Category: Living in a Small Maine Town

Minimalist Living In Maine

Minimalist living in Maine.

Happy And Content Because You Live In Maine. That’s More Than Enough!

This blog post about how Maine is ideally suited to a minimalist in search of a setting to practice this approach to living well.

Where you decide to set up shop for minimalist living is huge. Maine is already ideally suited for simple living. But for this blog post on minimalist living in Maine, we need a foundation to build on. For starters you and I need to make sure we are on the same page on the term “minimalist”. I looked it up for the two of us and here what I found.

Minimalist.

Noun

1) a person who advocated or practices minimalism in art of music

2) a person advocating minor or moderate reform in politics.

Adjective

1) relating to minimalism in art or music.

2) advocating moderate political policies.

That sure helps doesn’t it? Not.

I never thought of minimalism as mostly applied to music, politics.

Instead I thought of it as being highly efficient. Frugal, wasting little and running a tight ship with little slack. Living below your means, keeping your perspective always “keep it simple” without the stupid tacked on. De-cluttering and not juggling too many irons in the fire that creates stress and robs joy. That’s part of the reduce, reuse, repeat practically life template to build on daily. And mentally to avoid “stinking thinking”. Teaching those around you that positive is the only way to sail your ship.

This is a blog post on minimalist living in Maine, should it be shorter than most too to show conservation?

De-cluttered and not long and windy or showy? Short and sweet and complete. All the electrons used to craft this Maine blog post were recycled and no trees harmed to create it.

Meet Your Neighbors In Rural Small Town Maine. Kinda Shy, Have Four Legs, Not Chatty Cathy’s Or Obnoxious.

Living with only what you need is one definition of a minimalist lifestyle.

Like going on a diet if you are used to adding more and more that interferes with the what is really important to your quality of life. “Easy does it” advice for someone used to no limits and binge drinking. A suggestion to rein it in and think long and hard about everything you do, buy, how you live.

Living simply the life decision.

Not adding something new without pulling back in some other area to make room for it. Buying more is not the go to approach to a true minimalist. Accumulate more is not the pathway to the relationship happiness experience. You don’t buy it, you build it. The contrast like fast food wolfed down vs slow cooked and savored. Keep it simple. Making it minimal, limited is going throw a wrench into things for the person with the galloping gimmees. Seeking anything new that is guaranteed to improve your happiness (for a short time). Is the piling it on and adding more and more to fill a hole? Is it like applying a band aid to a gunshot wound? Self medication to compensate for something missing like so much we do in desperation?

Roll Your Own, Raise What You And Your Livestock Eat. That’s Maine Simple Living Farm To Table.

Like most things in life style approaches, it’s a buffet style choice.

Little of this, a lot of that and no thank you helpings of many other samplings. As you push the tray along the bar to create what’s up next for the meal ahead. Eating the wrong stuff, not even hungry or the food so so satisfying. But something to do to fill the time. All the modern conveniences have freed us up in some ways only to add more idle time activities to seek fulfillment using the wrong methods.

Minimalist living, when it is a healthy decision and not a sentence.

It helps when someone overwhelmed with no end in sight develops a plan for their own survival and health. When something has to give. The search for improved quality of life starts with what is important and should it be in the short and long run. Your kids are watching and learning from you so why living with more than you need is the goal? To impress someone? To show everyone the fruits of your labor and acting as a measurement? If you were poor as a church mouse growing up and many rubbed your nose in it, climbing out of poverty becomes life and death important. But sometimes for the wrong reasons and to enjoy dishing it out to blanket the pain from receiving the ridicule or shame.

Our Waterfront Friends Entertain For Free. The Kids Part Of The Family Act That Float By During Evening Pan Handling For Bread.

Rich is not bought with money. Gratitude is riches that is mined in your thoughts.

Being happy with what you have that is more than enough. Right thinking and being frugal, practical and in balance. Taking care of things so they don’t need constant replacement. Respecting others and their opinions to maintain healthy relationships. To learn something from the exchange of new ideas that keep you and I from being outdated or stagnant. That will help build a joyful savings account to draw from and for peaceful inner contentment. Happy starts and ends with removal of fear and worry. High anxiety levels do not improve the quality of the air in your surroundings. It robs and distracts and keeps you from your passionate best performance. Watching others and being a copy cat is not writing your own sheet music and performing your own tunes.

Can I Have A Little Privacy Please? I’m Saturday Night Bathing!

Minimalist living, getting centered to apply a simple template to how you begin and end your day.

Experiences more than world possessions is the biggest shift. Replacing hap hazard spending and living seat of the pants with no plan for a systematic approach to squeeze out more rich experiences. Frugal travel, vacationing instate and camping. The less you spend, the more you get from the experience thinking. Because you can take more trips if done on a careful budget. Not worried about how much this five star accommodations set you back that you could not really afford.

It’s easier to budget when you have less expenses. But minimalist living is not a fad.

Not going to work if you feel deprived like a diet without dessert or second helpings of what you love to eat. Minimalist living is more than economizing and reducing the stuff you pack up and move around in your travels. It is clearing the deck to create time and space for something you never tried or thought could enrich your life. If you had no money or very little, practicing minimalist living would be easier. Not many other options to side track you.

Funding over spending means more work than play hours for most.

Reaching for the credit card constantly and watching the monthly balances spike skyward. Hiring out things you could do yourself if you had the time and putting in a little study is highly rewarding. Makes you independent, more skilled, less tied to others to perform tasks you could do yourself if you just had the time. Too little time. The only way to make more time is to manage what you have better. To take an eagle eye at how you spend your time now and what could be different with some rearranging.

