You are not alone if Maine is on your where do I want to live now radar. The thought of of picking up lock, stock and barrel and relocating to Maine may be on your mind. These days especially, folks are looking for down to Earth family values and seeking our communities that provide quality of life. COVID19 and the Maine real estate market, the pandemic just added fire to what was already happening.
Time To Paddle On A Bottle Smooth Glassy Maine Lake. One Reason To Move To Maine.
The virus with the number accelerated the hunt for someplace where social distancing is easy.
Less people, more space and all this four season outdoor living. It easily makes Maine a top contender answering the where do we want to move next for quality of life question.
Maine is clean air, fresh water and not crowded.
The real estate is low cost and affordable housing happens all day long in rural Maine communities. Land to enjoy space, the same ground affords planting and harvesting good wholesome food. Or land is used for a life style and explored in recreational pursuits.
The attitude in Maine is tread lightly.
Easy does it. Respect the environment and pass on your property in at the very least as good but hopefully better than you received it. Mainers are good stewards and when using the trails across the land of others they realize it is a privilege not a right.
Respect operates round the clock and on the national scene today what’s broadcast does not mirror that simple Maine living theme. There is fear and anger and sensing something is seriously out of whack.
When you are surrounded by lots of land, the urge to roam and discover Maine nature is easy.
Especially when the low or no Maine population factor is figured in. Freedom, recreational trails, hills and mountains to hike. Ponds, rivers, lakes and streams to paddle, fish, swim or wade in happens. No parking problems or expense. Less waiting around in lines. Keeping your wallet in your back pocket or down in your purse. Everything does not have dollar signs attached living simply in Maine. Life is hands on and less hired out up here in the Pine Tree state. Is life like that where you hang your hat now?
So big step, moving to Maine.
Outdoor Living, The Space. The Biggest Reason To Move To Maine Is For Personal Space.
It often starts slow and small. Just a couple acres of Maine land is purchased.
The land used for low cost vacations for now. But in time, life events like retirement or just an itch to move from an urban area kick in. To make the once in awhile used recreation Maine land become something more. Either full time in the move to Maine or part time when you spend half your days here, the other half somewhere else. When you move to Maine whole hog and make Vacationland your zip code after living in a higher priced one, you are headed in the right financial direction. The move to Maine. Using the one 207 area code, and often with plenty of money left over from your out of state real estate sale.
How’s the real estate market in Maine today?
Strong. Because to own and enjoy some it is so much lower cost to buy real estate today in Maine. Part it is the long hike up the pike that insulates us. And part is due to the fact we have more wildlife than people. Vacationland is not spoiled or over commercialized. We safely parked up in the corner of the country. Like a thumb stuck up and almost in Canada. Like the other states of Alaska and Hawaii, kinda by ourselves and out of the cross fire of day to day ups and downs.
Space Where You Can Hear Yourself Think. Maine Is Outdoor Four Seasons Natural Beauty.
The Maine people are friendly, helpful, hardworking.
That’s the best treat that comes with the Maine real estate purchase. The further up into Maine and away from the expensive coastline, the cheaper the price and more property you get. The best value for Maine real estate is found in the small town living experience where the population is four thousand or less.
Internet broadband connectivity is the number one questions from those in the Maine real estate audience that depend on tethered or wireless connections to the copper, glass strand or through thin air. Pack up your job and bring it along. The Internet over the last thirty years sure has changed our I list, market, sell Maine real estate. It’s helped the move to Maine possible when before it was not in the cards.
Low crime, no pollution, no gangs, no drive by shootings, no traffic. Maine.
The big attraction in the move to Maine is not just the salty sea air, the steamed lobster, baked potato, fresh blueberry pie. The scenery is drop dead gorgeous. Money to enjoy Maine is not the end all and having lots to just survive is not necessary. Real estate is not the only item that costs less. Insurance on what you buy is lower, just like the premium on what you drive. Less crime, lower property values all reduce the need for lots of green stuff to spend. We don’t spend money like drunken sailors. Kids are taught to manage it better and see their parents doing the same. All circles around the respect approach to living life in Maine.
Hiking, Climbing Maine Mountains Gets Kids Off The Couch, Away From The Boob Tube.
Respect Nature, enjoy the four seasons around us and easy does it on the spending.
To prepare for setbacks that will happen right on schedule ahead. More do it yourself and developing a skill set to avoid being highly dependent on others to help you through life. We pitch in and volunteer and make being in a small Maine community worthwhile for our families and others around us. Positive not negative is the atmosphere all of us strive for to enjoy life not simply endure it until “The End”. Moving to Maine, lots of folks are soul searching that topic these days.
Pure and natural is big attraction and major positive change for many who have gone without it for far too long. But what we don’t have, that long list of what you don’t want all adds into the decision to move to Maine. Maine’s low population makes traffic, crime, pollution and heavy layers of building regulations go away. Common sense still rules the day. We strive to make our days worthwhile and fruitful and a lot it is simply worth ethic. Lessons learned in the woodlot, out on the back forty farm field or in the barn.
