Why was the Grange such an important part of small town living in rural areas of this country, around Maine?
The Grange movement responsible for free rural mail delivery, lots of other small town contributions. Where the economy was pretty tied to agriculture, mostly local enterprises. We Live In Maine, We Keep It Simple. Have To.
The local Grange was a group of farmers working together to improve the local landscape with attention to religion, law and history.
Remote farmers needed social, educational, and fraternal activities. The Grange movement keyed in, related to the farmers need to self improve and stop working individually in the struggle. For the public to be more aware of the farmers plight in the press too as they banded together.
The Grange also helped regulate railroad rate fees for freight, grain elevator monopolies.
To set up feed, supply stores for farmers to peddle their crops and goods at with distribution efficiency. The need for a good solid food hub, a strong local community co op all tie in with the original sentiments of the Grange movement.
In 1900, one farmer could produce more wheat than twenty growers back in 1860. The Grange helped understand the shift from agriculture primitive methods to mechanized overhauls of the family farm.
While industrial gains were made in the shift from rural agriculture to urban living, its new production methods.Horsing Around In Maine. Want To, Need To?
Farming in Maine is changing.
Their is a resurgence of younger micro farmers turning to making a living with tilling the dirt.
Raising critters on smaller better managed with a family Maine farm approach to simple living.
Not going head over heels in debt. Being more self sufficient, trained with all disciplines to stay on that farm in Maine by doing more yourself.
Attending the Jack of All Trades University.
Graduating with high honors and a keen survival set of skills, talents for the real World.
Not just gaming a bubble to win play points.
To keep overhead down and to embrace family farming in Maine where the entire family pitches in to keep it running. Ever thought of the simple living on a Maine farm as a lifestyle?
Think of words that are in the same camp as “simple”.
Do you reach tip toe high for those essential happy, content building blocks in your daily rise and shine?
Or maybe chasing other glittering rainbow pathways. Trying to locate what is missing. It’s not outside, but inside. Wage wars there instead of finding fault with others to blame. Being Able To Hear Yourself Think Is Easier In Maine.
Maine is a natural beehive for simple living.
Because of sheer less people to navigate around, that strips away the distractions. Let’s you really crank up the volume on the deep woods wildlife and crystal clear water wonders. Hear yourself think.
Get in touch with me, myself and I. Feeling stronger, not crumbling when the trails gets a little steeper. Littered with rocks and roots to cause a painful stumble if you don’t pay attention.
More weight shifted to the mindset that “you can do it yourself” in the four season unspoiled Maine surroundings.
Hard to handle but easier to hold, none of us are angels as Greg Allman reminds.
When belting it out in the key of “G” harmonies with back up musicians adding to the melody. He is no stranger to your dark. Wanting to be let in, to start a fire within your heart. Never lifting a hand to hurt. In the drive you crazy. Go for it, make it count. Fall Colors In Maine, Courtesy Of Jack Frost.
Everyone gets tested, wears scars and stripes from the lessons learned along the way.
When the focus is a tad less than 20-20. And having to rely on others for the answers, the missing puzzle pieces in your rifled through cardboard box.
Panning for the gold washed, sifted out crouched by a Maine stream bed. It starts with you getting centered, then cue the others to flock together right?
No quick fix cheat sheet to peel. To curl back one corner of the top plastic layer and quickly dial in numbers on the microwave. Slow down on the fast food for thought. Real life short cuts that work in the long run are few and far between. Baked slowly tastes best.Way Too Close, In Your Face. That’s Not “Purr-fect”, Not Maine.Hunger improves the taste remember?
Not something Monarch, Cliff Notes zipped through to game and conquer to achieve another layer level star.
Push away the game console. Park it on a shelf. Unplug, get outside in Maine for the simple answers. Only found outside your bubble.
Maine. Learning early on if you follow your heart, consult your gut and head.
