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…)
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.
Fall in Maine means local Rotary auction fund raising time in my home town.
The local Houlton Rotary Club celebrates its 100th birthday this year. And leading up to Thanksgiving week, the local club members work hard behind the scenes. Preparing for the biggest fundraiser of the year, the fall rotary auction. It started out as radio only for the audience connection. Just tune in, bid high, stick around for all three nights of the Houlton Rotary radio auction.
Local Houlton Maine Rotary Auction Hi Low Bidding, Watson Hall On Main ST.
The first radio auction for Rotary started in 1956.
In time with technology advances, the auction became radio, television and Internet broadcasts options to play the game. There is even a Facebook auction off shoot of the Rotary auction to increase the reach and help the bottom line of fund raising for local projects.
Area businesses donate goods and services to list in the local supplement of auction items to bid on with something for everyone in the small community broadcast listening area.
Those items to use as the bait to bring in bids are a big part of the fund raising numbers. But lots of home made smaller items from folks out in the bidding audience are the cream to raise money.
People scan the supplement list of items hard and mark items to watch and bid on during the three day event. Happy meals from Mickey Dee’s for the kids in the early hours of bidding.
Toys and sport game, movie passes. Bigger three night special items that cost a little more for the older bidders who wear larger wallets. Many hunt down the home made hand knit real wool mittens. Some bid on the Ward log cabin kit and dream of where to put it on a Maine land listing.
Looking for Gladys Dow’s annual chocolate log. Joe Beasley’s cajun Louisiana style spiced jar of sauce. Bob Blanchette’s and Kaye McGinnis’s fudge listings in the local newspaper bid list of offerings advertising supplement.
Or bidding on a local grocery store gift certificate, a case of motor oil, home heating oil, a cord of wood. Something for everyone to bid on. Gift certificates, savings bonds from area banks, books, puzzles, games. Home made cribbage boards go high too.
Home made mittens, cords of firewood, pontoon boat rides around a local lake, an ultralight ride up and over your small Maine town and the countryside.
Checking Out The Merchandise On The Rotary Auction, Houlton ME.
Everyone contributes to the auction items to raise over $50,000 to pour into local Houlton Maine community projects. Ads from the advertising supplement, oil raffle tickets, and donations to on air causes like the local library, hospital, school.
These revenue streams all part of the gross income and after the expenses create the year’s net profit to divvy up among well deserving projects. Capital expenditures and not a million smaller operating budget contributions the focus.
To do something like an outdoor amphitheater project for the community band, Veteran’s day ceremonies, lots of other uses.
The track building of an engineered hill and garage on top for soap box derby racing. A school performing arts center or much needed medical equipment at a local hospital. All part of the fund raising proceeds placement in the local area.
Some local projects highlighted in the auction advertising supplement are this year’s one time recipients of funding. Other side hustles on air for added awareness and promotion to a list of on going worthwhile projects get attention too.
“Buy a boot, give a hoot”.
The local slogan for small pewter statutes cast 500 at a time to support local health care as our hospital. Bought in honor of a past away family member or a thousand dollars pledged to buy one to park on a fireplace mantel or on a shelve in your home. The money raised supports quality local health care that you or a family member may need.
Small Maine towns are more connected.
“Rotary Auction, What Item You Looking At, To Bid On Tonight?” The 70 Member Local Rotary Club Hard At Work Raising Money For Local Projects.
The circles we travel are smaller, tighter.
Working on the local service clubs events together helps you know your neighbor. It’s all highly important to the quality of life in these rural areas of Maine. If it was not the local individuals banding together to fund raise and brainstorming to identify the need, it would not get done. The moneys from local government are not there to pick up the bill. Hiring it done is not an option. Plus it would miss the home grown satisfaction that rolling up your sleeves and pitching in causes when the entire village participates.
The Rotary Auction is the week of Thanksgiving.
Past Members Of Rotary Who Helped Out On Many Auctions. Some Members Gone But Not Forgotten.
As college kids return to their home town with several bags of laundry for the traditional holiday break. The auction is an important social stop to catch up with classmates.
