Author: Andrew Mooers

Maine, A Great State To Get Lost On Purpose.

I have a real job and it is not creating the Me In Maine blog post stream of news from up here in the upper right hand corner.

And the common theme I hear more than any is “get me out of the city, away from people.” Maine is a vast state and under nourished for population. The head count is low and the acreage of woods, farm land, water front is huge and unspoiled. Because the distance north protects and insulates the state of Maine.

Why People Pick Maine For Low Cost Property, The Wide Open Space. Low Population, Less Folks To Bump Into And Bug You The #1 Reason Order Up Maine.

So other people. Why are they the problem for many?

Because folks need to take Dale Carnegie and learn to win friends and influence people? No. That’s not it because I meet lots of people in my day job of listing, market, selling Maine real estate. That are friendly, personable and not difficult to deal with…but throw these same people into grid lock living of a city. Add a dash of crime, an element of noise and feeling jammed in and watch out. Things heat up like the tempers and anxiety levels.

It is the same do or die, fight or flight situation as an animal backed into a tight corner exhibits. With teeth bared, its shackles up. The nice as punch, easiest going dog, cat, person becomes a caged animal wanting to break out at all costs. They snap. That is why people buy property in Maine. They can breathe, not worry about plowing into someone that invades their space. They also can own and enjoy it without debt. Everything you know divide by three, four living in small rural Maine.

The stress of living with too many people, way too much regulation and high cost of surviving the urban landscape.

It is the reason folks age prematurely from the stress. They are not happy and no matter how much they try to retail therapy their way out of it, something is missing. Something money can not buy. Maine is outdoor experiences, the ability to get below radar and away from people. To spend time with me, myself and I.

This Is Not The Landscape Where Too Many People Live. Maine Is Less Population, More Natural Unspoiled Space To Enjoy As You Take It Easy.

Had a call this week from China. Joe is from Chengdu and teaches English. I told him in a phone conversation it must be neat to be fluent in Chinese and he says he is never going to stop learning that language.

He spied with his little eye a low cost house, land, near a lake and on a brook for $12,500. He wants a place to vacation at least once a year with the plan to move here full time someday. He has traveled extensively, is from California originally and has a buddy from Wales who also teaches English in China.

There is lots of demand for help teaching English and folks on the streets of China when they hear English flock to it to practice the language.

To become more proficient with the plan for many to take a leap to the USA someday. The land of opportunity. A cheap place for Vacationland ME real estate and why people buy property in Maine.

But back to Joe. He also has another friend who writes and is looking for a backdrop to crank up the creative literary juices. I told him after college, I worked in broadcasting in Bangor Maine, and for a time at a station writer Stephen King owns. And if you digest any of his many books, Maine is a common setting with a twist on the places to add spark to the fiction of his works.

The time zone difference, knowing China does not spring forward or fall back to save on the time to match the calendar here in Maine.

A dozen hours, it was 11:30 at night there and 11:30 in the morning on the call as crystal clear as a bell with no delay or static. I have been sending him property video links and bring him up to speed on how things rock and roll in Maine. He likes what he sees, hears and is sharing in his cyber circle. Others connected to his sphere are reaching out from far away lands and the spinning blue and green marble is becoming smaller, more accessible to many.

Easy Does It, Everyone Is Not Strung Out, Including The Animals. Plenty Of Elbow Room, Living Space Does That! Get To Maine For A Sample.

The same day another phone call from St Barths, an Caribbean Island. The caller with a thick French accent, asking about a church for the same $12,500 price tag we must be running a special on in Maine real estate. So much for so little makes Maine a bargain for property listings and add the sauce surrounding it of eye candy, less people, more wildlife and the strong connection to get some real estate intensifies. It is why lots of our sweat and tears is poured into telling, showing the outside audience what Maine is like.

Another caller from Garmisch, Germany buzzed in through thin air of a wireless signal.

He told me the location in Bavaria, near Germany’s highest mountain was the site of the 1936 World Olympics. Evidently whoever picks the venue for the next global games requires a certain size population. So Hitler anxious to be the host city combined Garmisch (in the west) and Partenkirchen (in the east). They had been two separate towns for many centuries, and still maintain quite separate identities. See link above on the location in Germany.

