Category: Living in Maine

Small Towns In Maine | Better Coronavirus Recovery Chances

Small towns in Maine, better coronavirus recovery chances.

Social distancing is easier in small towns in Maine because let’s face it. Just less people populated vast and sparsely inhabited Maine. Too many people that crowd together and no where to go is COVID19’s best scenario. It’s why cities are hardest hit and can not handle the high virus cases. Too many people makes it like living in a giant petri dish in populated areas. Maine is vast, uncrowded, more wildlife than people.

Can I Have A Little Privacy Please? I’m Bathing!

But survival, starting with meeting your basic needs and moving out from there.

Keep it simple living in small town Maine is already in place. Not wall to wall people to tip toe around or avoid. To begin with, living high on the hog and complicated or expensive lifestyles is not small town Maine. It is not regressive to strive for a cottage or farmstead existence but enriching and highly rewarding.

More People In Cities Make Social Distancing During COVID19 Harder.

Your kids benefit too from more chores and no other choice but pitching in to be a vital part of the family.

Learning new skills and responsibilities over just camp out on the couch. And then veg out on a device to deal with boredom of just not enough to do for the rest of the day and night.

What coronavirus does show in small towns in Maine is how much we all care about each other.

Because of the strong connection of small town Maine living, your concerns are much more on the local level.

We watch the news World wide and collected off the small towns in Maine local grapevine.

Feel badly for heavily hit coronavirus population centers and makes all of us sick to our stomachs, helpless for them.

But we spring into action and reach out to help those locally who we do know and care about daily. To help make a difference in their lives.

The disabled, elderly members of the small Maine town community are on our minds daily.

Meals on wheels providers check in to add the social interaction at a safe protected distance. The phone calls to see what they need and pitching it up for them at the local grocery store outlets happens. You would be surprised what happens behind the scenes in small towns in Maine with or without a COVID19 pandemic case swell.

I think the coronavirus reminds us of how lucky we really are living in small towns around Maine. Yes we struggle for economic independence and fight something fierce to protect local jobs. Keeping the money spent locally and turning over six to seven times is a beautiful thing. But when the small town provider of goods or services does not have enough volume to stay out of the red ink. Or there is not local provider and you are forced to go online if no other options exist in the region out of your small Maine town.

There is the challenge to retool and reinvent in the small Maine town’s economy.

Opportunities are opening up as small town Maine living is seen as a very viable option. Safe, easier to social distance and getting back to basics. First, everything that you need and then easy does it moving on to what you think you need. As people’s standard of living increases, their spending habits and the more more more gotta have this and that complicated their lives. Creating the need for even more of something they may or may not have really needed. When the money to fuel the complicated living dries up or gets interrupted, there’s the rub.

Farms, Horses, Barns In Maine. They Go Together For The Simple Rural Lifestyle.

Only in times like a coronavirus or an economic downturn is the necessary change going to happen because you have no other choice.

Can not continue on the same expensive course and that’s where what about if we relocated, moved to Maine thoughts intensify in the brain. Native local Mainers are masters at creative work arounds when bumps in the roadway of life show up and they do. A lot. Lessons learned from mistakes or coping with hardships early in life benefit the rest of how things play out in a Mainer’s life. Has COVID19 caused you to consider what if you lived in a small town in Maine?

A person’s opinion of small town living changes 180 degrees when instead of itching to leave, you long to return.

If you were raised in a small Maine town, you know what it is like. What is taken for granted and missing in a populated area living where you lose the small town living approach.

Have an oldest daughter, her husband, new grandson living in a “pod” next door on a Maine lake. I get her perspective on what living in Boston was like during the early stages and now during the coronavirus. Small town and city living are also part of the contrast because by nature just the number of people in an area dictates the way things are gonna roll or not.

Crossing The Big Green Bridge From Maine To The Rest Of New England.

What you need and what you want and the price you pay for anything in time, money, sacrifice.

In my job I hear the statement a lot. “Something is missing in my life”. Which could mean something is lacking in my life at this point. Maybe what you needed before you started a family is causing the hole of what’s missing for your kids. In a small Maine town, the village raises the kids, not just Mom and Dad.

Or the “been there, done that” could be I chased the American dollar and achieved an income to support this lifestyle that was too high a price to pay. Or took away time I should have been living life gleaning small pleasures and not the pie in the sky high life. What do you need in your life? You know the answer if you can stop and catch your breath long enough to reflect and ponder. Not what marketing says you need and can not live without.

Living your own life starts by not being so concerned how others live theirs. Social media look at me is not always accurate and who has time to live their life externally through others anyway ? Small town living in Maine, the way life should be.

All I know is small town country living creates the stage for everything you need. The real foundation and nothing artificial. As I hunt and peck this blog post this Sunday morning, I look out over a bottle like surface Maine lake. My daughter and I will enjoy a freshly ground coffee bean cup of Joe in a few minutes. Talking about the new grandson.

A pair of boys just cruised by with fishing rods and checking out the best deepest spots for angling for fish this morning. Six lake loons are about 200 feet off shore and circling, cooing, socializing closer than six feet spacing. It is sunny, comfortable, not hot and muggy. I feel lucky to live in Maine not where there are so many people to motor or walk around or any crime to worry about round the clock.

Living In Small Maine Towns.You See More Nature, Less People, Have The Space Needed For COVID19 Social Distancing.

The walk to the lake landing happens after sampling a hot coffee, some sliced mangos, two banana packages.

Along the way a stop to talk from one ditch to the other on Chickadee Lane. The couple live full time four lake lots down and the wife was my oldest daughter’s first grade teacher. We share where all the kids of each family are and what the grandchild count is up to now.

After the stop, we trudge on and it is learned Mrs. Austin thirty plus years ago was one of my daughter’s favorite teachers.

I ask why and she recalls her honor reward system. There was money involved, the fake in school kind. A store set up with items to purchase with the “money” earned for good behavior, academic excellence or just staying caught up with school work. Small towns in Maine educators have lots of common sense and make sure the students

My daughter remembers buying a book with her reward money and it was a book written from the big bad wolf’s perspective in the Little Red Riding Hood classic with a twist.

Mrs. Austin also let the classroom kids raise ducklings. Two of them when the school year was ending for summer break were relocated to her Grandfather’s farm out on US RT 2. A farm pond introduction ceremony was a big deal.

The Little Red Log Lake Camp Next Door In Maine. Ideal For Social Distancing During COVID19 Pandemic.

The two ducks, Chocolate and Butterscotch seemed happy paddling around the pond.

Then disappeared. We hope to more private surroundings away from US RT 2. But the fear the pair became a fox’s chicken dinner is hard to shake when you are a first grade school girl growing up in a small Maine town.

What’s All The Buzz? Eye Candy And Bee Honey Extraction In Nova Scotia Canada Cross Border Trip.

The walk resumes, the distinctive patented sound of a motorcycle chugging along becomes louder. The rider in leather slows, raises his left hand and smiles. It’s Jimmy Ritchie who lives up the lake. He and Lou Ann his wife used to live across from my parent’s Maine farm and were close to mom and dad. Helping them with new born Durham baby calf births during the coldest days of the year. Naming them, feeding them and part of the small population surrounding us in Northern Maine.

Living in Northern Maine means the perk of being close to Canada.

No, it is not dangerous being this close to New Brunswick or Quebec Canada. Taking trips to Atlantic Canada are common to PEI and Halifax, Nova Scotia for example when the International boundary opens up again. Maine residents are related to our Canadian neighbors and both sides feel lucky the other is there for cross border travel. The dollar and loonie difference helps the trade too.

It is cheaper to live in small towns in Maine in many ways beyond the just price of real estate.

