Category: Mooers Realty

Insulating Your Home In Maine, Stretching Energy Heating Dollars.

Insulating your home in Maine, how to heat it more efficiently when the dollars are scarce.

This blog post is about how to stretch your heating dollars. Because money left over from heating your Maine home can be applied to other financial obligations that visit your crowded mailbox monthly. Let’s face it, Maine is loaded with older housing stock. When many of the homes were built, heating oil cost just pennies on the dollar. Wood lots surround us too because Maine is 91 percent timberland. The forest offers plenty of low cost, of renewable heating resource opportunities. If you have the gumption to a season ahead cut, split, stack and prepare your house chimney for heating with wood.

The Peace And Quiet In Maine Winter White. Unplug, Recharge, Get Your Head Screwed On Straight. Tackle Heating Your Maine Home More Sensible With An Audit.

I’ve blogged on the love affair of Jotul woodstoves before which you already know about if you have hung around this channel for any length of time.

Woodstoves offer more to simple living in Maine than just the heating your home benefit. Cardio exercise from the yearly trip to the wood lot to gather and process your winter fuel give you a self sufficient feeling of contentment. The rising cost of other fuels to heat your home don’t concern you so much when the four, eight or however many cords of seasoned wood are neatly stacked in the 4 x 4 x 8 rows.

Cooking on a wood stove and heating your domestic hot water are secondary gains helping stretch your Maine energy dollars. The cheerful blaze that lights up your winter hibernation improves your bottom line financial health tremendously. So do southern exposure insulated walls of glass that get sealed in and buttoned up with Roman shades when the yellow orange ball disappears from high overhead.

But whoa big fella. Neck reining to get back to making your home in Maine easier to heat.

Besides the energy heating credits for installing heat pumps, high efficiency water heaters, the space you live in can be tightened up.

Sunshine Outside In Maine During Winter. We Dress Warm, Head Outside. Saying Sayonara To The Couch And Channel Changer Wand.

To reduce the need for whatever is used to heat your living area called home. Closing off unused areas, wearing more than t-shirt short sleeves around your home lower the energy costs too. It does not mean being able to see your breath or wondering why the house plants are dead or the domestic pets seem a little frost bit. But lots of articles promote 65 degrees as the benchmark to maintain.

The t-shirt under the long sleeve whatever you wear is the one extra comfort level to remove the chill of winter living in Maine. Reaching for the afghan or couch throw blanket becomes a habit that replaces twisting the thermostat dial so hard to the right to stay warm while feeling guilty at the same time. Whatever you wear has to breathe like your attic and venting, wicking all make what you wear an educated choice whether your put into your house for insulation or hang on your body for lasting warmth.

The home itself, what can be done for low cost improvements to keep the heat inside longer?

The best return on whatever the energy cost updates you do select are the ones underwritten by government agencies. Here is a list of energy saving conservation funding sources to consider tapping into to help chisel away the size of your heating and electrical lighting bills. Heating oil assistance is one of the most searched for terms in Maine. Considering a smaller square footage energy efficient home is a smart move too if the house around you is just too darn big. Or converting part of it into a rental apartment could be a wise move if you want to keep the same mailing address. Turning your home into a money making rental for a loved one brings families closer together. The trips to the grocery store include consideration of someone other than yourself that needs a loaf of bread or a quart of milk.

Energy efficiency in your Maine house starts with an audit.

Let’s face it. Most of use don’t have money to burn and heating the great outdoors is not your goal because we all know you and I were not really brought up in a barn. The simple habits to close the exterior door when you go out and come in is a given common sense maneuver. If you educate your kids to consider the warm air in your home is like water. That leaks out through holes in your house that all add up. Turning off lights becomes a habit if it is taught early on out of respect for the monthly budget bottom line painful check writing.

See The Light, Love The Surroundings, The Locals In Maine Small Towns. Maine Winters Are Peaceful Once You Get Beyond The Hectic Holiday Traditions!

