Living in Maine, it’s easy to explore different areas of Vacationland. This blog post about a trip to Mid Coast Maine, for a wedding bridal shower in Lincolnville Beach area. Spending the night in Lincolnville. Going on to Camden Maine harbor sights and more dining on seafood.
Camden Maine Harbor Full Of Weekend Boats.
Waking up Sunday to wander into Camden for breakfast and some photos in the walk around the harbor in mid coast Maine.
Traveling down from Aroostook County, it’s I-95 easy to get off below Bangor. Then it’s side roads Interesting twists and turns through little towns like Frankfort, Monroe, Swanville and many others. As we got closer to mid coast Maine beaches and salt sea air.
Seafood, Lobsters Are Great. But Mussells, Clams, Other Seafood Needs Sampling Too!
Secondary state highway travel really exposes you to rural Maine that does not get the glossy brochure tourism coverage.
You get the feel each small town is unique and interesting and would like to come back to really get to know them better. Living in Maine is like that. A lifetime of exploring, discovering and so much to experience.
The bridal shower included steamed lobster, corn on the cob, potato salad and baked beans from “The County”.
Lincolnville Maine, Time For Outdoor Dining Of Lobster, Corner On The Cob, Aroostook County Potato Salad, Baked Beans, Homemade Whoopie Pies.
Many hands with a role in the Maine family outdoor dining on locally sourced fabulous food enhances the taste.
Have A Seat, You Are Always Welcome In Maine.
No big catering truck backing in and lots of employees in white tunics involved when Maine family gatherings happen.
Just 50 individuals stepping up to all contribute in some way to the outdoor family event. Outdoor dining and sunny skies on the Lincolnville Maine waterfront made the Saturday afternoon memorable.
Finding Your Way Around Maine. GPS Is Helpful But Maps, Locals Give You More Details!
After the event, we opted to stay in Lincolnville at the Mount Battie Inn.
Neat place with the goal “to make you feel like you are staying at grandmother’s home”. Neat conversation with the Maine inn keeper who had lots of vintage airplanes surrounding the check in counter. My Dad was a B24 tail gunner and we had a great conversation about WWII era air power.
Places To Stay In Lincolnville Maine, Mount Battie Motel Inn.
We walked into the Whale Tooth Restaurant in Lincolnville Maine and Sky was our waitress doing a superb service job.
Coastline, Beach At Lincolnville Maine At Sunset. Filled To The Gills With Maine Seasfood Mussel.
A walk along the Lincolnville Beach afterward before Meg and I walk the uphill return to our motel.
Where awaiting us were homemade banana bread, a home made muffin companion for a wake up treat.
More sunshine and a trip into Camden about four miles away for a sit down breakfast at Marriner’s Buttermilk Kitchen.
Amazing dark blue and white clean diner with a counter and booths.
Starting The Maine Day On The Coast With Biscuits, Blueberry Compote And A Country Omelet At Marriners Restaurant, Camden ME.
Also you have the option to sit out on the rear deck overlooking Camden Maine Harbor.
To go with the delicious food you get a bonus pond and a small waterfall. Neat sights and sounds to go along with all the artwork and Maine harbor town memorabilia.
The Smiling Cow For Something To Remember The Stay In Camden Maine.
Walked around Camden Harbor and snapped some shots and video of boats of all kinds. Some schooners, old cabin cruisers and everything in between in mid coast Maine harbor boating inventory.
I think a row of john boats lined up in a Maine Harbor is a pretty photo.
Overlooking Camden Harbor.. The Back Of The Souvenir Shops And Local Diners Have Amazing Photo Opts.
The Camden Harbor Master told us you can rent them, the small john boats for a short close to shore outing.
Most used to get boat owners back and forth to where they anchor moored offshore with the smaller vessels. Mid coast Maine mini vacations happen to weekend warriors that live close by.
House designs and pride of ownership lawns, yards all more eye candy in Camden Maine.
The Queen Anne On The Left Undergoing Major Rehab, The Right Hand Neighbor Keeps Their Property Condition High.
The gardens, landscaping, rock walls are just as beautiful as the well-preserved Maine mid coast housing stock.
Here are some photos snapped as Meg and I explored Camden neighborhoods.
Clean, Simple, Timeless. Maine White Clapboards, Black Window Trim. See The hydrangeas not just white and most blue, pink thanks to the salty sea air and mid coast Maine soil profile.