The school chums make sure to stop into to the live broadcast auction operation at Watson Hall on Main Street. The local broadcast lets everyone know who is home from college or back to visit from out of town. It’s like old home week and these college kids remember bidding on items growing up in the small town. Many that are local end up working the auction stations and filling the positions of the bid collecting to replace those volunteers that are lost to old age or relocation. We do both in person and ZOOM Rotary club meetings to play it safe and protect the community we love and cherish. This year’s 65th Rotary Radio Auction is November 21, 22. 23, 2020.
Who Won And What Item? Tabulating The Last Session Of The Three Nights Of Bidding On The Houlton ME Rotary Auction.
There was a time when the auction was at our local high school so we could broadcast it on local cable not yet wired into Watson Hall.
A lot of work to haul items to showcase on air the three blocks away from Main to Byrd Streets in Houlton Maine. And the haul the auction equipment and all that merchandise back after three nights of bid early, bid high, bid often.
Bids Called In, Coming Down The Conveyor Belt For Placement On The Tote Board. Neat System Changed This Year Due To COVID19 Response.
Christmas shopping done during the Rotary auction too. Everyone gets excited and in some form or another is part of what makes each year bigger and better than the last auction.
Because we are in Potato Country, in Aroostook County, the garden of Maine, spuds are a big part of the local Rotary auction.
Usually up top in each advertising segment, you will see four or five fifty pound bags of Burbank Russets, Yukon Gold, Superiors, Kennebec or Katahdins potato varieties. The spuds grown locally and donated by area Northern Maine potato farmers. There is a lot of eating in a fifty pound paper bag of Aroostook County potatoes. So many ways to serve them up and prepare the meal for tonight’s supper time ritual. I grew up on a Maine potato and grain club and did not eat a lot of rice as a kid. “Farm to table” was a habit before the catchy agri-tourism term was coined and spun into an “Eat Local” buzz phrase.
Woods, Potatoes, All In The Shadow Of Mt Katahin! Northern Maine Tourism Is Big. Welcome To A Sportman’s Paradise!
This year with social distancing, the inner workings of the 65th annual Houlton Rotary Auction will be different for safety sake.
Crowding around the TV, lap or desk top screen or radio broadcast will still happen out in the audience at home. But the rotary club members will have less handling of bids using the old pegger and sorters method of processing incoming auction bids. Instead, using banks of lap tops to input the bids. The ones received on the phone lines called in to hopefully win an item in this year’s auction bidding.
Here are a couple videos from past Rotary Auctions from our 70 member service club.
Thank you all local Houlton Maine Rotarians for your “service above self” the last 100 years. What does your local Rotary club do and are you a member?
This year’s 65th auction is dedicated to Michael A Clark who passed away this weekend.
Working For Winter Clothes, That Jacket, To Help Out Family Expenses. Kids Learn Work Ethic Early On In Small Town Rural Maine.
The auction this year is dedicated to Michael A. Clark. Mike was a life long cheerleader, ambassador to the town of Houlton Maine, the county seat for Aroostook County. He will be missed an
condolences to his family, his wife Debbie who is our club secretary.
Mike was a past district governor for Rotary International and truly displayed “Service Above Self”.
Playing the drums during summer evening concerts every Thursday night. Tinkling the piano keys too at local rotary events for the background atmosphere. His trailer for band member chairs for the outdoor concerts in Monument Park proudly stated “Houlton, Music Town Of Maine” with lists of Suzuki Strings, Show Choirs, Community Bands. He was right. This is one musical place.
Local ATV and snowmobile clubs work hard too raising money for building, maintaining trails.
Having local breakfasts and dinners to raise money to keep the trails smooth and groomed. This tourism rich local volunteer effort brings in money from out of towners using the trails to explore and discover Northern Maine.
Volunteering, working together for a common cause in Maine small town living.
RIP Michael Clark, Dedicated Local Rotarian, Past District Governor, Paul Harris Fellow.
