Category: Living in a Small Maine Town

Up North In Maine

Heading North to Maine. Heading into the North Maine woods

What is the magic of just the location, that one word North? Heading into the North Maine woods. Pointing whatever you drive or piling in with a group of friends to head North to ski, snow sled, hunt, fish or get out on the water.

North Sign, What’s The Buzz, The Big Deal About Up North?

On a compass or a map, the first thing the user wants to determine is where is North. Because the needle better seek north. Not have a mind of its own. And after rolling out the tightly curled up map, you look first and foremost for the arrow pointing in the direction of North. The orientation of North trumps all the west. You have to know where is North first to get your bearings and avoid vertigo.

The North star, Polaris used for navigation unless pesky cloud cover messes up the exercise to know if you are still heading in the right direction.

Up North in Maine. Each quadrant of the circle conjures up an image or two of the other regions. Causes the dream maker insider all of us to consider what if we headed in that particular direction armed with knowledge from the grapevine. Just hearing, seeing, thinking about one word from books, the boob tube or conversations.

West, heading out west.

Panning for gold. Laying claim to free land, a new start for your family in the wagon train. Or smelling like soot. Riding the iron rails in the steel horse gnawing on beef jerky. New unspoiled fertile land, heavily wooded with incredible scenery out West awaits you. All aboard.

Someone in your family’s past headed West to make their fame and fortune right? Hoping they were not a gun slinger or horse thief. Cowboys, rodeos, branding irons, lasso roping scared little Hereford calves. Waving a branding iron for the circle K tattoo. Surf boards, 409’s, Rodeo Drive, Route 66, Area 51 are what you find out West. Hope we don’t have one big final Earthquake.

Pass me that harmonica Cookie. We get to the Rockies by night fall tomorrow if the bag balm works like a charm on lame old on Lightning here. I got a dose of the joint paint myself. Hand me that little green square tin will you? (Rattlesnake sound, hungry wolf howling, cactus shadows around campfire perimeter). Another splash of coffee or a long haul on the flask filled with the recipe?

South, down south.

You might picture mint juleps, Southern hospitality, cotton and tobacco and moonshine. Gray colored material pitted against dark blue. Sitting a spell on a huge mansion porch held up by large pillar columns. Pleasant weather in the sunny South where snow shovels are not needed. Kentucky blue grass music fills the air. Is that a banjo in the mix?

Chasing white golf balls, fishing for red snapper, liberally applying sun screen on your kids at the sandy seashore. Visiting glove wearing cartoon characters at the Magic Kingdom. Pour me another tall glass of the orange juice Anita Bryant. Leave in lots of the pulp and make it country style. Boll weevil and termites and Tennessee walkers. We’re down south.

East, Far east.

Sounds exotic, I can hear zitars and harp strings and pan flutes. Where we have a serious shortage of four legged chairs. Lots of pillows though all over the flooring. You might think about spices, smooth shiny silk, the fragrance pretty blue lotus flower and sitting cross legged clearing your mind. (Snap) Need another pair of chop sticks to chase your rice cakes and raw fish around the plate? Those waxed paper thin sliding house doors would not stand up to a gale force Maine wind.

North. Due North.

Unfortunately for some, the first thought that pops in your head is snow. Lots of white stuff. Maybe reindeer that go air born. The cheerful short round guy dressed in red velvet / white fur trimming. Ho ho ho Santa, Mrs. Claus and their low to the ground gang with the pointed ears. Dog sleds and float planes for transport and igloos for housing. Polar bears of white riding on ice floes.

Heading North, Hitting The ITS Trails In Maine.

Maine is parked up North.

But you can go way way further climbing up the lines of latitude on the spinning globe. Extreme north can be the vision of Maine for those who have never set foot in the Vacationland state. Maine shares borders with Canadian provinces which causes a cultural exchange missing at the North Pole. There are no polar bears in Maine.

When you live in Maine, West becomes Jackman, Sugarloaf Or Sunday River. Your South orientation becomes the Wells, York Beaches, the Old Port, Kittery Trading post.

Your Downeast Maine a winding trip up US Route One to get your fill of lobsters, steamers filled with clams and fresh native corn on the cob. Look, was that a distant lighthouse, hump back whale or eagle spotted off the bow of the schooner?

I live in Northern Maine.