Back into downtown Camden to stroll the Main Street and walk into The Smiling Cow.
The owner told me the business is 84 years old, started by his wife’s grandmother. Everything, anything Maine is in the aisles of The Smiling Cow. Lots of other shopping outlets to explore too. There are lots of places along the long Maine coast to vacation and sample. Mid coast Maine has it’s share of fun mini vacation options.
Had to announce at Demolition Derby back in Houlton so were on the road out of Camden at 10:30.
Did get a lot of walking in and photos of the Coastal Castle Inn, The Norumbega before leaving town.
Places To Stay In Camden Maine. Like To Spend A Night Or Two At A Coastal Castle?
“Quiet place between the rapids” from the Algonquian language word. Google it and more about the 16th century map of America. Blog post for another day with all the Katahdin, other hard to spell and not so easy to say native words dotting the map of Maine.
Demo Derby, Demolition Derby In Houlton Maine Is A Crowd Pleaser.
After the wrap up of the mid coast Maine mini vacation, a stop in Bangor to pick up a few things at the new Reny’s store.
To gas up, buy a small house jack for a sagging deck Maine lake camp project. Then zipping back in “The County”, You know you are there when the “Benedicta with only one northbound exit” sign shows up on I-95 travels to Aroostook County. Thank you for following, sharing, liking Me In Maine blog posts.
This Maine real estate market report runs down where you can get your best bang for your housing buck. It also answers other current market questions that come up daily running a Maine real estate office.
The lower priced Maine real estate is part of the attraction. But so are the home grown local community events and all natural recreation options to consider in Maine. That’s no bull.
Everyone Pitches In And Turns Out In Small Maine Towns! Parades Are Big And Popular In Maine Communities!
First things first, the current Maine real estate market highlights.
Have to set the stage on what’s shaking now in Maine listing sales. For the fourth month in a row, Maine house sales increased. Maine is in the top ten states for desirability due to lower prices, less crime, little traffic in rural areas especially.
Maine has a very low percentage of renters, more home owners.
All Natural, Outdoors In Nature. That Is The Big Maine Attraction.
The state’s available Maine housing inventory is the ninth-lowest in the nation.
The latest figures from Maine Listings via the ME Association of Realtors shows 1,180 homes changed hands, up nearly 4 percent.
The Maine median sales price increased over 7 percent. Maine is a more affordable state for owning your own house. Especially as you head up into the rural interior areas away from the pricey coastline.
Because Maine is such a large state, the real estate market report is not a one size fits all.
You cannot broad brush sum it all up accurately without breaking down the numbers. Listing inventory continues to be in short supply and multiple offer situations are still happening.
Sneak A Peek At The Maine Real Estate Housing Numbers.
Waterfront real estate listing sales especially are often bidding wars with the higher than list, cash buyer seeking few if any contingencies coming out on top.
When you list and sell properties in Maine, the housing, just land, small business properties, apartment, etc all the markets within a market behave differently. Region by region no two market property listing segments show you the exact same statistic.
Maine Waterfront Property Listings, Never Enough. Always A Little Higher Priced And Precious.
Where are the majority of Maine single family house buyers coming from in the current real estate market?
Maine Listings data tracking buyer zip codes says the majority statewide are from Massachusetts (7.44%) and next New Hampshire (3.88%). Florida house buyers purchasing in Maine come in at nearly 2% of the transfers, Connecticut at over 1.5% of sales.
The states with the highest house sale price tags are another group paying cash for Maine houses, other property listing types. The attractive to sell high there and buy much lower in rural Maine is a trend.
Interest rates are not a factor for a Maine housing buyer purchasing with cash. Here’s a sample of what house prices in Northern Maine property listings look like to compare to where you currently live on the planet now.
The cheapest places to buy a house in Maine?
Despite Maine’s healthy brisk housing listing sale numbers, the National Association of Realtors reports a housing sales dip of 2.1% across the country.
Looking, Flying Over Houlton Maine, The County’s Oldest Town. Aroostook County Has The Cheapest Maine Housing Of All! Prices Up, Supply Is Down.
Slicing and dicing the Maine real estate market into the sixteen counties and individual communities tells the real listing sales story. Study the latest Maine Listings PDF real estate listing sales housing report.
Aroostook County is the lowest median priced for buying a house.
The average price is $158,132 and house sales are down over 16% due to sold out, lack of inventory.
