Category: Maine Small Towns

The Desoto Car With Maine Plates Sank To The Bottom Of East Grand Lake
Desoto car goes through thin ice, not designed for driving around on top or the bottom of a Maine lake.

The brand new car parked, still in drive, at the bottom of East Grand Lake near Greenland Cove was a Desoto. The Desoto brand car manufactured by Chrysler from 1928 to 1961. Until that was all she wrote.

Ralph Black Drove A New Shiny Desoto Firedome, Always Kept Showroom Polished.

I remember seeing a few Desoto flavor cars in my hometown of Houlton Maine.

I think Mel Jackins had one, I know he drove a bird’s egg blue colored 1954 Buick with the distinctive side bullet hole trim markings on each side. It was winter stored for years in my Maine family homestead farm barn.

One Desoto spied at a lawn job I inherited from one of my brothers.

Ralph Black the sole driver of his red and white color scheme Desoto. He drove a beige rear engine Chevy Monza Corvair after that, then a same shade 1966 Pontiac Tempest with a six cylinder, vinyl floor and no frills. Ideal clone for a GTO but needing that 389 power plant up front and a four speed transmission installed. But talk about maintenance on his cars, anything he owned. Second to no one else in that department.

His wife Marjorie never got her driver’s license and walked everywhere in my small town to get where she wanted if Ralph was at work.

Ralph a book keeper, a bean counter for Almon H Fogg company, a local hardware, sporting goods store. “Marj” worked at Cary Library. The pair blessed in many ways but not in the children department. No kids, no storks flying over with blue or pink blanket bundles to drop off by parachute. The Maine home with green asbestos siding on a knoll they had built slowly with the Fogg’s employee discount for materials. Kept to perfection.

I was taught the right way, only way to mow the lawn and trim the grass using an Excello turquoise color reel self propelled mower at Ralph and Marjorie’s intown Houlton Maine home.

And a yellow silent push one for under trees and bushes that was sharpened yearly. You can not neck rein and swing the reel type lawn mowers around like you can the rotary ones. No scalping though and it’s why golf courses use gangs of reel mowers to clip the grass blades just so around the greens and fairways.

The 1954 Car, A Buick With The Portholes, Painted The Same Robin’s Egg Blue & Snow White.

Each week, it was up to me to peddle my banana bike into 5 Franklin Avenue from a couple miles out in the county to the green one owner ranch home.

To mow religiously without missing a beat. And if rain was happening the day planned for lawn care, I had to mentally reschedule without prodding from my parents, the Blacks, anyone else. $5 dollar bill awaits and an ice cold can of White Rock nlack cherry or Canada Dry Tahitian Treat, or Fresca that just hit the market. The latter removed from the shelves when problems with laboratory rats hit the news headlines.

Ralph kept the Desoto spotless, showroom quality long after it rolled off the car lot’s showroom floor.

He was a World War 1 survivor wearing pieces of shrapnel for life in his back. With a hint of respiratory distress, a little cough and a hitch in his breathing. Like I noticed I do on visits to Colorado where one son lives in Leadville and the snow is high, the air is thin.

Ralph’s breathing irregularity not because of high elevations like in the Rockies.

Caused instead from mustard gas exposure in the battle trenches in France fighting for the King and Queen. Ralph and Marjorie were Canadian citizens hailing from Woodstock New Brunswick like many who are blood related on both sides of the boundary line in a Maine border town. They both studied to become US citizens and made Houlton Maine in Aroostook County their new home.

Ralph liked dulse, salted dried seaweed. Marge had a sweet tooth and the candy dish on the top of the living room built in bookcase was rounded over with pink peppermints “from over home”

Easier To Access Ice Traps Using Snow Sleds These Days.

from the Farmer’s Store eh?

But back to the blog post headline about the Desoto in the dark depths of East Grand Lake.

The automobile bought and registered to Bernard Esteys. Taken for a spin with Bernie, the single driver and two couples out for a winter drive. And only showing a few odometer miles since recently leaving the Allied Motors’s North Street sales lot. The model year for the Esteys’s Desoto was 1959. Only two more production years for Desoto before shutting down the line.

This Maine lake outing was the very first weekend the rolling iron was on the road.

Local mechanic at Allied Sales on North Street, Gene Ross shared he just serviced the Desoto for the new owner “Bernie” Esteys. Wearing a ten day plate, that Desoto car went through the thin ice. Ended up resting in a permanent watery grave at the bottom of East Grand Lake.

The Houlton Pioneer Times almost needed to place an ad for a new newspaper editor. It all depended on the outcome of the East Grand Lake event. Whether the guy behind the wheel of the Desoto made it out alive or not. The headline could have been “Desoto Car Goes Through Thin Ice, Newspaper Editor Loses Life On East Grand Lake.”

Local attorney Forest Barnes told me at a Rotary meeting this week that his parents were in that Desoto.

So were George and Jean Roach. When the front end of the Desoto went through the ice of Greenland Point at East Grand Lake. Driving on the ice is not uncommon and it’s one way to get to your ice fishing shack on a Maine lake. Or to visit someone that drags one on and off the ice to fish. Many folks fire up the wood stove to heat their lake camps during ice fishing season. No Tik Tok to entertain you on a home device so let’s tool around Norway Point, see what’s shakin’ on East Grand Lake.

Forest said his Dad always told him if you have two inches of frozen lake ice, it would hold up a team of woods or farm work horses.

Ones used to harvest the ice back too when refrigerators were top loaded with a big hand sawn cooling square. Delivered with tongs by the Ice Man. (Not the one in Top Gun.) Using trucks not F-14 Tomcats for the mission to keep the ice box cold.

The Desoto hung up on ice, nose down, providing just enough time to not have to swim up and out.

About 120+ Feet Of Water Off Greenland Point On East Grand Lake, Danforth Maine Where The Brand New Desoto Sank To The Bottom.

The mother crawled, got out the back window. Before the Desoto took the plunge downward. Dad develop frost bite that nipped his ears and ends of his fingers.

All five counting their blessings on their walk to a cabin. To warm up and shake off the shock of how grave a situation the Desoto car going through thin ice could have been.

Forest’s Dad would suffer from that Desoto ride years, decades later. The Maine lake ride in the back of the car with new car smell left it’s mark.

Any time he was outside in winter without a hat or gloves there was flashback ice hot sensations.

Frostbite is the ice hot gift that tingles the extremities for life. Never lets you forget.

Before our new LED digital real estate sign, changing the sign letters by hand stung the ends of my fingers.

Bundle up for safety sake boys and girls. Stay off the thin ice and know where the springs are, the open water areas.

Not so easy to detect when you leave the groomed trail and when it’s night time.

Forest Barnes added to the story this week at our local Rotary meeting. He graduated from Colby College and in 1959 was stationed in Antigua.

He received mail from his Aunt Margaret that stated “isn’t it awful what happened to your mother”. And that’s all. Leaving him worried sick because Forest was out of the loop. Hadn’t read the headline, scanned the story that local newspaper editor Bernie penned himself.

The Desoto was a lower cost brand of Chrysler, produced initially to compete with Pontiac, Hudson, Willys, Studebaker .

The 1942 Desoto had distinctive front lights hidden behind the doors that matched the paint color. The Desoto on the bottom of East Grand Lake never was recovered. The plumber named Johnson who used VW pickup trucks to install and mend pipes got the salvage rights for $500.