And if you learn the joy of raising some or most of your own food. If you heat with wood or twist the dial when oil prices are low to the ground and stay frugal. Maine can be a wonderful backdrop for your life. Living careful rewarding lives communing with nature that is everywhere you look. Awareness increases, protection of the environment around us becomes more important and that good stewardship attitude is passed down to the next generation. The Maine real estate prices are cheaper and you can own not mortgage your low cost properties.

Sheltering In Place, Small Towns In Maine And Country Settings Are Ideal For Sheltering In Place. To Increase Your COVID19 Avoidance Chances.

Cities are great because they have lots of people to support many endeavors.

More variety of food, sports, entertainment… the paid for kind. That’s why native full time Mainers love to head down to Bean Town for a Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics game or theater show, music concert, etc. But can not wait to cross back over the big green bridge on the southern end of Maine. Our locals can create lots of home grown food, fun and social distant fellowship.

More second homes than any other state … (ripping envelope opens sound) Survey says “Maine”.

That’s Maine. And lots of those cottage owners on a Maine lake are tooling up with insulation, Internet connections and make the slide from city to waterfront vacation cottage. Telecommuting from a Maine lake instead of the city setting is underway with a fire in their belly. Thanks for reading our small towns in Maine blog post highlighting better coronavirus survival chances. Lots of activity from folks jammed in a city trying to trade it all in for a safe spaced place like Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

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

August 10, 2020
Solar Power In Maine

Solar power in Maine, does DIY partnering up with the sun work in Vacationland?

Maine is ideal for off grid solar power. But there are lots of “if”s” attached to whether you should make the off grid investment.

This blog post dives into solar power use in Maine.

First things first, are we talking a remote camp up in the great north woods of Maine? Where your electrical needs are small. And it’s like a vacation camping for just a long weekend here and there? Or are you out in the audience thinking whole hog giddy up go for solar power for round the clock living? Where it is not just a light or two and that’s it. Now everything in the homestead is off grid. No utility bill to cuss about now. You are really relying on Mister Sunshine for fuel to power those roof top solar panels Bub. Power consumption use is one big obstacle on whether solar power is going to cut it for you in the long run. Think, read, ask questions. Do you solar power home work. Before the big investment, which Maine solar energy experts say is roughly $18,000 consider a couple things.

Before making that big of an energy investment, what does life look like pulling the plug and living off grid depending on solar power to light up your day and night?

What is your average electric utility bill now? How does your power consumption change with the seasons? Study those old kilowatt numbers from past electric utility bills. Consider if you did nothing to cut back and conserve, what would the costs for off grid solar power producing panels be? And don’t forget the associated hardware to maintain the same level of electrical consumption using solar power instead.

Before severing the relationship and dumping your utility juice provider, how really dependent on power are you?

It’s more than sticking a few solar lights along your driveway and marveling at the free power. It means study what needs power drawing current each day to make it run. Dialing back your power consumption is like dieting for life. When you decide to pull the plug and go off grid, some can do the segue easier than others. Couple of simple questions. Dirty dishes. Load ’em up and rely on a dishwasher now or hand wash dirty dishes, pots and pans in the sink? Do you do full loads or a few items here and there? The kids wear an outfit for ten minutes and toss it in the laundry hamper when the wardrobe gets changed up during the typical day?

Maine Solar Power Panels. How Many Do You Need? How Much Power Do You Consume?

Do you wash one or a few items for the big school dance tonight or do weekly full laundry loads?

What you wash, does it automatically all go into the clothes dryer after that? Or did you grow up using a clothes line to hang those wet items fished out of the washer? Heat totally with wood or partially supplement the household temperature with a firewood stove? Do you have several chest freezers but its kinda fuzzy on what’s down at the bottom and how long has it been there? Would you hunt and fish for what gets served up hot and ready on the supper table? Could you live without a microwave? How fast is your life living these days?

Whirling of the tops of cans electrical opener or the clap it on and hand crank to get to what’s inside the what’s for supper?

Electric toothbrush, one cup Keurig coffee makers essential in your household now? Hair dryer or air dryer for your daily doo grooming? Cranking it back to adapt to solar power you generate yourself is a bigger life adjustment for some. Long drawn out frequent showers or shorter, less frequent in and out ones? You don’t have to smell gamey and stay upwind from your own body or avoid getting too close to others around you. But on demand water heaters instead of 50 gallons or more types waiting for usage and less hot water household consumption is the goal. Could Suzy handle that approach to her daily shower routine? Young kids can be taught conservation, adolescent ones not so much. It is way way harder to retrain teenagers who are energy dependent spoiled.

Maine Homes Living Off Grid. Need Super Insulation, Triple Glazed Glass For Solar Powered Living. Not Everyone Is A Good Fit For Solar Power Living Lifestyle.

If you are frugal, did not have money to burn growing up and were taught to conserve, going off grid solar power is not going to be so hard.

You already live easy does it and strive for minimalist keep it simple and not expensive or wasteful. The cost of power, you know. Already are weaned off the habit of juice it up and just don’t waste it. Heating and cooling your home can be responsible for over 50% of your electrical bill.

Do you really need air conditioning in Maine or is the well insulated home you built for off grid solar power living? Opened up in early cooler temperature summer mornings and then shut tight, drapes pull to keep it that way? Is the place heated winters a bigger square footage living space than you really need or smaller, better laid out for simple affordable living? If there are no cracks, drafts, loose as a goose construction areas of your home sweet off grid solar powered home, heating it to be warm and toasty won’t tap and waste energy resources. A off grid McMansion is an oxymoron in small keep it simple living rural Maine.

Also, is your solar system a DIY approach, do you hire it out?

Plan to have a grid-tied solar power system which costs less money because no buying expensive batteries that only last so long? Grid-tied solar power systems don’t provide electricity if it’s dark of night and your grid is off line. Like your chickens who put themselves to bed, you might be right behind them when daytime is your only power producing opportunity. Is solar power part of your electricity production and weaved together with other supporting power making technology? Do you understand solar storage batteries and setting up a home grid and regulating it?

Storing The Power Produced From Solar Sun. Solar Power Storage Batteries To Carry You Over Night Time, Through Long Dark Cloudy Days.

How much power do you need living off grid and homesteading in Maine?

You and I have seen the Harbor Freight solar panels that produce a 100 watts and thought just pick up a couple of those and maybe that’s all we need. But long and hard thought about if you did not have power available at the flick of a switch and a monthly bill to keep it flowing into your household. How much power does a person need as seasons change in Maine? How many solar panels and what size does the family living off grid need to fuel their basic and beyond needs?

Like growing your own food, heating a home with wood from the back forty acres, producing your own power is one more ball to juggle with self sufficient living. The shorter days of winter, less or no powerful rays from the sun add another wrinkle to the solar power cocktail you create to fuel your off grid solar home.

Solar power in Maine, it’s expensive to living off grid if you expect the same life you had when energy was delivered to your door by a local electrical utility provider.

Controlling The Solar Power Generated In Your Maine Home. How Were You in Science Class?

New habits and adjustments to the off grid solar power alternative life style have to happen. Unless money is available in an endless supply and just keep adding more roof top solar panel arrays, extra space consuming electrical storage batteries is possible. Then you are going to have to bite the bullet and prioritize what is most important to wire into your off grid solar system that consumes your self generated power from whatever source.

Sun, wind, water, it gets considered in the electrical mix that works best for your lifestyle and your pocketbook considerations. The storage batteries are not cheap and cost dearly. There is a lot to learn with this shift to solar power in Maine. More than just tacking on a few roof top solar panels and keeping everything you were used to powering up online and purring like a Maine coon cat.

Make a list of what your simpler life off grid using solar power looks like.

