Lake Vacations Are Reasonably Priced.
No traffic, less people. Camping is big too in Maine and the wildlife, the back drop of Mother Nature is more than enough to make it memorable. Check out the Maine communities. Find a section of Maine beach to dig your toes in. Bring your fishing rod, strap on a bike to your rear trailer hitch receiver. Pack the picnic basket. Don’t forget your swim wear.
So it starts with an innocent vacation to Maine and mushroom clouds or snow balls from there for most people.
Maine is the way life should be. Everyone who visits or relocates, moves to Maine has different connections. Some remember being a kid and visiting a grandparent’s farm. Their parents grew up in Maine but had to seek employment outside the state after a war ended or a poor farming or timber year forced the shuffle of feet.
Renting a lake camp in Maine for a long weekend. Picking one spot to come back to or exploring to find your favorite nook and cranny. Relax, you have a life time to get to know Maine better. Are you looking for your next mailing address and considering Maine?
The state of Maine soap box derby race is held in Houlton ME and this year’s running is June 16th, 2018.
June 2nd the derby crew held a tech day and hands on session for new drivers and their support team. The trail runs, the yearly state of Maine soap box derby race, any spring or fall rallies are held on Derby Hill at Community Park. Families looking to gain experience and points for their derby racers flock to the Maine rallies for spirited competition. Some rally races are held under the lights too!
Soap Box Derby Racing! On Tech Day, New Racers Learn How To Set Their Cars Up, To Take A Few Trail Runs Down Derby Hill!
The Derby Hill is a specially built over 800′ paved two lane course with guardrails, a garage topside in case of rain and designed for an electronic eye timer at the bottom run out.
This soap box derby race course is 8 to 17 years of age drivers who build a kit car and want to compete.
The winner of heats from brackets outlining who races who advances up the pairings to determine who will represent the local and our state in the big World Series of racing out at Derby Downs. The site for the All American Soap Box Derby started by in 1934 in Akron Ohio.
Here are some past videos for soap box derby racing to show how each year the weather, the size of he field, everything is a little big different.
It is a lot of fun, every racer shakes hands after each heat to keep it a good sportsmanship lesson. Kids learn about the mechanics of the derby race car and there is nothing I am told like “The Thrill Of The Hill!”
Like to race or know of someone that should be in this neat derby program?
The Houlton Maine soap box derby program started back in 1996 and is still going strong! It was the largest race city in the country five years running! And having our own engineered hill helps the derby keep from burning out the support team that is getting older!
Questions? Here to help! Reach out and will do my best as a past director of the race and with a few trips out to Akron under our family belt to be able to share the experience and tips. Get in, stay low, hang on and we have a green light up on topside. That means if drivers are ready, the launch lets the gate open up and the cars to roll with the help of gravity. Gravity, running the quickest line to the bottom, weights, alignment, a lot more goes into who wins the derby heat in soap box derby racing.
Fenway Park, touted as America’s most beloved major league baseball stadium. Fenway opened April 20, 1912
And when you live in New England, you see lots of Red “B’s demonstrating the loyalty of the Red Sox Nation following. Oh sure you have a few wearing the emblem of the Evil Empire, mostly to be rebels. To get a rise out of the rest of the Red Sox diehards that like their parents before them follow the team through nip and tuck seasons. The ups and downs of the wins and losses. Play ball.
Heading Into Fenway Park. You Can Take The Train, Or You See Some Exotic Cars Along The Way Cruising In From Wherever You Live In Red Sox Nation.
Listening on the radio is a summer ritual for Red Sox Nation fans of all ages.
Being “up tah woods camp or lake cottage” and tuning in with just your ears. It’s summer time, lemonade, hot dogs, baseball time to celebrate the months in the middle of the calendar year. There is something tapping into the old time radio ritual of listening. And at the same time creating the picture in your head. Playing on the inside of the back of your head on the mental projector.
The announcer who can “take you out to the ballpark” and cause you to smell the popcorn and peanuts, to hear the vendors peddling them. To visualize the green monster as if you are there to hear and watch the going, going, gone. Fenway Park is one of the best known sports venues in the World!
Heading Into Fenway Park. Some Fans From All Over Red Sox Nation Vast Territory Make The Trip Often!
There is nothing like the feeling when the home town wins in Boston and you just witnessed another game for the play books. With the Red Sox coming out on top. Especially when the opposing team in the other dug out is filled with Yankees.