A Wicked Witch Of The West Spent Summers Hear. Maine Cast A Spell On Margaret Hamilton. Who Also Pushed Coffee Not Just Flew Blooms And Terrorized Dorothy, Her Little Dog Toto Too.
Running a small business, maybe on the docks or the skipper of a fishing boat off the coast of Maine.
Or making a living sharing the experience with tourists sampling Maine on their vacations. Simple living, hard work, not needing a lot to be content. Isn’t that the best approach to life when you reduce it all down and stop trying to keep up with the Jones’s or what highly effective marketing tries to convince you that you need and lack?
Many move and relocate to Maine in retirement.
To replace the forty hour work week with close to the same amount of time spent differently. Their days and nights split between relaxation and volunteering in their new Maine community. Moving to Maine is not just for the space, the lower cost real estate. It’s a whole new lifestyle that is thrown into the mix when you move to Maine.
Moving To Maine, You Ready For Some Of This?
How’s the real estate market in Maine?
Are you in moving to Maine mode? Good time to list and sell in definitely a seller’s real estate markets outside of Maine. Healthy, vibrant and listing sales fast and furious is the temperature of hot real estate sales in Maine. You get more for less in Maine. The real estate market sales are up because so many folks don’t like where they live now outside of Maine for lots of very good reasons. And Maine real estate buyers are able to sell for top dollar, often over list price because of bidding wars with multiple buyers. Maine. I admit it, I am spoiled and feel so lucky to live in Maine full time. Thank you for following our Me In Maine blog posts!
It’s said lobstermen and lobsterwomen are born, not made. For starters, Maine is lucky to have a coastline, to be on the Atlantic Ocean. All those ragged, rocky juts of Maine land out into the
Maine Picnics Go Hand In Hand With Lobster Rolls. Potato And Pasta Salad. Corn On The Cob.
briny, misty water take a life time to discover as a tourist. The quaint Maine harbor towns and fishing villages are a big part of the Vacationland attraction.
This blog post about lobstering in Maine.
Like the agriculture farming and forest timber lifestyles, lobstering or any fishing coastal endeavor takes a lot of discipline. The stakes are high. Long hours too that start early, extend late. There is Maine weather delivered up good, bad and worse.
Fishing in Maine is like farming the waters off the coast using boats, buoys and lobster traps not field tractors and implements.
The Maine lobster market prices up and downs means you have to manage your money well. Your overhead continues no matter how many Maine lobsters crawl into the hauled up watery traps. Like many Maine industries, going bigger to monetize production is the trend. But this blog post on lobstering in Maine focuses on the smaller, family fishing operations.
Videos on lobstering in Maine are the easiest way to deliver the goods.
The promise of the blog post title uses your eyes and ears today. Like lazy man’s lobster where everything is steamed, opened up, cracked and buttered. Need a bib? You better put on a bib. Squirts happen around the lobster feed setting.(more…)
Working remotely online, avoiding body aches, muscle and joint pain side effects during the pandemic.
Cramps, kinks, knots. Body health issues thanks to the coronavirus adjustment stress to living and working closer to home. More folks than ever are sticking close to home.
Me In Maine Blog Author Andrew Mooers, ME REALTOR
Flocking homeward to telecommute to their online remote jobs from Maine.
But that “bring it on home” shift for safety sake can come at a high price to the body, spirit, work production.
This blog post provides tips for avoiding body aches, muscle and joint pain caused from the strain of working from home remotely online in Maine.
Tips and tricks to make a home office run smooth and efficient. There are three parts to the approach on how to work smarter not harder telecommuting to work from your Maine home.
1) Where to do your job from home
2) The actual set up to work remotely
3) Further steps to take to limit the impact to your body when you job is now done at home
First, understand the getting ready to go to work and leaving your home to mentally shift gears to be at the office daily routine is gone. Poof. Taking care of business and slaying office dragons for a highly productive day at work takes discipline from the remote online home location.
Working Remotely Online From Home Easier to Find The Space Inside Grand Older Maine Homes!
The distinction of home for pleasure, office for work is blurred. No longer black and white easy that you are here or there.
Home distractions working online remotely from where you live are bigger for those with lots of family members. When sharing too small a living space. And everyone is under foot and in each other’s way.
Discipline to report to work online remotely. When it is now from a region of your own home repurposed and dedicated to your office job. Not everyone makes the transition as easily as others from office to home office.
But it helps when you bite the bullet and retool an area of your Maine home to be for just work.
And once set up it stays that way. No shared use and tearing down or putting back up waste of time happening.
Wherever you connect and go online better have speed of thought Internet connectivity too.
Because time is money whether you are working from your Maine home or a traditional office setting. Plan your work and work your plan. You gotta have a system in the measure twice, cut once most efficient use of your time.
