When you make the switch, find yourself moving to a small town in Maine.
Everything is not going to rock and roll the exact same. In small town Maine living, you enjoy the lack of traffic, the low level of crime.
Rafting Down Whitewater In Maine. How Many Times On Which Rivers In Maine?
The way small town folks wave at you and smile. Let you go first at a four way stop sign. Or hold a door open so you can scoot in or out. They are helpful and polite. That can change a little if you are a complainer. Or start finding fault with the small town living.
Comparing Maine to where you used to live before the move in a negative light is not pleasant. Makes the locals wonder why did you move here then? They can bitch and moan but for the first year especially ease up on the whining yourself. The locals are proud of their area, worked hard to get it where it is. They want you to pitch in, not take pot shots and put down the small Maine town.
Right off the bat you notice a friendlier atmosphere in Maine.
Lower cost real estate, access to the great outdoors happens easily. No matter which direction you head out of town to experience the country. The woods, water, wildlife are on all the well connected recreational trails.
But. When it is time to call a plumber, electrician, carpenter or mason. It could take a little time to get a response or the job you need done performed. Why? If someone is skilled, charges a reasonable price, they are in demand in a small Maine town. They are worth the wait and you learn to plan for the project renovation.
Maine, Drop Dead Gorgeous. Low Priced Property, Lacking Crime, Crowds, Traffic.
Something major for building construction means being the first guy out of the gate in spring. Finishing off that new addition in the middle of winter when work slows down and it is easier finding your tradesmen. Or Maine is all about doing more yourself and relying less on others.
Money is tighter in a small Maine town and we are raised to be jack of all trades.
Hiring everything done and wearing out the yellow pages is not the Maine way. You miss a lot of the satisfaction when you are not hands on and knee deep involved in the repair or renovation.
Live And Local. You Are In The Front Row Of The Event Working It Happens In Small Maine Town LIving.
You might think if there is lag time getting a tradesmen to arrive on the job at your place in Maine that more of them are needed.
Feast or famine happens in small rural areas of Maine. In the dead of summer we could use another two or three players in every profession layer. Around February, after the pair of holidays at the end of the calendar year, the shortage disappears.
Availability improves and you learn to go with the flow. You catch the rhythm of the local work force. And like the best time to vacation around the shoulder seasons going in and coming out, expansion projects need planning. To get who you want, at a price that is best for the quality of work received.
Once you get your local small town professionals working for you, don’t put them off getting settled up.
Pay them what the bill that matches their estimate spells out. Don’t make them wait, don’t play any games trying to get something extra or stringing them along with payment.
Come And Get It. Fish For Free Are Fresh In A Maine Lake. Adult Loons Are Excellent Anglers To Feed Their Young!
Word gets around in a small Maine town quickly. Good or bad your new to town reputation is golden or tarnished due to how you treat the locals. Unlike a city where you find the list is long. To one by one track down someone that can come right over to fix that leak. Or help get your furnace purring and heat restored.
The remodeling or any much needed repair in a small rural Maine town can require lots of patience.
Some Maine construction companies prefer to do large jobs, not the little ones. When they are away on the road, not enough professionals can be in the small Maine town to handle the workload.
The one man shows, where you know exactly who you are going to get and what quality of work for what size bill are super. They are affordable because their overhead is under control. But they are busy and worth waiting for if you can.
Sugar Coated Maine, Don’t Miss A Season, Make Winter Sparkle Part Of Your Vacation Plans.
When you learn a project was canceled and your local carpenter, plumber, electrician, whatever profession is available, you jump on the change to invite them over.
To tackle your job jar items bigger than your expertise level.
In health care facilities in small Maine towns, there are times when the work load is enough for one and a half specialty doctors but not quite two. Timing is everything when you get sick or need an operation. Doctor vacation schedules can mess up life for those in small Maine towns needing medical help.
The Maine Blueberry Crew Field Rakers Are a Motley Bunch.
Moving to a small Maine town.
So much to like about the pure and natural, the unspoiled outdoor living. The relationships are deeper because you are more involved in small town living. Especially living in small Maine towns under 4000 population.
The circles you travel are smaller and less people means you get to know the others around you. You will be serving on local community boards, working in service and civic clubs, school and church projects in a small Maine town.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
The death of a Maine home owner with lots of personal property and a place loaded with furnishings. Where the owner has called the sticks and bricks home for a half century or longer. They collected a lot of cargo. Especially those brought up during the depression and taught to never part with anything.
Come And Get It. Fish For Free Are Fresh In A Maine Lake. Adult Loons Are Excellent Anglers To Feed Their Young!
The settling estate process in Maine, what happens to the collection of valuables in the find a new home for everything? The personal property in a home or apartment has to be divided up or sold off and the money received used to pay any creditors. Or the treasure to get packed up and shipped off to a favorite charity for the good feeling and the tax deduction slip from the donation. Maybe the split up of the personal belongings between the heirs of the estate happens to provide each get an item or two momento as a reminder of the lost loved one. So the memory of them comes alive when using it or just spying it in your home.
