Category: Uncategorized

Adjusting The Senses, Dialing In Fall In Maine.

Flirting, Stretching, Dancing, Maine Loon Looks For A Mate’s Attention, Company.

Shifting gears as one by one the seasons of Maine carousel spin, turn.

And what we do outdoors for recreation does a change up, along with the clothing we wear to enjoy Maine to the maximum. Today’s air is crisp and tart. Mixed with the smells of older garden produce. Vegetables and fruits that one by one shut down the plant stalks, vines. As cooler nights and nippy mornings take their toll on the flower window boxes, backyard gardens. On the Maine farm crops.

The angle of the Maine sun’s rays become a little longer, lower on the horizon.

The Sun becomes miserly with the daylight ration. The leaf colors explode for more than just several shades of lush green. Before one by one falling to the ground. The fillings of the days are sweet, warm, comfortable. But the beginnings, ends signal the get ready for winter exercise. Harvest those crops. Buy some more wood pellets. Take the last trip down the Kennebec, Penobscot, Dead Rivers white water rafting wearing a neoprene layer. Make the final visit to one more Maine island pedal bike excursion by coastal ferry to explore another off shore hidden jewel. Or biking the Acadia Park trails, straight up Cadillac Mountain.

The hike up Mt Katahdin or other smaller hills because you always do yearly sometimes causes a double up. Twice is nice. What the heck. The climb, view from the top clears your head and heart. Sharpens your awareness, clarity in the life going on around you.

Maine fall means some camps get closed, or winterized if four season lake or river living is how you are lucky enough to roll.

Thinking about extra insulation in the attic. Sealing around the trap or hatch leading to it. Maybe replacing a window or two. Adding a storm door to cut down and avoid the “beep beep” sound of the oil truck backing into your yard. That reels out, screws on and attaches the snake long hose carrying black liquid gold venom. That has a price per gallon that stings, hurts, bruises the budget.

If you’re not burning wood, or firing up electric space heaters, the fireplace gas log to keep your toes from freezing may get called into duty. Fall means trips to the hunting, sporting camp. Big feeds. The privy out back. The log shanty that’s off grid, with gas lights. One room large, simple with an open porch.

Adding flannel sheets to the Maine home beds. Another blanket layer applied to the place where lights out and sweet dreams takes place. As you wait for the sandman to do his thing. To make the nightly rounds.

Thinking about down hill and cross country Maine snow skiing, snow sledding.

New equipment. New peaks. Looking over the catalog for winter sports resorts that just happen to have arrived, bunged up the mail box. Picking up out of the corner of your eye as your surf and check emails more propaganda signals. Revolving around the winter sport recreation, clothing that you search for to keep the kids warm as toast.

Thinking about pantries and root cellars stocked with home grown food. Cracking open another gallon jug of squeezed, pressed yourself apple cider. Taking a long, strong haul off the ice cold glass you pour of the brown pulp rich nectar. That won’t last long in your Maine household if there are kids on the inside of the four walls to tap, siphon the juice.

Changing the oil in the snow blower, banking the Maine house.

Fixing the unregistered plow truck that carries the bright yellow Fischer angle plow out front. To be ready when the weather man warns here it comes. New fresh powder snow in Maine to lubricate the outdoor winter sports. The lower temperatures making ice fishing possible. Skating outdoors and chasing the black circle with pond hockey and around Maine, Canadian arenas with newly polished sheets of ice. And blue, red lines and circles. Twined bars on each end to defend.

Buying seasons tickets to Maine high school, college hockey and basketball games.

Attending harvest suppers. Finishing up that scraping of exterior house walls. Trim painting before it’s too late. And has to wait until spring because the job jar gets a little over stuffed. Due in part to just too much recreation distraction in Maine that is an easy trap. Interfering with the “maintain your property” side of the brain. That wrestles with the “take a break, have some fun, enjoy your life in Maine” other half.

The best time to visit Maine is on the beginnings, ends of the season you enjoy. Because with lighter people streams on the streets, in the shops, inns and out on the waterfront, the parks make the visit even more fun, memorable. There is no bad time to visit Maine, to meet the people and enjoy life with totally new surroundings. Fill your lungs with the fresher clean crisp air of fall in Maine. Witness our star fill night skies, sample the waterfront recreation. See what you have been missing in drop dead gorgeous Maine.

