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Gardening In Maine | Here Come The Spring Seed Catalogs.

About this time of year, seed catalogs begin showing up in the mail box.

The excitement of what to plant in your spring garden builds as you thumb through the colorful pages of a seed catalog. Johnny’s Seeds is one Maine supplier. Fedco is another, so is the Maine potato lady that all have a super Internet presentation to supply your garden seed.

Backyard gardening, not a large scale commercial farm acreage approach but a small square footage plot of dirt to work. The word garden, just what direction are you thinking of heading? Vegetable, flower, herb, fruit, plant pots, raised beds, patio gardens with window boxes?

Whatever you are planning to grow could involve transplanting from your indoor start. All you need is some reused milk cartons, a south facing glass exposure and large window sill. Or to set up the card tables covered with newspaper. And fill the peat pots with rich organic topsoil. Every garden is a new beginning of food or eye candy delight. Cooking in tandem with the garden seasons makes what you grow really sing.

Gardening. Your Crop Yield Of Home Grown Vegetables, Fruits, Flowers! Seed Catalogs Arriving Over The Winter Are Exciting Stuff When You Like To Get Down On Your Knees In Your Maine Garden. Seed Catalogs Excite, Enrich The Soul.

Easy does it because if the garden scope is too large, good luck keeping up with weeding, feeding, watering, management of whatever you plant this spring. There is a trick to planning what is going to need this portion of the garden space to grow and be harvested just in time before something that blooms later moves into the same region.

Something too tall shielding the low to the ground vegetation from warm sunshine is not good planning. Knowing what grows in full sun or partial shade like kale, carrots means reading up on what each variety of seeds needs for ingredients. To flourish and be bountiful right?

How deep, how far to space the seeds? Gardening has a learning curve and you will definitely know if you did it wrong. Your crop yield will be the proof in your gardening to defend the plants from insects, animals along with your growing knowledge of soil science. Ever flamed parsnips? It is a delicate process with the gas torch. And why they fetch such a high price because of the difficulty getting them through all the steps from seed to the final garden harvest.

Guidance for your gardening on whatever scope is available from the Cooperative Extension folks at the University of Maine system.

A helping hand in your gardening that may pick up speed to become a self sustaining commercial agricultural enterprise is always on tap to serve you to from the neat folks at MOFGA.

My Aunt Molly passed away this year. She lived on a family farm. And every time I slow down to stop at the corner she lived on, I look over to the garden spot she pridefully tended. There was a scare crow to help the grow with the many flashing, moving in the breeze tin plates waving on some fishing line. A lone chair sat waiting for use in the center of her vegetable garden. Where she could immerse, sit for a spell surrounded by the spoils of her green thumb abilities. Aunt Molly was the most dedicated vegetable and flower gardener I ever met.

Clusters Of Lupine, Sometimes They Are More Spaced And Scattered.

She would be wearing a floppy hat to shield her from the sunshine beaming down from overhead her Maine garden domain. Her cat and dog would visit her to as she bent over to pull a weed here, to transplant a seedling there. Aunt Molly would spend hours in her pretty impressive flower garden beds whenever not toiling in the vegetable garden soil. And around her farmstead home, gorgeous flower beds would provide the kind of beauty only Mother Nature creates with patience and sunshine, soft rain water. And don’t forget, with a little help from the chirping birds and busy bees. Who both have a hand in the planting, the pollenation of whatever pops up for bright green shades of chutes from the dark brown rich Earth soil.

Aunt Molly was good friends with Sam Gervais who shared her joy of flower beds. Who did his part to beautify his North Road location where his motel was located for sleepy travelers to lay their head in the bed.

The many local gardeners in a small Maine town are like an orchestra tuning up with color and vegetation that add sparkle to the surroundings. In spring, the local greenhouses in small town Maine communities are bustling with commerce. As flats of green peppers, beef stake tomatoes and anything not direct seed planted in the garden is paid for and carted out to the cars and trucks. Placed in pick up beds, carefully lowered into car trunks, on placed on the floor in the backseats of the rows and rows. Of vehicles who all bee line to the local producers of garden seedlings. And share what they are planting again or trying for the first time in their Maine gardens.

Soil Testing To Know Where Your Garden Soil Scores High Or Low. More Than Just The Study Of Your Dirt’s Sweet Or Sour PH Levels When Gardening In Maine.

Ever plant garlic, dill, cilantro, bee baum, eggplant, whatever catches your eye in the new edition seed catalog. That causes you to stray away from just big yellow, or silver and gold ears shucked off the stalks of corn? Or pole beans, leaf lettuce, radishes, beets, turnips, anything from the squash family or for cucumbers? Like wandering into the tall aisles at Lowes or Home Depot, where the choices are so vast. The seed catalog selection variety of even just one vegetable, fruit or flower type can seem like too much!

