Tag: maine blogs posts

What Do You Do In Maine, Don’t You Get Bored? (Smile)

The way the grass looks, the shade of green in what you see from afar.

Maine is a mystery to many. She is not a place to compare to another in explaining the state to someone new to these parts. Where do you begin and usually it is easier to start the Maine photo slide show. The images of Maine do the job easiest. No talking, just gawking.

Your Neighbors Four Legged, Furry, Curious, Shy.
The photos of Maine reduce it all down to what is real, natural, special. Because so much of the unspoiled space is foreign to people that have lived without it so long. And it is easy to forget places like this exist except in books, high budget movies that can transport the city mouse far from the noise, smells, worries and rat race.

So back to the Maine blog post title and the skeptic eye someone not familiar with the Pine Tree State sometimes casts.

Some that have never been here wonder how do the locals do it. Do what? Stand the deafening sound of quiet when on the top of Mt Katahdin. You explain when the man made sounds, billboards, all the clutter of commerce is removed, you see what hides behind it.

Maine is undeveloped and straight out of the box Mother Nature, Jack Frost, God and a host of others that cherish woods, wildlife and waterways create. Like the Mainer who is after more than a healthy credit card limit can begin to buy that will last.
The Connection With The Audience. Seeing Each Member One By One.
Get real, get Maine was a slogan I think a few years back. To get to that place, you had to back away from the spending table of out of habit.

The fear of having enough savings to fuel the store bought lifestyle of artificial insecurity.

The urge, itch to flaunt your success. Replaced with more dig deep and rely on yourself, your skills, talents. Than your wallet or purse used to drive the show production. That shift when realized is what makes Maine an “ah ha” moment. And you blush, go still, become humble.

Maine now has you wrapped around all of her fingers.

Not just the little ones on the ends that go wee wee wee all the way back to the big city, bright lights living. With the tail between it’s legs. One hand on the fully charged taser.

When someone utters, sputters but what about culture, got any of that? Tell them about the water ballet performance. Of a pair of Maine loons in love and displaying it. In a private sunset show on a Maine lake with you alone or a partner
Unplugged, Hard Wired Into Maine’s Outdoor HBO.
In a VIP box seat shore front lawn folding canvas chair feeling hit hard. Deeply by the display.

What matters most in life rises to the top when you remove all those layers that insulate, distract and waste precious time.

In getting to the heart of the matter, what really pulls on the strings to the ticker. The settings where man can not drive a car. You don’t pay for parking. Are the spots to find what is missing. Less is more in Maine. More than enough.

End the day getting off an antique tractor you thank for hanging in there. Getting that back forty planted, cultivated and hoed. Or another very important day of a critical harvest time in the books. You appreciate more that someone that only values things with a dollar sign attached misses. That stack of racked, stored firewood for next winter in the shed. The root cellar busting at the seams for winter dining.

You are content because you made your life that way with gratitude is riches thinking.

You are blessed with what matters that you need, not thinking you do out of wanting something but the hankering goes away as soon as you possess it. We chase different moving targets in Maine that don’t come in a catalog, can be ordered online at Amazon.

Maine is humbling, sacred, real and to be protected.

The home made love and appreciation passed down to preserve it taught to the kids.
Taught How To Fish, Survive Early In Life. Missing His Mate, Crying About It Heard On A Maine Lake.
Whether at a woods camp hunting, trail hiking or biking. Plying the water of a river, lake, pond or in a sea kayak with a friend. Paddling out to circle a near shore Maine lighthouse like a NASA capsule orbiting before it’s return to Earth.

The picnic lunch of what you grew yourself. Sliced, layered and enjoyed more because hunger improves the taste.

The setting all around in Maine is not easy to describe. Because it is more than what you see, take in. More about what explodes, detonates and resonates within that propels your day. Makes your life in Maine oh oh so worthwhile and enjoyed.

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

December 5, 2014
The Maine Grapevine, Word Of Mouth, One On One News You Trust.

The days of you can believe everything you read are all shot to heck.

The spin, agendas, politics of what you are told in black and white newsprint, peacock living color often is only half a sound bite. To add to the sizzle. Cause a stir for attention, ratings, increased sales. But that creates the out of context that takes the story by the neck. Down a whole other slanted rabbit trail.
Shooting The Breeze With Locals. Learning From The Man On The Street Works Best.

Sometimes not sinister or dark and dangerous at all.

But just not complete or even accurate. Often because the cub reporter who has no prior experience in the topic, the field being spotlighted just does not put in enough time. Or live, do time in the news location.

To make it neat, complete. Not skimmed, strained low fat blah. Just plain old dumbed down.

Many times there is just not the space to cover an important topic completely. Or the complex issue is made into a comic book in the over simplification hitting the bare bone highlights.