The Houlton plumber had divers try to locate the car and they did find and then mysterious lost the Desoto with low mileage. Johnson rounded up several 55 gallon plastic drums that would be strapped to the car, filled with air and hopefully float the Desoto car to the surface.

Over 120 feet of water makes the chore of getting it back to dry shore land a little too tricky a maneuver. Gene Ross who flew over the salvage site and saw all the lake surface boats while piloting a Cessna 172. He said he saw the red car clearly but after circling around, it was gone. Could not locate again or get a visual.

I know of a pick up that went through the ice on Drews Lake that was recovered a few years back though.

Doug McNutt or Danny Emerson, not sure but think it was Frogman Doug.

Ice Shacks In Maine! Be Careful Of Thin Ice, Open Water, Pressure Ridges. Less Dangerous When The Ice Shack Is Closer To Shore And The Water’s Not So Deep.

Who dressed up in the diving neoprene suit and mask. Strapped on air tanks to help the recovery efforts. Filling a brand new 275 gallon fuel oil tank with water and dragging it out by boat over the pickup’s location. Then lowering the water logged tank to the pickup bed.

Next wrapping it round and round with canvass tow straps and chains. More than bungie cords involved until everything secure.

Finally filling the big tank with air from a compressor tank run by a generator to remove the water.

To cause the lift needed to float the pick up back end and begin the drag by power boat back to shore. The front wheels were turned so the towing had more resistance and required more boat engine throttle action. The frog man could not turn the front wheels and the keys still locked in the rusting ignition from the hurried exit.

Where you gotta go and swim up to the bright light. To hopefully locate the same hole caused when the vehicle went through the thin ice and sunk quickly to the Maine lake bottom.

No one hurt like the Desoto car going through the ice and sinking many years earlier on 16,000 + acre East Grand Lake.

East Grand Lake is the state’s 8th largest water body. Has over 73 miles of fishable shoreline for close to shore casting off the end of your wharf or dock. If you don’t use a boat to head to your favorite fishing hole in this International lake to wet your baited line. Locals know the black open ice areas of lakes to avoid if they like to ice fish. Pressure ridges where the ice expands and contracts areas are no secret to the natives. Stay on the trails if snow sledding, cross country skiing or ice fishing Maine lakes is sound advice.

Ice shacks have to be removed from Maine lakes by a certain date. Here’s what the legislative fine print says for that end of winter move it or lose it maneuver.

Thin Ice, Not Able to Support Much If Any Weight.

Ice Fishing Shack: A person who owns any shack or temporary structure used for ice fishing:
- Must remove the shack or structure (1) In any area of the State in which there is a closed ice fishing season, by ice out or 3 days after the close of the ice fishing season, whichever is earlier; and (2) In any area of the State in which there is no close of the ice fishing season, by ice out or March 31st, whichever is earlier. (Title 12, §12661).
- Shall identify on the outside of the shack or structure in 2-inch letters, the owner’s name and address when the shack or structure is on the ice of any inland wa-ters (Title 12, §12661).
- A person may not leave a structure on another person’s land without permission of the landowner (Title 17, §2263-A). A landowner may immediately remove or destroy a structure left on their property and may recover the costs associated with doing so (Title 12, §12661).
Ice fishing, not a fast paced outdoor winter sport in Maine.

But drilling, tending, watching the five holes bored by hand or pulling the cord on a Jiffy ice auger. Waiting for the baited orange flag lines to trip and signal “you got fish”. Maybe. Or a strike from a fish who got away with the lure.

The ice shacks often in a group of winter shanties. Like lake gypsies setting up camp when the carnival or circus comes to town. Ice fishing is just one of the many things you do while “upta camp in Maine“.

There are ice fishing derbies all winter long for prizes and bragging rights.

With a smiling newspaper and social media mug shot photo holding the landed big fish from the deep pulled up through the 5 inch hole.

Who landed the biggest salmon, bass, togue, trout, perch, pickerel or whatever kind of fish populate the Maine lake you angle is tradition.

Access by cars with plowed roadways across the sheet of ice, using snowmobiles too.

Some ice shacks are just out front of the main camp.

Or as long as you can monitor the holes, the game warden will let you monitor them from the camp picture window with binoculars. Along with someone in the fishing party giving an even closer inspection to please fish and game officials. You have to tend your ice fishing traps.

One last note, the story of the Desoto that went down off Greenland Point on East Grand Lake.

The insurance company paid up, someone bid on the salvage rights and got them for $500. But Forest said that party never exercised it’s right to hoist away and pull up the crusty prize that’s home to fish listening to the AM radio. Now there’s a story to share upta camp in Maine while playing cribbage or poker.

The Getaway, Woods Cabin In Maine. Warm, Friendly, Snug!

What’s that… something I heard trying to make out the whispering and hush hush in the audience?

Something about just hooking a chain on the Desoto’s heavy duty steel bumper or heavy iron frame? Just twitch it out like a load of tree logs using a skidder. Just winching it in? Whoa. Rocks. Big rocks, lots of them. Some you can, many you can not see but will know when you fetch up on one that snaps your recovery cable.

Remember the one road before you get to Greenland Cove boat launch to the left is named “Boulder Road” for a reason.

If you were able to reel in the Desoto dragging it along the lake bottom, you would have a lot of missing body parts, many scrapes and dents. Defeats the purpose.

Sometimes the ending of the story is not so happy.

Like the time two couples were on the same East Grand Lake one evening and broke through the ice, all four perishing. I heard about this tragedy from the town manager of Monticello at the time. Richard Ross told me he was six years at the time. His grandparents took him in and raised him up with another plate set at the long meal time table.

Visiting ice shacks on a Maine lake, driving around the iced over body of water in winter.

Be careful. Thanks for reading the tale about the Desoto car that disappeared through thin ice, but no one was hurt badly up at East Grand Lake.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA
January 27, 2022
Ellsworth ME Bob Marley Instate Mini Vacation

Ellsworth ME Bob Marley instate mini vacation run to the coast.

When you live in Maine, you are very spoiled. The long trip to get here and return from whence you began is gone. Yes, Maine is still one tall and wide state to navigate. But being a native sure shaves a lot of travel time off the trip to Maine vacation of any length adventure. This blog post about a quick and easy weekend jaunt to Ellsworth Maine in Hancock County. Ellsworth Maine is the county seat, population last head count over 7791 friendly souls.

Ellsworth Maine, Bob Marley Comedy Show At “The Grand Theatre”.

What do I know about Ellsworth Maine?

Late Afternoon On Main ST Ellsworth Maine Outside “The Grand Theatre”.

The radio station I worked at fourteen in my hometown of Houlton Maine used to get its Red Sox and CBS new radio feed from WDEA in Ellsworth. When I worked at WABI in Bangor in college, I learned that the stations newscaster Patsy Wiggins’s family owned the Ellsworth American newspaper in Ellsworth. And other than traveling down RT 1A through Ellsworth on the way to Bar Harbor Maine, that was about the extent of my knowledge. Remember Maine has a handful of cities, and over 400 small towns to keep track of whether you live here in state or not.

Anything else known about Ellsworth Maine?

