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Toxins, Venom, Fresh Poisons …. The Kind Scared People Create.

Change can be a scary thing when someone clings, has a death grip on past habits.

Because what is known is predictable, routine, safe and easy. Requires little thought to maintain. And to lose the norm feels out of control, unstable. It shows what a person is made of, if they have a healthy dose of grit, moxie and determination. When things as we know it go sideways.
Taught How To Fish, Survive Early On In Life.

Not knowing where you are going to land. End up.

As if a black, orange, white… well you pick the color cat held high upside down. Let go, ending up on all fours. If enough distance exists between the release point and the ground. To twist, turn, right yourself. Meow.

Don’t you find the most interesting people you bang into, that come in and out of your life have had some hairy experiences? And made adversity, up against it come out in their favor. Using it like they climbed into a rock polisher and all the more well versed and life savvy because of it. Some people make it look easy when anything but that was the case.

What happens to you in life is not like fairy tales in most cases.

But the happily ever after part until the end is up to each of us. There are folks seething with anger, weary from frustration that take personal what others do, think, say around them. When the going gets tough. It’s partly the bumper sticker “Just because I’m paranoid does not mean people are not out to get me.”

Folks who’s life is lead externally, outside themselves. Not built with inner joy and peace. Happy happens for a short stint only if this, this and that takes place around them.
Preparing For Storms In Life In Maine. We’re Ready. Hang On.
If many players in the production takes on a particular role. In the script written for them. That they did not know they held, had to audition to play the part. And when resistance shows up, the show stops, heads roll.

You ruined, ignored the party that was designed for their own good. Can be like herding cats.

To get everyone on board when change, new direction is needed. But easy does it. Spoonful at a time of the bitter medicine. With a little sugar introduced as the antidote to release the feverish pitch the discussions that escalate to around a small Maine town. When change is the topic of the day. Before it is dire straits and options to do it dry up leaving the smell of desperation, fear, chaos.

The bigger picture, seeing it and making the need for change, adjusting the life dials more carefully. Along the way, methodically. Not waiting until the eleventh hour and panic setting in. Brainstorming in a small Maine town about what if this, how could we that. Without the subject matter causing folks to bristle, feel threatened.

Just approached like a puzzle, to inventory the pieces, consider where to put them into place. For the fit fashioned by the group, not a few individuals. Because that’ll never fly in a small Maine town without a consensus, a let’s give it a go attitude. We’re all wearing the same color jerseys. It can be a sport of passion because you love the small town you are lucky to live in.

There is no time for wasted emotion, finger pointing, back biting.

Solutions. A public burial, funeral for the bringing up skewed bits and pieces of history rehash.
Maine Sunsets, Everyone Is Incredible. Share Them. Don’t Do Them Alone.
To be as negative, blaming the “they” for what shoulda, coulda, woulda happened if as possible. Just if, if, if brought up over and over from the past. Like re-opening fresh decade old wounds that won’t scab over, heal.

Defeated, giving up. When the boat is sinking, the limited number of life boats make it a climb in, sink or swim scenario.

Time’s a wasting and rolling up sleeves, putting heads together needed.

To be enterprising, encouraging but realistic. And together hammering out a course that will take all of us in a small Maine town. To land on all four feet. On higher, solid stable ground.

To survive, prosper, grow and flourish. Be better for the exercise every small Maine town is forced to take on. Like it or not. In adjusting to less trickle down revenue sharing from the county, state capital, Uncle Sam. To get behind economic development efforts, to eliminate small town duplication and waste in government.

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

May 28, 2014
Trains In Maine, Take A Ride, Remember How Important They Are.

Taking a train ride in Maine. All aboard. Oakfield Maine the destination with WCSH’s Channel 6 reporter Bill Green showing up this past Saturday. To climb inside the morning run to Howe Brook in Aroostook County. I was on the south run to below Sherman Maine passenger train ride.

In Maine, back in 1960 50,000 train cars a year of potatoes were shipped out of Aroostook County.

The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad was a big shaper of building Maine into what it is today. Before overnight, just in time inventory that trailer trucks could provide took over that operation. 10-4 good buddy, let those 18 wheels roll. But the economy of Maine rail service if right now freight or passenger delivery is not needed. And Amtrak train service in southern Maine expanding, getting more and more prominent.