Pitching in for the greater good. Kids grow up watching their parents, teachers, their neighbors all pitching in to do amazing things as a village. It all enhances our local quality of life in small town Maine. So many in local fish and game, Elks, Kiwanis, local school sports, music, drama, etc clubs raise the funds to make local programs possible that benefit the entire population. And all ages, many talented local folks step up to get involved for the common good.
Fall harvest is wrapping up, the Rotary Auction is heating up time around Southern Aroostook County.
Like all the four seasons, each is a busy time for small towns in Maine where the locals are active volunteering to collectively improve their communities. The local events like the Houlton Rotary Club Auction Thanksgiving week are all part of the traditions. The ones passed down where everyone in the local small towns have a hand. All are part of the pretty impressive volunteer work force. You get to know the folks around you better working on common causes too like the Rotary Auction held during Thanksgiving week for the last 65 years.
The explosion of leave color brilliant orange, red, yellow, brown and a zillion hues of green when the fall season rolls across Maine. Some years the leaf peak of mixed fall colors get robbed by high winds and the second bloom explosion never happens. Other fall seasons the crazy colors get to the peak detonate to achieve the pinnacle because winds do NOT huff and puff. Mother Nature controls the timing. Not you or I right?
Peak Fall Foliage Colors In Maine. The Maine.gov Site Says My Region’s Peak Is This Weekend!
In Maine, as one by one leaves slowly fall to the ground outside your front porch or tucked away inside a woods cabin.
Next year’s wood supply for the kitchen cook stove is processed in fall. The Fisher yellow plow is hooked back on the unregistered tired four wheel drive used for snow removal after a Maine snow storm. Canning and preserving happen in fall. Cider making all these apples in Maine is cranked out for healthy all natural drinks. We think of harvest, working for area farmers or getting the crop in on our own spreads. Whether large house gardens or rolling farm pasture fields, fall harvest and being outdoors energizes the soul. Getting prepared for the change of seasons as the days tick off living in Maine.
This year in Northern Maine, some hurricane weather map from the south did tail wind up in the belly of Vacationland.
Stripping some of the leaves before they could hit the high notes of fall colors. Prematurely pulled off the trees, these leaves of all colors line the dry countryside of Maine. The stream, brook and
Long Views, The Kind In Maine Where Conversation Stops, Jaws Drop.
river beds that lack water are now carpeted with fall leaves. Healing the scars and covering up the lack of water ravages due to the Maine drought of rain. Local Maine farmers are harvesting small yields. Worried about keeping what they do pull up and out of the ground safely packed away in storage bins. To draw from over the months ahead to pack, stack and head on down the pike to southern produce markets.
Growing food, making it farm to table is a noble Maine profession.
Fall is a busy time on a Maine fall farm acreage spread. You gotta eat. You and I are what we eat and knowing where the food came from is key. Grow your own takes away the mystery of how it was grown, where it is from and what it was treated with or not.
What You See In Outdoor Picnics In Maine. Wildlife, Pure And Natural Scenery.
This year, fall colors that are usually a big draw for vacation leaf peeking tourists is missing.
Their absence blamed on COVID19 hanging around in the background that derails the usual numbers faithfully flocking to Maine. But what about the leave colors? Let’s take a look at what the experts say about leaf color in Maine and all the variable. Does the dry fall in Maine weather conditions impact the foliage color intensity? A lot of how intense the colors are depends on what’s going on inside and around you in life.
Just Hanging Around, Tramped Up On A Wall Collecting Dust. But Not Able To Sneeze.
Maine is all about being pretty much living outdoors all four seasons.
And the impact of whatever fall leave colors we get up here in Maine can ebb and flow higher due to how’s life treating you. Fall is hunters on the prowl and wildlife a little antsy. Just like COVID19 has made folks a tad edgy, the Maine wildlife get tired of hide and go seek to stay alive. To avoid being moved to a chest type freezer and part of body hoisted high and placed on a wall as a trophy reminder of the fall hunt up in Maine. Have you been to Maine to sneak a peak and play the hunting game of hide and seek chasing game birds, white tail deer, black bear and maybe a picked by lottery game of chance Maine moose?
Heading North, Hitting The ITS Trails In Maine.