Have had a seller from England sell a home he bought from us to a purchaser from Ireland we located from one of our blog posts on simple Maine living. People move, look for a better location or just to sample a new part of the World. Traveling is easier today and folks have more disposable money to burn.

They don’t only come to the New Land riding in clipper ships, the Plymouth Rock models or the square back ones Chris Columbus navigated in search of rum, spices, real estate for the taking by planting a flag, for the fame and fortune. To go down in the history books as a remembered name echoed through time.

Church For Sale In Maine! $12,500! That Makes The Phone Ring, Email Server To Glow Hot Around The World.

One buyer from Seattle Washington has boat loads of blue chip software tech stock that went through the roof in value.

And did not want his four cats to ride on a commercial airline so he chartered a private Lear jet to whisk them away to Maine. I had to pick them up at the Houlton Maine airport and get the pilot and two other crew members a ride to a rental car place, to the check at a local motel.

The cost was $15,000 for the one way delivery of the felines and the pair of fly boys and stewardess were leaving the next day on touch down in Boston for the return back haul of a family heading to the west coast.

So back to the day job of peddling properties and will keep shooting images, uploading videos about life in Maine. The way life should be and a place where not many other areas of the World can compare.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton ME 04730

May 17, 2017
The Great North Woods Of Maine.

Maine is 91% timber land and venturing into the great north woods is one major recreational past time.

Has always been that way since the first family settled in Maine. When it was all wooded. And where you put down roots was always next to a river, water way of some type. Because that river was the power source for the grain or saw mill. And the transportation for moving the logs cut from the vast forests and floated down river to market.

The Scenery In Maine. What You Look Up And See While Reading Uncle Henry’s, The Delorme Maine Atlas Gazetteer, A Stephen Kind Book.

Maine’s woods for hunting meat, fish angled for from the river.

The woods held the key for survival, for recreational pursuits and for the timber resource to build shelter. To cut down the large masts for clipper ships and schooner vessels. The tall straight spruce hand peeled and used for purloins to secure the roofs of the cathedral ceilings. The early houses in Maine were simple log cabins or pine and spruce. Then when houses were built with multi stories, the need for brick chimneys to handle the heating with wood and coal came into vogue.

But back to the Maine woods. Hear the crickets, the owls hoot, frogs croak, see the fire flies light the pathways.

The animals caught used for clothing, their fur for rugs too. The canoes used to glide through the rivers and streams, across broad lakes that salt and peppered the north Maine woods. Great herds of moose and deer, wild turkey, game birds and the best stocked trout, togue, salmon pools created the table food long before grocery stores and drive through fast food outlets.

Moose Not People, Other Wildlife Too Hide In The Woods, Waterways Of Maine.

For years fisherman have made the trek to the northern Maine woods. Hunters now wearing blaze orange and toting bows, arrows, rifles too. And other sportsmen wanting to access the trails on snow sled, ATV four wheelers, cross country skis. Climbing Mount Katahdin, to take in the long views from the the state’s highest point. And gawking in a slow pan from bald tops of Maine’s highest and other the many other peaks is a ritual for many through out life in Vacationland.

The early log cabins used for hunting expeditions collecting game. For lumbering operations in the deep woods unorganized locations of Maine using camps that were hand made originals. To shed the snow, rain from the roof and to protect the occupants inside from animals, to tame the cold temperatures harvesting woods by day. Sawing mental logs at night to rest and repair for tomorrow do it again. Teaming horses, two man saws and avoiding the widow makers.

Not from the machine cut kits of cedar from Katahdin and Ward Cedar log homes. And all the others that sell houses and camps that assemble as easy as lincoln logs and enjoyed all over the World. Wasting fuel but doing the job of opening up to spray the positive ions and heat BTU’s. The Franklin fireplaces for wood stoves to heat the simple shanties in the timber stands of rock maple, beech, white and yellow birch. In the softwood timber grouping of pine, fir, cedar and with ash, oak, and other forest wood specie offerings. Planted by Nature, scattered by wildlife and the wind and nothing perfect rowed like tree plantations of today that are 1000 and 1200 grid exact.

