Tag: living in maine blogs posts

Back To The Wall, Up Against It Financially Is No Fun.

Maine Is Simple Living, Basic And Loaded With Common Sense.

Living high on the hog is not a sport, lifestyle perfected in Maine.

Rural states with less population like Maine raise families to take care, respect what they have. To save for a rainy day. To live within or below your means. So you can sleep nights without worry. And provide for your family, create a stable household that is not used to deficit spending. That lacks the galloping gimmees.

Not having debt all around you, driving a twelve year old car you bought used or “pre owned” for cash is Maine.

Knowing you could step out and buy something new and flashy. But say pass. Not needed. Or other areas of your life need the resources more. Like the roof that has curled, aged shingles. And that lost a few tabs during the big January wind and snow storm. And if you don’t replace that roof this year, the expense in water damage next spring will be three times the investment of a few squares of asphalt today.

Deferred maintenance is never a good thing on Maine buildings that get lots of weather.

But being up against it, like the hot stove a child touches only once, can be a sobering, never forgotten life lesson.

The assumption that financial success will automatically follow you forever is like the roaring twenties hay day gitty feeling right up to just before the stock market crash. Ad people in the cities started jumping out sky scraper windows in distress, panic, grief when they lost everything.

In Maine our value is not always tied to something purchased, that has money or plastic exchanged for it. Because Maine living is kept simple, basic, real and honest. What is important, our priorities revolve around the family. Enjoying the four seasons of nature. Extend to the local community that we all are members of and pitch in to improve. To find our place, hone are skills and apply them to the local Maine town we feel fortunate to live, work and play in. Home made food is often the payment received for a good deed done too. There are some amazing cooks in Maine. Around every corner, creating covered dishes, sweets, breads, rolls to die for.

As a kid I remember the feeling of two dollar a barrel Maine potato years.

And did not like it, am not a fan of debt. Realize it is necessary for business expansion, to buy a home but learned that mortgages, revolving credit card cycles are not easy to swallow. And to be avoided whenever possible. The feast or famine two step is Maine or any kind of farming, small business keeps your head clear. Part of what makes you resilient, disciplined, creative. And always looking for no or low cost recreation which Maine is famous for any season.

Being without debt can make you feel wealthy, prosperous because nationally it is not the norm. In a day and age where the average credit card debt around your neck nationally is $17,0000. Where the cost of a typical USA wedding is $27,0000 which does not guarantee marital bliss or compatibility. And starts the not tied with debt surrounding it. That can lead to more and more borrowing until snap. It breaks. Everyone loses. The kids always the most.

Debt can become like a disability you wish you did not have but that has followed you most of your life. And you may have been raised in a household that was always on the brink of financial disaster. So it can feel normal, commonplace. Get to Maine, find a home for seasonal recreation use or full time retirement that you can own outright. No mortgage going in, coming out. Free and clear. Plain and simple. Maine.

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

April 9, 2013
“There’s Somethin’ Happenin’ Here, What It Is Ain’t Exactly Clear…”

Where We Are, Where We Should Be Heading. Maine, Handle ME With Care.

The Buffalo Springfield song “For What It’s Worth” has some interesting lyrics.

Designed to stop you in your tracks. Hold up what you are doing. And crank that head around. To really see what is taking place, behind the scenes. And all around you. During the 1960’s with the Vietnam escalating, racial tensions building, and all that dang burn rock music from long hairs smoking those funny left handed cigarettes. Driving VW multi colored way way under powered micro buses. Preaching peace, love and change… she is a comin’. The times, they are a changin’ for sure.

The burning flags part always bothered me the most as a little kid watching a black and white Walter Cronkite “that’s the way it is” nightly newscast.

Even though I know we enjoy American freedom of expression. Heck, I’m a Maine blogger, hello.

“There’s somethin’ happenin’ here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Tellin’ me, I got to beware

I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound?
Everybody look what’s going down”

Nobody’s Right If Everybody’s Wrong.

Change. It is a slow process.