Buyers of homes loaded to the gills with wall to wall furnishings don’t fetch more and are a burden to the new house owner who needs room for their own belongings.
It is interesting to see how individual family members approach the what do we do with all the stuff left behind when the dearly departed ceases breathing.
Stops paying taxes and leaves the gravity of Earth. I had one house sale in Blaine Maine where the brother had three sisters. He was a state trooper and set up the rules of the procedure rules for the method to be used in the household belongings reduction. So the home could be listed for sale, sold with just the major appliances staying in the real estate transfer. He wanted to protect against sharp edge rapids, to avoid class five twists and turns in the navigation of suddenly choppy relationship waters.
Rafting In Maine, Surfing, Paddling The Whitewash! The BBQ Food On The River Tastes Great From All The Exercise.
The brother listed the items in each room in this Aroostook County home overlooking the Prestile Stream. Everything inventoried to fill up many sheets of lines on a yellow legal pad. Down through the list in round robin fashion, the tedious process of a loved one’s personal items was started after everyone met at Mom’s home for the roll up your sleeves, the who wants what determination when coffee and donut sampling was done.
The heave ho, where does it go started on Saturday morning.
Everyone got a list copy to follow along with just like a college course syllabus outline. Starting at the top of page one, the kitchen, then moving on to the dining room, the living room and so on. Down through the list the family members went. Together discussing line by line all the items, everything of their mother’s personal belongings needing disposal.
Sunshine Outside In Maine During Winter. We Dress Warm, Head Outside. Saying Sayonara To The Couch And Channel Changer Wand.
For example, if the dining room hutch was the item under the white hot spotlight, each sister was asked if they wanted to bid on it. If one wanted it, after bidding a hundred dollars, the next could up the ante bidding to a higher level. The item ended up going to the highest bidder and at the end of the auction among just immediate family members, all the money was split between them as part of the estate. I asked how did this approach came about and the brother smiled, saying you don’t know my sisters. He was doing everything possible to assure family peace and good relations continuing between all the remaining siblings for years to come. He knew hard feelings held inside can fester and mess up the family member peace and harmony if not done with extra sensitivity.
The things of value for those left behind when you lose a loved one.
It is not what would fetch the most money on the open market or craigs list, a facebook marketplace at a sale to the public. The more intimate items with a personal connection. I wanted the kool aid glass picture with orange and blue sail boats seashore motif on the sides that reminded me of a Maine summer as a kid on school vacation. The plastic Santa with a crack on the arm from heavy use. That held the colored Christmas light bulb that twist into the hand that sat on the kitchen window sill every time the month of December showed up on the calendar.
Another item cherished and not sold off at a garage sale or thrown away. The 1957 Pepsi bottle holding the green sprayer with cork plug to hold it in place after water refilling from the kitchen tap. Clothe irons did not have the sprayer attachment button to press and squirt back in the early 1960’s and earlier. Sprinkling clothing by shaking out some water and then ironing with the hot iron to smooth out to remove the wrinkles was the method of the day. I remember how hard my Mom worked in her cheerful way to make sure the four boys, my Dad were provided for every day whatever was needed on the Maine farm lifestyle.
Maybe death affects people in strange ways and can help explain the behaviors like two sisters muckling onto a lamp and pulling for all they are worth to pry it away from the other.
A friend of mine laughed when that memory was recalled when his mom and aunt squared up to fight tooth and nail over items. You learn that the sister felt their mom favored one over the other.
Or the big pot used to make potato soup or some other delicacy the way only your Mom could and did when it was a snow day. And school was canceled and how your spent the day inside or making snow tunnels and rolled men to watch over the yard like soldiers outside was a special time.
As snow came down and piled up but no one was worried or scared. It was a celebration of a day off from school and rituals that happened only when it was canceled or released early. Cookies prepared with all hands on deck are strong memories. The tools create and decorate them hold strong personal value.
A Monument In Memory Of Who?
Conversations from the grave in the “she said he said” about who gets what that the person who died reportedly promising the momento to one particular family member. The small mink stole to be wrapped around the neck or left sitting on the shoulders just so. Back when it was fashionable to wear animal fur out in public without a public protest that the grandmother said would look best on and fit the tinier daughter like a glass slipper.
But watch out. When the larger sibling got wind of the gift news pitched a fit. Saying the fur, along with a number of other items were all promised to her by the same grandmother on her death bed final confession. Even thought the junior fur wrap would never fit on the broad shoulders of the larger built granddaughter, the claws extended as the grip on the delicate silk lined mink tightened.
You hear stories about families at a funeral while the unattended house of whoever died is paid a visit and items removed.
A death is a hard enough life event to adjust to when there is a loss of a loved one. But when a family member needs health care, what to do about greedy siblings who don’t work together to make that happen seamlessly.