Have you taken a soil test of your garden plot to know about the soil amendments needed to make it the most productive seed bed possible? Do you use black plastic to help your chili peppers get the warm as toast soil reception needed to grow grow grow big, straight and strong?

Hats for your transplants that look like the band Devo performing until they harden off. Protecting tender, spindly seedlings from the wind. Transplants do not like the summer breeze or cold spring gusts of wind. But a week or two with protection is all it usually takes. Locally it is pretty neat to drive by a garden tended to the hilt where everything is weed free, in perfect precision rows without grass slowing down the garden growing process. You can spot your sharpest gardeners easily from their roadside displays. It is sad to see a garden lose the battle of grass and weed control.

Do you think of what attracts the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds when making your garden seed selection?

What kind of carrots do you buy seed for? It all ties in with the length of your growing season, the menu you serve up in your Maine family household doesn’t it? Ask the chef what she or he prefers for fresh vegetables sliced and diced to slide off a cutting board into the boiling pots arranged around the stove top.

Maine Blueberries, Can You Just Taste Them From This Eye Candy Image Designed To Tempt And Tease? They Can Be Cultivated High Bush But Grow Wild Low To The Ground In Acidic Soil With Rock Outcroppings And Boulders On The Barrens In Downeast Maine.

Have you ever canned stewed tomatoes, put up bread and butter pickles to store on the root cellar shelves? To draw from slowly over the winter months. While waiting for another spring to show up on the calendar to being again the replenishing of your garden plot that all starts with seedlings.

Have you ever weighed out, bought a brown paper bag pound or two of onion bulbs to systematically plant in a row and experienced crows, heckle and jeckle blackbirds turning them upside down? Replanting them for you the wrong way. Remember raccoons or black bears or deer visiting your garden produce center just before it ripened? They have perfect timing and know how to select tender veggies and fruits. To help themselves to a little snack late at night as they party hearty in your vegetable garden. Where you provide the fresh veggie platter for the wildlife?

Lots of critters can not resist the leaf lettuce, the first to show up and one of the last to leave the garden at last call. They don’t need to add sugar like we do. Or splash on the vinegar to bathe the cucumber slices completely. But nothing compares to the kale, their hearty cabbage cousins who can hunker down under a blanket of new fallen garden snow.

With Maine vegetable gardens there is always enough to go around and half the joy in backyard micro farming is sharing whatever matures over the summer and into the fall months.

Just one hill of zucchini please and thank you. And keep what you pick small and tender. Not the heavy club left on the vine too long. Your neighbors, family members, co-workers and the elderly in your life especially really appreciate whatever you deliver to them that was grown in your own unique garden operation. A box of raspberries, a rounded high quart of blueberries, a heaping container of cultivated or wild strawberries. Your drop off of a big canvas sack or box of heirloom apples from your private orchard is most appreciated. Garden bounty is the best nutritious gift anyone can give or receive. A fresh picked and assorted all natural flower arrangement brightens any desk, bureau, kitchen or dining room table. The colors, the fragrance, the textures, the floral arrangement put together just so is the DIY spice of life.

A Simple Maine Garden Experiment Can Lead To A Full Time Agricultural Food Business Farm Operation. Three Times A Day You Gotta Eat Right? What’s On Your Table At Meal Time?

Some would argue don’t bother tying up space and time with tending hills of potatoes in your garden space. Same with broccoli. Because there is so much planted when you live in a county like Aroostook that produces lots of both. Especially spud acreages of all varieties. That are free for the foraging if you start the healthy habit of gleaning a farm field with permission at fall harvest time. True, there is nothing like new Cobbler or Green Mountain potatoes. Performing at meal time with fresh peas, lathered in local milk to tickle the taste buds that you grew yourself is there? Anyone getting hungry to garden in Maine for fresh food you had a hand in creating? More on food hubs, you are what you eat.

Sitting in a rocking chair in a Maine farm home kitchen with a wood stove working its magic. A cup of fresh hot coffee or steaming tea nursed on while leafing through the glossy four color pages of the latest new vegetable or flower seed catalog.

Are you in that moment and thinking about spring planting and adding new varieties, retaining old favorites and pondering with just where to put them in your private garden? And how big, how many gardens, what type do you ride herd on that starts with the dreams planted inside your head when the mailman delivers the latest seed catalogs to your doorstep? The best ten items to grow in your garden crops for beginners.

Grow you own sure beats pushing the expensive wire cart with the one squeaky difficult wheel down at the Piggly Wiggly foodliner. Maine, it’s all about living outdoors, the wide open space, the fresh air, clean water and simple pleasures. Like digging in your garden soil. Getting down on your knees and living the experience of gardening from A to Z. Knowing exactly what you are serving up each meal. Where the food came from and no chemicals were used on the garden items placed on your table. Used for feeding your family that is all natural and home grown special.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

January 28, 2018
Small Towns In Maine Where You Do Know Your Neighbor.