Making Working From Home Online Remotely A Better, Healthier Experience.
Older housing stock in Maine built when families were larger are ideal for work from home office spaces.
Lots of rooms for many place settings around the big kitchens with pantries and extra stairways.
Those dens, parlors, nurseries, etc that become the home office location easily.
Or the extra bedrooms can be reworked into the perfect home office area. Where you can go and shut the door. Get undivided focus that lasts for the many tasks at hand.
All those items on your work from home list of what’s on tap today or left over from yesterday to accomplish.
Many Maine homes need more than one work from home location station carved out and trotted to for the weekly paycheck or school diploma.
The wife, husband, all the kids need their corner of the house to work online remotely from the Maine home.
Internet broadband connections are especially strong in my area of Northern Maine which is one huge blessing that allows the work from home option for all in the household. Many second vacation homes on lakes and ponds are being reworked into double duty. To suddenly become the primary home up in Maine. It is a big bonus when the Internet options at the vacation property in Maine are long, strong and wall to wall. How is your working from home remotely transition going? Tell me about your back, shoulders, lower thighs or wrist handling the pain and strain of working online from home? (more…)
Little things, like scotcharoos and whoopie pies pasted down family recipes. The tray you need to return when empty that came filled with cinnamon buns, yeast rolls, flaky biscuits, fruit explosion squares. Anything homemade not store bought off the shelves is pretty popular on the local level of wherever you live in small town Maine. When one by one the local Maine community steps up to create the signature dish everyone asks for in their family. That gets put on the local fundraising stage to raise money for another worthwhile cause.
Meet Your Maine Neighbors, Kinda Shy, Have Four Legs Instead Of Two.
Maine simple living is all about hand crafted from home made in the kitchen food goodies.
Hit ’em in the stomach is not a cheap shot and always works best for fund raising. For providing the covered dish dropped off with heating instructions for tonight’s meal for someone sick or on the mend. To help out the family hold down the daily routine with aid from others out in the community.
All those built from hand crafted home made in Maine scratch items not mass produced from China that are not available from Amazon, Overstock or Ebay cyber storefronts.
Just got off a Facebook silent auction for donated food items and local business service certificates raising money for a local Maine school project graduation. Handcrafted home made in Maine. The wildlife already know those wild apples, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, black berry naturally made by Mother Nature Maine snacks.
Winter Wonderland Walking In The Maine Star Filled Moonlight. Everything Sugar Dusted, Pure White Snow Coated.
The value goes up when you know the Maine chef or cook.
When there is a local cause attached in the fund raising it takes the bidding to a whole new level. COVID has made many forced to retreat and retrench in their own homes to spend more time in their kitchen. Exploring and discovering the joy of cooking. That only doubles and triples when what is created with your own two hands is used as a local fundraising merchandise.
The beautiful hand knit wood mittens with matching scarf and hat.
The by hand not a long arm loom quilt that is one of a kind special. The time to create whatever is given away makes the bidder after it appreciate the quality and value even more when you know the creator. The pie of your choice made especially for you the high bidder tastes even sweeter when you have met the cook.
Maine Hand Crafted, Home Made Outdoor Experiences. Like To Cross Country Ski?
Living in Maine is a lot about home grown, hand crafted do it yourself approach to everything around you.
Part of it is the satisfaction of creating it yourself. Another reason is don’t turn to the wallet or open up the purse to just pay for something when you could make some just as good or better without the swipe of a credit card.
Reaching into your pocket for the money to buy something makes the point of purchase a lot more real.
The pain of letting go of hard earned funds at the time of money exchange can help develop spending impulse control. To wait and see if a better deal comes along. Or is this a momentary gotta have it or just want it need? More on frugal living in Maine.
Every Christmas season my mom would create the largest array of home made pies, pastries, cookies and delicious morsels. Confectionery sugar involved, lots of green and red colors versions of the natural sweetener used liberally.
Handcrafted home made in Maine. Mocca balls rolled in coconut. Star and Christmas tree shaped butter cookies decorated with grandchildren helping supply the icing artwork. Divinity white, chocolate and peanut butter fudge cut in cubes. Peanut brittle tucked on the plate like stacked puzzle pieces. The smaller the Maine town the better the way the locals treated others out in the community.
Date and raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, peach, lemon flavored oatmeal and molasses cookies.
The kind you don’t see racked and stacked with the Keebler or Nabisco or generic store brand association. Where no two are exactly the same shape but all are unique handcrafted home made tasty melt in your mouth creations.
One of a kind and the special freshly prepared Christmas holiday platters created slowly and plastic wrapped or hidden in protected decorative tins.
Whoever got one of the Christmas doses of home made cookies made in the Maine farmhouse kitchen pantry appreciated them. Felt among the privileged. Those delectables became Christmas tradition for the cook and the receivers. Mom AKA Nana is gone. But the mental sight of her in her Christmas pattern apron. All those years worth’s of holiday memories seeing her create holiday magic in the Maine farmhouse pantry kitchen. What she distributed town wide lives is sadly missed.
