Tag: living in maine blog posts

What To Do With A Day Off In Maine?

How people spend their leisure time in Maine, anywhere.

I have read there are two kinds of people in the world. Vacation and vocation flavors. Small town Maine people are industrious and work hard for everything they have. Like to maintain their properties and to respect what nature provides us. To keep it unspoiled and pure. Teaching their kids the same good stewardship with our air, land and water.

Sunshine Outside In Maine During Winter. We Dress Warm, Head Outside.

So doing both is important. Making a living. Keeping up with the job jar and your chores around a family home. Where everyone pitches in to keep things running smoothly. But also shutting down, taking off frequently. Experiencing all that Maine or points unknown out into that the four directions can provide a person.

Vacations along the way and not waiting until retirement to have all the fun in one session.

That works best. Especially as you read the low age numbers on many newspaper obituaries. Seeing lots of examples of the good, bad, the ugly all do die young.

While I munch on a blueberry cream cheese bagel or nibbling on a Mexican omelet. Chasing a hash brown potato with my fork around the plate greased with hot salsa.

We are lucky in a small town to live in Maine, Vacationland so no need to leave the state to find the fun. It is all around us. Right here in our own backyard. Meow. Hello. Have you sampled the Maine eye candy?

Today is a Sunday morning and time to rise and shine. Tap out a blog post. Take a walk. Finish a book. But tackling a bathroom that needs one tile replace, the rest painted because of some staining due to a little pesky dishwasher leak from last winter. That’s the plan Stan.

Unless I get distracted. Maine’s drop dead gorgeous beauty is famous for causing distractions.

Sample ME. Pick A Place Breathe Deep The Salty Air. Drink In The Sounds Of The Maine Sea. Get Ready To Plant Your Beach Chair Along The Miles Of Maine Coastline.

Overdue on the strap on the utility belt but the completion of the playing Mr Green Jeans or Bob Vila for this little job.

That will provide a feeling of satisfaction once the heave ho is thrown into the small project. And gets underway in earnest. Once the second black coffee works its magic.

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, of family worship.

But counting your blessings daily. That better be happening every day of the week. Not just at the tail end. And when you are outside in Maine taking in the drop dead gorgeous surroundings, you know this setting is nothing man could or did create. It makes you humble, grateful, centered. Daily time in the spiritual garden.

So much of what we do in a small Maine town, out in the country home location involves barter. No money exchanged but many hands making light work. We are connected, know everyone and reach out to help.

Farm Fresh Locally Sourced Food From Maine. Get Healthy Inside And Out In Maine.

Paying someone back to even the score is harder for some but not if you are creative.

But sometimes the small stuff means go solo. Like multi-tasking, taking a break and just concentrating on one or two things without the help of others. Without rigging up the self inflicted carrot, stick, pony and cart to motivate.

So checking to see what existing paint that could work is already on the shelf. Locating a brush, putting down a drop cloth.

Then off to Sherwin Williams, the place that covers the Earth in paint of every kind and color. Or a local hardware store, maybe Wally World.

Knowing I will meet someone along the way that is doing the same.

Many drawing from a honey do list. And in a small Maine town, banging into others that always makes it social. Mixing business with pleasure happens a lot. We talk, smile, engage with each other unlike a cold impersonal city where look down, look away. Not don’t smile or make eye contact.

You are related somehow to many in the local haunts you frequent in a small Maine. The circles we travel are smaller, more intimate, somehow connected. The longer you log time in a small Maine town. Your circle of friends widens to include pretty much everyone. In time, you will know most of the folks you see if you are friendly, involved in the small Maine community.

Need More Snow To Provide Plenty Of Water For Maine Canoe Circuit Races This Spring. To Fuel The Paddling Adventure.

This winter not quite enough snow in Maine to swish swish down a hill or snow sled across a field, through the woods.

Many waterways are still open and no layer of ice to allow passage or to ice fish. Or play a game of pond hockey outside rather than in a refrigerated arena setting.

