Patten Maine Deer Pose, Smile, Stop For The Camera.
When you live in a city, urban area life comes at you from all sides, with greater intensity, stress.
Maine is not like that. Rural means less people, more wildlife. Greater natural surroundings that have not been spoiled, over taxed. And when it comes time to build something, whoa. No big run around like large, expensive population areas. Where it’s layers and layers of government. Take a number, have a seat.
Don’t get me wrong. Cities are vibrant, fun to visit and Maine has a few. But the connection in smaller communities in Maine give you a sense of being needed. Home grown and special. And everyone pitches in. Needs each other. Cares deeply about other individuals besides just taking care of themselves.
Life is short and worry about Maine crime is not a past time in the 4th lowest state for it.
Lack of traffic makes things smoother, less of a bottle neck too. The four season outdoor recreational living, the scope of fun that is low or no cost is a bonus. One of many folks living in Maine full or part time quickly discover when retiring, relocating or just investing in property here. Making this a good place to retire, relocate, invest in Maine real estate.
Maine, you’ll love her for the long list of what is unique about the place. But get just as up and down excited, Antsy, anxious in a good way. About getting to the state in the upper right hand corner of the country with the even longer list of what we don’t have to put up with. That other places have to put up with, that interfere with healthy, happy living. And providing the sane, drama free surroundings needed for raising a family, working a career that satisfies fully. And having fun in the process being in a state of Maine. get here quick as you can. Find your place in the space called Maine.
Come To Maine, See A Moose, Pat The Bunny, Meet The People, See The Sights.
You are a property owner, asked for an easement across your Maine real estate.
Not something you were laying awake nights contemplating right? Just like no one comes in to our Maine real estate office asking “got any property listings with wall to wall swamp, underwater.” Does not happen. Or asked if we have any Maine woodlot listings so cut over that a woodpecker would have to pack a lunch to fly, cross over one.
Wanting an easement for well water, for a driveway, septic system leachfield, and power line right of way for access to a landlocked property are the four biggies that come up. And the person wanting one, giving one both are after a figure. To know what is a fair price to make it happen. To fix the problem once and for all. Or at least limited to their ownership to give the property more utility, extra enjoyment, added property value.
The value of an easement is huge for the person needing it to enhance their Maine real estate property.
Because often there is no other option and the fellow granting the easement knows it. Could exploit it with the thoughts of a demanding a take it or leave it King’s ransom figure. But the fact remains the easement can be something you the property owner regret granting, conveying. And it hurts the value and enjoyment of the property it comes from that the other person neighboring it needs.
So when I get called, stopped on the street and asked what this or that kind of easement is worth I have to ask lots of questions. To see the other options that exist and ask the the list of “what if’s” for down the road. Letting the owner of the Maine property think beyond just their ownership. What can of worms it opens up for their kids in helping or hurting a real estate sale after the parents are dead and long gone.
To consider what if the neighbor who is nice as punch, all warm and fuzzy friendly sells, moves. And a new not so much fun neighbor slides into the neighborhood hot seat next to you. What does this do to the daily dog and pony of life? Is it still “good for you”?
Mutual, win win situations work the best in easement, right of way exchanges.
Had a earth moving company needing special clay for a fire pond for a local factory. And the exchange meant I got a sweet, way way larger Maine farm pond out of the “swap”. But that was a one time operation. All in, all done. Gone, finished quickly. Right of ways linger, hang on, for better or worse like the most important knot tying partnership until released. Or cause so much friction, that involving lawyers has to happen when they become battlefields. Things go bitterly sour.
But reaching out, finding three recent right of way easement grantings and the associated costs is not something that easily done.
They don’t come up that much in a rural state like Maine with less money, more space and fewer people to need them. And each easement exercise requires a case by case consideration of the use requirement and any, all limitations of the same. Plus the person and timing for the property owner who was minding their business. Had not thought of granting one. Or just had, finished up a major hassle, gut wrenching episode with wall to wall drama over one. Maybe extended, pocket emptying, expensive legal battles ensued. And now healing, licking wounds and just trying to avoid the up and down of court house steps.
