Category: Living in Maine

Living In Maine, Sometimes There’s A Fly In The Ointment.

Small town rural Maine is simpler living whether you are on vacation or considering moving here full time.

And even though the fresh air, blue skies, clean water and friendly people are on the list of perks, sometimes pests need to be handled. We’re not talking mosquitoes and black flies this time around blogging. Maybe it’s Canadian geese on the war path leaving their calling card on your Maine lake property front lawn.

Stay Outdoors Mr Chipmunk, Mr Squirrel. Pests In Maine, The List Includes Beavers, Pigeons, Canadian Geese, Ducks! But We Are Missing The Poisonous Ones Other Hotter, Humid Population Centers Have.

And everyone knows the mother duck with the babies in tow out front the waterfront cottage are a cute but returning bothersome fertilizer depositor up on shore or covering your boat dock. Think about what happens after the introductory feed of stale bread to the quackers. And if you don’t, how do you feel about swimmer’s itch? Pass the medicated lotion please. At least the singing or crying Maine lake loon stays out on the water. Can not walk or come up on shore to be a nuisance.

Raccoons, porcupines, noisy crows, ravens on so big they seem to be on steroids. Maine black bears thrashing around in your garden’s fresh on the stock corn that go wild in a feeding frenzy. Whooping it up late at night. Over eating and making a mess of things. It happens. Just keep the red fox or coyote out of the hen house because they like you and I love chicken dinners too.

What other pests can happen in Maine?

Well, colder winter temperatures help curb lots of what other hot and humid areas can offer you for pest irritations. We lack the poisonous snakes, the large array of spiders that bite you just once and that’s all it took. Call the funeral home. Make the arrangements.

More Animals, Wildlife, Less People. Maine Does Not Have Gangs, The Crime Element.

Sometimes a relocating Maine real estate buyer moving is from an area where there are termites eating their woodwork. Those folks can infect their own household in Maine with what hitch hiked up I-95 hidden in the trailer or truck load of personal belongings.

I have not seen evidence of termites in my travels but around a lake with wet decaying wood a carpenter ant, a cousin to the termite can leave their calling card of handiwork. Powder post beetles I have heard of attacking a barn in Maine but it seems isolated, less occurring. I bet Jack Frost and old man winter help keep the pest uprisings to a minimum in four season Maine. More on Maine pests.

Pigeons, they are peaceful and don’t appear to be the smartest bird in Maine.

But once they decide your property is a good place to nest and rest, word gets around. More show up and then what do you do? You may not want to remove them using firepower and a bee bee gun is not the weapon of choice to encourage them to move along. When they are high up on a farm barn that can be fifty or more feet in the air. Just a tad out of reach with the Daisy red rider rifle copper pellets.

The Wildlife Were Here First. We Try To Live Together, Just Keep Them Out Of Our Maine Homes.

Live trapping the pigeon is an option. The cage large enough for eight to ten of the pigeons. Who swoop down to see what’s being served up for a snack inside and behind the wire cage with fresh popcorn, peanuts or something that welcome them in. To the Hotel California in Maine that you can enter any time you want but you can never leave.

Don’t pigeons know how to fly long distances? They are used by some to carry messages on their stick like legs in a capsule delivered by air mail. What’s to keep them from flying back? It’s what homing pigeons did over and over before Express Mail, next day Fed Ex, drone deliveries, pony express right?

Heck even beavers that are causing the waterways to back up behind your Maine homestead in the brook or stream that becomes a growing larger pond from their paddy whack dams. They too may need to be relocated, the dams removed so the flooding water can return to normal level conditions. But I know of one person who had the animal control folks trap and take a trip. To release a beaver transported thirty five miles from where they were caught in the live trap. And it only took three weeks after the open the door, here you go relocation into the deeper wilds of Maine. As they go over hill and dale to return to the original home they were evicted from not so long ago. Did you miss us while we were gone? The pests sure did you at the home sweet home they were forced to leave against their wishes.

How did the Maine property owner know it was the same not a new beaver?