Photos taken in some corner of Maine and placed in special frames.
Wrapped in tissue paper of red, green and white to drag out the opening the ribbon and bows to see what was inside. Someone took the time to create the gift. The ones opened up, dug into and enjoyed surrounded by the trappings of Christmas bright lights, pretty shiny bows and ribbons.
Like the person created card that goes with handcrafted home made in Maine not plucked from a Hallmark revolving metal rack or long row of expensive mass produced sentiments.
Maine setting seasonal photos with or without loved ones in them are special items to create and wrap for under the tree gift giving.
Slow cooked and from the heart always leaves the last minute store bought experience in the dust. It stands out and shows someone really cares and went the home made put on the kitchen apron route.
Or worked days with the finding just the right yard and pattern to pearl one, knit two something to match a coat. Care and attention increases your admiration for someone and boosts the real value of the treasure gifted. When the recipient of the gift is an elderly lives alone neighbor, family member or friend, what’s offered can have no nutritional value. But instead is a cord of wood cut, split and delivered for the kitchen or cellar heater stove. Or IOU to bank the house for winter, to be the handyman to hammer away at new steps, inside home repairs.
Fresh Maine Snow Covered A Local Christmas Tree Lit Up And Not Cut Down Kept Alive In The Winter Yard.
Local Maine communities help those who live within the small town boundaries.
We struggle, maintain and triumph together. And when a COVID19 happens, it is not so hard an adjustment. You quickly shift gears and know what to do. Help others. It makes the kettle bell ringing for the Salvation Army cause even more important. Bundle up, head outside and help raise funds for those who need it most.
I think hardships endured growing up make your more resilient and resourceful.
You have a wealth of experiences to draw from to know your job when a crisis hits a Maine community. Instead of hand wringing or whining or blaming someone, we get to work. Chiseling out a solution and the work around to do the best we can to not just get to the other side. But to quickly see the best course of action in our day to day to conquer the obstacle life setback.
We rely on the handcrafted and home made in Maine that is dependable and will last. There when you need it lasting if you just respect and take care of it. Knowing money comes hard for you and other. To dash out and replace things is not the way to slash and burn, eat drink and be merry in Maine.
Plowing, shoveling out the yard and steps of a neighbor. Mowing their lawn, asking if they need anything at the local grocery store. All those behind the scenes private gestures in a small Maine town are just what people do.
This sense of community and helping is one of the many attractions to living in Maine.
Had a lady call me this morning from Morrill Maine who moved there from Long Island, NY about fifteen years ago. She said she was looking for a land investment and surfing the net to discover new areas of Maine to make it. I asked her isn’t Long Island NY known for its large potato farms.
She said it was and how it broke down was in the south fork of Long Island you had your Hamptons and rich hoity toity blue bloods. In the south fork we the poor as church mice Puritans and that did the farming. Until everything got developed as the property taxes drove the farming operations out and one by one there go the vineyards too. Replaced with McMansions and commercial developments.
This woman wants a 100 acres in Northern Maine to raise some critters.
Shifting her focus from horses to cows. And buying the Maine land investment as a hedge, as a vacation place. And because she feels her area of Maine is changing. She told me a friend told her Maine does not really start until you hit the Kennebec River and above.
The desire to Maine farmland to homestead and not just for vacation use for fishing and hunting is increasing. Not folks wanting to wrangle large sprawling Maine farm operations but that desire to just grow what they consume. Peddle a little bid of the excess to keep the wolf with the bills away from their door. While back home on the farmstead the buildings are one by one handcrafted and home made in Maine constructed DIY style. Pay as you go rather than saddled with a 30 or longer year mortgage attached to the Maine farm property lifestyle.
A better way, saner way and healthier way of simple living in Maine is catching on.
COVID has just sharpened the focus on where to live and why as people reflect is it time to move and how about Maine? I hear good things about Maine, that beautiful state larger than all the other New England collection combined. Most of what is here is hand crafted and home made to last.
Here a property you can leave your shoes on and take a peek at what you get if you can see yourself living in Maine.
Picture what life here in Maine would be if you bought this current property real estate listing video.
Maine, like any place it is not for everyone.
But it sure is the perfect fit for many when the timing is right to get while the gettin’ is good. Thinking of Maine a lot more now? Like what you remember from your time in Vacationland during a handful of too short vacations? Want to come, maybe for good or at least half the year in Maine? Instead of where you live now? But suffocating while waiting for answers to red hot burning questions needing to be addressed? The COVID pandemic is easier to side step and avoid catching the virus. No matter if you think you could lick it or not.
Let’s shoot the breeze about Maine weather, what’s it like being a border town with Canada.
Or how many barrels of potatoes I could pick, what are local Maine schools like, anything on your mind needing answers. Crime is the 4th lowest for the country. No we don’t have gangs or drive by shootings. Locked doors, what are those?
