MeInMaine Blog

Category: Uncategorized

  • It’s Like Nascar, Except Soap Box Derby’s Engine Is Gravity.

    Maine is a big state for soap box derby racing. In Houlton Maine, “Derby Hill” built to make the ride fast, smooth and the course easy to set up quickly.

    Beside the 16th annual Maine Soap Box Derby race June 18th, spring and fall rallies with cars, drivers, families from all over the country show up to feel the “Thrill of the Hill”.

    If you are a business looking for a family fun, spirited racing event to sponsor buy a kit car. Have a contest to select a boy or girl 8 to 17 to race and represent you in the derby program. The winner of the stock and super stock soap box derby race in Houlton Maine goes on to represent the state in Akron Ohio’s All American Race. The first national derby race was in 1934 in Akron Ohio.

    The derby car used in the Maine race is durable. Fun for the kid to build, drive and for a helper to construct. And the car lasts for years. Gets passed along to other drivers, continues to represent your community spirit to sponsor a ride.

    Personally my favorite cars are the ones where the driver knocks on lots of doors.

    Spends plenty of shoe leather beating a path to several sponsors. And the graphics on the car show boatloads of support from many smaller sponsors. It translated into hard working effort on the driver’s part and big desire to really want to race. And win or lose, that driver who built the car will stick with the program. Help another driver learn the course with pointers he or she learned and passes on in racing tips. That is the spirit of soap box derby program in Maine.

    The Houlton Maine race was the largest in the country five years in a row. Watch a video of a past race and visit the Northern Maine soap box derby race site for more information on how to get involved. To help a Maine kid learn how to conquer, take apart Derby Hill at Community Park in Houlton Maine June 18th. Maine, big state, communities help the local youth take part in really neat family fun programs.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com

  • Maine Airports A Warm Home For Returning Veterans, Soldiers.

    Maine Is Vacationland, Friendly Caring, Hardworking Folks Live Here.
    Maine Airports Meet And Greet Returning GI Soldier Transport Air Planes.

    GI Joe and Jane are lucky if the big troop transport plane has a Maine airport on its flight manifest to touch down at.

    Maine, if there was a world olympics for troop transport airport diehard greeters, then Vacationland would get the gold. But the organized tight group does not do what they do for personal attention. No matter what time of day or night greeters set their alarm clocks, shower, run a comb through their hair and hurry, scurry to the Maine airport. Not to get on a flight, but to catch one coming in. The greeters are there to make sure the soldiers feel appreciated, respected. Bangor Maine’s BIA Airport especially organized by caring individuals that say it gives their lives purpose. That this is something they need to do, must do and that it becomes addictive.

    If you were hunkered down overseas, in a desolate place that does not even remotely resemble your real home, the shaking hands, being met at the Maine airport in the middle of the night would be a very big deal.

    Hitting you in your gut. Inner personal places that don’t get many visitors.

    Your have feelings of being overwhelmed, blown away from the unexpected. Raw emotions brought out, exposed to air and light.

    Making your service time as a card carrying Veteran so worthwhile and your efforts recognized publicly. Not just taking the sacrifice for granted. Given good home made food, handed a fully charge free cell phone to connect with your real family after being in the winged silver bird, tin can through several time zones. Not knowing or really caring what day it is and hungry, anxious to get to your local zip code. The one where family is there to help you with items on the luggage terminal merry go round.

    I am glad I live in Maine, with people like the airport greeters who have their own life struggles. But forget them, replace their personal time making others happier in a very touching way. There is so much being done by the hard working Maine community unsung heroes that need to be recognized. That’s not why they do it and would argue it is no big deal. But it is. Maine, get here quick as you can and meet some of the people.


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    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com

  • Maine Canoe, Kayak Races Popping Up On Weekends.

    You know spring has sprung in Maine when you see green canoes
    Spring Thaw From Winter Snows Make The Maine Rivers Fast, Fun.
    Meduxnekeag River Race 2011 Is April 30th At 10AM.
    on pick up roof racks around our small communities.

    Brightly colored kayaks being hauled out of sheds, parked on, dotting lawns.

    Waiting for the next weekend canoe race in Maine.

    Lots of Maine river and stream races happen each spring in Maine as the water level rises. As the water gets higher, flows faster in rivers and streams due to melting snow run off.

    As the ice thaws, goes out of local lakes now that ice fishing shacks have been removed from those waterbodies in Maine.

    Check out the images of many of Maine’s local races. Or watch a video of the Meduxnekeag River Race in Houlton Maine.

    Meduxnekeag is a Maliseet Native American word meaning “rocky at its mouth”.

