MeInMaine Blog

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  • Do More Than Live Life, Go Thru The Motions….Maine, What The Brochure Left Out.

    Teaching The Skills Of Potato Picking Early On.
    Teaching The Skills Of Potato Picking Early On.

    When you see the glossy colored brochures, write ups and tourism industry generated videos, promotional propaganda on Maine, you get excited.

    Maine is vastly different than over populated areas with too many people to deal with, drive around, worry about crime wise. It is not like that here…life if so much simpler. After you get thru the slide show of Maine lobster, lighthouses, blueberry pie, potato picking and Mt Katahdin, there are the topics left out that enrich your life.

    For starters, it helps if you aproach Maine with a slight attitude adjustment. Small mental tweaking on how you are living your life now. If it is a blur, where you are detached from your surroundings, and only absorbed in a few areas like work, a sport, or baggage from the past, we have some prep work. Happier living starts with a different outlook. And Maine then becomes the backdrop. Provides the scenery change. The removal, weeding out of too many people. And replacement with four season beauty to continue the “new you” enhancement.

    When you find yourself, put yourself on the side of a Maine lake, and it’s 5am with the sun coming up, you have forgotten the freeway to work you do battle on most days. You are aware of the singing birds in the trees.Hear and see fish jump near the dock the kayak is lashed to. You are walking before a breakfast you cook that is not hurried, is actually fun to create. The kids are still sleeping because the jet ski tubing you did with them yesterday wore them out in a good way. In an energy drained, that was fun manner memorable fashion. Tomorrow you will take those same kids and hike in Baxter State Park. You will not be thinking of phone calls to return, emails to check, or stirring any back burner office projects for the next week.

    This vacation in Maine removes the hectic you have assembled in to your life. Replaces it with a new awareness of your surroundings. You are in Maine. You have let go, relaxed and figured out a few of the secrets of a fulfilled, happy connencted life. Maine is more than a place. Fill your life with that clean air. Study the bluer than bluer sky during the day. The million star on black velvet same sky but at night under a moonlight that dances on that same lake you got energy from visually this morniing with that coffee. Maine is a people that are hardworking, family centered, willing to help you out and accept your quirks. And at the same time are curious and wanting to learn where you have been.What you have learned that you can share with them. That’s a true Mainer.

    The connection to others. The awareness of the place we live and respect for all Maine offers starts with depending on ourselves.

    The ingredients for contentment, serenity are like low hanging fruit in Maine. We don’t have to create the setting or buy the enhancements to create the flavor. It is already here, not spoiled or removed by man or development under the banner of progress. And being on a budget is a great way to carve out a simpler life in Maine.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers 207.532.6573

  • Hitch Hiking In Maine…Did It A Lot During College Years. Still Pick People Up To Get Them Out Of The Weather, Home.

    You see a few of these and moose, deer on the Maine highways too.
    You see a few of these and moose, deer on the Maine highways too.

    Not many people will recommend hitch hiking.

    But in Maine, the 4th lowest crime state, I never worried about getting picked up or myself giving someone road side a ride. I worked in broadcasting in Bangor Maine through out college and for two years after I graduated. And it was rare I could get back from Orono to Houlton Maine, two hours away. But when I could, even though I had a Pinto, sometimes it was easy to catch a ride. To save money. And the trip went by very fast with some neat conversations along the way.

    It was not always a thumb out, and random hitch hiking either. My dad had a fleet of trucks used to haul Maine potatoes to market and french fry paper cartons back to the County. So many times a ride back on an 18 wheeler was not hard to coordinate.

    Waiting on the side of the road just did not happen. Maybe it is Maine people being trusty, friendly. Or this young college kid could remind them of their kids, or themselves earlier in their lives.

    Maybe if I was a young Maine lady I would have a different attitude.

    But if you follow Maine news, you just don’t hear of mishaps, wrong deeds done with hitch hiking part of the crime. Some times there would be two of us with our thumbs out looking for a ride. And I still pick up a student, young person needing a ride. Without thinking twice about it. Maybe because folks did this for me getting back and forth to Houlton and Bangor Maine.