Small Pleasures Are the Big Reward. Anything Home Made, That’s Simple Living In Maine.
Here to help and sincerely offer what I do know about Maine as a life long native resident with the inside tract from years of experiences. Thank you for reading this blog post on the little things, like home made Christmas goodie packages exchanged and enjoy this festive time of the year. Nothing compares with handcrafted home made in Maine anything.
Local fresh eyewitness news reporting and personal experiences from folks who live in Maine. That kind of journalism really hits home and delivers the truth. The home grown community news gleaned and presented first hand from the man, woman or child out on the village street or the countryside is my favorite.
Local Maine News. The Best Kind Comes From The Home Town Local Beat. News From Where It Happens Is Freshest, Most Pertinent.
Like the wisdom from a twelve member jury of your peers if you have ever been called up for court room service. It is refreshing and surprising how much local Mainers deeply invested in their communities possess for wisdom.
The stakes are way higher when the future of your small Maine community is at stake.
But how to poll correctly the sentiments of the local population in small town Maine? You have to trust more than your gut and there needs to be a local forum to encourage it not apathy allowed.
The best Maine news is fresh, live and local.
Eye witness news and you are there. Covering the local beat with your friends, family, neighbors sharing the perspective and collectively adding to the information details. Truth not fiction and presented in a way that mostly locals would relish getting it. Too mundane for national coverage. Just lacking enough pizzazz or excitement to really sizzle and sell on the World stage.
Local Maine news for free.
Instead of a talking head sitting on a lighted set or a newspaper editor tweaking a two thousand word piece, cue a local Mainer. Someone who has spent their life in the home town, others transplanted recently or a number of years back.
Like Noah, gather and cover the Maine news landscape to collect representation across the board of all ages, livelihoods and loaded with a wide variety of interests.
The longer you live here, the better the depth of the historical perspective to draw from to make the best local Maine decisions.
Roll some tape and open up the video and audio channel to collect the raw and personal Maine news from out in the community.
To distill very little and deliver in an unaltered state for their local community member’s benefit. Some Maine news topics can be light and bright. Others not so comfortable but all so very necessary to cover for the greater good of the small Maine community. The folks in a small Maine town really care about each other and there is a strong connection.
The Maine news personal and close to home. Hearing, seeing a local describe what they are up to for a hobby is interested to a local Maine resident. They may be related or from the same home town and like visiting with them to get up to date on what is going on in their life.
Maine news.
Out in the small Maine community and countryside. Using that setting for the presentation to the local audience works best. Collecting bits and pieces of a slew of topics collected to share with the local audience small town communities. Those Maine news soundbites or video loops and black and white copy are the best but rare. Why? Money. Advertising dollars.
Local Maine News That Reflects The Area Where It Is Made And Covered. That Kind Of News Beat Works Best For Locals Starved For Maine News!
The money for professionals hired to cover the beat when there are more trees and wildlife than people in the reporting location.
Hard to monetize when the audience is very small and select. This is part of why Maine is such a mystery or best kept secret to many. But also what protects and insulates the vast size state with only so many people scattered within her borders.
“Would I like to you, would I tell you something that isn’t true?” like Annie Lennox sings in the song.
I think we were all taught not to lie growing up and the damage it causes to a person and those around them.
Farming News, Produce Prices, How’s The Crop Yield. Part Of The Local News Beat For Coverage In The Garden Of Maine, Aroostook County!
Maine political news.
Oh sure when there is a heated election underway, lots of money pours into the media outlets to create the ad spot clusters to carry the message. Loaded into the automation rotation carousel to saturate and inundate until the audience is numb. Especially when the negative campaign rhetoric bombardment blitzkriegs the Maine landscape. That kind of journalistic news campaigning warfare forces many to not energize and rally to a cause but to retreat deeper within yourself.
Local Maine News. Folks In The Community Want Local Happenings And News From Close To Home.
Maine news when the saturation and intensity is high and the fact checking is missing.
On topics you know something about and are not buying what’s being sold. Take a break, stop the World time. The highway to Maine. To run away looking for peace and solitude of a Maine woods camp or waterfront retreat. It’s not cowardly but more a feeling of overwhelmed. A cocktail of a dash of a little distrust mixed shaken and stirred with a twist of futility. So much energy and drama and emotion makes the noise hurt your heart and head.
Solutions not just complaint. Attacking problems not people. What can the average local Mainer do to help move the community in the right direction? Stay positive. Rise above and be civil, keeping an open mind and looking at the state of affairs with a realistic approach.
Maine news that applies to the small town and of great interest to all in the village, out in the country landscape.
Where are we, where were we, where are we going and what can I do to help nudge things in that direction. Getting the majority in your small population corner of Maine pulling together. Everyone to agree which trail is best to take ahead starts with the truth and Maine news based on facts not opinion. That’s kind of Maine news is going to require more local conversations from those most affected from the outcome of some pretty important local decisions that need to be made.