Simple Maine Fun, Collecting Lighthouses. Over 60 To Capture And Experience. Return Visits Enrich The Experience Like Reconnecting With An Old Friend.

McMansions, the place with more bathrooms than bedrooms.

Why would you need six bathrooms for a three bedroom home? Are there double bunk beds and several pull down murphy beds in those bedrooms to increase the capacity? Did the home owners all grow up in houses without running water and trotted in any weather or season to an outhouse out back? And now more bathrooms is a back lash recoil to make up for lack of plumbing earlier in life? Is it because of highly effective marketing by Kohler and other makers of all those toilets, vanities, showers and tubs manufacturers? Is it look at me, I am a success based on my home’s bathroom count? One more example of I have more than you and don’t you forget it?

The corporate ladder climb and stripes earned as you head north in your career. That focus makes what you should be investing time in a little blurry.

The price of career success in your upward advancement and what it robs. Is this life pursuit healthy in the present day or long run?

What does it do to a person, their family, relationships with kids and your partner and the bottom line sum of life experiences? Have we been taught as a society that money fixes everything? Throw enough green stuff or swipe that credit card magnetic strip more times and everything will be just fine. A video on minimalist.

All the right junk in all the right places.

From a song about being well proportioned and pleasant on the eyes. Like the Brick House song from the Commodores. But a three car or more garage, needed to warehouse the junk. Really? A true minimalist says if you have not used a possession in 90 days, you don’t need it. Non-essential and needs to be deep sixed. Because it’s dragging you down man. But what about Christmas decorations? Leave them up to enjoy and don’t take them down? If you live in a tiny home, you limit the space and it’s like packing for the trip to the moon. Only so much will fit and priority of what is needed to stay alive not just entertained becomes important in the family tin can space capsule.

Maine is ideal for minimalist living.

We already practice minimalist living and know what “green” meant for a lifestyle before people started hash tagging it. Being good stewards, protecting Mother Earth and carry in, carry out to leave a small or better yet no footprint. Mainers are all over that approach to protecting this neat vast, sparsely populated state. Natural resource rich Maine, where we had less of a time adjusting to “social distancing” than most during the COVID19 pandemic. With all this drop dead gorgeous pure and natural beauty around us, how can you not help but feel very fortunate? Less concerned about what material objects you don’t own or need. More grateful to be in a place like Maine that is the way life should be with fresh air, clean water and not a gazillion people to share or deal with that get in the way.

Out For a Drive, A Log Truck Slows The Ride.

Living in a small cabin off grid is not the same as owning a 1000 square foot ranch or living in a farmstead with power and all the creature comforts.

But Mainers are happy with what they have. Industrious too in improving their lot in life without waiting for someone else to make the changes for them. We don’t point fingers or blame and instead make the most with what we have that is always more than enough. Make it work, adjusting our attitudes and patience all taught early on as life survival skills. When it’s a lot cheaper to live here, that helps too. You worry less about being up against it or making ends meet when the dollar bill stretches further.

Less income but no debt.

The rural way of living in small town Maine communities prepares you with a ceiling, a boundary, financial limits. Free and clear the goal. When fun is no or low cost and we are already in Vacationland, that does not hurt minimalist living experience. Clutter, debt, no plan is not the norm in rural Maine. Way more resourceful than that to stay clear of what can pull your under or steal your joy in Maine.

Maine Lobster, We Get It Fresh Off The Boat At The Dock. No Waiting, No Jacked Up Middle Men Prices.

Is fast food part of the consumption problem?

For just one more buck you can have score pies. You and I can super size and heft an even larger large soft drink we don’t need and can barely carry. To guzzle and wash down the happy meal. Who needs a refill and more waste thrown in the trash of unused food or drink and colorful packaging. In third world countries, give a kid a happy meal toy and they carefully open the plastic wrapper. Play longer, slide it back into the original container and put it up on a shelf for safe keeping. Learned that observation from an adoption agency that works worldwide. When you have less you appreciate more what you do have. I get it, can cherry pick lots of the platform plank talking points on why lean toward a minimalist approach to simple living.

If you have what you need and that is more than enough.

You spend less time on the prowl, hunting for more. I’m good, all set happens. That is living life in moderation. But when life is upside down and out of control like someone shoved you out of a plane and no parachute strapped to your back. Something has to give and will with or without your help. It is way harder to rein in how you live and add discipline when bloated happens. The young grasshopper without pockets of money to fuel the excess. Those folks are better off because ramping up the gotta have everything going is just not going to happen with the financial cards you hold that won’t support it. But are they left with discontent because they can’t shop til you drop and not just at Christmas but year round? And see lots of others around them spending like drunken sailors that leads to lamenting on why can’t I do the same? Dare to be different. Try something 180 degree and glean what you can to shake up your life.

Making Music, Your Friends, Family And Neighbors Play The Tunes!

You can not get enough of what you don’t really want.

The mad dash to have it all and then some of life’s goodies. You are not happy for long but on the hunt for something always missing. Good enough never is. What is content? The kind not temporary or contingent upon having more to maintain that peaceful easy feeling. Not sure why all this stuff is so important but keep shoveling it in, bring it all your way please. Don’t stop, can’t stop. Not just bigger is better but more is the goal. Of EVERYTHING and let’s rent enough storage units to tuck it away for years. The kids can sort through it and might find some of the gadgets useful or decide to slide it into a garage sale.

Doing more with less living space, could you be happy with 420 S/F and one space saver bathroom, a galley kitchen and no wasted hall space?

Move the walls, no halls. Live with one open living area that has lots of sunshine. Deciding to dress accordingly for the season, to head outside for most of your living space. Out in your close knit rural Maine community volunteering. pitching in for the greater good. Not hiding out in home. Have lots of cheap Maine land to build a minimalist house to fit your budget and provide the perfect container to practice the less is more.