Snow Is Not An Evil Four Letter Word. Not In Maine.

But where I blog from you can travel two hours north and still be in Maine. Up in the St John River Valley in the Crown of Maine. Aroostook County is the largest of Maine’s sixteen. Aroostook the garden of Maine known for its potato fields. The heavily wooded forest land, the clean lakes and rivers. The fresh air and winter is just one of the four months. And there is lots to be said about your wood burning stove, the charm of winter living in Maine.

What is your image of Maine? Hopeful more than winter snow flakes, icicles and hand knit mittens and hat. Sample ME for yourself. You fill up your mental slate with experiences in Maine. Any chance you can get, sneak or steal away to Maine. Easy to find and always due north from most places. Define Maine in your own words and from personal experiences you collect and cherish any of the four seasons.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

February 12, 2018
Small Towns In Maine Where You Do Know Your Neighbor.

Living in small town Maine means time to commune with nature, to sample the great outdoors.

But it also means getting to know the neat people who live in the smaller populations spread out pretty thinly in this vast state of Maine. Less time spent in traffic, we do talk to strangers. We don’t worry about gangs, crime, person safety in Maine.

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

We have time for our passions and hobbies. And the circles we travel intercept and overlap each other. Often because our kids have a play in the introductions. Like AYBL (Aroostook County Youth Basketball League) basketball, SAMHA (Southern Aroostook Minor Hockey Association) hockey, Dutch soccer, soap box derby, etc for sports as just a few examples. Of the small town activities where you and I will probably be attending and it’s how we get to know each other.

By working alongside each other because the events are home grown, hands on, self run by the non profit volunteers. Who add the sparkle to small Maine town living. These individuals are the small town flavor and spark. There is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer in Maine. Especially if kids are involved. We love to watch them progress up through the ranks to adulthood.

Just got back from three youth basketball games today at Southern Aroostook Community School that drives home the point about it really does take the entire village to raise the kids in it.

The coaches, referees, parents, all the folks who run the snack shack. Collect money at the gate. That put in countless hours to instruct and instill the rules, the respect for the game. The kids remember first hand someone lit the fire under them as a youngster introducing them to these activities. The ones that shaped their lives. That started the passion to take hold, to burn and roll along and take on different progressive levels.

Many Small Towns Combining Into One School System Proud Of It’s Youth, It’s Home Grown Programs.

Downhill skiing, someone got you to the slope and back. Not always Mom and Dad. Somebody helped keep your snow sled running and taught you about mechanics to know how to fix what is wrong. An individual is to blame for introducing you to horse back riding and showed you the ropes on how best to take care of the horse or pony.

Remember who sponsored your little league baseball team? Who played catch with you and was at batting practice at the local playing field before the summer games at the ball diamond in a small Maine town. Who instilled confidence in you and taught you to play as a team. Reminded you there is no “I” in “TEAM”? Be that person to play it forward. Remembering what it was like to be a kid in a small Maine town.

Camping, hunting, fishing, boating, hiking, swimming, farming, anything outdoors in Maine. The activities, the sport and pleasure of it all is just a variation on a theme that kicks you in the butt to slide off the couch. To motivate all ages to get outside. Or to dig deeper to gain the skill and exercise inside. For all we do for fun and relaxation in Maine. For our physical, our mental health that strengthens and defines the small community in Maine.

There are a lot of grown adults that are really big kids in small town Maine.

That help guide the so many youth oriented programs available in small Maine communities. Everyone has a job as a music booster for the community concert, the show choir, jazz band and there are always competitions that get hosted on the local level. With each community taking turns to roll out the red carpet, make some money, put in some long man hours of planning and the hard work to pull off the events.

Presque Isle Wildcats Traveled Down Into Southern Aroostook County To Shoot Some Hoops. To Improve Their Game, To Help Others Learn From Their Skill Set.

The parents, grandparents bring in baked goods, sew costumes, donate their skill set. The local businesses donate at their cost or for gratis to get behind an event. To show their home town proud spirit of support.

Thank you to the host school Southern Aroostook Community that opened up the doors to the purple painted walls of the gym. To host the AYBL basketball round robin for 9, 10 year old boys this weekend.

The food was something else too. More than just pizza slices bought many hours ago and steamed hot dogs, cheese nachos and popcorn. Way more than the standard fare of grub you find at a high school sport’s venue.