Funeral arrangements, I see one or two siblings left holding the cost of the ceremony while listing estate property for sale. Whoever is the personal representative of the estate has a very tough and not always popular job. To take care of bills, hold back on the spending of money the estate does not have.
Little Things Have The Most Value… A Treat, A Gesture. From A Loved One Who Remembers You In A Will And Leaves Your Something Personal. Worth Far Beyond The Value Someone Unknown Would Place On The Item Lacking The Memories Tied To It For You.
The cost of the funeral can be out of hand when grief stricken family members don’t want to appear cheap and tend to over spend. In cases when whoever is picking up the cost of the final arrangements is left to settle up personally. Liens on property titles from funeral directors expenses happen in any state and I see evidence of them in registry of deeds searches for legal descriptions to property needing to be sold.
The best way to avoid a fight in an inheritance is to expect nothing and you won’t be disappointed.
It is the person who worked hard to earn the money to get the enjoyment from it right? Anything you do get is a bonus. The best way to assure when you are dead and gone that those left behind will fight is to not do a will. To die without spelling out your wishes in the last will and testament. Those thinking that there was inequality in how the spoils are split up can always contest the mental capacity of whoever died. Or was involved in the witnessing of the will that will testify on the day of the will signing the answers to standard questions to test the soundness of mind left no question if they knew what they were doing. That it was their free act and deed and they agreed with the directions outlined in the will.
Billable hours and court house steps to wrangle with relatives is one way to spend the inheritance.
They say listing more than one sibling as co-executors of an estate can help avoid resentment. Making the division of what is carved up and given away to family members is better received when it is done in equal shares. Avoiding confusion of any kind helps in times of greiving a loss and you don’t die any quicker having an updated will to make known your final wishes.
Maine is a big, spread out, sparsely populated state. And on the glossy four color tri-fold tourism brochures, the description of life in Maine is pretty skimpy.
Local Musicians, Community Bands In Small Maine Towns. See What You Are Missing By Not Traveling Deeper Up Into Maine! “Cover Me, I’m Going Up And In To Experience More” Should Be Your Plan!
So so much is left out of the discussion. The introduction to Maine’s local lay of the land landscape and how things rock and roll on a daily basis is an interesting tale. But being here in Maine to witness it first hand is the magic. Much is missing online to glean from and to use to piece together the intricate details. To spread the word about this neat place called Maine.
Take Your Time! Welcome… We Really Mean It In Maine. Come On Up… Way Way Up And See It All. Not Just The Southern Tip. There Is So So Much More!
Our small numbers of Maine people is what makes the area special. The unspoiled wide open space of a natural four season beauty like Maine is appealing.
But less folks, more home grown Mom and Pop business enterprises pushing the tourism levers keeps it low key and not highly spun. It takes money and time to send up the informational marketing flares around the Internet and in the print or broadcast media.
So when someone asks the loaded question “tell me what it is like in Maine”, a few queries pointed the other way helps cut to the chase.
To determine what they are looking for in their visit or relocation to Maine, what they don’t like about where they live now that they are hoping to leave behind in the rear view mirror. The reasons people come to Maine are many. But the definition of quality of life and how you want to spend your free recreational time best is not the same for every grasshopper. But small Maine towns are where it is at to feel comfortable, up close and personal.
Get to know the local residents in small Maine towns.
Maine Is Sand, Sun, Water But A Lot More. Go Deeper, See What You Are Missing Being On A Leash Only Getting Into The Southern Tip Region Of Maine. You Are Missing Out By Not Exploring Further North Up Into The State!
The folks who live in small Maine communities are deeply rooted and not shy about telling you all the reasons why they live in Vacationland. Out spoken and a tad dry or blunt makes what’s on the mind of a local Mainer refreshingly real and honest. It is usually said in a colorful, humorous way to prove a point. They will share the local history, include you in local traditions, help point you in the best direction for over the top food and fun.
The expression lingo, the cuisine, the what do you do for fun lifestyle is not quite the exact same. Depending on the village, plantation, small Maine town you find yourself lucky to be driving into to check it out slowly, be prepared for a pleasant surprise.
Because Maine is big to travel and access all the areas offer, the limiting factor to the experience is the sound of the ticking clock. Time eaten up getting up and quickly thinking about heading back hurts the take away. It limits getting beyond Portland and the beaches around Wells, Old Orchard, Kennebunkport.
It is awful easy to think Maine ends shortly after your rear tires leave the bump bump of the expansion joint on the big green bridge on the southern tip.
But that near Eliot, Kittery barely into Maine is the region that gets the press because the money to grease the marketing mixed in with the editorial content is closest to the population centers around Boston and beyond.
Mainers Are Trained How To Tame The Snow Of A Maine Winter. We Put Snow In It’s Place And Life Goes On Without Missing A Beat Or Shedding A Tear Of Lament. Thank You Maine Highway Crews For What You Do To Clear, Salt, Patrol Our Extensive Network Of Roads.