So the two approaches to solar power in Maine… simple camp part time and homesteading full time. Let’s look at the simple camp lifestyle using solar first. Your typical little camp in Maine in the woods, on a stream or river or lake when there is no power. What are your power needs up to camp in Maine out in the willy wags where using a public utility link up is not in the cards? Basic power needs are lighting. Cooking can be an outside open camp fire, an inside wood or on a gas cook stove. No electric power outlet needed there.

When you are at the Maine camp or cottage setting, it’s not a long term stay so loads of laundry needing washing and drying are not a problem.

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!

Drying clothes too does not have to involve power if you use the wooden rack in front of the wood heater stove or an outside clothes line.

Living without power or using less of it is easier for folks brought to conserve it. Or used to living without it. I grew up on a Maine farm with a wood cook stove used for more than the heat it generated to warm the kitchen and pantry area of the homestead. The side glass sun porches, two of them were east and south facing to generate free solar heat and spill lighting into our farmstead living space. My Mom would open up the windows early in the day before hot, humid weather temperatures arrived.

The practice to cool off the home and then shut the windows, pull the shades to make it dark and lower temperature for the hot day ahead.

First floor screened in porches for living and second floor ones for sleeping are standard in older New England housing stock. Built before air conditioners and even before electrical lines were added out on the street or roadway address. Up at camp in the middle of the woods in Maine, refrigerator is a need. Not in the winter months but in the dead of summer, refrigeration can be supplied by a gas model. Or a smaller, more efficient college dorm size model that draws less current. Living off grid using solar power in Maine is like being on your own private utility island.

Keeping Small Maine Town’s Running Smoothly. Calm Is Nice, But Ripples Happen.

Your approach to solar power use in Maine revolves a lot around your consumption and energy saving habits.

Ask the average person what the Maine household electrical bill for a month is and besides whoever writes out the check to pay it, how accurate would the response be? When money is tight and there is a not a lot of it to waste, the knowledge of what things cost is much keener. Anyone using solar power in Maine suddenly knows loud and clear what electrical devices use a lot off power, which ones are small potatoes.

Electrical water or space heaters, clothes dryers, cook ovens, curling irons and blow dryers all make an consumption meter whirl faster.

New LED lighting has saved the day with small wattage bulbs that produce much more than old standard counterparts. Positioning your living space for a southern exposure helps the overall lighting too. It’s winter months, the night time that is the hurdle when solar power is off the clock and stops. Storage batteries, deep cycle marine ones or crystal lead type is where you can start spending a big chunk of change. But they add power when gaps in the sunlight happen. Mr. Sunshine goes to bed at night just like you,I and all the Maine farm and deep wood wild animals do.

Fresh Air, Clean Water, Wildlife Not People. That’s Part Of Maine’s Secret Beauty.

The number of solar electrical panels, the storage capacity needed is all tied to how much power do you need generated to fuel your household?

It you are not living a simple existence without every outlet in the house working to power your life, solar may not be such a wise choice. Talk to folks you know that live off grid, that don’t have the luxury of a public electrical utility provider to deliver the power to their household. What life adjustment has that caused and put yourself in that homeowner’s shoes and be very honest. Can you see yourself making the adjustments needed to easy does it power consumption wise?

Looking back at life before power was an option helps too.

Think of Abe Lincoln in the White House. No green light desk lamp in the oval office brightly lit while writing his speeches. Instead oil maps or candles providing the lighting or the best writing done during the day by a window. No power living means concessions and simpler living meeting your basic needs. Do you think the average American is up for that today? Too dependent on electrical devices would be like going on a serious life long diet that many just could not hack.

Exploring, Teaching, Sharing With Kids What You Learned When You Were One In Maine. We All Need Outdoor Sunshine To Do That Best!

So solar power in Maine… are you pulling the plug to harness the sun as an alternative?

Or is there no other option on the Maine land location for juice? Is the option to run power to the site to be on grid not possible and the numbers financially astronomical ? Solar power panels, batteries, inverters, wiring and all the associated paraphernalia are expensive. But so is running a copper line either underground or strung along your collection of power poles.

What if the weather is cloudy and overcast trumps sunny sky days to harvest the solar power? Cloudy days still yield solar power, just not as much when the Sun’s rays get reduced. Regardless of the cost to tool up for solar power in Maine, instead of installing more panels to create the additional power to run your life. How you live your life from a power consuming perspective should be considered before stepping into the solar power zone. Solar power has drawbacks and was always an alternative not the norm.

Talk to someone who lives on a boat that is powered by the wind in the sails and not pushed through the waves with diesel motor.

Maine Is Scenery, Four Season Beauty, Rock Bound Coastlines, Vacationers.

The boat owner knows all too well what you need for electrical power. AC, DC, amperage, volts and watts come up in the conversation that can sound like another language. If you just pay your electrical bill and give no thought to energy conservation, the shift to solar power is going to be harder. To anyone used to just flipping the switch, plugging in the electrical power cord.

A kid today that has never gone camping, lit a tent or cabin with a Coleman gas lantern. Unless they have experienced a few electrical power outages at home and groped in the dark to find candles for lighting, living without power is very foreign. You and I take cheap, dependable electrical power for granted.

Besides solar power in Maine to light up your life, do you incorporate other energy producing methods?

A little or a lot of power in the mix produced by wind generators? Is there a water wheel to harness hydro power in the river or stream that passes through your Maine land? This source of power is not so easy because Maine is very protective of its waterways.

Beavers don’t need a permit to divert and dam or restrict the natural flow of the water. You and I need to make sure about riparian rights before just wading into the water to set up a hydro electrical generating power plant of any size. Shore land zoning makes the list longer for what you can not do around the water in Maine than what you can.

The Maine environment is sacred and to be passed on in as good or better yet, a new and improved state. Solar power in Maine if done carefully can be a win win for man and the environment. Using less power is the key to solar panels being the fuel to energize your Maine home. Southern orientation when building and strong insulated glass, lots of insulation, wood heat can all help the solar power living shift from utility to off grid in Maine.

Maine Sunsets, Every One Is Incredible. Share Them. Don’t Do Them Alone. Harness The Sun.

Firing up a gasoline, LP gas, diesel generator to produce your own power is expensive.

You can do it but not nearly as cheap as ten cents a kilowatt for the power produced and delivered cheaper due to the economy of scale in a Maine community. Just like homestead and living off the land in Maine, no everyone is cut out for cutting the power cord and going off grid. The local Amish settlements dotting the countryside in rural Maine are a shining example of how you can live off grid. Oh sure, there is a little cheating around the edges. But the goal is to not be dependent on living with power on the grid and delivered from the road, up the driveway and into your Maine home.

Maine is more small town rural than larger regulated city living.

But still, permits for solar panels, do you need to file some paperwork with your municipality before bolting on roof top photovoltaic power collectors? Your household power consumption goes hand in hand with how many panels to buy. And where to arrange those solar panels in a grid on your roof top or facing south attached firmly to ground supports. Hope this blog on solar power in Maine helped you on your way to unplugged living in Vacationland.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

July 27, 2020
Blogging On Maine | Little Red Log Lake Camp

Blogging on Maine, posts on local news.

Smaller local community newspapers, radio stations, any television broadcast outlet if your Maine area is lucky enough to have one struggle to stay in the black ink. A steady decline in population and rising costs caused the problem. As those local “news voices” become regional, then statewide entities, the reader, listener and viewership lose out on the pulse of whatever Maine town they serve. This post on blogging on Maine.

Battling Coronovirus, Whatever Life Dragon Needing Slaying. Small Maine Town Living Blog Posts. Helping People Who Are Thinking Moving, Relocating To Maine.

Maine’s simple way of living surrounded by all this natural unspoiled beauty is more popular than ever though.

I believe with high speed Internet chased down, heavily funded and implemented through beefed up connections around Maine communities, that our population will stabilize, then grow. COVID19 has taught naysayers that you can bring your work home with you and operate efficiently in the virtual high tech World. The eight out of ten people living in a city trend is reversing. The search for low cost land and lots of space around where you live is causing many to head for the country hills of Maine.