What’s Happening Around You In Uncrowded Maine. That Kind Of News That Impacts Families That Is Home Grown Is Spread More By Locals Than Media Outlets.
Getting the best information for the Maine community to use to make the best decisions moving forward.
No news is not good news. But hit or miss or slanted news is worse and does more damage. Maine news from the local perspective gleaned from the community where it is being made. To be appropriate and helpful, the Maine news better accurately reflect what is happening today within the state, county and local town limits. For a rock solid sound foundation to build on for a small Maine community or region or state to sustain and prosper based on the truth.
The local Maine news coverage unique to the part of Maine where is made is hard to get on a consistent delivery basis without a commercial enterprise inking the press type or turning on the sound and blinking red camera light.
Michael Clark, Dedicated Local Rotarian, Past District Governor, Paul Harris Fellow. RIP Michael A Clark. You Are Missed.
The by far best when the presenter is honest, personal, and pretty accurate because the “report” is factual and not fiction.
Nothing to gain misrepresenting the news and always delivered with colorful expressions and a seasoning of other local reference sources. The local Maine news grapevine can be serious topics hashed out among whoever dropped by a local small Maine business establishment. Or featuring fishing, hunting, local sporting truth stretched a bit or sprinkled with some friendly teasing. Fact checkers doing clean up to make sure of the authenticity of the conversation exchange? Nope.
It used to be the five W’s reported digging and collecting just the facts by journalists and broadcasters thoroughly researching a subject.
Then like coffee, entertainment sweetener was added because the audience developed a shorter attention span. News to not just inform morphed into news to amuse. To entertain, to push an agenda develop. Mass media feeding everyone truth or dare. So reporters developed their own style and approach to how to twist and shout today’s news to make it fun not boring. Personal opinion shows through in the news delivery on purpose for ratings and ad dollars.
Give them what they want. Get the widow on the set.
People like dirty laundry titillating delivered by the bubble headed bleached blond not just meh taste boring cold hard factual from the guy wearing the horn rimmed spectacles. Because that’s the way it is at the end of every newscast according to Walter. You used to only have a few flavors of news not as many as the number of colors in the rainbow for selection. For getting what you want to hear presented just the way you like it sliced and diced. No thank you. I rely more and more on the local Maine news grapevine.
The Local Landscape Maine News. Not Exciting Enough For Someone After Entertainment Value. How’s Emma Feeling? Did You Get Your House Banked Elmer? The Local News From Folks You Know And Care About… That’s What Locals Care About In Small Maine Towns.
The national audience became more segmented, polarized by what they are fed as gospel.
And to go after those low hanging advertising dollar demographics more flavors of news sources sprung up. Not just chocolate and vanilla, black and white news reporting these days. And as you pick a channel flavor of news to plug into daily, you are fed from a particular slant what you want to hear and believe.
When the Maine news is generated by local reporters who live in Vacationland, it’s way more accurate.
It’s more realistic and less Hollywood filtered and enhanced. It’s less valuable to the small Maine town.When the news gathering arm is out of state, on a different coast, much of what is reported does not seem to pertain to small town rural Maine. It is not that useful or helpful. It wastes daylight that is time better put to other purposed on the to do list.
I had a conversation with a California wanna be Maine home buyer yesterday who used to live in Maine and misses life here.
In his area, he said when a new person moved into his neighborhood in Maine the folks close by whipped up covered dishes to present. To say hello, welcome to the area. Where he has lived in California folks just don’t take the time or extend the same set of courtesy. Same thing happens at his church. When an older person can not get themselves to worship, he and his wife offered to pick them up if along the way.
Covered Bridge That’s One Lane, Wait Your Turn. Not Six Wide And Hurry Scurry Where Highways Are Fast, Stacked And Packed In Gridlock. That’s Not Maine.
And back in Maine anyone living near them did the same to help an elderly person attend a church service.
You don’t neglect them, you cherish them and look forward to their pearls of wisdom picked up as you do a good deed assisting their transportation to and fro. But on the other coast, those same church folk are left out and not included like they are discarded. Pretty sad and something to look forward to as you climb the hill but are not quite over it yet but the day is coming.
In small town rural Maine, we are brought up to do lots of for the good of the community actions. Many that are not even thought about until someone points out they don’t do that where I live now outside of Maine. Who wouldn’t want to rather live where traffic and crime are missing. Where folks worry and care for each other on a daily basis and you feel strongly connected? Instead of just existing as one more blank face in the sea of sameness crowd.
Jammed together but pushed apart seeking more personal space. Maine does not lack personal affordable wide open space.
Maybe the division in the country is a lot about country and city mouse approach to living and the coronavirus will force a bigger shift telecommuting to work online remotely to small Maine towns. I see it already happening so much in my day job. Since last March, bailing out and getting to Maine has been a frivolous mission of many who are hungry for small town living. Social distancing is easy in small Maine rural towns.