Weather stripping, beefing up your attic and cellar wall insulation. Caulking around window and door cracks and gaps. Stuffing insulation in the cavity voids around new insulated replacement windows tightens up the efficiency of the energy use you are determine to ride herd on better. This is the Department of Energy’s list of where your heating air escapes and areas to double up on to stop the leakage. More on rebates and loans for energy conservation in your Maine house. To save money and get efficient. Frugal is not the same thing as cheap. It is a true desire to use less, get more and be efficient. In control of your energy dollars when winter is in full swing outside your home sweet home.

Adjusting your house thermostat for eight to ten hours can save ten percent of what you shell out for energy. A programable thermostat would be a thoughtful stocking stuffer for the person on your gift list that could sure use it to trim their household heating and cooling bills.

Not everyone hangs a heat pump or two on the outside of their home.

Stacks of wood for the kitchen stove, cellar furnace or the outdoor boiler behind your home is not everyone’s path to energy use dieting. Rebates for updating Maine home oil or gas furnaces explained in the highlight link you just past and need to put ‘er in reverse to check out if you have time for more belt tightening tips and cash back options.

Annual servicing and filter replacement in the energy tune up of whatever furnace is purring down cellar or in the ground floor utility room of the Maine home is money well spent. If you are lucky enough to have a fireplace in the Maine house, remember that when used they only are about five to ten percent efficient. Once you remove the romantic value of those positive ions spilled into your living room, consider there is another use. Slide in an insert with a pellet or wood stove or considering adding a gas log for a warm glow in your living space.

All the calculated maneuvers help make your home in Maine easier to heat and cool.

Cheaper costs for the energy to do both if nothing is rushed and the home work to heat and cool the sticks and bricks is a well thought out plan. One funded by the money you already waste if you do nothing but shiver, bitch and complain. Get determined not depressed. Take some steps to shake it up. Often you are cold because you just simply are not dressed right. Layering those clothes, changing up what you wear for comfort is just a smart move. Requiring a little thought when you slide out the dresser drawer or reach into your bedroom closet each morning for something parked and waiting on a hanger to consider wearing today.

Getting Around In Maine, Lots Of Options In Vacationland. Park The Car, Hoof It. Strap On Some Bear Paws.

Like if you don’t ride herd on your credit card use, lack of thought put into how you heat and live in your Maine home can suck you deeper into a financial black hole. Not one has to be cold nor should they be. But being warm as toast does not just happen surviving a Maine winter. Landlords can tap into available funding to make rental apartments warmer, to save themselves and their tenants hard earned money.

It’s up to you and you can be independent. By making a game of being thrifty in whatever you use for a heating resource combined with tightening up the living space you call your Maine home is just good business. Your kids are watching and learning from your dance to save money and stretch those smaller piles of dollars too. Too practical or square? Or survival life skill? How do you approach energy conservation regardless of your savings account size?

Heating your Maine home for less means adding double pane windows that can account for 25% of your energy waste during the heating and cooling seasons. Or shortening the marathon showers where waste means extra dollars you may not have to spend. The ones you might enjoy not frittering. Instead used for something you would rather see them spent on for something a little more worthwhile to improve your life experience.

Making your home easier to heat and cool.

Whatever you do, when you feel a chill, don’t heat up the entire household to chase it away. Consider space heaters where you are hanging out for the next few hours watching a movie. Or better yet, say sayonara to your couch and go cross country skiing, ice skating, for a walk in the wintery wonderland during a Maine winter. Attend a local basketball or ice hockey game and don’t hunker down all winter long stuck inside your home 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

November 25, 2018
Winter Arrives In Maine, What Stirs Inside When Snow Returns?

To someone with no Maine winter snow experience, there are mixed emotions.

The reaction to the snow flakes in the weather forecast hits folks in many different ways. If you are not prepared for winter like most things in life, you get dragged into the experience. Rather than excited about a shift to a new Maine season that changes the look and feel of everything in Maine when the white wash happens.

Maine Winters, Life Does Not Stop But Changes It Up. Still Outside But Dressed And Prepared For It.

Jack Frost adds a new dimension to the place called Maine in winter.

Variation on a Vacationland theme seasoned with snow makes it more black and white simple. It keeps it interesting, new and different. The what we do for fun changes up big time as the temperature numbers shrink. Water skis swapped for cross country and down hill boards. The wardrobe gets layers added and legs, sleeves combined in what we wear to avoid hibernation. To enjoy the long wait until spring has sprung.

