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Homesteading, How To Do It In Maine.

Homesteading, finding a property in Maine the easy-does-it sensible way.

This blog post will take it slow and spell out one methodical approach to homesteading in Maine. The desire to create from scratch or buy an existing homestead in Maine stems from lots of acreage with low to the ground price tags hanging off them.

What’s for sale in Maine that is ideal homesteading property is always a smaller cost than what most people are used to seeing where they hang their hat now out of state. The real estate buyer is pleasantly surprised when they search the current listing

No Pretty Reason, No Matter What Season To Homestead In Maine.

inventory of any property for sale in Maine. Which leads to the why is that so answer.

The distance away from high population markets is great which means what you do end up buying is surrounded by wide open space and fewer people to mess it up.

Smaller is better for a sane pace, to enjoy life not race through it. The need for heavy duty zoning, the HOA’s trade in for CSA’s. High traffic and crime are all missing in a small Maine town. And in city settings, large acreages just don’t exist. Got any forty acre lots? Nope. Go fish. Head to Maine for that and simpler living.

So the where to homestead, farmstead all starts with a simple dream, then picking a state like rural Maine.

Then the best region in that state for a location that is affordable. One area that’s not likely to change much or at all to force another rip up the stakes, pack it up and on the road again. For the gotta move again over the next ten or more years. You can only and should only have to do this moving upheaval only so many times in your life. Make it Maine for good once you have all the information needed and questions answered that help you decide if this is the place to homestead.

How old you are, how healthy, the size of the budget, the timing in starting a homestead are all factors. Have kids in high school that are a couple years from graduation? The buying the homestead in Maine property dream may happen now for

Keeping An Eye On Your Homestead Animals. Raising Your Food Makes It Hard To Let Go Of Your “Pets” On The Homestead Spread.

just land. No existing buildings, and where you are going to one by one create them is on the mental drawing board. Secure the property in Maine but stay where you are out of state. Because you have loose end and are not quite ready. Keep saving, reading those seed catalogs and studying the marketing process if you plan to sell more than your raise and consume yourself.

The time ticking by over the next couple years waiting for a high school graduation march around the gym or auditorium may mean using the homesteading land location for just a vacation property use. To dream about what you are really going to do with the Maine land that is put on hold. Until the day when you devote all your time and attention to this location in Maine where you already own land. Slowly putting the transition into gear. Easing out the clutch to move in low to begin the transition from wearing a corporate tie and you’re pretty much pinned to the wall by an office desk.

Selling the home you now own to create the nest egg of money for the improvements on your Maine land could eat up some time too.

Real estate markets go up and down like stock values. When you are flexible and not in a hurry good things happen naturally. Get your land, know where you are going but keep the when loose. Elderly parents that need you close can come with you or be another reason why the move to Maine is going to be a delayed one/ All of us juggle responsibilities to consider right?

Okay, the land you buy, what to look for to create the best homestead location in Maine. Farming of some small scale is

Another Generation Of Farmers In Maine. Remember, No Farmer, No Food!

part of the homesteading to be self sufficient. How far you take it means power or not from utility lines? Year round road or no thank you. You will be taking on the chore of keeping that last property on a dead end discontinued Maine road open and maintained year round.

Like people soils are different is the motto of one local site evaluator named Bill Hersey of Caribou Maine. Study the area USDA soil maps for the best Maine land and hire a soil tester to lay out where the septic, what type of sewerage disposal you are going to set up on the property. Composting toilet, out house, gray water disposal field for the kitchen sink and laundry or the thousand gallon cement septic tank will go here, the leach field over there.

The drilled well if a usable water source is not already in place is going to be located where and who is going to punch that hole in the ground for you?

The slow cooked approach to homesteading in Maine means nothing is rushed and mistakes are not made from the hurry scurry.

Is the land in tree growth, is there shore land zoning to consider in how you develop the Maine property? More on tree growth, how that save on your real estate taxes works in the Pine Tree state. Those

The best homesteading, setting up a farmstead exercise is done without a bank too. You have savings, you sold a property, you set up owner financing on the Maine land and what do you know. It’s been five years or whatever mortgage period, the land part of this life changing experience is now free and clear. More on how owner financing Maine land works.

Had a couple from Florida come up this weekend who was smitten with an online Southern Aroostook County property listing new to the market.

Soil Amendments, The Living Off The Land Means Giving Back, Not Taking Away The Mineral Elements!

For the last month, lots of phone calls and emails back and forth to talk about their homesteading in Maine dream. The land they are considering just under sixty acres in size and in a remote location. The road into it this winter not plowed so high ho high ho in we go. Have used our snow sled to show and sell a place called Crow Hill in Linneus Maine. But this time it was easier to just travel down to the spot where the road is no longer plowed. And dressed warmly to hoof it in on an existing packed down snowmobile trail.

Snow shoes or cross country skis have been used before but a sled trail already packed down made the walk in a beautiful one due to new fresh dusting of sparkling snow and blue skies, bright sunshine. We were able to talk back and forth as we went in and out to the property. The one that already has an insulated cabin with a wood stove, a small tool shed and open cleared land with mixed wooded sections. This land also surveyed so where everything lies is not a mystery for perimeter boundary lines.

What is your property to homestead, what is not is clear as a bell with the plat map and pins, compass bearings and the metes and bounds description. And it was crank your head around. What do you see? Scenery, pasture fields, wood stands but no people around this large piece of land to homestead. Which is what this couple liked best. Winter is an excellent time to scope out the surroundings in Maine. You can see more without the leaves. And hey, no black flies and fewer land buyers to compete for whatever you find interesting to pursue.

Homesteading, what else to prepare for beside gleaning all the local information possible online and from boots on the ground community information gathering from the locals?