Have been blogging on trains at speeds of 175, 186 miles per hour that cuff right along.

Covering great distances very fast where you can tap tap the electrons online as you do.
All Aboard. Pulling Out Of Oakfield Maine Railroad Station Location.
The blur of countryside and plush appointments startling you as another high speed train passes very close and you feel like you are swapped in on a horizontal rocket ship on the steel rails.

Transportation in Maine is critical because of the distance away from markets. Being tucked away, protected, insulated not isolated. In the upper right hand corner of the country.

Up here in Maine.

That looks like a thumbs up. Pretty much surrounded by Canadian geography, people well spaced both sides of the line.

The countries just a whisker away when you live in a border town in Maine. Where I am lucky to be and able to hop that US / Canada border to see what’s happening on the other side of the International Boundary.

Maine, lots to do and it’s usually outside. Often involves water or in this case, a train ride in Oakfield Maine to blog about today. Riding in an iron horse on the steel rails networking Southern Aroostook County.

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

May 25, 2014
The Need To Consume Affordable Luxury Items.

Consumption for a product, what motivates folks to reach for something off the shelf, online to be shipped to their doorstep?

In Maine, or anywhere a person is parked. Resting, sitting on their haunches. As the slightly tilted blue and green revolving marble spins.
Preparing For Storms In Life In Maine. We’re Ready. Hang On.

The perceived or real need to have to have it.

Gotta go to the bathroom squirming like right now to abandon all sense of responsibility or consequence. Just take the ahhhh plunge to purchase. Whether you can actually afford it or not. Strangling the urge to wait because it would be cheaper to do a little shopping. Toying with the options for a better deal. Using better impulse control to separate want from actual need.

Some who were dirt poor for material goods growing up might argue those stormy, brooding days are over.

Long gone when they leave the sparseness of the household nest. That someone without their consent made them feel ashamed over. And let’s double clutch. Shift gears. Stimulate the economy.

Driven to work three jobs, marry for money, go into a life of crime, etc. Obsessed with catching up for lost time collecting stuff. The latest and greatest to gain attention and live in the public spotlight. They somehow felt inferior not having but wished they did growing up without the new, shiny, highly polished. Consumption is the self medication to fill a dark hole that is bottomless.

More stuff passed please.

But not for personal enjoyment like a kid by a glistening Maine pine or fir tree covered in sparkling tiny lights, shimmering tinsel and garland. No no, the real fun of owning the latest and greatest possession is outside where others can know you have it.
Luxury Not A Word Used Much On A Maine Farm. It’s Basics, Survival, Preparing For Set Backs, Storms In Life.

Don’t keep it a secret. In the dark. Show it off to everybody and anybody. So others wished, filled with envy, started uncontrollable drooling over lucky you. Whoa, that’s not how things roll in small rural Maine.

In small town Maine sometimes the bare essentials are more than enough. Knowing you have squirreled away money to keep your property taxes current. The next winter fuel account in the black payed ahead. Fully funded first is the target of the household spending. Not to impress or la dee da with the hoity toity. But taking care of what is real, important, practical.

Luxuries are the extras in life that make it more fulfilling, more rewarding, more comfortable, more enjoyable.

As a person’s income rises, it is argued the needs change in how wide, often, easily the wallet or purse pries open. Luxury is Latin for extras in life. Maybe it is four dollars simple designer coffee or a French light and flaky pastry pleasure. A hired cleaning lady or lawn service.

When my Dad asked my Mom which engagement diamond she liked best as the two bent over, peered in the ring display. Before he sailed across the puddle to serve Uncle Sam in the WW2 European war effort. Under the bright lights of a Woodstock New Brunswick jeweler’s case, her answer was a question. How much can we afford? Considering other expenses needed tending too. Keeping it all in perspective.

No red flag demanding response from Mom.

Sputtering “Buster, you better make a three carat honking, blinding to look at rock to call attention to me or forget it”.

Maybe spending in rural Maine seems square to some. Or that we are depriving ourselves. But it goes back to life on the Maine farm when you have food, firewood, shelter. Worked hard, made the best of the weather and markets. Survived on the love of a large family working together to stay on that patch of dirt.
Maine Pleasures Are Many, Small, Real & Natural. The Best Kind Are Free.

Not much disposable cash income made it easier to forget about resisting the urge to overspend too.