So back to where you get your news, opinion, fodder for what is going on in the World around you?

Asking Questions, One On One, From The Locals Works Best. Tapping Into The Grapevine.

Lucky to find through the man on the street, the bloggers that post on a regular basis that the good stuff is home grown from gold old locals. Passionate about where they live, work, play.

Everyone is a journalist today that can hunt and peck. And when you live in an area, you know it best because of the day to day spent there eye ball to eardrum with the locals. When you are a card carrying true blue local.

Unlike the far away journalist that swoops in on a telephone or email signal. That might travel. Spend an hour or two at a venue at the most. Then flits. Or is sitting at a news bureau desk the whole time. Somewhere, anywhere else. And misses the local approach and rich flavor, honesty all together.

By hit and run reaching in, pulling back like gypsies.

Same take away from very short vacations at a brand new place on the planet. There is more learned in working longer ones in any location that is new and different. To chew the fat with the locals. Experience their favorite haunts and jaunts.

Not just the ones mentioned in the four color glossy tourist information tri fold brochure. You need to experience what the propaganda left out to arrive at, to form your own conclusions. Not the ones spoon fed to you in fast food drive through fashion as we race through life’s time passages.

Tom, Dick and Harry, Mary Jane, Agnes, Beaulah too with a camera, of any type is a photo journalist.

Not just telling you about an area, the news and people that make it.
Maine Is Home Made, Entire Small Communities Pitch In, Make It Happen.

But showing you the Maine images that tell a thousand words. Posting the videos that make it “you are there”. Taking you by the hand and doing the informal introductions as if you were here through Maine blog posts.

The more real the raw, unpolished and home grown put out there for anyone interested to see, the better. Help yourself to the real, honest, fresh, accurate information you need. All you have to do is seek, ask, reach out, connect.

Mainer’s are friendly, helpful, family first, hard working too.

Very involved in their small town communities. We watch out for each other. There is a greater awareness to others we need and learn from in the sharing.

Putting the members of the audience up close and personal to the news, exposure to the local community events and surroundings is huge. So easy now with technology and the desire to share what you observe around you. And to graze, surf and glean the same from others with the same willingness to post and share. That make it go both ways, 3D not flat and one way.

The perspective of the people around us in the grapevine that is not just home town small. That is what most of us needs, wants, seeks out for the truth. Thank you faithful Me In Maine readers for tagging along. Checking our Maine blog posts, the images we shoot, videos we edit to help create a worthwhile media stream to follow.

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

November 8, 2014
Repair Time When You Have A Fender Bender In Maine.

The time it takes to pull out or fill a dent when people trade paint.

Accident repairs are pretty cut and dry when you tool into an auto body collision repair place to tally up the fix it up charges. The pushed in rear tail gate on your SUV means fractions of an hour for each of the detailed steps to remove the damage. Smooth the wrinkles and give it a couple coats of the original color with a clear sealer on top. For the voila, good as new. Or almost.
Maine Is Having Land, Using It For Farming, Hobbies. Or Just Enjoying Wide Open Space.

But life is a little different than tallying up the .3 hour to remove the chrome trim.

The moving on to the .2 hour to apply the bondo filler. Or to drill the hole, to pull out the crease. To replace the entire section that was messed up in the smash together gnashing the metal, plastic, rubber, glass of the iron horse. At least, hopefully, no one got hurt.

Mechanical work in a Maine car repair shop is cut and dry.

Easier to outline how long the procedure should take if you have the skills in the trade you call your career. But fixing problems in a person’s past, way back deep down inside their childhood storage slide show. Places they don’t wear on their sleeve, talk about in public or private.

Not like sliding your index finger down the thin pages of a shop manual to determine how long is this procedure supposed to take. To untangle knots, cut out the burdocks.

In someone’s infinite wisdom of what is supposed to be normal. What to expect to complete the healing and maturity process. To put you back into the pink. Up on your feet. Or closer to that shade of the picture of health color for you as the support around a person can muster up.

It would be easier to bar code scan a person to learn from their past.
Summer Moonlight, Outdoor Fires On A Maine Lake. Peaceful, Romantic, Relaxing.
Where they are in the present day. And what their hopes and dreams are for the future. To navigate them back into safe, familiar waters. For the back on track. Or swamping out the trail of a brand new path. To charter a new healthier course to tack with whatever way the wind blows naturally around you.

Maybe it is just hold on, bracing for major change in life ahead. Or as it happens and the smoke finally settles. To crank your head around and access the situation. Then beef up the stuff deep down inside. The place where we all pick ourselves up by the bootstraps. And are way way stronger for it on the other side of the rewiring, adjustment to the thinking they had going in. That might have been stinking.

