MeInMaine Blog

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  • Maine’s Coast Line, Lakes, Rivers Have Over 3000 Islands To Explore, Live On.

    Maine Nests Protect Like ME Islands Surrounded By Water.
    Maine Nests Protect Like ME Islands Surrounded By Water.

    Islands in Maine are neat, no two ways about it.

    Along the Maine rugged, rock bound coast, islands make the landscape interesting, unique offering little remote places of solitude, a feeling of a country, a small nation surrounded by water all by itself. I’m not an expert on Maine islands and when you live in interior Maine, islands become less plentiful than the way they carpet the coast line like different size lint particles. But lakes have them, large rivers can contain islands. The difference is no lighthouses, no salt water, sea gulls or boats to protect from being ship wrecked on all those rocks and deep rough water when the wind picks up. Or in the middle of a Maine “Nor’ Easter.

    In Drews Lake, also known as Meduxnekeag Lake there are four islands that my four kids enjoyed exploring. Naming them with all the pomp and circumstance of Christopher Columbus or any other foreign explorer of years gone past as they discovered the New World real estate. In this case, that “New World” all contained a short boat ride loaded with other kid “explorers” in a little over a thousand acre lake roughly 9 miles from Houlton Maine. Names proudly exclaimed for all in the boat to hear, recite for the islands based like the early explorers on what was found on those islands to make each rare, unique, memorable to a child with everyone in that boat way under six feet tall. Some never getting to that height later in life.

    Blueberry Island, Toad Island, Midway Island, The Rock names created based on highly scientific exploration done in a well planned boat expedition when the weather was right, the lawn mowed and every kid’s chores done. Summer living on a Maine lake, making memories, experiences to play back in the childhood memory of each child around Drews Lake.

    Today as I blog, two my four children, the youngest are exploring for an island. With new friends to explore, sample this new island in their explorer sights. Pine Island in the Aroostook River is where they hoped to camp, tent, document.

    Both college kids and and their counterparts heading north, deeper in to Aroostook County on a Saturday afternoon looking for an island.

    Leaving one vehicle of two in Oxbow, parked at a property I just listed for sale owned by a family that used it for fall deer, moose, bird hunting trips. The other vehicle with two canoes heading north to Masardis to park, put in to the Aroostook River at an easy public boat launch site. Short weekend trip, hopefully to find, explore Pine Island that shows up on the Maine Gazateer. Nothing more to know about the small undocumented island. Pine and Junkin Island are mentioned briefly in a search anything about these Aroostook River Islands.

    How did the boys zero in on camping in this area, looking for these islands? Maybe it’s my fault, after seeing Moose Island in Masardis Maine last weekend. Watch the Maine river video for a unique location, hand made log lodge, cabin property we listed to sell.

    Who owns most islands in lakes usually boils down to the state of Maine. If you go back thru the Maine legislation, it usually revolves around was their ownership, taxes being paid, use of an island between these years or not. The legislature in Maine made laws, reversed itself and there is a Sherlock Holmes list of questions to determine ownership of an island. Have sold a few in Northern Maine over the years and found islands, like my kids, to be unique, surrounded by water and like a “country within a country” feeling. How do you react if someone says living on a Maine island like one Isle au Haut couple did? Or Maine kids explore other ME islands here on Vinalhaven and North Haven Islands.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers
    207.532.6573
    Email info@mooersrealty.com

  • Maine Camping, Canoeing, Kayaking, Hiking, White Water Rafting, Skiing, Bird Watching, Sporting Lodges.

    Find Yourself, Get Your Bearings In Maine, Life Is More Fun, Healthier Here.
    Find Yourself, Get Your Bearings In Maine, Life Is More Fun, Healthier Here.

    In Maine, our fun usually means some activity outdoors from hiking, camping to down hill, cross country skiing, white water rafting or slew of activties guaranteering physical activity for better health.

    In Maine you don’t have to worry about crowds, too much traffic or crime. Here is a Maine site that is a one stop shop for lots of Maine outdoor recreation, especially covering hiking one of my favorite activities. The state of Maine has many parks, here is one area to consider, the Allagash Wilderness Water Way.

