Solitude, Maine, Coronovirus. Sheltering in place.
“Alone together”, “social distancing” all takes practice to develop the skill. Presidents, movie stars, writers, artists, families, farmers, fishermen and lumber jacks. They all selected Vacationland as a destination long before Maine even became a state in 1820. Maine’s unspoiled natural resources and remoteness considered perks. In 1878, Teddy Roosevelt got the historic spot put on the map where he daily opened the good book at Bible Point near where I live in Maine. Teddy the rough rider relished solitude mixed with a good adventure.
Making Music Won’t Be This Close In Small Maine Towns. Parades, 4th Celebrations Won’t Be Quite The Same As We Adjust To Protect Against Coronovirus Spread.
Not everyone is hand stand happy being alone or trapped in just small groups for long stretches of solitude time.
Peace and quiet. You seem to need it most when it is missing or in very short supply right? Older people eagerly seek it out more than the go go go younger generation that find the pace way too slow. Easy does it thinking and moderation? Boring to young grasshoppers. Why would you want to live life in the slow lane and do that? Many avoid alone at all costs or just never never had the opportunity to give it a whirl. The coronovirus “shelter in place” mandates started out with a no thank you helping to see how you liked it. Before “they’re HHhhhhh-here” (the coronovirus punk spiked head cells) announced by our Maine media. Like the long blond haired little girl in the early hours watching the static on the TV in her parent’s bedroom.
The coronovirus news at first like a far away asteroid that might or might not hit Earth’s surface.
Let’s wait and see if stricter measures are needed that impact our lives even deeper. Still wrapping up the end of winter weather as the news reporters provided the coronovirus play by play. We caught things out of the corner of our eyes and bits and piece with our ears. Local life as we knew it still held its distraction. We had time for the get ready, cause here she comes. Given just a taste of rein it in and stay at home as the World news story unfolded. While the country’s eyes and ears watched and listened in the dress rehearsal study on our media news channels. How to flatten the curve, head deeper into quarantine to protect others and yourself.
Ramping up to apply stricter measures here in the states as we circled the wagons. Adjusting, processing what was handled right or poorly in other concentrated hot spot areas as the coronovirus picked up steam. Reacting slowly to what we all watched play out for infection rate spread and body counts across the pond and beyond. Mainstream media and arguing politicians, a scared population all helping or hurting the new culture shaping around us.
Just how we felt on any given day about the virus news can vacillates from “we got this” to not so sure as things drag on. As solitude, alone time racking up the hours deepens. As ventilator production increased by local economies stalled. Consumer confidence dipping and the restrictive stay at home, shelter in place mandates caused take a number, have a seat. And if you don’t mind, can you wait out on the curb? No we don’t have a drive through window. Yet. (more…)
Barns in Maine, there was a time when every family farm had one or more sitting in the center of the agricultural enterprise.
One at a time and not mass produced, the original Maine barns built for farming, not wedding events. Yesteryear small growing Maine rural communities rallied together. The local farm families stepped up to take their turn. Much like our Maine Amish communities do one day a week. Thursday is community day which means everyone pack up and meet over at this week’s location to pitch in and lend a hand. All expected to step up and come together over and over like the original farm family settlers. To systematically help create each unique hand built barns in Maine. Built to last, slowly constructed one by one using many hands. To get your very own barn building appointment meant first helping several others put together their farm barns.
The Barn In Maine On A Family Farm. That Barn The Tallest, Biggest Structure With All The Others Surrounding It. Barns More Important Than Your House.
Every family member with a specific role in the barn building on the Maine farm.
Large amazing spreads of local food needed to fuel the hard working hungry builders of the farm barn. Barn raisings to piece together the post and hand hewn beam behemoths took the help of many.
The big stately working barns in Maine each secured with mortised joint dowels to create the amazing structures. Slowly constructed to serve the Maine farm families for generations.
Some barn workers in charge of finding the trees, cutting them down. Others shaping the long timbers needed for the skeleton frame of the barns in Maine. Lumber of all dimensions whittled out of whatever the team of horses twitched in from the woodlot sections of the Maine farm acreage. Still more deputized to create cedar shingles, clapboards, board and baton or whatever exterior covering to be applied to the farm barn exterior.
Scaffolding to protect the barn building workers did not remove the dangers being that high in the air performing carpentry maneuvers. You climb, you fall, you would die. That simple. I know of a local roofer who did just that from high a top a barn in Maine being shingled when a fatal accident happened. The staging plank snapped and still shudder thinking about the Maine farm barn shingle roof repair accident.
Roofing, ventilators and cupolas to bring in plenty of natural lighting and air to remove the moisture of newly mowed hayed to be stored in the barn in Maine.
Sills, rocks foundation supports to work best meant selecting a high and dry location with good soil drainage. Hemlock flooring to support the livestock, whatever to be stored in the large capacity farm barn meant another team of individuals hammered each plant in place. Finishing off the hay mow lofts, the standing and box stall pens in the inside of the Maine farm barn. Laughter, singing, hammering heard while installing windows, the weather tight trim boards.
Crafting and hanging doors on blacksmith created hinges and opening hardware another role in the barn raising.