House prices in Aroostook County are up 1.80% this year compared to last. When an area of Maine has smaller salaries, the property listing prices on all the real estate is lower too.
Kinda like money is taken out of the equation and many locals can do their own household repairs.
Skills taught earlier in life are tapped into to make later living easier and less costly.
Working On A Maine Farm. Outdoors, All Kinds Of Weather, Long Hours Laboring Year Round.
To show the contrast, Maine’s Cumberland County numbers show housings sales are down 2.35%. But the media house price in Cumberland County is up 6.24% from $536,500 last year to
Maine Outdoor Music Band Concerts Get High Local Attendance!
$570,000 in 2024 YTD.
You better make more money, have a higher paying salary to pull of buying a house in Maine in the more expensive coastal zip codes.
The closer to population you get, the higher the Maine house price tags increase. The cost to insure your Maine house goes up too along with the price to pay for property repairs.
Quite a contrast huh in how things shake, rattle and roll real estate wise in Maine?
As a Maine real estate broker for close to 45 years, I’ve witness first hand in the foxhole trenches a wide variety of markets.
But one factor remains the same, everyone is on the hunt for the lowest cost places to buy a house in Maine.
But what really gives the wrong information is the one stat for the entire state of Maine for median sales price, the days on market, for anything that tries to size up “Vacationland”.
If you are searching for Maine real estate, my advice is don’t try to cover the entire state.
Instead, do your online homework first, then take a trip to sample ME.
Maine Farm Fields Bloom With White, Purple, All Kinds Of Potato Blossoms.
Once you find the area that matches your lifestyle interests best and pleases your wallet at the same time, drill down into any and all new property listings.
Otherwise, you will need a helicopter or private jet to zig zag back and forth like a dragon fly to tour the communities, the property listings in it helter skelter.
Draw a circle of how far you want to be from a hospital, your job, schools, Walmart, a golf course, a lake, the wood land rec trails.
Then take a deep dive into what is available and be patient.
To find the cheapest places to buy a house in Maine.
Study what comes up that matches most of the items on your “gotta have / don’t want” Maine real estate property listing search list.
Selling a house out of state and buying a new one to replace it in Maine.
When the new Maine house is in a attractively priced rural area, be prepared to have money left over.
How do those two words make you feel when you hear them? I am a Maine lifelong native but if I was labeled “from away”, I don’t think I would glow warm and fuzzy inside. Maybe once someone discovers a place they love, there is a need to hog it all to themselves? Plenty of room for more in sparsely populated and vast rural Maine regions. That’s the truth of the matter.
Maine, The Cat’s Meow For Many! The Unspoiled Four Seasons Of Maine Is One Big Attraction.
If someone reminded you about being “from away”, how could you not feel like an outsider?
Somehow referred to as “from away” makes me feel I missed a lot or am not as valuable or part of things. Or don’t get too comfortable, you will never be a local. Hmmmm.
Everyone wants to be included no matter where they were earlier in life during childhood or while in the service or working in a relocation location other than Maine.
Is there a sense of excitement when you learn someone is “from away”? Does it means new ideas, a broader pool of experiences for everyone to draw from and tap? It could.
And often the “new person from away” is actually a native. Called away for work, school, Uncle Sam service for their country and now returning home in Maine.
Maine Is Home Grown Food, Local Events, Always Outdoors.
New people, more volunteers to put their heart and soul into the community, sports team coaching, church choir group, whatever local event.
New blood to operate a small business with flare. When someone moves to Maine, they bring with them plenty. Kids for the schools.
I remember during 911 sudden explosion of US Border Patrol, Customs, Immigration hires thinking “hope one of the kids plays hockey, could be our new goalie”.
Feeling Safe, In Harbor Town In Maine. How Are New People Moving To Maine Treated? The Welcome To Maine Reception Is Important!
One of the US Border Patrol agents had a wife who could create Tex Mex to die for and she cooked every Tuesday night.
At The Blue Moose Restaurant in Monticello ME you could graze on the best southwest cuisine. Nothing like Old El Paso refried beans out of a can. The real deal. By living so close to Mexico in Texas, this cook in the kitchen knew her south of the border cuisine and shared her culinary knowledge every Tuesday night.
Slowly I started to notice grocery store shelves with new items. The spices, new items to make the these Tex Mex creations in our own homes was possible. Being “from away” meant sharing what you learned with the small town Maine community.
