Category: Maine Small Towns

The Small Maine Town Connection | All The People Are Special.

Living in a small Maine town.

Waiting For His Turn Down Derby Hill In Houlton Maine. Stomach Butterflies Happen.

Every single one of the population is needed, has a vital role. Most Maine communities are not sprawling and the population is sparse in a state that is vast in size. When there are less people, each of the individuals have a greater role and deeper involvement in what goes on around the small Maine town. You are needed more and there is always much to do to keep the inner workings of small Maine town life alive and well.

The transition from a big city to a small town has been discussed in an earlier Me In Maine blog post.

You could serve on boards, be involved in civic, church, school, non profits in both sized venues. But one major distinction between a city or a town is the more you volunteer, the deeper the rich relationships develop in small towns. Because everyone in that small Maine town pitches in. Not just a few that rise to the occasion. Not much is hired out and it is all about home grown roll up your sleeves and dig in. We’re all in this together through thick and thin in a small Maine town. Paying out of your own pocket to fund what has no other way to do it.

Rafting Down Whitewater In Maine. How Many Times On Which River In Maine?

The role the individual banding together to serve the snow sled club breakfast or help grooming the trails. Or reading to youngsters as a literacy volunteer at local schools. Or coaching a little league team, coordinating this year’s spring canoe race or haunted hayride in the fall. In whatever capacity, there is lots of over lap in small town living. Because like the Spartan force of 300 trained to perform like more zeroes were added to the troop size number, small Maine town volunteers get to know each other more deeply.

Many give more and go above and beyond in small Maine towns.

The same people are part of the community band or chorus and show up yearly for children’s or the local theater productions. The walk for cancer or local suppers to help a family going through a tough time shows how much the individuals in a small Maine town or cluster of villages all band together to help out when the need for assistance could not be greater. Watch this simple video for a night out at a local event hosted at Hidden Spring Winery. Everyone knows each other in the crowd. The musicians were our teachers, our kid’s instructors. The connection goes deep. No one is a stranger in the room because our paths cross back and forth like a spider web. Small towns in Maine offer honest, real, hardworking rewarding living.

No Smog, No Gas Guzzling Exhaust Fumes With Maine Amish Transportation Using Horse And Buggies. Over 113 Amish Families Are Alive And Well In Maine.

Just try to break down on a small Maine town road and you will see what I mean.

Run out of gas, have a flat tire, just see whatever your ride go dead. In a city, no one would stop or it’s up to you to hire the wrecker and wait. In a side road or in the middle of a small Maine downtown, put up the hood and look at your watch. Snap. You will have a number of motorists or pedestrians come to the rescue instantly. To ask how they can help and to see what’s the problem. Battery jumper chambers are whipped out. Hailing frequency time! Cell phone calls are made to their brother who can help. Your kids who have to get to ball or hockey practice or the church musical, their job, whatever are delivered and you feel safe because you know the people trying to help. You have worked and served alongside them year after year. You may even be related somehow by blood or marriage or past untied knot.

You are at the same wedding and funeral and holiday receptions. When the life flight helicopter is heard flying over or an ambulance siren sounds on its race by you wonder. Who needs a prayer and chances are you do know the person or their family in the small Maine town that has the medical emergency.

Follow The Leaders, ATV Trail Riding In Maine Is Fun! Bring Your Camera.

All of us have broken down on a local Maine trail and had help so you return the favor when you come up on the same situation. You don’t have to know the person on the receiving end of the assistance. Hear that a lot from outside tourists who are blown away because of how helpful the local Mainers is to someone they have never met up until the first contact. Many decide to move here because of the random act of kindness. Figuring if you local Mainers treat strangers that well, it must be a joy to be a native living in these parts as a community member.

Small town Maine business works more efficiently too.

At a small town Rotary meeting so much beyond the great meal and the speaker of the day knowledge exchange happens. Getting your desert you ask the attorney or banker or insurance agent about a work task. Lots is done in that one hour gathering because you are work, serve, live in the same neat small Maine town.

Everything goes smoother and happens easier because of less obstacles in part to maneuver around to cause delays. Too many people in a population center just slows down the process even with technology to make the connection relay. There is nothing like face to face and knowing the people well that you interact with day in and out in the circles you run in a small community.

Maine Four Season Recreation. See Maine On An ATV ITS Trail Ride, On A Snow Sled, Hoofing And Hiking It.

All the extra people in a city just add more layers of rules herding them. Traffic is greater, progress is diminished just getting around and working the logistics that can cause isolation. More people that you don’t know or trust causes the individuals to be less open and more reserved.

Less involved. It is not apathy but self protection.

When much of your energy and resources are put into self protection of personal safety and to hang onto your possessions it drains some of the vim and vigor to charge in. It becomes more of a survival for me rather than concern about the greater good for the population around you.