That if delayed, put off suddenly picks up speed. Increasing pressure and then watch out. Something’s got to give, evolve. This has to stop. And fingers in the dike won’t let the band-aid approach continue. Radical sudden change gets your attention because it is not comfortable, causes pain. Because it is thrust upon you. Out of control. You have no input. And like being shook awake in the middle of a night deep sound sleep. Told we got to hurry, get out of here. Grab just a few things and come on. Quickly. Or else. Or else what?

Change thought out and done before it becomes a do or die desperate situation is best. Goes down easy, everyone gets resolved to the fact this is the lesser of two evils. Signed on, added their two cents. Feels like they have skin in the game. Best and only course of correction. But along the pathway lots of humming not singing because no one knows the words. That have not been written yet. Write the sheet music together, after the playing it by ear first with constructive, proactive not reactive discussions. Taking very good notes, with creative shorthand.

Maine has lots of small towns, is mostly rural. With 108 burgs, villages, plantations and townships under it’s Vacationland utility belt, change can happen quicker. When the landscape is tight, local, community spirited by volunteers that are not in it for the money. But for their family, to stay in Maine and not uproot to head out of state over the long green up and curved steel bridge. Forced to flock to larger impersonal urban areas that are not a panacea.

So when you have a governor wanna be who preaches lets cut off the aid to smaller towns that drain our resources.

That hold us back, maybe should be left behind, cut off. That says aid to their roads and intrastructure should be examined. Dismantled like the rock concert stage taken apart at two in the morning by roadies. The bus hitting the highway by sunrise at the crack of dawn. Whoa. Cue the Jackson Brown song about stay, just a little bit longer. With the piano solo and just him. Under the one single white hot spot pool of bright light center stage.

Hold the phone, the call from the Governor. Those rural townships, the unorganized “T” this, “R” that areas ARE Maine. Don’t count them out yet. The two Maine’s premise of North and South pitted is like a couple always fighting. But not seeing the need to move beyond to something greater. Bigger than the two of them called unity, unison and change. Discussed, what if this, how about that. And review of what other areas with the same struggle are doing, or should not have done. The problem gets fixed on the local level and goes the other way, up the chain. Not in Oz behind the shimmering lime green sequined curtain.

Mainers are resilient, small town proud, family is everything, live within your means wired for long term. And will put up with a lot to live with less of the non essentials. To survive and make the most of what they do have. Working on what they lack but over time, with right thinking can obtain collectively as a small town. To win, you have to play together. But that change change change as Aretha Franklin belts out, reminds. How to do it and who is driving the bus? Is everyone on the same run? Or thrown under the wheels?

Small Maine towns are not a gangrene of a limb to be removed because it no longer has purpose or threatens the owner like a disease.

I always thought sending money to Augusta and watching it trickle back caused a knee jerk delay. Reflexes work best when unrestricted and spontaneous. To react, get out of the way when you see something big coming. But now local control has been ham stringed because everything is run through the central office up on the bridge of the RMS Titanic. Say, more lemon in your tea? BRrrrr.. brisk weather tonight. Who’s up on lookout?

Local Maine towns are resourceful, but have to hammer out the new armor for the plan of attack to survive, change, prosper. Less big government and more local hands on, grass roots is what Maine is all about. Has to get back to and remember it’s roots. Who rewrote the job description of what each Mainers has for responsibilities? (To be continued….)

Maine, say what you are thinking, brooding over and get it out in the open. Off your chest. A tad crusty, outspoken but you always know what is going on in a Maine conversation. Common sense, no punches pulled, plenty of outdoor living. And big time small town proud. That’s Maine plain and simple.

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

March 14, 2013
Living In Maine, With Keen Awareness Of What’s Happening Around You.

Any Season, For Any Reason, Maine Has The Trail You Should Be On. Need To Be Traveling.

Life is a balancing act of eat your peas, don’t run with scissors, think of others, count your blessings.

Becoming new and improved is not from something you buy online, pick up off a store shelf. It’s a lot of believing in something outside yourself. So become less you, concentrate on more for the greater good happens slowly. Because we are a selfish people, taught to be in today’s society of me me me. A tad self absorbed.

Rocked polished by sand and surf, winds and stone like sea glass from living in Maine.