Cabin fever is a real ailment that must be avoided. The right outdoor equipment, the correct clothing is the sure fire fix for “stuck inside” boredom. Books and board games, knitting and cross wood puzzles can only help so much in a Maine winter.

Maine winters offer solitude, peacefulness, crisp air, blue skies with white powder and crystal sparkle enhancement.

The hunker down secure feeling inside your home as the winter winds howl around the exterior means you prepared for the season now playing. As you retreat inside with warm food prepared slowly from a quick trip down the stairs to the root cellar. Where the fruits of your canning and preserve efforts… the bounty of your garden, gleaning the Maine farm fields awaits.

For when chores in the farm barn are done and the animals are grained, hayed, watered for the night. You feel contentment, caught up and ready for earned relaxation. The focus shifts to the positive ions radiating from a hot stove or fireplace blaze as the outside landscape gets a thicker, continuous blanket layer of pure white everywhere.

Maine Winter Weather… It Creates White Dustings, Crystals To Sparkle The Maine Countryside.

Snow hides the scars of the landscape in a forestry wood cutting operation. Makes your backyard items disappear.

It helps you forget you did not get the fallen leaves of orange, red, yellow and brown raked or mulched up in the lawn surrounding your Maine home. Erased from view. Winter gives you a feeling of satisfaction when your wood supply is bigger than you will ever need. And the left over seasoned wood cut to fit your stove or furnace natural fuel of a renewable resource will be spill over and be welcome to use the next heating season.

When you don’t live in Maine, have not made a snow man of wet sticky winter white stuff.

If you have never driven a snow sled on a groomed trail or swish swished down a white mountain top with the chair lift rides back to the summit for do it again. Ice fishing in some pretty elaborate lake shanties is one way to spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Just check the depth of the sheet of ice as the water turns from liquid to solid. As you clear a patch to make a perfect place for a spirited pond hockey game or to ice skate in a winter landscape. Where everything that was full of color and lush and green is suddenly dominated by mostly white. But touched up here and there with some green, brown, gray and the skies of blue. You notice the change in the color scheme most hoofing it through a tree plantation on snow shoes alone. When the conversation you have are inside and pondered at a peaceful pace.

Maine Highways, Streets Are Kept Snow Free. We Know How To Handle Winter.

It is easy to feel the worst and think how dangerous old man winter weather would be to driving, to staying warm and on and on.

If you let those fears snow ball. Mainers don’t live in terror of winter, they embrace it. Sure we are careful to scrape and salt the walkways because no one wants a broken hip repaired with a big pin and a long recovery with a metal walker. To swipe a patch to see out of on all the windows of what we drive. We leave a little earlier on trips and errands around town, to get the kids to school if they are not seated in the long yellow bus. We watch the current weather forecast out of one corner of an eye to stay prepared from what is predicted to happen tonight, tomorrow and beyond.

Where I live, a national weather service reporting facility in Caribou gives me very clear expectations about how things will look in the hours and days ahead. Being on the Canadian border too allows tapping into other broadcast signals of another valuable source of weather information. And there’s always the farmer’s almanac predictions along with the conversations you hear in small Maine towns that point out how high or low the busy bees put their nest this year. Or other signs in Mother Nature’s world about what this or that means that occurs in the outdoors around us for what to expect weather clues.

Yesterday I felt the rush of a little kid’s reaction to the new white fluffy snow.

Snow Makes The Apples Left Hanging That Did Not Drop Look Even More Succulent. Maine In Winter Is Beautiful Not Stark, Not Bland. If You Look Harder, Closer.

As I ventured down around East Grand Lake, the northern tip of Washington County where it meets Maine’s Washington and Penobscot, there was lots of new stark, bleached white snow dusting. Tall fir and pine trees loaded and bending, drooping with white snow dropped from the skies overnight was impressive. Clean, pure, natural. Maine.

After every snow storm, especially when it is brand new, where no sign of man but lots of wildlife tracks are the only interruption to the white total overhaul of the winter landscape.