Family living in Maine, where we do our best counseling outside four walls.

On the open front porch sitting in wicker or pre-molded plastic chairs from a big box store. Or sitting on that log, a stump for splitting fire wood place skyward. Around a camp fire deep in the Maine woods. Listening to rushing water of a stream or river. the crickets, crackling blaze of mixed hardwoods. Softwood kindling.

To perch, purge, place your scattered thoughts back together. Like the detailing done to the scarecrow after a savage experience.

Flying monkeys, oh my. Or to just unplug and recharge after a long haul success or personal milestone. Where something very important to tackle and conquer was completely to make it all just fine and dandy. Celebration happening in the pause before right back it to swing with both arms, kick with both feet and journey on.

In the game of life and trying to get through the least scarred, learn the most possible. Along the road of frost heaves, potholes, detours and new sunrises when it becomes a brand new day. Maine is one drop dead gorgeous backdrop for whatever excites or ails you. Put her in your background to improve your foreground.

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

October 28, 2014
When You Live Day In, Out With People Way Way Too Close.

Maine is space, wide open gorgeous land, clean water, fresh air. And go easy on the helping of people please.

Not because we are anti-social or recluse hermits. No no, families are tight, close and that kind of people surrounding you is not the situation, type we are hunt and pecking about today.
Way Too Close, In Your Face. That’s Not “Purr-fect”, Not Maine.

This post is not about the fellow I talked with today and his family of fifteen brothers and sisters.

That were about two years apart in age, and his mom lost a set of twins. Died herself at 53 and the older kids helped raise the younger ones. That’s another post to ramble on about and see what rabbit trail it heads down.

This blog post is about what happens to someone living too close to those around them.

When space is at a premium and back yards are measured in inches, feet. Not acres like Maine is like. How to explain rural Maine, small town living to someone that has a hard time fathoming the concept of not many people here. I tell them think of Disney Land’s Space Mountain. But no lines for the ride. No problem remembering where you parked your car. No tram ride or wearing yourself out walking and walking. Trying to avoid bumping into someone. No reaching into your pocket everywhere you turn coming and going.

In Maine, I think people are friendlier because our crime rate is the 4th lowest in the country. People help each other out and there is plenty of space to enjoy if you decide to head out. To spend time at the woods camp. Where big feeds, intense cribbage or poke games happen. Or just enjoying reading the latest Uncle Henry’s looking for bargains. In front of a wood stove crackling, blazing. Throwing off the positive ions, lots of BTU’s from the hardwood sticks.
No Neighbors, The Wind In The Trees. Crunching Fresh Snow Bringing In Some Stove Wood.

Being in a tight prison camp like line, worried about your safety, always fearful of too many people in your face is not healthy.

It is why people pay a premium to commute hours to and fro from the suburbs. Making the city pay scale check. But enjoying a semblance of space a little further from the urban centers where space does not exist. Or comes at a premium. An arm, leg, one of your duplicate organs.

Maine has personal freedom and space. Not everywhere in the world offers space. Overcrowding stress, strain and and worry about safety, where your next meal is going to come from if the big box grocery store shelves go bare. It takes it toll and is the opposite of Maine. Where we grow our own food, have farming backgrounds somewhere in the family. We heat with wood, could easily pull the plug and find alternative ways to avoid the utility power bill.

I think not having crowds, rush hour traffic road rage, eating on the run, gang violence and not worried about your personal safety has to make you a happier camper. Knowing how to conserve and get by with less is what Maine is all about. Survival, enjoying what you have and making it work no matter what. What do you think?

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

October 21, 2014
Maine, The Simpler The Better Works Best.

Ever notice the most interesting people you meet have not all had easy, charmed lives?

They take adversity, set backs, cruel blows dealt them one by one.
Maine, Rock Solid, Simple, Lasting.
Convert the negative into something positive. Blessed with a good supply of deep down inner grit and determination. Are not quitters. No matter how rocky, steep that it gets. And often do above and beyond because of the other loved ones counting on them in life. Mainers are grateful with what they have that is more than enough.

But after a lifetime of struggles, ups and downs, twists and curves, the natural gravitation as you get older is to seek places where the setting allows more peace.

Less turmoil. And like I hear all too often in my day job, folks seeking to live in Maine part or full time, come to the same conclusion. Much of their hardships are from other people sticking their beak where it does not belong. Or just sheer numbers of too many crowds of folks swarming, smothering them. Pushing in and robbing precious limited time on Earth that all of us are provided. No space for too long is just like no air, water, food, love. Takes it toll.

Tired? Then consider so simple, real Maine, all natural.