Snoozin’. Resting Up For The Busy Summer Maine Coastal Tourist Season Ahead, 1A Relics Outside Ellsworth ME.

Just that Lucerne and Green Lakes get passed on the way from Bangor to Ellsworth. And remember an Oak Concert held in some gravel pit around those parts during college. We collected another empties to haul them into Ellsworth Maine to trade them in for one heck of a grilled steak supper on one camp out weekend. Taking in Oak, a hometown band in Maine on their way up.. for a while with Rick Pinette the lead crooner.

Streets Of Ellsworth, Any Coastal Maine Tourist Town Not So Crowded In Winter.

Oak’s hit “King of the Hill” reached 36 on the Billboard hot 100 record charts.

The Grand Theatre In Ellsworth Maine Where Comic Bob Marley Entertained Sold Out Audiences.

Bill Chinnock, Cherry Opera, Bootleg, Dick Curliss… lots of other great local Maine bands to cover in future Me In Maine blog posts, stay tuned. Anything Maine is fair game to blog about and share.

This trip to Ellsworth Maine to see comedian Bob Marley who sold out The Grand Theatre on Main Street.

The final stint of back to back stand up comedy shows in Ellsworth. Packing them in to the Grand Theatre wall to wall before high tailing it to Florida to do more of the same but changing into a short sleeve shirt.

The warm up comedian I totally missed his name.

His jokes centered around living in Worcester and being a janitor, I mean custodian. He looked like Mark Walberg, a little. He was good but Bob Marley was great.

When you live in Maine, the humor centered around the day to day in state ordinary events from where you hail are the funniest.

Bob Marley hit the highlights of what his family that puts the fun in dysfunction is up to these days. For 90 minutes he covered lots of topics and without dropping the F bomb. Good clean fun and we hit the middle show late afternoon at The Grand in Ellsworth.

Especially enjoyed his bit about driving on the Interstate during a snow storm. Things don’t stop with a few flakes of the white stuff falling around you when going from point A to B in Maine during the winter.

Bob shared the feeling of being out front, number one when ahead of the pack driving slower but steady she goes on the Interstate.

Maneuvering around plow trucks with big wings and flashing lights leading the charge. Traffic backed up behind you until someone pulls out to pass and attempt to take over the lead. The feeling when they pass of secretly hoping they go off the road.

The humor would be totally lost on someone who never adapted their driving to adjust to winter snow covered a Maine highway. Cousin Wayne, the Aunt on a tank who spends winters in Cape Coral Florida. They are all funny. New bits and nothing recycled or allowed to go stale. Comic Bob Marley is at the top of his game making folks laugh and feel good inside.

Here is a video clip of Bob Marley, the comedian, not the guy who sang reggae oh so well.

The Maine mini instate vacation weekend getaway included a neat breakfast the next morning at Martha’s Diner.

This place is one of a kind dishing out the best local food breakfast for miles around. Locked in the late 1950’s, early 1960’s, the malt shop like setting buzzing with locals in and out hungry to kick off their day. I asked one waitress if she was Martha. No, Martha is enjoying her day off today, I’m Paula.

Martha’s Diner Ellsworth Maine. Breakfast Never Ends, Served All Day Long In Hancock County.

We got to meet Peter, Martha’s other half who made the crab quiche that Meg said was scrumptious.

Maine lobster, clams, even mussel seem to hog all the menu time press and what about crab? Maine has local crabs. The good kind you eat. I had heard of green crab before and it seems they were a nuisance to fisherman. Invading traps of something else and seemingly of no value my first impressions. But Maine does have crabs that are stellar to consider dining on when it’s meal time. We talked with Peter who baked the crab quiche when settling up after the meal at Martha’s Diner. Peter told us crab comes in two speeds.. peekytoe or rock crab and Jonah crab.

Meet Pete, The Other Half Of Martha’s Diner In Ellsworth ME.

Peter told us Jonah crabs are a tad bigger and reddish with large black tipped claws.

Martha’s Diner, Ellsworth ME Solving Early Morning Hunger. Get Your Fill Of Local News Like Most Home Town One Of A Kind Eateries That Are No Franchise.

Maine crabs. They are found in deeper Maine coastal water.

He’s what I learned about green crab… seeking out to see if they were only good to bait other fish like lobsters that get all the oohs and aahhs when you tie on the bib and reach for the crackers and pick. It seems from what I read that green crabs are not so big but can be boiled, dined on like Atlantic blue crab. But you have to keep them parked in water for a few days to get rid of the pollutants. Then it’s take a swim in a steaming pot of water time, extract the meat and dine on them like you would clams.

Have you noticed any blog post about the Maine coast involved seafood to some degree?

Heavy on the Maine lighthouses too. Because growing up in Aroostook County, that coastal scenery was not the every day back drop although there were lots of family vacations to the Camden Maine area.

Hibernating, Pulled Back A Notch. That’s Maine Coastal Tourist Towns In Winter. Resting Up From Vacation Bomber To Bomber Traffic Eager To Sample ME.

Quick trip to Ellsworth Maine for a Bob Marley comedy show this past weekend.

Where I go and what I see is what most of the Me in Maine blog posts are all about to share the state so loved by many. Shoulder seasons are in my opinion the best time to visit the tourist attractions in Maine. The off season visits to the places you love to tour in the summer have less of a tourist crowd. Not shared with so many and you get way way more elbow room. The local business owners and natives are more laid back, friendlier when all the tourist crowds thin out and head home. Hope your New Year is underway in good shape and on course for all those resolutions you struggle to implement.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

January 10, 2022
New Years In Maine | Little Things To Change

New Years in Maine, little things to change.

Happy New Year from Me In Maine blog. Is the change of years a big deal or ho hum? When you rip off the last calendar month, do you have a plan for the new year ahead? No doubt, more trips to Maine are on your list if you live out of state. COVID makes it a little creative or restrictive to access Maine depending on the news headlines.

Trapped, Stuffed In Too Small A Space? Maine Is Wide Open Outdoors For The Cure.

But what else is on your New Year’s Resolution list if you do put on the thinking cap, scribble down a new plan for 2022?

The list, if you make one. Does it include start a garden if you don’t already drop to your knees to dig in the fertile soil? You can look at the list from the last few years, bring it all forward.

But it seems many who front load the list with way way more than it feasible to pull off, it can all cause disappointment when you fall short. Again.

Where To Park? Never Ever Out In The Street In Rural Maine.

So little things, easy does it. What if your life is pretty full and healthy already? Or could you benefit from adding a couple more books to read cover to cover in the New Year? What subject or topic?

Drink more water, make exercise a daily habit, say your prayers all on the New Year’s resolution list?

Heck listen to more Johnny Cash or whatever other artist inspires and gives you a good inner feeling? That takes you back like a golden oldie music tune. Or join the community choir, the local town band and make music for others like McGill’s Band does in my little home town of Houlton Maine.

Everyone could benefit from decluttering.

Simplify and don’t buy it unless you need it. Forget plastic. Retail therapy can be expensive and needs to be fed around the clock. Do you take the steps when heading into a building with lots of floors that has an elevator you avoid using?

Talking less, listening more and fully paying 100% attention to whoever has the floor? That would not hurt most of us unless you live pretty much “Quaker’s Meeting has begun” day and night. Active listening is an art. All of us has something to contribute to the conversation if given a chance for back and forth, two wayexchanges.