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

September 15, 2013
Maine, All That Glitters Is Not Gold.

Happy, Family, Small Town Maine. Growing Up Spent Outdoors.

When you live in a small Maine town, you learn to appreciate the little things more.

And besides being some kind of glad traffic, crime, gangs are nil, the list of what rises to the top of extra special starts with the people. The local population is small in any of Maine’s 108 small towns. So everyone steps up to take on their role of what their purpose is. Why they are in this small Maine town. What they have for a skill set, talent to contribute to the local flavor of the community. That is the gold that all the money in the world can not buy, possess.

Folks are not lost in a sea of faces in a small Maine town.

The cast of characters is not large. The population thinned out. And those smiling faces are not forgotten because the individuals ARE the unique community. For years, like clockwork they step up to do this, put on the apron for that. Work behind the scenes for the events. Raise solid families. With the heart of a volunteer, the strongest thing you’ll find in a small Maine town. Pushing people to go over the top, to contribute, to make the small Maine town all it can be with their help.

A New Day Awaits Full Of Promise In Maine.

Home made not store bought.

Grass roots simple not importedexpensive. And after a trip to the bright lights, big city, and lots of shoulder to shoulder sardine packed people, coming home to wide open scenery hits you. While crossing the big green bridge leaving New Hampshire with the up and over rising curve of the river hop back into Maine, Vacationland.

You can feel a relaxation, a sebse of relief. Or loss of anxiety happening inside as you enter Maine. It floods, washes your insides as you pass majestic Mount Katahdin on Interstate 95 or reflect, relax paddling an early morning sunrise kayak, canoe. Or taking that walk in the woods serenaded by song birds, crickets, the sound of wind in the pine needles.

And the feeling of “glad I am home” gets more kindling, is fueled to a stronger, hotter blaze inside. As one by one the people you meet in Maine brighten your day. Because Mainers are helpful, family oriented, hard working and an interesting bunch. With stories, experiences. Because they are more resourceful, creative than your average bear. Have to be to survive, to prosper and find true happiness during the days on Earth. Making the most of what we have.

We have more than enough around us in Maine to be grateful.

Because it is not this beautiful, unspoiled in other places outside of Maine. All the natural resources to tap into and getting to enjoy year round right in our backyard. The big decision being what to do this weekend for new and different in a state as big and varied as Maine.

When a crime happens which is rare but amplified ten fold by the city papers, a native thinks “that could not have been done by someone who lives, grew up, is from Maine”. It is not because we belief natives to be free from reproach, but are so accustom, engrained with the right and wrong from the time of being a young grasshopper. The woodshed used for a little discipline early on.

Getting To Know, Explore Maine, Four Seasons Fun.

Small Maine towns are not easy places to pull shenanigans.

Partly due to our consciences, and like the old song about the Night Has A Thousand Eyes. Small means visible and the ripples are felt through the town limits, region because we are all connected. Care about each other and depend on the individuals in a small Maine town.

When a newspaper editorial that slams our state and is sharp edged, not solution suggesting happens over and over, we get mad. Because that kind of journalism does not build, grow, support an area. Serves no purpose but to tear down and destroy if the readers buy into the notion that Maine is like so many other places in the country. Which it is not.

Discover, Grab Your Paddle, Hit The Waterways In Maine.

The one by one images of Maine prove that blaringly. The first instinct when reading editorials like that is the poison pen holder must not be from Maine. Because the venom, toxins in black and white don’t move Maine forward and only serve to cause discouragement, no hope for the future.

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

September 12, 2013
Saving Money Running A Small Maine Town.

The Black And White Realities Of Running A Red, White & Blue Maine Small Town.

Maine has 108 small towns, and the pride in these scattered, spaced communities is fierce.

But as the economic realities hit home and change does not happen to react or respond to them, the community flywheel of industry and commerce slows. Strained because what adjustments could be done are not. And red ink bleeding out, white flags being waved madly are missed. Cues to do this, this and oh yeah that come and go without attention can kill a small Maine town.

In industry around the world, automation is the word for today’s economy. It’s the buzz word. Lean, mean, just in time inventory but still a big selection offered and without slack or business operation waste. How to adapt, to stay in business is the order of the day. What took three men to do not many years ago can be done by one or none with the right machine, software. How we do the business, provide the service evolves too. The taste of the consumer changes.