But that could all change and we prepare for the day we have ahead of us. Whatever unfolds. Making whatever in the weather forecast fit the way we want to enjoy today. Living in Maine.

In Maine, it’s dress appropriately and get outside always applies. Enjoy the great outdoors is always the order of the day of another day in Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730

January 10, 2016
The Maine Way For Pay Back, Settling The Score, Not Carrying A Tab.

Maine is a state where folks are pretty cross trained.

Not narrow and super duper at one or two things only. Jack of all trades and pretty masterful in many. Or they have a family member that is skilled. A country neighbor down the road who knows how to braze, weld, fix and repair. Lots of the local community has talents in the DIY department. It is learn how to or go without for take your pick choices.
Big Pets, Maine Horses Are Also Workers. More Than Hay Burners. Pretty Against The Green Backdrop.

In a state where you don’t need to be flush with cash. Just be a true friend to others and tit for tat , back and forth starts up, never stops.

Was buying a new camera lens at the local Maine Wally World over the weekend.

And the store clerk I knew was talking about fiddle heads. She had hit the mother lode, a diamond mine of the Maine delicacy. And like we do with vegetable gardens, fruit patches, when we bake stuff. Mainers always grow, have more than we need. And half the fun is giving it away. Delivering it in person or with a heart felt handwritten note but no name. To someone that is so appreciative.

But those on the receiving end want to pay you back, do you a favor in Maine.

. Everyone more givers, than just takers. And they do the return scratch your back in very creative ways. Asking around for just the right gift if they don’t have a strong inkling from past conversations.
Waiting, Idling Maine Greenhouses. Ready, Set, Grow!
Just knowing the person and what they enjoy or are struggling with and could really use. Hey, where did that cord of cut, split, delivered, just the right stove length wood come from that suddenly showed up one day?

No one knows, everyone but you knows. Get used to it if you are moving, relocating to Maine.

Usually home made something. Hand made and one of a kind. Everyone has their specialty whether it is my Mom’s Olympic medal winning cinnamon rolls if they gave out the gold, silver, bronze.

Or a handicraft, photo, fresh cut flowers arranged just so. A decoration with your family name on it. Maybe providing a service you need. Like snow blowing or plowing out your driveway, mowing a lawn. Help buttoning up the house with banking for a Maine winter.

Delivering a mince meat, or some other Maine flavor of heirloom pie.

This lady who provided the fresh feeds of early fiddle heads. All picked, cleaned, fresh and ready to steam, sprinkle on vinegar. She got her just desserts.

She had mentioned wallpapering her bedroom but short on cash in a conversation a few weeks back. Voila. Seven rolls of pretty wallpaper picked up for a song at Marden’s were dropped off with a smile. Along with the hind quarter of a Maine moose hit last fall on the highway. That was ready to portion out for the family size of the new holder. Open up that chest freezer and say AHHHhhhhh. Tasty about to happen.

But wait there’s more. A random act of kindness plays forward. Comes back ten fold. No good deed goes unrewarded. Help putting up the wallpaper part of the gift. The giver had purchased the wallpaper for her home but decided she liked her bedroom just the way it was after all. Her friend needed it more.

The sweetest gifts to give are the ones you cherish the most, old family items.

And the recipient knows they are near and dear. But you parted with them anyway. To see the joy you could cause. Letting it go. Sharing it.
Antique Wood Kitchen Cook Stoves. Not For Show, We Use Them For Heating, Eating, Baking.

The hand quilted or stitched Maine needle work. The farmer down the road who slam bam lowers the plow, harrow, then disc to make a smooth seed bed for your precious garden.

With his red, green, blue, whatever color field tractor. To help you get on your knees. Grateful, you’re already a prayer. But also for planting those garden seedlings.

Those young plants started, babysat indoors before it’s warm enough to go outside to play, stay. Until fall harvest or earlier pick and place along spring and summer. For the family supper table eat and greet. Of green peppers, tomato and other vegetables perched on the glass sun porch window ledge first.