    This Southern Aroostook River’s South Branch starts at what is known as Meduxnekeag Lake. But no one locally will know which Maine lake you are actually talking about. Refer to it as Drews Lake in New Limerick, Linneus and the part known as the “Fishing Grounds” in Oakfield Maine. This is the Drews Lake site for future reference if this summer you want more Maine water in your recreational off time diet.

    The Meduxnekeag River Race 2011 edition is April 30th at 10 AM. The Maine Canoe and Kayak Racing 2011 River Schedule shows lots of options to dip the paddle, drift down a Maine stream or river.

    You don’t have to be a belt black paddler, kayaker to enjoy the water. Leisure, recreational canoe and kayak owners can fill their lungs with fresh air, listen to birds singing, the lap of water against the craft as soon as you put in. And starting heading to the finish line at your own pace. Picture yourself in the Meduxnekeag River Race in Houlton Maine video, watching the movie.

    Be in the 2011 Maine river race video and make some memories with a son, daughter, other family member or friend. The exercise will do you good. And you get a red dye number three grilled hot dog and a drink. A neat t-shirt to celebrate the day on the water. While enjoying, reliving the Maine river race with other paddlers where you dig out, come back a shore on to dry land. There is a feeling of accomplishment, you are part of a 50 year Maine spring tradition started by Houlton Maine’s Ricker College many moons ago.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com

  • Sometimes Something Smaller Can Be Pretty Big.

    The Ordinary Household Items Your Parents Used Growing Up Are Extra Special.
    The Bottle Used To Sprinkle Water Ironing To Rid Those Clothes Of Wrinkles.

    When you settle a Maine estate and have to go through the house hold items of a loved one passed away, the small things are the most valuable.

    The items you remember as a kid that in a garage sale would be pretty valueless. Passed over or not fetching much of a price.

    I remember my Mom using this bottle pictured above. To sprinkle water on clothes being ironed to help remove wrinkles. Before steam irons, before permapress clothing. I can see her like it was today when all triggered by this particular bottle. Because it was the one she used. Not one like it, not one from the same era. This very one.

    To anyone else, it is just an old Pepsi bottle with a stopper on it.

    One vivid time I remember it in use back in November of 1963.

    I grew up on a Maine farm. The home has a long driveway and after being dropped off by the yellow bus late one November afternoon I walked in to the house hearing the television news announcer loud and clear. The President had been shot, assassinated he informed us. The news anchor visibly shaken, removing his glasses and I knew this was serious. As the words sunk in on what he was telling us. My Mom ironing, looking up and watching a black and white telecast with Walter Cronkhite providing the tragic news from Dallas Texas.

    Grisly details about President John Kennedy’s death. What happened in the back seat of the convertible 1963 Lincoln Continental and subsequent events. I would be eight years the next month. Sensed from a kid’s perspective my Mom was upset. Concerned like the rest of the nation, the world as I reflect back now to how the news must have hit, affected other adults back in 1963.

    So now my parents are gone. The household things divided up among my three older brothers and myself. And life goes on. I have moved up a notch in the family hierarchy.

    And the older I get, the more it is the little items I cherish the most.

    Because of the person that used them.

    Mom’s love of flowers continues. I look forward to spring at the farm when so many flower beds bloom because she started them years ago. Appearing right on time, like clockwork.

    Also have a Santa decoration too who is holding a Christmas light. Smiling broadly that always appeared like magic in the farm house kitchen. Like the Pepsi bottle ironing sprinkler, that too has the same priceless value to me.

    To anyone else, they see a cracked, well worn plastic red and white dime a dozen decoration. With lots of miles on it from years of holiday visits to the Houlton Maine farm home. That Santa was there during fun, family Christmas holiday celebrations as a kid with my brothers, Mom and Dad. He is still here, and part of distant memories. Bring alive, providing some of the holiday magic as I remember viewing hime through a kid’s eyes.

    Maine, families are close, working side by side on farms, other local businesses and active in their small vibrant communities.

    Maine, a place where the people, families matter most.

    We are all connected and make the state up here in the right hand corner so special. To add to the pure and simple four season’s natural beauty.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker207.532.6573info@mooersrealty.com

  • What’s A Maine Soil Bank, CRP Program?

    Maine land is very fertile but putting it in a CRP soil bank may be needed.
    Maine Potato Workers Start Early. Their Labor On Farms Helps Get The Crop Out, Into Storage.
    Maine Soil Is Rich, Fertile But Some Placed In CRP Program, The Soil Bank.
    That’s where Uncle Sam’s USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) comes in.