No no, they had fire made on stone pizza. Hand tossed, garlic sprinkled with you pick the topping crafted right on the premises. Served up fresh, piping hot right out of the oven every eight minutes. Baked beans in the crock pot, chicken stew loaded with veggies with dough rolls. Or let them ladle out a dish of chili, lasso a large soft pretzels, munch on a home made cookies. Or maybe a couple. Hey it’s for a good cause. Yes, I did over eat and the friendly well staffed snack bar helped make the school some money and to feed the many families wandering in and out of the lobby at SACS in Dyer Brook ME. Friendly folks, most you soon get to know that turned out to climb up into the purple bleachers to watch, cheer loudly for their young home town team. The fans and players that were wearing their school colors. And the teams very small, young, low to the ground for the refs to school on the art of basketball rules and regulation introduction.

Gas Grill Open Fire Stone Baked Pizza! MMMmmmmm Good And A Smart Money Maker! Andy’s IGA Gives The School The Portland Pie Dough For Only A $1.12 A Fresh Tasty Crust Ball.

In a small Maine town, you are related to many of the names spelled out on the back of the player jerseys.

All the fans came out in groves to watch the home town basketball teams this weekend. It is like old home week and the kids are the reason you showed up. They are the entertainment, the future of our small Maine towns. The games of hoop and orange ball are fun to watch, get you out of the house. And you can not help but think how far this player out on the court will go. Maybe he or she will help bring home a gold ball, some other awards for the glass lobby trophy case in about six to nine years when sporting a little larger sized varsity jersey.

I am lucky to live in a small Maine town and proud of all the local individuals out front, or that stay behind the scenes in the shadows. They don’t need the recognition. There is not a big ego needing to be stroked. That’s not the motivation. For putting in the time, energy and money to create all the neat activities, the programs found built from the ground up in our communities. Those programs that would not be possible to hire out to be done year in and out.

There is not enough money to subsidize paid staff. That would not even come close to the level of effort these small town Maine folks put in when they roll up their sleeves that is over the top. And the same individuals perform the myriad of tasks year after year in small Maine communities. They sign on for life and next year’s events are always in the back of their minds being fine tuned to turn out even better next year. To crowd please and keep the momentum rolling in the small community that hosts the unique events. Without the volunteers, there would be no small community to call your home town in Maine. Last guy out turn off the lights.

Ever thought of living, moving, relocating to small Maine town?

It’s not crazy, you are needed. Your talents, your skill set will enhance the local fabric that is calling your name. Here for questions, your local insider to outline the steps and create the plan to make your return mail address one in Maine, Vacationland. The way life should be.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730

January 21, 2018
McMansion To McCottage | How Big A House Works Best In Maine?

How big a home is best for you depends on area housing stock economics and whether you really are ready for a Murphy bed or farm house sized kitchen.

There are pros and cons for tiny homes, larger housing floor plans and it is a personal choice. But what about the local area real estate options and pricing in a state as vast as Maine? Is it best for a home on wheels or a big smashing Victorian house in Maine that works best for your real estate needs?

Know House Thomaston Maine Is One Big Residence With Rich History, Plenty Of Bedrooms.

For starters, the average price of a home in Northern Maine weighing in at $71,000 and reality that the SAME home would fetch $210,000 in Southern Maine. That fact alone makes the folks in the market for a Maine house do a quick check of their finances. Before considering the plus and minus evaluation of what size home is best for me.

Debt ratios, how much of your income can go to housing and the associated maintenance to carry the sticks and bricks. Spending habits, not just your income shows where your priorities are when opening up the wallet or purse wide to pay for daily expenditures. Saving for kids to attend college impacts how high a house price range you filter the real estate search when just sneaking a peek at what is currently for sale in your market.

If 28% of your income or less should be dedicated to housing, there is one ceiling in place on what you plan to buy today for a house of any size.

If housing stock is larger in rural Maine, those homes cost less and are more plentiful. Yes, more to heat and a bigger square footage for maintenance, to clean, but cheaper than plopping down a starting price of $46,000 for a tiny home on a trailer that are out there.