Or with old newspapers reused, laid out on unfolded card tables. For cucumbers, the rest of the veggie tales line up. And populating the high test soil, the perlite filled peat containers. All those skyward pointed green chutes. Reaching hard on their tip toe roots for that grow light. Or to drink up, thirsty for the Sun’s rays when he shows up. Comes out to play.
Maine Sunsets, Every Single One Is Incredible. Share Them. Don’t Do Them Alone.

In small Maine towns, payback for favors could be a beach.

Letting someone use your camp on a Maine lake or in the woods on a river for a week. When you know they have company coming and not enough room. Will be splitting at the house seams.

Or for a second honeymoon, to re-new your sacred vows as a couple, alone. With only furry four legged wildlife, song birds, jumping fish as witnesses next to the running water setting.

During amazing sunsets, an outdoor cooked over a fire meal for two. With the best seat in Maine for dining. For the re-taking of the sacred pledge. Grateful for each other, your partner. For the generous folks rooting, supporting the knot tying long ago, along the way. For you, the pair, the entire family in a small Maine home town. Come to Maine, feel the strong connection.

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

May 14, 2014
Living In Maine, The Outdoor Recreation Cranks Up Your Awareness Levels.

Life’s Storms Happen But Define You, Make You Stronger. More Aware, Capable, Happy, Grateful.

My Dad used to remark that some people seem to get through life easier.

No, not because they don’t have storms. Or took the Uncle Sam, go helpless, take care of me route. Because most Mainers are independent, hard working if they are able, healthy mentally, physically, spiritually. And practice living, adopting a gentile poverty life approach.

Pretty self reliant, self sufficient, resourceful Yoda would say is how we Mainers are built, wired. The rural nature of our state with way way less people. Tighter money means look for your inner peace outdoors in nature. Home made not store bought approach to life. If it is to be, it is up to me thinking adopted, taught. Ingrained into each and everyone of us early in life.

Put there by parents, family, mentors, teachers, coaches, the rest of the village that helps raise us in Maine. Because there is a deep connection. Unavoidable sense that we all need each other. In the scattered, smaller Maine towns that dot the landscape. Are the majority of all the neat, special communities you’ll find when you motor into Vacationland.

Joy and inner peace obtained through plenty of patience, working on being more understanding of others.

The greater thought clarity, awareness levels that pin, peg the scale needle happen easily. Effortlessly out in the fresh Maine air when all that is not so all out important is stripped away. Being smack dab out in the middle of four season nature that Maine is saturated with everywhere you turn. If you make the time to kayak a Maine lake. Hike up a hill. Ski down the other side. Collect a few Maine lighthouses. If you really make a conscience effort to turn up. Tune in and sharpen your awareness levels.

Removing the day to day of work, disassemble all the other crutches we depend, lean on for support to an extreme.

Shifting from band aiding symptoms to all out war. To remove, take out the machine gun nest at the heart of the problem. Releasing, opening up options to experience nature, the wildlife. The Maine setting we are all so blessed to have surrounding us in the Pine Tree State.

Maine. She’s waiting. Always available if we practice moderation, being grateful, sorting out any “stinking thinking thoughts” rolling around inside. Causing worry. A favorite life long daily sermon / theme of my Mom’s growing up. Reminded, preached to the four farm boys. My Dad needed and heeded her balance / gratitude is riches wisdom reminder too. Benefited, applied it to his metronome settings. To establish a beat to pace, govern his day too.

When obstacles to clarity in our thinking are removed. To see what’s up ahead in your life path for steps to take next. For crystal sharp 20 – 20 inner vision, greater fulfillment. To achieve heightened awareness. To obtain the puzzle pieces we all are missing, should be collecting. To get the answers you need to spotlight, maneuver safely the blind spots for curves, dips, forks in the road ahead. Or to reinforce that you are on the right life course for you.

I think we are less helpless as we become more “jack of all trades” capable to survive in Maine.