I think the high notes of bright red and high voltage yellows are missing in fall foliage this year.
The lack of moisture did not crank up the color wheel brightness and lack of moisture is not the only variants. Temperatures can play a hand in what fall leave colors get rolled and displayed too.
Chilly evenings, cool mornings are part of the leave color recipe.
As we warm our hands and heart by open fire pits. We start thinking of winter snowmobile trails, getting on a sled and riding to places you can not get to by car. Where a blanket of new white snow is the roadway and carefully groomed to ease the in and out to access the wonders of Maine not everyone gets to experience.
The Maine forest is inhabited by lots of tree species. Each type of tree around us in Maine has its own sheet music to follow when fall happens. Yellow and orange that dominate the color scheme are the instrument of certain tree types.
The scarlet and variations of green hues are the product of other timber variety out in the Maine woods.
And it is not just trees that Jack Frost uses to change up the color scheme of nature’s surroundings up here in Maine. Bushes chime in with adapted colors as their contribution to the rich fall colors in Maine. We can all agree that fall foliage is dependent on chemistry to happen. Day length and temperatures are a big catalyst for Maine’s fall leave colors. These two factors provide the memo to trees to get ready for winter. To back off the summer food making and shift it up.
The View From Peekaboo Mountain’s Fire Tower. Welcome To The Harvest Colors Of Maine!
Stop the production of green chlorophyll and prepare for snow fall and let go of your leaves boys and girls.
The chemicals carotenoids and anthocysnins roll in to rush to the tips of all the tree limbs that cause the red, orange, yellows and maroon color shades. The sky color can impact what you get for the fall leave foliage experience too. Just like wind can strip trees of leaves to display colors of any kind, the cobalt blue or meh gray and dirty white shades of the sky create the help or hurt canvas of fall leave display intensity.
I’ll tell you one other variable in fall colors in Maine is the display around the Maine waterfront.
Take a smooth as glass ripple free lake to reflect whatever fall colors you do get. That mirror adds to the fall leave color dimension and spreads the colors in a natural amplification.Warm weather temperatures across Maine impacted our fall leave colors this year. The warmer than normal degree readings and lack of dips into cold sections of the thermometer early and late in the day made for more plain jane fall colors. Or the coronovirus impacting everyone’s life could be part of the problem.
The Vivid, Exciting Colors Of Maine Fall Leaves! Head To The Woods, Experience Fall In Maine Where Social Distancing Is A Snap To Maintain.
Mainer’s are wondering about how do you safely socially distance trick or treat in the approaching Halloween ahead?
Worried if school and sporting schedules will hold and continue. It all depends on the virus spiking or not in rural small town Maine where we seem to have more of a fighting survival chance. Cheers (clinking cold mugs of freshly pressed apple cider and pumpkin flavored local micro brews) Maine is wonderful any season for any reason. Those that work virtually and remote online up in Maine are happy about the continued warm temperatures. But also thinking ahead and wondering how winter will treat them as they hunker down and telecommute up here in Vacationland.
Fall foliage colors in Maine.
Thank you for stopping by the Me In Maine blog post today! Where to visit, when to come to Maine for the peak leave colors. What does history say on the peak colors of fall in Maine trend? It is indicating this weekend is peak leave color time for Northern Maine’s section seven. Check the link for more on the leave colors of fall foliage in Maine.
Getting space, away from people part of the Maine attraction. Less people can remove many problems, cure a lot of ills.
Maine is a state that is vast, sparsely population except for a handful of city population centers. Long before COVID19 entered your life, Maine was a favorite retreat and why “Vacationland” is stamped on the bottom of all our vehicle license plates. The fun is slow cooked, home grown and involves the entire Maine small town community.
Summer Concerts, Small Maine Town Music Events Always Well Attended.
Lots of Maine land, cheaply priced and no neighbors please.
That request heard a from many. Part of it is I want space and elbow room around me that sadly has been missing for way too long. And no neighbors but great Internet connections. In the past, the folks heading to Maine lament most of their problems in life have involved other people. If they could just get away from living so tightly together, life would be grand. Set me up with a small piece of Maine land for starters. Used on vacations and then leading to more for many put in the wild blue yonder audience.