Don’t they all look alike, the same thing the wildlife says about us? One beaver in the exodus had a white spot on it’s nose which I am told is rare like two eyes each a different color David Bowie, Jane Seymore were born with for peepers. I don’t think they checked the DNA to be sure but all I know is they’re back. The beaver returns or more just like the ones evicted showed up to keep the water rising. We all know how hard beaver work around the clock like a Maine farmer who has logged a forty hour week by Tuesday noon.

Wild Turkeys In Maine. You Can Have To Pile On The Brakes When Around A Blind Highway Corner Too Many Appear. And Don’t Move Fast Making Way For A Speeding Vehicle.

Have had a woodchuck under a building that liked nibbling on the flower garden bloom that was live trapped. Then set free in an unorganized township. It did not return but that does not mean another that gets the same idea to dig in and hang around won’t do the same free loading on the Maine farm. Ever heard of the Colorado potato beetle?

Winter approaching means lots of rodents want to hurry scurry to get in under cover for the lower temperatures and blanket of snow days forecasted ahead.

The two legged animals bank their Maine homes, pile the firewood, dig out the snow shovel and wool socks, mitten, head wear. It’s called survival right? Pass the acorns, nuts, berries and hunker down to hibernate until spring returns.

Where did I hide the Jiffy ice auger for winter lake fishing and the cross country snow skis? Up over the garage or was it down in the basement? Mainers are outdoors year round. Just dress a little differently to reflect the changing seasons.

Chipmunks are cute but very destructive inside a Maine dwelling of any kind. Show of hands of anyone feeling differently that has had them move in and take over. No one wants to see a red squirrel take up residence either inside the walls or up over the ceiling of where you live. And where you try to sleep when the lights go out as they run back and forth, up and down all around you, keeping you up at night. I have one older daughter living in Boston who says newer cars have wiring made with soy that attract city rats. Her 2009 Subaru has been spared when others parked around it were targeted. Peppermint oil is supposed to help thwart the rats and cause them to move along looking for another vehicle to nibble on when it is meal time.

City living getting you down? Maine, small town simple living. Looking for a piece of that?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

October 5, 2018
Maine Is Mostly Small Maine Rural Towns.

Maine small town living involves lots of volunteers working together for the unique quality of life experience.

And when local festivals or celebrations are started, the tradition needs protection to keep them happening year after year. New laborers and creative minds introduced to help the event expand and to replace those that have to step back and pull away. The events build, even the date they are held becomes sacred. Because folks plan their vacation routines around working the local small Maine town celebrations or attending them. Many travel long distances to come home from far away year after year. Both natives and new to the area folks that enjoy the experience. But the dates are what cause so much to be done to build around them.

Merchants plan their retail sales around the event. Motels and other lodging options get reservations in advance preparing for the local special event. Lots of publicity promoting the dates and times of the local community activity are put into print circulation and with online electron mass media transmissions. Social media outlets are set up to spread the word across the land. But based on a particular date in time that drives all that is planned around the event.

The Black And White Realities Of Running A Red, White & Blue Maine Small Town. Providing The Family Fun Without The Big Price Tag.

There are 25 state fairs in Maine.

And each one is special, hand made, a clever grass root creation unique to the area it reflects. The communities in Maine are not just the empty buildings on Main Street, town hall, schools, churches and houses but the people who live in the small town. The folks that invest their creative spirit and financial, time resources into everything that goes on in the small Maine town. There is nothing stronger than the heart of a local Maine volunteer with fierce pride in their home town. It is a sad day when another community threatens another’s labor of love activity in the same Maine county.

Like small plant seedlings that need protection from the elements until they gain strength and stamina, small Maine towns face lots of challenges to keep the event that swims in the local economy going. To weed, feed, water, guide and groom the festivals that struggle due to the dwindling economy. Whatever recreational, educational, sporting or amusement, all the local events and any annual celebrations that improves the quality of life are the spark of the community spirit. So many of the happenings to improve living in the small Maine town are 90 percent volunteer home grown effort and ten percent actual infused upfront monetary subsidy. Hard work trumps writing a check to pull off the event annually.

So when year after year a Maine town sponsors a festival, celebration, event, that town putting on their all out best effort for any local well planned activity, it is a beautiful thing.