Volunteer.

Everyone benefits on both ends of volunteering. Just pace yourself and don’t neglect other important aspects of your life. Small Maine communities could not survive and prosper without the quality of life volunteers bring the communities.

Writing letters, not posting about every trip you take on social media. But keeping a private scrap book of where you have been. Writing a letter and not checking your email every ten minutes. No one has to quit social media but pulling back to leave space for something else in your life can free you up in a good way.

Calling and having a conversation instead of a quick impersonal text that leaves so so much out of the exchange for the pair or group messaging. Spend more time with family.

Older Teach The Young. Small Maine Rural Towns Are Strong Tight Family Connections.

Dieting is always top on the list of many for New Year’s list of resolutions.

Why the scales are showing overloaded or a higher weight number than you wished it did? Eating more than the three balanced meals a day or just the wrong things that are sky high in fat, salt, artificial this and that? Often no time to prepare the right meal and enjoy it slowly means overbooked life is your problem. Or age creeps up and the body metabolism slows down causing love handles to appear. Smaller portions, eating slower, the right stuff. Gardens when in bloom, the root cellar when stacked and packed. Those are way better than Mickey D’s or square burgers at the girl named Wendy’s wearing pig tails and a smile.

Grow Something From A Seed That You Transplant And Nurture For The Vibrant Colors. Or The Rich Fresh Local Farm To Table Satisfying Taste.

If you are wearing a spare tire around you and nothing fits, dieting is no doubt in the plans.

But sensible, not trying to lose a quick 50 pounds by the weekend means pushing away from the table. Spending less time with the knife, fork, spoon. Eating less, filling the time you stress consume means you need more time doing something instead of stuffing the pie hole. The goal is to feel better, eat healthy right? Don’t diet to look thin… ship shape the daily diet so you are the healthiest version of you and fit.

Maine Sunrises, Maine Sunsets. Collect And Enjoy More Of Those In Your New Year 2022.

More energy comes from less junk in the trunk and not striving to have the rocking body you tooled around with back as a teenager.

Healthy thoughts, counting your blessings, avoid gossip or stinking thinking. Give a compliment or two a day and be sincere. Care more for others, less about number one. Lots to adjust in the little things that can creep into your gray matter to wrestle with and try to tame. Striving to be positive is way easier to seek out than staying in the lazy rut of negativity.

Complaint is bankruptcy, gratitude is riches. You and I have way way more than we need. Pass along and help out without needing recognition for doing the right thing with random acts of kindness.

Dreaming, Vegging, Relaxing. Forgot How? No Time To Sit A Spell And Let Go? Get To Maine Every Chance You Get. Don’t Keep Her Waiting.

Work smarter not harder in the New Year in Maine.

Write a song, jot down a poem. Take an adult ed class for work working, cooking, computer web design, accounting, something outside your comfort zone. Education is never wasted. Learn to paint, shoot more images that you can frame and create your own art. Learn to knit, how to play cribbage, to make bubble and squeak. Buy a home needing DIY skills to rent out or flip. Fish and ski more all four seasons for both. When you live in Maine, the options for four seasons outdoor fun is endless. You dress appropriately but are outdoors year round in Maine.

Hike a trail, ride a bike or horse. Join a fish and game, snowmobile club or fraternal organization.

Derby Hill, Houlton Maine Soap Box Derby Race Circuit From The Air.

Enjoy the social aspect of creating something new and worthwhile for your community. Small town living in Maine is like that. Soon you will have lots of friends if you are new to the area and want to become part of the Maine community. Coach a team, learn to skate at the local ice arena. Play a pitch up basketball game down at the local recreation facility. Become part of the Maine soap box derby group!

Donate clothes, take a Rotary exchange trip to help out in a third World country that needs assistance desperately.

Live without credit card debt. Avoid folks who complain a lot. Whistle a tune, learn to hum and make a list of what you hope to accomplish today. Focus on getting some of those items completed and don’t worry if the entire list is not check off as done the same day.

Take better care of your vehicles so you don’t have to buy one with a payment booklet.

Easy does it in what you consume for spirits and food portions. Be more open minded to folks with opinions different than your own. Judge less, be more forgiving. Look for the good and don’t get in the trap of whining or feeling sorry for yourself. Seek contentment.

Appreciate reading to a grandchild or as part of a local literacy training program in the New Year.

A warm house, hot shower, a steaming cup of fresh brewed coffee or tea. Home made anything for a meal that is slow cooked beats fast food thrown together. Budget your time better. So the food you eat on the run and shove NASCAR quick through down the gullet from a drive thru window is less commonplace. Call your friends, delegate who brings which part of the meal for pot luck delicious and social interaction.

A Peek Of The Blogger’s Homestead Where Sheep Graze On A Fall Afternoon I Northern Maine’s Aroostook County.

Happy New Year from Maine.

Thank you very much for following our blog posts on Me in Maine. I love where I live, work, play and grew up and am here for questions on anything Maine. Hope the list of New Years Resolutions is similar to yours and that you can add more to mine!

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

December 30, 2021
Migration Back To Small Rural Maine Towns

Migration back to small rural Maine towns.

It’s happening and it’s not a fluke. This blog post is a look at why the former trend of outward migration and population loss is reversing in my small town rural area of Maine. I see it and hear the reasons why every day as a Maine real estate broker. The call of the country and simpler living up in Maine. It’s all causing the relocation to Vacationland pace to pick up speed.

The Village In A Small Maine Town Raises The Kids.

The tug on the heart strings to move back to Maine small towns.

For some it is an easy decision to make.

They remember growing up in small Maine towns and know what they are missing from first hand experience.

Jobs and financial career goals the only reason that forced the move away from small town living in the first place. It was a reluctant but necessary natural progression. Population centers offered the largest variety of good paying jobs. Maine is a great place to live, always has been. But the catch is you have to be able to make a decent wage.

You gotta eat and want more than a hand to mouth existence if what you or your parents did for employment was tied to farming, fishing, mill work or cutting pulp in the Maine woods.

Bustling small Maine towns before the Interstate and Internet were vibrant with flourishing small Maine businesses. Working hard with the owner in the store dedicated to serving your friends, family and neighbors. Performing with fierce pride in your local school sport teams too. Maine rural communities offer a tightly connected small town way of life.

Able to telecommute to work online remotely during COVID was the dress rehearsal.

Folks everywhere across the land and around the globe learned we can do it from the comfort of our own home sweet home. We’re moving. Lower overheard for companies, happier workers not wasting time socializing around the water cooler. No hassles with traffic, crime, carrying a tazer. It all helped fuel the migration to Maine. Packing the Worldly possessions along with the current job and heading North up the pike to to work remotely in Maine. IF that last mile of Internet broadband connection is long and strong in place to make it a viable relocation option.

You are no longer in a city skyscraper corner office when the kids come home after school living in rural Maine.

A Peek Of The Blogger’s Homestead Where Sheep Graze On A Fall Afternoon In Northern Maine’s Aroostook County.

The kids can now walk home from school because everything is so close in small Maine towns.

Picking Maine Potatoes, My Entry Level Job That Taught Me So Much.