How’s The Maine Lobster Catch? Prices Up Or Down? What’s The Fishing Industry Going Through Along The Coast? That Is Important Local Maine News.
Where the news report originates outside of Maine makes a big difference.
If the lifestyle is vastly different, if the take home pay checks are way different sizes, then the news substance may not hit home the same. When you have been brought up to be frugal and manage money wisely but witnessing it wasted in a higher cost of living news market that delivers you information. The norm there has to clash with the one in your small Maine town that struggles to keep its population numbers from dropping.
Editorials used to be the only lone news hour or newsprint segment slot to get personal opinion.
Otherwise it was check your sources, interview lots of authorities to avoid flawed shoddy reporting. I remember Maine Broadcasting’s general manager Fred Nutter in Portland or Bangor’s Margo Cobb presenting editorials. They were clearly thought out and not sharp edge mud slinging. Just a personal plea that Maine needed to go in this or that direction and why. Nothing sold to the audience but just legitimate concern that we as a state should all share. Pointed out that we needed to be putting more effort into this area or pulling back from too much resource excess in another one and explaining why.
How many times do you Google to find thorough information and have to wade up to your knees in fluff and recycled same old same old bits and pieces?
Like a slow drip of low level propaganda the audience is sold and educated from the spin. Or just fed the same old skim repackage and sold as new and improved news. If you want real, fair and objective news, you need to read several sources. Take the time to not just glean quick doses of headlines. Make the time to do the research and look hard for the truth. The what’s left out. Not to get just scrape the surface headline news. Blogging took off because you begin to trust the down to Earth guy or gal on the street’s honesty and sincerity. Way way more than the slick paid professional sensationalizing today’s news using the read read read then big smile teleprompter. News generated by someone who lives where you do is home cooked and healthy. Being fed what to think from someone who could not find where you live in Maine without GPS is not.
Local Maine News, Getting It From Within The Boundaries Of The State, County, Local Rural Town. Collected From Small Town Events, A Corner Grocery Store.
Question the validity of a poll, learn who was asked, from where, when and how large a sample.
If “experts say” who is being touted as an authority? Same folks drawn from for the news or lots of new voices in the mix for a healthier perspective and something new and different? The guy or gal who try to keep you hanging and tuned in for what’s after the next advertising spot cluster. Go to the bathroom, take a quick trip to the kitchen for a snack if you must but be back here couch side in two minutes audience for more what’s served up just the way you like it “news”.
The news reporter can do it using the five w’s.
Tap lots of news sources to glean and distill what is missing or clearly bent to achieve a purpose but keeping an open mind presenting with fair and objective.
I disagree with the broad brush statement There’s no such thing as truly objective, fact-based reporting. You have to dig, research and ask folks in the field not just rely on newscasters dumbing it down or missing the facts. The first rule in blogging is to write about what you know. Because you draw from experience, the truth and nothing is fabricated. It’s real, the truth without the fictional spin seasoning.
The Snug As a Bug In The Little Red Log Maine Lake Camp. Telecommuting From Maine. One Good Thing Salvaged From The Coronavirus Pandemic.
The blogging post should be a conversation with your reader.
Whoever follows you should be contributing to that conversation and often times the down below comments are the real flesh of the story. Because it is not just from one person’s perspective but from many voices out in the audience. The elections are over, the Maine population is prepared for winter and new work arounds should the coronavirus low numbers start to spike. Just grateful they are low virus numbers. That folks are doing their part. And like a Maine winter, we’re prepared for anything ahead. Not just planning to survive but to make the most of whatever we have to work with and to come out on top.
Keep it simple, stay positive, look out for each other and be kind.
Do your part and pitch in to be careful what you say, how you state it and examine the reasons why you feel the way you do about something. And consider how that helps or hurts looking for the best solution at hand. I think most down to Earth Mainers from small town experiences and drawing from The values they were raised with are doing that. Just my humble two cents. As I finish up this early morning Maine blog post. Typed out as the wind picks up, the temperature drops and cold lake water splashes against a concrete retainer wall out front, I feel happy to live in small rural Maine.
My oldest daughter letting her small dog out to do his business walks over from the next door log home pictured above. The one where she, her husband have been telecommuting to work while raising a new born grandson.
Patting the dog who comes in through the glass slider opened a little to say good morning we have an exchange. Being near family is more important than ever. I think the coronavirus makes everyone examine where they live and why and ask is it time for a different way? I see it at work as so so many question what is missing. Asking themselves where should I be headed with plenty of soul searching surrounding the where to go, when and why.
Maine news, thank you for hanging in there that long to get to the bottom of this most recent blog post. We are used to challenges and work hard for everything we have and don’t expect it to come easily. I think in Maine we appreciate what we have more because we realize it’s not like this many other places. Keeping it real, making it honest and unspun, Maine is the way life should be.