But basic needs met. And the shift in focus of lamenting what you did not have. By simply taking better care of what you did. Excited about finally getting the bad half of the barn roof replaced. Purchasing a new to you pre-owned piece of Maine farm equipment. To improve the crop yield or ease of planting, cultivating, harvesting it.

Or adding to the herd of critters. With income from the investment plowed back into reducing, removing debt. With the end all goal always in the front of your brain, out front where you could see it and not to forget. To one day living free and clear of a mortgage. Or the burden of revolving monthly expenses. Which frees you up from worry.

Gratitude is riches.

Stuff is not the temporary reward. Family, community, relationships are. All worked for, respected, preserved. Knowing fully that those institutions, the best things in life are not store bought and in tight supply, limited brands to keep the price up. But free, constant, all around us. Everywhere you look in pure, unfiltered all natural rural Maine.

Come sample the fresh air, blue skies, sunshine making natural diamonds on the crystal clean water. And the best part, the down to Earth hard working friendly people that dot the small Maine communities anxious to meet you.

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

May 23, 2014
Asking For A Critique But Not Really Wanting One The Maine Way.

If you are brought up, taught to just take what you need, leave the rest for others.

To improve situations the best you can. Strive to make them better that they were. To contribute for the greater good. Well now Mister Man. You’d fit right in nicely in a small Maine town.
What Red Flags, I Don’t See Any. Let’s Charge Right In. Saddle Up For The Last Stand.

Because there is a connection, an urge, a need to pitch in, help out.

Plenty of opportunity in a sparse population. There would not be a small Maine town for long if that fire in the belly fever, passion was not the case. If it was just a dog eat dog, every man for himself. All about me.

But sometimes the critique asked for because of pressure from a local community board is something that just gets lip service by a CEO.

Lt Colonel Custer just needs a little direction, guidance, correction but is the last to know it. Wearing blinders like you put on horses to keep them focused on a task. Less aware of activity around them that could spook, distract them. Pride is the wrecking ball in all relationships from work to love and in between.

The need for change happens in a person, a group, a community to create peace. Not continued drama, turmoil, confusion. Technological developments can improve life too. Help cause greater efficiency. To lead to harmony, even fun, joy to permeate your thoughts, relationships on all levels in your small Maine town surroundings. It is not just about survival. It is about quality of life for others, yourself as the secondary gain.

Tweaking, dial adjustments, small changes to the any one’s day to day. To approach this, this and a few other critical issues from a whole new approach. Because things are starting to wobble. Or the Maine expression, “go out of kilter”. Don’t jive. The planets are just not lined up correctly Chummy.

The community relations group I was on polled the audience. Each asked our sphere in the circles we make in the small Maine community for input.

For a show of hands one by one on a private level.

Taking notes, not using a mic or camera. To gather the crystal clear common themes, perspectives that started to emerge.
Peace, Harmony, Delicate Handling Of Small Town Relationships.

Because without this asking for a critique to get to the bottom of what is wrong “it’s hard telling with out knowing Bub”. The interviewing where no one leaves their name, the sources are kept in the shadows.

But knowing the collective truth will set you free. Of whatever is causing the friction that leadership just does not have its finger on the pulse of the problem. But needs to swallow the bitter pill and fix the ills.

That are the fresh poison, lingering toxins needing weeding, not feeding.

When we reconvened for a breakfast meeting, after passing the eggs, toast, home fries and a couple coffees.

The new and old business agenda items housekeeping chores were checked off the list, here it comes. Light and bright stopped.

What are you hearing out there is the community? I had my turn, fourteen specific areas shared from my informal polling of community members. From both folks working in the organization and out. Public opinion sorted through after asking the pointed questions to get to the root of exactly what is the problem needing a socket wrench. A cutting torch, new ideology parts bolted, welded, brazed into place.

The CEO’s smile left the room.

All eyes were on the man wearing hush puppies. He waved an arm, gave one of his customary annoying nervous laughs. “Nothing to any of that”. I thought of Col Jessep’s “you can’t handle the truth” famous line from A Few Good Men movie. But there was no need for a court martial proceedings because we were not all on the same page.

Constructive criticism ushered out into the daylight, given fresh air, put on the table. If allowed to be considered with a what if, just what if approach. From the pretty solid minds that live, work and play right in your neighborhood. If collected, shared, chewed on, batted around. Then something for a plan comes out of the pow wow. If implemented and “now we’re cooking with gas happens” is a very very beautiful thing.