It’s an example of local team work. Until something ugly happens. When a county town is pushed and they return the shove that affects another community in Maine. That’s what is happening concerning the 4th of July Houlton Maine Agricultural State Fair and the one held later the same month in Northern Maine Fair in Presque Isle. The latter is touted online as “always the fourth Friday in July to the first Saturday in August”.

Houlton State Fair, Lead Off Of Maine’s Agricultural Fair Schedule Over The 4th Of July.

The Houlton celebration a licensed State of Maine Fair since 1981. The fair, parade, retail sales in Midnight Madness in Market Square, Demolition Derby, truck pulls, horse shows, the craft fair in the park and more offer amusement and entertainment for all ages around the 4th of July. The 4H exhibits and demonstrations of all kinds, the musical acts, demonstrations, rides, games, vendor food make it a memorable experience for old and young alike. The local tradition does not just happen and is worked on and attended by most of the population in the surrounding Maine communities where it is hosted.

In August of this year, Smokey’s Greater Shows and the Northern Maine Fair agreed to petition the State of Maine to have their fair operate from Friday June 28th to Saturday July 6, 2019. Smokey’s is telling Houlton Fair to change the long time tradition July 4th schedule as the first state fair on the schedule. Recreate everything July 11th through the 14th, 2019. Whoa. And if we don’t, Houlton Maine won’t have them for a carnival amusement ride and game provider next year and for subsequent years. The hearing on the state level for such a move is considered October 12th at 10 AM in Augusta.

Tourism in Maine is strongest the closest you get to population centers out of state.

Where people in the urban areas can and do travel across the big green bridge to the south. To access the beach regions of Maine where the cost of living is a little bit steeper. To venture into the handful of cities small rural Maine has dotting the map. Up into the interior, the further north, east, west you go into this under populated New England state the flow of money slows, the economy is more rugged. But the community spirit and real not spun grass roots things we do for fun take place.

A bean supper, a fishing derby, an opening day of hunting season for someone with say a moose permit is a big deal. The lumbermen’s or agricultural museum reflect the traditions surrounding those two big industries where hard working Mainer’s earned their World wide known and respected work ethic reputation. Regional and state sporting competitions of any kind are a big deal in small rural Maine!

Maine, 108 Small Towns, Villages, Vibrant Communities.

With farming, timbering forest operations getting bigger in size and fewer in the actual company numbers, the scramble to find anything to replace the loss of jobs and our Maine heritage is a hard fought struggle.

The push for speed of thought Internet connectivity. The “bring your job with you to work online remotely” for members of the audience considering relocation here to Maine is one highly important segment to court and woo. Bragging up Maine’s small town wholesome values and building work ethic spirit, a quality life skill sets for young families members to benefit from is another trumpet blast being made daily from Vacationland.

Spelling out the lack of crime, traffic too and availability of quality health care for the “new at being old” elderly members out in the wild blue yonder are another important marketing target to keep the US census numbers up around the state of Maine.

Those retired transplants moving, relocating to Maine bring skills and donate their free time now that they don’t chase the dollar in the work world. They contribute their free manpower and creative ideas from a new area of the planet to add to the small Maine town way of life. All of us are ambassadors of Maine. Each and everyone of us wants to help spread the word on why we live here, what we love most about Maine.

It was sad to hear this week of a move underfoot to undermine the Houlton ME State Fair by another state fair venue in the same county. There is pressure from the carnival provider to make the two events closer together to justify the spin up into Aroostook County. The trip for just one outing is not cost effective, we get that. But for the Presque Isle Fair along with the carnival provider to petition the to change both venue dates is concerning.

Small Town Parades Over 4th Of July Special!

I am hopeful something can be worked out in the spirit of compromise to help both venues continue their years of tradition providing family fun. But not at the expense of either state fair venue’s historical success. And to avoid doing something that ends up hurting both communities because of the programming just too closely to give locals a chance to feel the need and to afford each of the area events.

The licensed Maine state fairs are an excellent educational and amusement entertainment value!

Carnivals in Maine have suffered from the high cost of insurance, difficulty getting quality employees for seasonal work and meeting the demands the public expect in their hungry as a horse entertainment appetite. Like most things in life now profits are smaller and businesses have to be keenly run. Your profit is found in your expenses. Volume, higher user numbers grease the gears and in a small population rural state like Maine located quite a ways up the pike, there’s the rub. The distance away from major markets helps insulate and isolate at the same time.