Homeschooling or public education? What you do raise for food, is it going to be grown in the ground or raised on the hoof? This latest homesteading buyer wants goats, chickens but is not going to be like Noah with two or more of everything you might see in a Maine barnyard setting.

Homesteading, It Means Working On Buildings, Tending The Crops, Watering – Graining – Haying The Animals. Living Off The Land In Maine!

If the access in and out is too big for one person to tackle in the winter, how are you getting in and out? In retirement you want to make your life easier not harder. The timing of this homestead move to Maine is different for everyone. A young couple full of hope and ideas may be low on money but thinking of raising their kids here. Another later in life couple with grown kids could be thinking part time homesteading. Where a few months of the year are spent as snowbirds in the Sunny South. Pass the suntan lotion please. If you have critters, who is going to milk Bessie the cow, collect the eggs, make sure the pasture fences are strong and all the animals get hayed, grained, watered? Or to call the Vet when needed.

Lots to consider homesteading in Maine. No pesticide sprays? Joining the Maine Organic Farm And Garden group (MOFGA) is a good idea and hitting the agricultural state fairs around Maine will help develop the knowledge base. So you know what you are doing because you have compared notes with others who are planning the same lifestyle and in the learning stage. Or are veterans and don’t mind talking about it to share their triumphs and set back lessons.

Just got back from plowing snow and helping son check the heat inside a storage facility for root crops. Everything stored in bins and sold in truck loads to consumers out of state. The organic farm In Maine, Nature’s Circle he works for in New Limerick also rents out a family farm that has rich fertile soil that produces grade A produce. If your homesteading involves more than growing your own food, raising your beef and dairy producers, you may need to have storage facilities to load out over the winter months.

The scale of your homesteading is up to you and your family size, the thickness of your wallet or heft of the purse your carry. You may want goats like these couple do and they have experience with them from earlier farming experiences. The lifestyle is important to communities catering to golfers and the off grid or however unplugged you go is up to your idea of what this homestead spread in Maine looks like in your head.

There is no better way to raise a kid than on a family farm in Maine.

The skills developed with fixing machinery, being a scientist studying what soil amendments are needed and in what degree… it is all invaluable. The best part of living off the land is the self sufficiency, the independence and fresh air year round working on the farmstead. Crop failure, wildlife eating your profit and if your health takes a dip are all make the risks real. But you quickly figure out what is important in life. You realize you are only here a short time and this old Earth will keep turning once you and I are long gone.

How crunchy, how granola depends on your to dial in. Some folks with the homestead, the family farm have a ticket. They might be a trust fund baby. They could have an income source that takes some of the stick, a lot of the risk out of the agriculture equation. You as a homesteader will be doing as much of everything as possible to hold down expenses. But the reward from standing back and realizing what you created with your bare hands, lots of patience and careful planning makes it all worthwhile. There is much to learn scratching the dirt, preparing the soil, planting the seeds and picking the new crop of rocks that come up every spring on a Maine farm homestead. Maine, where you dream in color.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

January 20, 2019
Maine Is Outdoor Fresh Air, Wide Open Space.

Sometimes you have it made but can lose track of just the why part when you live in Maine.

It is easy to take for granted what we have so much of when it is not this way many other places on Earth. What makes you tick and whatever you need is found in the nature of Maine. Places in the outdoor spaces. Maine is unspoiled, under populated and 100 percent fresh and natural. We go into nature in Maine for outdoor recreation, to preserve traditions, for food and wood to burn, for answers. For beauty not found many places just too over developed.

Everything Changes In A Blink Of The Eye. Like The Seasons. Small Maine Towns Pull Together To Get Through The Good, Sad Times. Life Happens Outdoors In The Fresh Air To Clear Your Head, Calm Your Heart.

Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy. Isaac Newton

Nature is cheaper than therapy. Unknown

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. Lao Tzu

Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience. Ralph Waldo Emerson

The mountains are calling and I must go. And into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul. John Muir

I love places that make you realize how tiny you and your problems are. Unknown

Go where you feel most alive. Unknown

But ask some Mainers about bragging up what we have to offer and they can clam up.

Where’s My Mom? Baby Loon Wonders To Himself.

Thinking because there is not one giant tourist attraction like the place where the two mice wearing the white gloves and all their friends hang out, then somehow we are lacking. Living in Maine is plenty exciting but not in a man made way.

The best parts of Maine are the people, the experiences, the fresh air and clean water settings. Maybe the not realizing how lucky we are with all this outdoors is because a teacher or parent taught the child that there is nothing here that they felt is important. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Gratitude is riches, criticism is poverty.

When you walk outside during a winter starry night you get zapped with a sense of peace and space. The World does stop spinning and your focus improves. The trillions of stars overhead force you to realize how lucky you are, how not to take yourself too personally.
Kayaking a Maine lake or stream does the same unplug and recharge inside blow you away sensation.

Have you ever looked out with a thousand yard stare after a climb to the top of Mt Katahdin or standing on a pair of boards on a mountain top in Maine? Sea kayaking paddling out to an off shore lighthouse or reaching down to sample fresh blueberries along a craggy trail?

Come And Get It. Fish For Free Are Fresh In A Maine Lake. Adult Loons Are Excellent Anglers To Feed Their Young!

You suddenly realize this is where you find all you need, everything that is important in life to you and your family.

You and I, wildlife need wide open space.

Not a few acres set aside for millions of people like a Central Park. Not in a roomy museum hideaway in a city setting. To get the long lasting feeling of peace in nature, you need to be deep into what Maine does so well. And one week’s vacation is not a high enough RX dosage for what ails you. Or to stay centered and balanced. At peace and contented even keeled.