Creating trap doors, upper openings to aid the efficiency utility of the Maine farm barn. Adding pulleys and ropes to help whatever to be stored inside the big farm barns in Maine. Dormers for ventilation and natural lighting because no power. In later years, stringing metal to connected roof top lightning rods. During approaching thunder storms, you better unplug the pasture fence charger quickly. Or you could be the lightning rod during the frantic unloading into the dry barn operation. (more…)
Living in a small Maine town, the grapevine news is not just gathered filtering national sources.
The latest happenings around the Maine community not covered by CNN, FOX, NPR, BBC, NBC, CBS, ABC or some other big name news source. No New York Times, Washington Post. Forbes Magazine does not have lots of small rural Maine stories in their glossy pages with high end color photo spreads. Also, a small rural Maine radio station if you are lucky enough to have one is probably a “rip and read”. Something major could happen locally but it would be some time before it hits the wire service for broadcast outlets without a local news department to pick up on it. More on the history of Maine broadcasting.
Unless the local event, accident, fire or whatever news story hits the AP, UPI teletype news service, it stays dark and untouched. Or left to the weekly newspaper to tackle and break the story for its readership. We get the latest close to home news, the spin on state and national coverage from local family gatherings. From employees at work from all walks of life. Picked up with the two ears on the side of our heads from kids tapping into other circle sources. Maine has a low population. The folks that do live here are tight. Hannah oversees the Yankee Swap at the annual Christmas party out at the McGuire’s below in Linneus Maine.
The Local News Gathered At Family Events In Small Maine Towns. At Corner Grocery Convenience Stores Like Cameron’s Market In New Limerick Maine.
Commercially, it’s best if your “this just in” small Maine town news story happens in time to get covered in the latest daily broadcast.
Or especially so it can appear as big as life in the weekly edition of the black and white news print local outlet. If it does not, stay tuned. Could be many days later. Or not at all or as an after thought in skimpy coverage down the road. No one likes old news that’s like moldy bread.
The timing of the news living in small Maine towns is critical.
How many other competing stories are out there to tackle impacts what you do get splashed across the front page or in the broadcast lead in news gathering. This all seriously impacts what does or doesn’t get covered. Making it feast or famine for lots or just a little to report on in small rural towns in Maine. The editorial and small rural Maine news gathering staffs on the print side of things especially suffering steady shrinkage.
The army of often only one or two reporters do the best they can covering their beat.
Always coaxing to come on over to the cyber side presentation where you scroll and tap, swipe, double click. To break the habit of open wide, spreading the newspaper wide to scan the columns and turn the pages. Media outlets are consolidating and working hard to get us to make the leap to digital formats of the news delivery pixels. But that’s where the “local militia journalist” become the cub reporters to fill in the community news gaps. Everyone has a cell phone camera. Can hunt and peck and they do shoot “the you are there” pictures and video with copy hammered out with two thumbs or a pop out stylus. As they roam around all the small rural Maine locations, the community itself, at large shares the “news” they see first hand in their travels. Neat huh?
The term is accurate. There really are “slow news days” when not so much is shaking locally when living in small Maine towns.
That’s when journalists revisit old news articles for an update. Dig harder to create the copy the other end of the conversation can enjoy and find useful. Or tap into the human interest angle from the guy and gal on the street. To hand them a mike, quote them for a printed sound bite. Dragging them into the spotlight to learn what they think. Weighing in on an opinion poll on one or a variety of topics of interest to the audience. We all want to know what others think and learn from their perspective.
Maine. Vast, Insulated From The World. Smaller But A Tight, Close Population. 11 People Per Square Mile In Northern ME. 44 Per Mile In The Southern Sections.
No one can update you better than someone you have known for years and who is living Maine small town local.
Someone you trust and full of the same local area pride. What’s new delivered in a special, personal way with local expressions and a mix of humor. Maybe a tad of fiction. Or part of what the person relays is what they thought they heard Bubba say. But lots of people were talking, my hearing is not what it used to be comes into play. Factors causing the what you thought you heard getting blender mixed and twisted in the information. The stuff you hear and repeat like it is gospel gets exposure. Like Paul Revere hollering while he gallops through the streets close to home. Raw, real, unpolished, but out there and not kept a secret.
Sharing information that resonates all around you in your daily travels happens more in small rural Maine towns.
News gets passed on and on in the small Maine community circles. Give me the local you know and trust for free sharing of the news. Nothing missed in the translation or relay. Not delivered from a talking head with an agenda and an obscene salary. Who has an artificial smile with perfect teeth but does not even know where the small rural town is in way up there in Maine. (more…)
The points of interest, things to do in Maine when something like a coronovirus happens.
We are lucky to live in Maine where maintaining personal space is easy. Six feet from others and preparing to increase the distance if needed is not so hard. Neighbors, what neighbors? When you live on a dead end road, when you do not see the next house. It’s like yours and also out of sight, surrounded by field acreage and mixed woods. Staying safely spaced is not thought about until a virus hits. And you consider what it would be like dealing with precaution measures if you did not live in rural Maine. If instead it was a high rise apartment buildings with shared heating and air exchange system. Or one of 300 other carbon copy houses cookie cut out of a subdivision with a neat sounding name.
We all have the same don’t touch your face, clean surfaces, turn your cough and smother it in your elbow procedures to follow in Maine.
No matter where we are on planet Earth. It’s all about doing your part. Buying time in the race for multiple vaccines to stop it in it’s virus tracks. And at the same time belt tighten to weather it out like a Maine winter storm with too much snow and how low does she go temperatures. Reelin’ and dealin’ with economic problems is nothing new living in Maine. Adjusting to up, down, sideways road curves in life’s bumpy pot hole riddled road.