Don’t you lose family members in McMansions?

Is GPS needed to find one of the many paths to the kitchen for breakfast? When was the last time you used a formal dining room or exercise area? Places for purposes that never get occupied like lots of bathrooms to clean but never use. In Maine, we don’t feel like one of the biggest purposes in life is to burn cash. We are fulfilled by how we live and where we spend our life even keel and considerately simpler. Putting family, community and nature experiences on the top of the list, not shelf item stuff.

Maine Simple. Not Used, So Park It For The Winter Practical.

Minimalist living goes against mass consumption and highly effective marketing planting the seed you need this NOW.

It does not play well with a big part of your day put into achieving and maintaining status. The recipe for happiness should be you are healthy, you enjoy the little things like a sunrise or sunset. Everything in between too because you have an attitude of gratitude. Full of joy and not needing anything else that is missing in large supply.

I had a lake cottage owned by a hoarder who wanted to know what the value was. I could size up the outside and the waterfront lot.

But no space to tour the inside. Wall to wall and floor to ceiling stuffed to the gills. His red Buick station wagon almost eye level with paper of all kinds. The car slowly groaned and moaned as it inched around my small Maine town. Under a heavy strain and overloaded. Like a four wheel rolling paper dumpster with lots of ballast. Too much paper is not thrifty or frugal or minimalist living in Maine. It’s another subject for a future Maine blog post.

Cool Off On The Waterfront In Maine!

They say depression children raised during a time when there was not much to eat or for work were forged into survival mode.

Throw nothing away, not because you wanted to impress anyone with all you possess. But because you might need this and that down the road and had no money to go out and pick it off the shelf.

Wearing blinders and so caught up in the American culture that you forget what life should look like.

Replacing it with an imagined life, how things would be if you could just own one or more of something. Like a security blanket that eases a fear. Worried about running out, what if you could not have anything you suddenly thought you needed. The shift is to building more meaningful relationship, to strengthen the connection to other humans, our belongings, the housing space we call home.

Useful, solid, simple things that work and are timeless are opted for over trending cheaply mass produced disposable junk.

Functional, solid and not just pretty to the eye is what filters our purchasing choices. There is impulse control in whatever we do buy and plenty of thought put into what we research and then decide on as best for us.

Minimalist living in Maine.

Getting rid of the antsy feeling waiting for stuff living pay check to pay check. On the hunt and looking, needing for better. Never happy with what you do have and wanting something different. The endless search for what ever is missing or not giving you comfort. How can you be so happy as a minimalist is you are alone with so little many would wonder. Why would you deprive yourself of the temporary joy of something new just delivered by the Fed Ex or UPS delivery carrier? Minimalist living in Maine, it’s not restrictive but viewed as disciplined and common sense when money does not grow on trees. And when what’s important is the beautiful surroundings you share with your family, friends, small well connected communities in Maine.

Maine! Fishing, Listening To The Water, Having A Lunch Next To A Stream.

In Maine, we use our open porches.

Go up to camp for some simple living and friendly conversation or alone time. We commune with nature. The great outdoors and wildlife teach us much and provide valuable perspective on what is important and why. We don’t need more options, more stuff, a better way of life funded by product makers or service providers. What is missing is what the marketing seed planted makes us think is lacking and highly needed. Minimalist living, less is more is what helps reset everything to the original factory settings to begin again. To establish an equilibrium and balance. We don’t build in rooms or features we won’t use. Functional is highly sought after to simply and improve our daily tasks and the toil of living. The work life balance living in Maine, the natives learn how to handle the two best.

Our boredom, anticipation, rumination and worry is too much free time to spend in expensive ways that benefit others, not us.

We are sheep told what we need. How we should feel. Is that part of how this all happens? Keep it simple, back to basics. Somehow considered square and old school out dated Daddio? Too little void to fill with calm is what happens when you are shopping online into the early morning hours and scanning catalogs for something you don’t have but know you really need. That you can post on Facebook and other social media channels to gloat or seeking approval from the “look what I have that you don’t”. Minimalist living in Maine. There are lots of perks relocating, moving to a small town in Maine.

Has technology advancing leaps and bounds caused the try to keep up collecting the latest greatest?

Chasing new models that promise to out perform the last one you purchased. That hurry scurry spending may help the economy but not the minimalist way of living simple without constant change. Look around your junk drawers and attic storage or closets and what do you see? An electronic graveyard of cords, devices, outdated and antique E waste.

Fresh Watered Maine Wildflowers. The Natural Beauty Of What’s Around Us Enjoyed Daily! We Take Time To Literally Smell The Flowers.

Much of what we buy was because the previous purchase was cheap and wore out.

Or could not keep up and replaced in a throw away society. Minimalist living in Maine or anywhere. Often the older radio. televisions and appliances were made to last and did but technology not a break down caused it shut down and parked. Get out of the way for something new designed to make our life easier and to free up time. Time to think about what else we need to carve our a quality of life.

Minimalist living, do you do it and why?

How come you do not and what have you learned from previous attempts? Thank you for following our Me In Maine blog posts. This one about minimalist living in Maine, one fine state to keep it simple and enjoy what is really important.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

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

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June 12, 2020
Marbles In Maine

Marbles in Maine, the glass ones started showing up in the 1890’s.

But marbles made of well, marble… and alabaster around two hundred years before that. Winning, losing, coming out even in marble games is no new trending fad. Marble games played since the 13th century. That’s all long long before Maine became a state. Marbles made out of wood, clay, stone not the pretty hot molten glass with us for thousands of years.

I had not thought of marbles in Maine much until this week when a real estate buyer of a waterfront camp on East Grand told me about the owner.

