When you live in a rural state not flush with cash but drop dead gorgeous in the looks department, a true Mainer gets highly resourceful.
Lack of funds does not restrict the can do with what you have attitude found through out Maine.
Dealing with economic down turns goes back to practically everyone being a Maine farmer. Owning and trying to hang onto a patch of dirt they scratch to eek out an existence. Raise a family on a Maine farm.
We Are Bullish On Maine. Uplug And Make This Your Outlet To Recharge.
You don’t throw away much that might come in handy with a re-purpose use.
There is an intimate connection with the others in the sparse population and during conversations down at the diner, the corner gas station others are willing to help in Maine.
Once your situation is explained and others share their two cents to find ways to pull of the caper without the adequate funds in your pocket to peel off and make it a store bought operation.
Lots of bartering, trade outs and exchanges of goods or services or both. No one is a stranger.
Bring The Family Farm Members. Lots Of Young Families At MOFGA Farmer To Farmer Conference.
Calling in favors and just reward from others in a little better position who know the feeling of being up against it.
Not charity really but along the lines of a little of the same thinking. Just the spirit of take what you need, leave the rest for others.
Because you feel pretty darn lucky.
And are when you live in Maine. And tally it up in your head before you lay the head in the bed or rise and shine when the cock a doodle doo activates.
That’s why we have to court and spark business to compliment what we already have and want to retain. So small towns in Maine keep their doors open and don’t fizzle out. In the one by one march to deorganization.
Maine, Get High. Lots Of Chances To Rise Above The Static.
Because piling it on with higher property taxes won’t work for long because it squeezes the life blood out of the small Maine community if streamlining and centralization is avoided too long.
Or approached with a just tip your toe approach and time does its destruction from too little too late thinking.
Weather storms easier and survive to live another day because drunken sailor spending is missing in real Maine. Use that deep down instinct in your gut to see the way to re-tool and adapt like Mainers always have. Free Site Map Generator
There is nothing new under the sun that has not happened in a similar fashion before and comparing notes and working together is the only pathway to make sure the small Maine town is on.
Where you live has a big bearing on how life goes, how rich it is in the right ways.
But how you live day to day dove tails along with the geographical location. And some would argue if you don’t move around a little, how do you know how the other half of the World puts it all together? To compare notes, glean much from other ways of living, for perspective and inspiration.
Hitting The Trail Out Of A Crowded City. You Are (Pointing) Here. Connect The Blue Dots. Head To Maine.
Like relationships, problems in one follow you into the next if they are brought out onto the carpet. Not tackled early on in life. So everyone can benefit. And being hand stand happy is not the expectation to maintain round the clock.
Some folks would not be happy regardless of where they live for long because none of it is an inside joy, gratitude building kind.
Comes and goes and is not a cumulative variety. It is like a flare that is a flash and gone.
To weather storms in life, you need to have that joy down in your heart. The kind that is cup runneth over so a little set back, a major one too won’t put you into a tailspin.
The kind that is like a deep bed of coals that holds the heat when you have good blaze going inside your Maine camp woodstove or house furnace that radiates the heats your space to separate you from the outdoor cold.
Maine Explained With Social Media Examples.
How you react to others and do you expect them to be carbon copy like yourself?
Do you really think they do stuff that irritates and annoys just to get under your skin?
For the sheer fun of turmoil you can create all by your lonesome? Letting others be who they are is one less thing to have to control.
So they can enjoy and struggle to learn and grow just like you. Kindness goes an awfully long way.
Awareness, clarity and removal of lots of the artificial distractions make Maine a wonderful breeding ground of fertile surroundings to take you higher.
Maine Garden Bounty, Creating Wealth From The Fertile Soil, Farm Dirt.
Overbook schedules keep you busy but delay the mental housekeeping to gets things squared way and ship shape.
When you free up the time an urban dweller spends worried about crime or spent traveling very slowly or not at all in thick traffic, strike one. Add in the high cost of living and extra layers of debt and strike two.
And wallowing in both just lead to delay in realizing the solitude of all of that is removed. You don’t need to impress or watch, follow the herd. You create a whole different trail to trot along.
Run your own show. Make way for the roll up your sleeves, turn your head around and open your eyes. Drink it in. Get rid of nose blind. Feel alive. That happens when you cross the big green bridge on the southern tip of Maine and realize, whew, you are in Maine. The way life should be.
Winter in Maine, not a time to spend days and nights parked on a couch trapped inside the home.
Out Of Breath But Needing To Calmly Shoot Targets One After Another Flat On Your Stomach.
We are outdoors year round in Maine, all four seasons. Winter is not exception. So down hill skiing, the cross country kind too, it is a big part of how we spend the time in a Maine winter.