The Map, The Numbers, The Coronovirus Covid-19 Statistics For The World.
Our gratitude to live in small rural Maine does not make us less vigilante to do our part to avoid the spread or contracting the covid-19 virus.
Sure your heighten awareness about how virus germs are spread is vital information. You teach the same laboratory biology science lesson to your kids for real World application from the texbook. More in your head thinking about grabbing door knobs, shopping cart handles and using your elbow to touch. Or nodding, waving not shaking hands habit adopted in greetings. No more kissing both cheeks in an embrace like lots of cultures. All that gets an overhaul living in small town Maine as we avoid unnecessary travel. Sporting events took a major hit. So did dance classes, anything putting you or your child in a large group or losing the ability to stay less than six feet distant.
But being away from lots of population sheer number concentration helps us Mainers.
School Education, Sporting Events, Dance Classes Put On Hold In Maine. Everything Moved Back To Home Base To Batten Down The Hatches And Hunker Down.
Not dealing with hording fist fighters for toilet paper, foodstuffs at shopping centers still causes us to stop and reflect though.
To really think when you have families in those urban areas, how it must be. Just how their day to day changes more drastically. What they have for a set of worries is food for thought. And to consider elderly, those with medical conditions to get them help. To reach out and let them know the community cares for those with age out of kindness and for perspective. Much can be learned in the repeated past cycles we hear about helping older, seasoned community members. You doing your part? You in that group receding or blue hair segment now or hope to live long enough to make it to the Golden Years?
Just getting around, avoiding mass transit and being jumpy every time your hear a sneeze or cough.
We can walk not have to ride mass transit in most small town Maine locations. Ask someone shut in if you can get them what they need and check in. In all of our lives, none of us really knows how the coronovirus will affect us yet. My real job is listings, selling property listings will take it into consideration. I did a regular installment Maine real estate market report post on another blogging channel this weekend. Pointing out how the numbers look, with the disclaimer these healthy real estate market figures do not reflect the coronovirus news event effect. Being a realist, not an alarmist and knowing it takes patience to learn that part of the coronovirus aftermath.
Take A Break From Close Contact Sports, All Those Spectators In The Stands Or Huddled Together At ME School Fields.
Practical approaches to difficult life situations is what Mainers are taught and see put into action daily.
We will do more than survive and make a sport, a survival game out of it. When it snows an inch or two and a metropolitan area stops dead in its tracks. We think “amateurs”. But it is really lack of the right equipment, no flake experience, too many dang people. That’s the problem in population centers handling any crisis man made or from Mother Nature. David and Goliath different atmosphere to work with to avoid panic and get the best results. Smaller is better in mobilization or house arrest voluntary shut down protocol compliance. We are prepared for this kind of challenge and together will find the best way to get through it like other struggles.
It will take another month and more to pass and further time to study the coronovirus numbers based on real time, not water cooler predictions. To weigh in on how it affects real estate, transportation, tourism, health care, small mom and pop businesses in Maine.
But Mainers are tough, resilient and used to hardship and adversity. All increases our faith and the gung ho, fire in our belly passion to make the most of whatever life affords you. We head to our private places to unplug and refresh without sharing them with wall to wall tourists. We will be just fine staying at home. We are the lucky ones who live in Maine. Don’t have to travel long distances to access all she offers for fresh air, clean water, pure and natural surroundings.
What To Do, Being Responsible And Pro-active With Cornovirus COVID 19
You and I will do our part to prevent the spread and rein in our travel circles to thwart the coronovirus attack on our way of life.
The local haunts will suffer but understand your absence and why. Staying close to home to keep the fires going, making our life more confined and disciplined is nothing new. When the economy is not robust, if spending money is tight or non-existent, we quickly find ways to amuse and entertain. You can not help but think of Maine’s Amish settlements. How without lots of modern day conveniences, they don’t bother any one and get along just fine.
The kids are respectful, reading books and pitching in around the farms or whatever Amish enterprise. The stay at home out of school will not be wasted.
Everything you learn in life is not on the teacher’s shoulders. Time for kids to learn how to change car oil or a flat tire. To deep clean the house along with other members. To be kind, helpful and pick up more than just what they create for a mess or only the area they call their bedroom. Learning about economizing, conserving preparing for the long haul and seeing how local communities tackle the problem brings it all home. Kids will face challenges in life and the set backs and their reaction to them shows what you are made up inside.
The struggles and change of routine work around the house helps polish and improve to make kids adaptable for more puzzles presented to them in life. Respect for others and their opinions that may differ from their own. Not expecting to always be entertained or the need to make sure everyone around you should know you are pretty bored. Balancing a check book, washing windows, learning how to sew. Being a bit of an entry level carpenter scraping paint, removing and replacing a rotten board for refinishing. Mowing the lawn, shoveling snow. It is not up to others to make your life rosy. If you day, month, year, life does not turn out the way you hoped, don’t blame your parents or teachers and say “it’s not my fault”. Deal with it and look for the best solutions digging in and working hard not falling down and staying there by refusing to take ownership of your role. This virus is all about doing your job to protect yourself and others from its spread.
The coronovirus does put a hold on personal freedoms.