She was a Crocker from Danforth Maine and the lake property owner grew up in the same northern most Washington County town. In admiration and without spite or malice, the buyer dubbed the seller as one heck of a marble player. In small Maine towns, your brother or sister often in a class with most of your friend’s family members. The connection is second, third tier but still there. If you go back far enough in the DNA, someone’s grandmother married your second cousin happens. In small Maine towns, people are more aware of the connection to others in it. When the circle of people is smaller, the connection is stronger.

Like Kittens In A Farm Yard Barn Delivery Of New Cats, The Colors Are Varied. Like Marbles In Maine.

He was the small Maine town version of a pin ball wizard except we’re talking marbles.

Kenny the seller was not and still is not blind, deaf and dumb. All the marbles, winner takes all. That’s what he was known for in these parts. Winning big and often reported Simone the lake property buyer. He sure played a mean game of marbles.

I asked the seller during property price negotiations back and forth this week about his marble playing prowess.

Like most things in life, it boils down to a matter of sheer practice and time put into the endeavor. He laughed and asked what did she tell you? I said only that he was Mr. Marble King. His legend preceded him. That her brothers, all the young lads in her same small Maine town would gather somewhere to play marbles.

Not just during school recess at the East Grand Elementary, but traipsing over for the off hours marble games.

In the evenings, on the weekends, marble playing tournaments were underway somewhere but she could not remember where in town. Just recalling her brothers and his friends disappeared to play marble games.

Kenny, the seller, added to the local story on marbles in Maine games.

He said everyone gathered at his house on Weatherbee Street because there was a dirt floor basement. Ideal conditions for the kind of marble games played down cellar in privacy. Unlike the ones I remember played out in the open during school recess. Nothing elaborate but every kid had a marble bag or metal coffee can with a hole in the plastic lid.

The Wytopitlock, a small town near Danforth but in the County of Aroostook not Washington was heavy on horse shoes.

Under the lights at night, up to 200 horse show players would compete in games to hit the stakes. To land the leaners and ringers at the Wytopitlock Maine Fish and Game. Card games like cribbage “uptah camp in Maine” are an excellent way to pass the time while conversations take place during the 15-2 and more pegging. Simple living in Maine with a cozy wood fire, good company and something ahead for home cooked dining. That’s more than enough to make you feel very lucky to be alive and living in Maine.

Playing odd or even and the other person tried to guess to win or lose whatever was in your hand for the Maine marble wager.

Another marble game called simply Dropsies. Where the player stood over the can placed on the ground or just a lone marble out in the open and waiting. For whoever’s turn it was to with one eye closed and the other lining up the marble dropped with precision from waist high. To hopefully hit the can lid hole or strike the marble on the ground. The video below shows how serious the marble players are in and out of the circle aiming and shooting strategizing. (more…)

May 7, 2020
Maine Potatoes, Let’s Talk About Spuds

Maine potatoes, I grew up on a spud farm.

Did I eat a lot of rice growing up you ask? (Smiling) Ah no. The Maine potato was king for the entire country back in the 1940’s. Maine grew more potatoes than any other state in the nation. Aroostook County soil is ideally suited for raising spuds with grain and other ground cover crops put into the growing rotation. Be kind to your soil and the production yield increases while the soil lost to erosion is kept to a minimum.

Preparing The Farm Field Soil To Plant The Potatoes, Whatever Other Seed Or Transplant Needs To Be Place Carefully Into The Dirt Hill Rows.

What kind of Maine potatoes are find the eye, cut into seed to put back into the ground for another crop has changed with the appetite shift of the consumer.

Our family table enjoyed home grown farm raised baked potatoes on many nights to go with the meatloaf, pork chops, steak or baked chicken, whatever was on today’s meal time menu. Baked potatoes, a sliced open hot and steamy Burbank Russet scooped out to add a pad of melting butter to what you mash with your fork hard to beat. But think about all the other ways to enjoy your Maine potato.

The shift from table stock potatoes into specialty brands was the only source of agricultural viability available.

My Dad was president of the Maine Potato Council and we heard lots of table time discussions about the need to get away from monoculture farming. When you put your er… all your eggs in one big potato basket, it’s like betting the farm on only one lucky horse to win, place, show in the farming trifecta.

Today about a quarter of the Maine potatoes raised ear marked for seed use for the eastern seaboard growers.

A little under half of what’s left get sliced, diced and readied to hop in the fryolator or to ride on the large flat tin pan slide into the oven to bake and come out when the bell or buzzer announces “DINNNERRRrrrrrr” time boys and girls.

Wash your hands, Jimmy pour the milk or water please and thank you. Let’s count our blessings. Give praise to for the cook that prepared this wonderful farm to table spread. Susan, it was your turn to set the table tonight. So Jimmy and Rod can wash and stack the dishes. While the younger ones help clear the table.

The appetite is always good and the food never disappoints when you are hungry. When you earned that hunger. The Maine fresh air, wind, sun and rain or snow all help give a person valuable perspective. A constant appreciation for what’s really important in life. We keep the needs small, the list short living on a family farm in Maine.

Let’s check in with a Northern Maine potato farming video.

Nearly a quarter of the spuds raised in Maine are headed the end of their life in dark, protective potato chip bags.

That leaves only about ten percent of the Maine potatoes grown and harvested for use as fresh use in homes, served up in restaurants, for other raw product purposes. Value added, already peeled and prepared, mostly cooked and just needing a rip open the box, pull it out of the refrigerator or freezer. For the finish warming it up in the oven or quick like a bunny pop into the microwave meal time ritual. Fast food for busy lives has over taken the more satisfying slow cooked, take your time and unwind after a hectic but productive day.