Fail to adapt and rut rho. One less Maine business happens.

Or sometimes farming out the job, putting it out for bid to the private sector is in town government’s better route to go in a small Maine burg. Unless no bidders. Then that backfires. Like with winter plowing snow contracts. $5000 a mile can be the one and only bidder when the true cost is $3800 to return a tidy profit. Return on time and expenses, the ROI needs constant monitoring in everything you and I do. Whether in the business of small Maine towns or out in the private sector.

When a Maine town department head retires, instead of replacing him paying the second in command a little more could often work. The guy or gal who usually is doing most of the heavy lifting day to day is who should be tapped on the shoulder. To step up. Compensated a little more in the weekly pay envelope.

Tightening up a top heavy town government with a template that worked twenty years ago that now is a luxury no longer affordable.

Or sometimes pulling back in the number of cars parked out back the local government facility is needed. With too many middle management employees. Everyone has a vehicle, other benefits the Maine town no longer can afford to offer. That’s a place to weed for the long term survival of the small Maine town. We have quality of life in Maine. But the quarters for the life jukebox year round to keep it going is at stake.

So getting on the horn with Maine state representatives, speaking loudly to say whoa, ease up on all the new fees, laws on top of legislation that just strangle small town residents. And the small Maine businesses in them that you don’t want to lose.

But will if suddenly the employers say, that’s it. We’re forced to close our doors and go elsewhere to another area of the state, country, the world or solar system where the environment to do business is healthier. Where we are appreciated. Embrace current industry rather than chasing new ones is the easiest return on economic development. Retention is key.

So is sometimes as simple as instituting new heating temperature standards, routines. Because of the extremely high cost of heating oil when you live in Maine and are so dependent on it. When energy use at your home is eyeballed like an eagle. But it’s not so intensely important on a municipal levels with all those buildings, facilities, buses, cruisers, plows, etc paid for from handsomely with deep digging in the general fund, not an individual’s wallet. Where the individual says ouch.

Looking for areas of duplication in services and getting insulated players together on the same dug out bench. To chill in one group. To brainstorm and talk about what if we do this, or that. Would it be better now and in the long run for the small Maine town batted around. The small Maine town that has to be careful or it will cease to exist. And everyone gets the memo, last one out, remember to shut off the lights.

Small business in Maine has a hard time for the leg up to success, even survival because of the lack of sheer volume needed to turn a profit.

Customers leave a small Maine town for goods and services that are offered significantly cheaper elsewhere. Even with high cost gas, transportation, if what the small Maine business has to spend to stay in the community is too steep, sales drop off sharply.

Rising expenses to do business in a Maine small town means anything the state, county and local municipality can do to ease the tug at the wallet is key to survival. Of the small Maine business, of the community’s schools, public safety, everything that goes on in the inner workings of the community. Going things the same old way we always did is one nail in the coffin of a small Maine town.

Maintaining population is key in a small Maine town. And growth, increasing the number of folks pushing shopping carts, paying local property taxes, serving on local boards, enrolling their kids in the local schools all enhance the overall economic health. But cutting costs, increasing revenue will help those elderly folks on very small fixed incomes that are barely hanging on.

The Maine small town community spirit increases when a local business can expand. Renovate and add on to the service, product produced or distributed in the small Maine town. If belt tightening in spending in a small Maine town happens like you and I do in our own households when the funds are tight, the adjustment is easier to swallow. Than when do or die up against a wall happens because Mr. Overspending meets Mr. Empty Checkbook.

Creating revenue streams in a small Maine town takes brainstorming and working together to see what is not available locally and asking how come? And talking to local business and community leaders to see their ideas are part of the direction the small Maine town is headed. And regionally every small Maine town knows their role in the grand scheme of how each community rolls. The part they play in keeping a small Maine town vibrant, unique and a place for young folks to consider living, working, playing in. Maintaining the option of where to live the current population enjoys, wants to see continue.

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

September 11, 2013
Maine, Less People, More Natural Space For Other Things To Fill The Landscape.

Start Fresh. Maine, Get Healthy. Grab Hold, Turn The Knobs On A New Life Screen.

Ever think of your life as one junk layer after layer? The stuff that’s unwanted, toxic, distracting, that only serves to rob. All chopped, sliced, diced and whipped, mixed up with the good, the bad, the ugly?