Blogging on Maine.

Telling the story of everything Maine. The state of Maine already had more second homes that any other state for a reason. It is easy to forget just how lucky a native Mainer is to be here full time. Now those vacation getaways are being reworked big time. Taking what was a simple Maine cottage or camp and retooling it into more is the trend statewide. I talk with other Maine REALTORS and the Maine Listing numbers bears out the up tick in real estate activity. Quarantined for two weeks, folks carry on their person those 72 hour tests showing no high temps and a negative test for COVID19.

Locals Are Put To Work On Maine Community Events. Year After Year For Life.

People in a city setting have been on house arrest and severely cooped up, doing lots of online searches.

Self study, hunkered down. Low on hugs, stuck in the cell of four all too familiar walls. Those in rural Maine are well aware of COVID19 too. But adapting quicker to it to preserve their unique community quality of life. There are less obstacles. That’s what the blog post follower learns as post after post tell it like it is from a local who lives here and loves Maine. Those in the blog post audience have a connection to Maine or wish they did. Many starting to think what about moving, relocating to Maine.

As the migration out of Maine to meet financial career objections gets questioned by those jammed in a city, what about Vacationland? The Maine small rural setting as the better way life solution is being discussed in lots of out of state households. Family decisions to move to Maine are common conversations these days.

Case in point, I personally have a little Maine log lake cottage property.

The little red waterfront structure originally built in 1959 and an addition added on about fifteen years later. I bought it at first only because the peace and quiet next door due to the place just not being used could all change in a real estate transfer.

The Before Image Of The Little Red Log Lake Camp Up In Maine.

The small, cozy red log lake camp bought partially out of fear of losing the solitude now enjoyed.

Knowing the best neighbor is often just no neighbor right? Wanting to continue to enjoy the lake loons singing or crying depending on your perspective on any given day or night without a noisy neighbor. The LC Andrews traditional log cabin purchased also because waterfront properties in Maine are never in large enough supply. The selection is limited and the demand is Jedi force strong within people who desperately need recreational water. It was a good investment and for possible rental use being very careful on when and to who Maine vacations next door. I have been spoiled by no one using the little red camp which can give you a false sense of don’t need to own it. Nothing like a bad neighbor to spoil a Maine lake setting.

Wake Up To A Maine Lake. Would That Improve Your Day? Sheltering In Place With High Speed Internet Not So Hard To Take Hunkering Down In Maine.

The lack of use by the family that once owned the entire point of a Maine lake meant the structure was in need of repair and renovation.

So over the winter months, the Maine lake cottage torn apart like the Wizard of Oz scare grow. Re-stuffed and put back together with a lot of thought. Google simple vacation cottage ideas and search the images, videos and blog posts on that topic. I did for inspiration to learn what I did want, what would not happen to shape the new and improved parked next door log structure sharing the Maine waterfront.

Rip It Out, Replace It Slowly. Feathering The Nest Of A Maine Lake Property.

Input from my kids because they would be the primary users of the place and should have a say in how the cottage transformed right? Lots of native Maine woodwork added to replace paneling. Pretty much one man running the hammer and power tools kicked the rehab project into a slow but steady gear. Only so much space and maximizing it, improving the layout for simple lakeside living on the Maine waterfront.

Jimmy was glad to be able to work so close to home because he lives on the other side of the same Maine lake in Northern Maine.

He appreciates the Maine lake as much as I do. You see he, his wife Debbie, a golden retriever together plying the water slowly each summer night as another sunset approaches.

It was something different each day for the many projects ahead to keep the routine anything but boring.

There is something extremely satisfying working on the A to Z pretty much by your lonesome. When you see it taking shape, as the momentum with a crow bar and finish nails to what replaces whatever is torn out to hauled away to the transfer station. A local plumber, electrician, hardware store clerks too. And plenty of mail order for whatever you can not buy in a small Maine town combined for the finished product..

This little Maine log lake cottage is now the home away from home.

Ready to go online. To create a reprieve for one daughter, her husband too and the proud parents of a new born son. To create a pod in Maine where only another brother, his wife and their eighteen month old daughter are in the COVID19 free circle of life. Internet with 25 meg broadband speed is connected to the little red log lake camp way up north in Maine. That is the connection to the outside World, the same one used to telecommute online to work daily for the son in law who lives in Bean Town. He can make the leap only because of Internet connectivity to this remote rural outpost. Working from home, educating kids from your house not at public or private school facilities. Blogging about Maine all needs a strong Internet connection that does not go flat or missing.

What One Waterfront Property Owner Has On One Maine Real Estate Listing Sold From The Past.

The Maine town I live in is lucky too.

Because every single household within the community borders has access to Internet fiber for blazing 100 megs broadband connection speed. The Internet company is based in my home town, not far away. The local electrical provider that powers the same little red camp is community owned, not for profit. If it makes money, the funds are used to further improve the grid lines or the rate the consumer pays is lowered.

I see my little Maine town growing and connected to the outside World for commerce and enterprise. But offering the home grown local community flavor of friendly small town living. With COVID19, everything back six feet or more and observed wearing a mask. In my job, disposable gloves, booties to complete the mask ensemble for safety sake are standard garb for everyone’s protection.

Land In Maine On The Waterfront. That’s Ambrosia, The Eye Candy Of The Gods.

Single line please, limited entry and please, no one tough anything in the home or apartment unit being toured these days in Maine real estate.

Or better yet, one on one face-time or using the whats app phone firmware to take the personal self guided tour to follow up on the real estate video already uploaded and being watched around the clock by more than the local buyers.

So blogging in Maine, why local residents who live her need to do it. Because the trek north up into Maine is a long one taking hours of time when travel is restricted and not so easy. The days of just hopping into whatever you drive or clopping down the airport plane gate connector to locate your seat number are stalled. The search online is critical and the local Maine blogger is the signal being tapped into and trusted for information. The media sources in a small Maine town were already pretty slim pickings. All due to the small populations tapped to support the news and entertainment outlets. Blogging on Maine can be like pot luck. Not sure of what you are gonna get and it is a lot like feast or famine.

Hanging Around, The Livestock, Horses, Wildlife Too Happier Like The People Lucky Enough To Live In Maine.

What’s it like living where you do in Maine?

Show me images, upload videos of the local community events, create Maine blog posts please. Anything Maine. When something is missing where you live now, the itch to pull up stakes and relocate only grows stronger. People all over the World are considering am I where I need to be for my family ‘s sake? Is there a change underway that means don’t get too comfortable and a move to Maine, somewhere else is in the cards? Blogging on Maine, I do that because it’s hard to contain the excitement of being blessed to live here. I know it is not like this many other places.

Is there something missing in your life?

That is what usually is pushing the move to Maine. The pleasure on a past vacation fuels the fondness for Maine too. The slogan is Maine, the way life should be. That is the greatest motivation to consider Maine for a simple vacation getaway or with COVID19 much more happens. To propel the delicious dream of moving to Maine. Many smart forward thinking small Maine towns are retooling with gusto. The same vigor as the planet hunts down a virus reversal vaccine. Because it is the key to survival. Internet connectivity is the life line to avoid loss of the small Maine town lifestyle.

Nudists, Skinny Dipping In Maine. Ever Snipe Hunted Or Used A Dip Net At Night Smelting On A Maine Lake?

America, the World in general is rethinking where is the best place to live for the highest quality of life.

Examining what exactly at this stage of your life makes what area the best stage for obtaining the most of what is really important in life.