Small Maine towns are treated more like families than just garden variety citizenry.

We all watch and help shape the youngsters that grow up here. The individuals all stand out and are not lost in a sea of impersonal faces. You don’t worry about crime or gangs or drive by shootings. You watch in horror what happens in cities everyday on the hour and see the numbing effect it has to those who learn to avoid certain city neighborhoods and that are dead bolt and security camera holed up at night to feel safe and sound. That’s is not how small Maine town living operates. Ever thought of relocating, moving to a small Maine town?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

March 26, 2018
Maine Is Over Half Unorganized Townships

Unorganized townships in Maine. Over half the state is township this, range that and just not organized

Didn’t even get a name. With no school colors or mascot or basketball team to maybe get to go to the tournaments during Maine February vacation. The “town office” is in the Maine bureau of taxation’s unorganized townships division. Or in the unorganized division of the county government that the territory in question Maine land resides. The deed to the real estate title of all the acreage is recorded in one of the sixteen Maine counties.

Maine Fall Colors, See Them Shine Brightly Four Wheeling On An ATV Seat. More Scenery, No People, Lots Of Wildlife.

Like people you meet who have no middle name, the unorganized townships are like that.

Oh sure there are nicknames like TA R2 is affectionately called Letter “A”. Or Township 6 north of Weld in Franklin County Maine, and others have handles so every local knows where you are referring on the Maine map. When you break down on a snow sled or ATV four wheeler. Or describing the best place ever to hunt and fish or hike or tap into the wilderness lake where no camps hug the shoreline.

Very big in land mass area in this vast New England state but coupled with such a sparse population. Maine is extremes. The 39th largest state and the USA’s 9th least populated.

Elbow room, Maine sure does have plenty the further inland and north you go. Oh sure, Maine has 22 cities, a whopping 435 towns but the number of unorganized townships number 424 and another 33 entities are labeled plantations. Don’t forget 3 Indian reservations too. More on early Maine history. Life is definitely simpler living with low or no population areas. Where wildlife in the and out of the waterfront run the show unopposed.

But what about something else, a settlement in Maine?

What are those? Well the Plymouth Company of Popham Maine showed up in the same year as the famous Jamestown Virginia settlement. The year was 1607 but the Popham colony now present day Phippsburg in Sagadahoc County Maine on the Kennebec River settlement had a down hill slide because of a harsh winter. The new to this land landing party could not sustain. Petered out the following year. That put Jamestown in the history books as the first American permanent settlement. Along the Maine coast, other settlements sprung up in the 1620’s but not all lasted due to a the climate, the being on the look out for Indian attacks and just plain lack of provisions in the pantry. The early Maine settlers were used to easier living conditions and taking a step back in the Maine landing new life.

Several French explorers including Verrazano reached Maine in 1524. Champlain discovered and named Mount Desert, the largest island off the coast of Maine. The first English settlement of Popham Plantation was near the mouth of the Kennebec River.

Baxter State Park, Local Jewel Created By Governor Percival Baxter Back In The 1930’s! Maine, Over Half Of The State Is Unorganized Townships In The “UT”.

Massachusetts gobbled up most of the Maine land claims in what was a wilderness territory of the USA and by 1820 when Vacationland became a state, only about six settlements had survived.

1820 was the year the state of Maine pulled away from the Bay State. Even though despite a few New York Yankee fans among us, most are still in Red Sox Nation after the separation from Massachusetts. Early fishing settlements and tradings posts had their share of ups and downs in this New World. Not everyone was cut out for starting from scratch and totally new undeveloped surroundings.

The price of furs that soared high and low made trade with the native trappers feel cheated. The new settlement band of newcomers were used to open field line them up and mow them down warfare. They did not react well to hit and run raiding party spur of the moment attacks from the natives who knew the landscape so well. The locals always have a home court advantage. They had tamed daily conditions to make life in their area of Maine easier. For safety sake, it was mostly coastal fishing and river side settlements in Maine locations as a rule. And the existing native tribes headed inland. To blend in with the forest where they felt right at home trapping, farming, respecting the land and natural resources.

If you visit Maine you will learn of areas called settlements.

You could think they were a township, a plantation or just dubbed a little more interesting nick name for an unorganized township location. But low and behold you will find a place like Robinson Settlement in Aroostook County Maine that sounds like a municipality is really just an area of the township of Blaine (formerly Township Letter B, 1st Range; Alva Plantation). The name changed from Alva Plantation in honor of James G. Blaine, the current US House Of Representatives Speaker. Who never delivered on the promise of a town bell for a carrot if the locals did switch to his last name. Often a grist or lumber mill was the reason for the settlement name, like Whitlock Mills. Whitlock Mills near Calais in Washington County is the northern most lighthouse location in Maine.

Moose Not People, Other Wildlife Too Hide In The Woods, Waterways Of Maine.