But suddenly pressure exists for the owner of Maine property who is on the hot seat to provide an easement.
Think long and hard about whether you do or don’t and if you grant one. What is the value exchanged in money or goods, services for an easement. But from a Maine real estate broker’s view of an easement, granting one is not going to help the value, enjoyability of the property if is taken from in most cases. Does not enhance that property but adds a new wrinkle. Burdens, encumbers it in some new way. Would make life better for the other person needing your help. But may be a situation of “I’m sorry, but no” has to come from your lips, or the end of a pen. The thought everything has a price someone is willing to accept to let go of it or share it is not true. Not everyone does. Especially in Maine where arms are not twisted that easily. We have common sense, can see beyond the next twenty minutes. Of just trying to be a good fellow and helping someone out.
Picking Potatoes In The Fields By Hand, On A Farm Harvester.
The fall potato harvest in Maine is a time to reflect, remember past digging seasons in Aroostook County.
Growing up on a Maine potato farm meant seeing not just the spud fields, picking a section to keep up and munching on a snack when the digger breaks down. Or past reflections in the memory mirror of you the dirty, industrious picker running out of barrels. Having to wait to catch up the row after row you find yourself getting behind as the new rows are harvest with a squeak squeak dusty put put drone of the Maine farm tractor.
I did not stop the fall harvest when trudging out of the Maine potato field at the end of each dusty day.
The rolling fields where no one leaves the Maine potato field until everyone is caught up. And collect their water jug, radio and lunch box to wander tired out of the field, straight to the bath tub to clean up before a waiting supper to fit the hole in the gut. Hungry from all the fresh air, hard physical work in the wide open potato field with all the views. Canvassed with a backdrop of Jack Frost’s handiwork on the leaves surrounding the humble workers in the colorful Maine outdoors.
After a harvest supper dishes were cleared, washed, put away from the Maine farm house kitchen table, it was time for another surface purpose.
Laying out old newspapers to collect the fine field dust that sifted, cascaded out of the cans stuffed full by the field workers on the back of the farm trucks. As those old tired trucks with open bodies and rows and rows of potato barrels hoisted to fill them made there way back and forth to the storage house bins all day long during harvest in Northern Maine. Each numbered ticket the identifier of who worked so hard to fill all those barrels each day with four large weaved baskets each before sliding the barrel marker in a secure top groove.
The ticket count that showed the effort each harvester worker in the Maine potato field was tallied up each night. My mom and I would sort through the numbered tickets, placing them in piles and writing down the final count. Some numbers that would week after week be disputed by the designated picker with a different tally. And others that gratefully accepted the barrel count as accurate and fair.
The Maine farm potato picker you are parked next to during the back and forth field harvesting sometimes moving the section marker. As the sunshine beams stronger, hotter and lazy happens. Or some neighboring workers getting a field reputation of switching tickets. Yours coming off when no one is looking and replaced with their “brand”, ticket number in the cedar top stave groove declaring for all to see that they filled your barrel.
The money earned by a youngster in Maine picking field potatoes would be used to buy a warm winter jacket.
Or school clothes needed to help the family budget. But part of the hard toiled for spoils would be ear marked for something the picker found near and dear. Like a generator for a light on the picker’s bike. Or a toy that was spotted in the Sear’s Christmas catalog that came out right about harvest each fall. That was gawked at, pages turned and studied slowly during rainy days when the harvest was halted. Or frost in the morning caused a two hour delay in potato field operation.
Here’s hoping for a safe, no accident harvest for the potato farmers, crews in Northern Maine. And a large yield, with bins and bins of abundant potatoes that keep fresh, quality loaded and with no breaking down. Or converting to waste in pockets of rot. Make the trip north to see the Maine potato harvest operation!
In movies, books knowing how things turn out, what happens at the ending is not so critical.