Smoothed rough and jagged edges. Learning how they got there, how to make scars and scrapes badges of courage, faith, and joy. Maine is a state where there are less people, more wildlife and the outdoor living is the playground for our families. Taught to respect nature, to thrive on her beauty. To seek her out for understanding, answers to life’s many mysteries. And our source of joy, its foundation bedrock. To keep it blue sky, fresh air and deep wood simple green. Your awareness levels high, your gratitude a constant when you spend time in Maine’s outdoors. Atop Mt Katahdin, Cadillac hiking. Wearing boards pointed downward at Sunday River or Sugarloaf. Looking out over the jaw dropping vast expanse.

Like tumblers on a complicated bank vault on a timer, one by one they click into place to create the right combination. At the precise time they are suppose to in life. No hold up, no bank heist excitement in the lobby has to unfold for drama. If frustration, impatience does not rob your focus. Being ready for what lies behind locked doors is what we all prepare for, to become more. Through wisdom, exercise mind stretching and many lessons that we never stop needing educational refresher credits on. Hopefully to not cease longing for as we graduate to a higher level. Or stay back another year until we get it. To finally move on, advance to a new set of equations. Usually involving other people. How to get along, why we need each other, how come things roll the way we do on the stage around all of us.

With four seasons like Maine has, the backdrop is never the same food, meal, “dining experience”.

Everything beautifully different. Ever changing, never ho hum, carbon copy. Because each season ushers in new hope. Casts different lighting like the longer shadows of approaching spring in the winter image above. Can you smell her air, feel it’s hope for buds, flowers, leaves and lush green? A familiar set of memories good and bad flood in with the smells, sights, sensations.

Bitter sweet and in between results, acceptance for a reason not immediately known of it just is what it is. Don’t stay sad, change the angle of your perspective. Come at your life from a different direction. See it in another light from outdoors in Maine.

Mature understanding blossoms, blooms as the reason everything unfolds the way it does becomes crystal.

And realizing it is not just about you, me, but something much greater. Higher level, up a deck or two on the cruise ship of life. Don’t get bogged down. Relax and let the natural current guide you. Trust in things you don’t understand, that you can not see. Get freed up in the space in the place called Maine. Latch on to a Maine lighthouse.

Recalling the comfort, warmth of being raised in a loving household with other family members. As you look over your shoulder. Turning, then looking forward to see adventure, time set aside for doing more of what you enjoy ahead. The barbs that hurt can be removed once they are found, the wounds addressed. Adding a few extra events to the play bill as obligations change, the daily load lessen. It all helps with the adjustment, change up. Settling in to focus on today. To live in the here and now. That’s the healthy perspective we can lose in the hurry scurry busyness when just no no no time as Burton Cummings sings.

We are all pretty fortunate, lucky, should be happy and content in Maine.

If the 20-20 perspective we accept in life is for now, this is as good as it gets. But with a lot of thought, an equal amount of effort and dedication to be more, there is nothing in the World holding you back from being way more. Remove your crutches, one by one identify your insecurities, and have faith, belief in something outside yourself to fly higher. Maine is a place with the stage all set to do that. Because the clutter is gone, removed and what you see if what there is. Unspoiled, wall to wall surround sound and sight beauty.

Not pretentious, not stilted or stiff.

The people here are fewer in number but stronger, more abundant in spirit. Because more emphasis is on the individual who develops more perseverance to squeeze, ring, collect more out of what there is to work with which is more than enough. Rather than waste a lifetime of lament, worry, discouragement about what they wished they had and felt cheated because it did not arrive during their stay on Earth.

Mainers accept the way it is for a reason and are good with that. Life is good. Life is fair, truth will set you free. But not until I dig in, decide there is much more. And to not get distracted chasing the wrong set of star patterns. And only you and I hold each other back in the climb to get ahead. To improve our lot in life. Buckle up, turbulence ahead but like the bucking bull, you get better at surviving the ride.

Maine, come see what the motto means “the way life should be”. Put things in order, organize your thoughts, beef up your values and beliefs with real, genuine, honest Maine living. Don’t keep her waiting. Try not to stay away so long.

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

207.532.6573

March 11, 2013
Maine, You Can Breathe Easy, Dreams Made Here.