    If you like people, are interested in them and don’t live in a high crime area, you can learn regardless from your new rider or driver. Hitch hiking can be a neat way to spend two hours getting to know about someone that always always has some friend in common with you in the low population county of Aroostook. There are 11 people per square mile in Northern Maine. Maybe that helps explain why folks look out for each other, can not drive by and leave someone out in the rain. Standing by the side of the road. Maine, its way way different here. Get here quick as you can to see for yourself.

    Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers 207.532.6573

  • Getting Off An Interstate Ramp, The Condition Is Called Velocitized.

    Reaching, Searching For The "Food" At A Pace We Can Stand.

    As cars got quieter, roads improved, speeds on interstate highway systems kept a steady increase as the years zoomed by. Where you live and your day to day hubbub can be like that.

    Much of the blur, the faster pace of life involved getting around the growing population of where you live and chasing the American dollar. If money was not an object, what would you do with your time, your day to day filled with what else? Trying to find something to do you love that does not feel like work. And much of what we do, how we do it revolves around the weather. In Maine we get lots of weather.

    If the car you are driving faster and faster on those better built roads and to get to more and more over booked life events were suddenly not on roads with much traffic, think how much nicer the drive would be. You could look around and enjoy the ride. See the cows grazing to the right, the sunlight dancing off the lake to the left as the sense of being in the moment is allowed to shine thru. To be felt and replace the condition, side effects of hurriedness, or the numbness and anxiety.
    For fun, what do you do to relax? Without a drug, or a drink of tonic, what natural surroundings make you happier? Maine’s four seasons scenery is intoxicating, like a drug.

    As our life gets busier, more cluttered and less organized, it is a constant struggle to keep pulling the throttle back, to maintain a sane speed. To avoid becoming velocitized.

    Impatience is a decision and can become a lifestyle. Over-reacting to this person who rubs you the wrong way, or does not move as fast of you. That person is following a different metronome beat or rhythm and not doing it to bother you. They have found their speed or balance or moderation…and maybe you have not. Yet. Most Mainers who live here full time have. Or are recovering velocitized “transplants” hungry for a slower pace of living in Maine.

    In our job, we hear the common refrain over and over that the caller or emailers life is out of control. Steadli going faster faster with no let up in sight. Much of that self inflicted blur is due to adding on more and more tasks, goals, obligations. That can steal your joy, make you tired and not so much fun to be around. Maine is simpler living, family oriented recreation right here in our own backyard in “Vacationland”. Maine, get here just as quick as you can (smile)…within the speed limit, and your own personal pace of course.

    Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers 207.532.6573

  • Maine Snow Fall…We Need Snow To Have Fun, Have Experience Handling It.

    Ask Any Maine Kid, Do They Like, Enjoy, Play In The Snow? This Is One Happy Kid In One Of The Trees In My Backyard That Would Shout "Yes".

    Today snow cancelled flights in to Washington DC’s Regan Airport. And many businesses, kids wondering what is up for Monday for the east coast snow storm that happened on Super Bowl weekend.

    My dad was a World War Two B-24 tail gunner and when we watched war films growing up on TV or at the drive in, I remember him laughing. He would smile and groan “oh that is so Hollywood”. Meaning the way the film producer, director or script described and tried to recreate was not accurate. Something lost in translation. With weather, when you live in Maine where winter is one of our favorite seasons to ski, ice fish, play hockey and snowsled, I hear my dad’s response and think sensationalize when I watch the media, weatherman.

    When the internet, television or newspapers show over the top reaction to a few inches of snow, it all boils down to that area just not getting much snow. When you don’t get much, or on a regular basis, it is a big deal.

    It’s not Hollywood dad. Folks do stock up on water, milk, batteries and bread. Kids get excited making sticky snowballs and hoping school the next day is cancelled. Whatever it takes. When there are lots of people in an urban area, lack of equipment and experience with snow, drivers not used to dealing with blowing snow and icy roads not cleared properly, it just makes sense what happens. Over reaction due to inexperience with snow.