But when you decide to press deeper into interior, northern, eastern sections of Maine you feel the change. The traffic on the highways starts to drop off. The stars get brighter at night, the lakes and rivers are less crowded with folks sampling them on vacation or long weekends. There is less commercial man made and more all natural four season pure and simple.
The pay for your fun option is replaced with just pack a picnic and a tent.
Bring your canoe or kayak. Lace up your hiking shoes or hop on a bike, a pair of boards to glide cross country or down a fresh layer of new fallen snow. Don’t leave your camera home and pack for any weather in Maine. Head into the woods, hit the rec trails, see the farming way of life in bustling small Maine town surroundings. But push yourself to see more, collect more experience in different Maine locations during your life time.
You can enjoy the richness of the down to Earth in Maine. You get real home grown one of a kind and not store bought same old same old if you factor in a little more driving time. To good deeper and for spending time in a new undiscovered area new to you. For spending vacation leisure time without any time constraint leash limits within the big state of Maine’s long boundary line borders.
Or you might take it a step further for the two nation vacation. Maine has a rich Atlantic Canada Maritime province history to tap into and share. Remember Maine herself alone is six hours plus tall and when you get off Interstate 95 to cris-cross up the northeastern winding coastal routes or decide to head to places like say Jackman or Estcourt Station or Vanceboro, better provide for some extra time. Lots of it. To not just go to these neat places in Maine but to actually be able to spend your vacation exploring them. Hanging around to spend some time. To get to know wildlife and Mother Nature. Without the big expense that sets us back and takes away from the experience sampling Maine.
Homesteading, finding a property in Maine the easy-does-it sensible way.
This blog post will take it slow and spell out one methodical approach to homesteading in Maine. The desire to create from scratch or buy an existing homestead in Maine stems from lots of acreage with low to the ground price tags hanging off them.
What’s for sale in Maine that is ideal homesteading property is always a smaller cost than what most people are used to seeing where they hang their hat now out of state. The real estate buyer is pleasantly surprised when they search the current listing
No Pretty Reason, No Matter What Season To Homestead In Maine.
inventory of any property for sale in Maine. Which leads to the why is that so answer.
The distance away from high population markets is great which means what you do end up buying is surrounded by wide open space and fewer people to mess it up.
Smaller is better for a sane pace, to enjoy life not race through it. The need for heavy duty zoning, the HOA’s trade in for CSA’s. High traffic and crime are all missing in a small Maine town. And in city settings, large acreages just don’t exist. Got any forty acre lots? Nope. Go fish. Head to Maine for that and simpler living.
So the where to homestead, farmstead all starts with a simple dream, then picking a state like rural Maine.
Then the best region in that state for a location that is affordable. One area that’s not likely to change much or at all to force another rip up the stakes, pack it up and on the road again. For the gotta move again over the next ten or more years. You can only and should only have to do this moving upheaval only so many times in your life. Make it Maine for good once you have all the information needed and questions answered that help you decide if this is the place to homestead.
How old you are, how healthy, the size of the budget, the timing in starting a homestead are all factors. Have kids in high school that are a couple years from graduation? The buying the homestead in Maine property dream may happen now for
Keeping An Eye On Your Homestead Animals. Raising Your Food Makes It Hard To Let Go Of Your “Pets” On The Homestead Spread.
just land. No existing buildings, and where you are going to one by one create them is on the mental drawing board. Secure the property in Maine but stay where you are out of state. Because you have loose end and are not quite ready. Keep saving, reading those seed catalogs and studying the marketing process if you plan to sell more than your raise and consume yourself.
The time ticking by over the next couple years waiting for a high school graduation march around the gym or auditorium may mean using the homesteading land location for just a vacation property use. To dream about what you are really going to do with the Maine land that is put on hold. Until the day when you devote all your time and attention to this location in Maine where you already own land. Slowly putting the transition into gear. Easing out the clutch to move in low to begin the transition from wearing a corporate tie and you’re pretty much pinned to the wall by an office desk.
Selling the home you now own to create the nest egg of money for the improvements on your Maine land could eat up some time too.
Real estate markets go up and down like stock values. When you are flexible and not in a hurry good things happen naturally. Get your land, know where you are going but keep the when loose. Elderly parents that need you close can come with you or be another reason why the move to Maine is going to be a delayed one/ All of us juggle responsibilities to consider right?
Okay, the land you buy, what to look for to create the best homestead location in Maine. Farming of some small scale is
Another Generation Of Farmers In Maine. Remember, No Farmer, No Food!
part of the homesteading to be self sufficient. How far you take it means power or not from utility lines? Year round road or no thank you. You will be taking on the chore of keeping that last property on a dead end discontinued Maine road open and maintained year round.