A block to the store, two blocks to school, and kids hoof it rather than parents providing the valet drop and pick up daily dance. Multi generations living together is more efficient and the kids benefit from the wisdom of older family members nearby or sharing the same roof line. You don’t have the giant city salary but your expenses are way way lower to the ground. No worry about a white van kidnapping your kid either. The village watches and raises all the children.

You do more for yourself than hiring it out in small rural Maine towns.

The cost of living is lower in small town rural Maine because insurance is cut in half. No white vans lurking near your home that you worry about snacking your kids in the 4th lowest crime state either.

So so many Maine vacation places overhauled to be way way more than a three day or week long take a break stay.

When the COVID sky started falling and toilet paper was scarce. As the initial wave of adjustment to life as we knew it hit, anyone with a Maine coastal, lake shore, riverfront, woods retreat toyed with the thought.

What if I packed it in and headed up to Maine as my refuge to regroup?

To weather the COVID storm and tough it out for a spell until things settled down. But COVID is the hangover that did not go away. The virus is not a temporary condition and forces everyone to consider where they hang their hat and why for quality of living.

Perkins Cove Maine, Boats Anchored For The Night.

For many close to retirement, the memory of sea gulls and lake loons on Maine vacations is the all natural pure and simple drug. A carryover flashback OF memories of good times enjoyed during time spent here on the fun Maine rest and relaxation stint. For young folks struggling to make ends meet in the city, getting more for less financial overhead in small Maine town living has appeal.

Less people, more down to early friendly folks and all this four seasons outdoor unspoiled natural beauty.

Maine is a place you love her for what she offers and what she does not at the same time. Less traffic, lower crime, cheaper to live in Maine. That coupled with the friendly people and more elbow room. The ability to pitch in and feel you can make a difference as you add your talents to the mix. You are needed in the small Maine town special home grown connection. The village raises the kids and you are closer to the day to day action in smaller circles you travel in small Maine towns.

Older Teach The Younger. Small Maine Rural Towns Are Tight Family Connections.

When COVID’s trapped inside living stress doubled up, the little space with far too many people in the city made urban dwellers hanker low population Maine.

The common sense and pitch in to help out approach to living in small Maine towns looked pretty darn appealing. Small Maine towns are really like large families. You don’t pay to attend events, you are working them behind the scenes year after year.

Kids Helping Area Maine Farmers. Learning Work Ethic, Responsibility Early On To Benefit For Life.

Home grown beats store bought and the hands on to make the next event even better causes others around you to dig in and do more. That’s how small Maine towns work. You don’t just live and work there. Instead, you are the small Maine town and go above and beyond to maintain and increase the quality of life for others.

The polarity and division of the last national election just added fuel to the fire to pick up and move to Maine.

Feeling like buying 40 acres up in Maine might be the answer caused more emails, texts, office visits and phone calls to pour into our small Maine town real estate office. Land big and cheap. To plant a large garden, to cut, split and stack the winter wood. With next year’s stash for heating your home already steadily added to to be boy scout prepared.

Halloween Is Big, Trick Or Treating Is Safe.

Migration back to Maine for locals that had picked up roots and moved.

That’s part of the Maine real estate market activity. Others buying vacation property that could be more if the new owner decides to head to Maine. This market segment hedging their bets and looking for a fun but sensible insurance policy investment. Maine land is way way under valued and boy can you produce a lot of farm to table food if you work it. Enriched living, everyone from the smallest to the oldest family member has a role in the household.

Dangling, Handling The Ball To Advance Up The Maine High School Soccer Field!

Taught how to do it, to develop the right attitude for success. To approach a task carefully and perform it slowly. Easy does it. Like the early on advice to never run with scissors and to avoid getting hurt. But with expertise to plan your work and work that plan learned from past experience growing up in small town Maine.

Everyone is assessing today what exactly “quality of life” really means.

How to achieve it, maintain it, make it last. Maine small towns have far less obstacles and in most cases, money is not the deciding factor on where you live anymore. We Mainers are more hands on, have a skill set and don’t have to wait around for others to do everything for us. Raised in Maine, kids learn work ethic, gain self confidence and are shaped for adulthood. Happier, independent, not blaming others for why their life did not turn out the way it looks around the artificial social media circuits. “If it is to be, it is up to me” and being grateful enriches your life and those of the folks around you.

Any Season, Any Angle, Mount Katahdin Captivates A Person Any Age.

When you live in a city, the options to provide kids with their own hard earned money are not so common. Obstacles to work… that’s part of it. But also parents that don’t push for Jimmy and Jane to do chores and hold down entry level jobs. COVID fear make parents hover even more but also work legislation restrictions threatens skill building and opportunities first jobs.

In Maine small towns, kids mow lawns, deliver newspapers, have odd jobs around the neighborhood and bag groceries, stock shelves. If kids work out in the gardens, stack wood, pitch in with daily chores around a Maine household. Good things are going to happen.

Maine Home Offices, Working Online From Home Sweet Home Up In Maine. No Worried About FOMO Because We Are Grateful.

But if mom and dad hand you $20 bills and Zeke or Pebbles’ cell phone and car are better than their parents have.

If teenagers are not cutting grass, flipping burgers, delivering papers or helping area farmers, small businesses. Oh oh.

When they don’t babysit and are slumped on a couch peering into an eerie blow glow device, a full and rich dynamic life is not automatic. No skills, lazy, depressed and not able to connect the dots why happens.

Kids suffer when adults are hired to do those jobs they need to learn self sufficiency … that’s another part of it.

Outward migration from say Florida with over 400 people per square mile or California at 250 plus or New Jersey with over 1200 head count.

That’s another piece of the labor shortage puzzle. And why employers are paying so much to attract a labor force. That means the cost of goods and services provided will be sky high too.

A kid getting $14 an hour or higher working at a fast food outlet is too much and only going to lead to wanting higher wages than the job warrants.

The raking blueberries, picking potatoes, apples, working on a farm in Maine builds stamina, responsibility, develops a hustle in your step. You earned every cent you made when it is the sweat of your brow manual entry level kind.

My rural Aroostook County area is growing with folks rethinking where they live in a crowded areas with high cost of living, traffic, crime.

Mid Coast Maine Lighthouses. Lots Of Them To Collect Easily From A Boat Ride.

You will never ever see local signs stating “no one wants to work” because lazy is the by far worst label anyone could wear.

We are not lazy. All raised to work hard, pitch in and make a difference. The local Louisiana Pacific plant is expanding, Smith and Wesson employee numbers are going up and small rural areas a

Pitch In, Help Out, Make A Difference. That’s Why Maine Small Towns Quality Of Life Is Rich And Tightly Connected.

re booming with work options.

Some of the reasons to explain the move to Maine population increase numbers.

A change of pace and getting healthy by hiking, biking, skiing, kayaking and daily exercise. That’s another perk living in big and beautiful wide open Maine. Maine is the way life should be. Life longer, live better up in Maine is the conclusion more folks are drawing these crazy days. Recreation is second to none on your own and the parks and rec programs are extensive. Lakes, rivers, mountains, scenic trails, picnic spots. Our backyard is outdoors everywhere you look out over the land in Maine.

This blog post nails down the reasons for why people moved away and now are returning to small town rural Maine.