If the Maine land borders some water frontage or a big view all the better.
Tack on a view and now you’re talking Mister Man. Many ask about how it works, the seller involved Maine land owner financing . That causes the conversation to lead to soil testing Maine land. What about building permits in whatever small Maine town the land is located?
Space, On Land, On The Water In Maine. Folks Crave It In Vacationland Now More Than Ever Thanks To COVID19 Enter The Crowded Spinning Planet.
In my day job as a Maine REALTOR I meet lots of interesting people.
One fellow buying land in Hersey Maine a submariner from Holland. Who during the World War II he was part of the 26 submarine fleet flying the waterproof Dutch flag. Until the Germans took over and he and his boat crew, the entire naval fleet was told where to report to an English base for training and re-fueling measures. While his country’s government went into exile until after the war ended. My dad was a B-24 tail gunner at war high up in the air against the same enemy as Andy Spyker who found the battle underwater in a U-boat style vessel. Who grew up in Holland but in a round about way ended up in Northern Maine.
Everyone In The World War II. One Dutch Submariner Exiled From Holland Ended Up Moving To Maine.
This Maine land buyer wanted a low population down, to stretch his budget with lots of acreage for little money.
He built a modest home and enjoyed peace and quiet and sharing it with no neighbors. He like a lot of others started out buying Maine land. Using it more and more as something is built on it and added to slowly and using their own two hands. Great satisfaction comes from those endeavors where you are actively involved with the A to Z process and guide the process to “have it your way”.
Another couple buying property in Maine flew their four cats in to Vacationland on board a private chartered jet.
Checking Out Maine Real Estate, Not Being Done Just On Line.
The sleek silver twin engine bird set down at Houlton International Airport for the night. Released the cargo to my care until the owners could get here with the rest of their belonging. The couple did not want their cats to fly coach. This private jet flight that cost $15,000 to fly to Maine from the Northwest corner of the country was a drop in the bucket. The large country home with land bought in a town of 100 people six miles tall and six miles wide was purchased by selling so many shares of tech stocks.
When you live long enough in a rural area, you forget there is lots of money in other places.
Growing up in a small rural Maine town teaches you to be resourceful and develop your DIY skills. To remove money from the equation that you get used to not relying on to survive. To enjoy wherever you feel very fortunate to live in Maine. I met a lot of incredible local characters in the small Maine towns I list and sell in around Vacationland.
Many are related, some have a red addition, collect a certain brand of antique farm tractors.
Why they live in Maine.
Others relocated from high pressure jobs and tired of hobnobbing with the jet set. They decide had another stress, missed out on many things that the climb up the career ladder caused that they now regret. Making up for lost time is part of the move to Maine. To live and enjoy not race through life that we all know is too short. Or the plan all along was to move to the urban area, do your time and break free. Move back to Maine with a whole new perspective.
Moving To Maine, COVID19 Causing Online Remote Job Workers To Bring Their Remote Jobs With Them To Maine.
Now with COVID19 in the picture, working from home in the move to Maine means gotta have strong Internet broad band connection and speeds.
This work online remotely group of Maine real estate buyers will help stop the census numbers bleeding. The loss of folks that no longer find jobs so plentiful in the agriculture and timber industries and forced to leave Maine looking for employment. COVID19 will help stabilize the Maine population drain is the trend I am seeing in the real estate market numbers.
Listed and sold a Maine home recently to a buyer who met his wife in Argentina.
He was from Australia and the two relocated from Nashville Tennessee. Big World made smaller thanks to the Internet used to attract the couple to a small Maine town way of life. And because the same Internet allows the couple to bring their online remote jobs with them. Getting a safe, lower cost friendly way of living in small town Maine while enjoying a healthy income that stretches a lot further. So many lines on the people moving to Maine list of reasons.
More Bang For Your Buck. Know What This Maine Victorian Home Would Cost Anywhere Else? Too Much To Buy But Not In Rural Maine.
To someone living here all their life, there is deep unshakeable gratitude for being here in Maine.