    Over 200,000 acres of land surrounds Baxter State Park and Mt Katahdin is not the only mountain to hike but Maine’s tallest mountain hogs most of the spotlight. The snowcap peaks of Katahdin are pretty surprising, stunning, memorable. My four kids and I have climbed many parts of the Baxter Park collection of mountains. Starting with Horse Mountain which is about 1400 feet high, easy for the smaller kids to tackle, conquer as they work their way up. In Northern Maine also suggest Echo Mountain at Aroostook State Park in Presque Isle. Or Haystack Mountain in the Mapleton, Castlehill area of Aroostook County.

    Had a fraternity brother room mate in college at the University of Maine at Orono who was from Longmeadow Massachusetts. He was in to techincal climbing. The ropes, pitons, sneakers with the extra rubber surface to help in the climbing up and over, out from rocks spider like. I think I will still be hiking with maybe a walking stick someday when I get old and need one to help steady myself, but not push the rope technical climbing hobby. Little Chick and Big Chick in Clifton Maine near Old Town was where Chris and I tried my first foray in college in to the technical climbing with ropes.

    There is something unnerving about crawling vertical, straight up using just your fingers to pull along small rock out croppings. Cracks to fit your finger tips in to and hope just your fingers can hold, lift the entire weight of your body while forgetting the distance to fall to earth below that is underneath all you do. To actually defy gravity by climbing up, out and around stone formations. Pushing with your toes, swinging out on a rope you hope is anchored properly but knowing you’ll be the first to know if it was not.

    Needless to say, never put technical climbing apparatus, stocking stuffers on my list to Santa over the years. Not scared of heights, just want more than my finger tips, toes to work my way up the side of a sheer rock surface. Funny that way. Call it a quirk but used to a trail, trees along the side of it when I climb, hike.

    Or maybe you need some salt water, sea air in your outdoor fix of Maine. With many islands dotting the ragged, jagged, jutting in and out coast line, sea kayaking to explore these little “countries” off Maine has a serious attraction. With over 3000 Maine islands, it may take more than one or two summers to hit most of them, to float and paddle around a few.

    For more surf and turf adventures, Maine white water rafting is a fun trip down the Kennebec, Dead, Penobscot Rivers. I have gone on trips with Unicorn Expeditions out of The West Forks area and also on Northern white water rafting on the Penobscot River. You can have a party of eight to ten people and when they remind you to keep your legs up if you get sucked out of the raft, hit by a wave so those legs don’t get broken. You eddy out along the river after the major rush of water, dodging river centered rocks for a meal prepared on open fires. For the fall trips, wet suits are available to take the chill out of the Maine air when you get wet from either the river ride or the water fight with buckets with another rafting group in your party.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers
    207.532.6573
    Email info@mooersrealty.com

  • Maine Small Town Living…Wearing More Hats, Feeling More Connected, Needed.

    Local Soap Box Derby Racing Is Big In Houlton Maine, 66 Volunteers Make The Nation's Largest Event Happen.
    Local Soap Box Derby Racing Is Big In Houlton Maine, 66 Volunteers Make The Nation’s Largest Event Happen.

    In small Maine towns, you quickly learn there is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.

    Everyone has roles to play. The area in Maine they hang those many hats they wear is better off, richer, fuller for local volunteers and their day in, day out efforts. The most important hats in Maine are the jobs, roles you take on with your family…like little league coaching, soap box derby racing, being a sunday school teacher. Kids learn from the entire villiage in Maine. There is a connection and everyone feels a sense of belonging, that they are needed. Because they are.

    Many of the service club civic work a local Mainer does, takes on is because in smaller areas, if they did not, it might not get done. Fewer people in Maine..just over a million folks mean grab a tool, hone a skill and take on a job the area folks need you to assume, sign on to. Less people, heck eleven people per square mile in Northern Maine, Aroostook County translates to just enough to have a game thinking. Like when you live in the country in rural Maine and only so many houses in the few miles around your home, so back yard baseball contests with the local kids means hunt, stratch, beg, plead sometimes to fill a skeleton roster.