Why new to the area folks are picking Maine as their next mailing address. Real estate inventory is being snatched up to meet the demand and the transplants from out of state are so amazed at small town living benefits. Their kids are learning the skills to be successful adults for wherever they end up living from growing up in small Maine town communities.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

November 3, 2021
Halloween Trick Or Treating In A Small Maine Town

Halloween trick or treating in a small Maine town.

Halloween is a big dea in Mainel. I know in large cities, parents worry about sending their little goblins, witches and monsters out on the door to door candy parade. But in small Maine towns, the trick or treating tradition is big. COVID caused a wrinkle. But with precautions in place, the candy show knock knock tradition continues in Maine with individually wrapped treats. The excitement starts early. Planning for what to be this year for a costume, a theme is part of the fun.

Everyone Puts In A Lot Of Thought For Halloween Trick & Treating In Small Maine Towns.

Do you remember trick or treating on October 31st Halloween growing up?

Did you or do you enjoy taking out your kids, grand kids to canvass the neighborhoods around you for candy collection? What was your favorite treat? Which stop growing up along the hop up and off open porches with lights on do you recall as your favorite?

I remember the Chamberlain sisters who lived on the corner of Frandklin AVE and Court ST in Houlton Maine. The pair made the Halloween holiday effort.

Each Halloween the sisters were as excited as the door knockers out front their gorgeous Maine home. Word gets around and you remember last year’s visit to each and every small Maine town home. So this house stop’s popularity only grew greater. Lining up to sample their home made donuts. The warm cider to wash it all down was another treat as they invited you in to their large Victorian Houlton ME home.

The take off your mask, show us who you really are under the Halloween trick or treating costume routine.

That happened in their formal Maine home living room. Kids escorted in and out and everyone got a home made from the kitchen treat. Sugar ed or plain, it’s up to howling werewolf. Looking back, what an effort this sister pair put out to add to the Halloween trick or treating in my small Maine town in Aroostook County.

I used to come in from the country where I lived on a Maine farm to trick or treat.

Not many homes along the Maine rural landscape when you are a couple of miles away from town. And out in the dark, on a busy highway is not a good combination for someone trying to navigate. Carrying candy loot and trying to get your bearings. Wearing a mask with just two small eye holes and maybe a flashlight in the other hand. My cousins lived on the Highland Avenue in a large yellow home that was always the beehive of fun growing up. Seven kids with one pair of identical twins in the mix, I would pair up with my cousins to ply the streets for treats. We covered a lot of ground, hit a lot of houses. Like a politician campaigning for a vote, it was all for the treat.

The Adults Snack Too, Lots To Eat For Treats At Home Or On The Neighborhood Candy Trails.

Some houses had the self service bowl of candy on the table to help yourself for a handful of Halloween treats.

Others decked the place out with a lot of time spent to create the spooky look. To make you question your judgement to really take the dare or not to ring the door bell or apply the knock knock knock. Many of the door to door candy vendors wore a costume too. You could tell who really was a kid again and made the effort to put on a show for the trick or treaters. Boo. Made you jump. Here, let me help pick up the spilled candy.. pretty dark huh?

Give Me A Musical Beat To Go Along With The Sweets. Light Shows For This Halloween Trick Or Treat Pit Stop On Commonwealth Avenue.

With my own four kids, I really looked forward to the door to door.

One of my favorite holidays really. You see other parents as you advance up the small Maine town streets. Say hello, hey there’s an old classmate or another relative walking across the lawn you just visited. Someone you work with is doing the same October 31st tradition. Orange, purple, weird eerie glow of green, it’s approaching. Halloween trick or treating in small Maine towns across the state. Do you stay at home and turn on your front porch light to attract trick or treaters?

Boo. Scared Right? Hey, You Gonna Eat That Snickers Bar?

To let them know you are open and now serving come one, come all as a cavity creators Or do you lay low, act like no one is home? Maybe high tail it to another candy central location to help dish it out and have a Halloween party of treats for all the supporting cast at the home away from home?

I remember one man, Forman Swallow who worked for Nabisco I think. He and his wife lit up their driveway with the weighted paper bags and flickering candles inside.

Dishing out large size cookie packages and candy like you used to only be able to get at the movie or outdoor drive in theatre. Looking back, you want to thank them for creating the experience of Halloween trick or treating for your kids.

Some households would have the apples, the century old dry as dust popcorn balls.

Others would give out a collection of treats in the orange, black and white bags with the witch on the front riding her broom. Someone took a lot of time, spent much time and money to hand out a quality treat. I remember one house stop, the kids waited, waited and were about to nix this visit to go on to the next porch.

The owner finally opened the door, seemed surprised and had forgotten it was Halloween.

He may have had a few too many barley pops and snoozed off watching “Wheel of Fortune” or Gunsmoke reruns. But he insisted, no candy treats to dish out but he pulled the five trick or treaters in the gang down to his kitchen pantry.

Lots Of Spooks, Might Be Halloween Haunted This Patten ME Home.

Each kid came out with a can of vegetables to show for the Halloween stop.

Makes trick or treating a good work out when hefting a couple of cans of corn, peas, green beans or carrots. Boo hoo if your arm gets tired and the next guy wants to give you a piece of firewood to

Yours Truly. Small Maine Towns, Everyone Gets Into The Spooky Halloween Mood.

lug back to the candy beehive. One household, the manager of Shop and Save Grocery store gave out cans of soda.

Hope you have a strong bag to carry the loot load.

Others with the can giveaway choice would strap and wrap a dollar or more around the cylinder. Nice.

Thank you very much. No eggs or toilet paper you older trick or treaters up to mischief for this five star Halloween eatery.

One group of three houses joined forces to create a theme park for Halloween.

Ultraviolet lights and snakes on a pulley. Giant mutant spiders from some other solar system climbing up the sides of houses.

An army tent with a casket and other skeletons, Halloweeen haunted house devices to entertain and scare. My youngest in his bat mat outfit taking it all in and jumped a foot when the body in the casket elevated to say “good evening”.

Some Maine neighbors cause the biggest flock of trick or treaters from their set it up and then tear it down production. Attracting hundreds of costumed characters to visit to pan handle for candy.

Trick Or Treat…Don’t Forget To Say Thank You!

What are you doing this Halloween trick or treating season? Individual wrapped and no handfuls from a bowl to be sensitive to COVID protocols.

What do you dress up as around your place of work or are you thinking just too old for this Halloween trick or treat game of make believe?

Anyone with grandchildren, young kids of their own will be swept into the holiday mood of Halloween living in a small Maine town.

There are a lot of folks with a sweet tooth across the Maine landscape. Trick or treat and go slow motorists to make it safe for all the ghosts, goblins, witches, fairies and super heroes with a candy craving.

Have a candy basket in the real estate office and folks reach for the candy corn, anything chocolate. The house hunters get hungry really from tramping properties and enjoy the treats year round. What’s your pleasure for a Halloween treat?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

October 20, 2021
Potato picking in Maine

Potato picking in Maine.

For many of us in Northern Maine, picking potatoes for an area farmer was our first real job. For anyone raised on a Maine potato farm like I was, the fall harvest tradition is a strongly ingrained tradition. Many grown ups take their vacations to work the harvest. It’s was that memorable and enriching for them to remember what working the harvest was like. They like helping out an area Maine potato farmer get the crop in the storage bins.