But comparing small town values and our way of life to somewhere not so friendly or healthy really shows a person the sharp contrast. People caring about each other, stepping up to volunteer for the greater good collectively. Not so commonplace in other parts. Just not happening where eye contact is avoids as you grip your wallet hard. Where life is cheap, not so valuable to someone with a knife or gun.
Places over populated and you are lost in a sea of faces in the shoulder to shoulder crowd.
Where you are always living with a little fear and a lot of caution to avoid putting yourself in a box canyon. That’s not living even if it is the norm in many places where 8 our of 10 people call a city home. Moving to Maine up the I-95 pike is happening and small nooks and crannies in Maine are being discovered on the hunt for space and safety and a better way of life.
More Less, Less Price Tag. Rural Maine Real Estate Values Are Attractive, So Tempting Especially During COVID19 Lifestyle Adjustments Everyone Is Making.
COVID19 has just added more to like about Maine beyond the low numbers of folks contracting the virus.
Socially distant is easier when you are one of the lucky ones living in Maine. We lived social distance before it was cool. Were country before that lifestyle took off and they changed C&W music to the Americana label. The lake properties in Maine that were used as camps for out of state vacationers are being eyed for much more too. The owners already had a test run taste of what living in Maine on vacation was like. Now turning the camp into a full time lake home that has spurred the local economy as local carpenters, plumbers, electricians who are working around the clock.
Planes and cruise ships might be idle. But the local small town Maine community economies are booming.
The Internet connections around the Maine lakes and many communities are taxed to the max to capacity in the place dubbed Vacationland. More space but laced with Internet connections make rural Maine suddenly the belle of the ball attractive.
Taking The Snow Sled To The Ice Fishing Shack. Spending The Day Outside In Maine No Matter Which Season! Space, Wall To Wall Wide Open Space Just The Norm All Around You In Maine.
It’s like the smaller transport shuttle is being reworked to replace the bigger Star Ship Enterprise.
Rethinking what is the most important in life. Some hard life living decisions are being put into action. The less is more minimalist movement already started quite nicely before given the big nudge by the Coronovirus entered the picture. Getting away from people makes Maine a perfect fit for many. Technology, distance learning, working online remotely from Maine all made the transition to rural small towns easy if they are. Knowing where your food comes from and what it was or was not sprayed with before arriving. Another reason to grow your own, a better way to rock and roll is being discussed.
Folks already longed for the simpler way of life but working from home in a city helped train them turning the corner faster. To take the appropriate steps to warp to Maine and change everything up big time. Trading in big city lights, all the traffic and horrendous nightly crime news accounts that numb a person and desensitize. The Maine fresh air, clear water and all this wide open space is like someone freed a cage two legged animal. “Why did I wait so long?” is another question I hear muttered by many buying land, moving to Maine.
Maine, Forget The High Powered Rifle And Shoot The Wildlife, Nature With A Camera. Climb Recently Up Mt Katahdin, Maine’s Highest Mountain.
Getting away from people moving to Maine is part of it mask or not.
But then joining forces with the locals to become very involved in the community is a big part of the reverse exodus from city to rural living in Maine.
Small towns in Maine, better coronavirus recovery chances.
Social distancing is easier in small towns in Maine because let’s face it. Just less people populated vast and sparsely inhabited Maine. Too many people that crowd together and no where to go is COVID19’s best scenario. It’s why cities are hardest hit and can not handle the high virus cases. Too many people makes it like living in a giant petri dish in populated areas. Maine is vast, uncrowded, more wildlife than people.
Can I Have A Little Privacy Please? I’m Bathing!
But survival, starting with meeting your basic needs and moving out from there.
Keep it simple living in small town Maine is already in place. Not wall to wall people to tip toe around or avoid. To begin with, living high on the hog and complicated or expensive lifestyles is not small town Maine. It is not regressive to strive for a cottage or farmstead existence but enriching and highly rewarding.
More People In Cities Make Social Distancing During COVID19 Harder.
Your kids benefit too from more chores and no other choice but pitching in to be a vital part of the family.