    You’re all there is situation in Maine but a sense of pride that you have a needed role you volunteered to. Lots of them. Serving on local town government boards, helping to shape the future direction, development of the town in Maine you call home. I make my living “selling” Maine and have for thirty years as a Maine real estate broker. But the blogs we write here, around the internet, the videos we shoot, edit and post about the listings, the local community events are not just part of my job. I am a personal fan of Maine. You reading this blog must be too. Once you get all Maine offers, how sincere and caring, hard working the local people are, you find your real home, niche, place under the sun. I am not just a promoter of Maine. I sincerely enjoy living here, promoting it and way I can.

    In Maine, our local bands, parades, state hosting of music, sporting events are home grown, not store bought. Our financial resources are limited, our creative efforts to get an event off the ground are off the charts to track. There is nothing stronger than the heart of a Maine volunteer.

    Often a kid benefiting from the experience is all that is needed to get the program, event, annual tradition off the ground in a small Maine town.

    Sometimes the drive is simply knowing when you were young, growing up in a small town other older members of the town put their shoulder in to this, this and this event. Pick yours and assume the position when you enter adulthood. You feel needed in small Maine towns, connected, aware of the other folks who live here. Why? because you are. What would your area where you live suffer from, lose if you were not there to do this, this and this?

    This blog helps get the word out about how we roll in Maine. We work, don’t feel entitled to any free lunch.

    Our hearts are strong, designed, shaped, taught to get involved on a strong local level. That’s why I live in Maine.

    Ask me how you can get a taste of Maine, or to relocate, retire, get to raise a family here. It’s one of my favorite subjects, hobbies, hats I wear. Here is an video example of a couple living in the Maine woods of Masardis..to give you a taste of being in the woods of Aroostook County..full time on a the Aroostook River.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers
    Call 207.532.6573
    Email info@mooersrealty.com

  • Blogging About Maine…I Can See The Out Of State Reader On Line, Eager To Learn.

    It Is All Here In Maine..Small Town, Family Value, Low Cost Real Estate
    It Is All Here In Maine..Small Town, Family Value, Low Cost Real Estate

    When you live in Maine, and blog about it, you don’t have to be a spine tingling adventure writer or a dramatic technically perfect, change the world thought provoking robot cranking out the copy.

    As a Maine blogger, the more down to earth, simple and every day I can be, the more I mirror what living in Maine, the people are all about. After working in radio for many years, I learned early on to not just key the mic and talk talk talk. But instead to see a motorist listening to the radio on his way to Bangor for a basketball game, and taylor make comments, intros to the records, etc with that guy or gal next to me in that car heading down interstate 95. Reminding others about the local church bean supper next Saturday. Like a high school hockey coach that says a player “sees the ice well” a blogger has to be swiveling his head, considering every one he “sees” on line skating around that same frozen sheet of arena water. Adjusting, considering, “feeding” his blog with what the catch of the day word wise is going to be that someone would enjoy, learn from, connect with.

    The next conversation after a requested song from a listener on the way to the local prom, is geared for the radio that is blaring in the kitchen of a local restaurant. For folks that have to work that evening, or on a holiday. You identify and call out something that listener, blog reader knows is intended for them. Not just being an announcer reading scripted copy without thought or expression of what the words mean. Like not just playing individual notes on a piano but putting them together to make music, a sound, cause a “feeling” or atmosphere of friendly, fun, entertainment, information. In radio if you ever felt under the weather, you would never talk about it, whine or bring it up. You are there to entertain, help the listener with weather, music requests, reading about a lost dog or cat you need help find on “pet patrol”.

    Why would I want to read this Maine blog? What would I want to know more about if I lived out of state? We produce videos that hit the frequently asked Maine questions too.

    So instead of making tired, red, irritated eyeballs scan copy, the pair of peepers can just sit back and take in the simply to digest “movie”. “Video” produced not on a Hollywood grand scale but to just deliver, give the guy or gal on the other end something simple for free about Maine.