Micro housing, the proponents brag up you will save on utilities, less to heat and cool. That smaller castles mean time freed up for other endeavors besides cleaning and maintenance keeping the house straight and sound. If you live a couple blocks from a gym, why would you need the corner den or space in the cellar rec room for a treadmill or stair stepper? In rural Maine, your “gym” is outdoor exercise cutting, stacking, splitting wood to heat your home. Or climbing on a tractor to plow the back field to get it ready for spring planting. Or maybe the all out aerobics of producing square or round bales of hay to feed your own livestock and the animals of others with whatever is tucked away in your barn. For a methodical draw from the deposits as the calendar pages cycle through from fall, winter, another spring in Maine.

One Beach Is Not Exactly Like The Next. This One In Maine In Kennebunkport At Dusk.

Larger homes in Maine, what space is used for when there is extra to go around? Home schooling desks, wall charts, science labs and the reading resource library. Or work from the home office space where the Internet connection allows telecommuting. In laws living in the converted farm house shed or Victorian home carriage house. Or using a series of water front or rustic wood camps seasonally before the move south. To places you won’t need a snow shovel or an windshield ice scraper.

The open outdoor and glassed in porches one more common space for more family members to consider hanging out or shelling peas, sipping coffee on. Renting out the extra space for Airbnb or to provide areas for exchange students or to run an inn, a Maine B&B.

The US Census uncovered that the average size of a house in this country is 2657 square feet.

How do you fit into that statistic? Maine is not a state flush with cash, or filled with residences that boast three bedrooms but eight bathrooms. That’s HGTV west coast Hollywood talking. Could you pare it all down and squeeze into a tinier you 500 square foot leaner, greener four walls? They say smaller, tiny homes mean less decorating, force you not to accumulate so much. Tips for moving what and when regardless we hammered out in an earlier real estate blog post on relocating to Maine. The local Amish settlements produce small buildings that many use as “tiny homes” that get modified by the owner. Lots of folks for vacation or homesteading combine more than one Amish storage shed to make them into living area. Here is another Maine tiny home link.

There was a time in the early 1980’s when the Farmer’s Home Administration (FmHA) made the decision to lighten the load. Of housing stock 1400 square foot or larger that came into foreclosure inventory. And that was to be financed for a dollar down and the 33 year loan with 396 payments. The subsidized housing program shifted to a ranch style 1008 square foot goal that was one floor, insulated to the hilt. And the folks buying them made to look hard at their housing budget to make sure they were taught economics 101 to hang onto the home not lose it to come back to Uncle Sam in foreclosure.

Small Maine Farm Sustainable Agriculture. Hard Work, A Highly Rewarding Lifestyle.

The 1400 square foot houses that were priced low, financed for 10% down for a ten year loan were so cheap to buy. That it allowed the new home owner of a foreclosed home to have money left over from the payment load to channel it into whatever maintenance the big and beautiful housing stock required to be ship shape.

Or to fix up, flip and move on up the real estate housing food chain. To try on something different for the house around them. To adapt to a new to them home with a different set of features, size and location that worked best at the time for whatever life cycle they swam in today. Your real estate needs change and not just because you use a walker to get around or the chicks have flown the coop. Divorce, death, disease and on a brighter note promotions, more stork deliveries can cause the itch that needs to be scratched to make the move to something new and different. To impact your quality of life. Being self-sufficient working on fencing, puttering on farm buildings from hen houses to tractor sheds and storage barns.

Home too large, a big house scaring you from purchase? Consider an income generating apartment in one section and if you ask lots of questions going in, you can get a quality renter for the rental portion of the down sized home. Also tax deduction write offs because a portion of maintenance, maybe heating, other items can be used to sweeten the renting out part of your Maine home.

Do you run the roads, do you entertain at home, do you enjoy sitting in a den in front of a roaring fire? In a kitchen rocker not far from a wood cook stove?

Are the kids on every sport’s team known to man and summer camps, year round tune up clinics are part of your daily experience? Is being home a joy or torture? Are you anxious, feeling like you are missing out on something that is not happening in your own backyard? Had it up to here with neighbors? Or long for a few good ones? Would you consider buying then tearing down the house next to you if it came up for sale? Or approaching the neighbor on the other side of the eye sore to purchase it together and have it hauled away with the remaining house lot split down the middle. For one less neighbor in the hood.