So back to searching for the final touches to complete the feathering of the nest. Put together one of the two twin beds in the spare bedroom Sunday afternoon. In the off hours when you have a job that is a jealous master for your time because you work when others don’t and are available, it’s search for ideas. To find out solutions to the lake camp needs to make it a home away from home for whatever family member needs a safe haven. A roof over their head in Maine. I have two weeks to wrap up the finishing touches before the grandson and his support duo arrive to quarantine in place.

Small Pleasures Are the Big Reward. Anything Home Made, That’s Simple Living In Maine To Sample And Enjoy.

Blogging about simple living in Maine is important to anyone out there searching for current, accurate, helpful information.

What’s it like living in small town Maine? The questions are answered best by someone who lives and is invested in the small Maine community. Not a giant news gathering operation in a major market many hours away. Who has other topics to cover like high crime, friction caused from too many people in too small a high cost living space.

What’s important to a small Maine community is very different than what you get fed by journalists in large urban markets too.

Heck, even in Maine that has only a handful of cities, what is broadcast from Portland, Lewiston-Auburn, Bangor-Brewer is not always representative out in sticks. You can get a county or state perspective or a slant on the tie in for a national news story as it trends. But what about the local happenings in a small Maine town. Blogging on Maine topics is what this post platform tries to do with not just words but imagery, video embeds.

A Maine Flower Pot. Not Always Red Orange, A Small, Conventional Container. Use What You Have For Win Win Maine Unique.

These days, more people want to be rural if they have the Internet tether for income and the security connection. For the peace and quiet and simpler living. Maine is natural beauty, not crowded, less fighting over which direction to take. Small groups can reach a consensus quicker and start the steps today to implement what is needed to survival and quality of life.

Grass roots and home grown also makes a person feel like empowered living in small town Maine.

Like they are a cog in the wheel and vitally needed. Like being loved, everyone wants to feel needed. You are in a small Maine town that only has so many people to tackle the problems collectively.

A steady journal of daily or weekly happenings tapping into the blogging channel. Maine bloggers are the story tellers, the ambassadors to their local area where the hunt and peck original posts put their communities on the map. Posting images of Maine beauty to prove the point and to remind themselves. Proud of where we live, concerned about the national events in our country. Glad to live where it is less frustrating because we all are not passively watching but actively doing. Blog posts on Maine simple living tell the story from where it happens.

Can I Have A Little Privacy Please? I’m Bathing!

The small Maine communities are a tight knit fabric of people.

Hands on to pitch in along the front lines. No one takes a back seat, it’s all hands on deck because the entire village has a role in what happens there. We’re not spectators and whine or complain but do nothing. In small Maine towns, each and everyone of the population is empowered to make a difference.

Our Waterfront Friends Entertain For Free. The Kids Part Of The Family Act Out Front Of A Maine Waterfront Property.

Small Maine towns are places where folks wave, make eye contact, worry about elderly shut ins.

We are protective. The small spread out population is invested in what happens in the area. When a community loses a member, you think about family a lot. We are so inter-connected living and working together in small Maine town activities. Blogging on Maine means some of that day to day spills into the Me In Maine channel. That’s the stuff mainstream media on the national level does not cover.

You know the people who live around you and in many instances are somehow related in Maine.

Or worked together on a school board project, a local church event or coached little league, some other team sport together on the same bench. Pitch in and get behind whatever is needed and be prepared you are going to have the volunteer job for life. Blogging on Maine. I blog about what it is like living in Maine. Why I love living here 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

July 14, 2020
4th Of July In Maine

4th of July In Maine.

Maine, what the COVID19 virus pandemic has shown the outside World, the locals. Internet technology demonstrates you can enjoy living in four seasons Maine. Get uncrowded nature rich Maine but work online. The best of both Worlds, Maine with all she offers that is unspoiled, rich and real. But promoting it and the providing the window dressing from a keyboard connected to a brain caffeinated on good hot black coffee.

Remember how window shopping a small Maine downtown whether the store is open or not provides entertainment and gives you something to dream about during a day or night time stroll?

Window Shopping, More Important Than Ever During Coronovirus Virus. Virtual Stores The Reality.

These images from Camden Maine during the off season but stores still open and waiting for the summer peak time tourist season.

Maine Downtowns. Not So Crowded Or So Lively During The COVID19 Virus Pandemic. But Check Online. You’re Only 15 Seconds Away From A Retail Experience.

Check Online, There Is Lots Happening For Deals With Maine Businesses During COVID19 Virus Pandemic.

Mainers are workers, bringing up the following generations to be the same and not get bogged down or depressed.

We’re not standing still or sitting on our hands waiting for the memo to get back to work. We treat life like a sport. Our attitude is everything in the how high do you want to score. It is up to us to be what we want to be. No one to blame for lack of effort but from within ourselves. In business it is all about making sure your online customers can window shop and be served up with what they need around the clock.COVID19 virus pandemic or not. Window dressing is not just fluff or a little thing. It is everything as we work together to prove the point.

If you feel a little divided like the nation with “Us” and over there “Them”. It’s times like these that we learn to live again as Bob Grohl in the Foo Fighters crooned. Let’s try the unplugged, acoustic version. The rest of the band. You guys and gals can take a break. Go make a call, check your email or visit the restroom. Smoke if you must or get a drink, score a snack. Vending machine slim Jim or Little Debbie’s oatmeal pie time. If the pickin’s are slim and everything at the lunch counter is off limits because it’s been closed for months. Hit it Bob.

Teach us how it is times like this we learn to live again video.

Maine, back to Earth and feet on the ground.

Reality time even if I am using a virtual kind blog posting. Your toes in the sand on a beach in Maine. This 4th of July in Maine weekend. More than ever I feel so lucky to live in Maine. This is the right place for all the reasons any season. For me it’s all the boxes checked off especially during times like these when we re-invent and learn to live again. Prioritizing, soul searching, limited in some ways to create space to fill it with what is worthwhile and probably missing. I feel living in small town rural Maine gives us a better frame of mind and healthier attitude because we are prepared for times like these.

Maine, Shoulder To Shoulder Working Together. Stay Safe During COVID19 Virus Pandemic.

The cyber reality of the virtual World when the 4th of July in Maine rolls around again.

Casting your net for customers using a greater reach, a healthy frequency of your marketing message. It was already happening as small Maine town economies struggle with the lack of volume needed to monetize a business. We all know that anything open for business that is not is doomed. Like an operation taking too long and the patient under the knife developing other complications beyond the main purpose of scrubbing thorough and putting on the mask, gloves, surgical gown.

A Maine business peddling a product or a service won’t survive idle and with the front doors locked.

Or even open but operating in the red ink or below capacity needed to make a healthy profit. The stop to celebrate the nation’s independence is a little different this year because not everyone feels so free and easy. Public safety and curbing the COVID19 virus adds a speed bump to the 4th of July festivities. A self imposed governor on moderation times one hundred is something new to the younger half of the population used to go go go. But something easier to swallow when you see the bigger picture and have weathered other life storms in Maine and come out the better for them.

This July 4th celebration in Maine took a step back and was without the local state fair, the parade the way we remember it.

But fireworks happened in my hometown from the top of Drakes Hill. Everyone kept their safe respectful distances and made it work. instead of crowding into community park, it was come as you are. Launched on the highest local peak and small scattered gatherings here and there to see the rocket’s red and other color glare. Capturing some of the tradition and all the appreciation for living in Maine full time.

Here’s what a normal 4th of July local parade in Maine looks like.

4th of July Parade In Maine

Sure I miss our local state Fair, the midway rides and games of chance, the agricultural exhibits.

The two Italian greasy tasty sausages going in and coming out of demolition derby. Served up from carny workers loading them to overflowing with all the onions, peppers, other mystery ingredients. No, they’re probably are not good for your body but once a year can’t shorten your life that much right? You gotta live and life is short. Maine, the way life should be is what the slogan promised. Just easy does it on the back and forth trips.