Swarming the ballpark like aggressive ants at a well stocked New England / Red Sox Nation picnic spread. Oh sure, you will have Oriole fans in the audience, those who root for the Mets, the Expos, LA, the Indians, the Cardinals, etc. Some how above all the teams played, a win over the Yankees at Fenway or in NYC feels like as close as most folks ever get to the World Series experience. At least it works that way in my head. When a bases loaded home run changes everything. And the wind is blowing just right around the Pesky pole so it was not foul and the fans ignite in excitement. Go Red Sox!
When you are on your way to Fenway Park, the closer you get to Boston, you feel the swarm of support for the Red Sox ramping up.
Look around. It’s written on the faces, across the T-shirts fronts and sew on in bold letters on knock off baseball jerseys. Even the ads on the billboards. “Kid’s eat free if the Red Sox win at Ninety Nine”. You know who their favorite team is without any doubt as you travel 128, RT 1, I-93 or 495. And even more than that small fact, often the favorite player picked out of the squad is spelled out for you and the name often just barely fits across the shoulders.
Hot Dogs, Sam Adams Or Whatever Summer Ale To Quench Your Thirst. It’s Summer In Red Sox Nation!
Petrocelli, Conigliaro, Yastrzemski, Papelbon, Unless it is a short Ortiz, Lee, Tiant, Fisk or a little longer Pedroia. Each fan wonders what the next few hours hold in store for their beloved Red Sox team.
Did you collect baseball cards, trade them growing up?
Buying the trading cards and tossing away the gum?I remember a neighbor of mine obsessed with baseball cards who told his sixth grade teacher Mrs Barker it was his mother’s birthday. And he bummed twenty dollars from her to buy a new shipment of major league baseballs card at lunchtime from Woolworth’s.
The same kid to impress a girl that did not like him ate a giant night crawler. A fellow school classmate who sold bait for fishing brought in his largest, most active one. I swear it could do pull ups on a chin up bar, it was huge and active. (MEMO: Girls are not impressed or more inclined to date and kiss guys who eat night crawler worms of any size.) The thirty two dollars in money raised probably was used to buy the latest baseball cards to add to his collection.
Respect As One Of The Hardest Songs To Sing But Most Touchy One Is Sung. And The Baseball Hats Go Back On, And Announcer Near The Organ Player Shouts “Pay Ball!”
Do you dream of fantasy major league baseball teams combinations of players? Lots of folks are driven by baseball, the America past time at ball parks across the land.
The crowds of people coming in from all directions around Fenway Park. Holding tickets to their baseball stadium seats to watch the Red Sox play ball. Is this the season they go all the way to the World Series now that the curse is broken? You don’t have to be a Peter Pan to believe. Just believe.
Have been to a game between the Red Sox and Yankees where the Boston team trailed in the eighth inning.
But the Sweet Caroline song shot in the arm boost sang by the crowd, the “wave” of fans up and down around the park as the chatter increases and support bubbles over. The chemistry and pitching rotation, something in the magic of Fenway all combines to cause the “W”.
Hey Batter Batter SWING! Or Wait For The Pitch To Fuel The Red Sox To A “W” At Fenway Park, Boston MA.
Nothing compares to the feeling as you walk shoulder to shoulder with happy fans, some with a healthy amount of barley pop in their system. Who are on cloud nine because the Red Sox won. The rest of their personal life could be struggling but something good happened here today in Boston, not Mudville folks.
This past Saturday, headed down to Boston from Wells Beach and watched the Boston Red Sox pull off a victory at Fenway against the opposing Atlanta Braves team.
Beautiful sunshine, a packed stadium and a win for the home team, the Boston Red Sox. Would love to insert a video highlights of the game but not worth the copy right warning penalties.
Get your major league baseball game tickets and maybe you go on a regular basis and live close to Fenway Park, whatever stadium is your regular haunt. To root, root for the home team. Any ball team. Pick yours to support and listen on the radio, grab some tickets and visit during a home stand. Introduce a young member of your family to Red Sox Nation. Or whatever baseball team you watch, listen to, follow. We were lucky to have a family member who lives in Boston loan us a parking spot only a few blocks from Fenway Park this time in Bean Town.
Living in rural Maine where parking, traffic is never ever a problem, it is easy to forget how coveted a secure parking spot is to city dwellers. Here’s the latest Red Sox News. Learn about baseball trades, getting Fenway tickets, what the schedule is so you can pencil in a trip to the ball park with the Green Monster, the history, the hot dogs, barley pop and food vendors!
What’s your favorite baseball team and we’re stick licking out wounds about the Celtic’s loss to the Cavs in the basketball playoffs in game seven. Watched that one on TV during the Memorial Day Vacation at Wells Beach. Do you watch your Red Sox game on the big screen hanging on your living room or den wall? Do you follow the Red Sox out of state or during spring training wintering outside of Maine? When was the last time you took in a major league baseball game at Fenway Park as a member of Red Sox Nation?