Get your sleep, eat right, think about others and avoid stinking thinking. While settling in to a rewarding, simple life doing full time days and nights in Maine.
Others with all they offer from the same amazing community pantry cupboard of talents. Pitching in for the real, lasting takeaway experience only achieved collectively.
All the people. Knowing that you need the entire small tight knit Maine local community kept intact, not allowed to fragment. That you can do this if you try. But won’t unless reaching, digging deep and helping yourself from within first. To be something you love and understand as one Southern Band embedded above explains. So you are ready step it up. To take your place. Do more within the small Maine town community.
The airwaves, news stands, beauty salons, barber shops, sidewalks are all choke full of dime store wisdom on how you should whip your life into shape.
To make more days blue sky and sunshine always. Not so swirling gusty, windy with loaded drama. Instead to rest easy in the shake and bake, lock and load. To carve out a life that counts. To make it have a purpose beyond just entertaining yourself.
Don’t grow callous, grow strong. And follow your heart and what you understand by keeping it a simple approach to the life in your lap. To have that life be something you love and understand as the song reminds. As the guitar and soloist share what Momma told him when he was young and receptive to instruction. When reminded, don’t ever forget to listen closely. As you sit down along side someone you trust. Maine, we keep it simple to make it the kind of rich money can not buy.
But slowly what is down low and in the background in Maine gets turned up and enjoyed. Outdoor sounds of Maine include feeling the fog rolling in off the ocean coastline. The rustling of dried, curled and colorful leave explosions in the fall during the second bloom.
The crackling of wood, spitting and sizzling if a tad green on an outdoor circle of rocks and friends.
Rain on a tin roof. Hail against a side window. Crickets, Maine lake loons, Northeastern gales that can make the loose second floor original windows of an antique farm house.
Or in town Victorian smasher three story sound like a vibrating kazoo. A blade of grass between your palm thumbs flush with lots of whoosh. Or to head to your knees. Say your prayers. Worried about the roof of an old barn blowing off. In the creaking, rocking, reeling in the middle of a full blown storm melt down of Maine weather.
But while you are biking, climbing, skimming the surface of a Maine lake, a little bring it along to enhance the experience is neat too.
With music that is trending in your World. Between your ears, behind the pair of peepers. Here is a glimpse of a music log of where I enjoy today. Share your bands and songs and the why in the comment section.
Maine, the outdoor sounds of the four seasons are more than enough.
But adding some talented music, a band to help remember the moments. All add to the take away sizzle. Enhances the ride. Get to Maine, don’t keep her waiting. Try not to stay away so long.
Sometimes life seems to get out of control. Spinning too fast or bottom dropped out free falling.
Hoping someone remembered to pack the parachute. As you fumble to locate the rip cord. Or maybe you are just pushing too hard on the leaning forward. Adding into the red zone pressure on the throttle lever. Causing more and more unnecessary layers of stress and worry to your already overbooked day.
Maine is a place where what is really most important shines brightly.
More obvious because less noise, honest and real, not artificial or plastic. Maybe the less flash, spin, the more outdoor natural and not wall to wall people is a big part of it. That makes it way way easier to see the choices that are the most healthy. Not to be neglected, woven into your daily routine in Maine.Take Your Best Shot, Find Your Target For Happier Living In Small Town Maine.
Basics, when you strip away and begin again start with easy does it, practice the moderation approach to just survive.
Food you grow on a Maine farm patch of dirt. Peddle what you don’t use. Shelter you have a hand in creating and not just write a check.
Heat from natural resources because Maine is ninety one percent wooded land. And entertainment that family centered but tied to community involvement. Because of the greater connection small rural Maine town living demands. You are needed for whatever talents and skill set you bring to the table to add to the flavor of wherever you hang you hat in Maine. Fresh Air, Clean Water, Wildlife Not People. That’s Part Of Maine’s Secret Beauty.
But the inside spiritual garden to weed out within what crept in. When no one was looking and too fast paced living was in full swing. Causing the distraction, leading to the neglect.