Living in small town Maine means time to commune with nature, to sample the great outdoors.

But it also means getting to know the neat people who live in the smaller populations spread out pretty thinly in this vast state of Maine. Less time spent in traffic, we do talk to strangers. We don’t worry about gangs, crime, person safety in Maine.

Energy, Promise, Exercise, Discipline, Entertainment In Small Maine Towns! Our Youth Provide It In Maine Communities.

We have time for our passions and hobbies. And the circles we travel intercept and overlap each other. Often because our kids have a play in the introductions. Like AYBL (Aroostook County Youth Basketball League) basketball, SAMHA (Southern Aroostook Minor Hockey Association) hockey, Dutch soccer, soap box derby, etc for sports as just a few examples. Of the small town activities where you and I will probably be attending and it’s how we get to know each other.

By working alongside each other because the events are home grown, hands on, self run by the non profit volunteers. Who add the sparkle to small Maine town living. These individuals are the small town flavor and spark. There is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer in Maine. Especially if kids are involved. We love to watch them progress up through the ranks to adulthood.

Just got back from three youth basketball games today at Southern Aroostook Community School that drives home the point about it really does take the entire village to raise the kids in it.

The coaches, referees, parents, all the folks who run the snack shack. Collect money at the gate. That put in countless hours to instruct and instill the rules, the respect for the game. The kids remember first hand someone lit the fire under them as a youngster introducing them to these activities. The ones that shaped their lives. That started the passion to take hold, to burn and roll along and take on different progressive levels.

Many Small Towns Combining Into One School System Proud Of It’s Youth, It’s Home Grown Programs.

Downhill skiing, someone got you to the slope and back. Not always Mom and Dad. Somebody helped keep your snow sled running and taught you about mechanics to know how to fix what is wrong. An individual is to blame for introducing you to horse back riding and showed you the ropes on how best to take care of the horse or pony.

Remember who sponsored your little league baseball team? Who played catch with you and was at batting practice at the local playing field before the summer games at the ball diamond in a small Maine town. Who instilled confidence in you and taught you to play as a team. Reminded you there is no “I” in “TEAM”? Be that person to play it forward. Remembering what it was like to be a kid in a small Maine town.

Camping, hunting, fishing, boating, hiking, swimming, farming, anything outdoors in Maine. The activities, the sport and pleasure of it all is just a variation on a theme that kicks you in the butt to slide off the couch. To motivate all ages to get outside. Or to dig deeper to gain the skill and exercise inside. For all we do for fun and relaxation in Maine. For our physical, our mental health that strengthens and defines the small community in Maine.

There are a lot of grown adults that are really big kids in small town Maine.

That help guide the so many youth oriented programs available in small Maine communities. Everyone has a job as a music booster for the community concert, the show choir, jazz band and there are always competitions that get hosted on the local level. With each community taking turns to roll out the red carpet, make some money, put in some long man hours of planning and the hard work to pull off the events.

Presque Isle Wildcats Traveled Down Into Southern Aroostook County To Shoot Some Hoops. To Improve Their Game, To Help Others Learn From Their Skill Set.

The parents, grandparents bring in baked goods, sew costumes, donate their skill set. The local businesses donate at their cost or for gratis to get behind an event. To show their home town proud spirit of support.

Thank you to the host school Southern Aroostook Community that opened up the doors to the purple painted walls of the gym. To host the AYBL basketball round robin for 9, 10 year old boys this weekend.

The food was something else too. More than just pizza slices bought many hours ago and steamed hot dogs, cheese nachos and popcorn. Way more than the standard fare of grub you find at a high school sport’s venue.

No no, they had fire made on stone pizza. Hand tossed, garlic sprinkled with you pick the topping crafted right on the premises. Served up fresh, piping hot right out of the oven every eight minutes. Baked beans in the crock pot, chicken stew loaded with veggies with dough rolls. Or let them ladle out a dish of chili, lasso a large soft pretzels, munch on a home made cookies. Or maybe a couple. Hey it’s for a good cause. Yes, I did over eat and the friendly well staffed snack bar helped make the school some money and to feed the many families wandering in and out of the lobby at SACS in Dyer Brook ME. Friendly folks, most you soon get to know that turned out to climb up into the purple bleachers to watch, cheer loudly for their young home town team. The fans and players that were wearing their school colors. And the teams very small, young, low to the ground for the refs to school on the art of basketball rules and regulation introduction.

Gas Grill Open Fire Stone Baked Pizza! MMMmmmmm Good And A Smart Money Maker! Andy’s IGA Gives The School The Portland Pie Dough For Only A $1.12 A Fresh Tasty Crust Ball.