Shuttered, idled, not everything is live and operating today in Maine.

But the plan is if we all do our part and stay solid, this too shall pass. Better sooner than later. Patience, appreciation for what we still have, what we did have that will return in time. Somethings trapped in time and maybe not to return. It’s all good and up to us to stay positive for the greater good and our own quality of life. We are all going through this tunnel ride and will come out the other side with new ideas, lots of memories and stronger for the experience thrust upon us.

Maine has more second homes for vacation and rental use than any other state.

Many flocked to those Maine homes to quarantined for two weeks all my their lonesome and to shelter in place while working online from these Maine locations. Or producing your COVID19 negative test done in the last 72 hours for admission across the big green bridge. My philosophy is any of the customers I need are only 15 seconds away. Logging on and plugging in to tap the selection thanks to websites and blog posts and video channels. To learn about the simple Maine lifestyle. To appreciate the resourcefulness of down to Earth and life seasoned true Mainers. More people than ever have discovered the secret of Maine’s magic. It starts on short vacation exposure, ends up with buying Maine real estate.

The full time, possibly a life long native Mainer.

A little crusty, a lot outspoken but sharing the wisdom learned from personal experiences and meant without malice. Distilled in the heart. Common sense, Yankee ingenuity still reins supreme and life goes on. Steady the course and see the other end of any life struggle. Me In Maine blog post readers, thank you for your loyally and tuning in to follow our work. Stay tough, stay tuned and share what you have learned from this COVID19 virus pandemic experience. A sense of humor helps and banding together proving we are not in this alone.

Comedian Bob Marley helps NewsCenter 6 with the Maine weather forecasting video.

Most I know figure we are the lucky ones when you add up the score at the end of the day.

Compared to most, Maine is the place you would want to be harboring while the World adjusts to new events and health protocols that impact our economy in new ways. The worse thing you can do is perpetuate the “Us’ and “Them”. Search for unity and build something worthwhile should be the focus and channel for all our collective energies right?

If Maine tourism is not slammed and raking in the out of state dollars, retool and work on your operation to prepare for when “it’s BBbbackkkkk”. Adjust your sales and create new markets to take the place of dormant ones. Lots of local Maine businesses are right out straight but the focus is live and local. Supplementing with online virtual scores where you may doze but you never close as the sole proprietor and many family home grown operations.

Small town Maine is back, reversing the migration.

Everyone realizing everything you really need and cherish is right here in Maine. Small town Maine is grass roots, intimate and built from scratch by your friends and neighbors banding together to create something unique. Blood, sweat and tears invested when corporate dollars are no where in sight. Because this is too small an economic landscape to exploit dollar wise. In small Maine towns, you don’t pay your price of admission and just attend an event.

You are working months before behind the scenes and sleeves rolled up laboring to make it happen along with others in your small Maine town.

Meeting year round and when snow banks line the roadways or leafs are piling up needing to be raked. That is Maine home town pride that runs deeper than what you feel lost in the city and sharing everything with just too many people. Large scale is not small town Maine where you know most of the people. Maine is like you are one big small town family. So COVID19 does not defeat the little Maine towns that dot the landscape in Vacationland.

Long before the Cononovirus hit Maine a few months back, other economic struggles forced the focus on looking for waste, taking up slack.

Reducing duplication of services and studying school education services in new and not so popular ways. This Coronvirus just added a new wrinkle and hammered away at the important point of Internet connectivity is everything for survival in Maine. I like to think our set of life skills is greater, our attitude more positive to avoid getting bogged down and discouraged. We don’t stay down long and have experience with setbacks.

Money does not grow on trees and barter for exchange of goods and services happens all around us.

It is cheaper to live here when your shelter is paid for, your food is home grown and local and money is not so darn important. Not used to impress anyone because we know better. Parked for a rainy day you expect to happen makes you better prepared and not flying by the seat of your pants. Our entertainment is low or no cost too here in Maine. It’s unspoiled, pure and all natural. No make up or spin needed. Drop dead gorgeous all day long.

Folks now more than ever want to telecommute to their online job working remotely in Maine if the connection is loud and strong and consistent.

Your Local Small Towns People, Family And Friends In The Local 4th Of July Celebration Parades.

4th Of July Celebrations With Live Locally Made Band Member Music. Small Towns In Maine Are Special.

Enjoy the rest of your 4th Of July whether in Maine or wherever you are.

Keep Maine in your thoughts if you had to stay away and lose a turn. Remember your fond memories of Vacationland if you are parked out of state. If you are one of the lucky ones who live here full time in Maine, you know we’ll tough it out. Hunker down, making the most of it. It’s still wicked good in Maine. Happy 4th of July from Me In Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealy.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

July 5, 2020
Baked Bean Suppers In Maine

Baked bean suppers in Maine. Friday night in Maine growing up meat putting the yellow eye or Jacob’s cattle or soldier bean in the pot to soak.

My Mom’s Saturday morning ritual was adding the other ingredients to the overnight soaked beans for the feast that night. Often the same batch of beans made a debut at the Sunday morning breakfast along with the traditional eggs just the way you liked them. Along with the baked bread, home made jam, sizzling bacon strips, hash browns with the sliced and diced nicely onions, peppers, mushrooms.

Hot And Hearty, Fill Your Plate With Beans And What Else At The Supper Time Bell?

The Saturday night supper was not the only evening meal starring the beans that rarely came out of a B&M can .

Tap the can kind offer a slew of options beyond the kind the cowboys out West whipped out of their saddle bags. To savor under the star filled sky before propping up against the saddle the horse was glad to have removed for the evening.

Where did the Saturday night bean supper tradition come from anyway?

Some say the gaseous propulsion delight can be blamed on the Pilgrims. Makes sense if you think of the Boston Baked Bean label most associated with the meal. I always heard the baked bean supper originated from Canada. My Dad’s Mom came from Burt’s Corner in New Brunswick Canada.

A full plate of beans and a piece or two of home made baked bread to help the guy or girl who will be washing dishes at the end of the meal that night.

Don’t waste a drop of the baked bean sauce juice. Not so hard to pass in a clean plate for the sink scrub or to tuck away in the dishwasher. Beans, just baked beans can be more than enough in a solo meal offering. Like how you and I love our steak cooked best…. beans recipes vary greatly. The consistency of the baked bean can be mushy, hard as rocks or somewhere in between. Beans tucked away and frozen don’t quite have the same consistency as those from a new batch in the two day to make process.

Over time, the baked beans just improve in taste in my opinion.

Or maybe it is looking forward to the pot of beans made to last longer than just the Saturday night session at the Maine farm house setting growing up with my three older brothers. The recipe your Mom, Grandmother used and past down is a big part of the tradition. But today so many classic heirloom bake bean recipes and new variety introduced to enjoy them so many new ways. Hot or cold, three bean salad, in a soup, re-fried and cheesed up with lots of accent condiments. (more…)

June 22, 2020
Minimalist Living In Maine

Minimalist living in Maine.

Happy And Content Because You Live In Maine. That’s More Than Enough!

This blog post about how Maine is ideally suited to a minimalist in search of a setting to practice this approach to living well.

Where you decide to set up shop for minimalist living is huge. Maine is already ideally suited for simple living. But for this blog post on minimalist living in Maine, we need a foundation to build on. For starters you and I need to make sure we are on the same page on the term “minimalist”. I looked it up for the two of us and here what I found.

Minimalist.

Noun

1) a person who advocated or practices minimalism in art of music

2) a person advocating minor or moderate reform in politics.

Adjective

1) relating to minimalism in art or music.

2) advocating moderate political policies.

That sure helps doesn’t it? Not.

I never thought of minimalism as mostly applied to music, politics.