But being parked away from the hustle bustle can make someone who lives in Maine feel they could be missing something pretty exciting in the bright lights, big city. So take a trip, sample the city treasures and then retreat back to Maine.

Fish For Young Lake Loon. Mom Knows How To Angle For Them Best. Until Junior Learns The Ropes For Catching His Fish Dinner!

For many that trek “uptah camp in Maine” is the safety net, how they keep going and stay sane. Jammed in a space like a submarine for too long in a city setting can drive a person crazy. And easily slip into the notion that this condition is the norm for everyone in the land.

In Maine you have sixteen counties and most of them are split into three, four or more regions.

No two areas are quite the same carbon copy and every small Maine community, the handful of cities too are unique.

It’s a new year and what are your plans that involve a Maine backdrop setting for you ahead? Maine, commune with nature, go deep in

Heading North, Hitting The ITS Trails In Maine.

the woods, take in the waterfront options and enjoy our farm to table home grown experience as often as you can. Adopt your own small Maine town for reasons only you can explain and keep returning to these venues to stay current, to feel healthy and worthwhile. It is all about quality of life. I think the secret is being outdoors in Maine. Any chance you can slip outside back to nature in Maine.

Here to offer my two cents living in Maine full time.

To provide insider local tips to make your trip to Maine experience more memorable. Ask any local and feel the friendly suggestions flowing your way on the lay of the land in Maine. Maybe you have forgotten since you were a kid how much fun getting outdoors to play really is. Come visit the areas carved out of the woods by lumberjacks, by farmers creating agricultural homesteads, by rock bound coastal fishermen. Sample a local brew, some of the local cuisine and listen to the music, hear about the small Maine town history.

Snow Is Not An Evil Four Letter Word. Not In Maine.

By hooking on the fresh Maine air oxygen mask.

We’ll fix that amnesia problem of what a kid knows how to do and that adults can forget being way way too serious when life loses its fun and games approach. Don’t let the imagination go stale or completely dark from lack of use.

Like a horse stuck inside for the winter and not turned out. Slow down on the rich clover and fresh grass. Easy does it as you turn on the natural gas. No hurry. Breathe long and deep with a long hit of Maine fresh air.

Take your time, you’re not on the clock and there is no test afterwards. No two exact same methods to get that peaceful easy feeling in Maine’s outdoors no matter what one of the four seasons the calendar displays.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

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

January 6, 2019
Winter Means Cross Country Skiing In Maine.

Cross country skiing in Maine, one of the best ways in winter to get exercise and lots of eye candy at the same time.

What Exercise Do Your Do In Winter Outside Your Maine Home?

This Maine blog has highlighted outdoor recreation of all types for any of the four seasons. But right hand raised high, I admit downhill skiing has over shadowed the posts about the cross country strapping on the boards kind.

The elevation of your spirits being chair lifted up and away to the top of a Maine mountain is pretty darn awesome.

It allows your focus on what’s really important in life to come into sharper view. The conversations on the lift, the laughter in the lodge getting rigged up before or back into your street clothes afterwards energizes a person big time. You can do more when you exercise in Maine, a place with so many options that are no cost or low charge readily available. That let you unplug and recharge get revitalized.

Sugar Coated Maine, Don’t Miss A Season, Make Winter Sparkle Part Of Your Vacation Plans.

But cross country skiing where no high priced lift ticket is involved because none of the machinery an alpine ski facility creates is needed for use of these boards.

It provides the cardiovascular work out and places you smack dab in the middle of wildlife and natural surroundings in Maine. Without the need to slide the plastic with the magnetic strip. With narrower cross country skis waxed to match today’s temperatures, you not limited to the same trails that are limited on a down hill mountain course. Head out over an open farm field, an abandoned pasture, across a frozen lake and up, down, around twisting pathways through wooded sections.

Outdoors, Maine Is All About Being Outdoors Any Chance You Get All Year Round! Kids Play Outside, Adults Don’t Forget To Do The Same In Maine!

All the senses get a work out. You see the new sparkling snow pulling down the pine or fir tree limbs like they are defeated and shrugging their shoulders. You smell the fresh clean crisp air that your lungs call for the harder you work.

You hear the crunch of your skis on the snow compaction and as you lift one, push off with the other with poles planted to help guide the glide process.

You are getting a work out but don’t even realize it because all the senses are being fed with Maine outdoor beauty. It’s like manual labor working on a farm when you can have a good conversation at the same time. It is humbling and you realize how grateful you are for the chance to hit the trails whenever you can. Not much sharing needed or bumping into people involved.

Like kayaking, the lack of spending money just adds to the take away sensation cross country skiing.

Hitting The Snow Sled ITS Trails In Maine. Some Move You Fast Like Old Railroad Beds. Others You Can Poke Along And See More Countryside And Wildlife. You Can Cross Country Ski On These ITS Trails But High Tail It For The Woods When Those Ice Rocket Whine And Pass Your Wrap Speed. Side Trails Work Best For Cross Country Ski Adventures To Avoid the ER Visit.

We are so so lucky to live in Maine where outdoors, wide open space, beautify surrounds us year round. So many options to tap into when recreational is needed to shake up the routine and blow away the cobwebs when stuck inside too long. Cabin fever is a real illness if not addressed with doses of outdoor fresh air fun and bright but not as strong sunshine overhead mixed with the cobalt blue skies. Winter intensifies the scenery. You are not cold because you dressed with layers and did it with the right gear.

Cross country skiing with moonlight under the stars so brilliant overhead lighting trail.

Opens up a new World which is one of the best workouts that is take your time not tuck it in and whip down a mountain side like a speeding bullet. If your hands and feet are properly protected you won’t be cold from the vigorous work out cross country skiing. Take your time, set your own pace.