Maine homes are more often than not surrounded by big lawns
If you have company from across the pond, this fact is one of the first observations someone from say London or Paris noticed. Back where they hail from, something that big for a wrapper of land surrounding a home is tilled up and farmed. Something besides blades of grass kept crew cut short is what the generous helpings of land are used for… it is tilled or something with four legs grazes on the grass, clover, whatever else good looks good to eat if you are a farm animal.
Maine Lawns Are Bigger Than Most. Cats Enjoy The Vegetation Around The Lawns To Hide Out.
What is the reason for such large lawns? Maybe it is because not so long ago, everyone lived on small family farms in Maine. We all farmed and mowing large lawns now gives us a feeling of haying once a week spring, summer, fall. Now that many of us chase the dollar working for someone else 9-5.
The rolling lawn in front, to the sides and out back of a New England farm house is pretty when it is kept free of burdocks, red brackle and small poplars that take hold quickly. Even fiddle heads show up around houses and the more moist areas around a property in Maine. If you don’t keep the land mowed weekly or at least bush hogged once a year or the land hayed.
Some of my best thinking is done riding the John Deere or Cub Cadet International garden tractor with the large mowing deck.
You can see what you did when you tuck the mower away in the barn or garage and there is a sense of accomplishment, of property pride. You notice birds in the trees, you check of the home and the countryside as you gawk around mowing. Because it is not a hard, mind bending exercise.
If No Lawn Grass, Something Other Than Brush, Burdochs Needs To Be Growing In Open Space In Maine. Like Lupines. A Pretty Weed.
Fresh mowed lawns. It is relaxing to mow, to see the rows in the sequence and all of us in Maine were taught by expert lawnmowers. It was not racing around in circles but trimmed around the trees with a hand mower or weed wacker combined with the power mower exercise. It was done right or time to do it over.
Big lawns, how large should you mow? Some folks check the watch, mow for an hour, give or take depending on how big a time pledge they want to put to keeping the grass trimmed. And when they get to that pre-determined time, that’s it. Shut off the mower, pull up the deck and be line back to the storage area until next week. Or earlier if sunshine, plenty of rain means you need to repeat the lawn mowing more than once some weeks.
Lawn mowing is contagious. You like to get the property mowed before the weekend, prior to long holiday spans. It is something your parents instilled in you as a young grass chopper in Maine.
Mowing by hand is great exercise.
Victorians In Maine Have Big Lawns Wrapped Around Them. Landscaped Grounds Add Sparkle To The Big Homes.
Up and down hill slopes. Back and forth, alternating the angles to make it new and different for the travel pattern. Instead of a treadmill at the gym, just pull the cord of a hand pushed, not self propelled model and see the wright drip off slow by sure. Working around the weather makes mowing hard when three days of rain elevated the blades longer than you would like. The clubs of dead grass clippings clog a mower, make it work Cherry, harder and look like yard hair balls.
Mainers love to mow lawns.
I have had properties for sale where sellers are out late at night applying weed and feed and in one big private competition to make sure their landscape is picture perfect. They act like it just happens on its own but deep down inside are pretty competitive with neighbors around the hood where they hang their hat.
You can use gang reel mowers behind a tractor or four wheeler to mowing large level to rolling stretches of green grass. If not grass, apple orchards are planted, wild flowers are encouraged with meadow in a can seeds broadcasts. Planting something for flowers or vegetables is always a personal choice for what grows around a home in Maine. Ornamental and fruit trees help showcase a property. We are brought up in Maine that is 91% forestested to plant trees, not cut and harvest them only. Being a good steward of Maine trees means thin them out, don’t clear cut or leave nothing to grow when the over story is removed. Hardwood ridges, so many trees to study and enjoy hiking in Maine.
Cherry, apple trees, raspberry bushes. Landscaping your lot in Maine is a delicate but rewarding process to plan out what goes and grows here or there. The attraction of birds, the sound of wind in the pine or fir needles vibrating with a low hum. Trees know the meaning of patience, time. Maples grow fast but can decay later on. I have a bunch of maples along a circular driveway that are ailing.
Cedar hedges look scrawny when you pull them out of the swamp and place the roots in burlap bags for transport and to be kept moist. But other than trimming, they are way way better than erecting large expensive fences that heave with the frost and need paint or stain or other maintenance. White birch trees are pretty and frail. Yellow birches are better for fire wood believe it or not. Beech, ash, not so many oak trees though all round out the choices you or Mother Nature will supply on open Maine land. Don’t forget the patch of rhubarb, high bush blueberries, elderberries, black berries, and herb garden to add to your flower beds, vegetable gardens on our patch of Maine dirt to enjoy.