    The soil bank means for ten years, you sign on with the USDA’s Farm Services Agency to seed the land to put in to the CRP program with special conservation grass mix.

    Special blends of grasses designed to hold the soil in place, to regenerate with minerals and nutrients the land set aside, put in the CRP soil bank. There is a penalty if you take it out early. But you can enjoy an annual check from the USDA to help off set the property taxes. And get a good feeling knowing the land is resting, recharging and kept a farm.

    If Maine farms continue to be broken up or merged in to fewer but industrial sized operations, the small entry level farmer is going to have a more and more difficult time taking to the plow. Manning the seeder, cultivators and hoes and eventual harvest operation on Maine farms.

    Here is more information on the CRP conservation Reserve Program. The whole “give the land a rest, keep the farm intact” objective is rooted in legislation of the Soil Bank Act of 1956.

    Taking care of the soil that produces the food we grow, raise on it is critical in a country that never ever wants to become dependent on another world power to provide what we put on our family tables.

    The USDA CRP Soil Conservation Resource Program addresses that concern. It also helps farmers when operations are stalled from economic or health set backs to put the land on lay away, stand by receiving a smaller compensation. Until it returns to production with that farmer or rental to another one down the road looking for more ground to plant.

    How much is paid for CRP compensation is worked out between the Maine land owner and USDA. And extra points are awarded for a variety of criteria to arrive at that level of annual payment. Existing CRP land can be kept in the program after the ten years but it may mean checking to make sure the conservation grasses on the land are all the right kind, with no species or variety missing in the vegetation. Or that what was planted ten years ago, is still in the mix of what is growing on the land for a ground cover.

    If there is something lacking or that did not take in the original planting, the USDA office has a no-soil tilling grass seed sower for rent at $10 an acre. The Maine land owner can buy his grass seed, do the planting and keep the ground in the soil bank with positive returns for when it does return to active cultivation.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com

  • Riding Horses, Raising Cows, Crops On A Maine Farm.

    Growing Your Own Maine Food Is Becoming Popular For Fun, Survival.
    It Is No Secret Maine Farm Land Is Ideally Suited For Crops, Raising Horses, Cows, Smaller Animals.

    Hay burners, large four legged critters like horses, cows dot many Maine farm fields.

    But the thought of raising them when eight of out ten people live in an urban, surburban real estate market never comes to mind. Oh sure, there are some riding arenas, places to board horses outside the city where you live and work. But cows crossing the Bronx Expressway or in Central Park, around Dupont Circle and grazing around national monuments like the Liberty Bell, I don’t think so.

    In Maine one acre will support three large critters, horses, cows. More small animals. Farming in Maine is not just blueberries, potatoes, dry beans and brocolli. It is dairy farming, pleasure horses, raising beef too. Out west it takes three not so fertile, so lush acres to support that one animal. That’s the difference. And no irrigation usually needed in Maine although for better control of the crop, Maine potato farmers are leaning toward the process.

    I grew up on a Maine farm and am lucky enough to own that 300 acres, all those buildings now. I rent the land to an area Maine potato farmer. Use the big barns for storage of people’s RV’s, boats, antique cars to help pay the property taxes.

    Some of the land in the CRP program, the conservation resource program to seed it down with conservation mix grass seed and put it in the “soil bank” for ten years.

    The Maine house is rented if we find the right situation. Usually to someone related to the US Border Patrol, Customs, Immigration wave that hit Houlton Maine due to 911. And because the strenghening, tightening up our US – Canadian happened.

    Maple syrup operations in Maine are underway now. And folks in the city are becoming more and more concerned about the price of food, where it comes from, what if it runs out and they have no way to feed themselves.

    If you think air and water are addictive, food trumps them all because without it, the other two don’t matter one hill of beans, so to speak.

    Maine farms, Maine farmers markets are catching on as a lifestyle choice for many that have not had much room around them that a large property, land can provide. Here are few Maine farm videos. Or a selection of Maine farms in all price ranges if that is you cup of tea might be worth a perusal.

    The Maine Farm Bureau supports horses, farming and offers many resources. Excellent resources for horse owners, Maine horse related businesses. And rumor has it, that Maine cows are not having sex any more, don’t have to to create new beef calves and milk replacement hiefers. If you are thinking about investing in a Maine farm, buying land to create a different, healthier lifestyle than the one you lead now, I would love to talk with you. Our name like what cows do to communicate, what they are. MOO-ers. Call, email, text, send smoke signals or come visit. Maine is one place your heart and your head are in absolute agreement. You won’t need a second option, a plan “B” back up plan because Maine is always your best case scenario.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, Broker
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com