Like people soils are different is the motto of one local site evaluator named Bill Hersey of Caribou Maine. Study the area USDA soil maps for the best Maine land and hire a soil tester to lay out where the septic, what type of sewerage disposal you are going to set up on the property. Composting toilet, out house, gray water disposal field for the kitchen sink and laundry or the thousand gallon cement septic tank will go here, the leach field over there.
The drilled well if a usable water source is not already in place is going to be located where and who is going to punch that hole in the ground for you?
The slow cooked approach to homesteading in Maine means nothing is rushed and mistakes are not made from the hurry scurry.
Is the land in tree growth, is there shore land zoning to consider in how you develop the Maine property? More on tree growth, how that save on your real estate taxes works in the Pine Tree state. Those
The best homesteading, setting up a farmstead exercise is done without a bank too. You have savings, you sold a property, you set up owner financing on the Maine land and what do you know. It’s been five years or whatever mortgage period, the land part of this life changing experience is now free and clear. More on how owner financing Maine land works.
Had a couple from Florida come up this weekend who was smitten with an online Southern Aroostook County property listing new to the market.
Soil Amendments, The Living Off The Land Means Giving Back, Not Taking Away The Mineral Elements!
For the last month, lots of phone calls and emails back and forth to talk about their homesteading in Maine dream. The land they are considering just under sixty acres in size and in a remote location. The road into it this winter not plowed so high ho high ho in we go. Have used our snow sled to show and sell a place called Crow Hill in Linneus Maine. But this time it was easier to just travel down to the spot where the road is no longer plowed. And dressed warmly to hoof it in on an existing packed down snowmobile trail.
Snow shoes or cross country skis have been used before but a sled trail already packed down made the walk in a beautiful one due to new fresh dusting of sparkling snow and blue skies, bright sunshine. We were able to talk back and forth as we went in and out to the property. The one that already has an insulated cabin with a wood stove, a small tool shed and open cleared land with mixed wooded sections. This land also surveyed so where everything lies is not a mystery for perimeter boundary lines.
What is your property to homestead, what is not is clear as a bell with the plat map and pins, compass bearings and the metes and bounds description. And it was crank your head around. What do you see? Scenery, pasture fields, wood stands but no people around this large piece of land to homestead. Which is what this couple liked best. Winter is an excellent time to scope out the surroundings in Maine. You can see more without the leaves. And hey, no black flies and fewer land buyers to compete for whatever you find interesting to pursue.
Homesteading, what else to prepare for beside gleaning all the local information possible online and from boots on the ground community information gathering from the locals?
Homeschooling or public education? What you do raise for food, is it going to be grown in the ground or raised on the hoof? This latest homesteading buyer wants goats, chickens but is not going to be like Noah with two or more of everything you might see in a Maine barnyard setting.
Homesteading, It Means Working On Buildings, Tending The Crops, Watering – Graining – Haying The Animals. Living Off The Land In Maine!
If the access in and out is too big for one person to tackle in the winter, how are you getting in and out? In retirement you want to make your life easier not harder. The timing of this homestead move to Maine is different for everyone. A young couple full of hope and ideas may be low on money but thinking of raising their kids here. Another later in life couple with grown kids could be thinking part time homesteading. Where a few months of the year are spent as snowbirds in the Sunny South. Pass the suntan lotion please. If you have critters, who is going to milk Bessie the cow, collect the eggs, make sure the pasture fences are strong and all the animals get hayed, grained, watered? Or to call the Vet when needed.
Lots to consider homesteading in Maine. No pesticide sprays? Joining the Maine Organic Farm And Garden group (MOFGA) is a good idea and hitting the agricultural state fairs around Maine will help develop the knowledge base. So you know what you are doing because you have compared notes with others who are planning the same lifestyle and in the learning stage. Or are veterans and don’t mind talking about it to share their triumphs and set back lessons.
Just got back from plowing snow and helping son check the heat inside a storage facility for root crops. Everything stored in bins and sold in truck loads to consumers out of state. The organic farm In Maine, Nature’s Circle he works for in New Limerick also rents out a family farm that has rich fertile soil that produces grade A produce. If your homesteading involves more than growing your own food, raising your beef and dairy producers, you may need to have storage facilities to load out over the winter months.
The scale of your homesteading is up to you and your family size, the thickness of your wallet or heft of the purse your carry. You may want goats like these couple do and they have experience with them from earlier farming experiences. The lifestyle is important to communities catering to golfers and the off grid or however unplugged you go is up to your idea of what this homestead spread in Maine looks like in your head.
There is no better way to raise a kid than on a family farm in Maine.
The skills developed with fixing machinery, being a scientist studying what soil amendments are needed and in what degree… it is all invaluable. The best part of living off the land is the self sufficiency, the independence and fresh air year round working on the farmstead. Crop failure, wildlife eating your profit and if your health takes a dip are all make the risks real. But you quickly figure out what is important in life. You realize you are only here a short time and this old Earth will keep turning once you and I are long gone.