So cross country skiing in Maine. My local Rotary club raised thousands of dollars to purchase an enclosed trailer, to fill it with cross country skis of all sizes for kids to use. To learn the beauty and fun of sliding, gliding on cross country skis beneath your feet. In areas like Stockholm and New Sweden you see lots of local folks preserving the Nordic outdoor traditions. Many even have a sauna, that they race out of to roll in the snow. I was told you pronounce sauna by thinking of a female pig… “SOW and your expression for indifference when you don’t want to do something someone else does and you utter ” …nah”.

Animals, Pets Can Cross Country Ski With You Too! Just Remember To Pack The Dog Biscuit For Their Snack When You Are Munching On A Lunch Trailside. The Family Dog Works Up An Appetite From The Fresh Open Air Workout Too!

This blog post should also include snow shoeing and ice skating that are all designed to get you off the couch and to turn away or lay down your screen time device. But those two pastimes will be hashed out in greater detail in future posts on the winter recreation options in Maine. Pond hockey, ice fishing, who says not much to do outdoors in Maine during winter? Humbug. We’ve covered snow sledding to a higher degree previously.

What you need to know to lease or buy for cross country skiing in Maine?

What will it cost to do either? Renting vs buying cross country skis debated at this link. In Maine, there are lots of outlets to buy cross country skis and let’s tap into the LL Bean channel as one local place to shop if you are bent on buying cross country skis.

Bean also like other recreational sports has clinics and gives helpful advice on the topic. Around the state of Maine there is lots going on when you Google the topic of Maine cross country skiing. Like this from the Outdoor Center news in Fort Kent. Or Maine is one big honking state, let’s check in with available Bethel Maine cross country skiing options.

Maine Moose Jogging By A Maple Syrup Tapped Grove. Spring Air Stirs The Wildlife. He Won’t Hurt You… Bring Your Camera Cross Country Skiing to Capture Some Eye Candy.

Check Uncle Henry’s, Craiglist for cross country ski equipment that was purchase, outgrown or never used. Pre-owned appeals to the frugal nature of living in Maine.

You will fall cross country skiing.

But lots of people zinging by you like at a Maine downhill ski course won’t be a concern. Not a lot or any people watching you to feel embarrassed about when you do lose your balance and wipe out. Learning to turtle to get back up. Unlike using the gravity of a hill after a motorized lift to the top of a Maine ski mountain, cross country involves way more effort and higher calorie burn.

Getting up hill and dale with your own power not a low idling diesel doing all the work adds to the work out and the endorphins released in the gray matter. The trail is not often groomed silky smooth and flat. Ridges from past skiers can help or hurt the sliding your feet to keep moving along the trail.

Downhill skiing is like lazy man’s lobster where you are transported up the hill over and over.

Limited by the number of slopes and whether you are double black diamond or blue square or green circle rated. Cross country skiing is like cracking open the Maine lobster you boiler, crack each joint to get to the sweet meat. Does that make sense? It will when you trade in the fat wide skills for downhill powder for the long skinny ones to carve trails across a picturesque pasture setting.

Working Close, Dedicated, Dependable, That’s Maine. Small Towns Are Super Connected And Care About Each Other Dearly.

Many cross country ski areas are only groomed if at all occasionally. But you can make your own course if one is not close by or time just does not allow that big a chunk of it to get to and from the trail loop layout you really want to use. Many farms in Maine are converted to cross country ski slopes that are mild not wild and with warming huts adding to the comfort level. Snacks around what’s grown on the farm are part of the fun. Agriculture tourism is just starting to get its sea legs and really helps to prop up the economical health of any area in Maine.

The World Cup Biathlon helped take cross country skiing to a whole new level in Maine and was watched by millions worldwide. Here is the woman’s video snippet we shot and uploaded. Another of the World Cup competition of the mens division. Where you shoot a gun, are timed and go round and round a crowded course off cross country skiers with competitors from around the globe.

Are you up for back country skiing in a remote setting in Maine?

Bring your sleeping bag, a cook stove, a first aid kid and go off grid. Get below radar in a hidden section of Maine you can not get to by car where there is not rumble strip sound or engine jake brakes heard because highways are missing. Listen to winter sounds, the pine and fir needles vibrating and humming in the breeze. See snow releases from trees that make mini white outs like flour explosions.

Maine Winter, Less Colors Than Fall’s Explosion Can Still Be Dramatic Too! Ever Climbed Mt “K”?

Studying the tracks of animals that share their habitat with you in the silence of the season called Maine winter. Other cross country skiers have hit the trails before you or maybe you are breaking your own path in the new fallen white soft blanket of Maine snow. Like cutting into a new hot out of the oven Maine pie you can feel a little guilty or very fortunate getting the first slice of whatever is home made delicious.

Moving your arms forward and backward diagonally. Your feet and legs ahead then flowing behind you in back and forth synchronization with those arm glides. There is a rhythm. You’re settled into it.

Except you are not on a Nordic track staring at paneling in a cellar rec room.

No no, you are on an exciting path outdoors that is familiar or brand new exciting. It’s social when you see others cross country skiing as a family. And you stop for a lunch at a diner along the trail or open up the meal you packed. Unscrew the lid on hot tomato soup or whatever is in the thermos to quench the thirst. Sometimes you see no one on the trails except signs of animals that hurry and scurry leaving their foot print in their forage for food. You stop at a brook or lake to listen, to reflect, to rest. Then looking around ask is everyone ready? As you slide the gloves back on, reach for the skis with the straps on your hands to keep from loosing them down an ravine or just sliding down a hill on crust.