The Summer Meeting Place In Small Town Maine When Temperatures Soar.
Like travel, the person “from away” has something to contribute. And often the “from away” person moved to your town as an infant. Not their fault they missed four months or a couple years in the beginning of their life somewhere other than Maine.
Ken Knowles, a town manager of two local towns, Linneus and Hodgdon Maine told me he was “an outside from away”.
He was four months old when his family moved to Aroostook County. Not bitter, just stating a fact. That he would always be “from away”. Does it make a difference if you are “from away” wherever you move to? Will it impact your life in Maine?
Share The Road With Horse And Buggy Amish Drivers.
In a crowded city, most folks coming and going are “from away” or somewhere else. Maybe no distinction is made whether you hail from the area from birth or just rolled into town twenty minutes ago.
Moving to an area is a change, upheaval in a person’s life and you left behind your last “home”.
You do leave behind family, friends, old familiar routines when you move away from what was home. Somethings left in the rear view mirror, put behind you leaving Dodge when you hit the trail are a good thing. But happy memories, hoping your new area creates more of them is a legitimate expectation right?
Is Being Different Unique Bad Or An Asset In A Small Maine Town?
What about the people in Maine that are not from away or maybe they are.
What happens when they get the impression the move to your area is a disappointment. Expressions like “back in Tuskaloo, I blah blah blah.” When heard a lot in conversation, especially when Maine is portrayed as lacking this, this and that. It can get old. And you could wonder why did this person move or what did they expect?
Maybe moving to a new area seemed like a good idea at the time but how could you really know it was the best idea?
Try it, you might or might not like it. And how long do you give a new area to settle in, create a new mailing address to mold you?
Welcoming, Hospitable, Warm And Friendly. Hope That Is The Reception You Have In Maine.
More than two words “from away” involved here.
When you made the move to Maine matters and did you do it for a better small town experience for your kids? Was it to escape too many people, crime, traffic and a high cost of living? To save money. Or because you loved Maine vacations, thought wouldn’t a full time relocation move be a fantasy dream come true?
COVID trapped and working at home online taught folks hey, as long as I have long and strong Internet. Let’s pack the job with our personal belongings and point the car north to Maine.
If you are happy and you know it, clap your hands. Welcome to Maine.
Enjoy Your Surroundings And Not As Many People In Maine To Share It.
If you were not handstand happy the last three locations you lived out of state, that trend to continue. Like let’s have a baby to improve a marriage or fix it, a relocation to Maine might not be the end all solution to all of life’s problems.
What does the search online show for “from away”?
“A non-native person or a person who doesn’t have roots going back three-plus generations” is the definition I found.
Learn something everyday right? I thought “from away” means you were somewhere else, not in class, just not here in Maine 365/24/7. Or just not stork delivered here as a new born. Just had no control over where your delivery took place. We’re not talking culture, race, religious, etc but just the fact you are new, not from here. Does someone feel threatened?
Is “from away” a stigma or something a person carries like a disease?
Trips To Maine Traveling Light On Two Wheels With Rain Gear.
Is there any reason to point it out. Like “I didn’t go to college” comment or observation some make to all they meet. I never would have know if you had not pointed it out and so what. Maybe they don’t think it’s a big hairy deal but when someone does not like you, utter the expression. They remind you you are from somewhere, anywhere else but Maine. Ouch.
Thank you very much and feeling pretty warm, special, welcome Chummy, Mister Man.
In a small Maine community, it’s not just a case of all the folks three generations deep are on this side of the gym. You “others” just line yourselves up on the opposite side please and thank you.
Making everyone feel welcome and empathy for others, enjoying socializing and learning together. Do you march to that drum beat? In a Rotary or local service club, your church, in the workplace, in your social media posts, is it obvious you have a spirit to include others? It better be if you want to grow and improve.
Maine, The Way Life Should Be. One Big State, Lots Of Special Hidden Areas To Discover. Welcome, I Really Mean It. Glad You Are Here.
Shake it up and move around at all those meetings you attend.
Don’t sit in the same place with the same small group and break it up to include “others”. What is the fear not too? That someone that new person is different or you can only have so many friends or acquaintances?
“You’re not from around here” feeling or reminder is not being a member of the Welcome Wagon.
Hospitality and a sense this small Maine home town proud community is a place I want to spend time.
To pitch in and help out and to be sensitive to others new and old around me. Friendly, genuine interest and attention is never forgotten by the brand new to your small Maine town.