Christmas Reflections In Houlton Maine. Small Town Proud Makes The Holiday Colors Brighter, Spirits Higher. Ready, Want A House In A Small Maine Town Setting?

Where the house in Maine is big or small or somewhere in between. To add a water front element. To have a view, to add to the property acreage to own fields, pasture, your own wood lot to heat the house. Or the option to add on easily with a pay as you go, DIY using some bartering skills. Beyond the size, features in a Maine house you can afford to enhance your lifestyle is a big part of why you might want to move. To experience living in a yesteryear grand old larger home in small rural Maine is possible where the same elegance in an urban area is not so common and priced out of reach.

Formal dinners at home, not at Bonanza sliding a plastic cafeteria tray with triangular numbers riding on them or dining on the daily special at Governors or a Pat’s Pizza.

Using a butler’s pantry, the servant’s corner nooks and crannies, overseeing the canning and preserving operation in the summer kitchen. Sneaking up hidden rear stairway passages. Watching your cat bask in the stained glass natural lighting spilling on the floor where he or she naps. Wainscoting, raised panel ceilings, tin, marble, granite, exotic maintained or not patterned multi toned woods of all kinds. Using the upstairs sleeping porch on a hot summer night.

Converting the walk up attic space into a teenager’s hideaway or media room. Drawing from the root cellar provisions and wood just the size of the heating chamber it feeds through out the day and night. As Old Man Winter loses his gas. And Jack Frost packs up his weather tools for another year. And the early flowers poke their heads through the ground signaling spring is knocking. Bring out the porch furniture, refill the gas grill canister. Service the lawnmower. Fill those driveway potholes and re-hang the rain gutters.

Or on your knees in the spiritual flower beds and tasty vegetable gardens. Enjoying bird feeders, your pets of all sizes with space to hang out in and outside of home. Why you live where you do and was it inherited, where you grew up? Or a house that Jack built without a large mortgage hanging around your neck. Built slowly calling in favors and watching you tube videos on house construction. Tapping into skills honed back in shop class. But the table saw in the living room for years until the housing project turned the corner at least. And earlier work is time to replace because the kid’s grew up and out they went. It’s been a couple decades filtering out of the hour glass revolutions. What size house is best for you if you relocated to Maine or already live here but thinking of changing it up when the real estate market is favorable?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

January 1, 2018
The Menu For Thanksgiving Dinner When You Dine In Maine

The holidays are not the time to diet

Loosen the belt, put away the Zumba fitness CD. It was not just the Pilgrims who sampled quite the feast put on by the native first settlers. Maine food dishes prepared with local ingredients taste so much better too after being outside in the fresh crisp air too. Whether working on a farm, tramping the woods while hunting looking for game or splitting, stacking firewood.

Mountain Ash Berries Wrapped In Ice On A Maine Lake Today.

So Thanksgiving dinner, what to serve up for the gathering around your table? Traditions for Thanksgiving mean much of what you create in the kitchen or ask others to contribute is from memories of what you remember growing up. Everyone likes green bean casserole with the onions on top and the yummy sauce right? But what is the best recipe for green bean casserole? Do you want it crunchy, cheesy, jazzy?

On our farm table growing up Maine potatoes were a given. When you grow them, you are exposed to many ways to enjoy spuds. Whipped potatoes seemed to be the choice by my mom. The pearled onions, the squash, sweet potato all steaming in bowls escorted from the pantry to the formal dining room table used on special occasions. Cinnamon rolls like any breads take a special touch I have been told. And growing up, whenever my Mom asked what should she bring to a family or social dinner, it was hand’s down always her cinnamon rolls. They were to die for and akin to the nectar of the Gods.

Layered jello salads, watergate salads. Not only the sweet potatoes had marshmallow swimming in them. Never was a fan of the jello with the carrots and who knows what else mixed and chilled inside. But some likes them because they are a constant.The plate is only so large and what to fill it with in the eenie meenie miney moe of Thanksgiving food offerings.

Peas and yellow beans with cream could show up as a vegetable choice for some. Peas were a standard entry that you could bank on. Ambrosia salad with the cherries, mandarin oranges, orchard apples. pineapple, peaches, everything plucked from a fruit tree. The dinnerware not used but a handful of times a year added to the celebration remembrance. So did the decorations, the floral arrangements that were all natural, from the local seasonal surrroundings.