It causes tightened up sanitation measures, working on the areas of your life that fortify and raise your flu resistance. The even more exercise outdoors piled on, staying fully hydrated, curling up with a good book. Or puttering on hobbies is just pouring more coal on the bulk of our activities anyway. Listening to music, making the same soothes the soul and relaxes. Writing, painting, creating art or useful craft items. Cutting, stacking next year’s wood supply always a default to fill the time in a worthwhile way. In Maine, knowing how to entertain and make the most of what you have that is always way more than enough. That spirit will continue virus or not through thick or thin, feast or famine. We need to tackle cancer, heart disease, obesity and other health issues with the same urgency of coronovirus news has caused. If you consider yourself a faithful person, this is your cue to test that conviction or profession with prayer and reflection to fortify from inside out. Help others to do the same and gain strength in the process.
Helping others in the small rural areas, especially the elderly is not so hard or different in Maine, with or without the buzzing coronovirus news reports.
Much of the lend a hand knee jerk is second nature and why we chose to live in Maine rather than some place else on the globe. The local grocery stores opening up an hour early or later to help elderly shoppers make the rounds slowly. Without fear of being in the way, exposed to virus germs they can not afford meet along with power shoppers, etc. Slow it down. Get the seniors what they need one component of how Maine is working around the coronovirus and it’s after effects.
The healthier simple lifestyle not bank rolled by mountains of debt or crazy spending adopted growing up here where money is removed from the equation.
The focus on live and local in small town Maine, not online watching what everyone else is doing and thinking we are missing out on today. Providing plenty of room for adding all pure and natural endeavors in four season Maine. Again, not to brag but so lucky, very grateful and humbled to live in Maine. Farm raising makes you independent, a survivor to make hay while the sun shines and take frugal to a whole new level to stay on the patch of family dirt. Passing it on in as good or hopefully better shape than you received the acreage.
Being self sufficient and resourceful living on less I think just adds to the feeling of gratitude. Easy does it living within your means, aware of others and it is not about you attitude. More local hands on deck to round up quickly. To make a difference, for the connection aid for others in your small home town. It all may allow rural country Mainers to not fully feel the effects of a coronovirus the same way as our struggling city cousins. We are wired simple by choice and that is how our life rocks and rolls in Maine.
Like a harsh winter, poor economy, recovering from a medical operation or accident, we in Maine just adapt and adopt to whatever the occasion warrants.
And using a what we have which is more than enough positive attitude. To rise above and beyond to find something to be happy about in our look back rationalization. We will do more than just get through the coronovirus ramp up and containment. And I bet some in the audience are thinking this rural setting might be just the ticket for them at this stage of life too.
Our Maine local schools are working around the clock with teachers and administrators to learn from home.
For students to keep the education process rolling in new ways. Also to get needed nutrition to students who depend on it when school is in session. Bag back for kids loaded with food goes home with the help of bus drivers delivery them. When school is out in Maine for two weeks and more, providing food along with the reading, writing, arithmetic is critical too. Not everyone has an Internet connection in Maine rural areas or the money to bring it into their homes. How to continue education without Internet or computers at their home takes working together and being creative by local school boards.
No Maine Large Crowds These Days, Coronovirus Means Less Worry But Still Being Vigilante To Protect You, Others. Schools Cancelled, Large Groups Busted Up.
Those in contact with the outside World are hard to corral when they roamed before we all fully understood the seriousness of the coronovirus.
But now we know, the media have thrown so much information good and flawed at us to digest right? When you live on a Maine farm, raise your own food, heat with wood and pretty much stay busy with the agriculture and being your own construction handyman, equipment mechanic, you and your family spends the bulk of your time at home.
So points of interests, things to do in Maine when you thought this blog post was about suggestions to start collecting lighthouse visits. Knowing you want to see a Maine moose, eat a whoopie pie, try a slice of native blueberry pie, put on a bib to eat a boiler lobster or steam clam feed. Slice into a Maine potato to add the butter and maybe a few other ingredients. You come to Maine for the wide open space, friendly but fewer number of people with or without cornovirus new alert background buzz.
Hiking Mt Katahdin, hitting the trails and visits to popular coastal beaches or Maine sporting events, musical events, school activities, church services, etc that may be curtailed for a spell.
Hold that thought on go carts, Santa’s Village and public pools and going out to eat, large crowd music venues, whale watching. Make your World staying close to home or in it until we get a handle on coronovirus containment developments. When things settle down and the coast is clear to move around less restricted in larger travel circles. We take care of our basic needs and enjoy the work involved in just that as a labor of love. Grateful for how good we have it and knowing not everyone does due to where they now live today.
Instead, for now, what you do up to camp in Maine is private and secluded. More one on one or by your lonesome. Small if exposed to any size groups the order of the day. Away from people where you worry less and learn to enjoy your space more. Maybe working the land to grow food you know where it came from and heating with the wood from your own property that’s a renewable resource. Not being an alarmist, but life spent for the summer at an unorganized township in Maine like St Croix Lake camp up in Aroostook County. Like the Lawlors and my cousin Randy and his wife Barb do every year. Happy living off grid in the remote location Maine is famous for and no longer a secret to many doing their online homework.
Waving at the freight train engineer a couple times a week hauling wood forest timber products down the clickity clack tracks.