Here is a list of Maine communities, some that are no longer here and are alive in history records only. Another list of towns in Maine which is very long. And check out the list of Maine plantations.

Sometimes besides the name sticking for a settlement location in early Maine the locals knew from sight where you were from because of your clothing. It was not uncommon for the few families that carved out a new Maine farmstead in a new territory to buy their cloth material in bulk for the cost savings. For clothing production by hand from a large quantity bolt to save money. So when these settlement members did come to a population center to trade in commerce, to buy some feed, seed or pasture fencing, coffee, sugar, etc the color of their clothes defined where they were from out in the country.

In Hancock County Maine alone there are 1522 islands under the unorganized territories heading. In Maine’s unorganized territories, the UT, there are roughly 9000 year round residents. Lots of seasonal ones in the UT of Maine.

Can you imagine living in Drew Plantation Penobscot County Maine population just 46 people?

Rich Where It Counts, Maine Is Unspoiled, Drop Dead Gorgeous.

I listed a log home for sale with 25 acres of land in Hersey ME recently and that town’s six mile by six mile population is just 79 people. No, there won’t be a Walmart super center breaking ground or a set of golden arches rolling in to this very small Maine township anytime soon. Traffic lights, gangs fighting turf wars, drive by shootings or high crime or pollution just not happening in Hersey or other the very small Maine towns like it. Where there are not layers of players.

But look up, see the stars at night in one brilliant sky back drop. The woods infested with wildlife too. No people, no problems. Fresh air, clean water. Listen. Hear birds chirp, loons cry, woodpeckers knock or just the wind in the trees. The rain on the cabin roof. Not emergency response vehicles or heavy highway traffic or airplanes lifting off or landing. The other sounds of the city that never sleeps.

Peace and quiet happens in these small Maine town or plantation or unorganized settlement locations.

But employment to pay those property taxes, register the car and pump the fuel to make it move. That’s the catch. Maine is a great place to live if you can make a living. Or have a knack of removing money out of your approach to frugal living. Where bartering happens. It’s a long long ways to town pulled by the horse team or in the buggy or farm wagon.

Just water down that buttered rum laddled out to the men friends and male neighbors who are coming over this weekend to help you with the barn raising in Maine. They climb high and are cat like quickly putting the hand hewn 8×8’s mortised into place in the barn skeleton. The folks you work with the same you helped one by one with their community building projects on their homesteads weeks earlier and in future projects scheduled ahead.

Other small population centers are disbanding and electing to try to deorganize because there are just not enough folks to fill the elected offices to to keep the area running.

To keep it marked on the Maine map. In these small areas, the animal control officer for the dog chasing deer serves as a selectmen, on the district school board and mows the ground around the cemetery plots. His wife or her husband is on the planning board and heads up the recreation department and is serves a term on the board of property value assessing and zoning board. Oh and they serve on the local volunteer fire department, down at the local grange hall or snow sled club. They may be a licensed, registered Maine Guide and can help guide you in the hunting, fishing, maybe canoe or kayak or rafting trip.

Maine Is Real, Peaceful, Not Crowded. One Of The Lowest Crime States.

More than one hat is worn in the teeny weeny small Maine population centers that often were once large bustling lumber cutting forestry communities.

Or railroad communities, mill towns in an earlier time in Maine history. When they herded logs down the Maine rivers. Where the commerce was local before Interstate and Internet happened. Blacksmiths, local clothing stores, drug stores with ice cream soda fountains, phone company with party lines and Mabel helping make the call. Sometimes listening to the conversation.

Often if one more person dies and lets go of the local reins of control, that’s it. All she wrote. Deorganization or annexing, absorption in another municipality are the only options. To lower property taxes from over 30 mill to say 6 mill is another reason to wave the white flag in the legislature. That is fueling the dismantling of local government control at a increasing pace.

Looking for small itty bitty population centers but incredible large areas to roam?

You must be thinking about a place like Maine, the way life should be. Letting the state and the county government take over the municipality or plantation to absorb the tiny population. It is a last gasp surrender, is a last resort when the declining, aging population just continues to slide uncontrolled. We have room for you… all kinds in all four directions. Well maybe not so much to the east where our Canadian cousins hold down the Atlantic Provinces. Could you imagine living in an unorganized township in Maine? A recreational sporting camp or woodlot land owner is the biggest component of who does in Maine’s UT or unorganized townships.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

February 25, 2018
Up North In Maine

Heading North to Maine. Heading into the North Maine woods

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

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

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

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

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

West, heading out west.

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

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

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

South, down south.

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

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

East, Far east.

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

North. Due North.

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

Heading North, Hitting The ITS Trails In Maine.

Maine is parked up North.

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

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

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

I live in Northern Maine.

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

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

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

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

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

The holidays are not the time to diet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

November 14, 2017