In a small Maine town, you are related to many of the names spelled out on the back of the player jerseys.

All the fans came out in groves to watch the home town basketball teams this weekend. It is like old home week and the kids are the reason you showed up. They are the entertainment, the future of our small Maine towns. The games of hoop and orange ball are fun to watch, get you out of the house. And you can not help but think how far this player out on the court will go. Maybe he or she will help bring home a gold ball, some other awards for the glass lobby trophy case in about six to nine years when sporting a little larger sized varsity jersey.

I am lucky to live in a small Maine town and proud of all the local individuals out front, or that stay behind the scenes in the shadows. They don’t need the recognition. There is not a big ego needing to be stroked. That’s not the motivation. For putting in the time, energy and money to create all the neat activities, the programs found built from the ground up in our communities. Those programs that would not be possible to hire out to be done year in and out.

There is not enough money to subsidize paid staff. That would not even come close to the level of effort these small town Maine folks put in when they roll up their sleeves that is over the top. And the same individuals perform the myriad of tasks year after year in small Maine communities. They sign on for life and next year’s events are always in the back of their minds being fine tuned to turn out even better next year. To crowd please and keep the momentum rolling in the small community that hosts the unique events. Without the volunteers, there would be no small community to call your home town in Maine. Last guy out turn off the lights.

Ever thought of living, moving, relocating to small Maine town?

It’s not crazy, you are needed. Your talents, your skill set will enhance the local fabric that is calling your name. Here for questions, your local insider to outline the steps and create the plan to make your return mail address one in Maine, Vacationland. The way life should be.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730

January 21, 2018
Nursing Home Visits Can Uncover Much Local ME History.

Visiting a shut in at a nursing home or an elderly member of a small Maine town that is house bound can yield much rich local history.

Meg and I visited one gentleman in the local Gardiner Nursing home yesterday. And it made all three of our days. As you listen to the yesteryear stories, you see the energy and vitality return to the tale teller. Our local resource in the Maine nursing home shared much on local buildings now gone or replaced. The folks who lived in the neighborhood houses, recounting tid bits of information about their families. All local history facts that fade with time but need to be documented to pass on and stay alive.

This person grew up on Prospect Street in Houlton Maine and talked at length about a wagon or carriage factory that was three stories high. The top level for painted fancier carriages, the bottom level used more for working wagons. He explained his uncle had patented in 1902 a special wagon for the local Northern Maine potato farmers to save wear and tear on their backs. The design of the axle to lower the platform was very popular. To make it easier for their help, the families working on the farm to load barrels of potatoes out of the field up and onto the wagon platform. For the journey to the local potato house for storage over the winter months. To draw from and empty the bins in one by one load sales to the consumer down country that was accessed by railroad. No overnight, just in time inventory deliveries from trailer trucks at this time in history available.

Earlier SUV Open Wagons, Carriages Built In Houlton Maine Prospect Street’s 3 Story Factory.

We also had a local Aroostook County tinkerer who invented a tong potato barrel hoist that had three claws.

That you could toss from the loading flat bed truck used to collect the barrels. Attaching itself like a spider on the top of potato storage barrel made of cedar staves or sheets of plywood. The hoist tong would tighten and hold tightly to the straps of wood that held the barrel frame together as it was pulled upward and swung over to be lowered on to to the stake truck platform loading area. Using an electric motor first and then modified with hydraulic pump running off the truck’s engine.

I had taken this same gentleman through a house we had listed for sale a few years back. That was being shown to a friend of his, a classmate who moved back to retire in Houlton Maine. The retired builder came along to explain how the home was built, what was the custom at the time in the local construction of neighborhoods in my small Maine town. He was like a building inspector of sorts, like a shop teacher on the home tour. The flooring was oak when 90% of the same type homes of the period were constructed with maple stock. I asked the builder who had hung up his saw and hammer, nail pouch but able to drive himself around, who had created this house back in 1957, just why that was.

He smiled as the story started like it was yesterday and crystal clear in his memory.

George Keeps Any Eye On Market Square In My Northern Maine Town Of Houlton.

Explaining he did not want to use oak but maple flooring was not to be found. There was a shortage of any local building supply inventory of maple flooring to use in this ranch style home on the southern end of the village. The oak flooring cost $100 more for the entire home and was a last resort to keep his men busy and the project moving along so he could finish up one house to begin another next door.

As one by one the structures popped up on both sides of the street. To hook to existing water and sewer, the electrical utilities. And have the street built to specs so the local municipality would adopt the roadway and take on responsibility for paving, snow plowing, lighting and the routine maintenance that would be required in the years ahead. These houses sold for $4000, $5000 and a high of $6000 which was big money at the time for a Northern Maine home.