No motor, just your own two legs are what you ride on cross country skiing.

Two arms planting the poles too is an important part of the propulsion on the snow trail that is varied to be interesting.

Maine, Making Our Own Fun. Wake Up, Get Outdoors And Slide, Laugh, Spill. We Ski, We Skate, We Don’t Hibernate.

As you go at your own speed and get better at the art of cross country skiing the more you make time to do it. Here is another easy, all established trail system cross country ski option at Pineland Farms that has 5000 acres of outdoor living attached to it. All ages can do the cross country skiing and the pace is set on an individual basis.

The New England Outdoor Center in Millinocket Maine offers lots, not just cross country ski recreation. Anytime Mt Katahdin is in the backdrop of whatever your are doing in Vacationland, her majesty adds to the experience. Her look changes with the season when fall colors explode around her and snow caps her crown in winter. This is just a taste of where you can cross country ski in Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

December 30, 2018
Crossing The Big Green Bridge At The End Of Maine.

Trips to Boston, across into Canada are common when you live in Maine.

The latest trip to Bean Town was not because of a Red Sox game. Everyone in Red Sox Nation is still smiling from this year’s team World Series title. The Bruins, the Celtics are good replacements for time spent in an summer outdoor seat at Fenway. But this trip a pre-holiday to visit with daughter number one, her husband, little dog Paco. When you have lots of children, it is fun to spend time with just one once in awhile. It’s only a little over five hours drive all down hill from my home town location in Southern Aroostook County.

No. 284, A Neat Place To Stay When You Find Yourself Traveling From Maine To Boston’s Back Bay For The Weekend.

Food not sports with a museum or two, some local sights like the North Church was the plan. Walks along the Charles River. Eating at a few venues where sampling and sharing were the order of the day. Meg and I stayed at No. 284 on Commonwealth Avenue

History, Older Buildings, All Carefully Packed Together. The Sights, Sounds Of Boston MA Include Historic Churches, Colleges, Museums, Much More.

and Gloucester Street.

Mez the guy on the desk of the 23 room B&B / mini-hotel property in the Back Bay of Boston was a peach. So was Aphrodite. Both on the small team that signed us in and out on each end of the weekend stay at the 1881, six story brick boutique hotel.

The No. 284 went online this year after delicate renovations. It all combines a smaller corner neighborhood location that’s ideal for walkers with an emphasis on art. Large center stairway but there is an elevator for the less athletic.

No. 284 was built by a textile owner in the needle and thread trades who only stuck around to live here as a residence for a short time. Later the building transformed into a home to a music school, another time to educate and house those with disabilities. Think I read all that in a blurb over the weekend somewhere. Don’t hold me to it. All I know if the smaller platform place to stay and corner lot tucked away in an classy neighborhood location felt homey and special. Way way different than a hotel chain leaves for a taste from your stay in the sea of sameness and predictability.

We had been down to a Red Sox game or two and the handy extra parking space at my daughter’s place proved to be very valuable then and now. Walking to Fenway, anywhere in the Back Bay of Boston is sure a lot easier when your parking situation is a positive one. The No. 284 is only missing the giant parking open lot or tall concrete garage that the bigger Goliath hotels must possess.

Green Grass, No Snow In Mid December This Year In Boston MA.

The Uber, Lyft pick up and drop off when not just walking made the need for a parking lot go away in Boston MA.

Aren’t mobile phone apps neat when you can see your ride is six minutes away, here is another one just four blocks distant. The grass was green and the air decorated with festive Christmas trimmings as retailers did there best in lots of creative ways

Ouch. These Lights Look Dangerous. The Definition Of Sharp Painful Outdoor Lighting. Once Lit By Hand When A Candle Or Gas Filament Was Inside Needing Personal Daily Attention.

to lure shoppers into their operations. All store hammering away and announcing big discounts to create a call to action. A sense of urgency. To signal waiting paid off for all you last minute holiday shoppers. But let’s get down to business.

Friday night the dinner reservations were made at Alden & Harlo in Harvard Square, Cambridge. Saturday night we ate at Myers & Chang. When you have four people, ordering six to eight dishes to share makes it better than settling for one choice off the menu. Sampling at your table like a private buffet with out the sneeze guard and no standing in line. Get the cooking book so you can apply what you sample at home with friends.

In between for lunch Saturday the healthy fare was provided by Dig Inn in Copley Square. All locally sourced, fresh, organic which made Meg smile as the bowl was created by pointing to select this and that. Wally’s Cafe & Jazz Club provided the live music after we pushed away from grazing. Being this close to Berklee School of Music creates a hangout for lots of up and coming musicians. To bang on the drums, the big bass, to flutter on the flute and for quick guitar fret cord changes. For area residents to jam jammed probably more tightly than the state fire officials would approve of in for the very small but well known Boston MA jazz venue. Everyone regardless of age gets carded this close to all those under age college patrons.

Being a real estate broker, it is hard not to marvel at the buildings.

All the styles, the money put into preservation is impressive. The lack of space makes the abundance of buildings in your

Look Up, Think Of Who Designed, Who Built, Who Maintains This Kind Of Craftmanship.

face though and tall structures cause shadows, darkness. Not visual overload for a weekend visit but with time, I am still glad to have the open space of rural small town Maine. The open parks, spaces strategically placed around the buildings helps in Boston. But crowded, too close happens in a city that is so not an issue in the rural Maine countryside where everything gets a dose of sunshine, fresh blue air and S-P-A-C-E!

Bear With Me As Christmas Approaches Too Fast. The Holiday Is Coming In Hot With Too Little Time, So Much To Do. Oh Bother One Bear Laments.