Grooming Trails To Make Them Smooth, Fast, Helpful To Discover Maine.
The new kid in town and all alone the first day of school at lunch in the cafeteria.
If you have never been one, easy to not be so sensitive. When you know or are related to many around you, it is easier to forget to reach out to any and all new folks who wander into your small Maine town.
I would like to see my small Maine town of 6000 grow to 7500 people.
All ages, from diverse backgrounds and young, older, in between. Back in 1957, my small Maine town peaked around 10,000 population.
The Bangor & Aroostook railroad, a local college, industry and the downtown were bigger before the Internet and Interstate. My small town in Maine
With the outward migrations from crowded, expensive city urban areas, Maine is seeing the population numbers increase slowly from the siphon to the city where eight out of ten people had to go for jobs.
Online working remotely and telecommuting to jobs has helped change all that.
Big Game, Summer Watching Little League Baseball Games In A Small Maine Town. Priceless.
Simple small town living and feeling safe, needed in the Maine community. That kind of place is searched for online hard as Maine comedian Bob Marley would empathize “HHHHHAAArddd”.
Everyone wants to find a place where they feel wanted under the sun and stars.
Where they can glean and give back to make where they call home all that it can be. To do more than make ends meet and to enjoy life instead of chasing the almighty dollar to keep the wolf from their door financially.
Some of the most interesting people are from all over the place and many land in Maine.
Not because they are on the witness protection program but life took them here and there. Super vacations in Maine primes the relocation pump.
Past, rich experiences they had personally over the years can be a very valuable resource that causes Maine to pop to the front of the mind when it’s time to move somewhere.
Tap these individuals on the shoulder, shake their hand.
Go out of your way to Invite them into your population as you reinvent and improve it. Also, the folks shut in and without family connections. Include them in your celebrations and holidays.
Be friendly, reach out and see what a valuable resource you have living right in your own small Maine town.
Maine in so many ways is the way life should be with one unique rich history.
Hope you enjoy our blog post hunt and peck about Me In Maine.
Since 1996, every June the Northern Maine Soap Box Derby Race runs in the town of Houlton ME. This blog post is about this past weekend’s June 22nd 2024 race and with a little Maine soap box derby rich history mixed in for good measure.
The Houlton Maine / Aroostook County soap box derby race run in Houlton Maine was largest local in the entire nation for five years in a row.
And the Northern Maine race is one and only venue for the state race held each June. To determine a winner in stock, superstock and sometimes master soap box derby race divisions. At one time, Maine had five local races held in Bangor / Brewer, Camden, Houlton, Rumford, South Portland.
The top derby racers in each division class go on from Maine to represent the state out in the All America Soap Box Derby 3 lane track in Akron, Ohio.
The big world series of soap box derby racing tradition started back in 1934.
Maine Soap Box Derby Racers Do Well Competing In Akron Ohio All American Race!
With perfect sunshine summer weather, the 34 derby racers gathered to race on Derby Hill.
This year’s derby race fielded 24 stock and 10 super stock racers. This specially engineered soap box derby racing hill constructed in Community Park in Houlton Maine makes set up and tear down a breeze.
Houlton Maine’s Derby Hill In Community Park! The Thrill Of The Hill in Northern Maine Happens Each June!
The World Series Of Soap Box Derby Racing Happens In Akron Ohio. Since 1934, Kids Compete In Local Races To Go On To Akron’s Big Race.
Derby Hill has a garage storage building perched on top courtesy of the Houlton Rotary Club.
The aviation grade pavement put down on the two lane soap box derby race track has lights, guardrails and is over 900′ long.
One neat slick efficient hill to race on and no more setting up and tear down to make a public street your soap box derby course to compete.
A paved derby side run keeps the supply of soap box derby cars steady. Specially built derby trailers are loaded with empty cars on back. Their car drivers riding in the front tow vehicles pulling these loaded soap box derby trailers.
Helping Young Soap Box Derby Drivers, It Takes A Village, Your Family, Sponsors.
The stock derby car class winner this year was Aiden Cyr. Super stock derby car winner was Addyson Lynds. For more on the Northern Maine Soap Box Derby history, check out the images and information here. Visit the Northern Maine soap box derby website.
Stock Racer Aiden Cyr And Super Stock Racer Addyson Lynds Win Houlton Maine Soap Box Derby 2024 Race!