Who leans out and smiles knowing he is about the only person you see hiding out in the deep, vast North Maine woods St Croix Lake location. Maybe the inland fisheries and wildlife guy or gal with the badge, the sidearm and a pick up or snow sled, maybe a four wheel tools by to say hey. Nature’s wildlife, the sound of weather, a crackling wood fire, a lake lapping out front not just the mournful train whistle approaching the one road siding crossing is what you hear. Who’s turn to deal in our cribbage board game and what did you peg for points from that last hand you lucky buzzard? Get the deck ready and shuffled while I whip up clean and place in the rack to dry these dirty dinner dishes Marguerite.
More Wildlife Than People To Read The Local Small Town Newspaper In Maine.
Surviving on less at another off the beaten path cabin in Harvey siding or laboring on a small Maine farm might be just your new setting. Many bought land in Maine over the years for just that “what if” scenario easier to sleep at night. Without the tossing and turning worry. The property acreage a safety net, an insurance policy if you will to bee line to if life in a population center got a little too crazy. If you lived in a city and all heck broke loose, do you know where you would head following the blue evacuation dots to high tail up to Maine.
Most of the land in Maine bought for cheap vacation recreation, maybe future retirement. Using owner financing terms to fit their budget to buy the Maine land. Now owned free and clear and put to another use than hunting, fishing, snow sledding or hiking for fun. Could you live off the land in Maine, be off grid and live pretty much self sufficiently? Think you have the skill set if put to the test or could rise to the occasion?
We are vocation not just vacation people and can not take enjoy our recreation until caught up on our Maine work load.
In Maine it does not feel like being on house arrest because home is where your heart is. We don’t need retail therapy at the mall or to be social butterflies running the roads. Mainers are content and enjoy their own company. Being alone is not scary but sacred when you need to process events and hear yourself think. Your life is around you and lived in the moment not out of step and some place else. This coronovirus makes you do some serious thinking about the direction your life is heading.
Oh sure, people love Maine for the rocky coastline and maritime history.
I have posted on the expensive tourist traps that is often all the out of state visitor gets to sample. But go up into the belly of interior Maine deeper. Maine is a place to sample the outdoor traditions year round and the paths into those areas are less traveled. You could start over, change it up or retire easily in Maine if the timing is right and you are prepared financially, emotional, spiritually.
The small Maine communities are small but there is nothing larger or stronger than the hearts of the local volunteers.
They doggedly take on much and preserve to pass down these shared Maine family and community traditions. Our rural nature, the vast size of Maine and sparse population insulates us. Some think isolates to a degree. But when is that a good thing? Depends on where you are in life, what you have gone through and how you survived. Ask that very personal question to the person you see in the mirror brushing your teeth looking back each day for the answer.
Small towns, their schools, churches, businesses can mobilize quickly when ordered to stay close to home in Maine.
Waiting For Ice, For The Snow After That Signalling Maine Winter Arrived And Is Leaving A Few Months Later.
It happens every time the economy tanks. We still practice and pass on common sense to the next generation. The hand washing precautions, avoiding large groups protocol, how you meet and greet just means rein it in a little tighter. But we already live independently and not fueled by lots of cash. Are not dependent on others and make an adventure of being house bound or if weather increases and the power goes out. All taken in stride without being shook up or getting light headed with fear. We are all in this together and the individuals part of the solution.
On a small or large scale Maine country farm, the lifestyle includes lots of tasks that keep us pretty busy and out of trouble. Occupied with cutting, processing next year’s home heating wood and maintenance of out buildings, the homestead and tending fields and animals fills much of our daylight hours.
The locals and tourists alike want to be out on the trails that open up the Great North Woods and places like Mt Katahdin at Baxter State Park. Or to bike the fifty miles or more of trails around Acadia National Park in the Bar Harbor, Mount Desert Island area of Maine. To get out on the waterfront for early morning fishing in a boat or wetting the line in waders out in a Maine river or stream. But what’s important during an outbreak of say the cornovirus means first things first to protect yourself, your family, the community that is near and dear.
Farm stands for field to table fresh, museums that showcase the agriculture and lumbering heritage are popular points of interests.
So are home cooked service club suppers that often are fund raisers and silent auctions for some local in need that hit a low point in life. But the best things to do in Maine depend on you combined with the weather in the season at hand. One thing is for certain. No matter what time of year you visit Maine or when are lucky enough to live here full or part time as a native, much of the our time is spent outdoors. The fresh air, not being house bound by four walls and itching to get outside to walk, bike, hike, ski, swim is a strong desire in Maine.
Simple living makes it free and easier in many ways in Maine.
No crowds, no gangs, no crime and space. Lots of wide open space to explore and to return to those favorite places people from Maine and away flock to all their life. Once you discover your own special place to get centered, for exercise and enjoyment, that location is added to the can’t wait to return or continue where you left off.
Living simple in Maine also takes the need for lots of money to keep things humming. Independent, resourceful Mainers know how to do more than just survive. To maintain a quality of life, if it is to be, it is up to me is one skill developed at an early age. Attitude, not being lazy, pitching in to make it better than it was or to maintain something good in a small Maine community. Everyone has a role, all are ambassadors to their own small Maine town and traditions.
So points of interest, things to do in Maine and how all that gets combined with the coronovirus.
This blog post topic did not deliver what you thought it would right? It is not business as usual and we interrupt this blog post programming for a special report. If you are brand new to Maine, never been here before and only had a few days to start collecting experiences what could be the plan Stan? To not waste your time in Maine but also not feel rushed and chasing a major time line to “beat the buffet” do it all. To cover all the bases and more in one hurried visit that sums up Vacationland in a matter of hours or or just a few days. The coronovirus has closed many options for safety sake. Rent a cabin and explore to discover what each facet of the jewel of Maine offers on your own or virtually as you plan for the rear visit. Google “what to do in Maine for fun” and watch the flood of recreational options spill out in your lap.