Make The Move, Find Out What Has Been Missing. Get The Space In Maine.

When you are wall to wall cramped for space it takes much of your effort to just avoid stepping on toes.

Being in someone’s face. Giving or getting an elbow in the ribs. Poked in the eye. Sucker punched when you did not see it coming. That’s no fun. That’s not Maine.

Our rural Maine country location a few extra clicks up the pike, Interstate 95 helps insulate us.

Sets the stage for extra helpings of the good stuff, more outdoor natural living. Which translates to plenty of wildlife, not so many people. Lots of woods, open fields, mountain views and running water.

We’re talking the kind of H2O you don’t pay for, not heavily dosed with chlorine, fluoride. Get a mail utility bill each month to have to square away. Clean, unspoiled therapeutic water to reflect by, sit beside, to fish, swim, boat, think.

So wouldn’t everyday you wake up with plenty of space, wide open surroundings wrapping around you improve the odds of a better outlook on life?

That’s one big point for living in Maine. Add to it that Maine is the 4th lowest crime state. That has to help make you be a little less nervous, jittery. To stop looking over your shoulder in fear right? Don’t you have more confidence, greater optimism, won’t you achieve more if you feel safe? Have plenty of space to create? Not living in fear for your life, your loved ones. Or loss of your sentimental personal items that were handed down, that mean something to you. That you cherish, work hard to protect.

Isn’t it healthier to run the day and not have it run you? To be in a place where you need less crutches for insecurities, band aides for fears and to just cope with the overwhelming day to day. But if so much of your life is spent stuck in honking grid lock, surrounded by angry motorists, chasing the almighty dollar in shadowy concrete jungles of cloverleafs, tunnels, parking garages, and traffic lights, isn’t that one big distraction that robs you?

Maine simple living is like shaking your etch-a-sketch.

Washing clean your personal blackboard. That urban living pretty much clutters up to the point that there is nothing on them that is you. Because there is no space. No room. No time for who are you, where do you want to be, where is this train headed? Or is it even moving to some place better, healthier if you are wedged tightly between a rock and a hard place. And can not get out. And no one around you seems to care, be too concerned. No big whoop dog. Because they are too busy treading water. Standing still, wasting life and in their own do or die situation in the hustle bustle of big city, bright lights fast paced blur.

Not bashing cities, living just enough for them as Stevie Wonder sings. Just a personal fan of Maine.

But just making a point that for many, to be happy and content starts with plenty of space, room to stretch, to easily breathe. The ability to step back and get a sense of perspective. To not be pushed face first, squished into too tight a quarters for living. And if these basics are missing long enough, doesn’t the “prison living” takes it toll?

Because you are missing, lacking the most basic elements of healthy, safe, clean surroundings. Without the noise of the crowds where your individual voice is lost, where you can not even hear yourself think. Spend some alone time with yourself to ask how’s it going? To free you up to be there for you. Not living life on a roller derby course daring someone to just try and get too close. Wearing torn elbow and tattered knee pads, a dented, rusted helmet in a dog eat dog, kill or be killed grab for survival attitude. That’s not Maine. That’s not needed.

Learning is the beginning of wealth.

And the Maine setting is the nice white clean brand new canvas to to begin your journey. To wake up, add to what you accomplished yesterday, the day before in the collection of life experiences. Mainers don’t stay idle, they work hard. But just not at frittering our time with traffic, crime, rhetoric, spin or insincerity and all the nonsense of the dark side of city living. To get ahead or just stay afloat.

Maine is a collection of scattered, sparse but vibrant small towns.

Where the population is keenly community minded. Individually connected to help out. Have a purpose for the greater good for others in the village. We learn and lean on each other. We are not surface fake smiles but deeper, resilient, resourceful, helpful, genuine. Willing to lend a hand back and forth. Have to be because money is not plentiful. Removed from consideration, stripped from the equation. I think we are richer for it, because what we earn is not the stuff money can buy.

Maine living is the real, simple, honest experiences that define us. Strengthens us as it’s own reward of internal joy. Lasting, growing independence. Not external store bought and temporary or fleeting. Nope. Get to Maine, don’t stay away so long. See what you have been missing. Did not know still existed except in dreams, fiction, history.