The open promenade across from N0. 284 was studded with hardwood shade trees. Someone with a bucket truck was very busy like a skilled North Pole posse of elves put in charge of holiday decorating.

Hoisting the strings of Christmas lights up and down to adorn 200 trees that when turned on at night looked like mitten gloves pointed skyward but missing the finger tips.

It gave the illusion that all the trees were dead, with missing limbs and just stumps due to the twinkling clear lights only traveling up so far that matched the reach of the utility truck.

Visiting any new location away from your regular haunts over the holidays is memorable. Did you travel somewhere in or out of Maine this past weekend so close to Christmas? Or what are your plans for New Years? Travel opens the mind, can empty the wallet if not done creatively. But all must remember it is hard to see the World from your kitchen window.

Sharing your travel experiences is so so easy with social media outlets.

Big Ones, Little Ones, Modern And Old Ones. Cities As Old As New England’s Boston MA Showcase It All. Walk, Talk, Gawk.

Take along your friend list and share your images of where you travel. To show others in your family what you have been up to these days when so many live far apart but not cut off with an Internet connection to keep it current on the what’s up, what’s happening. They all want to know where you been hiding.

Maine is always pretty any season, for any reason and our blog posts try to nail the beauty one venue post at a time. But heading back to where a lot of folks travel from, the Boston area is good to sample and showcase on the other side of the big green bridge.

When was the last visit you made to Maine? Isn’t it over due for you? Maine. Don’t stay away so long.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew F. Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

December 18, 2018
What’s It Like Living In Maine?

What’s it like living in Maine?

It’s pure and natural and four season beautiful. But somethings are the same no matter where you hang your hat. Minding my own business and the phone in Maine rings. We get those interruptions too. Ever get a call where someone promises you this phone interview should not take long? They act like you are getting an important call you expected. Just a few simple questions and you are free to go. The whoever think tank public opinion pollster they work for on the other end on the signal is never sufficiently identified.

Because both sides of the hurried conversation just want to get it over with quickly.

You because you had other task plans that were interrupted by taking the phone call. The voice from the other end because maybe they get compensated the higher the number per completed interview. And extra points heaped on like the ice cream cherry on top. If they can sway and skew the results in the direction of whoever is funding this rate the following one to five or chose from the following two sides of the coin positions on some trending hot topic.

Working Together, Making Maine Great. It Takes Accurate Information About What’s It Like In Maine To Attract People To Move, Relocate Here.

You know the drill when the telephone is ringing and gotcha, you picked up.

Now what? When neither question options to select from really completely nails it on how do you really feel on this, this and one more question choice. You wonder where are they going with this line of questions? Who wants to know and how are they going to use the poll results?

The interview when it goes on too long can become a had enough situation.

Just get through the questions and you’re not even sure what they are asking after the slur of words as patience wears thin. How much longer? My life is on hold and I’m wasting daylight. That’s the way anyone living or growing up on a Maine farm reacts to costly delays when chores are waiting. Because the simple couple of questions in the poll is not the case. Too many parts to the all important poll questions that just keep coming your way. Had an interviewer doing the poll say “now we move into the part of the survey where we ask you blah blah…” ?

I thought we WERE close to the end and it was going to be like you tell the kids “quick like a bunny”. Whew, I’m off the hook soon. Trying to help the telemarketer pollster. But realizing with a bad taste developing in my mouth. That there is a pattern to the what is being asked and how it is being phrased in the progression of need your opinion inquiries.

The questions try to build a case for some kind of public opinion poll result position for whoever funded this exercise.

You are the witness being groomed for a case by your yea or nay response. Or could be cast away and deemed as not so fun, not so useful on the hunt to find those who are. I guess if 80 to 90 percent of respondents feel a certain way, that influences where you throw your support?

Small Maine Towns Where People Are Closely Knit, Often Times Related.

Mainers are pretty practical independent thinkers. When the end is near and you can smell freedom to get on with your life the answer box checker individual asks would you mind if a reporter calls you? Somehow your answers make you a good candidate for a talking head holding a mic with the bright light to saddle up beside you. For collecting a staged, distilled thought provoking little video clip and a catchy sound bite. Because you and I seem to trust the man on the street a little more than the wisdom of the one in the elected office.

Nothing can rub a true Mainer harder the wrong way either than some of the blog posts or media interviews that try to size up the state based on a very narrow viewpoint.

One that does not represent how those who live here really feel about the Maine experience. What is it like living in Maine. The power of the pen authority you don’t know from Adan applies their own template of good, bad, ugly Maine rating as they try to size up the biggest New England state. From what they find important that it is assumed every other reader agrees with who lives here. Or assuming the reaction they would have by this tour guide trying to save everyone a little heart ache.

But the images used in the post that they not take. Because never been here or it was a whirlwind trip for a few hours, parts of a day or weekend that does not help you size up the what do you think about Maine. The copy is a quick cut and dry that sounds a lot like the shortcomings in other rural state locations they also have a strong opinion on and are not timid about sharing it.

The size it up based on not very much real information from local experiences and lacking interviews with people from Maine that could share valuable insight. Instead, judging the area from a few comment trails in a forum. Filling in with what they don’t know by broad brushing the state of Maine is an overly critical spot light like they were a life long resident.

And they miss the mark about summing up what Maine is like horribly.

But those hunt and pecked electrons hit and run damaging pieces sure do make the rounds on blog posts circuit that continue to come up in search results as gospel.

Outdoor Jaunts On Foot, In A Wagon Or Sleigh Depending On The Season. Mainers Are Outdoors All Four Seasons Touring The Gorgeous Unspoiled Countryside.