Those times of feeling the winter wonderment flood back into the brain to remind all Mainers of the excitement to what it feels like to get outdoors happens. A kid again. Rigged up with ski pants, a winter coat, mittens your grandmother knit along with the scarf wrapped around your neck. You slipped on your boots and exiting the home in search of friends, shovels, sleds, skates. To dig the tunnels, build the forts. Slide like running and surfing on a stretch of ice lubricated even more by the new snow that only polishes it even more slippery slick.

Or reaching up to gently pull away a long shard of ice hanging off a dripping roof eave. Thick on the top and pencil tip sharp and pointed on the bottom. The sounds of winter are the whisk whisk friction sound of a child walking all bundled up in their snow suit. The site of seeing them sampling an ice shard stuck to their wood mittens or coat cuff as they dream, gaze and everything stand sill in deep thought.

Things To Do For Fun In Maine During The Winter. Strap On A Piece Of Bear Paws.

And at the end of the day come back to the warmth of a home kitchen with pink cheeks, a relaxed feeling to remove the layers that protected you outside. To sample something hot out of the oven or cooling on the rack just bake homemade using an old family tested tradition recipe.

Closer to the magic of Christmas, the sugar cookies with colored icing and sprinkles in the shape of bells, trees or stars. Helping your Mom roll, cut the dough and decorate was more fun when the restlessness of being inside was released with the exercise outdoors. After you come in from where you can see your breath, your wet mittens steaming. Where the fresh air tastes like winter green or spearmint fresh, cool, tasty.

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 DOT Highway Crews For What You Do To Clear, Salt, Patrol Our Extensive Network Of Roads.

Wet outerwear when you do retreat inside hung up on a wooden rack to dry in front of a wood heater. To have it ready for the next trip outside to hear the crunch crunch crunch of snow under your winter boots with the felt liner inserts.

Dry and warm trumps wet, cold and heavy any day of the week in any Maine weather. Interior Maine winters are dry humidity and not damp unless you are along the coast. It’s like Arizona vs Florida for humidity and dryness. And the Eskimos are right about 50 kinds of snow. And what happens to snow when it is left to harden or crystalize.

A Maine winter is hot chocolate, bonfire outside, long underwear. It’s holiday lights of all colors. It’s angles on tree tops, larger ones made by kids on their backs staring up. Using their legs and arms like ping ball machine levers to leave shapes in the powdery snow. Maine winters are crust layers over loose snow made from melting action like a meringue sealer.

Winter is the smell of pine, fir, holly and mistletoe. Of fudge, pies, holiday turkey, whipped potatoes, green bean casseroles. The smell of soups and chowders. Of Christmas movie reruns of Rudolph or old black and white traditional flicks. The sounds of Christmas carols. Reminders of lost loved ones spiked by the memories of winter growing up in Maine. Winter means egg nog, cuddling, pulling the covers up and over your ears. Winter can be dogs and cats in sweaters walking their owners. Or is it the other way around in Maine?

Winter in Maine is snow on trees that release with a puff of dust. It is a time of candy canes, making New Year’s promises, to prepare for spring’s re-birth. It’s Christmas, Santa, a new born baby in a manger. Winter is no mosquitoes, heated car seats, turtle neck sweaters. It’s school snow days. It’s messed up hair days and scratchy heads under wool hats.

Maine Is Snow Sled, Snowmobile Heaven. Ride The Trails That Connect The Small Towns Easily On Your Ski Doo, Polaris, Yamaha, Arctic Cat Or Older Machine. Maybe A Snow Jet, Skiroule, Moto-Ski Or Maybe A Rupp, Kawasaki, Ski Whiz Or John Deer.

Maine winter means grilled cheese or tuna or chicken sandwiches and steaming hot tomato soup in a bowl or a mug. It’s thermoses of piping hot coffee served up outside during a work break. It’s a hot tub to soak your bones, the same ones warmed up another way next to the wood cook stove.

Winter is big bowls of hot spicy chili or cold micro brew at a Maine ski lodge. It’s playing cribbage at a snow sledding cabin just off the trails. Where your cell phone signal is sketchy. But you enjoy the break, the real freedom from mobile devices. Winter is taking a card of a giving tree and then setting off to find a toy or something warm for clothing for the age on the card of the child you do not know.