Always looking for new Maine soap box derby racers to catch the fever.
Derby race, car sponsors and family support to help new drivers learn the “Thrill of the Hill” in Houlton Maine. Those folks all come together to create the small Maine town friendly, fair soap box derby racing experience for our youth.
Ready To Race After Loosing A Wheel Pin Cotter Key. No One Hurt, Safety First.
Love to talk “derby” and figure why should a kid wait until they are sixteen to drive a car?
Neat racing event and your entire family is involved in soap box derby. Each child can compete along with their big or little brother and sister. Lots learned about gravity, science of engineering, safety and competing fair and square on Derby Hill in Community Park, Houlton Maine.
Have helped lots of derby racers, including two of my own kids make the trip west to compete in the All American big race in Akron Ohio.
Gather Round The Soap Box Derby Racing Exam Table. Like A Field Hospital For Repairs And Therapy.
Maine soap box derby racing in Houlton Maine. Reach out, here for questions about everything soap box derby. The Northern ME soap box derby committee puts on the big state of Maine race event each June.
No thank you, it’s carry in, carry out in Maine. I was taught to pick up after myself.
Everyone Enjoys Outdoor Maine Lake Ice Fishing. Even The Family Dog.
But now that we’re on the subject, who taught you how to litter? Are you good at littering? Would you consider yourself an amateur or professional or in-between level litter bug?
Littering, sounds strange when asked about a skill or talent that helps no one.
But how best to help ” give a hoot, don’t pollute”? (Thanks Woodsy Owl. Like to come out of retirement?)
This Maine blog post about littering, what makes a litter bug let fly.
Keep It Clean. The Air, Water, Earth. Give A Hoot, Don’t Pollute!
To open the window wide. Toss the Happy Meal packaging remains out through the hole where glass used to be.
You could take the approach that litter creates jobs. The highway clean-up crews and effort put into recycling litter all pump lots of money into the economy.
Is it like no no, don’t take your shopping cart to the parking corral or push one back into the store thinking.
Because someone makes a living, can be hired to do that for you. Even though inside more and more shopping places, you and I are being trained to scan and bag our own items. Then asked to rate how did you do with the five-star option. I’d give myself a five for a fine job bagging and tagging at the Wally World or Piggly Wiggly check out.
Any Season Is The Right One To Visit Maine.
So littering when walking along a Maine hiking nature park trail or around home.
Done with the empty bottle or can, the candy or gum wrapper, the food container. Throw it, get rid of the debris on your four wheeling or snowmobile stop. Just let gravity do what it does best here on Earth.
Maine’s Mt Katahdin Is Almost A Mile High. Carry In, Carry Out And Protect Maine’s Tallest Mountain Hiking Trail Camping Experience.
Park the car.
Statistics show most littering in Maine done by motorists and usually in the 30 something age group. Tossed on a highway means you can get away from your litter at 55 miles or faster and less apt to know who generated it right? But take a walk down over into the road highway ditch. Littering along a beautiful Maine highway or hiking trail is not pretty. Not many would argue about that right?
Family Fun Is Always Outdoors In Maine
But nothing worse than a Maine blog post that shames.
Instead, how to be proactive in understanding the “why” folks litter. I never saw my parents litter. I was brought up to pick up and put litter where it should go… into a garbage pail. So not made to clean up after yourself or just not caring. Is it just lazy?
Take a trip to a third world country and it’s whoa.
Look at all the garbage, everywhere in heaped deep layers around you. It smells, is not sanitary and contaminates. Garbage can be industrial littering where jobs over the environment tkaes priority.
Or just no structure in place for here’s what you do with with littler on any level ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.
If the increase in litter because of the higher cost to get rid of it?
Maine Would Love To Have More European Tourists From Across The Atlantic Ocean.
No more backing up the family sedan on Saturday morning at a small Maine town dump. To throw another bag or two where the black bears are never far away.
The bulldoze operator idling and ready to pack it down and cover it up to remove it from sight. To ready the land fill dump for the next deposit. Land fills in Maine, those did not help the ground water quality.The black bears were entertaining though.
Take the case of an appliance now that wears out?
Where does it go if not a recycling center transfer station? Dump along an old woods road on someone’s private property?
One of the best ways to cure littering is to grab a pair of gloves, a large refuse bag.
Then high ho, let’s go comb a stretch of Maine highway garbage together. Everyone should take a turn.