The World Cup Biathlon competition in Northern Maine was in full tilt this past weekend. View a past couple videos of the men, the women events.
A spectacle to see with over 60 million viewers of the games beam hitting a satellite circling the globe up, down and then over across the pond.
Folks there on the edge of their seats following the round and round on skis and shooting standing up, lying down.
Maine is lucky to be the venue for the World Cup IBU games. It really cranks dollars into the coffers on both sides of the Maine / Canadian border in Aroostook County.
Maine Is Country Living, Easy Does It Pacing Your Time Enjoying The Four Season Outdoors.
But back to down hill skiing in Maine.
There are eighteen ski areas in Maine. Many times a local favorite is the venue to sample over and over. But living in Maine, it is possible for a “two nation vacation”.
The WinterKids Passport can be used for a variety of free and discounted tickets to go skiing and snowboarding. The events include snow tubing, ice skating, cross country skiing, dog sledding and downhill skiing, snowboarding.
Snow Sledding, Ice Fishing, Pond Hockey Skating. Maine Winters Are Just As Special As The Other Three Seasons.
The winter fitness program is geared for fifth, sixth and seventh graders to use at more than 50 winter sports areas around the state of Maine all winter long. It’s value represents over $1800 if you use it to the max!
Call WinterKids at 207.871.5700 Ext 106. And remember to ski and ride safely. Use your head and don’t forget to wear a helmet to protect the noggin.
Have taken the kids to Saddleback Mountain in Rangley too where all you have to do for lodging is call an 800 number and the Chamber of Commerce takes over.
Have rented a neat place on Rangley Lake to go with the down hill skiing memory making adventure.
The stone fireplace with a fire at the end of a day skiing with your kids is like no other experience!
Majestic Mt Katahdin, Maine’s Highest Mountain.
During college at the University of Maine at Orono, it was so close to hit Hermon Mountain to ski on a budget, under the lights, with music nightly.
Hermon Mountain, in the same town as Dysart’s Truck Stop Restaurant for a pleasant dining experience when it is time to put on the feed bag. The outdoor air jump starts the appetite big time.
Hermon Mountain has tubes for sliding down the hill if strapping on a board, pair of skis is not your thing.
Maine, See It From A Snowsled Seat , On A Tube, Set Of Skis, Snow Board.
Have a son and girlfriend in Raymond Maine that want to try out Black Mountain, another local to them family value to make affordable skiing in Maine. Black Mountain is in Rumford Maine.
Skiing in Maine, lots of options that are economical. Don’t have to clean you out financially to go to the peak and hit the lodge at the bottom.
Nothing like selling a duplicate organ or second mortgaging the house to score a Colorado lift ticketwhen you are out in the Rockies, near the Continental Divide.
Winter Peace on A Maine Farm Awaiting Spring’s Rebirth. Renewal.
The fresh air and scenery getting to places high up you can not by car happens on a Maine snowmobile.
Hitting lots of snow sled clubs in Mainealong the way as you explore a white, green version of Maine.
On your way through out Maine enjoying local down home cooking, the friendly folks serving it up as you learn about the area around the snow sled club trail system.
You bought a piece of land on a Maine lake, hauled in and parked a camper on it.
And the time has come to build that retirement home. Or a seasonal place to use vacations in Maine. With the eye toward spending half the year here. Being a snow bird and flapping your wings to head south the rest of the calendar months.
So set up the saw horses on the Maine lake lot and just start building whichever way the spirit moves you?
(Sound of skill saw in background stops, dead quiet silence, crickets start up chirping and loons sing sadly.)
Not As Much Ice On Maine Lakes. Still Ice Shacks, Fishing Through A Hole Underway During A Mild Temperature, Snow Load Too Winter.
Ah no.
Small Maine towns don’t have layers of players, thick stacks of regulations like folks used to the permit pushing turn style process to the south.
Move along people. Take a number, have a seat. Get up, sit down. Working your way through the impersonal bureaucratic stations.
But when it comes to the environment, Mainers are all over protecting every square inch of it.
Respect for nature, keeping what we enjoyed as a kid and pass on as an adult. It is good stewardship. So more on shoreland zoning in Maine. Because when you build your Maine lake camp, home you need to play by the rules.
Set backs from side lines and the shore out front need addressing on Maine lake lots.
And when studied on the plat construction permit measuring diagram can end up putting a serious kink in the plans. To just construct whatever waterfront property dream is now playing, held over for years in your head.
Playing With The Beagle, Chuck And Return Beagle Style.
If nothing grandfathered in for a septic disposal system or a structure on the Maine lake camp, home waterfront lot, then you have a blank canvas.
But can only paint the water color creation with specific amounts of certain construction colors so to speak.
The days of just have at it, knock yourself out with any structure you want and where are over.