Lessons Earned Young To Apply To Life For The Youth Picking Maine Potatoes Out In The Farm Fields!

This blog post is all about Maine potato picking.

First things first. Picking potatoes like raking Maine blueberries, collecting apples climbing the ladder, digging for clams, etc all start with a system. My Dad and Mom preached before charging in to plan your work and work your plan. Reminded us enough times to never ever forget. That “you got to have a system.”

There is an art to everything we do in life and Mainers are definitely hard working.

Putting their all into every endeavor with zeal and innovation. Being raised on a Maine farm, the last and most cruel label you could ever wear or have applied was the word “lazy”. You were not, could not be lazy. You learned worth ethic early on in life. Lazy is considered stealing, not contributing for the greater good and is simply being a poor team member.

Watch a local Maine potato picking field operation video … Hear the digger squeaking by, see how the older pickers help the younger ones in this Maine harvest example.

Pitch in, work hard and be proud of your “fire in your belly” passion driven by the industrious gene.

So Maine potato picking, how does it all work? As a kid, waking up early and first turning on the radio to see if farmer Bob or Jim are starting on time was key. You don’t want to be late for work. True Mainers pride themselves on showing up consistently on time. In fact, if you are not early you are late thinking happens. Because you are trained to be dependable, responsible, a constant wherever you work. You want to be present and accounted for and ready to work.

Reasons your potato farmer might not be starting the digging on time, at the usual early AM morning time slot?

There was a frost last night. Gotta wait until the Maine farm field ground warms up and the air temperature is a tad higher. Late in the farm season, snow flurries can happen as the pressure to get these potatoes out of the ground only increases. Often staying in the field to pick hard later into the evening happens when their is a frost in the forecast and it gets down to crunch time.

The Fruits Of The Earth. Farm Fresh Hand Picked Maine Potatoes And Veggies Direct From The Field.

All that work to till the soil, plant the spring crops, tend them over the summer cultivation into the fall fall harvest finale. No one wants to leave any potato acreage behind in the farm field as winter approaches.

Another reason for hold your horses and before firing up the farm tractor that pulls the potato digger?

Rain. Too much moisture last night, yesterday means more time spent getting unstuck as farm harvest equipment sinks in the mud. Only gets mired deeper in the wet saturated farm soil.

Another reason to wait on getting into the field and firing up the pickers and all the agricultural equipment?

Too much potato field dirt sticking to the spuds when it is swimming in wet soil. Precious field dirt that gets trucked into the storage facility. Never gets a ride back to the field where it left.

The loss of farm dirt speeds soil erosion so park it and let the air clear. Wait until the soggy ground dries out the best advice during fall field harvest.

Hurry up and wait can happen picking potatoes by hand.

A potato digger gets reaches down below the buried tubers. Gently lifts them up and out of the ground with a metal revolving bed of hooked together connected sifting digger lags.

To lay out the two hill rows merged into one flat double one. Drying in the fresh air and beating sun before pick em up, put em in the basket potato barrel filing fun.

Quality control starts with protecting the potato from weather damage of freezing early morning temperatures. From blistering heat by afternoon in the Maine potato field.

A kid picking shows up to the field sometimes wearing long underwear, layers of clothing. Shedding them as fall harvest temperatures rise and the barrel count increases. Extra pairs of cotton jersey gloves for when one set wears out, gets snagged on a barrel nail. Or plunges into a rotten potato that stinks to high heaven and is wet. Labor warms you up living in Maine. Whether picking potatoes, splitting firewood or shoveling new winter snow. Exercise is your internal heater. Lugging empty barrels, the spud baskets to fill ‘er up to the brim to win burns calories.

So how’s it work, potato picking in Maine?

You show up at the edge of the latest unharvested field armed with a water jug, a home made lunch, plenty of snacks. You take your pick of potato baskets made of ash at the beginning of the season. That basket is your weapon to create lots of barrels to make money. You keep tabs on your basket and guard from losing it all harvest long.

Picking The Potatoes By Handfuls Into A Basket To Fill The Empty Barrels. Full Potato Barrels Weight 165 Pounds Before Storage In Potato Bins Over The Winter.

Line up behind the field boss picking crew.

He or she hands out your potato barrel ticket number all wrapped tightly in an elastic. You follow him or her up into the potato field and everyone is assigned a section. From this boot soil drag mark so many paces up to this next one. Sure you can handle this territory row and after dug row in the potato field? That is your field section that you promise to keep picked up for the next three weeks or longer.

Maine area schools still go in three weeks early the end of summer in some places so the potato harvest recess tradition can continue.

The kids picking potatoes or working on harvests is vital to the farmer’s harvest plans. Other field workers drive trucks, work on the back loading barrels or running the potato digger.

Others take the filled barrels or bulk body trucks onto conveyors that deliver the field spuds into storage bills. Filling the potato house a pretty important too. Some school districts still recess for fall break to allow kids to work the Maine potato harvest.

The potato picker has selected his section, marked the ends with water jug and lunch box or articles of clothing as things heat up.

You need empty potato barrels to play the game and unearthed spuds to row by row travel across the field. Grab an empty barrel, drag it to the middle of your just dug section if it is a long one to save steps filling it.

Put the empty barrel on it’s side.

Lean over and pick the potatoes to clear the area where the barrel gets set up. The potato barrels will go every other row because space for the farm truck to get through is needed to pick up filled ones, drop off new empties.

Generally an adult or teenage potato picker will fill four baskets to create a 165 pound barrel of spuds. Littler pickers can only lug so large a potato basket and will make more trips to top barrels off to just below the rim.

Three rules of many in the potato farm field to follow.

1) Protect the precious potato crop by clearing a spot in a newly dug digger pass before putting up the empty barrel you fill. 2) “Pick ’em clean” which means don’t leave behind perfectly good potatoes. Look under the dirt clumps and grass clods. And 3) No over filling barrels so truck field hands collecting potatoes cause damage with the “tongs”.

Tongs are the attachment mechanism thrown down from the truck body as it passes your section.

It hooks on and hoists up by grabbing the full potato barrel using hydraulics or earlier models an truck battery. Tongs attached to a cable or chain to land the barrel up and onto the truck platform. Then while the truck is still moving, roll the barrel back into place. To fill the body with fifty or more loaded barrels. The farm truck is a flat open platform, with wooden stakes around the edge all connected by a rope to secure the barrels for the quick unloading trip to deposit into the potato house bins.

Pick Up, One Potato At A Time. Four Baskets Fill A Potato Barrel In Maine. Teaching My Oldest Daughter The Art Of Potato Picking One Fall Years Ago.

Each potato picker field worker takes one of his or her tickets from their numbered bundle. Slides it securely into a groove on the top to protect from wind blowing it off the full barrel.

The potato barrels come in two varieties.

165 Pounds Is The Weight Of A Full Maine Farm Potato Barrel.

Either cedar wooden staves or the plywood sheet kind. Wrapped in a circle and held together by wooden bark strip sections nailed top, middle, and bottom of the barrel. There are cracks in the top wooden strip fastener where you slide your numbered ticket into securely for barrel payment credit.

The tickets collected by the barrel hoist operator as the potato truck slowly plies the field. Tickets put in a two gallon re-purposed oil can with a handle and can opened hole at the top. These cans like the black box in an airplane. Telling the tale of who picked how many today.