We appreciate the little things that are real. Sustain us. With a willingness to reach out and give a hand practiced. Casting, throwing out a rope to reel in anyone around that we see needs it. Because we have all been lost. Stubbed toes, broken hearts, made blind mistakes from missed cues. Did not see all the red flags because of too busy raising kids full time, running a business. Popping up one by one like Maine lake winter ice fishermen traps that spring skyward in harmony. Now kids are raised, empty nest it’s time for activities put off too long.

After church worship, I am set to head out to down hill snow ski at Crabbe Mountain in Canada today. To feel alive, get rid of some energy. To see, feel inside and out the beauty of a gorgeous day that is up to me to not waste. To realize it is a gift, a miracle.

“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” –
Albert Einstein

Maine, how long has it been since you visited her? Spent time in Vacationland?

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

January 6, 2013
Sit A Spell On An Open Porch, In Front Of A Maine Home Fireplace.

Handling Joys, Struggling Defeats, Ups And Downs In Life Needs Back And Forth Communications. No Man Is An Island.

Ever been in a public place where lots of people but not much chatter?

Everyone face down but not praying. Eyes opened but lowered. Nose glowing as the bright spot in the eerie screen reflection of a smart phone. Maybe nursing a lap top, iPad to engage the back and forth. To ping pong a short string of communication created with competing thumbs. With someone other than who is across the table or in the booth with them.

Distractions, hobbies, diversions.

What we fill our days with, attach importance to has changed. Less chores around the Maine farm. And more time to socialize on line. Untethered. With the device carried everywhere we go. To stay connected. But in the simplest terms of communication. Maybe an image attached, link to a video to round out the information sharing. But pretty quickly created. Then hitting send to whisk off into thin air as the new form of carrier pigeon.

And with busy busy lives but less dependent on food, shelter, safety worries, maybe texting, not being face to face matters more and more.

Just like the volume letter writing, of phone calls has dropped off for many. Texting is simple, easy, lazy. Not wanting the same room conversation that could be uncomfortable, squirm causing, awkward depending on the topic being addressed. Others kept at arms length with a hand held texting device.

These days, instead of a few close friends that were usually family, neighbors who pitched in, helped out, the audience to rub shoulders with has exploded. A more traveled, wider expanse of “others” to be aware of as the globe gets smaller. People move around more. No longer live and die close to where they grew up. Venturing out. Way out. And reaching back to share what they have learned is a tad egocentric. If viewed as come on, top this people.

Even when we are with someone if a stream of text messages drift in and out, is there an urgency to respond to the vibration?

Clutch your hip. Not wanting to be rude or make them wait? But you are with someone. Oh yeah. Multi tasking happens with conversations, not just the to do list items check off. I get it. But what if it’s one of the kids hurt? Better check.

Hunt and peck tapped back strings of abbreviations, slang, short hand in today’s language to keep the simple communication, loose connection going. To reach out and touch someone in the most basic limited written text form. Until we can do the real thing. But been reminded “remember people don’t talk so much any more if they are cool and they only text”. Okay.

New Year’s resolution to text less.

Have more face to face conversations. So you can see facial expressions. Hear the tone, or sense the sarcasm or humorous reaction with body movements. To get the effect of pauses. See and hear the mental wheels of the other end of the conversation turning, meshing, grinding. That texting with chain saw efficiency cuts through. Totally eliminates.

Texts taken out of context. No body language, emotion, color to add to the information transfer when you and I are not on the same porch swing together. Or rocking, sipping tea and sampling a fresh home made pumpkin date filled cookie. In a pair of rockers. Chairs in a farm house kitchen near a wood cook stove I miss most from growing up. Now that parents are both gone.

The number of text messages sent monthly in the U.S. exploded from 14 billion in 2000 to 188 billion in 2010. That’s according to a Pew Institute survey. Don’t texts erode the need to spend time together, to start up the talking, listening two step? With undivided attention to the other? Or has that become a luxury? Just no time.

Or is juggling more than one conversation greater fun, providing deeper satisfaction?

So if one lags, gets boring, other more humorous, stimulating ones can take over. Pick it up. Observations from another conversation thread can keep the entertainment going? Do we have need to be entertained or have a burning need to really always know what is going on elsewhere? At this very second. Even when with someone three feet or closer away? Is the person we would rather be with on the other end of the text but the one we are visiting, spending time with fills the void in between those visits?
And how old should you be to have an account, use Facebook?