Life does not stop for winter.

But you change inside to adapt to the weather change. Winter keeps it new and different just like the habits of spring, summer, fall in Maine offer different experiences of the same places. Weather changes everything in a good way to keep boredom from happening of the same ole same ole meh. There are lots of things to do for fun in Maine during the winter.

Think of the bird’s searching for food and hang up the suet, the feeds with seeds. Take your dog with you on walks. Turn out those barn dwelling cows and horses, pigs, boats and sheep. Watch them roll in the new snow. See and hear the happy kids getting exercise and pushed off the couch to make snow angles. To make perfecting hand crafted ammo for a snow ball fight.

Winter in Maine is a time of reflection, a period when your senses sharpen and everything is real.

Happy To Be Alive. To Survive The Long Slide Down A Very Steep Hill. Sliding, Playing Outside And Dressed Warm In Layers For Maine Winter Fun.

Nothing is neglected inside or outside as you keep up with the new snow storms and what they leave around our homes, that needs plowing in our roadways and streets. Understanding winter is hard for someone that only reads about it.

But visit a Maine lighthouse in winter and you will see what the temperatures can do to sharpen the experience. Or looking out over the mountainside when you are pole planted and developing a thousand yard stare. That kind of detachment and letting go is the most incredible feeling of serenity that I know when all this beauty of unspoiled Maine is displayed around us. Images of winter solitude.

Look up at the stars during winter in a Maine sky. It’s powerful stuff when no light pollution or smog happens to diminish that wonderment. See how new snow changes everything in your familiar surroundings that magically change your outlook when you live in Maine. Winter means we still go to school, have to go to work. But you will not find a more beautiful place than Maine in winter to live, work and play.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

November 18, 2018
When You Are Lucky Enough To Live In A Small Maine Town…

It’s the little things and you feel the connection living in a small Maine town full time.

Like during a local movie, when you are at the snack bar as the lights dim. The movie coming attractions begin the splash on the silver screen. Before you can maneuver back to wherever you and your clan are sitting in the dark as the inside of a cow theater setting. As you slow to a creep on the tilted runway carpet when you ask yourself “isn’t it right around this row some place where I need to park?”

Maine, Drop Dead Gorgeous. Low Priced Property, Lacking Crime, Crowds, Traffic.

And then you hear a Psst… a whisper from the folks two rows back that nicely help you get your bearings as the lobby bright light wears off. “Andy, next row, one more.” Thank you to film patrons about to enjoy the same flick.

Or tragedy hits, your cat or dog is hit by a car, drowns in a swimming pool, something takes away the family pet. You get a call, neighbors rally to help you with the loss, know who’s cat or dog it is and help you with the arrangements on what do do now. They feel badly to be the one to announce what happened and continue to say a little prayer. To keep you in their thoughts in the tough days ahead.

Or months, years after a loss in a family out of the blue this and that community member who doesn’t need recognition for an act of kindness drops off tonight’s supper. Providing another meal next week because others surprised them the same way when down and out discouraged.

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

The grateful recipient not sure who is responsible because so many doing the same meal time pitch in and help ritual. Because they have all been in a tough situation and out of the woodwork many hands helped to collectively pick you up from a life low point. And abundant gardens, making two casseroles instead of one happens in a small Maine town household. And someone else is taking care of desert, the bread or another side dish. Take what you need and share the rest. Amen.

Ask for directions when new to a small town in Maine way of living. Folks are super helpful, often say follow me, I’ll tractor beam take you there right now to avoid delay or chance getting lost. But other times the how to get there from here involves old businesses that are long gone. The former building owner is referred to and old names die hard.

In my home town where Western Auto was or Ames or Chain Apparel were located don’t help much in a search when lost. Hannaford is still called Shop N Save when you need groceries. Some remember it as Sampson’s or can mentally look further back because this is and has been their home town for a long long time. Even though University College now takes up that space, not aisles of groceries or Plaza Pharmacy that had a cure for what ever ails you. If your daughter was on birth control pills, a different pharmacy handled the prescription filling for the sake of appearances for your regular druggist I was told by one local who had more than one outlet for medications for a reason.