To step out and find a new replacement carnival circus amusement provider is difficult when the number of shows up and running is a low one. And when you read comments on the social media sites of state fairs, the public is very vocal and some very critical.

Being a volunteer on a Maine event is a thankless job and you must be tough skinned, tender hearted. It is harder to please the public members who want something for nothing or just don’t the money needed to take in multiple days of a celebration. Pride you gain from a job well done is the reward and don’t expect attention and praise from other community members who are working just as hard or putting even more effort into their list of community events.

Here’s the 2018 list of Maine’s State Fairs and their dates.

Another Hot Sausage Smothered In Onions, Peppers? (Burp) Excuse ME!

I am sure all the other state fairs, festivals in Maine that build around amusement rides that a carnival operator provides are feeling the same pinch. How to keep the well establish date for the celebration but to modify the schedule of events to make it something for everyone. Without going head over heels in debt that would kill the past time completely.

Leaving one big air sucking hole in the local fabric of life in a small Maine town proud to be the sponsor of the year after year event.

Where late night meetings, study of other venues, where planning for the next celebration or festival starts the day of the last one. It never stops and you work the event for life because looking behind you shows no person or a very short line of new blood willing to step in and work behind the scenes forever.

Writes your letters, show your concern and in the spirit of cooperation hammer out a plan to show how to preserve the state fair experience in Aroostook County, any county. Done with the least disruption to all the hard working volunteers feeling threatened and territorial that put their back into the local event that helps keep their town on the Maine map! The effort should be plowed back into the event not spent with the politics of how to poach, protect and maintain what we already have to avoid hard feelings and resentment.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

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

September 26, 2018
American Folk Festival On Bangor ME Waterfront!

Hear the live music? Outdoor anything in Maine is memorable because fresh air, sunshine and blue skies are the perfect backdrop.

And the wide open space coupled with friendly people creates the setting for a fun experience in Vacationland. The American Folk Festival held on the Penobscot River Waterfront is one event that started off with a bang and just improves season after season. Several stages to make it a buffet for the two ears on the side of your head. Watch a video for highlights of this years American Folk Festival in Bangor Maine.

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Planning through out the calendar twelve months means the American Folk Festival is always evolving for the next installment in Bangor Maine. Which acts to book, what vendors for food and home made arts and crafts takes a lot of logistics. To create the right mix that tickles all the senses.

American Folk Festival Live Stage Performances! Did You Attend The Folk Festival This Past Weekend In Bangor ME!

I am still thinking of the build a burrito, listening to the blues in my head, enjoying the talks with Maine craft vendors.

Under a moonlit sky on the waterfront feeling a warm breeze shared with my best frien. As we sat on a grassy side hill looking down upon the big stages of performer after performing artist bands! The American Folk Festival is one major bright spot in the on going outdoor live music events to enjoy and to consider volunteering to help make it run smoothly. More images from the Bangor area American Folk Festival.

Thank you to volunteers who have to be tough skinned to keep up the grueling pace as crunch time approaches for another festival in Maine. Who take often more criticism than praise but that’s okay and not why they do it. Maine is hard working individuals in all they do and the local pride shines brightly at whatever event you attend.

Looking for more indoor, outdoor music venues in Maine?

Maine has so much talent from through out the state but helping to spread the word on what is happening means we all need to share the news. Festivals around a local community celebration are extra special. And make it more than just a musical performance to take in. Add the local food favorites and meeting the community artisans just adds to the take away from the mix. We all know lots of people on our gift list that need nothing or very little. Makes it hard to be creative until you start sampling the wares at a slew of local vendors of arts and crafts. Some claim to improve your health and the conversation alone is good medicine for the soul.

American Folk Festival In Bangor Maine! No Way It Could Be Kept Free Without The Local Volunteers, Local Sponsors Helping Underwrite The Performances On Stage!

Don’t pick them up the same Wally World or hurriedly order mail order same old same old this year.

Check out the local craft vendors for that one of a kind special gift that they don’t have. That will make them smile because they know you care.