Kittery & Up To Fort Kent ME Is As Far North As You Can Go. Maine, Tall Wide Rural State. All ME Communities Are Tackling Coronovirus Spread Prevention.
Resources, time is one, money is another that can whittle and shape the list of things to do in Maine on the points of interest list.
Camping is always a default affordable and enjoyable way to spend your time in Maine. With nature surrounding you, the wildlife one by one wandering by your camp site, you never forget the smell of the woods, the sounds of the lake or river you camped near. Food cooked on an open fire. The same one used to talk about the day that was and the one approaching discussing your Maine experiences.
Maine is personal, one on one, more intimate and the connection is stronger because crowds of impersonal people are removed. You learn to entertain yourself and not follow the pack or worry about what everyone else is doing. You seek to carve out what you want to accomplish. What fulfills you is only learned spending time with yourself and away from all those people jammed shoulder to shoulder. Not bumper to bumper in population centers like other parts of the nation. You can grow, learn, relax in Maine. Where I live, work and play there are 11 people per square mile. In New Jersey that number increases to 1000 souls.
One last blog post observation.
Maine Lighthouses Are Part Of The Attraction. They Are Not Going Away As Tourism Is Limited A Tad.
Maine travel gets your one of a kind authentic experiences and wisdom to apply to your life.
Like music that is real, genuine and even with a few imperfections, it has heart. It is not machined or sounds like all the rest of the riffs and lyrics. It is not copied and over dubbed in track stacks sameness. Feeling original, one of a kind, crafted from the heart. The melody, lyrics riding on top in the sandwich all crafted with total conviction. Honest effort poured in the pencil fill notes in the music liner creation discovery.
Maine is like the person providing the hand crafted product or wholesome level of service is testifying about how much joy he or she feels because they chose to live in Maine.
That kind of song or story hits you deeply because it is made from deep inside. The words and notes arranged because the success comes from being in the same mood when put together. Writing, singing and story telling about what you know works best when it is non-fiction and heat felt shared
Small town Maine wrapped in hundreds of thousands of acres of mostly woods because Vacationland is over 90 percent timbered. Stripped of material things that are like medication to pacify the illness symptoms on a short term basis. Replaced with rich authentic one of a kind lasting ingredients. The kind that hit all five senses on firing on all cylinders and making you feel alive in Maine where all this unspoiled space is waiting for you to tap. Unplug and recharge in Maine will clear your head and help your heart.
Small town newspapers in Maine where local is everything.
More Wildlife Than People To Read The Local Small Town Newspaper In Maine. Bambi Does Not Pay An Annual Subscription For His News.
The local newspaper used to be the only way to learn what’s happening. What’s important in a small Maine town makes the approach to the newsprint layout different than the urban method. In small town Maine, there are no gangs, no drive by shootings. Not eighteen car accident pile ups and local weather is a big news item. So are local town elections and school or zoning board rulings. The local hospital in Maine does not have or need a trauma center for gunshot wound treatment.
The level of advertising income to salt and pepper the local community news. That’s another factor in how thick the latest newspaper installment becomes for area readers. What you pay per column inch is low because so is the population readership. Here is a list of Maine newspapers.
Some Maine newspapers are daily, some weekly.
Over the last forty years I have prepared local real estate ads for the weekly paper in my small home town of Houlton. The Aroostook Times published from 1857 to 1916 had a rival newspaper publication called The Aroostook Pioneer. the two newspapers merged to make one viable local voice to keep local readers informed on their community. This blog posted an article on early local radio and television stations in Maine.
Before the Internet, the interstate, small Maine towns were pretty self contained.
You worked locally, spent most of your money in the confines of the local town boundaries. Railroads helped open up commerce by supply the small Maine towns with goods and service work was done by local residents from the community. Passenger trains helped move the locals back and forth from out of town destinations. Telegrams came in to make sure twitter size announcements. Stop. Western Union wired money back and forth when a loved one was stranded, thrown in the hokey crow bar hotel. Where local dances were for the week. Public suppers were huge news you did not want to miss.
The only social media was what you picked up down at the local Grange hall. Or at the grocery store pushing the squeaky wheel wire cart with one wheel that had a mind of its own. Stopping to exchange news with other familiar shoppers. More news gathered by your partner with the window rolled down talking with the shopper you met inside’s other half. Sitting out in the Main Street parked car location waiting for the weeks groceries and the scuttlebutt of news to leave the store. Or local current news gathered while in the swivel pump up chair, getting your hair clipped or styled. You could get quite an earful of local news just like down at the local grain mill or hardware store picking up supplies.
Telephone operators and party lines were another news leak that might be reliable but dependent on the short term memory and number of how many people used in the round robin news gathering.
Recreational News, Anything Outdoors Is Covered In Small Town Newspapers In Maine.
Some passing on the local community news were hard of hearing and missed vital facts or recalled the news snippet with an agenda filtering. Even the local small town Maine newspaper editors were known for printing the news as they saw fit. Slightly colored, spiced with editorial spirit to increase readership subscriptions. The newsprint produced made it obvious where their political leanings supported on various local, state and even national issues. For the most part, it was all about the local news events.