Turkey with the stuffing, gravy to lather the taters the standard, spiral ham could debut at Christmas. Deer meat venison. It’s what’s for Thanksgiving dinner for some.

But Delmonico steaks grilled on the charcoal outside the farmhouse porch entry could make their way to our Maine family feast. The meat not parked for days and price stickered. Not the kind clear wrapped and hoisted out of the cooler but something different. Hidden like a present in white paper, tied with string. A pencil marking the price, what was hiding inside. After a special request was made ringing the bell. to relay the order to the hunched over butcher with the red stained white frock. Who hand delivered it to you as you continued to fill the wire basket grocery cart with the one squeaky obstinate wheel.

Lots Of Public Suppers, Ones At Thanksgiving Happen In Small Maine Towns. Across The Baked Beans, Coleslaw, Brown Bread And Potato Salad Table Conversations.

Mince meat pie, pecan, coconut cream, lemon meringue or cherry were not the norm but were on the holiday menu besides your year round standards of strawberry, raspberry, apple, pumpkin or blueberry pies. Or hot about another mocca ball, a little fudge or mixed nuts for grazing before or after the feast? Squares come in so many flavors and the cookies were not the kind you buy wrapped in cellophane with elves painted on the store bought packages.

Seafood from Maine got invited to Christmas celebrations and Thanksgiving more the bounty harvested from the local farm fields. Oyster stew or crab cakes served up Christmas Eve. No reason why a Maine lobster or steamer clams or salmon could be provided table space to celebrate the guy in white fur and red velvet and roof top tap dancing reindeer’s visit right? Ho ho happy holidays.

Thanksgiving dining to give thanks, to count your blessings even it is pizza, bologna and cheese sandwiches. Being thankful to have any food, for the fellowship and a time of reflection on the past year.

Thanksgiving meant who sits where, who carves the bird. The guest list created new. To include first time diners to the table, to include the regulars still living and the lost ones in your bow your head, holding hands blessing prayers.

It’s your holiday to celebrate the best way possible. Pass the cranberry sauce, the bread and butter pickles, the many relishes please. There is no shortage of the extras like lady ashburnham or beet pickles as your eyes scanned the family table. That is like a culinary tetris game to find open table space for one more dish or platter. The buffet loaded up with the overflow, the cold drinks, coffee urns and what could not be parked on the dining room table. That would only straight jacket diners and only serve to interfere with available elbow room.

Home Made Maine Pies, What’s Your Favorite Kind?

The Thanksgiving dinner spread seemed to be more harvest gold theme because we had just put the turnip, squashes, carrots, pumpkins in the root cellar. Fiddle heads to douse with vinegar could show up at Thanksgiving or Christmas or both. Picked from along brook and river side banks back in early spring and frozen for the special occasion family dining.

What’s for dinner this Thanksgiving at your home? Have you ever worked a free Thanksgiving dinner for the public members that have no family? Whether Veterans who served, shut ins house house bound and afraid of ice when using walkers. Or folks just missing any living or close by family members, Thanksgiving should not be spent alone. I think about the truck drivers, soldiers overseas who have to adopt new family to share the time of gratitude, the holiday called Thanksgiving.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

November 14, 2017
The Local Rural Grapevine For News, Tailor Made For Small Maine Towns.

The majority of the space in the country is rural.

Yet city beat news reporters don’t venture into rural areas very often. You had some tongue in cheek rural programming shows back in the black and white era of television. Andy of Mayberry, Petticoat Junction, The Waltons, Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies. The small town landscape might be too slow to some. To hard to spin and make into something more exciting for those easily bored. Or seeking shock value or on the edge of your seat suspense. Although, horrow writer Stephen King does live in Maine and many of his works are based on a blend of real and fictional towns in Vacationland.

Next Year’s Wood Pile In Tree Life Form. Ready To Knit On, To Slowly Cut And Split Into Just The Right Stove Lengths. Mainers Stay A Season Ahead With Their Wood Stash.

But these days the average reader, viewer wants to know more about small rural town living in Maine.

They are blown away to know there are places on the Earth where you don’t lock doors. Where folks help you out without a financial gain or notoriety for payment. The local grapevine is all about the locals with a mix of county, state, national and World wide news tossed in for good journalistic balance.