The View At Your Picnic In Maine. It Adds To The Home Made Taste Of Whatever Is Packed Away In The Picnic Basket.

The Maine woods camp a yearly ritual for many now. Not just Teddy Roosevelt who read his bible on the point of the same name in the Island Falls, T4 R3 area of Maine forest. More on Bible Point where he met with his maker for some advice on life and fortified his soul.

For the families that extend the smile and local advice on how best to navigate around the timber tracts in the unorganized townships of 24,000 acres of square T this, R that. But at one time the trip to the north woods more than a fall ritual for game or spring jaunt for smelt, other fish that swam in the waterways unmolested.

Not like now with the search for fiddle heads, to play cribbage or poker card games around the pot belly wood stove and for recreation only. For the quick afternoon stop on snow sled or four wheeler to squeeze in some PDQ rest and relaxation.

Then high tailing it out of the Maine woods. Passing skidders with choker chains and reeled in cables, sitting idle in expansive log yards. With silence fella bunchers. wood processor delimbers of all kinds along the way on your ride out of the deep woods. Used less and less for processing the stuff paper is made from using pulp wood. The poplar attacked and stacked and destined for OSB waferboard mills around Maine.

Add Water To Maine Fall Leave Colors. It Leaves A Positive Impression Of Maine With Woods, Lake Camp Tourism Experiences Many Seek.

The Maine woods an early necessity to harvest more than timber for building and heating fuel to crank out the BTU warmth from the family hearth in the home. But also the four legged inhabitants were part of the many trips to the Maine woods.

The gill equipped fish plying the waterways that were clean, fresh, and under tapped by man due to their difficult locations to access wetting the baited line. Before the railroad cut through passes through rock formations. To lay the steel pair of rails across wooded ties for the passenger and freight iron horse trains to ride.

To traverse in Northern. Central and Southern Maine when railroads opened up the Great Maine woods. And small, vibrant mill towns sprung up along their network of railway junctions and free trade opened up to load up the log lengths on the flat bed cars linked, pulled by laboring locomotives of steam power, then diesel engines.

Rich Where It Counts, Maine Is Unspoiled, Drop Dead Gorgeous.

The trip to the woods camp took considerably longer and a weekend zip trip up and back easy.

Like Interstate 95 allows today but that was more of a commitment, a greater strain to the hardy men and woman, boys and girls with more stamina yesteryear.

But the bounty harvested was the goal, not just the recreational pursuit to escape the day to day of a small Maine town landscape. Traded in for the wind in the pines, vibrating and humming to make you realize you were by yourself. With the birds serenading, the wildlife sharing their playground with all who took the time to venture into their special spot in Maine.

On the way to Moosehead, Jo Merry, North Twin, Chamberlain and Eagle Lakes, to hunting camps in the Allagash wilderness waterways are nothing new to local Mainers.

Who have made the trips more times than they can count or who can ever remember not their first time outing to the North Maine woods. And for a century or longer, the sporting camps for the rich and famous and average Joe with blue collar alike have catered to those seeking the solitude of the woods of Maine. Serving folks with hospitality, all those seeking the same refuge to collect their thoughts. To spend time alone and with sporting buddies and family, friends to make memories, To follow and pass on the tradition. For big feeds, fellowship and time in the forests of Maine, maybe with a foray into Canada for the two nation vacation in the fir, pines, hardwood stands infested with wildlife. Do you like to spend time in the North Maine woods?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

May 7, 2017
Take A Hike, Northern Pike And Other Illegal Game Fish.
Largemouth bass, northern pike, rainbow smelt, black crappie … no, someone did not just hand you a Maine restaurant menu for your fish dinner choices.

Illegal game fish introduced into Maine’s waterways is serious stuff. I was taking my youngest son’s black cocker spaniel Nicky for a walk early this morning and down by the Meduxnekeag River boat landing I saw the warning sign.

Take The Picture. I Want. No Need To Go For A Walk Okay?

Like a wanted poster stapled up out west in the days of sleeping under the stars, eating canned beans, slurping coffee listening to coyotes. Propped up against your Western saddle next to your bed roll digging out the harmonica or knife to whittle. The river side sign shares news about up to $10,000 fines, $2000 reward checks being written to convictions of any one introducing illegal Maine game fish into our state’s precious waterways.