Early Mornings. Already Worked 40 Or More Hours By Tuesday Noon. That’s Maine Potato Farming. Never Stops. Runs Around The Clock On Family Farms.

The COVID19 pandemic has shaken the meal time razzle dazzle.

More people rediscovering the joy of home cooked meals that are creative, revisited from old family recipe traditions. Do you have copies of relatives known for their potato or other kinds of dishes? You know the killer recipes that everyone in the family wants them to whip up and bring to family reunions, the end of life after the funeral celebration of life exercise.

Farming Maine potatoes, anything involving crops or agriculture with live animals is a big gamble.

Maine potato farming. The weather is your biggest unknown to do your best to prepare for all that can go wrong. The markets can open or dry up with the same 180 degree reversal. Potatoes are not like dry beans that you can hold onto and peddle the next year. Like strawberries, blueberries unless frozen, go bad like cut flowers that dry out and fade away in the table top vase.

Old Farm Tractors. The Tried And Tested But Without All The High Tech Gadgets. These Are My Favorites. All The Tractors Hooked To Different Farm Attachments.

Boiled, scalloped, twice bake potatoes just a couple meal time variations to keep it anything but same old baked potato.

Each variety shines in new ways for however you approach meal time with the star attraction the Maine potato. Chowders, crock pots and shepherd pies can be in the eenie meenie miney moe along with whipped, the mix with cabbage, the rest of the New England boiled dinner creation. Corn chowder is about as simple but tasty meal time entree to consider and your potato cubes swimming around it the stove top pot just do the heavy lifting in the medley marination of flavors. More Maine potato recipe ideas. https://www.mainepotatoes.com/recipes/

With folks rediscovering the comfort of home during the COVID19 adjustment to control the spread and protect your family and community, cooking from scratch is gaining popularity.

Extra time freed up not running the roads and staying in your castle more makes slow cooked dishes even tastier. Working on the catch up with all the projects around the house as you drain the job jar, a person in Maine gets hungry. Savoring life often starts with slowing it down. The nose in the flowers to sample the scent and look around to see what the rest of the World is up to these days. You have lots of time to think on the back of a Maine farm field potato harvester.

Rock In The Conveyor Belt Tread Jammed Again. Where’s The Crow Bar? Trying Not To Waste Sunshine During Breakdowns.

Any true Mainer prepares and rises to the occasion whenever setbacks knock appear on your door step and you hear the knock on your door.

Maybe it’s the ever changing weather extremes or how we are raised to prepare for and expect setbacks. To not just get through them but to make them define you by actions to help out anyway you can in your small rural Maine town. Life on a farm raising potatoes, critters, other crops gives everyone valuable training for life.

The Maine potato growing up on a farm that raised them for generations is a solid staple, something comfortable for folks where I live.

The potato picking experience and worth ethic brand it leaves deep inside any one that worked in the fields or on the truck or in the spud storage house is priceless. That education and appreciation for Mother Earth and being on the potato farming chain gang with others wearing field dirt clothing over sun burnt and wind reddened skin exposure get it.

Start Them Young, Train Them Well. Potato Farm Harvest Or All The Other Seasons Are Special Times.

Pass the Maine potato please.

Yes, I do believe I will have another spud scoop helping or two. It’s awfully lonely sitting all by itself without that green bean casserole to keep it company. Pass that big bowl of cabbage and banana salad too could you Bub? Everything served country style where take what you need and come back for more until your hunger is gone from work on the Maine potato farm.

Looking out over the hillside landscape standing, bent over a potato basket or filling one by dragging it down on your knees.

The good Earth and it’s bounty creates a lasting appreciation for the simple agricultural way of life on a farm in Maine. Raw, windy, but the kids keep pushing along to help the farmer get the crop out of the ground by hand. Watch a potato picking field operation video underway in Sherman Maine.

Looking for a song to help the one potato, two or more put them in the basket then dump four of those into the empty barrel? To slide a ticket in the stave groove on the top to claim it with your number. Maine potato humming song for just that outdoor labor exercise.

Watch, listen the Tater Raisin’ Man video song.

Potatoes, lots of spuds, ate more than my fair share raised on a Maine farm growing up and over the years since childhood. How do you like your potato served up best and which varieties are what you ask for at the Piggly Wiggly or farm stand?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

April 23, 2020
Barns In Maine

Barns in Maine, there was a time when every family farm had one or more sitting in the center of the agricultural enterprise.

One at a time and not mass produced, the original Maine barns built for farming, not wedding events. Yesteryear small growing Maine rural communities rallied together. The local farm families stepped up to take their turn. Much like our Maine Amish communities do one day a week. Thursday is community day which means everyone pack up and meet over at this week’s location to pitch in and lend a hand. All expected to step up and come together over and over like the original farm family settlers. To systematically help create each unique hand built barns in Maine. Built to last, slowly constructed one by one using many hands. To get your very own barn building appointment meant first helping several others put together their farm barns.

The Barn In Maine On A Family Farm. That Barn The Tallest, Biggest Structure With All The Others Surrounding It. Barns More Important Than Your House.

Every family member with a specific role in the barn building on the Maine farm.

Large amazing spreads of local food needed to fuel the hard working hungry builders of the farm barn. Barn raisings to piece together the post and hand hewn beam behemoths took the help of many.

The big stately working barns in Maine each secured with mortised joint dowels to create the amazing structures. Slowly constructed to serve the Maine farm families for generations.

Some barn workers in charge of finding the trees, cutting them down. Others shaping the long timbers needed for the skeleton frame of the barns in Maine. Lumber of all dimensions whittled out of whatever the team of horses twitched in from the woodlot sections of the Maine farm acreage. Still more deputized to create cedar shingles, clapboards, board and baton or whatever exterior covering to be applied to the farm barn exterior.