Beat the drum louder, longer and remind the reader in search of where to move, where to vacation, anything Maine to make sure your authority is in the Pine Tree state and actually lives here. So they know what they are talking about from first hand grass roots experience. not repeating a myth and acting like an authority when they don’t have much boots on the ground. The landscape changes and gets reinvented so historical perspective helps the explanations you read about when someone is looking for the lay of the land first hand information to base their opinion on Maine.

What’s it like living in Maine and can we hear from those in the Vacationland region in the answers?

What is really important, what matters most for everyone does not come up with the same pat answers. Responses to FAQ about Maine. That shows someone has filled you with a lot of bull or you just need more accurate information to base your decision to move to Maine, to vacation here. Come see for yourself, do your own thinking, draw your own conclusions on Maine.

Points to remember about living here in Maine….

It’s more than quaint sea salt air and rock bound coastal harbor towns with a collection of lighthouses. Maine offers more than a moose sighting and a lobster roll and that concludes the check list of what you come for and then quickly leave. Back over the big arched green iron bridge on the southern end connecting it to the rest of New England and points unknown. Maine is rolling farms, virgin wood forests, wildlife of all types. It is hardworking families, mom and pop small businesses, Maine is small town grateful people. Maine is unspoiled and not over commercialized, the fourth lowest crime state. You don’t experience traffic or waiting around in Maine living. It is low cost real estate, uncomplicated simple living and more hands on DIY. Neighbors helping each other.

Keep your card in your wallet and save the yearly membership dues for roadside assistance. You won’t need triple A to jump start your dead car battery. Just put up the hood and watch five people put on the four way flashers and join forces to give you a hand. To stay with you until a solution to the problem is figured out like you have known them for years. You can trust the down to Earth Mainer who is upbeat and positive and who shy away from whining, complaint or snarky. Because you are wasting daylight, you are not squeezing out of life what is most important that you kid’s pick up and apply to their outlook to pass on to their young ones. What’s it like living in Maine?

Help others and add your talents to make things better than they were.

Meet Your Neighbor In Maine. Shy, Quiet, Usually Four Legged.

Mainers contribute, make themselves useful and don’t feel entitled, are anything but lazy. You will be rescued if ever stranded on the highways of Maine. You too will help others broke down to figure out solutions so they don’t stay that way. Small Maine towns are like that.

We don’t rely so heavily on money to fuel the experience. Mainers are more into using their imaginations, snow shoeing across the white blanketed farm field or through a woods trail. We have it all from clean air, fresh water, a sky loaded with stars overhead and no light pollution.

You will like all pure natural Maine for what she does offer and the even longer list of what you don’t enjoy where you live now in an urban setting. The best of both worlds is to live in small town Maine but plan a trip to a population center to sample and return to simple low cost living for the bulk of your day to day lifestyle pursuits.

The Internet lets folks roam freely and telecommute remotely to online jobs that once kept them limited and tethered to an expensive city locations.

Whether starting a family, retiring after a long career, opening up a business enterprise or just on vacation, you could not do better than Maine. The Canadian provincial connection just adds to the sizzle for a truly International bonus “two nation vacation”.

What’s it like living in Maine?

When you read up on Maine, go deeper than the only been to Portland ME or other coastal town contributors. Or avoid those who have never set foot in Maine nor have any personal experiences to draw from to make it an accurate representation of this great state with all the space, where you can entertain yourself so completely without using a credit card for the artificial retail therapy temporary fix. Here are some community videos of Maine to add to the homework assignment as you glean and surf the net.

Maine is not wall to wall people on top of each other fighting to get you out of their face and space.

Has the nearest city to where you live now outside of the state of Maine started the sprawl in your direction? Is your small town changing in how it used to be back when you enjoyed the community? Maybe it is time to consider where and when you are going to have to face the facts. To relocate to Maine, the way life should be. How much information on Maine do you have and where do you get it? This blog on what’s it like living in Maine tries to shed some light on the topic from a local that grew up here and loves the state!

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

December 9, 2018
Insulating Your Home In Maine, Stretching Energy Heating Dollars.

Insulating your home in Maine, how to heat it more efficiently when the dollars are scarce.

This blog post is about how to stretch your heating dollars. Because money left over from heating your Maine home can be applied to other financial obligations that visit your crowded mailbox monthly. Let’s face it, Maine is loaded with older housing stock. When many of the homes were built, heating oil cost just pennies on the dollar. Wood lots surround us too because Maine is 91 percent timberland. The forest offers plenty of low cost, of renewable heating resource opportunities. If you have the gumption to a season ahead cut, split, stack and prepare your house chimney for heating with wood.

The Peace And Quiet In Maine Winter White. Unplug, Recharge, Get Your Head Screwed On Straight. Tackle Heating Your Maine Home More Sensible With An Audit.

I’ve blogged on the love affair of Jotul woodstoves before which you already know about if you have hung around this channel for any length of time.

Woodstoves offer more to simple living in Maine than just the heating your home benefit. Cardio exercise from the yearly trip to the wood lot to gather and process your winter fuel give you a self sufficient feeling of contentment. The rising cost of other fuels to heat your home don’t concern you so much when the four, eight or however many cords of seasoned wood are neatly stacked in the 4 x 4 x 8 rows.

Cooking on a wood stove and heating your domestic hot water are secondary gains helping stretch your Maine energy dollars. The cheerful blaze that lights up your winter hibernation improves your bottom line financial health tremendously. So do southern exposure insulated walls of glass that get sealed in and buttoned up with Roman shades when the yellow orange ball disappears from high overhead.

But whoa big fella. Neck reining to get back to making your home in Maine easier to heat.

Besides the energy heating credits for installing heat pumps, high efficiency water heaters, the space you live in can be tightened up.