Maybe communications in a selfish society has become more let me vent. Just listen. The paid fifty five minute type of frustration down loads at a therapists may have helped weed and feed our self centerness. Spread into the tap tap text messages we create like new fresh Maine sticking snow balls. And to let fly.

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

December 27, 2012
Not Just Happy Round The Clock But Euphoria Sustained.

Maine Is Big, Vast, Underpopulated So Real Space, Outdoor Natural Happiness Happens.

If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.

Stomp your feet. Smile big, wide and handsome. But expecting to have full time joy, contentment, a state of intense happiness and self-confidence takes lots of work. And others are not the key to taking you to this “happy place”. It starts, ends with what happens deep inside.

My Mom labeled the culprit that steals, robs a sense of wall to wall surrounding happiness and joy a condition called “stinking thinking”. Not counting your blessings at least three times a day. On the ends, in the middle. You have time for social media interaction. Maybe a few minutes, quiet moments of reflection with a higher power and being on your knees is what is missing. Or maybe you go through the motions, are fooling yourself. Just too busy, in an overbooked life with too many expensive, artificial elements used to cope. And not enough home made, natural ingredients to discover, experience true happiness.

Maine is a state where you dig deeper, find inner resources to do it yourself.

Money is tighter, not so important. Entertainment is outdoors all four seasons. Low and no cost because of all the beauty surrounding us folks that are lucky enough to live here. Or those that schedule regular rest and relaxation therapy sessions with the space in the place called Maine get to enjoy.

Being in a state of Maine. If you already have her in your system, it’s preaching to the choir. If you have not found the time to check our Maine, get ready for a big eye opening surprise. Awareness, true reality not the kind spun, rehearsed and beamed in from Hollywood. Simple living with fewer folks getting in the way of experiencing all Maine has to offer. Boils down, means down to Earth people live here who are just sincerely grateful for what they have. Not lamenting what they might want but don’t truly need anyway.

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

November 16, 2012
Learning More About Your Parents After They Are Dead And Gone.

Learn From Others About Yourself, Your Long Gone Family Members, Parents.

Are your parents still alive and how well did you get to know them?

Your Mom and Dad are your role models and the source of how other relationships form in your life. Pretty important and you are lucky if you spent a lot of time with them.

They made you, love and nurtured you. Know you, can help explain things that come up in life that don’t seem in focus. Or that you don’t understand why. They covered the same ground years ago. You go through many of the same places in life that you sense, know they were here but years ago.

When I got home to Drews Lake last night, after supper I headed in a different direction than the norm. Getting out of your routine, shaking it up is wise in all you do to have new experiences. Bump in to old friends that maybe you have not seen for awhile. And to catch up.

I took a meandering path from Chickadee to Moose to Loon Lane through the woods, along the lake shore to head in the direction of Tall Timber Lodge.

I did not get that far and saw a light on at the home of Jimmy and Louann Ritchie. They were old neighbors for years across from my parents’ US Rt 2 Maine farm home.

Jimmy has had a heck of a bought with shingles that affected the sight in one eye.

Multiple ablation procedures for cardiac arrhythmia. One time the machine quit causing a rain out. Another a blood clot caused, added, not needed drama. But last night he seemed his old smiling, full of stories and enthusiasm humor self. And Louann, a Southern Aroostook school system teacher was glad I dropped in to visit with her four cats, all adoptees from the shelter!

The stories the two shared with me about how much they miss, enjoyed living next to my parents was heart warming. Dad would sneak over to bum a cigarette in his on and off again wagon tug of war to quit. Louann could relate as her struggle but success was equally tough. Louann and her two daughters enjoyed watching the Durham cows Mom and Dad raised.

Coming over to witness a calf birth on the what was always the coldest day of the year it seemed.

And helping to round up cows that got out because of a Maine moose with poor eye sight charging through to court and spark with one of the cows. He hoped.