Learning new skills and responsibilities over just camp out on the couch. And then veg out on a device to deal with boredom of just not enough to do for the rest of the day and night.
What coronavirus does show in small towns in Maine is how much we all care about each other.
Because of the strong connection of small town Maine living, your concerns are much more on the local level.
We watch the news World wide and collected off the small towns in Maine local grapevine.
Feel badly for heavily hit coronavirus population centers and makes all of us sick to our stomachs, helpless for them.
But we spring into action and reach out to help those locally who we do know and care about daily. To help make a difference in their lives.
The disabled, elderly members of the small Maine town community are on our minds daily.
Meals on wheels providers check in to add the social interaction at a safe protected distance. The phone calls to see what they need and pitching it up for them at the local grocery store outlets happens. You would be surprised what happens behind the scenes in small towns in Maine with or without a COVID19 pandemic case swell.
I think the coronavirus reminds us of how lucky we really are living in small towns around Maine. Yes we struggle for economic independence and fight something fierce to protect local jobs. Keeping the money spent locally and turning over six to seven times is a beautiful thing. But when the small town provider of goods or services does not have enough volume to stay out of the red ink. Or there is not local provider and you are forced to go online if no other options exist in the region out of your small Maine town.
There is the challenge to retool and reinvent in the small Maine town’s economy.
Opportunities are opening up as small town Maine living is seen as a very viable option. Safe, easier to social distance and getting back to basics. First, everything that you need and then easy does it moving on to what you think you need. As people’s standard of living increases, their spending habits and the more more more gotta have this and that complicated their lives. Creating the need for even more of something they may or may not have really needed. When the money to fuel the complicated living dries up or gets interrupted, there’s the rub.
Farms, Horses, Barns In Maine. They Go Together For The Simple Rural Lifestyle.
Only in times like a coronavirus or an economic downturn is the necessary change going to happen because you have no other choice.
Can not continue on the same expensive course and that’s where what about if we relocated, moved to Maine thoughts intensify in the brain. Native local Mainers are masters at creative work arounds when bumps in the roadway of life show up and they do. A lot. Lessons learned from mistakes or coping with hardships early in life benefit the rest of how things play out in a Mainer’s life. Has COVID19 caused you to consider what if you lived in a small town in Maine?
A person’s opinion of small town living changes 180 degrees when instead of itching to leave, you long to return.
If you were raised in a small Maine town, you know what it is like. What is taken for granted and missing in a populated area living where you lose the small town living approach.
Have an oldest daughter, her husband, new grandson living in a “pod” next door on a Maine lake. I get her perspective on what living in Boston was like during the early stages and now during the coronavirus. Small town and city living are also part of the contrast because by nature just the number of people in an area dictates the way things are gonna roll or not.
Crossing The Big Green Bridge From Maine To The Rest Of New England.
What you need and what you want and the price you pay for anything in time, money, sacrifice.
In my job I hear the statement a lot. “Something is missing in my life”. Which could mean something is lacking in my life at this point. Maybe what you needed before you started a family is causing the hole of what’s missing for your kids. In a small Maine town, the village raises the kids, not just Mom and Dad.
Or the “been there, done that” could be I chased the American dollar and achieved an income to support this lifestyle that was too high a price to pay. Or took away time I should have been living life gleaning small pleasures and not the pie in the sky high life. What do you need in your life? You know the answer if you can stop and catch your breath long enough to reflect and ponder. Not what marketing says you need and can not live without.
Living your own life starts by not being so concerned how others live theirs. Social media look at me is not always accurate and who has time to live their life externally through others anyway ? Small town living in Maine, the way life should be.
All I know is small town country living creates the stage for everything you need. The real foundation and nothing artificial. As I hunt and peck this blog post this Sunday morning, I look out over a bottle like surface Maine lake. My daughter and I will enjoy a freshly ground coffee bean cup of Joe in a few minutes. Talking about the new grandson.