Helping Each Others, Aware It Is All About Others. Part of the entertainment is just trusting that usually things turn out for the best. And everyone lives pretty much “happily ever after”. In real life, folks want honesty. Need predictable to happen more often than not and routines that are healthy to be happy, content.
Wouldn’t you agree that most people are well intentioned?
That we all want the same things? Love, security, family, to work together for the common good? Buckle up. And accelerate away from the stinking thinking, that default notion that others are not so noble or think first only about themselves. And find yourself in Maine where we need each other. Less of us to lean on and we are all more empowered through life’s twists, turns and straight aways to reach out to lend a hand, extend a sympathetic ear.
In rural states like Maine where self sufficiency is more critical for day to day survival, I think Mainers extend others more slack, apply less demands.
And look deep inside to cultivate more from themselves. Events that don’t turn out the way you had hoped, prayed, dream can sadden. Or the way you look at them, the approach in your thinking can be “wait a minute”. With positive consideration that good does triumph, come out of every situation if we pull back and really see the unfolding events.
Learning, growing never stop. Maturity happens because of those events we would not wish on anyone but that have to be experienced just the same. Head in the sand denial to our role in the events is not an option and greater appreciation for life happens from each of the joys and even setbacks all of us go through.
Don’t wallow, don’t anger, or get apathetic or judgemental during pain and suffering.
Chose to accept and see the how and why and benefit from them. To constantly work on our outlook, to rid ourselves of tearing down “stinking thinking”. Otherwise you infect others near and dear around you. You rob yourself and others from enjoying all the good in life, in others in it.
Make things easier for yourself, for others and strive to find enjoyment, happiness that is surrounding us. If we open our eyes, ears, hearts and live in today. Plan and dream in the future. Maine is a place where there are special nooks and crannies to really think. To pray. To accept the unchangeable, to see and believe in the possibilities presented every day to all of us. Many of the ruts, holes, snags we encounter in life are because of our own limitations, not others that it can be too simple to blame. Point fingers at. Keep it simple, easy grasshopper. Strive to not get shook up, to instead hang loose. And become excited, enthused, passionate about what your life can offer others by sharing your skills, talents and working hard on relationships.
Snacks, Lunch Tastes 100 Times Tastier In The Maine Harvest Potato Field.
Picking potatoes, working as a kid on the Maine farm land means starting early, getting up when it is pitch black outside.
Rise and shinning to the smell of frying, sizzling bacon and home fries, eggs just the way you like them. Partnered with a stack of pancakes, french toast drizzled in Houlton Farms Dairy real butter and maple, blueberry or strawberry syrup. Preparing the sleepy workers, the potato warriors for the another day in the Maine field or spud house.
Sometimes the radio or potato farmer hot line pre-recorded message announces a delay in the harvest start time.
To be at the field at 8AM because of frost, or a rain set back. Possibly a scrub of the potato harvest mission altogether. Regardless, like a paratrooper gathered around the open airplane door to jump when the word comes in, the Maine farm workers need to have an equally gut busting lunch packed to get them through the day. The cold mornings, the blistering hot afternoons and any other kind of weather in between coupled with hard outdoor laboring hour after hour burn a lot of calories.
Long hours when the weather is good means make sure extra water, snacks, a sandwich or two is handcrafted for that field lunch. Ice added to the water jug that is crucial for staying hydrated. To wash down the potato dust, to wet the whistle during the manual labor.
Hard work but lessons learned in the Maine potato field classroom that stay with the worker for life. Making the most of the rain, cold, lack of sleep if you stayed up too late and played the night before. Clearing your head with the blast of fall air in Maine sweeping across the open potato field. Zipping up the sweatshirt a little tighter. Wishing you had added another clothing layer this morning as you fumbled in the dark to get ready to head to the section of Maine farm that needs harvesting attention focus today.
Because of the hotter weather weeks earlier in the year Downeast in Maine where most of the succulent blue good for you fruit is plucked, boxed, shipped to the processor freezers.