Here’s what the Inland, Fisheries people point out is the public enemy hit list for some of the fish that wreck the natural habitat on Maine’s waterfront.

Largemouth bass – If a waterbody already contains smallmouth bass, largemouth bass commonly outcompete smallmouths reducing their overall abundance. If a trout stocking program is active in a waterbody that largemouth bass become established in, the bass prey upon the stocked trout. This decreases angler catch rates for trout and may prompt MDIFW biologists to stop stocking trout altogether if predation rates on stocked trout become unacceptably high. Introduced largemouth bass have also decimated Maine baitfish populations in many waters, eliminating excellent opportunities to harvest baitfish, both recreationally and commercially.

Northern pike – Pike introductions create a significant change to the fish population structure within a waterbody. They will prey upon any available forage species (smelt, shiners, fallfish, and perch) as well as game fish (bass, pickerel, and both wild and stocked trout and salmon species). This reduces the overall abundance of both forage and game fish, which has drastic impacts to anglers over time. Protect our Maine waterways or lose them is the sobering choice to make.

Muskellunge – Muskies negatively impact wild brook trout populations in Maine. Due to their preference for cool-water habitat muskie actively prey upon native minnow species and brook trout. They also at the same time crowd out brook trout and slow down water habitat balance cycle. This reduces the overall abundance of brook trout in ponds and rivers where muskie are present. This impacts greatly the angler catch rates of trout over time. The reduction hurts our tourism economy, the local enjoyment of wetting the lines and casting for fish a long time Maine tradition.

A Maine Lake For A Neighbor. Yeah, Do That. Protect That If You Are So Lucky.

Black crappie – Black crappie compete for forage with existing fish species when introduced to a waterbody. Due to their fast growth rates and high productivity, crappie can quickly become abundant. A unique life history trait exhibited by crappie is large-scale downstream movement of young-of-year fish. This allows for quick colonization of downstream waters.

Smallmouth bass – When smallmouth bass are introduced into waters with wild brook trout populations they prey upon the brook trout and compete with trout for food and available habitat. As the bass population becomes more abundant they will reduce or extirpate brook trout and spread into accessible waters upstream or downstream.

Landlocked alewife – Landlocked alewives compete with smelt populations, often reducing the abundance of smelt in a waterbody. This change produces a profound negative impact to landlocked salmon because smelt are the primary forage for salmon. Reduced smelt abundance decreases salmon growth and abundance, along with angler satisfaction.

Rainbow smelt – Smelt are common in many waters and are native to Maine. Though often used for bait, their introduction into wild brook trout ponds and small-sized Arctic charr waters cause significant negative impacts to trout and charr because adult smelt prey on the young of both species.

Leaving the natural resource to your kids in better shape than you found it is good stewardship. It is respect and consideration for the fish that need protection from anglers. And further education to show how the problem impacts the natural habitat.

But protection of the Maine waterways means we all have a role and should be concerned whether an angler or not. If fish could talk, the natives would gurgle lots. About watersheds and timber cutting operations miles away messing up the inlets to their homes. Lake loons, turtle, otters and all the other waterway animals would add to the chorus of what threatens their healthy way of life.

Stretch Your Neck Out, Consider Getting Your Own Maine Waterfront Property. But Protecting It Means Working Together To Combat Illegal Fish Introductions, Milfoil Education & MORE!

When a non-native or invasive species is illegally introduced into a Maine waterbody the following serious impacts can occur:
1. Prey upon existing fish species in that Maine waterbody.
2. Compete with existing Maine fish species for food and habitat.
3. Spread to other Maine waterbodies (upstream and downstream) that are connected to the original water. This expands the range of the new species and continues impacting other existing fish populations.
4. Increase the potential for fish diseases to be spread and for the introduction of new diseases from outside of Maine.
6. Existing Maine regulations on the importation of live fish and health screening requirements for authorized transfers have prevented the spread of most fish diseases into Maine from neighboring states.
7. Once an introduced fish species becomes established in a waterbody the fish community is changed forever. Education awareness is the key to give everyone a head’s up on what is threatening Maine’s waterfront.
We have blogged on milfoil before too which is not a pretty development in our Maine lakes and ponds.