In small Maine towns, walking scores are off the chart too.

You don’t need to rate the area for how easy it is or safe you are if you decide to take a stroll for some fresh air. Day or night, we walk any chance we get. Often it is quicker not just healthier than firing up the steel horse, parking it and bee-lining for the destination in mind. You see other members of the community along the way and I find myself thinking about who lived in this house before the current owner. And to try to think back through the chain of ownership and to consider what was it like in my small Maine town when it was first built.

Snow Sledding, Ice Fishing, Pond Hockey Skating. Maine Winters Are Just As Special As The Other Three Seasons.

Not knowing that a great great uncle lived in this home or moved to that one over there after a fire. The local news and how the town grew and what was the industry at the time is all exciting when it is your home town that is a source of pride and respect.

It is easy to get busy. To put off things you know should be part of the daily, weekly, yearly schedule. We made a promise. I want to return to visit and make notes that contain local history that may not be headline Earth shattering news but very interesting just the same.

The blog topics benefit from the inspiration older members of the small Maine towns eagerly supply. We told this nursing home resident the pair of us would be back to listen and learn. He said come anytime, with a smile “I have all the time in the World”. Do you have family members in a local nursing home or elderly care facility that you visit and learn from too?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

January 15, 2018
McMansion To McCottage | How Big A House Works Best In Maine?

How big a home is best for you depends on area housing stock economics and whether you really are ready for a Murphy bed or farm house sized kitchen.

There are pros and cons for tiny homes, larger housing floor plans and it is a personal choice. But what about the local area real estate options and pricing in a state as vast as Maine? Is it best for a home on wheels or a big smashing Victorian house in Maine that works best for your real estate needs?

Know House Thomaston Maine Is One Big Residence With Rich History, Plenty Of Bedrooms.

For starters, the average price of a home in Northern Maine weighing in at $71,000 and reality that the SAME home would fetch $210,000 in Southern Maine. That fact alone makes the folks in the market for a Maine house do a quick check of their finances. Before considering the plus and minus evaluation of what size home is best for me.

Debt ratios, how much of your income can go to housing and the associated maintenance to carry the sticks and bricks. Spending habits, not just your income shows where your priorities are when opening up the wallet or purse wide to pay for daily expenditures. Saving for kids to attend college impacts how high a house price range you filter the real estate search when just sneaking a peek at what is currently for sale in your market.

If 28% of your income or less should be dedicated to housing, there is one ceiling in place on what you plan to buy today for a house of any size.

If housing stock is larger in rural Maine, those homes cost less and are more plentiful. Yes, more to heat and a bigger square footage for maintenance, to clean, but cheaper than plopping down a starting price of $46,000 for a tiny home on a trailer that are out there.

Micro housing, the proponents brag up you will save on utilities, less to heat and cool. That smaller castles mean time freed up for other endeavors besides cleaning and maintenance keeping the house straight and sound. If you live a couple blocks from a gym, why would you need the corner den or space in the cellar rec room for a treadmill or stair stepper? In rural Maine, your “gym” is outdoor exercise cutting, stacking, splitting wood to heat your home. Or climbing on a tractor to plow the back field to get it ready for spring planting. Or maybe the all out aerobics of producing square or round bales of hay to feed your own livestock and the animals of others with whatever is tucked away in your barn. For a methodical draw from the deposits as the calendar pages cycle through from fall, winter, another spring in Maine.

One Beach Is Not Exactly Like The Next. This One In Maine In Kennebunkport At Dusk.

Larger homes in Maine, what space is used for when there is extra to go around? Home schooling desks, wall charts, science labs and the reading resource library. Or work from the home office space where the Internet connection allows telecommuting. In laws living in the converted farm house shed or Victorian home carriage house. Or using a series of water front or rustic wood camps seasonally before the move south. To places you won’t need a snow shovel or an windshield ice scraper.

The open outdoor and glassed in porches one more common space for more family members to consider hanging out or shelling peas, sipping coffee on. Renting out the extra space for Airbnb or to provide areas for exchange students or to run an inn, a Maine B&B.

The US Census uncovered that the average size of a house in this country is 2657 square feet.

How do you fit into that statistic? Maine is not a state flush with cash, or filled with residences that boast three bedrooms but eight bathrooms. That’s HGTV west coast Hollywood talking. Could you pare it all down and squeeze into a tinier you 500 square foot leaner, greener four walls? They say smaller, tiny homes mean less decorating, force you not to accumulate so much. Tips for moving what and when regardless we hammered out in an earlier real estate blog post on relocating to Maine. The local Amish settlements produce small buildings that many use as “tiny homes” that get modified by the owner. Lots of folks for vacation or homesteading combine more than one Amish storage shed to make them into living area. Here is another Maine tiny home link.