Something to do for fun where many in a small Maine community pitch in and work together to pull it off year after year. It is a lot more fun working an event than just paying for your ticket, showing up with your folding chairs to hit and run done.

Get more involved, receive more out of the event by traveling behind the tent flap into the inner workings of a small Maine community event. Your talents are needed and the people who live in the small rural towns and our handful of cities in Maine are the event. Not the streets, empty buildings along Main Street. Be part of the excitement, the

Welcome To Bangor ME! Home Of The American Folk Festival On The Penobscot River Waterfront!

celebration and local home grown amusement!

Fiddling around. Don’t think summer festivals are over yet. Get outdoors, stay outdoors in Maine!

Check out the County Bluegrass Music Festival this weekend in Northern Maine as one more example of how the performances happen around the clock in the Pine Tree State.

And don’t forget the Springfield Fair happening this weekend too. The 168th Springfield Fair is September 1st and 2nd and is one of the longest running continuous fairs in the country. Thank you for following our Me In Maine blog posts faithful reader.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730

August 29, 2018
When The Red In The Temperature Tube Rises, When Maine Humidity Happens.

Humidity in a Maine weather forecast.

When it happens you feel droggy, sluggish, out of sorts. Not on the top of your game. Not as productive as you are used to being each day. Lack of sleep when it gets hot and humid takes it toll. Being a little edgy, with a hair trigger for some people’s crank factor. Irritability happens when a busy hard working Mainer is not able to crank out the same work load as they are used to doing daily. You feel a sense of getting behind in the sweltering crush of heat. The lack of motivation feels like you slipped on cement shoes.

Easy Does, Everyone Is Not Strung Out, Including The Animals. Plenty Of Elbow Room, Living Space Does That! Get To Maine For A Sample. Humidity Though Hits Those With Permanent Fur Coats The Hardest In A Maine Summer.

Humidity is not the norm in Maine weather climate patterns.

You could say most Mainers are pretty heat intolerant. And unless the individual has a medical condition where poor circulation keeps them craving heat all year round, most prefer our weather to be a little on the cool side over hot, hot, hot. A breeze adds to the comfort level inside and outside to keep the air moving and not becoming heavy or stagnant.

When the humidity increases, the productivity of Mainers suffers. You don’t feel good and at first wonder is something wrong medically. When it dawns on you, this is one of the few days or short spells of high humidity that is like a lead blanket heavy. That slows you down when you are used to accomplishing much around your property or when you are physically laboring for a living. Being on a black asphalt shingled roof and replacing the old shingles with new ones is not fun when the perspiration water is gushing off you or blurring your vision. Relief from the heat starts with opening up a Maine home in the early morning hours when Mother Nature allows a temporary cease fire.

Some folks are affected by the humidity more than others.

Fresh Air, Working The Sand As Early Masons On A Maine Beach.

COPD makes catching your breath even hard when the heat index, ozone alert, humidity rises. No one likes the feeling of just getting out of the morning shower or taking a refreshing dip in a Maine lake and for a time feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed. And then it happens. Within ten minutes of leaving for work or to explore Maine on a vacation you feel like you desperately need another shower or a repeat dunking in the waterfront to cool off and back up to restart the day. Because we get little humidity in the summer living and due to winter being a dry not wet or moist cold, our practice with the water laden air is limited.

It does not take long. You do quickly remember how much one does not enjoy the uncomfortable feeling of sweating and trying to shed any unnecessary clothing. Of staying hydrated and if you are lucky enough, being able to stay close to the waterfront to get in, get out. To stay refreshed until the spell of humid weather in Maine passes. To head for the beaches in Maine.

So Maine is as a rule not a humid state and unlike many southern locals that experience the worst side of global warming.

To make an already hot unbearable area more difficult. Hiding out in air conditioning is a temporary fix but being cooped up inside can make a true Mainer feel like a caged animal. Because any of the four seasons, we are outside more than inside four walls. More on Maine’s weather, climate, topography.

The Dairy Bars, The Ice Cream Delivery Trucks With The Musical Temptation Beckoning You Over For A Ice Cold Tasty Treat. Humidity Drives The Desire For Dairy Product Help Cooling Off In Maine.