Scaffolding to protect the barn building workers did not remove the dangers being that high in the air performing carpentry maneuvers. You climb, you fall, you would die. That simple. I know of a local roofer who did just that from high a top a barn in Maine being shingled when a fatal accident happened. The staging plank snapped and still shudder thinking about the Maine farm barn shingle roof repair accident.

Roofing, ventilators and cupolas to bring in plenty of natural lighting and air to remove the moisture of newly mowed hayed to be stored in the barn in Maine.

Sills, rocks foundation supports to work best meant selecting a high and dry location with good soil drainage. Hemlock flooring to support the livestock, whatever to be stored in the large capacity farm barn meant another team of individuals hammered each plant in place. Finishing off the hay mow lofts, the standing and box stall pens in the inside of the Maine farm barn. Laughter, singing, hammering heard while installing windows, the weather tight trim boards.

Crafting and hanging doors on blacksmith created hinges and opening hardware another role in the barn raising.

Creating trap doors, upper openings to aid the efficiency utility of the Maine farm barn. Adding pulleys and ropes to help whatever to be stored inside the big farm barns in Maine. Dormers for ventilation and natural lighting because no power. In later years, stringing metal to connected roof top lightning rods. During approaching thunder storms, you better unplug the pasture fence charger quickly. Or you could be the lightning rod during the frantic unloading into the dry barn operation. (more…)

April 9, 2020
Living In Small Maine Towns | Local News Collected Off The Grapevine

Living in a small Maine town, the grapevine news is not just gathered filtering national sources.

The latest happenings around the Maine community not covered by CNN, FOX, NPR, BBC, NBC, CBS, ABC or some other big name news source. No New York Times, Washington Post. Forbes Magazine does not have lots of small rural Maine stories in their glossy pages with high end color photo spreads. Also, a small rural Maine radio station if you are lucky enough to have one is probably a “rip and read”. Something major could happen locally but it would be some time before it hits the wire service for broadcast outlets without a local news department to pick up on it. More on the history of Maine broadcasting.

Unless the local event, accident, fire or whatever news story hits the AP, UPI teletype news service, it stays dark and untouched. Or left to the weekly newspaper to tackle and break the story for its readership. We get the latest close to home news, the spin on state and national coverage from local family gatherings. From employees at work from all walks of life. Picked up with the two ears on the side of our heads from kids tapping into other circle sources. Maine has a low population. The folks that do live here are tight. Hannah oversees the Yankee Swap at the annual Christmas party out at the McGuire’s below in Linneus Maine.

The Local News Gathered At Family Events In Small Maine Towns. At Corner Grocery Convenience Stores Like Cameron’s Market In New Limerick Maine.

Commercially, it’s best if your “this just in” small Maine town news story happens in time to get covered in the latest daily broadcast.

Or especially so it can appear as big as life in the weekly edition of the black and white news print local outlet. If it does not, stay tuned. Could be many days later. Or not at all or as an after thought in skimpy coverage down the road. No one likes old news that’s like moldy bread.

The timing of the news living in small Maine towns is critical.

How many other competing stories are out there to tackle impacts what you do get splashed across the front page or in the broadcast lead in news gathering. This all seriously impacts what does or doesn’t get covered. Making it feast or famine for lots or just a little to report on in small rural towns in Maine. The editorial and small rural Maine news gathering staffs on the print side of things especially suffering steady shrinkage.

The army of often only one or two reporters do the best they can covering their beat.

Always coaxing to come on over to the cyber side presentation where you scroll and tap, swipe, double click. To break the habit of open wide, spreading the newspaper wide to scan the columns and turn the pages. Media outlets are consolidating and working hard to get us to make the leap to digital formats of the news delivery pixels. But that’s where the “local militia journalist” become the cub reporters to fill in the community news gaps. Everyone has a cell phone camera. Can hunt and peck and they do shoot “the you are there” pictures and video with copy hammered out with two thumbs or a pop out stylus. As they roam around all the small rural Maine locations, the community itself, at large shares the “news” they see first hand in their travels. Neat huh?

The term is accurate. There really are “slow news days” when not so much is shaking locally when living in small Maine towns.

That’s when journalists revisit old news articles for an update. Dig harder to create the copy the other end of the conversation can enjoy and find useful. Or tap into the human interest angle from the guy and gal on the street. To hand them a mike, quote them for a printed sound bite. Dragging them into the spotlight to learn what they think. Weighing in on an opinion poll on one or a variety of topics of interest to the audience. We all want to know what others think and learn from their perspective.

Maine. Vast, Insulated From The World. Smaller But A Tight, Close Population. 11 People Per Square Mile In Northern ME. 44 Per Mile In The Southern Sections.

No one can update you better than someone you have known for years and who is living Maine small town local.

Someone you trust and full of the same local area pride. What’s new delivered in a special, personal way with local expressions and a mix of humor. Maybe a tad of fiction. Or part of what the person relays is what they thought they heard Bubba say. But lots of people were talking, my hearing is not what it used to be comes into play. Factors causing the what you thought you heard getting blender mixed and twisted in the information. The stuff you hear and repeat like it is gospel gets exposure. Like Paul Revere hollering while he gallops through the streets close to home. Raw, real, unpolished, but out there and not kept a secret.

Sharing information that resonates all around you in your daily travels happens more in small rural Maine towns.

News gets passed on and on in the small Maine community circles. Give me the local you know and trust for free sharing of the news. Nothing missed in the translation or relay. Not delivered from a talking head with an agenda and an obscene salary. Who has an artificial smile with perfect teeth but does not even know where the small rural town is in way up there in Maine. (more…)

March 27, 2020
Small Town Newspapers In Maine | Local Is Everything

Small town newspapers in Maine where local is everything.