So is taking a big piece of equipment out into the Maine lake to move boulders, to dredge out a deeper landing for your power boat or adding any trucked in and dumped pretty white imported sand.
And the paperwork to guide the building process on the Maine lake camp, home.
Buying an existing Maine lake camp, home can make sense to gain features from before the regulations that you can not replicate today on a empty waterfront lot.
Building a third bigger, an expansion on what is there on the Maine lake lot. Or build around as you tear down but keep one finger on part of the structure to keep you position on the Maine waterfront. Not lose any ground.
A Maine Lake For A Neighbor. Yeah, Do That.
The regulations on what you can and can not do on a lake lot when the Maine lake camp, home is closer than 100′ from the water or behind that mark.
Easy does it, backing it all up with the paperwork to be within the shoreland zoning rules can be a dicey operation.
While lake neighbors watch and keep track of what you are up to that they tried and had their hands slapped over.
In our day job, we list, sell lots of Maine lake camps, homes and just land on the waterfront.
If you already own and have questions, fire away. Email, text, call in those questions from out in the hinterland.
Or if looking to own your own piece of heaven, a Maine lake home, camp that is the one missing life puzzle shape you need. We are all geared up to get that little pesky problem resolved with the best Maine real estate property listing solution.
Maine’s winter has been remarkably warm and snow not so deep. Anything but plentiful.
Which is hard on the industries that need snow for the lubrication. The traction to do what they do. Maine snow sled trails and ski area depend on a healthy amount of the white stuff. Winter not quite the same in Maine without new fresh white snow to sugar coat the landscape.
Not As Much Ice On Maine Lakes. Still Ice Shacks, Fishing Through A Hole Underway During A Mild Temperature, Snow Load Too Winter.
So what is happening ahead in my neck of the woods, in Northern Maine?
Well frankly, lots going on around Vacationland.
Maine basketball and hockey high school teams getting closer to the tournament time. Tat all the locals follow and love so much.
Hoping their team goes on to represent the small Maine town in the Eastern, Western and eventual State of Maine finals.
A little to the south of Presque Isle, Maine where part of the World cup is held, there is a yearly celebration of winter in Aroostook County. Started first in Limestone Maine when Loring Air Force Base was open and the home of B-52’s and K-135 refueler big silver birds.
“The Moose Is Loose” tradition moved to Southern Aroostook County. The Shiretown hosts the winter celebration the first weekend of every February. Here is the list of events, the schedule for this year’s Moosestompers.
20TH ANNUAL MOOSESTOMPERS WEEKEND
FEBRUARY 5TH-7TH, 2016
FRIDAY Events, Feb 5TH, 2016
Snow Creation Contest – Judging 1:00pm – to participate call the Rec Department to register at 532-1310
Public Supper – 5:00pm-7:00pm – Court Street Baptist Church – featuring spaghetti, salad, garlic bread & dessert – $8 adults, $4 children, Free for ages 6 and under – Free Hot Cocoa to go – Benefits “World Fellowship Offering”
Slide Under The Lights – 5:00pm-9:00pm – Derby Hill will be lighted for some nighttime sliding
Hogan Tire Skate Time – 6:00pm-9:00pm – Free Public Skating at John Millar Civic Center sponsored by Hogan Tire – includes free skate rentals – prizes for the kids – concessions will be available
Snowmobile Light Parade – 6:30pm – The return of this parade for snowmobiles around the streets of Houlton – starts and ends at Community Park (weather permitting)
FIREWORKS – 7:15pm – Community Park – See fireworks light the winter sky and reflect off the snow – FREE
Nighttime Headlamp Snowshoe Hike – 9:00pm – Military Street Baptist Church – Bring a head lamp!