The setting, location times three is everything right? In understated beauty, the unspoiled surroundings. The unspoken respect for where we are lucky to live in Maine, the natives get it. We chose to remove layers of what distracts. No needed. Fashion our day to day with tasks of what is most lasting, rewarding.
Rough Seas Outside Maine, Come Ashore, Land Your Vessel.
Not tied to heavy debt or chasing the dollar. Home made permanent. Not store bought temporary or throw away.

Self inflicted, a choice to remove all that glitters, for the blue and green that sparkles brightest in Maine. Frugal is not cheap in the striving to live in gentile poverty. Having more than you need, plenty to achieve a worthwhile life for you and loved ones. That’s contentment.

Less focus on yourself but a shift to the way it used to be most places.

Consideration for others, especially less fortunate. Reaching out to help folks in need. Not rewarding laziness of able body folks that are content to live off the system. But helping those too proud to ask for assistance. That were taught to expect more from themselves, to stand on their own two feet. To feel pretty self sufficient, the reward of doing it yourself independence joy.
Maine, She’s Rugged, Real, Challenges A Person. Helps You Define What Is Important.

How you chose to look at events, situations, people around you is why Maine offers a simpler, easier approach. The key ingredients for healthier, happier living. Because what is of value is not plugged in, not plastic, not used for causing envy.

When you live in Maine, or make being here a big part of your life, you seek out those private, quiet places, spaces to recharge when unplugged.

Letting go and getting the answers needed. That just don’t get addressed when a person is forced, or chooses to live where it is too crowded. Expensive, not safe and very noisy. Can not hear yourself think. Get to Maine.

Her diamonds are yours for free.

As you gaze out over the water on a sunshine reflection in the gentle hypnotizing movement, sway of the waves.

Her treasure is the heating, cooking with wood you cut yourself. Being grateful for the little things. Because you removed one by one all the expensive ones that rob your life. Make your worry, run scared but that you thought you had to have. That everyone else is after so you blindly follow the herd.

Break away, head north to the outdoors of Maine. Where no one is a stranger for long if you smile, wave, make an effort to reach out, connect.

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

August 10, 2014
Strangers, You Won’t Bump Into, Find Many In Maine.

Strangers, folks that are elevator contained quiet, not making eye contact.

Keeping pretty much to themselves in the small area surrounding them. When you live in Maine, the wide open space changes all that. You don’t worry about anyone approaching from the side at a fast pace. Your survival defense systems don’t kick into high gear.
Fresh, Maine Morning Flowers After Overnight Shower Starts A New Day In Vacationland.

Unless you are traveling in Maine, and four long, spindly legs are spotted in the high beams. Maine moose at 1 o’clock. A very large Maine moose.

Those majestic beasts of the Maine woods make very large vehicle hood ornaments.

Hitting a black bear at a healthy clip is like meeting a bag of cement. Spinning Boo Boo around and gyro twisting him into your car back door. Causing a call to your local body shop. To employ the dent puller, frame machine for realignment to factory vehicle specs.

But back to not a lot of strangers in Maine. I stopped into a country corner convenience store Sunday night. And noticed New York plates on the car closest to the glass door next to the check out as I trotted in. After an Uncle Henry’s, little snack and standing in the check out line. Said hello, smiled at the father and son ahead of me. It startled the pair.

The silent communication trumpeted in the look harpooned back saying “who are you, we don’t know you” part of the defense system.

Second nature to someone living in a very crowded, not so safe, can’t ever be too sure city setting. It made me think how friendly folks in Maine are. Unless you start on a chant of “back in Jersey” blah blah blah. Then the locals retreat a tad because of the ding to the area we are so glad to live, work, play in day and night.
Maine. We Stick Together, Like Momma Duck, The Kids In Tow.
Where we feel very fortunate to raise our families, run our small businesses, explore and tramp the great outdoors all four seasons.

When less people live in an area, those folks are more aware of each other.

Not so afraid to communicate and we don’t shut down. Get all reserved and self protective. Because Mainers are used to helping each other out. Whether it’s the guy down the street with the plow that blows open the end of your plugged with snow driveway.
Looking Like Bank Robbers, But Layered For Maine Down Hill Skiing.

Or when your vehicle hood is up and you need a battery jump start. No shortage of folks that rally, are up for the challenge. To do what they can to get you back on the road. To where you need to be, were headed before a flat as a pancake battery charge happened.

Maybe the advice don’t talk to strangers as Kevin points out to the cashier in the movie while holding down the fort alone.

Picking up a few essential grocery items. Giving TV dinners a whirl. Grabbing a small jug of laundry detergent.

We need, help, work together in Maine. Have to because less people means more aware of the local population. Working events, traveling in the same smaller circles. And all holding inside a fierce love, pride of where we are lucky to live. The place with the space called Maine. Dagnabbit. Don’t stay away so long. Come sample ME.

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

August 5, 2014