There was a time in the early 1980’s when the Farmer’s Home Administration (FmHA) made the decision to lighten the load. Of housing stock 1400 square foot or larger that came into foreclosure inventory. And that was to be financed for a dollar down and the 33 year loan with 396 payments. The subsidized housing program shifted to a ranch style 1008 square foot goal that was one floor, insulated to the hilt. And the folks buying them made to look hard at their housing budget to make sure they were taught economics 101 to hang onto the home not lose it to come back to Uncle Sam in foreclosure.

Small Maine Farm Sustainable Agriculture. Hard Work, A Highly Rewarding Lifestyle.

The 1400 square foot houses that were priced low, financed for 10% down for a ten year loan were so cheap to buy. That it allowed the new home owner of a foreclosed home to have money left over from the payment load to channel it into whatever maintenance the big and beautiful housing stock required to be ship shape.

Or to fix up, flip and move on up the real estate housing food chain. To try on something different for the house around them. To adapt to a new to them home with a different set of features, size and location that worked best at the time for whatever life cycle they swam in today. Your real estate needs change and not just because you use a walker to get around or the chicks have flown the coop. Divorce, death, disease and on a brighter note promotions, more stork deliveries can cause the itch that needs to be scratched to make the move to something new and different. To impact your quality of life. Being self-sufficient working on fencing, puttering on farm buildings from hen houses to tractor sheds and storage barns.

Home too large, a big house scaring you from purchase? Consider an income generating apartment in one section and if you ask lots of questions going in, you can get a quality renter for the rental portion of the down sized home. Also tax deduction write offs because a portion of maintenance, maybe heating, other items can be used to sweeten the renting out part of your Maine home.

Do you run the roads, do you entertain at home, do you enjoy sitting in a den in front of a roaring fire? In a kitchen rocker not far from a wood cook stove?

Are the kids on every sport’s team known to man and summer camps, year round tune up clinics are part of your daily experience? Is being home a joy or torture? Are you anxious, feeling like you are missing out on something that is not happening in your own backyard? Had it up to here with neighbors? Or long for a few good ones? Would you consider buying then tearing down the house next to you if it came up for sale? Or approaching the neighbor on the other side of the eye sore to purchase it together and have it hauled away with the remaining house lot split down the middle. For one less neighbor in the hood.

Christmas Reflections In Houlton Maine. Small Town Proud Makes The Holiday Colors Brighter, Spirits Higher. Ready, Want A House In A Small Maine Town Setting?

Where the house in Maine is big or small or somewhere in between. To add a water front element. To have a view, to add to the property acreage to own fields, pasture, your own wood lot to heat the house. Or the option to add on easily with a pay as you go, DIY using some bartering skills. Beyond the size, features in a Maine house you can afford to enhance your lifestyle is a big part of why you might want to move. To experience living in a yesteryear grand old larger home in small rural Maine is possible where the same elegance in an urban area is not so common and priced out of reach.

Formal dinners at home, not at Bonanza sliding a plastic cafeteria tray with triangular numbers riding on them or dining on the daily special at Governors or a Pat’s Pizza.

Using a butler’s pantry, the servant’s corner nooks and crannies, overseeing the canning and preserving operation in the summer kitchen. Sneaking up hidden rear stairway passages. Watching your cat bask in the stained glass natural lighting spilling on the floor where he or she naps. Wainscoting, raised panel ceilings, tin, marble, granite, exotic maintained or not patterned multi toned woods of all kinds. Using the upstairs sleeping porch on a hot summer night.

Converting the walk up attic space into a teenager’s hideaway or media room. Drawing from the root cellar provisions and wood just the size of the heating chamber it feeds through out the day and night. As Old Man Winter loses his gas. And Jack Frost packs up his weather tools for another year. And the early flowers poke their heads through the ground signaling spring is knocking. Bring out the porch furniture, refill the gas grill canister. Service the lawnmower. Fill those driveway potholes and re-hang the rain gutters.

Or on your knees in the spiritual flower beds and tasty vegetable gardens. Enjoying bird feeders, your pets of all sizes with space to hang out in and outside of home. Why you live where you do and was it inherited, where you grew up? Or a house that Jack built without a large mortgage hanging around your neck. Built slowly calling in favors and watching you tube videos on house construction. Tapping into skills honed back in shop class. But the table saw in the living room for years until the housing project turned the corner at least. And earlier work is time to replace because the kid’s grew up and out they went. It’s been a couple decades filtering out of the hour glass revolutions. What size house is best for you if you relocated to Maine or already live here but thinking of changing it up when the real estate market is favorable?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

January 1, 2018
Maine Winter Fun | Sliding, Sledding, Ice Skating, Skiing.