More Wildlife Than People To Read The Local Small Town Newspaper In Maine. Bambi Does Not Pay An Annual Subscription For His News.

The local newspaper used to be the only way to learn what’s happening. What’s important in a small Maine town makes the approach to the newsprint layout different than the urban method. In small town Maine, there are no gangs, no drive by shootings. Not eighteen car accident pile ups and local weather is a big news item. So are local town elections and school or zoning board rulings. The local hospital in Maine does not have or need a trauma center for gunshot wound treatment.

The level of advertising income to salt and pepper the local community news. That’s another factor in how thick the latest newspaper installment becomes for area readers. What you pay per column inch is low because so is the population readership. Here is a list of Maine newspapers.

Some Maine newspapers are daily, some weekly.

Over the last forty years I have prepared local real estate ads for the weekly paper in my small home town of Houlton. The Aroostook Times published from 1857 to 1916 had a rival newspaper publication called The Aroostook Pioneer. the two newspapers merged to make one viable local voice to keep local readers informed on their community. This blog posted an article on early local radio and television stations in Maine.

Before the Internet, the interstate, small Maine towns were pretty self contained.

You worked locally, spent most of your money in the confines of the local town boundaries. Railroads helped open up commerce by supply the small Maine towns with goods and service work was done by local residents from the community. Passenger trains helped move the locals back and forth from out of town destinations. Telegrams came in to make sure twitter size announcements. Stop. Western Union wired money back and forth when a loved one was stranded, thrown in the hokey crow bar hotel. Where local dances were for the week. Public suppers were huge news you did not want to miss.

The only social media was what you picked up down at the local Grange hall. Or at the grocery store pushing the squeaky wheel wire cart with one wheel that had a mind of its own. Stopping to exchange news with other familiar shoppers. More news gathered by your partner with the window rolled down talking with the shopper you met inside’s other half. Sitting out in the Main Street parked car location waiting for the weeks groceries and the scuttlebutt of news to leave the store. Or local current news gathered while in the swivel pump up chair, getting your hair clipped or styled. You could get quite an earful of local news just like down at the local grain mill or hardware store picking up supplies.

Telephone operators and party lines were another news leak that might be reliable but dependent on the short term memory and number of how many people used in the round robin news gathering.

Recreational News, Anything Outdoors Is Covered In Small Town Newspapers In Maine.

Some passing on the local community news were hard of hearing and missed vital facts or recalled the news snippet with an agenda filtering. Even the local small town Maine newspaper editors were known for printing the news as they saw fit. Slightly colored, spiced with editorial spirit to increase readership subscriptions. The newsprint produced made it obvious where their political leanings supported on various local, state and even national issues. For the most part, it was all about the local news events.

Birth announcements, who died this week to take their turn in the obituary section of the small Maine newspaper. Who had a tea and who was there. What they wore described as if it was a royal wedding. Painting the picture for the locals who love a story that is close to home. Out of town guests, who they were, what the folks did while they had company all important stuff to readers in a small Maine town. What was served for food and even the dining on the open front porch location all part of the local news. The string of non-paid but eager to write community reporters from out in the far reaching areas of the circulation. The announcements on job promotions from out of town children of local residents filled the small town Maine newspaper columns too.

Who won the small town in Maine local spelling bee is front page and who’s son or daughter do you suppose that is Martha pondered.

Opening up the fresh folded hot off the local press newspaper edition in a small Maine town. Where is there a dance this week and who is calling the rounds or which band is playing live. Before television, folks were travel to the entertainment that was live and local. There was always a series of dances for all ages… out at the lake, at the VFW hall, in a hotel. There were no franchise motels and boarding homes were plentiful. Folks working on the railroad, in the woods or on the farms traveled into town from sparse unpopulated areas of their Maine county location. Working your room and board as a student attending school because where your family lived there was only so far you could go in the one room set up. Where the older ones helped the younger students.

Honor rolls, local police report on barking dog disturbances. There some newsprint set aside to report about the a grass fire that got a little out of hand when the wind came up last Monday. Which local Maine fire departments responded to the local blaze last week. If it is new reported after the last weekly newspaper came out it is still worthy news for this next edition. Maybe there is more known from local sources to add to the earlier reports doubling back to report the story developments.

Advertisements for jobs, the fine print of bankruptcy or foreclosure notices, the odds and ends for sale in a small Maine town.

Who has a vacancy in an apartment coming up and needing to be filled with a quality renter. That’s in there too. Local service providers with a business card size ad or a sale flyer insertion for buy one, get one free. What’s the price per pound for chicken legs or various cuts of beef down at the local Superette or Foodliner this week. In small Maine towns, there is not much for other competing media outlets to spread the news. Like a Paul Revere clopping through the back streets handing out handbills, the local newspaper delivery boy took over the task. Milk men made home deliveries too and picked up the glass empties. He had eggs, other dairy products to peddle in the door to door in a small Maine town.

Local Eye Candy, The Talent. It’s The Outdoor Settings And Wildlife We Enjoy.

The fifteen, twenty five or more years ago today rehash of what was going on in earlier newspaper stories.

Those have a corner spot just like the funnies too. Who’s away in the service and wouldn’t Ernie or Cliff appreciate a letter from home the editor reminds. Would you try to send them a little something for home made goodies and a heart felt note from the small Maine town to cheer them up? To know you appreciate their service in the armed forces and being away during the approaching holiday. Small town Maine newspapers shared the joy and pain and the awareness is greater. Now small local newspapers are combining with others in the same economic restraints of rising print production costs, the declining readership to be one strong viable County voice in Maine.