I counted many a ticket with my Mom each night after a harvest supper.

That supper involved a version of baked potatoes of some kind. Not a lot of rice eaten on a Maine potato farm. We would clear the table of meal dishes, then lay down newspapers. Then shaking out time to empty the dusty cans one by one.

Lots of fine potato dirt made its way into kitchen table ticket counting process each night.

Lining up the ticket numbers numerically and next counting each pile after all the cans were empties from the field trucks. Wrapping the tickets up with an elastic to return to whoever is assigned this potato picking field number for this fall season. That person could count their tickets to know how they did yesterday but most already had a pretty good idea.

A check at the end of the week barrel count announced in the memo section the total barrel production. Tabulated from the day by day hand tally for the grand total each week to determine the pay check size.

When I was a kid, 25 cents a barrel was the going rate per barrel. My four kids each picked and it was 60 cents for each full picked barrel ticketed during their era. Money you earned, not just handed to you by Mom or Dad without effort on your part.

The Saturday night ritual of going into down town much like the giddy feeling you sense in the western movies.

When some dirt farmer or trapper, miner, whoever rode in off the trail to town for supplies. Kids pitched in an bought their winter clothes to help out the family budget. Most of the checks saved for something useful like your winter jacket. You bought it, you take better care of it.

Very shrewd and careful as you shop with other cleaned up potato pickers you bumped going in and out of store doing the same bargain hunting. When it is your own hard earned money being spent, impulse spending control happens. You keep looking when you don’t think what you are considering buying is worth so many barrels of potatoes or not.

Part of the potato picking money a kid can blow on something fun. I remember saving for a new bike, then a motorized one after that.

Dreaming about it in the field along with awfully good snacks and carefully prepared tasty lunches that helped smooth out the laboring. Every fall, the new Sears or Montgomery Ward Christmas arrived to help the dreaming process take your mind off the pick and fill field drill.

The other field crew pickers are your friends on the potato chain gang.

The grower needs you to show up, pick ’em clean and help get the crop out before old man winter arrives. Fellow pickers who you ate lunch with, talked to in neighboring field sections. You rode to and from the field in the back of a pick up bed with these dusty, dirty hard working spud handlers. You learned other entertaining skills… like walking balanced on a rolling barrel. Or becoming William Tell accurate putting a small potato on the end of a wood’s switch stick that is used in brief potato skirmishes until the field boss comes into view. Back to work after a little potato picking brevity.

Potato picking was your entry level job, your first real employment for money.

Not just a house hold chore like making your bed or helping do the dishes because it is your turn. You picked more barrels if the field harvest yield was higher, if the growing season was favorable, when the potato house was not too far away. Which caused delayed return of the empties you needed to fill to keep from getting behind. Lots can affect your daily barrel count. How much sleep you got last night, if you were on an end field section that kept shortening. Or growing longer and causing discouragement as the hot sun beamed down from overhead. All as you found yourself hopelessly falling behind. How cold or windy or rainy it was, how much the digger pushed you to keep caught up was the potato field dynamics to do the best you can.

Lessons learned in the Maine potato picking field that last for life.

How big a section can you handle? Don’t bite off more than you can chew. You don’t want to get fifty rows behind because it was too long. Although if you did, another potato field rule. No one leaves the field when day is done until everyone is picked up and no dug potato rows exist.

Where Your Love Lies Obvious On The Maine License Plate. Farm to Table Is Pretty Sacred.

You do run out of barrels and that is the time to head to the woods for a nature call. When you use the expression “I have to go see a man about a horse” as you carefully stride across the un-dug potato rows.

If waiting for the empty barrel truck to return from the potato house delays production, might be a good time for a snack or to eat your lunch early. Make good use of your time another lesson learned. Shift gears quickly and expect set backs and road blocks. But you rise to the occasion and take it all in stride as a professional, seasoned potato harvest picker or spud house worker.

Pick the potato tops off your section of newly dug potatoes. That will make filling barrels quicker when you do hear the thud of an empty or two being dropped as the truck passes your section.

Be nice to the truck crew who might land an extra empty because you did. That’s my insider local expert as a long time potato picker in the farm field since a little shaver.

When you run out of barrels, might trot down to a place in the field where there are plenty and folks are behind. To pick a couple barrels and then return to your own section just as empties arrive or the broken digger comes back alive and squeals by. Stay busy.

Some stand up and lean over.

Others drop to their knees and drag the potato basket beside or behind them to fill it with golden, other color spud varieties. Shot in the Sherman Maine area, the video embedded in the top portion early on in this blog post shows the sights and sounds of harvest in case you missed it. The video below near the end show and tells what potato picking looks like in the potato house working the storage / grading lines.

The home made donuts, cookies, sandwiches and ring dings, yodels, ding dongs, moon pies and candy bars. The fuel to keep the potato picker rolling for quick energy. It all tastes so much better out in the fresh air. Enjoyed amidst the brilliant fall foliage colors surrounding you in the scenic Maine potato fields with your friends and relatives.

Picking potatoes, you are out in nature.

You see the occasional deer, rabbit, fox, black bear or moose out of the corner of your eye too. As the wildlife wander by the edge of the field. Crossing it to head to a babbling brook for a slurp of refreshing drink of cold cool running brook water. Or curious and watching what you are up to as you fill barrels and slowly as a group advance across the harvest field.

I was raised on a Maine potato farm where every family member has a vital role. Starting as a young grasshopper, the fall harvest potato picking season just one of the tasks working together with your mom, dad, brothers and sisters. Back when I was a kid, everyone picked potatoes and there were more farmers needing the hand crews.

My Dad always said pickers did a better job and were gentler on the potato crop quality then mechanical harvesters. Now less farmers, more larger Maine potato growers make potato hand picking crews not as common.

On my Maine family farm I bought from my three older brothers, hand crews still used. But instead of barrels, orange baskets gets filled to empty into wooden two thousand pound wooden box crates. All organic with the kids paid by the hour instead of piece meal by the basket.

Sampling The Local Maine Location On Your Cheap Vacation. Learning What Life Is Like Here! Early Morning Heading To The Maine Potato Field To Harvest Spuds.

Not just bending over or on your knees to pick potato for the fall harvest work. Other jobs exist like working on a harvester, in the potato house grading what the bulk body unloaded that ends up in storage bins. There are also jobs over the winter working to get the spuds loaded into tractor trailer trucks to deliver to the produce markets. To plant in spring and cultivate and hoe over the summer to raise the next fall harvest crop.

As the Maine blog post wraps up, this is a short clip on showing with the spuds end up bring graded, working in a potato house. You are there sight and sounds below.

It is enlightening to see the kids today rise to the occasion and dig in to work hard during the Maine potato farm harvest.

The lessons learned in the Maine potato or whatever vegetable field or fruit orchard picking operation are never forgotten. Everything you learn is your system for life and used as you approach any other task big or small. You learn to have a system, develop a plan and stay resourceful with resiliency with lots of passion to do your best. Some of the pickers end up becoming the next generation of farmers to continue the tradition and put food on the table.

Hope you enjoy this blog post on the Maine farm potato picking institution.

Thank you for being a follower of the Me In Maine blog that tries to paint the picture of what living in Vacationland is all about one topic at a time. Maine truly is 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 USA

October 15, 2021