Why not adopt a stretch of roadway or trail, parkway to tidy up on a regular basis. Make it a family or civic, school, church group regular event. Not just in spring. Maine highway vegetation can hide a lot of garbage.
Awareness of how bad the situation is often requires hands on, up close and personal inspection of what’s out there for litter.
To study the sheer amount that piles up along a Maine highway over time.
Got This Maine Cat In A Real Estate Property Sale.
Broken bottles are dangerous. Wildlife has to deal with six pack plastic rings that will never biodegrade.
Left where a Maine lake ice shack sat that just becomes part of the waterfront habitat below.
Shifting up to bulk buying to avoid the individual packaging something to promote?
Why not join a co op and bring your own containers to reduce packaging waste?
Do you have a compost bin out by your garden where you give the crank a heck of a yank?
I’ve witnessed the highway road crews collecting the returnable bottles, collecting the debris each spring in Maine.
Winter must be the peak time for litter bugs.
Or harder to get out to retrieve it. When what’s tossed is out of sight and mind under white fluffy snow during shorter days of light.
As you lead a crew picking up litter it’s hard to not think about how to stop the sheer volume of it.
As you toil, you think what steps need to be taken for this constant clean up procedure to become unnecessary.
Just how best to reduce the growing amount of litter in Maine?
Singing, Crying, Or Paddling By In Silence. Maine Lake Loons.
Sure glad Maine has a bottle redemption law. No billboards to pollute the highways with distracting message either.
Littering, why people do it? Is it like the Hank Williams Jr song that littering is “a family tradition”?
Hope not.
Remember the classic litter campaign PSA’s?
Sometimes the trash, litter floats in from across the pond washing up on the coast of Maine.
There are more productive uses of time and money than picking up trash and litter after someone else. With a few adjustments. litter can be reduced or eliminated.
No, don’t need another law on the books about the stiff penalty for littering.
It’s all about education for young grasshoppers. Who help convert older family litter bug members to see the error of their ways.
Clean, Outdoors, Unspoiled. That Is Maine, The Way Life Should Be!
Falsetto parenting, where Mom or Dad throw their voice into a higher register like Frankie Valli.
To plead please don’t litter Jimmy or Jane.
That’s not the best way to cause litter reduction.
But if kids don’t practice pick up after yourself at home, they sure are not going to out in the World.
Like quitting smoking, the movement to stop littering takes awareness, education and a statewide approach.
Stopping By For A Slurp Of Sweet Syrup, Maine Hummingbirds Give Winds A Rest.
I worked at Maine Broadcasting in Bangor during and after graduating from the University of Maine in Orono.
Fred Nutter would do editorials on the direction the state of Maine should be taking or correcting. Summing it all up with “that’s our opinion, we welcome yours”. Wonder if Fred ever did an editorial on Maine littering?
At Baxter State Park, there is a famous rock to remind all it takes effort.
To keep it clean, to preserve beautiful four season Maine.
The huge rock boulder is called Pockwockamus at the entrance to Baxter State Park in Maine.
Set On Stone, Don’t Pollute, Give A Hoot! Pockwockmus Rock, Baxter State Park.
Colorfully decorated with a stone billboard reminder it is up to you and I to keep it clean and pristine. Keep Maine beautiful.
No People, No Man Made Structure Or Noises. Welcome To Baxter State Park’s Mt Katahdin.
Recycling helps reduce the trash, Maine litter.
Keeping trash items in a bag inside a vehicle until you arrive at a place to dispose of them. While traveling instead of throwing debris, garbage out a car window, save it, hold it until you get to a place to deposit litter.
Respect, How To Enjoy Maine And Keep It Clean! One Pastime Learned From Your Loved Ones.
Maybe like the “I voted” or gave blood sticker, there could be a version for a litter bug with a circle slash through the trash image. Or a lineup of five Mainers and the simple question “Can you spot the litter bug?” Keep it clean, it’s your planet, state, local Maine community. Please don’t litter. Keep Maine beautiful.
Maine is a handful of cities and over 450 small towns, plantations, unorganized areas. More open space and wildlife, less people and no billboards.
There is no shortage of opinions on anything these days. Where you should be living is one of those hot topics. Strong opinions and often the pros and cons are deeply personal.
Attractive, Preserved Victorian Style Brick Buildings In Market Square, Houlton Maine. Maine is full of small friendly towns.
This blog post is to spell out the what to expect without the sharp barbs or any resentments about small Maine town life.