Both field work arenas can be better all the way around if the Maine weather cooperates. If breakdowns are minimal and if the workers around you are pleasant, hardworking. Not Eeyores, whiners and lazy. Like any workplace setting, the chore at hand is less taxing if you know how to work, enjoy labor and rub shoulders with others wired the same way on the job chain gang.
Strong, dependable work ethic in Maine is not a secret. To be considered lazy by your peers would be the worse shame a person could carry. Discrimination has happened a lot over the years because of what field work picking produces in kids started early. Begun when all family members are knee high to a grasshopper tall and brought along with older brothers, sisters, parents to the fields for the Maine harvest. Joy in being industrious, learning how to do the work more efficiently on the Maine fields meant crew foreman in the cities ask one question to the crowd of job applicants.
“Who grew up on a Maine farm, worked on one in the audience?”
Hands that went up meant a response from the guy with the clipboard, wearing a hard hat as he motions, saying “Come with me. You have a job. You start now”.
Maine Potato Picking By Hand Is Hard Work Video
Working Inside Grading Potato House Spuds Video
Maine, we appreciate everything a little extra. Work a little harder, respect our surroundings and the fewer people in them a whole lot more.
Maine biking is one neat outdoor peddling recreational option to pass the time, to see Vacationland.
Maine Biking, Try The Casco Bay Ferry Ride From Portland to Peaks Island. Until the next season rolls around for other healthy Maine living exercise options. You could bike Maine’s Acadia National Park to sample the nearly 50 miles of trails, discovering the many intricate granite bridges dedicated only to cyclists, hikers, horse drawn open carriages.
Or you could head to Portland Maine, the Pine Tree State’s largest city to bike around the Back Bay trail.
Taking a ferry ride to bike Maine’s Peaks Island. Witnessing the sights and sounds pedaling at your own leisurely pace around the perimeter roadway, the interior streets that have gradual easy hills. Population 843 but ballooning to 6000 in the summer months, Peaks Island is the largest handy to Portland Maine.
The Casco Bay ferry ride is short. The damage for you and your bike is $14. Perched a top your bike seat you will see some swanky, palatial Maine homes of the rich and famous. Past and present. Complete with lots of spacing and tremendous ocean views along with the sound of surf waves pounding the rock ledge outcroppings along the Maine shore line.
Pack a Maine picnic lunch.
Go off road, through some interior vegetative pathways to bike the long dark interior in the rough. To see the old World War Two Battery Steele concrete bunker to add variety to the Maine biking day trip experience.
The interior of Peaks Island is grid worked with hilly, twisting, winding short streets. The Maine island homes here more cottage like similar construction builds. More often than not shoulder to shoulder close. Up close and personal. Simple Maine vacation homes without the polarized, unique shape glass. Missing the gazebos, immense flower gardens, landscaping and elaborate stone walls, outdoor winding stairways.
The new construction Peaks island Maine homes here taking up a very small, conservative footprint but often multi story high. Seemingly from this Maine real estate broker’s hunch, gut feeling that it is by design to not block the view for others behind the new home in front or to the side of existing structures. Or to comply with strict property lot side line set backs for new home construction.
Peaks Island biking is an easy, highly scenic outing and make sure to bring your camera.
To capture cruise ships at sunset leaving Portland Harbor. The flock of smaller sail boats plying the waters. And a glimpse of Bug Lighthouse, protecting the waves around the collection of Maine islands just off the Portland Maine harbor entrance. Bug Light, one of roughly sixty eight Maine lighthouses broadcasting news of the rock bound Vacationland coastline dangers, perils to any and all passing by seaward travelers.
Seeing Maine atop of bike seat. With or without a motor. Get here quick as you can. And remember, stop fooling yourself. One week in Maine is not going to be enough once she gets into your system. And becomes a life long habit. A healthy addiction you teach, pass on to the next generation for never fade memory making.