Brought in by unclean props, float planes, etc, milfoil education has been on going and public funds are available to hire people to help the volunteer lake association members. To hand out brochures, connect with anglers and boaters. To monitor boat landings around Maine and increase awareness on how serious milfoil vegetative infestation really is to our heritage of clean fresh waterways. Before it takes over the waterfront and the remedies get tougher to correct and reverse the negative impact to the species of fish and other wildlife that call our lakes, ponds, rivers and streams home in Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA
April 30, 2017
Living In A Small Maine Town, The Benefits.

Where to live, why a small Maine town?

Rural living offers lots of perks and you can still take the treks to the population centers to experience whatever is a small town does not offer. Whatever the small population can not support that large urban areas can. But living with the traffic, the crime, the high cost of living is not a daily struggle when you decide to hang your hat in a small rural area.

How’s This For a Back Drop Reading Your Favorite Book In Maine?

So living in a small town in Maine, what it the day to day like?

Well for starters, you feel the connection, you become very aware that you do care about others around you. And the feeling goes both ways. You have an intimate connection, you know the folks you meet on the streets and downtown in a small Maine town. Fewer in number is the population but working with the others who live around you happens. Whether it is through your job, church, school activities or community events. Or sharing the outdoors that Maine rural areas provide as the backdrop to small town living.

So what to prepare for living in a small town in Maine?

You don’t stay isolated, you don’t just attend events or shop and go home. There are lots of opportunities to pitch in, give back and make the small town living experience richer for yourself and others. If you move in from somewhere else, share what you have learned. And respect the local traditions if new to you because you now call home the small town in Maine.

Resist complaining about how life was different where you used to live compared to the small town in Maine. You moved here for a reason. Maybe it was the lake home for vacations that became a retirement property that caused the relocation. Maybe after you retired it was just too darn expensive to stay in the city setting where you used to chase the dollar.

But lack of traffic, no worries about crime, experiencing the bright star filled skies at night that pollution choked out are just a few life adjustments in small town Maine.

Small rural living is safer. Your family has less worries. Less time is spent on the road traveling to and fro. That creates more time for stuff you want to do to enrich your life. Smaller groups mean more intimacy, a stronger connection. You know each other more deeply in small rural towns. You need each other more because look behind you. You are it. Not a lot of competition for the endeavors you are designed perfectly to take on to make your small town living in Maine experience the best it can be.

Teaming The Horses, Working The Land In Maine Farm Fields. Amish Communities Do It Daily Around The State.

Purpose in life, it starts with having a major role in the script. Less change or shake up happening in small town living too. Because change happens slower and the pace of life is sane, predictable, and friendly. When you shop for groceries, go to the movies, pick up the local paper, you know the folks you meet and read about and their families.

When something happens, a fire, someone has cancer treatments ahead, folks turn out ten fold in small Maine towns.

It could be them needing the helping hand. There is a sense of responsibility to others and deep pride in the local community. Because you are an intricate part of it, Year after year pitching in to help make a local event bigger and better than it was before and planning the next year’s undertaking as soon as this year’s wraps up and is in the history books.

Shopping in small towns in Maine is at local one of a kinds, where the owner is in the store to provide you personal customer service. As a kid you work at these small Mom and Pop stores, diners, service providers. Your grandfather traded with the same family that started the business in the small town in Maine. There is a good feeling to doing business with a small town enterprise where you know the owner, where it is not a chain franchise. Where it is one of a kind shopping experience and everything is familiar, down to Earth and where you the shopper know you are needed as a customer. You feel appreciated.

Fresh Air, Working The Sand As Early Masons On A Maine Beach.

In small towns in Maine you also sense more than Mom and Dad are raising you. You don’t feel like a little kid but are treated with respect and guided into adulthood by all the members of the village. The neighbors are rooting for you. Proud of the sports or academic performance or how you represent the small town in Maine at whatever level or endeavor you choose.

These folks root for the home town boy or girl because they watched them grow up, had a hand along the way in their development.