Instead I thought of it as being highly efficient. Frugal, wasting little and running a tight ship with little slack. Living below your means, keeping your perspective always “keep it simple” without the stupid tacked on. De-cluttering and not juggling too many irons in the fire that creates stress and robs joy. That’s part of the reduce, reuse, repeat practically life template to build on daily. And mentally to avoid “stinking thinking”. Teaching those around you that positive is the only way to sail your ship.

This is a blog post on minimalist living in Maine, should it be shorter than most too to show conservation?

De-cluttered and not long and windy or showy? Short and sweet and complete. All the electrons used to craft this Maine blog post were recycled and no trees harmed to create it.

Meet Your Neighbors In Rural Small Town Maine. Kinda Shy, Have Four Legs, Not Chatty Cathy’s Or Obnoxious.

Living with only what you need is one definition of a minimalist lifestyle.

Like going on a diet if you are used to adding more and more that interferes with the what is really important to your quality of life. “Easy does it” advice for someone used to no limits and binge drinking. A suggestion to rein it in and think long and hard about everything you do, buy, how you live.

Living simply the life decision.

Not adding something new without pulling back in some other area to make room for it. Buying more is not the go to approach to a true minimalist. Accumulate more is not the pathway to the relationship happiness experience. You don’t buy it, you build it. The contrast like fast food wolfed down vs slow cooked and savored. Keep it simple. Making it minimal, limited is going throw a wrench into things for the person with the galloping gimmees. Seeking anything new that is guaranteed to improve your happiness (for a short time). Is the piling it on and adding more and more to fill a hole? Is it like applying a band aid to a gunshot wound? Self medication to compensate for something missing like so much we do in desperation?

Roll Your Own, Raise What You And Your Livestock Eat. That’s Maine Simple Living Farm To Table.

Like most things in life style approaches, it’s a buffet style choice.

Little of this, a lot of that and no thank you helpings of many other samplings. As you push the tray along the bar to create what’s up next for the meal ahead. Eating the wrong stuff, not even hungry or the food so so satisfying. But something to do to fill the time. All the modern conveniences have freed us up in some ways only to add more idle time activities to seek fulfillment using the wrong methods.

Minimalist living, when it is a healthy decision and not a sentence.

It helps when someone overwhelmed with no end in sight develops a plan for their own survival and health. When something has to give. The search for improved quality of life starts with what is important and should it be in the short and long run. Your kids are watching and learning from you so why living with more than you need is the goal? To impress someone? To show everyone the fruits of your labor and acting as a measurement? If you were poor as a church mouse growing up and many rubbed your nose in it, climbing out of poverty becomes life and death important. But sometimes for the wrong reasons and to enjoy dishing it out to blanket the pain from receiving the ridicule or shame.

Our Waterfront Friends Entertain For Free. The Kids Part Of The Family Act That Float By During Evening Pan Handling For Bread.

Rich is not bought with money. Gratitude is riches that is mined in your thoughts.

Being happy with what you have that is more than enough. Right thinking and being frugal, practical and in balance. Taking care of things so they don’t need constant replacement. Respecting others and their opinions to maintain healthy relationships. To learn something from the exchange of new ideas that keep you and I from being outdated or stagnant. That will help build a joyful savings account to draw from and for peaceful inner contentment. Happy starts and ends with removal of fear and worry. High anxiety levels do not improve the quality of the air in your surroundings. It robs and distracts and keeps you from your passionate best performance. Watching others and being a copy cat is not writing your own sheet music and performing your own tunes.

Can I Have A Little Privacy Please? I’m Saturday Night Bathing!

Minimalist living, getting centered to apply a simple template to how you begin and end your day.

Experiences more than world possessions is the biggest shift. Replacing hap hazard spending and living seat of the pants with no plan for a systematic approach to squeeze out more rich experiences. Frugal travel, vacationing instate and camping. The less you spend, the more you get from the experience thinking. Because you can take more trips if done on a careful budget. Not worried about how much this five star accommodations set you back that you could not really afford.

It’s easier to budget when you have less expenses. But minimalist living is not a fad.

Not going to work if you feel deprived like a diet without dessert or second helpings of what you love to eat. Minimalist living is more than economizing and reducing the stuff you pack up and move around in your travels. It is clearing the deck to create time and space for something you never tried or thought could enrich your life. If you had no money or very little, practicing minimalist living would be easier. Not many other options to side track you.

Funding over spending means more work than play hours for most.

Reaching for the credit card constantly and watching the monthly balances spike skyward. Hiring out things you could do yourself if you had the time and putting in a little study is highly rewarding. Makes you independent, more skilled, less tied to others to perform tasks you could do yourself if you just had the time. Too little time. The only way to make more time is to manage what you have better. To take an eagle eye at how you spend your time now and what could be different with some rearranging.

Simple Maine Fun, Collecting Lighthouses. Over 60 To Capture And Experience. Return Visits Enrich The Experience Like Reconnecting With An Old Friend.

McMansions, the place with more bathrooms than bedrooms.

Why would you need six bathrooms for a three bedroom home? Are there double bunk beds and several pull down murphy beds in those bedrooms to increase the capacity? Did the home owners all grow up in houses without running water and trotted in any weather or season to an outhouse out back? And now more bathrooms is a back lash recoil to make up for lack of plumbing earlier in life? Is it because of highly effective marketing by Kohler and other makers of all those toilets, vanities, showers and tubs manufacturers? Is it look at me, I am a success based on my home’s bathroom count? One more example of I have more than you and don’t you forget it?

The corporate ladder climb and stripes earned as you head north in your career. That focus makes what you should be investing time in a little blurry.

The price of career success in your upward advancement and what it robs. Is this life pursuit healthy in the present day or long run?

What does it do to a person, their family, relationships with kids and your partner and the bottom line sum of life experiences? Have we been taught as a society that money fixes everything? Throw enough green stuff or swipe that credit card magnetic strip more times and everything will be just fine. A video on minimalist.

All the right junk in all the right places.

From a song about being well proportioned and pleasant on the eyes. Like the Brick House song from the Commodores. But a three car or more garage, needed to warehouse the junk. Really? A true minimalist says if you have not used a possession in 90 days, you don’t need it. Non-essential and needs to be deep sixed. Because it’s dragging you down man. But what about Christmas decorations? Leave them up to enjoy and don’t take them down? If you live in a tiny home, you limit the space and it’s like packing for the trip to the moon. Only so much will fit and priority of what is needed to stay alive not just entertained becomes important in the family tin can space capsule.

Maine is ideal for minimalist living.

We already practice minimalist living and know what “green” meant for a lifestyle before people started hash tagging it. Being good stewards, protecting Mother Earth and carry in, carry out to leave a small or better yet no footprint. Mainers are all over that approach to protecting this neat vast, sparsely populated state. Natural resource rich Maine, where we had less of a time adjusting to “social distancing” than most during the COVID19 pandemic. With all this drop dead gorgeous pure and natural beauty around us, how can you not help but feel very fortunate? Less concerned about what material objects you don’t own or need. More grateful to be in a place like Maine that is the way life should be with fresh air, clean water and not a gazillion people to share or deal with that get in the way.

Out For a Drive, A Log Truck Slows The Ride.

Living in a small cabin off grid is not the same as owning a 1000 square foot ranch or living in a farmstead with power and all the creature comforts.

But Mainers are happy with what they have. Industrious too in improving their lot in life without waiting for someone else to make the changes for them. We don’t point fingers or blame and instead make the most with what we have that is always more than enough. Make it work, adjusting our attitudes and patience all taught early on as life survival skills. When it’s a lot cheaper to live here, that helps too. You worry less about being up against it or making ends meet when the dollar bill stretches further.

Less income but no debt.

The rural way of living in small town Maine communities prepares you with a ceiling, a boundary, financial limits. Free and clear the goal. When fun is no or low cost and we are already in Vacationland, that does not hurt minimalist living experience. Clutter, debt, no plan is not the norm in rural Maine. Way more resourceful than that to stay clear of what can pull your under or steal your joy in Maine.