How crunchy, how granola depends on your to dial in. Some folks with the homestead, the family farm have a ticket. They might be a trust fund baby. They could have an income source that takes some of the stick, a lot of the risk out of the agriculture equation. You as a homesteader will be doing as much of everything as possible to hold down expenses. But the reward from standing back and realizing what you created with your bare hands, lots of patience and careful planning makes it all worthwhile. There is much to learn scratching the dirt, preparing the soil, planting the seeds and picking the new crop of rocks that come up every spring on a Maine farm homestead. Maine, where you dream in color.
Trips to Boston, across into Canada are common when you live in Maine.
The latest trip to Bean Town was not because of a Red Sox game. Everyone in Red Sox Nation is still smiling from this year’s team World Series title. The Bruins, the Celtics are good replacements for time spent in an summer outdoor seat at Fenway. But this trip a pre-holiday to visit with daughter number one, her husband, little dog Paco. When you have lots of children, it is fun to spend time with just one once in awhile. It’s only a little over five hours drive all down hill from my home town location in Southern Aroostook County.
No. 284, A Neat Place To Stay When You Find Yourself Traveling From Maine To Boston’s Back Bay For The Weekend.
Food not sports with a museum or two, some local sights like the North Church was the plan. Walks along the Charles River. Eating at a few venues where sampling and sharing were the order of the day. Meg and I stayed at No. 284 on Commonwealth Avenue
History, Older Buildings, All Carefully Packed Together. The Sights, Sounds Of Boston MA Include Historic Churches, Colleges, Museums, Much More.
and Gloucester Street.
Mez the guy on the desk of the 23 room B&B / mini-hotel property in the Back Bay of Boston was a peach. So was Aphrodite. Both on the small team that signed us in and out on each end of the weekend stay at the 1881, six story brick boutique hotel.
The No. 284 went online this year after delicate renovations. It all combines a smaller corner neighborhood location that’s ideal for walkers with an emphasis on art. Large center stairway but there is an elevator for the less athletic.
No. 284 was built by a textile owner in the needle and thread trades who only stuck around to live here as a residence for a short time. Later the building transformed into a home to a music school, another time to educate and house those with disabilities. Think I read all that in a blurb over the weekend somewhere. Don’t hold me to it. All I know if the smaller platform place to stay and corner lot tucked away in an classy neighborhood location felt homey and special. Way way different than a hotel chain leaves for a taste from your stay in the sea of sameness and predictability.
We had been down to a Red Sox game or two and the handy extra parking space at my daughter’s place proved to be very valuable then and now. Walking to Fenway, anywhere in the Back Bay of Boston is sure a lot easier when your parking situation is a positive one. The No. 284 is only missing the giant parking open lot or tall concrete garage that the bigger Goliath hotels must possess.
Green Grass, No Snow In Mid December This Year In Boston MA.
The Uber, Lyft pick up and drop off when not just walking made the need for a parking lot go away in Boston MA.
Aren’t mobile phone apps neat when you can see your ride is six minutes away, here is another one just four blocks distant. The grass was green and the air decorated with festive Christmas trimmings as retailers did there best in lots of creative ways
Ouch. These Lights Look Dangerous. The Definition Of Sharp Painful Outdoor Lighting. Once Lit By Hand When A Candle Or Gas Filament Was Inside Needing Personal Daily Attention.
to lure shoppers into their operations. All store hammering away and announcing big discounts to create a call to action. A sense of urgency. To signal waiting paid off for all you last minute holiday shoppers. But let’s get down to business.
Friday night the dinner reservations were made at Alden & Harlo in Harvard Square, Cambridge. Saturday night we ate at Myers & Chang. When you have four people, ordering six to eight dishes to share makes it better than settling for one choice off the menu. Sampling at your table like a private buffet with out the sneeze guard and no standing in line. Get the cooking book so you can apply what you sample at home with friends.
In between for lunch Saturday the healthy fare was provided by Dig Inn in Copley Square. All locally sourced, fresh, organic which made Meg smile as the bowl was created by pointing to select this and that. Wally’s Cafe & Jazz Club provided the live music after we pushed away from grazing. Being this close to Berklee School of Music creates a hangout for lots of up and coming musicians. To bang on the drums, the big bass, to flutter on the flute and for quick guitar fret cord changes. For area residents to jam jammed probably more tightly than the state fire officials would approve of in for the very small but well known Boston MA jazz venue. Everyone regardless of age gets carded this close to all those under age college patrons.
Being a real estate broker, it is hard not to marvel at the buildings.
All the styles, the money put into preservation is impressive. The lack of space makes the abundance of buildings in your
Look Up, Think Of Who Designed, Who Built, Who Maintains This Kind Of Craftmanship.
face though and tall structures cause shadows, darkness. Not visual overload for a weekend visit but with time, I am still glad to have the open space of rural small town Maine. The open parks, spaces strategically placed around the buildings helps in Boston. But crowded, too close happens in a city that is so not an issue in the rural Maine countryside where everything gets a dose of sunshine, fresh blue air and S-P-A-C-E!