Smothered, darkening layers being piled on high, stacked, teetering. Where everyone has a hand at the lasagna making. You, me, Uncle Sam and others add to the heap, mess, clutter. As the pace of the day’s RPM increases, adds to the theft of time during one very short life? The low rattle and hum becomes a roar.

What’s that you say? (Hand cupping one ear, cocked to the side to try and follow along with all the mixed messages bombarding the bloated world population.) And that you, I, society, Hollywood, Madison Avenue marketers, lawyers, politicians, the elite media all add to the spin filters. Making it harder to squeeze out the 100% good for you natural juice. To develop an honest, sane perspective around you of what is seen, blinding arch welder bright. Right before your eyes. Heard, going in at a thundering screech in both your ears.

Honest, real, natural. The Maine way that it really is playing out on the screen in front of you.

Keeping it simple, doing some control, alternate, delete helps level the playing field. Removes much of the clutter of unwarranted, unneeded. For enriched, longer, better living. That goes hand in hand with the safe, picturesque natural surroundings. The taking better care of your physical, mental, spiritual and even financial health that falls in line. Just snaps in to puzzle piece place oh so well. In this state that should by all rights be in Canada. Almost is on three sides.

Maine, shake your own personal in your hands Etch A Sketch.

Get back to a blank silver lining life canvas to create your lines to follow. It is your life. Lead it, see it unfold unfiltered, all natural with less people and more outdoor four season beauty. That kind of more elbow room surroundings, positive attitude has got to make your outlook improve. Your awareness, clarity and paying attention ability heightens. So what’s really important to happen surfaces. you can see and connect the dots. For something deep inside to kick in. Stir, click, lock on and light up.

Maine, 108 Small Towns, Villages, Vibrant Communities.

Maine, The Feel, Sound, Sight And Smell Of Water Is Part Of The Experience.

Maine Moose, Not All In The Woods, Ankle Deep In Cat Tails, Reeds.

Moo. Lunch, Snack Time On The Maine Farm.

See more images of Maine.

Lay them down face up, one at a time to do the show and tell.

Where words don’t hit the mark.

Do the job.

Pure, simple, Maine.

Don’t keep her waiting.

Try not to stay away so long the next time.

You are no the real you when you are not knee deep in the upper right hand corner state almost in Canada starts with a capital “V”.

Dubbed Vacationland.

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

September 8, 2013
The Pirate Invasion, The One In Maine Not Syria.

Fresher Fish In Maine Only Found Still Swimming In The Sea.

This weekend is the eight annual Eastport Maine Pirate Festival and if you have nothing scribbled in on the personal calendar of events consider a trip to the coast of Vacationland.

You don’t need a wooden leg, lots of facial scars, an eye patch and an ugly hook to play the part of a Maine pirate either. Here’s the blurb on the Me In Maine channel from a few years back pirate invasion.

Learn more about the 8th annual Eastport Maine Pirate festival. Last weekend was the invasion of neighboring to the south Lubec Maine and turn about is fair play. Lubec Maine invades with a colorful lot of rag tag, motely crue of pirates to do the same in the streets, shops, restaurants and tavern night spots in the town of Eastport, population 1545.

Eastport Maine is the eastern most city in the USA.

And while parked on the open deck of say The Chowder House or The Happy Crab dining, you can look out over the harbor. See the revolving Canadian side lighthouse marking the way of the channel to follow into Eastport Harbor.

Like the rest of Maine’s almost 230 miles of rugged, rock bound sea coast, lobsters, clams and other denizen of the deep are popular. Maine’s famous lobster haul in 2010 was over 93 million pounds. Plan to visit Eastport, dress the part of the pirate in all of us and ARRrrrgh… Avast ye matey.

Come ashore and be a land lubber. Tie on a bib. And it’s okay to eat Maine seafood with your elbows on the table.

To get loud, have fun. Let your hair down. Laugh deep from the belly. Finish it all off, the Maine seafood feast with the wet your whistle refreshments. To wash it all down. By having, demanding the local eatery servers slide a big, generous slab of warmed, fresh locally raked Maine blueberry pie. Steaming, hot out of the oven baked with pride, love. Topped with two huge scoops of drizzling ice cold home made vanilla or whatever flavor ice cream makes your mouth water.