Relationships, needing others, handling them with care and kindness.
It is easier to be considerate not dog eat dog. When you are not surrounded by too many people that are not so happy.
Can not be easily because of the toll that chasing, adding to the material items collection causes. Or just keeping their head above water when high cost is the only flavor to dine on in the grab and go hurry scurry. Moo Yourself. Don’t Happen To Have An Apple, Carrot, A Little Grain?
What is not real or natural long term wholesome missing. No joyful from within grateful because you are not. Instead feeding some inside insecurity temporarily with the latest and greatest store bought goods or service. Or over the counter medication, working on some stop gap addiction. Wondering what is wrong that is so elusive to fix slam bam thank you mam? Stop. Slow down, look around. Consider a move to Maine.
Simple Maine living can seem hokey to some.
Not enough to excite and fast pace entertain, is that’s all there is? Square, what fun is there in helping others and yourself at the same time in small rural community involvement some may ask?
It is the foundation of what is needed to enrich from within and not whipping out a plastic card with the magnetic strip. If you are looking for real, genuine, lasting. Not trendy or passing fad hip for now, Maine is the horse to bet on for the win, place show trifecta to better small town living.
The World spins at a pretty good clip. Life transitions are hard no matter what your age.
Because if you are content, comfortable in the place you park under the sunshine overhead, why do we have to stop the music? Need to change it up? You don’t. No matter if all the chatter from close friends are raising a stink, thinking you should.
Everyone else is an expert at how to run your life.
Just ask them. Their own, well, not so much. Negative People Are Not Mountain Climbers. Get High Up, Surround Yourself With Positive People.There is constant pressure squeezing out of the eerie glowing device “tube” and speakers too. Marketing something that will radically change your life for three easy, one not so simple last payment. To show you a new jig. To dance differently than you do now.
Happy. It is a seed that germinates. Not a sliver that festers.
Nurturing, not neglecting. Being in that place where joy and contentment, all American apple pie normal happens. Or as close to it as can muster. Juggling your other priorities allows.
Ah but at the same time. What is best for you in your life here and now changes. Like raising kids, you just get this stage figured out and there they go, moving to the next phase.
And also something inside you grows and priorities shift independently of those near, dear and loved surrounding you. What was so all mighty important makes way, drops from formation. For something new to have room to grow replacing it. C.S Lewis too reminds…
“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”
Decent, moral, what is good or bad, right or wrong adds another channel to mix into the music levels. Keeping Small Maine Town’s Running Smoothly. Calm Is Nice, But Ripples Happen. Your core values, integrity are challenged daily in what you hold dear. What defines you. But questioned round the clock with too many view points.
Boats loads of opinion, pretty dark judgement. Individuals one by one on the blue and green marble raising their hands, opening their pie hole traps. Hunting and peck like moi aussi mais qui.
To offer more sharp rough edged cutting opinions when maybe too many already clutter the landscape.
Hot under the collar, steam out the ears. Somehow feeling threatened. Screeching, scolding, preaching “people don’t get it, you don’t understand, life’s not fair, you got it all wrong people” whining themes.
Life on the small Maine farm was all about being highly industrious and geared for survival. Keep if simple.
But with modern society freed up with the latest and greatest devices and hired out services, more time to develop boredom inside arrived on the scene. Maine Living, All Natural. Rock Solid Simple. Not Used To Judge, Stone.
One Atom Twelve, see the suspect with the blank deer in the headlights glassed over thousand yard stare.
Please be advised. Proceed with caution as he or she is considered unstable, unpredictable right now. Over. (Mic sharp click, static white noise heard, fades up and under. Fade to black.)
Like the Venn diagram, overlaps of the children, marriage, job, health, retirement and other responsibilities shape the life landscape for any of us right?
There are choices, input needed to be dialed in to the course heading of where you should be pointed. Or to avoid road rash, rope burns from being dragged hooked to barbed wire if you don’t just let go. Just say no more.