So this time of year, because of humidity, in my day job I see a lot of reasons to move to Maine being because of less people, less humidity. And like this email this morning from a West Virginia real estate buyer, these are some additional concerns listed out in an email. Read on ….

“Hello,

My family and business have decided to move out of West Virginia. We chose WV 18 years ago because of its remote wilderness. We are a family of blacksmiths/artisans who specialize in forging hunting, kitchen, & historically themed knives, carved drinking horns, & other marketable art. We raise goats, hunt, fish, & generally attempt to live self- sufficiently.

We travel along the East Coast of the US to Scottish & other festivals for income. Unfortunately, WV has now removed all of their pollution controls, while introducing more toxic industry & soliciting toxic waste dumping from the surrounding region. Fracking is affecting the wells & new pipelines are coming in nearby. (One of them recently exploded & was on national news.) The fish are toxic, & the deer are dying of strange diseases that are chemically induced. Cancer rates are rising quickly, & part of the local construction boom is to build cancer clinics. I don’t want my 2 young grandkids to die of cancer.

We are getting out of here.

I’m just starting to research where to go that is conducive to our lifestyle & preferences.

We’re looking for acreage, not too huge, but enough to set up our homestead, workshop, forge, & run a small goat herd & garden. Road accessibility, well, & power would be necessary. We don’t want any nearby power plants, toxic industry, pipelines, mining, gas or oil drilling, or runoff that might affect our health, nor that of the local wildlife that we would eat. We don’t want wind farms within visibility or earshot. No giant power lines either.

We prefer to not be downstream from a large dam, nor to be in a flood zone. We don’t want to be in an area prone to wildfires. We don’t care about having TV or shopping malls although cell phone/internet signal would be necessary to run our business. We home school the grand kids. A nearby town would be good so they can go to the library & 4H club & etc. Emergency medical services within half an hour or so, & a bigger hospital within about 2 hours drive would be ideal.

Our business is conducive to having a small tourist-oriented specialty store as well. We are nice, friendly, down to earth, functional folks with skills. We’re independent thinkers, not fanatical in any direction.

If we can find something suitable, our chiropractor’s family wants to move also, with similar criteria. We would like to make this transition within the next few years.

If you can help us toward this, please let me know.

Thanks so much!”

Maine Vacations. Like Vitamins, You Need To Take More Than One A Year In Vacationland.

Folks seek out Maine’s fresh air, clean water and lower population because where they live now it lacks all three. Space, freedom to get away from dinky plots of land all walled in with spite fences and legal squabbles. To get away from the high traffic and even higher cost of living with all the layers of players that push and pull the permit regulation levers.

Cool off, beat the humidity heat. Hit the Maine waterfront.

Sit a spell on an open or screened porch with a summer breeze. Dig out the big air circulating fans, lift and tuck in the air condition with a careful heave ho. Into the best window in the Maine home for comfort, relief from the heat and humidity index. Reach into the ice box for a treat. Or down below for an iced tea, barley pop, a tall cool glass of ice cube loaded punch.

Maine is a great place to live if you can make a living. If you hold your horses on spending and make it easy does it slow as you go when you open your wallet or purse. If you learn how to work harder earlier in the day when it is hot and the farm hay has to be cut, conditioned, baled and stored in a barn facility. But make sure the moisture content of the hay is not too high to cause the fodder to heat up and burn down your Maine farm barn from spontaneous combustion.

A bolt of lighting from a crashing thunderstorm that cools the air dramatically. But means don’t be sitting in an aluminum canoe out in the middle of a Maine lake when those dark clouds swiftly roll overhead obscuring the sun. And the wind picks up considerable. Or don’t be unlucky enough to be out on the golf course swinging a metal club that only serves to attract a crackling bolt of lightning from overhead during the hottest stretch of a Maine summer. Have you been to Maine yet this summer and what are your plans for something new or an old familiar haunt to return to because it is a family tradition passed on to the younger generation?

How it works. How to reset and regroup. More on simple living in Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

July 25, 2018
Maine, How Long Do You Need To See It All?

72 hours in Maine, when there is a clock ticking and you want to take a mini vacation in the Pine Tree State.