Sunshine Outside In Maine During Winter. We Dress Warm, Head Outside. Saying Sayonara To The Couch And Channel Changer Wand.

To reduce the need for whatever is used to heat your living area called home. Closing off unused areas, wearing more than t-shirt short sleeves around your home lower the energy costs too. It does not mean being able to see your breath or wondering why the house plants are dead or the domestic pets seem a little frost bit. But lots of articles promote 65 degrees as the benchmark to maintain.

The t-shirt under the long sleeve whatever you wear is the one extra comfort level to remove the chill of winter living in Maine. Reaching for the afghan or couch throw blanket becomes a habit that replaces twisting the thermostat dial so hard to the right to stay warm while feeling guilty at the same time. Whatever you wear has to breathe like your attic and venting, wicking all make what you wear an educated choice whether your put into your house for insulation or hang on your body for lasting warmth.

The home itself, what can be done for low cost improvements to keep the heat inside longer?

The best return on whatever the energy cost updates you do select are the ones underwritten by government agencies. Here is a list of energy saving conservation funding sources to consider tapping into to help chisel away the size of your heating and electrical lighting bills. Heating oil assistance is one of the most searched for terms in Maine. Considering a smaller square footage energy efficient home is a smart move too if the house around you is just too darn big. Or converting part of it into a rental apartment could be a wise move if you want to keep the same mailing address. Turning your home into a money making rental for a loved one brings families closer together. The trips to the grocery store include consideration of someone other than yourself that needs a loaf of bread or a quart of milk.

Energy efficiency in your Maine house starts with an audit.

Let’s face it. Most of use don’t have money to burn and heating the great outdoors is not your goal because we all know you and I were not really brought up in a barn. The simple habits to close the exterior door when you go out and come in is a given common sense maneuver. If you educate your kids to consider the warm air in your home is like water. That leaks out through holes in your house that all add up. Turning off lights becomes a habit if it is taught early on out of respect for the monthly budget bottom line painful check writing.

See The Light, Love The Surroundings, The Locals In Maine Small Towns. Maine Winters Are Peaceful Once You Get Beyond The Hectic Holiday Traditions!

Weather stripping, beefing up your attic and cellar wall insulation. Caulking around window and door cracks and gaps. Stuffing insulation in the cavity voids around new insulated replacement windows tightens up the efficiency of the energy use you are determine to ride herd on better. This is the Department of Energy’s list of where your heating air escapes and areas to double up on to stop the leakage. More on rebates and loans for energy conservation in your Maine house. To save money and get efficient. Frugal is not the same thing as cheap. It is a true desire to use less, get more and be efficient. In control of your energy dollars when winter is in full swing outside your home sweet home.

Adjusting your house thermostat for eight to ten hours can save ten percent of what you shell out for energy. A programable thermostat would be a thoughtful stocking stuffer for the person on your gift list that could sure use it to trim their household heating and cooling bills.

Not everyone hangs a heat pump or two on the outside of their home.

Stacks of wood for the kitchen stove, cellar furnace or the outdoor boiler behind your home is not everyone’s path to energy use dieting. Rebates for updating Maine home oil or gas furnaces explained in the highlight link you just past and need to put ‘er in reverse to check out if you have time for more belt tightening tips and cash back options.

Annual servicing and filter replacement in the energy tune up of whatever furnace is purring down cellar or in the ground floor utility room of the Maine home is money well spent. If you are lucky enough to have a fireplace in the Maine house, remember that when used they only are about five to ten percent efficient. Once you remove the romantic value of those positive ions spilled into your living room, consider there is another use. Slide in an insert with a pellet or wood stove or considering adding a gas log for a warm glow in your living space.

All the calculated maneuvers help make your home in Maine easier to heat and cool.

Cheaper costs for the energy to do both if nothing is rushed and the home work to heat and cool the sticks and bricks is a well thought out plan. One funded by the money you already waste if you do nothing but shiver, bitch and complain. Get determined not depressed. Take some steps to shake it up. Often you are cold because you just simply are not dressed right. Layering those clothes, changing up what you wear for comfort is just a smart move. Requiring a little thought when you slide out the dresser drawer or reach into your bedroom closet each morning for something parked and waiting on a hanger to consider wearing today.

Getting Around In Maine, Lots Of Options In Vacationland. Park The Car, Hoof It. Strap On Some Bear Paws.

Like if you don’t ride herd on your credit card use, lack of thought put into how you heat and live in your Maine home can suck you deeper into a financial black hole. Not one has to be cold nor should they be. But being warm as toast does not just happen surviving a Maine winter. Landlords can tap into available funding to make rental apartments warmer, to save themselves and their tenants hard earned money.

It’s up to you and you can be independent. By making a game of being thrifty in whatever you use for a heating resource combined with tightening up the living space you call your Maine home is just good business. Your kids are watching and learning from your dance to save money and stretch those smaller piles of dollars too. Too practical or square? Or survival life skill? How do you approach energy conservation regardless of your savings account size?

Heating your Maine home for less means adding double pane windows that can account for 25% of your energy waste during the heating and cooling seasons. Or shortening the marathon showers where waste means extra dollars you may not have to spend. The ones you might enjoy not frittering. Instead used for something you would rather see them spent on for something a little more worthwhile to improve your life experience.

Making your home easier to heat and cool.

Whatever you do, when you feel a chill, don’t heat up the entire household to chase it away. Consider space heaters where you are hanging out for the next few hours watching a movie. Or better yet, say sayonara to your couch and go cross country skiing, ice skating, for a walk in the wintery wonderland during a Maine winter. Attend a local basketball or ice hockey game and don’t hunker down all winter long stuck inside your home in Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

November 25, 2018