When old man winter arrives in Maine for another visit, the simple outdoor outdoor traditions return.

The ones started in our youth and preserved into adulthood. You begin to know how much fun you forgot climbing on a pedal bike is when you push up the kickstand. And take it to new unexplored places in Maine which is a six hour long state. That has so many choices for outdoor fun not matter which of the four seasons you find yourself enjoying.

Maine Outdoor Living, We Keep It Real, Simple, Honest.

Ever used pedal power, two wheels and commanded a bike to tour a Maine island? The same joy you remember as a kid returns when you bundle up and grab a snow sled. Trudge up a hill to climb aboard and let gravity be your engine to pick up speed. Heading to the bottom with family and friends of all ages. To do again, just one more run.

Traditions in Maine, the best ones started as a kid.

Introduced by older brothers and sisters. Where you used your imagination, were not parked on a couch killing time inside just because the thermometer mercury sits a tad low in the glass tube.

Sliding downhill in Maine means fresh air, crisp clear scenery, seeing your breath. Exercise, hot chocolate after you hang up your wool mittens. Climbing out of the layers of outerwear to cozy up to a wood stove crackling fire. Falling asleep tonight happens quicker, goes deeper when you downhill slide in Maine.

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

What else happens in Maine winter? Ice fishing with pretty elaborate shacks for the social aspect. Snow sledding the ITS trailers with motors, carbide runners, radiation under your feet and electric thumb warmers. Downhill and cross country skiing. If you are cold, you are not dressed right or need to pick up the pace in whatever outdoor pastime you picked for pleasure. Shovel a walk way, clear off a porch roof and you don’t need a coat zipped high with a scarf wrapped around your neck. You are plenty warm and full of energy to do more outdoors in Maine.

Kids know how to have fun in a marshmellow world all around Jack Frost had a hand in creating. Maine is like the snow globe kids buy or make for their parents for Christmas. When someone took the time to snow plow or shovel off a small pond. And drops the black circle that causes the spirited pond hockey game to begin in earnest. Skating, puck handling combine with the lines formed for a friendly hockey contest. Bonfires to warm your bones and to detach, dream, stare into the dancing flames.

The simple pleasures are not store bought or needing batteries during any of Maine’s four seasons. There is no software associated and it is a return to your childhood rituals.

Walking on cleared sidewalks in a small town under street lights or around town to window shop. Sure, being careful for slipping up on the ice down under means easy does it. But get outside. To enjoy the splendor day or night of Maine communities or the deep woods, an open field with a white cover frosting. Depending on what type of snow you have outside to work with, snow men, digging tunnels and making forts to defend the backyard is one option. If thick snow that supports someone’s weight on bear paw snowshoes is not crusted over and offers crust sliding on flying saucers and slippery magic carpets. The pattern of ice crystals, snow flakes and magic of crisp, clear frost add a sparkle to Maine winter living.

Small Maine Town Christmas Light Parades Welcome Santa, Entertain The Little And Old Alike.

Winter in Maine is peaceful.

There is a silent roar as new snow falls and everything gets muffled sound wise. Crunching snow under your boots, the sharp sound of scraping a windshield to make it safe for winter travel. The distant whine of a two cycle snowmobile with tuned exhaust. Or a chainsaw working it’s way through a thick hardwood tree trunk or dissecting a smaller limb.

The snow plow rumbling by on a country or US highway. The pulleys of a ski area rumbling as your pommel t-bar or chairlift pass by the galvanized tower. The sound a toboggan makes as it eats up a run down over an iced over groove loaded with laughing passengers. Hanging on to the one in front of you with feet tucked around them in one long human chain ready for what’s ahead. But preparing for what to do if things go sideways.

All those sounds help the journey back into what you did as a kid in Maine when the calendar months are those of winter. Maine winters are not harsh or scary and we still spend our recreational time outdoors. Ask a kid, be one again. Don’t black out winter in Maine or you miss out big time.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

December 25, 2017
Portland Stage, Finding Common Connections Within The Community.

Back in an earlier life as a Bangor Maine broadcast news director, I interviewed Eaton Tarbell, a patron of the performing arts.

New At Acting Old. The Potter In This Play Is A Lady Playing The Business Angles Expertly.

He designed lots of buildings around the state. Tarbell was a regular on the airwaves for colorful sound bites. On the show often to check in and update the listening audience with the latest happenings behind the curtain at Lakewood Theatre , Maine’s oldest summer theatre in America. Lakewood Theatre raises the curtain on first rate performances of comedies, dramas, musicals, and children’s shows. The productions at Lakewood run on stage from late-May through mid-September. This year marked the 117th season for Lakewood. Where is Lakewood Theatre? Find the productions, a restaurant to at 76 Theatre Road, Madison, ME 04950 • (207) 474-7176.