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

May 21, 2014
Need Blue Hair, Dentures, Four Prong Walking Canes, Hearing Aids To Drink Tea?

Heck no. Tea time if you are from English descent is a given daily sacred ritual.

But in the USA coffee beans dominate the drive through hard to understand outdoor microphone requests. Gotta have a hot cup of Joe to go. For some make it ten sugars. Just black as the inside of a Maine cow. And okay. Dash of Holstein or Guernsey. Add a pinch of turbo expresso could ya please? I’m dragging. Need the NOS blue bottle fast and the furious tap tap jug shot.

The hot tea not so much asked for in the eenie meenie miney moe. But the cool iced version gets it’s share of the liquid refreshment total score.
Sit A Spell, Take It Easy, Watching The World Go By In Maine. Not Like This Other Places.
The Charlie Brown’s teacher muted trombone sounding orders for the touch screen. Will that be all and no? Your total is, move ahead, drive around.

Like it’s coffee cousin, the pause for tea gives comfort, reflection on a lot of levels.

Something hot in your hands can warm them during a Maine winter. The process of a whistling tea kettle singing loudly on a Maine wood cook stove. Asking, then hollering for a tea bag, inviting it to take a swim. The water’s just fine for soaking, relaxing.

To round up a cookie to go with it as an afternoon break companion. Whether first thing in the morning with a muffin, a bagel, some oatmeal. Or mid afternoon stop to gear up for the final heave ho of a busy day in Maine. Doing whatever it is you need to for that pay check. Or in retirement where they keep coming in on their own. You hope.
The Places With Less People, More Outdoor Space. Get To Maine. Off The Grid.

Rocking chairs in motion add to the spot of tea, conversation experience in Maine.

Whether kicked into gear on open or glass with screen porches. Or in Maine home kitchens the proximity handy to that wood fire companion. Being as close to Canada as this Maine blog poster is, Red Rose tea with the comical chimps seemed to be the brand reached for if it was tea please.

What is the value of tea beyond the social, snacking, something warm to gurgle, siphon and funnel down your throat? Medicinal, Maine teas for wellness are reached for sometimes. Others are peddled, owned and operated by Maine native hikers who scaled Mt Katahdin, offering Maine gourmet teas.

Or the warm and fuzzy Sleeping Bear tea which would not be what you brew, pour and store in a thermos for work, for that long drive of many miles. To nip from, slurp to help enrich, improve the experience it is tag teaming. What is the nutritional value of tea, whatever color? Helps with blood pressure.
Settling In, Relaxing, Easy Does It.

Catechins, antioxidants to prevent or reduce the incident of cancer drinking tea.

Getting high amounts of vitamins B, C, D and K from daily habit of tea. Over 300 nutrients from tea are hard to ignore too. I always ask for the Chinese tea to fill the way too small handle-less teeny weeny cups.

You never see the Big Gulp, super sized version of once and done applied to tea beverages.

Sometimes Being In Hot Water Can Be A Good Thing. Relaxing, Refreshing.

But there are lots of neat ways to put your loose tea in containers, vessels to steep the beverage. Get your spot of tea without the bag that some reports say is not good for you.

So just the tea makes the seep, leap into the clean Maine water to give it the color it does.

To know that particular favorite shade like a Maine tourmaline means you are ready for the next step in the tea drinking process.

All the kids, cousins too got exposed to the tea time ritual with Nana. She was a two fisted drinker of her caffeine. Morning coffee with my Dad, afternoon tea with the grand kids. After school when they got off the bus at the Maine farm a mile and half out of town. For fresh baked cookies, squares, fruit breads. Whatever was whipped up from scratch for the day home made treat out of the Maine farm house kitchen pantry.

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

May 18, 2014
The Maine Way For Pay Back, Settling The Score, Not Carrying A Tab.

Maine is a state where folks are pretty cross trained.

Not narrow and super duper at one or two things only. Jack of all trades and pretty masterful in many. Or they have a family member that is skilled. A country neighbor down the road who knows how to braze, weld, fix and repair. Lots of the local community has talents in the DIY department. It is learn how to or go without for take your pick choices.
Big Pets, Maine Horses Are Also Workers. More Than Hay Burners. Pretty Against The Green Backdrop.