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

March 6, 2013
(Alarm Clock Beep Beep) Maine, Are You Still Awake?

Maine, Making Our Own Fun. Wake Up, Get Outdoors And Slide, Laugh, Spill Together.

Mainers are viewed as pretty grounded, solid, a little outspoken and definitely as independent thinkers.

Remember the catch phrase “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.” It’s nothing new. Just with the speed of thought information available to us with the Internet age we live in, more about life in Maine pops up. The simple, real, honest lifestyle glimpses here is available, appears online now with regularity. In images of Maine, videos of Vacationland and blogs about the Pine Tree State. Like this one you are slurping a coffee. Taking the time to read, read, read. Thank you.

The think for yourself part in Maine happens for lots of reasons.

First, look where we are located. Hello. (Tap tap of the World map pointer.) So far north we should be, almost are in Canada. Off by yourself means others leave you alone. There just are not many others. So becoming self reliant, more dependent on yourself for survival and entertainment skills is a given. Jack of all trades training starts as a young grasshopper. Where we are helps make us what we need to be.

Maine, we are not a state flush with money to just peel off a hundred dollar bill for this. Whip out some plastic to stripe the magnetic strip for that. We pretty much are self contained. Happiness, joy, contentment from within, not from others, events or situations external alone. Working to improve, be better, to have a purpose. And definitely, please don’t call me lazy. Day to day doing our part for what we need to provide for the simple things. Basics like food, shelter, family, love. That’s more than enough.

When your life is less dependent on material items, there’s no need to impress or create envy, it leaves plenty of space in your head and heart for the natural beauty and order of things.

The wonder of what’s around you in a drop dead gorgeous state like Maine gets the respect it deserves. We live in Vacationland full time. Are already here in the place most only get to dream about, maybe enjoy just one long weekend. To squeeze out a string of seven days a year if they are really lucky each year. And that’s all she wrote. Until the calendar gets untacked, tossed, replaced.

The journey to get here is like if you were a lunar astronaut. You just traveled the odd 240,000 miles and don’t unpack. Get too comfortable. And well, better start thinking about heading home. Back to the revolving, slightly tilted dark blue, deep green marble with the whip cream cloud formation. Cause it’s quite a hike, and incredible journey. Kinda low on fuel and time’s a ticking anxious happens. But you have to go this far to get this nice.

Maine, we’re insulated, not isolated.

Close to everything around you required. For no or low cost to provide a full, rich life once you land here. The good stuff in life for free here what is not available for any amount of money elsewhere happens all day long in Maine. And for the record just so’s you know, there are no polar bears in Maine. They prefer colder places. So let’s do some mental housekeeping. Tidying up and whisking away that little myth about our Maine weather, climate once and for all okay?

So back to the lead in blog post headline that got you to pull back the flap, side step into the tent. Mainers think for themselves. Less concerned about what everyone else is doing, thinking. Wary of polls and surveys that say 99% of folks feel, think, buy, pray, vote this or that way. We don’t have a lot of crutches for insecurities. Are not duped easily. Common sense and realistic is hard wired inside. Stand on our own two feet. Make our own decisions after careful thought, inner reflection and guidance from above.

Our Maine families, local communities, our craft or labor define us.

We don’t pay for what is public information in a small local Maine town. Angie’s List for piece of mind of which plumber, electrician, real estate broker or restaurant to eat at is not needed. Word gets around in a tightly knit community about all that. Who’s good and cheap. Who’s expensive but talented. Who is a nice guy but not so hot, and who cares what they charge. Not the one to pick if you ask a local.

But in large impersonal cities, where no one knows or trusts everyone, you need lots of expensive “tour guides” to help you get around. To bob and weave. Avoid rope a dope. Getting ground pounded. To make decisions for you. For the best experience when you’re in a hurry which is always. To think for a fee for you. Assembling what is public information already, lots of what you supplied and making you pay to get it back. Boy, that is stupid. Not the way we would waste, spend our hard earned money in Maine. Not for monthly fees to monitor our credit report either. We pay our bills. Don’t do debt. Don’t like credit, avoid it like the plague.