I have read stories and blog posts that try to sum up seeing the total experience of Maine in just 48 hours. You can’t do it justice in two days if you are planning to sample more than a fraction of what Maine offers.

Go Deeper, Where The Wildlife Live In Rural Maine.

It is like attempting to conquer Disney World with your kids in two hours and suggesting you can see it all in that short a time with all those long waiting lines. Let’s face it. Maine is one big honking state. Not in the Rhode Island or Delaware size weight class. Maine ranks 12th in the nation for water area with 4,523 square miles of recreational H2O. Maine is only 41st in population with 1.328,361 friendly souls and 39th for land size with 30,862 square miles of area.

And Maine is located up here in the upper right hand corner of the country. So far north some argue we should be in Canada because Maine is surrounded by the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick! And just a step from all the Atlantic Maritime provinces like PEI, etc. In Maine it is like a two nation vacation if you can sneak away for more than just a couple days. When you clear the schedule for some unplugging to recharge rest and relaxation.

It’s is similar to hurry up fast food compared to slow cooked relaxed cuisine.

Haste makes wastes and you don’t get the full flavor when you make it a mad dash to Maine. Too little time makes it why bother. It’s vacationing at the same pace of your day to day hectic life chasing the dollar when you don’t allow for enough time to get beyond the usual expensive tourist traps barely into Maine. You can get some retail therapy at the Kittery outlets, maybe venture up as far as LL Bean and the other Freeport Maine shop til your drop commercial venues.

Reading A Book, Not A Care In The World! They Say Life Is A Beach. The Maine Waterfront!

Maine is outdoors, fresh air, clean water and no people when you head further north and up into her interior regions. You just don’t get that experience when you only go a short distance into the state. Maine is six plus miles tall. And to weave in and out around the nooks and crannies of US RT 1 takes time to discover the hidden jewel communities and natural attractions.

The best kept secret is further north, east, west where anyone trying to trot around Maine in 48 hours is going to miss out on so much. Head deeper, get on the less traveled areas to avoid the crowds, the traffic and where the average bear does not that makes it a sprint into Maine and then a flit back out.

Go beyond the sameness of franchises and water parks, go kart courses and just eating junk food in Maine.

Get Exercise While You Capture The Maine Eye Candy! Get Beyond The Southern Shopping Outlets And Franchised Fast Food Deeper Into Maine!

To the mom and pop operations of small business where your are treated like a friend, like family with small community members. That’s where you learn about the lay of the land, the history from a local and not a four color tourist information brochures that leaves so so much out and tries to sum it up in a catchy couple lines of copy.

Head to places like Gulf Hagas. Where you won’t see a Wendy’s, McDonalds or anything marked with a neon sign. Get some exercise hiking the trails around Mt Katahdin, Maine’s highest mountain of many others at Baxter State Park. That means driving a little more to get a much richer, deeper experience in the Pine Tree State.

Acadia National Park is one pretty 50 mile network of carriage trails, stone bridges and wildlife, lush natural vegetation. Bar Harbor and other Maine coastal towns get visits from the cruise ships where you get deeper into Maine but only for a couple hours or maybe an overnight while anchored off port.

To avoid the crowds that eat into whatever time you do have in Maine, consider your mini vacation trip around the beginning, the ends of the tourist season can works best.

Lighthouses in Maine are one big attraction any time of the year. Have you started your collection that gets added to for life each trek back to Maine?

When money is an object beyond the time you have to spend any, consider swapping where you live for a spot in Maine. I have a little mini vacation set for Halifax Nova Scotia soon and using Air bnb makes it more space for less money and the feeling what it would be like living in the community. Not at a motel next to a truck stop or airport or wall to wall noisy, busy commercial enterprises.

Take A Train Ride, Get Deeper Into Real Maine! Beyond The Tourist Traps And Shopping Outlets.

You pride yourself at the number of times you have been to the southern coastal regions of Maine. But have you ever been Downeast, to the northern section of our long waterfront along the Atlantic Ocean?

Consider Maine has sixteen counties and you want to see it all in time. Target a new section and don’t just barely make it into Maine. What you see a few miles after crossing the big green bridge on the southern tip of Maine is not the whole story. Maine is the way life should be but so so much is missing when you barely enter the state and call it good.