In a state where you don’t need to be flush with cash. Just be a true friend to others and tit for tat , back and forth starts up, never stops.

Was buying a new camera lens at the local Maine Wally World over the weekend.

And the store clerk I knew was talking about fiddle heads. She had hit the mother lode, a diamond mine of the Maine delicacy. And like we do with vegetable gardens, fruit patches, when we bake stuff. Mainers always grow, have more than we need. And half the fun is giving it away. Delivering it in person or with a heart felt handwritten note but no name. To someone that is so appreciative.

But those on the receiving end want to pay you back, do you a favor in Maine.

. Everyone more givers, than just takers. And they do the return scratch your back in very creative ways. Asking around for just the right gift if they don’t have a strong inkling from past conversations.
Waiting, Idling Maine Greenhouses. Ready, Set, Grow!
Just knowing the person and what they enjoy or are struggling with and could really use. Hey, where did that cord of cut, split, delivered, just the right stove length wood come from that suddenly showed up one day?

No one knows, everyone but you knows. Get used to it if you are moving, relocating to Maine.

Usually home made something. Hand made and one of a kind. Everyone has their specialty whether it is my Mom’s Olympic medal winning cinnamon rolls if they gave out the gold, silver, bronze.

Or a handicraft, photo, fresh cut flowers arranged just so. A decoration with your family name on it. Maybe providing a service you need. Like snow blowing or plowing out your driveway, mowing a lawn. Help buttoning up the house with banking for a Maine winter.

Delivering a mince meat, or some other Maine flavor of heirloom pie.

This lady who provided the fresh feeds of early fiddle heads. All picked, cleaned, fresh and ready to steam, sprinkle on vinegar. She got her just desserts.

She had mentioned wallpapering her bedroom but short on cash in a conversation a few weeks back. Voila. Seven rolls of pretty wallpaper picked up for a song at Marden’s were dropped off with a smile. Along with the hind quarter of a Maine moose hit last fall on the highway. That was ready to portion out for the family size of the new holder. Open up that chest freezer and say AHHHhhhhh. Tasty about to happen.

But wait there’s more. A random act of kindness plays forward. Comes back ten fold. No good deed goes unrewarded. Help putting up the wallpaper part of the gift. The giver had purchased the wallpaper for her home but decided she liked her bedroom just the way it was after all. Her friend needed it more.

The sweetest gifts to give are the ones you cherish the most, old family items.

And the recipient knows they are near and dear. But you parted with them anyway. To see the joy you could cause. Letting it go. Sharing it.
Antique Wood Kitchen Cook Stoves. Not For Show, We Use Them For Heating, Eating, Baking.

The hand quilted or stitched Maine needle work. The farmer down the road who slam bam lowers the plow, harrow, then disc to make a smooth seed bed for your precious garden.

With his red, green, blue, whatever color field tractor. To help you get on your knees. Grateful, you’re already a prayer. But also for planting those garden seedlings.

Those young plants started, babysat indoors before it’s warm enough to go outside to play, stay. Until fall harvest or earlier pick and place along spring and summer. For the family supper table eat and greet. Of green peppers, tomato and other vegetables perched on the glass sun porch window ledge first.

Or with old newspapers reused, laid out on unfolded card tables. For cucumbers, the rest of the veggie tales line up. And populating the high test soil, the perlite filled peat containers. All those skyward pointed green chutes. Reaching hard on their tip toe roots for that grow light. Or to drink up, thirsty for the Sun’s rays when he shows up. Comes out to play.
Maine Sunsets, Every Single One Is Incredible. Share Them. Don’t Do Them Alone.

In small Maine towns, payback for favors could be a beach.

Letting someone use your camp on a Maine lake or in the woods on a river for a week. When you know they have company coming and not enough room. Will be splitting at the house seams.

Or for a second honeymoon, to re-new your sacred vows as a couple, alone. With only furry four legged wildlife, song birds, jumping fish as witnesses next to the running water setting.

During amazing sunsets, an outdoor cooked over a fire meal for two. With the best seat in Maine for dining. For the re-taking of the sacred pledge. Grateful for each other, your partner. For the generous folks rooting, supporting the knot tying long ago, along the way. For you, the pair, the entire family in a small Maine home town. Come to Maine, feel the strong connection.

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

May 14, 2014