Birth announcements, who died this week to take their turn in the obituary section of the small Maine newspaper. Who had a tea and who was there. What they wore described as if it was a royal wedding. Painting the picture for the locals who love a story that is close to home. Out of town guests, who they were, what the folks did while they had company all important stuff to readers in a small Maine town. What was served for food and even the dining on the open front porch location all part of the local news. The string of non-paid but eager to write community reporters from out in the far reaching areas of the circulation. The announcements on job promotions from out of town children of local residents filled the small town Maine newspaper columns too.
Who won the small town in Maine local spelling bee is front page and who’s son or daughter do you suppose that is Martha pondered.
Opening up the fresh folded hot off the local press newspaper edition in a small Maine town. Where is there a dance this week and who is calling the rounds or which band is playing live. Before television, folks were travel to the entertainment that was live and local. There was always a series of dances for all ages… out at the lake, at the VFW hall, in a hotel. There were no franchise motels and boarding homes were plentiful. Folks working on the railroad, in the woods or on the farms traveled into town from sparse unpopulated areas of their Maine county location. Working your room and board as a student attending school because where your family lived there was only so far you could go in the one room set up. Where the older ones helped the younger students.
Honor rolls, local police report on barking dog disturbances. There some newsprint set aside to report about the a grass fire that got a little out of hand when the wind came up last Monday. Which local Maine fire departments responded to the local blaze last week. If it is new reported after the last weekly newspaper came out it is still worthy news for this next edition. Maybe there is more known from local sources to add to the earlier reports doubling back to report the story developments.
Advertisements for jobs, the fine print of bankruptcy or foreclosure notices, the odds and ends for sale in a small Maine town.
Who has a vacancy in an apartment coming up and needing to be filled with a quality renter. That’s in there too. Local service providers with a business card size ad or a sale flyer insertion for buy one, get one free. What’s the price per pound for chicken legs or various cuts of beef down at the local Superette or Foodliner this week. In small Maine towns, there is not much for other competing media outlets to spread the news. Like a Paul Revere clopping through the back streets handing out handbills, the local newspaper delivery boy took over the task. Milk men made home deliveries too and picked up the glass empties. He had eggs, other dairy products to peddle in the door to door in a small Maine town.
Local Eye Candy, The Talent. It’s The Outdoor Settings And Wildlife We Enjoy.
The fifteen, twenty five or more years ago today rehash of what was going on in earlier newspaper stories.
Those have a corner spot just like the funnies too. Who’s away in the service and wouldn’t Ernie or Cliff appreciate a letter from home the editor reminds. Would you try to send them a little something for home made goodies and a heart felt note from the small Maine town to cheer them up? To know you appreciate their service in the armed forces and being away during the approaching holiday. Small town Maine newspapers shared the joy and pain and the awareness is greater. Now small local newspapers are combining with others in the same economic restraints of rising print production costs, the declining readership to be one strong viable County voice in Maine.
Anything local to print that would only be of interest to someone living in the small Maine town or with a connection to it.
Part of the small Maine town newspaper readership has always been from outside the geographic boundaries of it. On the mailing list to be kept in the local news circle with the newspaper arriving a few days late but still pertinent. To keep up with the small home town in Maine happenings… like a serial television show sequel. Small town local newspapers also produced letterhead, printed materials like wedding or birth announcements to keep their presses rolling.
ME Lighthouses Are Part Of The Attraction. So Is Local News That’s All Small Town Home Grown, Grass Roots.
Today with social media, the you are there instantly happens with anyone that has thumbs to type. Or a cell phone camera to whip out to capture the still image or local happening video loop. You and I are suddenly eye witness news gathers and reporters. The local population is the cub reporter in small town Maine. The small Maine newspaper that only publishes daily or weekly without a website can only feed the readership at set times. With technological advances, the small radio station can now stream video to deliver the local sporting events. Digital sub-channels on the carrier frequency broadcast other offerings in HD streams.
The Miss Aroostook Diner. Where People Used To Eat And Gather News. “What Did You Hear Down At Breakfast Coffee Ed?” The Black And Whites Bring Back A Flood Of Local Memories. Nostalgic Old Local Images Pull On Heartstrings Hard With Old Cars, Wardrobes, Small Town Mom And Pop Business Free Enterprise Operations Recalled.
I remember in the 1970’s and the FM stations worked at using a sub channel for Muzak.
Had to change the large reel to reels used to motivate the workers on the other end of the wireless signal. Depending on the time of day, what was played changed to be like a jolt of slow drip audio coffee. Used to tickle the ears to stimulate and make the mundane chore not drag quite so much. No no, that would hurt production efficiency. The Muzak subscription before XM and other music services feeding all the local banks, dentist offices and local grocery stores. The filler to avoid dead air did not have to be elevator music or clarinets of the big band era either. Dial in the background mood needed to the restaurant surround systems. Then watch the toes tap, smiles while the menu is studied or waitress is a tad delayed but it matters less.
The media outlet institution of today is branching out to do more than the one medium always utilized to deliver the message or information. If they want to stay viable and make the leap from analog to digital. My job as a Maine real estate broker is more than listing properties. It is being the local insider with community knowledge that can share that advantage of being here in Maine to someone that never was. Like when on vacation you ask for directions, where’s the best fish dinner in town or how do you get to the water slides, local matters.