Maine, A Fun Place Inside And Out. Drive The Back Roads Outside And Discover Much About Maine, Yourself. Hit A Play Production Inside.

This past weekend, I was fortunate to take in a live show at the Portland Stage.

The live radio broadcast simulated for the holiday play production Of “It’s A Wonderful Life”. In the handout Anita Stewart, the Portland Stage Executive and Artistic Director spells it out simply. The mission to discover the character who you think you know from your introduction during the first scene. But as the play progresses the unexpected side of the character appears. The unexpected happens. It points the process we all do in quick scans, sudden judgements as we filter all we think we need to know to sum it up nice and neatly.

The connective play thread this season at the Portland Stage according to Stewart is to open up the possibility that there is a different way of approaching one another. The play characters help us understand the World is full of complex people if we just open up to take the time to go beyond that initial layer when we size them up maybe just a little too pat. And if you see yourself in the characters, maybe it will help accepting others in the community. Small towns, the handful of cities in Maine and our families, in our lives that are comprised of folks just like you and me. And many others that are not carbon copies. So we learn to embrace those differences that help us grow and learn that benefits us all.

Learning Over The Play Scenes, That It Is A Wonderful Life George Bailey. An Angel Is Finally Going To Get His Wings.

If you can rip yourself away from the holiday carol singing, the mad dash to present shopping ’til you drop.

Take the time to squeeze in a play performance at the Portland Stage for “It’s A Wonderful Life; A Live Radio Play.” An adaptation by Joe Landry to help you celebrate the Holiday Season with a beloved classic. The show bill teaser promises “This heartwarming story of renewal is retold as a 1940’s radio broadcast. Complete with sound effects performed live on stage. With the help of an ensemble and angle called Clarence who has been waiting around 200 years to get a set of wings. George Bailey discovers the million ways we are tied to those around us.”

The play runs from November 24 through December 24, 2017. There’s even a Christmas carol or two that the audience gets invited to sing. To warm up the audience because they are part of the radio theatre broadcast. You feel part of the production because the audience is relied on to put their hands together when the applause light shines.

Looking Into Their Lives Played Live Before You At The Portland Stage Play House In Maine’s Largest City.

When the hand held signs instruct to “hiss” or “ahhh” or a variety of other commands right on cue. To help the at home audience fill in what they can not witness first hand watching the stage production. That radio land audience that only has their ears to guide the vivid imagination parked behind their unused eyes.

Amidst AM static with the reception degree of crackling tied to the weather, the type and height of antennae. Or the distance away from the transmitted filled with tubes and causing cancer to the majority of first class engineers keeping the signal pumping, the radio station on air.

The audience of thousands tuned into the broadcast signal beamed into each and every living rooms. Where families crowd around the wooden early radio cabinet using the all there was medium for family entertainment. The same device connecting them to the outside World. Used to collect most of their important news from stock market crashes to Pearl Harbor Sunday morning bombings. To follow the radio serial shows, the baseball games and to catch musical performances. Along with the nightly news, crop reports, local weather forecasts and political race results.

The Theatre Production “It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play”. The Portland Stage Curtain Raises.

The play production intermission means tasty cookies, fresh moist cakes and other delicacies with a variety of refreshments all calling you in unison from your theatre rows and rows of seats. As the house lights come on you rise to saunter to the lobby. To stretch your legs between play production scenes for a little snack.

The chatter is loud after being silent so long. Knowing whispering is really talking. While all attention is eyes forward to follow the unfolding story line. Watching the play line by recited line develop the characters carefully from out in the audience.

Talking between scenes now about the play characters, comparing notes on how the performance is hitting each of those sitting around you. Studying the large black and whites on the wall. Peeking at upcoming play productions and cursing yourselves for past ones missed and still talked about because they were that

Making A Point, To Help The Plot, Develop The Play. Taking Turns Reciting Lines. It’s Show Time For The Portland Stage’s “It’s A Wonderful Life”.

good. Milling around and exposed to new people you get to know that love the same performing arts. Performed under hot spot lights,bathing your favorite characters in colorful pools, inside the shadows of the gels. The audience that follows the actors, the series of season play productions through out the year once the bug bites you. To challenge, inspire, to reflect. That is what the Portland Stage acting troupe strives to do and puts the mission in writing so they never forget either.

Have you been in community theatre as a character, playing in a cast? Do you make it a habit to attend plays, to follow the productions of a acting group? Break a leg. Maine has lots of folks dedicated to small town community theatre. This blogging channel on Maine has featured community theatre before and will again. The play production live audience makes the stage characters soar, stay flat or flop badly. That audience is the reflections, is the indicator of just how are we doing behind the footlights. Maine, so many sides to this jewel. Her facets are many and life is so short.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

December 10, 2017