For starters, who best to describe living in a small Maine town then someone who lives there full time.
Not a scathing report based on never set foot in Maine, never ever been there but I’ve heard blah blah blah. Or and here-say from one or two not so happy campers where the complaint experience might be legit or their own short comings caused.
So small town living in Maine, anywhere has a garden variety list of differences compared to a populated setting.
Small towns are fewer cars and traffic, more unspoiled outdoors. You experience lower crime, less pollution, friendlier first name basis living but not everything at your fingertips.
Vacationing In Maine. Returning To The Same Favorable Haunts Or Somewhere New? Maine is small town, not crowded, not riddled with crime.
The “gotta have and don’t want” list changes in your life no matter where you hang your hat.
Quality of life, healthier simple living is attractive but as parts wear out, medical centers come into the consideration of where you should live.
Too expensive to live somewhere causes moves, relocations to Maine.
Or you can not afford to retire where you are now can make you go online to do a Maine real estate search. If you live now in a not so great place to raise a family, the pack up the moving truck maneuver is on many folk’s radar these days. Or over population, high taxes, crime and temperatures can cause the pull the plug to want to live off grid in a Maine homestead with land.
So Maine small town, what it is like?
A Toby Keith song but all the time? Everybody thinks my tractor is sexy Kenny Chesney like? I’ve blogged about 4000 population towns in Maine and it is all relative.
How small is the size you are examining for a Maine town?
If the town is 100 people, you might have a church or two, maybe a small convenience gas station outlet nearby to tide you over. Until the trip to a larger population center that can support a Dollar General or maybe a small Piggly Wiggly or Yankee Grocery food store.
Life Is A Maine Beach. Salt Water, Fresh Air, A Summer Breeze At A Maine Beach.
Small town living in Maine can make you think of out west in the farm belt.
Or a small coal mining community where farming or mining is pretty much all your have. Healthy Maine small communities are diversified and don’t have all their eggs in one economic basket.
Farming, woodwork, fishing, tourism for the sportsmen, families on camping trips are all big. So is transportation because unfold the map. See all those miles that separate small Maine towns from large population centers? That’s a big 10-4 on trucking in and out the goods we need and what we grow or create heading the other direction.
Working On A Small Maine Farm. Kids Benefit, The Farmer Wins Too!
So the life in a small Maine town.
You hear about a fire in your home town from a neighbor who posted a photo or two on social media. Or someone down at the service station or in the aisles of Walmart mentions did you hear about it?
If you are two or three degrees separation from the person in the news or making it, you hear through the family grapevine.
If you are not from the small Maine town originally, you will hear some negatives about never being accepted. Or feeling like a true local native of the Maine small town.
More Outdoor Space, Owning More Land With Your Home In Maine. Working Together To Earn Your Keep.
But if you volunteer, join a local club, church or school event, you will make new friends. If you are not always complaining about back in Jersey or wherever you lived last or grew up on how they do it better.
You are valuable if you are a worker, an asset to a small Maine town.
If you have a positive attitude and hopefully a sense of humor, that is a plus when moving to a small Maine town.
Live Music, A Maine Community Band Supplies It Weekly For Free. That’s Maine.
If you are from a sprawling urban area with million of people, it is hard to get your head wrapped about a small Maine town population of under 1000. Lake resort communities in Maine that swell and then go back to small numbers as the “snowbirds” head to the sunny south or southwest.
Long distances to travel for goods or services are part of the drawbacks to small Maine town life.
But access to Interstate 95 makes the travel pretty easy when no traffic and designed for moving 75 miles an hour or faster.
But because we are parked a little further up the pike, the surroundings become less traveled and more unspoiled all natural. Look up, see the stars on a walk at night? Hear the crickets and Maine lake loons in the moonlight? You can not duplicate that in a city setting.
Taught How To Fish, Survive Early In Life. Missing His Mate, Crying About It Heard On A Maine Lake.
So what are you after, what are your expectations and how did you grow up and was it a good experience or not.
You want more of what you like, less of what you do not and a change in zip code is driven by expectations. If they are met, you stay and pitch in to add to the local community in Maine.
Our job in the Me In Maine blog is to introduce the many corners of Vacationland to the readers. Some who grew up here and appreciate what we have in small town Maine living. Others who long for it because it sounds so delicious but so foreign to where they live now. I love living in a small Maine town and think you will too!