Bear With Me As Christmas Approaches Too Fast. The Holiday Is Coming In Hot With Too Little Time, So Much To Do. Oh Bother One Bear Laments.
The open promenade across from N0. 284 was studded with hardwood shade trees. Someone with a bucket truck was very busy like a skilled North Pole posse of elves put in charge of holiday decorating.
Hoisting the strings of Christmas lights up and down to adorn 200 trees that when turned on at night looked like mitten gloves pointed skyward but missing the finger tips.
It gave the illusion that all the trees were dead, with missing limbs and just stumps due to the twinkling clear lights only traveling up so far that matched the reach of the utility truck.
Visiting any new location away from your regular haunts over the holidays is memorable. Did you travel somewhere in or out of Maine this past weekend so close to Christmas? Or what are your plans for New Years? Travel opens the mind, can empty the wallet if not done creatively. But all must remember it is hard to see the World from your kitchen window.
Sharing your travel experiences is so so easy with social media outlets.
Big Ones, Little Ones, Modern And Old Ones. Cities As Old As New England’s Boston MA Showcase It All. Walk, Talk, Gawk.
Take along your friend list and share your images of where you travel. To show others in your family what you have been up to these days when so many live far apart but not cut off with an Internet connection to keep it current on the what’s up, what’s happening. They all want to know where you been hiding.
Maine is always pretty any season, for any reason and our blog posts try to nail the beauty one venue post at a time. But heading back to where a lot of folks travel from, the Boston area is good to sample and showcase on the other side of the big green bridge.
When was the last visit you made to Maine? Isn’t it over due for you? Maine. Don’t stay away so long.
It’s pure and natural and four season beautiful. But somethings are the same no matter where you hang your hat. Minding my own business and the phone in Maine rings. We get those interruptions too. Ever get a call where someone promises you this phone interview should not take long? They act like you are getting an important call you expected. Just a few simple questions and you are free to go. The whoever think tank public opinion pollster they work for on the other end on the signal is never sufficiently identified.
Because both sides of the hurried conversation just want to get it over with quickly.
You because you had other task plans that were interrupted by taking the phone call. The voice from the other end because maybe they get compensated the higher the number per completed interview. And extra points heaped on like the ice cream cherry on top. If they can sway and skew the results in the direction of whoever is funding this rate the following one to five or chose from the following two sides of the coin positions on some trending hot topic.
Working Together, Making Maine Great. It Takes Accurate Information About What’s It Like In Maine To Attract People To Move, Relocate Here.
You know the drill when the telephone is ringing and gotcha, you picked up.
Now what? When neither question options to select from really completely nails it on how do you really feel on this, this and one more question choice. You wonder where are they going with this line of questions? Who wants to know and how are they going to use the poll results?
The interview when it goes on too long can become a had enough situation.
Just get through the questions and you’re not even sure what they are asking after the slur of words as patience wears thin. How much longer? My life is on hold and I’m wasting daylight. That’s the way anyone living or growing up on a Maine farm reacts to costly delays when chores are waiting. Because the simple couple of questions in the poll is not the case. Too many parts to the all important poll questions that just keep coming your way. Had an interviewer doing the poll say “now we move into the part of the survey where we ask you blah blah…” ?
I thought we WERE close to the end and it was going to be like you tell the kids “quick like a bunny”. Whew, I’m off the hook soon. Trying to help the telemarketer pollster. But realizing with a bad taste developing in my mouth. That there is a pattern to the what is being asked and how it is being phrased in the progression of need your opinion inquiries.
The questions try to build a case for some kind of public opinion poll result position for whoever funded this exercise.
You are the witness being groomed for a case by your yea or nay response. Or could be cast away and deemed as not so fun, not so useful on the hunt to find those who are. I guess if 80 to 90 percent of respondents feel a certain way, that influences where you throw your support?
Small Maine Towns Where People Are Closely Knit, Often Times Related.
Mainers are pretty practical independent thinkers. When the end is near and you can smell freedom to get on with your life the answer box checker individual asks would you mind if a reporter calls you? Somehow your answers make you a good candidate for a talking head holding a mic with the bright light to saddle up beside you. For collecting a staged, distilled thought provoking little video clip and a catchy sound bite. Because you and I seem to trust the man on the street a little more than the wisdom of the one in the elected office.
Nothing can rub a true Mainer harder the wrong way either than some of the blog posts or media interviews that try to size up the state based on a very narrow viewpoint.
One that does not represent how those who live here really feel about the Maine experience. What is it like living in Maine. The power of the pen authority you don’t know from Adan applies their own template of good, bad, ugly Maine rating as they try to size up the biggest New England state. From what they find important that it is assumed every other reader agrees with who lives here. Or assuming the reaction they would have by this tour guide trying to save everyone a little heart ache.