How your old neighbor that was on an operating table for fifteen hours is doing is news, is in our prayers, is a big time concern. There is an intimacy on the small rural Maine landscape because the connection is strong unlike a sea of unknown faces coming at you in rush hour traffic or wall to wall on a crowded sidewalk.

Where you can buy tree length wood for heating your Maine home cheapest. Someone got their full length timber delivered for $135 a cord. To process slowly for next year’s heating season.

Heading To The Kitchen Pantry To Rustle Up Some Christmas Meal Dishes. Planning Something Big This Year?

Which is the best wood pellet stove as you head into winter in Maine another topic this time of year. And warming a home with heat pumps and the interrogation with someone who spent the money to find out first hand. It happens down at the local hardware or corner grocery or in the chit chat after church or a kid’s sporting event.

We Mainers have an inquiring mind and gots to know. Before parting with hard earned money without the research needed to make an intelligent decision. And when we do make a hard thought over purchase for a good or service, there is no beating ourselves up later for with second thoughts. No maybe we should have gone another direction after all. Because the decision made was the best with the knowledge we had at the time. The facts, just the facts. And thinking, adapting along the way to keep things moving and kept from going backwards.

Easy Does, Everyone Is Not Strung Out, Including The Animals. Plenty Of Elbow Room, Living Space Does That! Get To Maine For A Sample.

The news from down at the snow sled or VFW, American Legion, Elks Club. It travels fast and is pretty accurate.

Even with the passing it on and where you would think something gets lost in translation with each passing it on with the 5 W’s. The newspapers used to be thicker and more lathered with journalistic ink. But advertising dollars shrunk as the Internet added more exposure, longer shelf time in a highly efficient ROI of time and money.

So with urban living becoming more expensive, fraught with danger and just no space in the race though life. The search for local news, the insider’s perspective in Maine is gaining popularity. Especially with high speed Internet becoming more prominent and far reaching. You don’t have to live without room around you. You can have low cost acreage, no neighbor in sight if that is the goal for personal living space. Waterfront to hog all to yourself too. Can you say that in an urban setting or would someone ask what are you smoking? Our news is not about gangs or drive by shootings either. We don’t have affordable housing supply problems either. Lots of cheap land in Maine too own a patch of dirt, to stop renting and start owning something built from the ground up.

Small Maine newspapers also have guest appearances for weekly local “reporters” in far reaching bedroom communities. These gratis photo journalists take great pride in delivering the freshest, most complete local news from their corner of the Maine rural countryside. Images taken and submitted to the local paper, a sports score or vote from a follow up small town council debate. Those all get relayed from out in the rural outpost willy wags to share with the tight knit local population opening up the newsprint. Or tapping into the latest news signal on a variety of means.

Longing for more simple living, lower cost of living and friendly experiences with your friends and neighbors? Just talk with a local, who is like a news stringer for the local beat. More than Maine farm news and weather discussed. It is not like the old television series Hee Haw with Buck Owens and the Buckaroos. The picking and grinning in the corn fields with Minnie Pearl with the hat with the bird, fruit, price tag hanging off it. Salute.

Isn’t it time? Haven’t you heard enough to entice you to travel north for a look see? Maine, don’t keep her waiting. Come check her out and just try to stay away once those heart strings get a strong tug.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

September 17, 2017
The Transition From City To Small Town Maine Rural Living.

When you put the city life in the rear view mirror, the transition to small town Maine presents many twists and turns.

The lower cost of living is one of the primary perks. And easy adjustment like no crime, no traffic and being able to see the stars at night because no light pollution. There is a shift from impersonal to live and local connection. An enhanced sense of being pulled in. Feeling more involved, part of the small town life where in the urban setting, you can get lost in the sea of sidewalk blank faces. But the strain on the wallet lightens up in rural Vacationland. Even in Maine, the difference from a house for sale in say Portland or up yonder in Aroostook County weighs in over 62% of the cost of the roof over your head. So markets within the market distinctions creep up to help you figure out where you are best off to land in the resettlement.

Maine Lake Loons. They Stay Off Shore, Serenade, Keep To Themselves.

What else is there to prepare for when your new home address is one zip code that covers many townships?

Where one lonely area code for phone calls serves the entire big state of Maine sparse population. Well, you examine your priorities. You have less choices in some of the retail areas, but way way more options for the no or low cost recreational what you do for fun.