These are the best of times if you accept, adjust, adapt, and creatively do the best you can with a positive spirit. When you grow up in rural Maine, being resourceful and collectively as a community tackling change happens. If this is your first setback, life is harder. These can be the good old days twenty years from now. Never discount that the going could get tougher before it improves or is predictable right?
Is life easy or hard or meh?
If you were taught to look for bumps in the road, to expect them, not be surprised. Being eagle eyed and aware. Learning how to make the most of events. If you can do that, you will be better off than most. An optimistic approach to life gives you and others around you hope, helps to keep the faith and to expect change. You stay optimistic when you daily remind yourself, when you give thanks and are grateful for others in your life. You become way way more aware of what is happening around you in nature. The wildlife get noticed and have a daily roll in your entertainment and fulfillment in Maine.
Otters Play, Get Social At 5AM On A Maine Lake Video.
When you are spoiled and don’t worry about others around you, you wear a thick life darkening blindfold.
You are not an asset to your small Maine town. We are all in this together is how the tides life up the small Maine community. Having faith and channeling physical and mental energies into efforts that will help yourself and others is the best course of action.
Would you be better off living somewhere else means some areas will suffer hardships, others get through the adjustment piece of cake.
COVID19 can make a person have a serious heart to heart with the guy or gal in the mirror. Change is part of life. Self inflicted change makes it easier to roll with the punches and accept adjustment. Surprises get swallowed easier when you expect them. If you don’t think the way life is unfolding should be happening to you, you forget and no longer care that others are in the same boat. Or that may have it much worse than you.
Heading To Church On A Maine Country Road. Amish Weight Distribution Off Or There’s A Broken Leaf Spring.
Many preach we all need to strive for a simpler life.
But the bigger question is why do we complicate and clutter it? Is something missing in your life? Do you feel fulfilled or no matter how good things are rolling, you have a capacity to find fault? To wish for more instead of being grateful for how lucky you are with what you already have. Do you want to be happy? Is full of joy a textbook definition but not in your opinion a real world expectation? Based on what you were taught by others close to you growing up around you, have you seen the power of just what a positive attitude can accomplish?
The COVID19’s coronavirus pandemic like any setback should make you and I take inventory of what I need to do for more than mere survival.
Wanting to to more than just get by but to help your community is something we all strive to do in small Maine communities. Maybe life is a little harder and we are a tad more self reliant rather than expecting others to help us carry the load. But that strain and daily stress is what keeps you in the real World game when real change comes along.
What if I lost my job, if health failed, a fire wiped everything out?
Taking precautions to minimize the chances of a total wipe out is part of the insurance. But living below your means so you have a little nest egg to carry you through should be part of the gig. Not expecting someone, anyone else or a government institution to swoop in and fix the problem helps empower you. To be more in charge of your destiny and quality of life.
I feel badly for folks jammed in a city setting that don’t live in Maine.
It must be hard watching life around you tighten up and lots of what you loved about where you live dry up and stall. But when social distancing is easier because we are populated 11 to a mile,
See The Circle Of Ice? Maine Winters Produce Lots Of It For Ice Fishing.
when what we do for fun is not heavily dollar based, life in rural Maine makes for a better back drop. Living simpler is easier when you are just grateful to have shelter, to live where you enjoy amazing sunrises, spectacular sunsets and it is lower cost to hang your hat in rural Maine.
COVID19 forces a person to seriously examine where I live and why.
Many are eyeballing Maine as the next stop. What you need out of life changes with or without a coronavirus or an edgy country sharply divided right down the middle. Where do I want to live and what can I do to improve my surroundings for me, my family, for others in the community? I believe you can do so much good in a small Maine community and the reward is great.
Many are making the transition to Maine for what we don’t have.
Traffic, crime, insincerity, pollution. For the long list of what we do that is not longer available in the city landscape or never was. Space, trails, hideaways below radar. When you see others step up to do more and a possess a strong consistent concern for others around you.
Pitching in and working collectively. That is one beautiful experience because no one person could pull it off without the combined community segments firing on all the cylinders behind the drive to do the right thing. Everyone on the same page creates no sour notes and their more harmonious major not minor chords.
How are you making out?
How’s life treating you? Figure you have it better than most? Is it like last call and the bright lights suddenly came on. The proprietor putting turned over chairs up on tables and making hand motions to propel you to the parking lot door? Muttering more than once “Last call”. Then “We don’t care where you go but you can not stay here”.
Maine has four seasons and all are enjoyed, all spend outdoors. Living in Maine, there is a sadness as one season passes but quickly we embrace the next. As you get older, time flies and life becomes shorter. The seasons too brisk and it is up to us to make time to fill each of them with outdoor traditions. Our pastimes in Maine are 90% outdoors where wildlife, natural resources are ready to enjoy without crowds of people to interfere with the experience. Looking for Maine, the way life should be?
Time to float or fly?
Where would you go if you did not live where you do now? Have you been thinking Maine makes sense for a part time, full time investment?