Some people just get through life easier and make their own luck. Strenghtened by events. Not charmed just relaxed, enjoying life. Accepting others, not trying to tame them with a whip and chair.
Something, whatever is eating at you, missing in your life causes the tightening the buckle or canvas ring on the girth.
Neck reining the mare, gelding or stallion sharply. And making a cloud of dust behind you. High tailing it out of the steep stone wall boxed canyon.
With a shrill whistle, hands raised high as if barrel raising clock timed. Putting the boots to the ribs. For the long ride back to take a different fork in the road. Presenting itself if you have faith and patience. Open your eyes, heart, window and doors of the soul. Remove the blinders that keep you in the self inflicted darkness of just plain scared. Not so sure. Afraid of making any or too many wrong moves. On A Mission, Mainers Are Busy Bees But Enjoy More Space, Less People In The Natural Beauty.
As you radar sweep blips into the region labeled “Fear of the unknown”.
That replaces the routine of apathetic or just dog gone depressed but easy and predictable. There is no antidote to quick fix get drunk on to remedy this quagmire. Soul search, pair up with a cowboy or girl who ride into that sunset together. Compare notes around the same prairie camp fire. Slurping a spoon stands up in the middle of the tin trail cup coffee or two. Before retiring propped up against a Western saddle, under the blanket that separates if from horse and rider during the daylight jog.
What am I suppose to do is easier if you search for answers contained inside. Surrounding yourself with positive people you trust to compare notes. And being kind to you instead of fifty mental lashes for failing to believe in yourself, live your own life in the move to Maine. Less people, more drop dead gorgeous natural beauty, no traffic, little crime, four seasons. All contribute to make Maine a place where it is quiet enough to be able to think, hear your much needed answers to how to lead your life best.
I will hum a few bars and then you slide right in to the music stream as the mood strikes.
“I’ll light the fire, you place the flowers in the vase that you bought today.” Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young penned lots of intense and soothing at the same time harmonies. That wrap around the mirrors in the aisles of the mind. Where past memories lay waiting.Maine Horses, Stick Together, Are Close Like The People Should Strive To Be.
Playing low in the background of earlier times in your life.
Needing to be pushed, relived like selections on a juke box. I felt that song playing about love and contentment in the homestead yesterday. In a house in Westfield Maine. That was built just the way two people in love envisioned it.
A culmination of all the features to date. That each enjoyed in their separate list of houses called home up until they met.
Back when they were not traveling the same paths and rabbit trails. Logging frequent flyer miles before holding hands started.
And households combined to add what was missing. That each longed for in the log home in Maine constructed just so. Attention to the missing details both desired weaved into the construction fabric. The place with the space way way more than just oriented to the sun at the right degree angle. So the front entry sun room solarium works overtime. Doubling as a greenhouse and passive solar collector too. Doing its part and contributing to the housing experience.
Holding, to carry it’s own weight in the day to day comfortable, unassuming open design layout. That fits the pair that celebrate their life within like wearing a pair of glass slippers. A glove fit for them both outside too. Roaming, gardening, puttering around the surroundings. Sharing, basking in the rural setting. With the other always on tap. To enjoy it all with any of the four seasons.
Because of the 125 acres of Maine land space that wraps around, creates, preserves this special location.We Live In Maine, We Keep It Simple. Have To, Want To.
Side road quiet, on a hill of gently sloping and rolling terrain. With both open and mixed wooded sections managed. A Maine land medley buffet.
And talk about wildlife. Especially birds. The feeder like an aviary airport of touch and go landings. For the hit and run. Of the drive thru slot at the bottom of the very tall glass tube. Filled to the brim. With a never ending exotic, intoxicating combination of much appreciated seeds to snack on all winter long.
While the long low angled bright but diminished sunlight arched overhead. Smack dab parked in the middle of a winter pale blue hue sky.