When you need an electrician, a plumber, someone to fix your car or furnace, get ready to be patient. You can not let your fingers do the walking in the yellow pages to locate a never ending supply of technicians. The best ones are busy. You plan to hit many projects as the first one out of the gate in the spring. This applies to the hired out building a home. Or you postpone some expensive projects until mid winter. When folks are caught up and looking for work. Especially inside labor to carry the cost of living in small town Maine.

The Bees Are Busy Pollinating The Maine Potato Fields In Summer.

You also become more adept at tackling a greater share of what needs to be done in your life.

Because getting started is better than waiting and although it takes you longer on new experiences testing your DIY skills, you end up finishing about the same time who you wanted to have do the job is freed up to show up and perform their magic.

There is not an slew of options for the pick of the pack, best of the bunch in anything in small town Maine circles. You appreciate what you have and are grateful, content, developing lasting joy. Happy happens summer or winter or spring or fall. The season matters not. And with medical, often, there is room for 1.5 of the specially trained doctors and not quite two professionals. There is strength hidden in population numbers as they grow and allow more to sign on in the employment ranks.

Why People Pick Maine For Low Cost Property, The Wide Open Space.

What you do for fun in small towns is usually out in the country. Nature captures the heart, pulls on its strings in our traditions. You protect, become a good steward that is respectful of Mother Nature and all the wildlife too. Often what is entertaining involves the fresh air and clean water, lush smells of the woods in the great outdoors. The four seasons make each visit to the outdoor venue that refreshes best to have a slightly different take away.

Visit a lighthouse in Maine in the winter, when no tourists are toting cameras or talking or sharing the setting.

You will see what a difference the experience is when it is just you to hog it all to yourself. Try that in a city setting. You can not get away from the people. There just is so little space and often a park or two is all you get to share. And don’t forget Canada, our neighbor where many in the crowd over home are related. No, it is not dangerous being this close to Canada here in Maine. People actually ask that.

And many of the festivals or seasonal celebrations are bigger but fewer. Not offered year round but everything banked on one big memorable day or portion of a calendar week to showcase it. Maybe we have more choices but in from a revolving conveyor belt delivery as the seasons change. You see a lot more home grown and one of a kind mom and pop places as opposed to franchise sameness too in small town Maine living. You witness more use of bikes, horses, and using your imagination in backyards in small towns than behind locked security doors inside, many stories up in a city landscape.

Baxter Park, Have You Hiked Any Of The Peaks? Been To The Top Of Mt Katahdin, Maine’s Highest Elevation? How Many Times?

You feel the sunshine, are more aware of weather in small rural towns. Because you plan to be out in it, not under a roof or between four walls.

Meeting places, they are the corner gas and grab to go pizza joints. Or in the aisles of the local IGA, Surefine or Shop N Save, Shaws or County Yankee groceries. At school gym or playing field sporting functions, in the back of the church or near the snacks after the service. Or sitting on an open porch as folks do more walking than driving when in a small Maine town. And stop to talk as they climb up the porch steps to ask about each other’s family members. And how things are down at work.

Whatever is new in town or what is playing at the small movie theatre or maybe a drive in flick gets discussed at this week’s friendly meeting . Or re-visiting something in the newsprint from a few weeks back for a local topic that is a concern to all taxpayers in the small Maine town. Comparing notes in an ongoing conversation only folks in the small town or region of the county would feel strongly about that would not interest the city mouse. Discover Northern Maine. Sample Downeast Maine. You get to witness something rare, special, not commercial spun or for profit. The list of places we try to highlight in this home grown Me In Maine blog post series.

Sitting in the center of town, or in a common parking lot for those new and old that can drive.

Waving to other motorists. Holding doors open to businesses. Smiling comes easy. As the sun sits, the weekend arrives. Sliding into the angled parking spaces and removing the glass in the window to say hello. To begin where they left off the last meeting talking back and forth from inside a car or SUV or pick up truck. Maybe one pair of car occupants get out, get in the back seat of the neighboring one. Snow sled, ATV four wheeler trails cause groups to gather at club houses along the route too. Where pot luck suppers and fund raisers with incredible spreads happen. Those fill the belly and take care of the need to be social, to feel apart of the local community in small town rural Maine towns.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

September 3, 2017