They helped shape you the little sprout as a teacher, minister, little league coach, farmer, store employer or soap box derby sponsor.

The college scholarships awarded to those going on to higher education are many in number. Not one big contributor but lots of them supporting you as you go on to learn a trade, obtain a sheepskin diploma and enter the work force wherever it may lead you.

Lower cost real estate, smaller sized insurance premiums too and labor for repairs or construction following along in more affordable fashion. That is all part of the many perks to getting more for less in small town living. But the best benefit is the unspoiled outdoors in Maine. When less people tramp or trample an area, the pure and natural shine it has is preserved. Respect for the outdoor fresh air and clean water and wildlife is higher. Sacred and that good stewardship is passed on to the next generation.

Fmily Fun. Make A Splash, Paddle Around A Maine Coastal Community.

Maine.

More than skilled in just one talent and bartering with lots of others to gain whatever is lacking until completion of anything lacking. We are lucky, grateful and don’t realize really to just how great an extent until someone from an urban area points out what is missing where they call home in the bright lights, big city landscape. We listen, hear what the city mouse regrets that usually revolves around needing more money, greater space, no crime and less traffic please. Help yourself to greater helpings of all those items that abound in small rural town living in Maine. And don’t stay away so long, Maine tugs as your heartstrings once you experience small town living in Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

April 23, 2017
Fixing The Small Maine Town Economy.

The attitude of the locals, sure Maine comedians try to exaggerate the Downeast slant that at times takes a different angle on day to day life in Vacationland.

Like the Purple Clam video blogged about earlier if you drop in for the hit or miss on the post stream. Hit the Downeast hyper link above. The friggin’ clam is determined not to be trapped in the wire basket with the handle. He frustrates and wears out the digger down a finger on one hand. Who has a score to settle on the mud flats near the blueberry barrens of Maine.

Free Of Layers Of Players, Maine Simple Living Means Reduce, Reuse, Conserve.

But how someone appears to sweet or sour sound in conversation and what they really feel deep down inside don’t always match up in the ballistics test review.

We all know being around someone that is toxic can suck the air out of the room. That bitching, complaining can be contagious and a nasty habit. Discouragement and slow to change thinking to adapt to new economic situations can mire a person who just gets weighed down too heavily.

Overloaded worrisome thinking means head to the hills of Maine. For some control, alternate, delete. The nature trail of fresh air and clean running water that regains a healthy perspective. Does a body and mind good. A positive outlook always gets a person through the day best.

So the spell when a rural small Maine town gets challenged to revamp how it rocks and rolls.

Paper or lumbering mill communities have the biggest economic hangover. Farming with hops and the scramble to get in on the ground floor of pot creates a buzz. The increase of younger micro farm producers has caused a stir in both the organic and conventional agriculture sides of Maine field operations.

Slow to change means dying on the vine, bleeding out and look Mom, no more small dot on the Maine Gazatteer atlas map.

Banding together for consolidation and reduction of duplication of services started years ago. Late night meetings into the wee hours to discuss the limited choices. Plenty of time to get used to the idea of inevitable change and the right direction in the tough choices has already happened. To avoid deorganization and surrender of identity to one of the sixteen counties that absorb the townships, plantations that become township this, range that auto piloted one level up the government food chain pay grade.

The Peace And Quiet In Maine. Unplug, Recharge, Get Your Head Screwed On Straight.

Unfortunately the quickest way to turn the wagons around on the way into a box canyon is to be bankrupt on resources. So no more delay or talking solutions to death without implementing necessary steps ceases. Unfortunately “We’re out of money” is the quickest way to cause change instead of hoping each department or program administrator pulls themselves out of the local mud collectively.

Doing the right thing for the greater good means letting go, not looking over the shoulder waiting for Augusta Maine legislators and the Governor to come to the rescue.

These are the good old days twenty years from now looking back. The talk about “they need to this, that” discussion and pointing at leaders six feet under pushing up daisies wastes precious time. You and I are “they”. For the lead, follow or get out of the way.

Tradition, Wearing Wool Snow Caps Flipping Burgers And Pancakes. Maine Has Distinctive Eateries.