Maine has over 6000 lakes and ponds and is one reason Vacationland is a very popular destination.
But what is the difference between a Maine lake, a pond? Well it is more than size. Because lots of farm ponds have been dug out where the soil is slow to drain and springs help them stay filled with natural water.
Mountain Ash Berries Wrapped In Ice On A Maine Lake.
During the late 1960’s, 1970’s the US Soil Conservation Service helped with a 75/25% cost share with the property owner coughing up the small portion of the funding. These ponds range in size, were stocked with fish and also considered a water source for a rural country fire. During times of farming drought dryness, these ponds were tapped for moisture to help thirsty Maine crops.
A pond has an inlet, no outlet and can be spring fed like a Maine lake.
Pond are usually considered more shallow and sunlight is able to penetrate to allow vegetation to grow where lakes are often deeper and darker the further toward the bottom you go. A pond could conceivably have vegetation across the top. We have all seen the lily pads, the yellow flowers and heard the croaking frogs next to a pond.
Can you have a private lake and hog it all to yourself or just for personal family use? And what about public landings, how do those work? Here is more on open land approach to using private land for public use which is a huge component of Maine tourism. Here is extra information on park rules and public land use.
I had a Maine farm listing for sale that surrounded a nine acre lake. The owner had a nine year old daughter fighting a battle with cancer who they wanted to change the name the Gazateer Atlas and other maps had already names for a previous land owner. And to change the name to the name of their dying daughter ended up becoming a legislative fight. The news brought attention to just how big a lake has to be to no longer be termed a private one.
A great pond in Maine is considered larger than ten acres.
And I had been told any Maine lake over twenty acres has to have a public landing access for use. Now finding out where exactly that public access can be tricky. Especially if the camp owners that border the so call access strip just raise havoc and don’t want the public traipsing in and out to enjoy their waterfront resource investment.
But back to what is the difference between a Maine lake, a pond.
No Areas Prettier Than Baxter State Park! Hike, Climb Mt Katahdin, Other Peaks.
There are other distinctions that make each a horse of a different color. (Cue the song “one of these things is not like the other”. One of these things just doesn’t belong.) A Maine pond, how big does it have to be to graduate to a lake status? Some waterfront definitions say a pond has to be 5 acres or larger to be dubbed a lake. Other experts say over 8 acres, at least twenty acres.
But even when a Maine lake is called a lake.
The quality differs greatly and size does matter. A 20 acre lake is pretty challenging to water ski, to enjoy a power boat. It gets a little boring circling round and round. And if the lake is only a few feet deep, with a frog bottom muddy footing, swimming in warm water with the goop between your feet is not pleasurable.
Gravel bottom, going out gradually is preferred when folks look for a lake front property and without lots of just below hidden rocks to rip off your motor’s lower unit if you decide to take a spin. A big steep incline to slide down a hillside to get to the waterfront is not a popular attraction for most folks, even the most athletic in the audience.
Maine Lake Loons, Many Other Birds Too On The Waterfront!
As we all get older or when elder members of our family visit a lake or pond setting in Maine, everyone worries about how to get the going shore party back to camp. A reverse zip line, a winch with a motor to haul the camper back up the hill sounds like someone could get hurt as they get dragged brutally across the hilly terrain landscape.
A large lake can cause the northwest winds to pick up speed and cause more than a comfortable breeze to keep your property bug free. Black flies would have to be on steroids to handle the jet stream to tap in to a fresh camper vein of O2 positive or AB negative.
A small sheltered Maine pond is not so wild and safer when a storm picks up just because getting to shore is an easier, shorter task. The waves are not white caps. Landing a private float plane on a dinky pond could test your aviation skills or end up making you front page and again mentioned in the obituary of the same Maine newspaper in the venue where the fatal accident takes place.
Herons On Maine Lakes. They Show Up To Entertain The Happy Campers.
View if any or of what. The power lines or wind generators sharing the big screen of the waterfront setting in your lap are not what more lake or pond real estate buyers are seeking. The red light that blinks on the giant wind beater turbines to warn aircraft getting too close that they are ahead shines across the water like an eerie tentacle. Making the giant structures closer than they really are and a reminder of what new man make device is in the scenic view of what was just Mt Katahdin, a mountain or foot hill range view.