Anything local to print that would only be of interest to someone living in the small Maine town or with a connection to it.

Part of the small Maine town newspaper readership has always been from outside the geographic boundaries of it. On the mailing list to be kept in the local news circle with the newspaper arriving a few days late but still pertinent. To keep up with the small home town in Maine happenings… like a serial television show sequel. Small town local newspapers also produced letterhead, printed materials like wedding or birth announcements to keep their presses rolling.

ME Lighthouses Are Part Of The Attraction. So Is Local News That’s All Small Town Home Grown, Grass Roots.

Today with social media, the you are there instantly happens with anyone that has thumbs to type. Or a cell phone camera to whip out to capture the still image or local happening video loop. You and I are suddenly eye witness news gathers and reporters. The local population is the cub reporter in small town Maine. The small Maine newspaper that only publishes daily or weekly without a website can only feed the readership at set times. With technological advances, the small radio station can now stream video to deliver the local sporting events. Digital sub-channels on the carrier frequency broadcast other offerings in HD streams.

The Miss Aroostook Diner. Where People Used To Eat And Gather News. “What Did You Hear Down At Breakfast Coffee Ed?” The Black And Whites Bring Back A Flood Of Local Memories. Nostalgic Old Local Images Pull On Heartstrings Hard With Old Cars, Wardrobes, Small Town Mom And Pop Business Free Enterprise Operations Recalled.

I remember in the 1970’s and the FM stations worked at using a sub channel for Muzak.

Had to change the large reel to reels used to motivate the workers on the other end of the wireless signal. Depending on the time of day, what was played changed to be like a jolt of slow drip audio coffee. Used to tickle the ears to stimulate and make the mundane chore not drag quite so much. No no, that would hurt production efficiency. The Muzak subscription before XM and other music services feeding all the local banks, dentist offices and local grocery stores. The filler to avoid dead air did not have to be elevator music or clarinets of the big band era either. Dial in the background mood needed to the restaurant surround systems. Then watch the toes tap, smiles while the menu is studied or waitress is a tad delayed but it matters less.

The media outlet institution of today is branching out to do more than the one medium always utilized to deliver the message or information. If they want to stay viable and make the leap from analog to digital. My job as a Maine real estate broker is more than listing properties. It is being the local insider with community knowledge that can share that advantage of being here in Maine to someone that never was. Like when on vacation you ask for directions, where’s the best fish dinner in town or how do you get to the water slides, local matters.

Local small Maine town newspapers list the school lunch menu.

No more worrying about are we having bubble and squeak or stewed tomatoes, liver and onions. Or maybe it’s pigs in a blanket on the school lunch menu highlighted at area schools like it is a competition. It’s the default pizza or chicken nuggets everyday, maybe a salad bar.

Slower Paced, Important Topics Closer To Home In Small Town Maine Newspapers. Covering Lake Ice Out Contest Or Fishing Derby Results.

Or time to bring a homemade bag lunch from home if time allows and you have the ingredients for something custom made. To have it your way with homemade bread, extra layers of smoked turkey or veggie sticks with the ranch dip. Topped off with a devil’s eye date filled or molasses cookie or two. Carefully wrapped up with loving hands to make sure it stay fresh not dried out by lunch time consumption.

The small town newspapers in Maine have gotten thinner. Advertising dollars get poured into other methods to make impressions.

To captivate customers that have a call to action built in to make the advertising dollars well spent. Media information is pinging all around us. The small newspapers are merging and being absorbed to avoid duplication of services to increase efficiency critical to survival. Our low population makes a media buy of a small radio, television or newspaper still the old Maine broadcasting expression … “a dollar a holler” for a advertising spot. Print is not dead, just used in conjunction with other media options in advertising campaigns today.

You need someone that has lived in these parts for some time to add perspective, know the history and being able to relay it quick and efficiently. The small local Maine newspaper was the town crier. But as the editorial decisions on what’s front page, which stories to cover and in what depth are moved further from the community a disconnect occurs. The live and local aspect gets diminished.

Whatever delivered hopefully with friendly humor or a tad of entertainment using local expressions is what the small town in Maine local newspaper did deliver so well.

But as the ad revenue drops off, the increases in layoffs of writers and other support staff follows to belt tighten. The local newspaper turned county regional publication has watered down and not so just local. The deputized local column reporter for a local town aged out and was not replaced. Today, everything has to be entertaining, fed with the teaspoon of sugar to keep the attention and to go down easy. People’s life are too jam packed for anything else right? Less are chewing up full books and the term reading the newspaper means scanning the headlines. Like they are a bullet list of what you need to know today or this week. You need an analysis to tell you what the news coverage talking heads just said in case you missed it.

The yesteryear images of a small but bustling, vibrant small Maine town shot in black and white are nostalgic.

There are a number of Maine publications that just regurgitate the old images from the newspaper back room files. The old cars, wardrobe from earlier times and shots of buildings in the background of the small Maine town now long gone due to fire or progress have an audience. Aerial shots from farm properties in Maine back when every small town had lots of independent family agriculture enterprises are a popular item for stories. And for whoever now owns the property that may be missing some of the farm buildings, the big barn or open wrap around porch. But shot from the air during a good farming year road after road before the invention of drones with cameras are neat images to add to the blog post, the magazine article or newspaper article revisit to yesterday for their readership.

Thank you for reading our Me In Maine blog post about small town newspapers in Maine. The what is happening to them as they dwindle or get bought and pulled under larger media umbrella ownership. What is delivered means small independent bloggers are a source to turn to for the local community lifestyle and news events in the Maine area surroundings.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

February 18, 2020