The feeder one channel to watch. For whoever’s turn to do the dishes. To marvel at the escapades. The dare devil soloing doing figure eights outside. While lucky enough to be inside. For the “you wash, I will wipe” pair tandem exercise. Linked as a Jack and Jill. To enjoy the impromptu stage show unfolding the other side of the insulated high performance glass together. Oh Look, Company. You Wouldn’t Happen To Be Carrying A Carrot Or Apple Would You?
The floors are easy. Low maintenance, polished honey rich oak. Tile in the over sized bathroom the way they all should be proportioned. Not sardine cramped. The main heat source hardwood varieties. Gleaned and thinned from timber forest stands just so. From the wooded sections along the higher ridges.
Rising above the small gurgling, babbling stream. That has a mind of it’s own. Mendering in a zig zag across the large property in Central Aroostook County.
Inside this designed for simple living. Not to come off museum stiff or stifled pretentious.
No one out to impress. But it is hard to not be envious. Of the private residence built with sticks and bricks but mortared with love and kindness. Two old souls that thoroughly enjoy the dwelling and all this land acreage in the northern Maine woods.
Inside large hearty slabs of thick planking security. For the treads on the open stairway to the second floor. This modified, not a kit carbon copy Maine log home loaded with spaces that reflect the interests of the owners. Black and white wall hangings. Sliced into, one of a old Willys jeep taken up close and personal. All representing story opportunity conversation sparks for another day.
Sunshine drenched areas to inspire writing, creating short stories, novel sequels.
Bay windows to welcome the light of day and nourish plants. No neighbors to spoil the view. The wife industriously painting, gluing a table scale castle using odds and ends. Adorned with cobalt blue painted bottle caps, other household reusables. For a grandchild, a labor of love on the converted kitchen examination table. But when we arrived. Hopping up. Pouring fresh brewed black hot coffee from the french press. Offering me a rocking chair. That she reorients to collect the approach of the sun dialed in behind me for just this precise moment in time.
Another chair repositioned beside it in cozy fashion. To warm us best in front. After coming in from the brisk crisp fresh air. To plop center to the fire waves of positive ions. Radiating from the kitchen wood cook stove. The escort for my mate and I to sit a spell. To warm our bones. As the fluffy calico cat tagged Pestilence and hard of hearing took turns. Do You Have This Kind Of Natural Beauty Where You Live Now?
Slowly tag teaming the pair of us because not used to all that much company. This was a special occasion for her too. Scoring several scratches behind each ear. Garnering a little extra TLC attention.
While the pair adjusted to the do drop in. When the call from the owner’s daughter with long hair of yellow announced we had time for an unscheduled visit if they did.
The best kind where you pick up where you left off in the dialogue. From the last hand spun installment.
To sample a delicious, savory meal prepared with home grown food organically produced in Maine. No sprays. Raised with love, stored with pride. And the foodstuffs drawn from the root cellar slowly over the quiet of a Maine winter in the middle of January. Growing Up In Maine, The Fun Home Made, Outdoors.
The squash that was sweeter because of just recently suffered frost bite.
Explained the man of the house wearing the apron for the lunch served effortlessly this day. It rounded out the home made meal so completely.
A window in it’s storage area it was shared, left open a little too wide. So for the next few meal sessions, squash would be performing regularly.
Comfortable. Tension free. Set back from the road. Bursting with love and saturated with an easy atmosphere of just gosh darn all over peaceful. The home in Maine that is not cookie cutter common but one of a kind because of the care takers that cherish it. The structure that reflects the home builder’s personalities and lifestyle interests. Providing the cornerstone missing piece in the Maine country setting puzzle. That the pair of peas in the pod set out to create as always a work in progress.
And adapted so well for the “hello, anyone home?” Pull up a chair, sit a spell and let’s talk. Exchange how have you been, what jaunt are you on today and a warm hug of introduction. Another to see you off until the next chance to catch up, to connect in person.