Louann remembered Dad as a dreamer, deep thinker with a mind never idle and always churning with new ideas. She said my Mom was the governor that held him down to Earth with his tendency to soar and want to try new things. She was more moderate, disciplined and studied the new endeavor more fully, with more practical reason than Dad. They complemented each other well. And each knew how lucky each was. Showed affection in so many ways growing up that the four boys beamed to witness.

Louann agreed with me that Mom was Dad’s greatest asset.

Because besides his talents, intelligence, he had lots of insecurities from years of growing up in a troubled childhood in a drama filled alcoholic family. He lacked patience. Mom did not fault him for these scars but because he shared all, trusted her, she was his tender loving salve.

Trusting others to open up and bare your soul has to happen in a relationship. And it can not until you examine, accept and see what happened and why. You have to take inventory of what’s what. When you ask God to come in to your heart you learn so much. Everything, I mean everything gets exposed, a full review. Then start the hard work of understanding, cutting the chains. Purging of the bad. Replacement with inner peace, joy and acceptance to be better. New habits, priorities. Once the kids are up and out, you have tons of time their overbooked lives did not allow.

Not for awhile, forever on your knees.

You do once you know the truth, it sets you free. And you become an open book, testifying on your feet after being on your knees to help others making the same mistakes. But now armed with the why. Don’t sweep it under the carpet. Face the problems head on I have learned.

Mom had patience, was the real back bone with true love and respect for Dad but all happening, ripening like fruit on the vine. Slowly over sixty years of marriage. I am in awe of someone with long marriages where the two grew up together, went through all the same experiences. No gaps, pauses, missing sections in the life film reel. Who would not want that type of love, marriage, commitment?

Mom stepped up to remove dad’s slack and never threw his weaknesses back in his face in anger.

Did not beat him down to manipulate him or keep him down. He would not have easily been subdued. He always quickly landed on his feet with her help.

Back to his usual hopeful optimistic nature as a Maine potato farmer for 24 years, then a owner of a fleet of trucks, then a real estate appraisal career. That Mom helped make a success as his equal partner who worked just as hard as he did.

Dad did not get exploited by Mom and they worked together, not competed. But again, they started out very young, after a whirlwind short romance as he went off to war as a B 24 bomber tail gunner. The two wrote love letters daily and that deep love is what helped them go through the struggles every marriage has.

My parent’s struggles with poor potato years, financial tight spots because Dad expanded too quickly at the wrong time. Plus raising four boys to improve them, prepare them for life. It all made them one, working in unity, with oneness. They built the relationship and did everything together. Not just after work or weekends. But during the workday.

Stopping for coffee breaks while the sprayer was filling for the crops.

Mom taking supper out when he had spring planting or fall harvest when the weather meant better get it done right now. Not to wait or put it off. She grew up on a farm and understood what being a farmer’s wife meant.

You might think opposites would not attract because of being so different. But those differences are like extra colors in missing places in each person’s crayon box. Ones you are not born with, can not buy and only come from others with different colors you need. And you need to appreciate the strengths they have that you lack. And for affirmation, the same pride and respect, appreciation that helps the other mate beam, shine, do even better. Try harder.

My parent’s love for each other, for the family and the farm they grew up on showed me what a solid marriage takes with lots of work. I am not lazy but being gung ho is not enough. You have to surrender, listen.

Do not what you think the other mate needs, but what they tell you they need and want through communication. Listen to them before it is too late. Spend lots of time together and don’t let anything build up, fester, go untended to keep the love light shining.

I learn more from other people’s lessons than the trial and error method on my own.

Open up, share, communicate, connect with friends, family around you that you may have been too busy with kids, work to reach out to. Make time. See the healthy importance to fit it in.

Be willing to listen, contribute to grow together. We carry around many needless frustrations, setbacks and heartaches if you do not. I am looking forward to my next visit with family and friends that kids and work just did not allow enough time to connect with. Maine, famlies, friends, mates, other people are more important here.

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

April 25, 2012