While in Eastport, Lubec Maine start your lighthouse collection too. West Quoddy in Lubec Maine is one of the most sharply dressed lighthouses in the Pine Tree State for sure.

Maine, come for a day. End up staying a life time. She tugs at your heart, goes deep into your system. And you give up trying to shake the feeling Maine causes inside and out. There is a reason the reminder is spelled out clearly on the bottom of every Maine license plate… the word for the day is Vacationland.

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

September 5, 2013
The Buzz About Wood Pellet Stoves, Maine Winter House Heating Options.

Heating A Maine House, Wood Pellets The Right Wind Direction To Turn For You?

Always go easy on the winter heating in Maine topics.

Because there is a mind set amidst a few in the audience that have never been to Vacationland in the winter. That maybe polar bears, igloos and dog sleds for daily transportation happens. Maine has no polar bears.

Winter in Maine is just more recreation. Change the four season backdrop canvas. Dressed a little differently when you are doing it in the Maine winter outdoors. But if you do retreat indoors, to warm your bones, heating efficiently just part of the way we roll. To be frugal, thrifty, have money left over from everyday spending to enjoy all those outdoor activities. And to pay for other luxuries like food, property taxes, vehicle, building maintenance, college educations, braces, sports camps, prom dresses, etc.

So how to best heat that Maine home? It all starts with having less house to have to warm up, to take away the chill.

And to make sure the Maine house is snug, insulated sufficiently to heat with less of whatever flavor BTU octane you select. The option for more than one heating fuel source means most Mainers play the trifecta in the house heating race. Hedge, play the odds on the all important warm, toasty cozy heating bet. I am lucky to be plugged into the Houlton Water Company grid. And electrical supplemental house heating is not a dirty, expensive word. Added to the mix of what to use to cruise to spring.

Over in that cellar corner is the oil hot air or hot water baseboard furnace. Like the funeral home’s expensive hearse, used for the last ride and fanfare of the final family and friends farewell. But pretty much garaged, waxed, in waiting. While a little David shuttle that is more efficient does the heavy lifting. A somber colored black or white mini van gets to see the most action. So it is with the pellet stove in the front room. Or in the cellar to heat the floors.

Sometimes taken to the next level. With a wood pellet stove traded in for a full fledged furnace. To connect to heating ducts or boiler pipes to whole house heat. Not have it like Africa, or being a tad too close to the sun in one room. But see your breath chilly. Getting toe frost bite in another house area if venturing across an open floor without the fluffy slippers wrapped around all the pigs.

Learn More About Maine Wood Pellets, Why They Are A Growing In Popularity Home Heating Option.

One ton of wood pellets equals 119 gallons of heating oil.

And as beginnings, the ends of the days get a little nippier, around Maine in the coffee shops, diners, on street corners and over neighborhood fences, the buzz about wood pellet heating increases. More chatter about what is the best stove. Where to get the best wood pellets the cheapest. And like sports teams, this or that type of pellet exalted as the best of the bunch. Cream of the crop, pick of the pack. Get them while they are hot talk bandied about. The percentage of hard and soft wood mix in the pellets for the perfect BTU blend.

And as you travel around Maine you see a pallet of shrink wrapped pellets to protect them from moisture invasion spray painted with “$199”.

Used as a temporary billboard in a state that outlaws them along the highways.

So the quandry of how to heat a Maine house best escalates as the price of crude heads skyward. Gas log or wood pellet stove fireplace inserts being priced. Shopped pretty hard. Discussed from all angles with those in the know. Holding a styrofoam cup of their favorite mix of Joe as this and that model of wood pellet stove is fully discussed.

The wood pellet heating topic fully exhausted in the aisles of a Maine supermarket “foodliner”, small corner Mom and Pop grocery store.

Before church services as you turn to hear what is being shared to the side, behind you about the all mighty subject of the day. Wood pellets, which are the best, where do you buy them the cheapest. And how many tons of them do I need, should I bulk up on with the forty pound bags that stack, rack, pack so neatly? In your cellar, a corner of the garage, out in the shed. Like buying, trading stocks, here and there happens through out the year with wood pellet purchases.

Maine, the place not nearly so much fun, enjoyable when you are missing. Not here full time.

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

September 4, 2013