The travel magazines and blog posts, all the brochures touting where to eat, play and stay across Maine often show a map that cuts off the upper two thirds of the state or more.

The rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say, page two for the best times and less expensive memory making experiences happen deeper into the real Maine sadly not everyone gets to enjoy. If you relied on the maps, it would give the reader of the propaganda about Maine that nothing exists, nothing worthwhile is above the dots that only show up close to the state’s southern border. Hope this Maine blog post on vacation tips is helpful!

And it is not just summer vacation for your window of opportunity to sample Maine. Be a fall hunter, leaf peaker for the brilliant colors. Bring your snow skis to Maine for cross country or down hill adventures. Hike bike, camp in Maine. Climb in a rubber raft on the Penobscot, Kennebec, Dead Rivers. To navigate through some water rapids and to dine on wild rice and river cooked food that improves the outdoor taste. Don’t just shop for trinkets and waste what time you have being a parking lot shark looking for the best spot and shopping til you drop while 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 18, 2018
Even The Cat Has An Important Role On The Maine Farm.

Farming life in Maine is hard work but rewarding.

The kids on a family farm learn work ethic and responsibility. The skill set grows when you have to use the business end of a hammer. Or fire up a welder or cutting torch, twist a ratchet wrench. Or repair with bailing twine, vise grips and hay wire. Making do with what you have for repair items makes a person pretty darn resourceful. It helps develop a positive can do attitude through out the family household.

Hungry? Know What You Are Eating, Where It Came From If Not Locally Organically Grown?

Even the barn yard cat has a very vital roll in keeping the rodent population under control. Rats, mice, anything in the grain bin nibbling on the animal feed is the enemy for the cat. The dog chases off the fox who wants a chicken dinner too. If the farm is not just crops but critters, herding the cows, sheep, whatever is out in the pasture land becomes part of his role on the homestead surrounded by Maine land.

They also say by Tuesday noon a true farmer has logged the standard work week 40 hour tally. Ever heard the Paul Harvey God Made A Farmer?

And is racking up more working pretty much around the clock. Burning the midnight oil, not wasting daylight on the other end of the rise and shine. That’s why they say thank a farmer when you sit down to dine. No farmer, no food. Ever thought of buying a Maine farm?

More and more folks are turning back to an agricultural approach to living. To get food they know was not sprayed with

The Cattle Are Munching. Hay, Just Hay. (Sneeze). Water, Grain.

something in a container wearing a skull and cross bones. Food insecurity is one thing when a person is not sure when or what is going to be their next meal.

But food safety is a concern when you are not involved in the planing, cultivating, fertilizing, harvesting the bounty of the rich soil we are blessed with in Maine. In my area the Amish community use carriage horses for travel and plow horses to pull the motor-less farm equipment.

Our family cat was not the most social, he was never altered, a Tom.

His name was Satan and he was total black fir and never grayed. Satie lived for 14 years and he was a worker. No other cat, not many rodents of any kind got close to the set of farm buildings he patrolled. He would travel into town, some other area once a year and come back to the farm with torn ears, other scrapes and bruises.

As a Tom cat, the family just figured he was on vacation from the farm chores and fraternizing with the opposite feline sex.

Maine Is Having Land, Using It For Farming, Hobbies. Or Just Enjoying Wide Open Space.

Satan pulled his weight around the Maine farm property.

Dr Perkins, the local vet at the time who lived on Court Street in Houlton Maine had to put Satan the farm cat down when his ailments became too much for any quality of life.

As a young child, there is nothing harder than having to struggle to accept when a family pet of any kind has to be put to sleep. Being on a busy US highway 2 meant loss of dogs too. A German shepherd, a St Bernard that both got hit out in traffic and that ended their life.

Dr. Cal Newman worked on the 160 pound St Bernard named Rudy who broke his front leg badly in the car accident. Dad told me this was too big a dog to hobble around on three legs when one had too badly crushed bones and other complications lead to the end of his short life on the family farm. A special insulated dog house was his domain that replaced the potato barrel on its side used when the too hot for inside living mountain dog moved beyond the farmhouse glass porch bed.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

July 11, 2018