So when you vacation in Maine, as you head deeper into Vacationland away from the tourist traps, you see rugged individuals.

Polished smooth by hard time and perseverance. Experiences not taught in a classroom. These salt of the Earth individuals that work, live, play in small Maine landscapes. They are dependable, constant and never waiver. Not fickle fair weather friends but friends for life.

That have a few more facial lines than most and not from laughter but concern. And plenty of outdoor weather exposure in all kinds of elements. The desire for more jobs so our young don’t have to be the number one export is on the minds of all. And the need to stay positive and brainstorm to creatively hammer out the best solutions to keep small Maine towns more than just afloat. But to prosper and grow takes patience and sharp tongues that are silenced with duct tape over the pie holes. Best case scenarios solutions to real problems and not personal attacks is the only approach small Maine town populations can adopt.

Get excited, not discouraged. Be part of the solution, not the problem that need a common plan that the majority of locals can believe in to tackle the issues.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

April 12, 2017
Getting Ready For Spring, Maine Winter Weather Winds Down.

Spring in Maine, a time of yard work to repair the truck plowing lawn scars, to remove rocks air lifted in from the snow blower.

Sides of houses pressure washed to release the sand and salt residue that clings to the exterior. And garage doors thrown open high and the interiors swamped out and organized. Just like the cars and trucks we hunker down in when the white blanket covers the landscape in Maine.

Spring is a time when not just your Maine house cats, dogs, whatever pet that samples the two dishes through out the day acts a little funny. Like they are on too catnip.

Cabin fever from the being stuck inside a little more than you would like over winter intensifies as the snow banks surrender and the temperature rises in the tube sampling the air outside your kitchen window.

Free at last. Especially if you are in the elderly demographic of Mainers and worried sick for too long. About that hidden layer of glare ice that might be lurking under the new fallen snow. That snow adds lubrication to the polished ice formation like a moat causing house arrest. That makes conditions ideal for a broken hip or dislocated shoulder if the house dweller inside gets any ideas of a quick escape to Wally World, Piggly Wiggly or Mardens. No one wants the siren ride to the ER and the OR pin applied to the hip right?

Searching For A Snack. Shy Maine Black Bears Shake Off Hibernation And Become More Social.

Throwing open windows and house doors to exchange the air inside for the fresh stuff the other side of the insulated barriers.

Study intently of the online and newsprint canoe and kayak racing circuit schedule news. For trophies to add to the collection gathering dust in the bookcase or on the fireplace mantel. Or the row row or paddle your boat for just the sheer pleasure of floating, coasting with the current at your own pace. Down a winter run off engorged river or stream in Maine with fellow friends, family and neighbors that is a spring tradition for many in Maine. You see the green and red water craft leaning against garages, getting ready for the heave ho hoist to the rack on the back of pickups around Maine. As the angled yellow or red or stainless steel angled plow and frame come off the other end.

The vegetable seed catalogs have long ago been delivered and peat pots on old newspapers cover card tables and porch room window sills.

Both areas littered with jump started, sprouting vegetables to transplant because of they are the best areas to capture the all important sunshine.

That is invited into Maine homes lucky enough to have an eastern, better yet southerly exposure location. The pools of warm sunshine same areas cats like to lounge as they follow the yellow and red ball radiation of heat and light from room to room in houses around Maine.

Maine Moose Jogging By A Maple Syrup Tapped Grove. Spring Air Stirs The Wildlife And The Local Natives.

Plans for a bigger garden this year with new editions that were not on the menu for family dining when harvested after the regiment of planting, weeding, watering, feeding in the labor of love. To serve your family, yourself and all the folks you share the excess bounty from the good old Earth that creates the all natural foodstuffs. In the piece of dirt that can be measured in feet, yards or acres depending on the size of the metes and bounds legal description in the deed to the house you call home in Maine.

Funneling the income tax return to needed repairs or to erase debt for the free and clear. That is part of spring’s ritual involving whether you owe or get a refund. Filling in driveway pot holes, pushing dirt back in to smooth out the runway stop and go. Spring means lots of exercising that involves ladders, holes, window washing and tightening, straightening what is loose.

New Year’s a regular time of resolutions for a better disciplined life as the ball drops and you kiss the one you love and rip off the month of December from the kitchen calendar.