A pair of boys just cruised by with fishing rods and checking out the best deepest spots for angling for fish this morning. Six lake loons are about 200 feet off shore and circling, cooing, socializing closer than six feet spacing. It is sunny, comfortable, not hot and muggy. I feel lucky to live in Maine not where there are so many people to motor or walk around or any crime to worry about round the clock.
Living In Small Maine Towns.You See More Nature, Less People, Have The Space Needed For COVID19 Social Distancing.
The walk to the lake landing happens after sampling a hot coffee, some sliced mangos, two banana packages.
Along the way a stop to talk from one ditch to the other on Chickadee Lane. The couple live full time four lake lots down and the wife was my oldest daughter’s first grade teacher. We share where all the kids of each family are and what the grandchild count is up to now.
After the stop, we trudge on and it is learned Mrs. Austin thirty plus years ago was one of my daughter’s favorite teachers.
I ask why and she recalls her honor reward system. There was money involved, the fake in school kind. A store set up with items to purchase with the “money” earned for good behavior, academic excellence or just staying caught up with school work. Small towns in Maine educators have lots of common sense and make sure the students
My daughter remembers buying a book with her reward money and it was a book written from the big bad wolf’s perspective in the Little Red Riding Hood classic with a twist.
Mrs. Austin also let the classroom kids raise ducklings. Two of them when the school year was ending for summer break were relocated to her Grandfather’s farm out on US RT 2. A farm pond introduction ceremony was a big deal.
The Little Red Log Lake Camp Next Door In Maine. Ideal For Social Distancing During COVID19 Pandemic.
The two ducks, Chocolate and Butterscotch seemed happy paddling around the pond.
Then disappeared. We hope to more private surroundings away from US RT 2. But the fear the pair became a fox’s chicken dinner is hard to shake when you are a first grade school girl growing up in a small Maine town.
What’s All The Buzz? Eye Candy And Bee Honey Extraction In Nova Scotia Canada Cross Border Trip.
The walk resumes, the distinctive patented sound of a motorcycle chugging along becomes louder. The rider in leather slows, raises his left hand and smiles. It’s Jimmy Ritchie who lives up the lake. He and Lou Ann his wife used to live across from my parent’s Maine farm and were close to mom and dad. Helping them with new born Durham baby calf births during the coldest days of the year. Naming them, feeding them and part of the small population surrounding us in Northern Maine.
Living in Northern Maine means the perk of being close to Canada.
No, it is not dangerous being this close to New Brunswick or Quebec Canada. Taking trips to Atlantic Canada are common to PEI and Halifax, Nova Scotia for example when the International boundary opens up again. Maine residents are related to our Canadian neighbors and both sides feel lucky the other is there for cross border travel. The dollar and loonie difference helps the trade too.
It is cheaper to live in small towns in Maine in many ways beyond the just price of real estate.
And if you learn the joy of raising some or most of your own food. If you heat with wood or twist the dial when oil prices are low to the ground and stay frugal. Maine can be a wonderful backdrop for your life. Living careful rewarding lives communing with nature that is everywhere you look. Awareness increases, protection of the environment around us becomes more important and that good stewardship attitude is passed down to the next generation. The Maine real estate prices are cheaper and you can own not mortgage your low cost properties.
Sheltering In Place, Small Towns In Maine And Country Settings Are Ideal For Sheltering In Place. To Increase Your COVID19 Avoidance Chances.
Cities are great because they have lots of people to support many endeavors.
More variety of food, sports, entertainment… the paid for kind. That’s why native full time Mainers love to head down to Bean Town for a Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics game or theater show, music concert, etc. But can not wait to cross back over the big green bridge on the southern end of Maine. Our locals can create lots of home grown food, fun and social distant fellowship.
More second homes than any other state … (ripping envelope opens sound) Survey says “Maine”.
That’s Maine. And lots of those cottage owners on a Maine lake are tooling up with insulation, Internet connections and make the slide from city to waterfront vacation cottage. Telecommuting from a Maine lake instead of the city setting is underway with a fire in their belly. Thanks for reading our small towns in Maine blog post highlighting better coronavirus survival chances. Lots of activity from folks jammed in a city trying to trade it all in for a safe spaced place like Maine.