    That they need, want to know about. And because I live in Maine, what the heck. No one else is doing it so sign on for a shift, sit at the board, open that mic and today talk, blog about weather in Maine. Tomorrow about light houses and fiddle heads. Or ME snowsledding, soap box derby racing or hiking Baxter State Park’s Mt Katahdin in Maine the next day.

    I don’t just write, shoot video, post images on flickr about Maine because it is my job. I am a personal fan, passionate about living here in “Vacationland” too. If you are a follower of MeInMaine blog, have areas you wished I would post more about, email, call, come visit us in person. It’s your “show”. I try to see the blog readers on MeInMaine I am having conversation with, talking to, sharing with about this state that is way way up here in the right hand corner of the country. Maine, it’s all in one place. Your heart belongs in Maine.


    I’m Maine REALTOR / MeInMaine Blog Author Andrew Mooers
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com

  • Camping In Maine… Define Your Version Of ME Vacationing.

    Camping In Maine… Define Your Version Of ME Vacationing.

    A vacation camping can mean a simple Maine log cabin with cooking on an open fire, maybe with a screened in front porch.

    Activities can involved sporting hunting/fishing.snowsledding or ATV trips with your buddies. Card games, reading a book or two, long walks, being up close and personal with the wildlife on a lake, river, stream, ocean is another Maine attraction.

    But the word camping may not mean hiking Baxter Park’s Mt Katahdin, or winter cross country skiing and could translate in to an air conditioned “second home” in Maine that has satelite tv, high speed internet, wall to wall rugs and a full basement too. There are folks that drive large close to a million dollar “land yatchs” to

    Maine, Lots Of Flavors, Meaning To That Word When Talking Vacationing.
    Maine, Lots Of Flavors, Meaning To That Word When Talking Vacationing.

    Maine and park them at camp grounds, at Walmarts, on a piece of land they purchase. We in Houlton Maine, Aroostook County see many campers heading further north to the wooded wildnerness, or with a canoe / kayak strapped to the car / truck top on a trip to the Allagash Waterway. Or maybe to spring board on vacation to the Atlantic Canadian Provinces to the east. Say Prince Edward Island, over to Nova Scotia, the New Brunswick Province of Canada.

    What is your idea of “camping” and does it involve a tent, outdoor cooking, sleeping under the stars and near Maine water frontage? Maine is “Vacationland” for a reason.

    I feel extremely lucky, fortunate, passionate about having all Maine offers right in my own backyard.

    Not having to travel miles and miles to get to something this beautiful, unspoiled, with just the right spacing of people. No traffic, no pollution, not a lot of noise, pushing or shoving. Maine, grab your coat, tell your friends you’re heading north. Get here quick as you can, anyway you can. Hitch hike, hop on a motorcyle, saddle up a horse. But keep in mind, the simpler the vacation camping the better in Maine. That’s how we roll. Fun, easy, low cost, high value thanks to the setting in Maine doing all the work.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com

  • Maine, No Billboards, But Do Have Returnable Bottles And You Decide On The Motorcycle Helmet Or Not.

    There Is Only One Maine. Lucky Us, Shucks For You.
    There Is Only One Maine. Lucky Us, Shucks For You.

    Maine, you forget how less cluttered the environment is without billboards and thanks to returnable bottles that are bought with a deposit to take care of what happens to them when empty.

    And as for motorcycle helmets, if you are over 18 years of age, you decide if you want to take a chance and ride without a helmet for the sensation, open air, bugs in your teeth.

    Took a quick trip to Washington DC over the weekend to pick up the oldest son Alex who has one more semester of school to go at George Washington University.

    On the road trip always forget but get a semester reminder each trek down and back to the nation’s capitol that Maine is lucky to be free of billboards.

    Fortunate to have a ME returnable bottle bill in effect since 1978. And leave it up to you whether you want to wear head protection, a helmet while you scoot around highways in Maine.

    Are you from a state that has similiar legislation in force? Maine, come see for yourself all the other differences the state offers. Especially the recreational options with crystal clean water, bluer than blue clear skies, friendlier but way way fewer people.
    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com