Local small Maine town newspapers list the school lunch menu.
No more worrying about are we having bubble and squeak or stewed tomatoes, liver and onions. Or maybe it’s pigs in a blanket on the school lunch menu highlighted at area schools like it is a competition. It’s the default pizza or chicken nuggets everyday, maybe a salad bar.
Slower Paced, Important Topics Closer To Home In Small Town Maine Newspapers. Covering Lake Ice Out Contest Or Fishing Derby Results.
Or time to bring a homemade bag lunch from home if time allows and you have the ingredients for something custom made. To have it your way with homemade bread, extra layers of smoked turkey or veggie sticks with the ranch dip. Topped off with a devil’s eye date filled or molasses cookie or two. Carefully wrapped up with loving hands to make sure it stay fresh not dried out by lunch time consumption.
The small town newspapers in Maine have gotten thinner. Advertising dollars get poured into other methods to make impressions.
To captivate customers that have a call to action built in to make the advertising dollars well spent. Media information is pinging all around us. The small newspapers are merging and being absorbed to avoid duplication of services to increase efficiency critical to survival. Our low population makes a media buy of a small radio, television or newspaper still the old Maine broadcasting expression … “a dollar a holler” for a advertising spot. Print is not dead, just used in conjunction with other media options in advertising campaigns today.
You need someone that has lived in these parts for some time to add perspective, know the history and being able to relay it quick and efficiently. The small local Maine newspaper was the town crier. But as the editorial decisions on what’s front page, which stories to cover and in what depth are moved further from the community a disconnect occurs. The live and local aspect gets diminished.
Whatever delivered hopefully with friendly humor or a tad of entertainment using local expressions is what the small town in Maine local newspaper did deliver so well.
But as the ad revenue drops off, the increases in layoffs of writers and other support staff follows to belt tighten. The local newspaper turned county regional publication has watered down and not so just local. The deputized local column reporter for a local town aged out and was not replaced. Today, everything has to be entertaining, fed with the teaspoon of sugar to keep the attention and to go down easy. People’s life are too jam packed for anything else right? Less are chewing up full books and the term reading the newspaper means scanning the headlines. Like they are a bullet list of what you need to know today or this week. You need an analysis to tell you what the news coverage talking heads just said in case you missed it.
The yesteryear images of a small but bustling, vibrant small Maine town shot in black and white are nostalgic.
There are a number of Maine publications that just regurgitate the old images from the newspaper back room files. The old cars, wardrobe from earlier times and shots of buildings in the background of the small Maine town now long gone due to fire or progress have an audience. Aerial shots from farm properties in Maine back when every small town had lots of independent family agriculture enterprises are a popular item for stories. And for whoever now owns the property that may be missing some of the farm buildings, the big barn or open wrap around porch. But shot from the air during a good farming year road after road before the invention of drones with cameras are neat images to add to the blog post, the magazine article or newspaper article revisit to yesterday for their readership.
Thank you for reading our Me In Maine blog post about small town newspapers in Maine. The what is happening to them as they dwindle or get bought and pulled under larger media umbrella ownership. What is delivered means small independent bloggers are a source to turn to for the local community lifestyle and news events in the Maine area surroundings.
New year’s resolutions, are you after simple living, doing your thinking in quiet places?
Is your new year’s resolutions list held firmly under a strong magnet on the front of your refrigerator? To remind your daily of the new dance steps you yourself penned.
Is Your New Year’s Resolution To Fish More? To Spend Time Getting Outdoors In Maine?
The list of good intentions that causes glee or guilt. It all depends on how things unfold this new year. Assume the position for study and reflection developing your New Year’s plan.
Did you party late into the night and watch the ball drop?
Or are you late to the party about spelling out your New Year’s Resolution dream for 2020. What’s that? I hear muttering about you’re just too busy, no time. Just have not gotten around to carving out a list or why bother. Procrastination is one of the most common resolution list item to conquer for many.
So it seems lack of time is the biggest obstacle.
More time, what you long for way too much like a powerful hunger or thirst to quench.
Better use of the time is where the extra seconds, minutes or hours are hiding. Why always hurrying and out of time? Like cramming for a test. Why do you wait until the last minute to study? Is it because we run over booked lives with too much multi tasking? Or just waste the precious time we have on social media. Watching others with lives new and highly exciting compared to ours?
Maybe better use of our time is the number one New Year’s resolution to make.
To become better organized and remove the junk or clutter that robs the joy. To do a better job living
Too Much Excitement Or Pacing Yourself With A Cat Nap. While Waiting To Go Water Skiing On A Maine Lake?
within our means and developing a savings plan of time and money. Keeping it simple living in Maine.
A lot of people living in high cost urban areas are all doing their homework, planning their escape to Maine.
Maybe that is your primary new year’s resolution? Been on your list year after year as you prepare for the jailbreak to get to Maine. You need more fresh air, clean water and all this wide open scenery. Lose the hemmed in feeling in the vastness of Maine.
A lot of the New Year’s resolutions are about improving and tightening up our physical health habits.
To go easier on the internal organs and realizing personal health is up to each of us to maintain. Respect the body like it is a temple. If you feel fit and trim, that’ll help big time. To improve the quality of life with the DNA hand we were dealt from the family gene pool. What your earlier loved ones in the family struggled with or died from too early in life. You think about those people more the older you get as the years fly by at a quicker pace. (more…)