But spring is a time of action to get results from the pledge IOU’s written under the influence of bubbly grape juice or barley pop or whatever firewater tickles the taste buds to fresh you in life celebrations and mile stones. Gratitude is riches and that blessing increases inside especially in spring. A time of renewed hope, faith and relief that robins and song birds return from the south along with lake loons who serenade us nightly as we circle our chairs around open fire pits for some outdoor gap fests and heart to heart therapy sessions.

Opening up the lake, woods, river camps in Maine.

Chasing out the mice who hung out while you were gone. Making a mental list transferred to the scribble on the job jar items that may be a little too ambitious for your back and wallet. But nonetheless created in gusto with prioritizing like the triage exercise in an emergency room. To determine whether the machine shed roof on a set of Maine farm property buildings trumps the replacement of the two windows or sliding doors that have lost their seal and fog over. Interfering with the view of the bird feeder that attracts winged delights of all kinds and a fair share of the cats and squirrels, chipmunks from around the neighborhood to shoo away with the daisy red rider broadcasting copper pellets.

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.

Screwing back on or replacing hanging by one screw mud flaps. Getting a new windshield pinged by a sand truck rock on the way to the local sport’s team and their quest for a gold basketball or coveted hockey trophy. The new sheet of glass so the new vehicle inspection sticker can be applied to avoid the blue lights from Smokey Bear asking for license and your registration please.

Tending the wood home fires stops. Feeding the stoves and furnaces winds down. Next year’s tree length is delivered to prepared early for the next round of winter weather. Staying ahead of the heating curve.

Trips around Maine because you are lucky enough to live here and sample easily the delights of the many regions of Vacationland. Those are mulled over in the shower, humming while shaving with the guy you meet and greet each day in the bathroom mirror. Or while performing the thorough, deep spring cleaning where interior walls get scrubbed, curtains washed or dry cleaned and wardrobes exchanged. To slip into something more comfortable to match the weather in Maine now playing outside your home or camp or cottage.

Treks with picnic baskets to Baxter Park, down to the rugged rock bound coast line in Maine.

Hiking up the hills, biking around the islands that deliver whatever you peddle by ferry boats running on tight schedules when the Maine weather allows them to without peril. Collecting another light house in Maine for the collection.

The Sweet Stuff, Rock Maple Sap That Boils Down 40 To 1 For The Golden Mixture To Ooze And Drizzle On Your Griddle Stacks Of Maine Blueberry Pancakes.

Trips to visit, pay respects to family plots on the spots in a cemetery where departed loved ones are buried. The plastic flowers replaced with rear ones in some cases. Trimming bushes, shaping landscaping trees to keep them low to the ground and respectful. Silent and audible conversations had with the ones you miss but know are in a better place with no suffering and saving you a seat.

Maine home shows around the state give you ideas for renovations to your castle this spring and beyond.

New toys for the water front or all the trails that dot and dash the Gazetteer map to explore get attention too if sales too hard to pass up are marketed correctly. The seed is already planted in Mainers who study the Uncle Henry’s and Craiglist for a true bargain. Snow sled trail markers and directional signs are collected, uprooted in muddy fields. To make way for the farmers to drop the chisel plow to get ready for another spring planting when the soil warms up and drys out.

Awareness sharpens in spring because of the lull caused by spending more time than you would like indoors over a Maine winter. The exercise regiment increases and the pounds added on during the holidays melt away like the snow flakes free loading in receding bank on properties around Maine. Green grass awaits, golf courses too and hardware trips to perform a few of the requests at a time on the honey do list.

Spring time in Maine, folks of all ages smile more, dream louder.

Kids sense it first as bikes are hauled out of storage way too early. And forgetting to wear a coat as they race for the trampoline under chilly conditions remind you what it is like to be young and not carry the weight of mortgage payments, poor medical reports and juggling the check book.

If you only spend time in Maine around July 4th, add some new dance steps to your vacation fox trot or jitter bug up the pike numbered “95” into the Pine Tree state. Maine, she does a body good and once those heart strings are found, she never lets go and you don’t mind one bit.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

April 5, 2017