The Irving Big Stop though is still called Traveler’s with the green snack bar counter tops even though the Texaco brand of gas and diesel have not gushed in the fuel lines for decades. Whoever has been at a business location longest in your memory is who you associate the GPS coordinates giving directions to the tourists.

Where was Panther Fuel again… you know, the building on Bangor Street with the hand painted drawing of a black as midnight cat wearing a chain with the green emerald. The using landmarks long gone can work with a local giving directions. But telling a lost motorists to head past the Miss Aroostook Diner to the Gulf station at the triangle where you turn left to head past Houlton Truck Garage is not so effective when all the landmarks you refer to are gone or renamed.

Maine Community Bands, One Of The Many Perks In Small Communities That “Band” Together.

Small town community members know and trust each other.

They work on local events, some are relatives and attend the same weddings, funerals, family reunion shin digs. Folks know what others are struggling with and it’s not kept a secret. Working together on this activity forces you to know others on a personal level. You know who to call for anything needing attention because you have first hand experience with others in your small Maine home town.

You don’t just know their name, you know how many kids, their names, stuff about them. Who the third owner back was for this house, that home. What used to be in the empty lot that was lost in a fire or just wore out and went to it’s knees like a dinosaur.

Someone is stopped along the road, we slow and roll down the window to ask need help? Jumper cables ready and held in both hands like shocking paddles to get you back in the flow of traffic and moving. Had a mason tell me today about living in Rochester New Hampshire where on the way to a job there was a car on the side of the road with steam pouring out from under the engine hood.

We Should Take This Route Over By Bible Point When President Teddy Roosevelt Started His Vacation Day Hunting / Fishing In Maine. See? It’s Right (Squinting) There On The Trail Map.

He stopped to ask how he could help, what they needed, what was the problem to offer his assistance. The car owner cowered, did not roll down the glass to create the door opening to talk. And wanted him to go away, not trusting him to be of any help with a fearful leave me alone reception shared.

Trying to help lend a hand does not play well in areas where crime is heavy and your sincerity is questioned.

Don’t get involved becomes the order of the day to play it safe for your own survival. To avoid a set up in situations where everything is not as it seems.

Maybe we are naive, too helpful and trusting in a small Maine town. But I am glad we are and it is sad everyone is not no matter where they live on the planet. Always carry a set of battery jumper cables, have a willingness to share a cell phone to make calls. Hide a tow rope in the back to use pulling a vehicle out of a ditch or stuck in a snow bank. Let’s try a bottle of dry gas, pump the hood and let’s hunt for loose wires or an easy fix to the current vehicle problems.

You have front line first hand information on the lay of the land and everyone in it past and present in a small Maine town.

That makes it like David and the sling slot quick to fix and repair a need. To know who you gonna call. In city urban living you don’t know the others on the crowded sea of faces on the sidewalk of asteroids coming at you. And you hunker down, look low and don’t want to, don’t need to, don’t care to because it’s cold and impersonal rules the day.

People care about the individuals in a small Maine town.

The circles we travel are smaller so you bump into people you know more often too. The population is more spread out and the landscape slightly sparse in rural areas. Most of Maine are small, many teeny weenie. A little out of the way on the road less traveled. The locals know why the little league field is named the way it is. Steve Porter was a veteran lost in the Vietnam War who was a heck of an athlete. More than just a solider who gave all.

911 addresses are not used by all who still prefer to call the McSheffery Road the Hogan Road. Most back roads and town streets had another name or two or three in Maine communities. The locals knew the names, the standardization happened for those who did not in Emergency service providing.

Parades For Causes, To Increase Awareness And Show Support! Small Maine Towns Are Like That When Lucky Enough To Live In One.

Working on local fund raisers, sporting events, community projects makes the connection with others in your area even stronger. The connection increases the longer you live in a small Maine town. That’s your ball coach over there, that man in line at the grocery store ahead of you is the son of your town manager. The lady behind you gets a smile, nice day and you receive a comment back about community theater, the canoe race, the upcoming holiday.

Something is discussed with others you meet in your travels to the hardware store, popping into a local business for a product, service repair, whatever. And no one is ignored or avoided in small Maine towns. That would be rude when you do know each other right?