    Snow is not a weekly occurence or something hoped for in areas that don’t get much. Dog sled races, horse drawn sleigh rides were part of this weekend’s Moosestomper’s Weekend. A celebration of Northern Maine winter in Aroostook County.

    My oldest son is in college as a junior at George Washington in DC. This weekend’s snow makes him laugh as he grew up in Northern Maine, shoveling, plowing the white stuff. When the temperature is in the 20’s and some “storms” are a few inches, he says the DC area goes crazy. Here is what a Maine winter snowstorm looks like. And by ten oclock that morning, everything is cleaned up, driveways plowed or snow blowed and life goes on. Right on schedule.

    Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers 207.532.6573

  • Cruises Are A Super Way To See Many Ports, Including Maine’s Coast.

    Maine Cruise Ships...A Little Further North. Water Bluer Than Green.
    Maine Cruise Ships…A Little Further North. Water Bluer Than Green.

    Cruise ships are huge, convention center large, little cities on the water.

    And being able to sample the Maine coast and explore part of Maine has led to repeat vacationers booking trips further inland. Over 100 cruise ships a year dock off the Maine coast. But since Maine is more than rock bound coast, lighthouses, blueberries and lobsters. You could come in the winter and downhill ski, snowsled, and enjoy an event like Moosestompers Weekend.
    Or ski Sugarloaf Mountain in Western Maine. With over 13000 miles of Maine snowsled trails, this video shows why the sport is so popular, so much fun.

    Or round up your fishing tackle, rod and get some fresh bait..fishing on one of Maine’s 6000 lakes or rivers may be where you seek to roam.

    Or exploring the North Maine woods looking for game, hunting. Or my favorite, hiking Baxter State Park, climbing Mt Katahdin. Or Kennebunkport..just 90 miles from Boston, Massachusetts.
    Maine, get here are quick as you can…whether its a first stop on a cruise ship or behind the wheel in the family wagon. You are guaranteed to have a super time. Bring the family.

    Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers 207.532.6573

  • Granges Were Big, Vibrant In Maine Years Ago.

    The local Grange Hall in Maine was an integral part of American’s agricultural lifestyle for much of the 1900’s.

    Empty Waiting For Folks To Come To Bean Suppers.
    Empty Waiting For Folks To Come To Bean Suppers.
    Near Grand Lake, Weston Maine's Grange Hall.
    Near Grand Lake, Weston Maine’s Grange Hall.
    Back When 96% Of Us Were Farmers, Maine Granges Were The Center Bee Hive Of Activity, Community Events.
    Back When 96% Of Us Were Farmers, Maine Granges Were The Center Bee Hive Of Activity, Community Events.

    Every town had a Grange Hall.

    .

    Maine has a state Grange organization. Maine’s first Grange started in 1876. On the Grange national level, there are many chapters around the country still active.

    I passed the Grange Hall in Weston and Cary Maine here in Aroostook County over the weekend. The driveways not plowed out, their memberships dwindling as the older workers die off one by one. But in 2700 communities, 40 states, the National Grange was a major force in shaping the country. And still is with the following being the mission statement for the Grange.

    “Major objectives of the National Grange support stewardship of America’s natural resources; promotion of world-wide free trade; a combination of local and federal support for rural education, medical, communications, and road systems; non-partisan political participation; assurance of safe and properly labeled food products; organization of cooperatives and other economic services to support rural Americans; and elimination of direct government farm programs so as to assure a competitive and efficient farm system.

    The National Grange supports the passage of progressive legislation that will benefit U.S. agriculture, rural America, and the nation in general. After 143 years, it remains the nation’s oldest and strongest sustained organizational force working for a better life for rural Americans everywhere.”

    Now with more and more options for a person’s free time group and organization wise, Grange membership in Maine has dropped off. Especially since less than 3 percent of us are farmers, the original bulk of the membership in the early 1900’s in the Grange hay day.

    Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers 207.532.6573