A lake without milfoil or pollution trumps one even larger in size that is a mess that has the pressure of man, over development, lack of education to protect the waterfront and a lack of self preservation obvious to all who visit the lagoon you call “Uptah Camp Ayuh”.
A lake in Maine I am on refreshes, or turns over every one year, one month.
As long as safe, well planned timber harvesting is done in the watershed of the lake or pond, and if area crop or critter farmers go easy does it on the nitrite, nitrates put on the fields with care to keep it from leaching into the natural resource, things can stay static. Or if you practice good stewardship where you pass on the lake or pond property in better shape than you received it, it means a waterfront investment could actually improve. The condition of a rickety dam at the outlet can be a concern and how strong is the lake or pond waterfront association if there is one? Same with the road association where most of the access trails and pathways are private, not much like a public transportation set up.
You don’t need to own a piece of Maine waterfront. You just need a kayak, canoe and to sample the buffet of them dotting the map around whichever part of Maine you are lucky to find yourself visiting on vacation or living in part or full time!
When the calendar ushers in spring, what is it like in Maine?
Past times like spring smelting happen. Canoe and kayak river races show up on the Maine community event listings. Folks head to
Free Of Layers Of Players, Maine Simple Living Means Reduce, Reuse, Conserve.
camp to assess the damage from the ravages of winter weather and water to the outposts are hooked up as spring cleaning in the vacation shanties gets underway. Maine loons return to lakes as do the two legged snow birds that belong to the properties on the waterfront. That side step a Maine wintry setting and avoid the use of a snow shovel for a few months in the sunny south.
Spring in Maine.
A time of renewal, of perusing seed catalogs, planting plots to create a bounty of food from the Earth rich soil. Thoughts of next years the one after that for firewood is always on the mind of a Mainer who uses the renewable resource from the timberlands Vacationland is blessed with top to bottom, side to side. 91 percent of Maine is wooded. I just ordered a F 45 Jotul woodstove and left a message on a tree length timber processor I saw in the local Maine paper. We are prepared for the season called winter and don’t want twenty minutes old sticks of green wood to feed our faithful home heaters.
No Walls, No People, All Real And Natural. Bask In That Vacationing In Maine. That’s What Attracts Maine Tourists.
Boats, old cars, campers all get pulled out of winter storage. Projects around the home and camp properties get put on the drawing board in earnest. Lots of bartering happens in small Maine towns where everyone is a jack of all trades. Resourcefulness trumps the size of your wallet for expenditures in Maine. New fencing gets added to pastures and old posts get righted and put straight on Maine farmsteads.
Hosing down houses, washing windows to make them sparkle in the spring sunshine glinting off a Maine homestead.
The dandruff from asphalt roofing shingles that did not make it through the blustery months of the Maine calendar around the major holidays. A Maine home owner takes notice and plans accordingly. Maybe it is time to replace the roof covering and a trip to an Amish supplier of metal for the job is explored. Estimates for the cost to renovate are on going around the year for a Maine home property owner.
Putting the lawn furniture on the patio or front porch that was stashed away upstairs in a shed or barn. Spring is in the air as lawnmowers are wheeled out into the daylight and oil changed, air filters inspected to get the grass cutters ready. Mainers love to mow lawns and some of your best thinking is done atop or pushing a grass cutter. Big lawns, it is like haying and taps into our old farm habits with the sickle and cutting bar.
Trade shows for boats, house improvements, for gardening all fall out of Maine newspaper circulars.
If you want a renovation hired out to spruce up your home or tackle a much needed repair, this process is going to take a little time. Don’t expect overnight miracle or to snap your fingers and all down quick and easy.
Next Year’s Wood Pile In Tree Life Form. Ready To Knit On, To Slowly Cut And Split Into Just The Right Stove Lengths. Mainers Stay A Season Ahead With Their Wood Stash.
In your home in a small Maine town, you best make the call and secure a place in the line way way early on. Many new to the area transplants remark of the shortage of tradesmen or the fact that it takes considerable time for a new customer to get a call back. Let alone the repair or housing update performed.
The best of the tradesmen are busy and have their regular customers to service. They also don’t pass up a chance to do fiddle heading, smelting, or an outing with the family that is an annual tradition. Mainers have their priorities in order.
You can not look up a list of electricians, plumbers, carpenters in the yellow pages where you let your fingers do the walking in a small Maine town.
Nope. You ask around, you hear the same names come up in the grapevine conversations. There’s your daily double winner in the housing trifecta for the win, place, show.
Have you ever been to Maine? Are the familiar tourist traps the only visit you have made to Vacationland? We recommend traveling deeper, more north into Maine’s interior to sample the goodness of living in this northern most New England state.