SATURDAY Events, FEB 6TH, 2016
Meduxnekeag Ramblers Breakfast – 6:00am-10:00am – Full breakfast at the clubhouse – $7 for adults, $2 for children under 12
Moosestompers Poker Run – 9:00am-2:00pm – Sponsored by Meduxnekeag Ramblers – $7 per had or 2 hands for $10 – Bonus card for those participating in the Snowmobile Light Parade – Cash Prizes
Moosestompers Ice Fishing Derby – Registration 6:00am at Peg’s Place, Linneus – Over $1,500 in prizes
Pee Wee Basketball Games – 8:30am-1:00pm – Gentle Memorial Building
Giant Sliding Hill – 9:00am – Sliding on Derby Hill begins
Pee Wee Hockey vs Grand Falls – 10:15am – John Millar Civic Center
Cardboard Box Contest – Judging 11:00am – Kids can create Cardboard Box vehicles to use on the Sliding Hill and in the Sliding Race
LP Safety Table – 10:00am-3:00pm – In Exhibit Hall with free hand warmers, free coffee and giveaways
Moosestompers Contests – Times TBA – Human Dog Sled Races, Human Curling, Snow Shoe Races & More
32nd Annual 5K Wild Katahdin Trust Snow Run – 10:45am – The 2-mile walk begins at 10:45 followed by the running race at 11:00am – Prizes
Concessions – 11:00am-2:00pm – The Houlton Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary will have sandwiches, hot dogs and treats available in the Exhibit Hall
Sleigh Rides/Hay Rides – 11:00am-2:00pm – free rides on a horse drawn sleigh or a hayride pulled by a tractor
Sawdust Prize Search – 11:30am
8th Annual Sliding Race – 12:00pm-1:00pm – Derby Hill
Antique & Vintage Snowmobile Display – 12:00pm-2:00pm – Prizes in 5 categories
Maine Winter Sports Center Cross Country Skiing – 12:00pm-3:00pm – ON LOAN FOR FREE skis, poles & boots provided by MWSC
3rd Annual Snow Dance – 1:00pm – dancing to the song “Happy” – to be recorded & aired on YouTube
Half Dollar Scramble For Kids – 1:00pm (immediately following the Snow Dance)
Free Public Skating – 2:00pm-4:00pm – John Millar Civic Center
Bonfire – 2:00pm
Men’s League Basketball Event – 3:30pm – Gentle Memorial Building
Free U18 Stick Time – 4:30pm-5:30pm – John Millar Civic Center
Public Supper – 4:30pm-5:30pm – Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum – cost is by donation – Valentine’s Dessert Auction – all proceeds to benefit the Greater Houlton Christian Academy
Moosestompers Ball – 9:30pm-12:30am (cover charge after 7:30pm) live music with Wally & the Virginian – Downunder Sports Pub
SUNDAY Events, FEB 7TH, 2016
Giant Sliding Hill Reopens – 11:00am – Derby Hill
Snow Sled Rides – 12:00noon
Kids Snowmobile Race – 12:30pm – timed event for sleds 120cc’s or smaller and ages 4-10
Free Public Skating – 2:00pm-4:00pm – John Millar Civic Center
Stick Time – 4:00pm-5:00pm – John Millar Civic Center
And one more local event, the Taste of Winter, the 3rd annual installment. It is February 5th, 6-9 PM in Houlton Maine at the County Co Op and Feed Store.
Video for last year’s Taste Of Winter. One scrumptious meal spread of locally sourced, from close to home. A real farm to table food of varieties served up by your new friends and neighbors.
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Winter in Maine.
We have no polar bears, no igloos except the home made forts, snow tunnels in the backyard neighborhood kid ones. The forts and snowmen soldiers made with a little sticky snow, a bucket. Shapes and “mortared” into place to defend the property.
Come sample ME in winter, any of the other three seasons. You will not be disappointed. Come meet the warm and friendly people of Maine. The good luck staying away for very long.
If you scan the headlines, it is pretty easy to become saddened, round up or apathetic.
There is lots of good news but the sharper the headline, the more the hook. To find out what this snippet is all about. What lies below it in the case of the written word. Or hanging around for after the commercial spot clutter for the rest of the story. That holds you in place with the playful tease.
Pulling Together, Maine Small Towns Are Tight Knit.
Good things, not sappy happy but media splashes that give you a glimpse into humanity, help you restore your faith in your fellow man.
It has been the silent majority for quite spell. Since LBJ started using the two word term about what’s that sound, going round in society. And now more than ever one dissenter in a large group can steal the show. Hog the stage. To drink in the hot white spotlight. Once they lawyer up to continue the squawk.
Here is a simple video to glean what you can, to see how kindness can at first seem weak, meek, stupid.
But that those that shake their head thinking what a dunce where is the pointed hat he should be wearing. Suddenly begin to beat the drum of kindness too. Stay light, bright and make every day count. Kids can help us with this simple exercise best.
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Being positive is contagious.
Peace At The Beginning, End Of The Day In Maine.
It can become a habit if you practice. Putting others first can make you rich inside. Have lasting wealth that is joy not fleeting happiness.
Maine is a simple place to set the stage for doing more for others. All about simple living, lots of bartering or no payment of goods or service needed at all.
Because when you take inventory, count your blessings a few times a day. The tally shows you are pretty darn lucky to living in a place like Maine full time. Less of what you don’t want happens in Maine.
Bag the high crime, heavy traffic or full throttle hustle bustle outside Maine.
But load up with seconds, thirds of the good lasting stuff that energizes. It is the subjects we try to rotate into the blog posts about Maine stream. It is why we live, work, play here in Maine.
The stuff that hits you hard from thedeep inside and radiates out. To affect other people. That can be contagious. As Maine birds of a feather gather closely together. And the momentum of random acts of kindness in the background, not for attention or little Jack Horner pride displays for all to see.