But the images used in the post that they not take. Because never been here or it was a whirlwind trip for a few hours, parts of a day or weekend that does not help you size up the what do you think about Maine. The copy is a quick cut and dry that sounds a lot like the shortcomings in other rural state locations they also have a strong opinion on and are not timid about sharing it.
The size it up based on not very much real information from local experiences and lacking interviews with people from Maine that could share valuable insight. Instead, judging the area from a few comment trails in a forum. Filling in with what they don’t know by broad brushing the state of Maine is an overly critical spot light like they were a life long resident.
And they miss the mark about summing up what Maine is like horribly.
But those hunt and pecked electrons hit and run damaging pieces sure do make the rounds on blog posts circuit that continue to come up in search results as gospel.
Outdoor Jaunts On Foot, In A Wagon Or Sleigh Depending On The Season. Mainers Are Outdoors All Four Seasons Touring The Gorgeous Unspoiled Countryside.
Beat the drum louder, longer and remind the reader in search of where to move, where to vacation, anything Maine to make sure your authority is in the Pine Tree state and actually lives here. So they know what they are talking about from first hand grass roots experience. not repeating a myth and acting like an authority when they don’t have much boots on the ground. The landscape changes and gets reinvented so historical perspective helps the explanations you read about when someone is looking for the lay of the land first hand information to base their opinion on Maine.
What’s it like living in Maine and can we hear from those in the Vacationland region in the answers?
What is really important, what matters most for everyone does not come up with the same pat answers. Responses to FAQ about Maine. That shows someone has filled you with a lot of bull or you just need more accurate information to base your decision to move to Maine, to vacation here. Come see for yourself, do your own thinking, draw your own conclusions on Maine.
Points to remember about living here in Maine….
It’s more than quaint sea salt air and rock bound coastal harbor towns with a collection of lighthouses. Maine offers more than a moose sighting and a lobster roll and that concludes the check list of what you come for and then quickly leave. Back over the big arched green iron bridge on the southern end connecting it to the rest of New England and points unknown. Maine is rolling farms, virgin wood forests, wildlife of all types. It is hardworking families, mom and pop small businesses, Maine is small town grateful people. Maine is unspoiled and not over commercialized, the fourth lowest crime state. You don’t experience traffic or waiting around in Maine living. It is low cost real estate, uncomplicated simple living and more hands on DIY. Neighbors helping each other.
Keep your card in your wallet and save the yearly membership dues for roadside assistance. You won’t need triple A to jump start your dead car battery. Just put up the hood and watch five people put on the four way flashers and join forces to give you a hand. To stay with you until a solution to the problem is figured out like you have known them for years. You can trust the down to Earth Mainer who is upbeat and positive and who shy away from whining, complaint or snarky. Because you are wasting daylight, you are not squeezing out of life what is most important that you kid’s pick up and apply to their outlook to pass on to their young ones. What’s it like living in Maine?
Help others and add your talents to make things better than they were.
Meet Your Neighbor In Maine. Shy, Quiet, Usually Four Legged.
Mainers contribute, make themselves useful and don’t feel entitled, are anything but lazy. You will be rescued if ever stranded on the highways of Maine. You too will help others broke down to figure out solutions so they don’t stay that way. Small Maine towns are like that.
We don’t rely so heavily on money to fuel the experience. Mainers are more into using their imaginations, snow shoeing across the white blanketed farm field or through a woods trail. We have it all from clean air, fresh water, a sky loaded with stars overhead and no light pollution.
You will like all pure natural Maine for what she does offer and the even longer list of what you don’t enjoy where you live now in an urban setting. The best of both worlds is to live in small town Maine but plan a trip to a population center to sample and return to simple low cost living for the bulk of your day to day lifestyle pursuits.
The Internet lets folks roam freely and telecommute remotely to online jobs that once kept them limited and tethered to an expensive city locations.
Whether starting a family, retiring after a long career, opening up a business enterprise or just on vacation, you could not do better than Maine. The Canadian provincial connection just adds to the sizzle for a truly International bonus “two nation vacation”.
What’s it like living in Maine?
When you read up on Maine, go deeper than the only been to Portland ME or other coastal town contributors. Or avoid those who have never set foot in Maine nor have any personal experiences to draw from to make it an accurate representation of this great state with all the space, where you can entertain yourself so completely without using a credit card for the artificial retail therapy temporary fix. Here are some community videos of Maine to add to the homework assignment as you glean and surf the net.
Maine is not wall to wall people on top of each other fighting to get you out of their face and space.
Has the nearest city to where you live now outside of the state of Maine started the sprawl in your direction? Is your small town changing in how it used to be back when you enjoyed the community? Maybe it is time to consider where and when you are going to have to face the facts. To relocate to Maine, the way life should be. How much information on Maine do you have and where do you get it? This blog on what’s it like living in Maine tries to shed some light on the topic from a local that grew up here and loves the state!