People let others go ahead of them in the banker teller line. They smile, wave, are friendly and seem happy. The elderly shut in are worried about, looked in on and you don’t want them breaking a hip and needing a pin because they slipped on glare ice hidden under a blanker of new white fluffy powdered snow that only makes it more polished and dangerous.

You serve on boards, rotate into new ones and know how small towns rock and roll. You face new challenges together when the economy dips. You share joy in hard fought battles to fix problems and belt tighten where there is waste in public spending. Frugal is not the same as cheap. Nothing sucks the life blood out of a small Maine community faster than duplication of services.

You feel the joys, the pain, whatever happens in a small Maine town as a group, as one unit in this all together.

You know who is driving many of the cars and trucks approaching you on a highway. And instinctively know old Mr. Jackins has poor vision and to give him a wide berth. Maybe pull over to let him pass by with an accident. Plus he is driving a pickup with an angled your direction bright yellow Fisher snow plow blade up front that demands your attention.

You Can Hear Yourself Think! Ever Thought Of Living In A Small Maine Town?

Small rural Maine locations also help you find solitude when loneliness requires it to heal from a loss. They knew your parents, you remember theirs long after they depart this Earth. Everyone pulls together, leans in to begin the steps to process grief when it arrives right on time as it will in any person’s life.

In small Maine towns, you share the joys, experience the low points and have historical perspective on the folks who live two houses over or the next road up in your country location.

You know others from serving on sports or music boosters groups. From capital campaigns to raise money for something very needed in the local area. Working behind the scenes makes you pulled deeper. As the investment in your local community tugs on each and every one of your heart strings.

Is it like that where you live? Do you have this kind of view? Lots of low priced real estate inventory to select from in your area? Do you lack crime, traffic, the sounds of airport jets or EMS vehicles where you call home now?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

October 26, 2018
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
Weatherization Programs | Making The Maine Home Easily To Heat And Cool.

Being cold is never something Mainers desire and heating, cooling your home takes money.

Making the Maine home more efficient to stay warm to to be cool means study. To see what heating assistance programs, what weatherization funding in Maine the home owner or apartment renter, the landlord qualifies for today. This blog post is designed to help folks living in Maine find out ways to improve the living space and to have money left over normally shelled out to heating or cooling a residence.

Four Seasons, Sometimes One Ends Quickly In Maine.

For the home owner, the one in Maine that does not qualify for any state funding, there are still a slew of things to do to make the house tighter.

Without being so wrapped tight that mold or moisture becomes a problem. Maine has older housing stock. Here is a link on making your older Maine home warmer, easier to heat in winter. If you are building a new home, wonder about tax credits available to those that utilize certain practices, here is another helpful Maine weatherization link.

Home energy heating assistance, what is the income guideline for a helping hand with the heating?

Maine Winter Fun Playing Outside, Red Cheeks, Fresh Air Filling The Lungs.

Study the income eligibility numbers for household incomes to qualify in Maine. Help with the high cost of winter heating expenses is critical but even more so is funding for weatherizing Maine homes. Because anything done for a renter or low income home owner to make their living space more energy efficient improves the household bottom line.

Money left over after paying the monthly household expenses is a beautiful thing. So is being warm as toast and not feeling drafts, being cold.

My oldest brother Stephen worked for years heading up the Penquis CAP weatherization program. I am proud of how well he utilized the government funding programs on the federal, state, county levels to tighten up homes and to improve the bottom line on energy costs to make them more comfortable. Have you ever had a home energy audit in your Maine household? It is reported that Maine homes are two to three times as leaky as building science standards thinks they should be.

Maine, Working Hard To Live Simply, Pay Your Bills.

Maine Weatherization to tighten up drafty homes, to add insulation and to improve energy efficiency heating them helps reduce poverty.

Because money wasted on heating a Maine home means less available for other expenses like good nutrition, for quality of life, for peace of mind having a nest egg of savings! Feathering your nest to make it home sweet home.

Do you have some home heating assistance plans to make whatever roof is over your head more comfortable and to increase energy efficiency? Tightening up a home in Maine is an on going task and we make it a game to be warm as cheaply as possible.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

September 5, 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