Maine, lots of reasons to be here. Come for a day, end up staying a life time.

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

March 4, 2013
Comfortable In Your Own Skin, Getting A Rhythm In Maine.

Got To Get A Rhythm When You Got The Blues.

Maine is a great state for retreats, private times in beautiful places without all the wall to wall people.

To spend memorable moments reflecting with just you, yourself and I. Removing all the distractions, crutches, conversations and deadlines. Stripping away the old comfortable ways that have gotten you this far. Putting the “fun” in dysfunction. But limiting anything that has kept you from living up to your full potential.

In my job the common theme from out of state Maine real estate buyers is something is missing. Not happy but not sure why. Thinking it must be others, can’t possibly be just me. And a change of geography, a whole new natural backdrop, a slower natural place like Maine has got to help find what is lacking. Some are running away from skeletons of the past. Many are living fast forwarded way into tomorrow. Anxious to fulfill future dreams put on hold for too long. And time’s a wastin’. Better chop chop hop to it.

Others are trying to strip away what has robbed their peace, inner joy, kept them from experiencing a fuller, deeper life.

To tighten the focus on just deal with today. Living in today. Johnny Cash sang about needing to “Get A Rhythm” when you got the blues. To get back on your feet. To walk the line when there’s a burning ring of fire. And you feel like you’re in Folsom Prison. Oh yeah, that comes in future songs he penned. To get the suffering, frustration, confusion out. Sang to help ease the pain. To make room in the over crowded heart that was wore black to free up space so understanding could hang it’s hat. Come home to roost.

Hello, I’m Johnny Cash, Remind You To Get A Rhythm In Song Video.

How to feel comfortable in your own skin. Starts with no longer trying to meet the expectations of everyone around you. That for some reason want, need to define you when they should be working on their own short comings. To keep their eyes on their own laundry list of faults, struggles. Some say loved ones are hard on each other because they just want to help improve you. But we are our own worst, harshest critics. Without rhythm in the song we sing, the notes just don’t arrange themselves so sweetly. But we have to write our own sheet music. Or play it by ear as the measures roll on. You are the best star to be considered for the role of “This Is Your Life”. No one else.

When you have kept yourself pretty much round the clock busy, time alone to hear yourself think is not allowed to happen. And when you are not confident without approval, validation of others around you, spending time alone can be awkward. Fish out of water uncomfortable. But what you don’t enjoy is often the bitter tasting medicine you need to swallow. The old adage about what does not kill you makes you stronger rings true. You don’t always get what you wanted but always what you needed happens.

The bottom line of the pitch from many advertisements we are bombarded with these days is it’s time to change you.

Become the new you with this product, service, book, set of CD’s with three easy payments. Maybe the old you has just been slammed into park. Not allowed to be started up, taken for a spin. As the Guess Who sand “I got got got no time.”.

Obligations in life put off the self analysis. Raising a family, holding down a job to make a living, working on the many relationships around us through out life. Not a lot of time left for just how are you doing questions. Posed eye to eye with the guy or gal you share the mirror with brushing teeth, combing hair each morning.

Slowly, as kids leave the nest, the learning curve of a career planes out, many find Maine is the place with the space. To really start to learn about yourself. The things that make you happy. Make you tick. And you find that inner rhythm. By taking better care of you first. Not just pulled like the scarecrow apart at the seams default pattern to end all make everyone around you happy.

It can sound selfish but you are not thumbing your nose at the world when you put your foot down.

It’s just when you reach a point in life where a shift happens. A conscious adjustment causes the factoring in of more alone time. Me quality time. To not just get your satisfaction externally any more. But adding the most important element of joy. Built from within, deep inside. To places not many are allowed. No fly zones. To areas even you have to open up the Delorme Gazateer to explore, find your way around. The way back out.

You know the expression that you can tell what is happening within a person by what’s written all over their face? Not the staged smile that they hide behind when people are looking. The contenance, way they project, what radiates from deep down can not be kept a secret. Even though the world is your stage and we are but mere actors playing out our roles in quiet desperation.

Maine, explore, discover, relax. Whew. You made it. No hurry to leave, no reason to stay away.

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

February 23, 2013