Maine Lobster, We Get It Fresh Off The Boat At The Dock. No Waiting, No Jacked Up Middle Men Prices.

Is fast food part of the consumption problem?

For just one more buck you can have score pies. You and I can super size and heft an even larger large soft drink we don’t need and can barely carry. To guzzle and wash down the happy meal. Who needs a refill and more waste thrown in the trash of unused food or drink and colorful packaging. In third world countries, give a kid a happy meal toy and they carefully open the plastic wrapper. Play longer, slide it back into the original container and put it up on a shelf for safe keeping. Learned that observation from an adoption agency that works worldwide. When you have less you appreciate more what you do have. I get it, can cherry pick lots of the platform plank talking points on why lean toward a minimalist approach to simple living.

If you have what you need and that is more than enough.

You spend less time on the prowl, hunting for more. I’m good, all set happens. That is living life in moderation. But when life is upside down and out of control like someone shoved you out of a plane and no parachute strapped to your back. Something has to give and will with or without your help. It is way harder to rein in how you live and add discipline when bloated happens. The young grasshopper without pockets of money to fuel the excess. Those folks are better off because ramping up the gotta have everything going is just not going to happen with the financial cards you hold that won’t support it. But are they left with discontent because they can’t shop til you drop and not just at Christmas but year round? And see lots of others around them spending like drunken sailors that leads to lamenting on why can’t I do the same? Dare to be different. Try something 180 degree and glean what you can to shake up your life.

Making Music, Your Friends, Family And Neighbors Play The Tunes!

You can not get enough of what you don’t really want.

The mad dash to have it all and then some of life’s goodies. You are not happy for long but on the hunt for something always missing. Good enough never is. What is content? The kind not temporary or contingent upon having more to maintain that peaceful easy feeling. Not sure why all this stuff is so important but keep shoveling it in, bring it all your way please. Don’t stop, can’t stop. Not just bigger is better but more is the goal. Of EVERYTHING and let’s rent enough storage units to tuck it away for years. The kids can sort through it and might find some of the gadgets useful or decide to slide it into a garage sale.

Doing more with less living space, could you be happy with 420 S/F and one space saver bathroom, a galley kitchen and no wasted hall space?

Move the walls, no halls. Live with one open living area that has lots of sunshine. Deciding to dress accordingly for the season, to head outside for most of your living space. Out in your close knit rural Maine community volunteering. pitching in for the greater good. Not hiding out in home. Have lots of cheap Maine land to build a minimalist house to fit your budget and provide the perfect container to practice the less is more.

Don’t you lose family members in McMansions?

Is GPS needed to find one of the many paths to the kitchen for breakfast? When was the last time you used a formal dining room or exercise area? Places for purposes that never get occupied like lots of bathrooms to clean but never use. In Maine, we don’t feel like one of the biggest purposes in life is to burn cash. We are fulfilled by how we live and where we spend our life even keel and considerately simpler. Putting family, community and nature experiences on the top of the list, not shelf item stuff.

Maine Simple. Not Used, So Park It For The Winter Practical.

Minimalist living goes against mass consumption and highly effective marketing planting the seed you need this NOW.

It does not play well with a big part of your day put into achieving and maintaining status. The recipe for happiness should be you are healthy, you enjoy the little things like a sunrise or sunset. Everything in between too because you have an attitude of gratitude. Full of joy and not needing anything else that is missing in large supply.

I had a lake cottage owned by a hoarder who wanted to know what the value was. I could size up the outside and the waterfront lot.

But no space to tour the inside. Wall to wall and floor to ceiling stuffed to the gills. His red Buick station wagon almost eye level with paper of all kinds. The car slowly groaned and moaned as it inched around my small Maine town. Under a heavy strain and overloaded. Like a four wheel rolling paper dumpster with lots of ballast. Too much paper is not thrifty or frugal or minimalist living in Maine. It’s another subject for a future Maine blog post.

Cool Off On The Waterfront In Maine!

They say depression children raised during a time when there was not much to eat or for work were forged into survival mode.

Throw nothing away, not because you wanted to impress anyone with all you possess. But because you might need this and that down the road and had no money to go out and pick it off the shelf.

Wearing blinders and so caught up in the American culture that you forget what life should look like.

Replacing it with an imagined life, how things would be if you could just own one or more of something. Like a security blanket that eases a fear. Worried about running out, what if you could not have anything you suddenly thought you needed. The shift is to building more meaningful relationship, to strengthen the connection to other humans, our belongings, the housing space we call home.

Useful, solid, simple things that work and are timeless are opted for over trending cheaply mass produced disposable junk.

Functional, solid and not just pretty to the eye is what filters our purchasing choices. There is impulse control in whatever we do buy and plenty of thought put into what we research and then decide on as best for us.

Minimalist living in Maine.

Getting rid of the antsy feeling waiting for stuff living pay check to pay check. On the hunt and looking, needing for better. Never happy with what you do have and wanting something different. The endless search for what ever is missing or not giving you comfort. How can you be so happy as a minimalist is you are alone with so little many would wonder. Why would you deprive yourself of the temporary joy of something new just delivered by the Fed Ex or UPS delivery carrier? Minimalist living in Maine, it’s not restrictive but viewed as disciplined and common sense when money does not grow on trees. And when what’s important is the beautiful surroundings you share with your family, friends, small well connected communities in Maine.

Maine! Fishing, Listening To The Water, Having A Lunch Next To A Stream.

In Maine, we use our open porches.

Go up to camp for some simple living and friendly conversation or alone time. We commune with nature. The great outdoors and wildlife teach us much and provide valuable perspective on what is important and why. We don’t need more options, more stuff, a better way of life funded by product makers or service providers. What is missing is what the marketing seed planted makes us think is lacking and highly needed. Minimalist living, less is more is what helps reset everything to the original factory settings to begin again. To establish an equilibrium and balance. We don’t build in rooms or features we won’t use. Functional is highly sought after to simply and improve our daily tasks and the toil of living. The work life balance living in Maine, the natives learn how to handle the two best.

Our boredom, anticipation, rumination and worry is too much free time to spend in expensive ways that benefit others, not us.

We are sheep told what we need. How we should feel. Is that part of how this all happens? Keep it simple, back to basics. Somehow considered square and old school out dated Daddio? Too little void to fill with calm is what happens when you are shopping online into the early morning hours and scanning catalogs for something you don’t have but know you really need. That you can post on Facebook and other social media channels to gloat or seeking approval from the “look what I have that you don’t”. Minimalist living in Maine. There are lots of perks relocating, moving to a small town in Maine.

Has technology advancing leaps and bounds caused the try to keep up collecting the latest greatest?

Chasing new models that promise to out perform the last one you purchased. That hurry scurry spending may help the economy but not the minimalist way of living simple without constant change. Look around your junk drawers and attic storage or closets and what do you see? An electronic graveyard of cords, devices, outdated and antique E waste.

Fresh Watered Maine Wildflowers. The Natural Beauty Of What’s Around Us Enjoyed Daily! We Take Time To Literally Smell The Flowers.

Much of what we buy was because the previous purchase was cheap and wore out.

Or could not keep up and replaced in a throw away society. Minimalist living in Maine or anywhere. Often the older radio. televisions and appliances were made to last and did but technology not a break down caused it shut down and parked. Get out of the way for something new designed to make our life easier and to free up time. Time to think about what else we need to carve our a quality of life.

Minimalist living, do you do it and why?

How come you do not and what have you learned from previous attempts? Thank you for following our Me In Maine blog posts. This one about minimalist living in Maine, one fine state to keep it simple and enjoy what is really important.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

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

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June 12, 2020