Tag: maine living blogs posts

Fresh, Real Time, In The Moment Living In Maine.

You know the feeling of being on the road, thinking snackage.

Crossing Maine, even at 75 miles per hour on the Interstate 95 system takes time to cover ground. Hungry, stopped at a gas station to fuel up the whatever you drive has to happen. The wheel you twist, turn. Iron you push up and down the highway. No restaurant options in many parts of our rural state.
White Capped, Snowy Much Of The Year, Mt Katahdin At Baxter Park
And thinking just stay on task. Get back on the road but still gee, I’m hungry.

Partly out of boredom. Not really starving.

Or half crazed thinking about eating a horse. But also because the clock says it’s here. The three sided triangle hanging on the porch of the Maine farm house kitchen is mentally ringing louder and louder.

Answer the call. The magic slot of the three or more opportunities in a day to strap, slide on the feedbag has arrived as if you were home. Not moving, becoming velocitized.

Something solid to go with all that coffee, energy, juice, soft drinks or just good old bottled something wet water you swill down.

You scan the C store glass wall to wall with door handles. Just barely off the Interstate exchange in pretty much the middle of nowhere. Podunk, Maine USA. MMMmmmmmm, saran wrapped or rigid plastic see through container pre-made sandwiches. Not like Mom, Grammy made. The morgue like lighting eerily cast on the dining selection makes your stomach queasy, uneasy. How many days ago were they assembled?
Yesteryear, One Row Horse Drawn Maine Farm Machinery.

Don’t do it says one of the voices in your head. The one fatigued from traveling and just wanting to get home. But a snack, to eat on the run. Revolutions of the noggin on your neck shows no apples, bananas, or anything fresh. Dried out pizza slices on a carousel, hots dogs rolling for days on warming station stainless steel cylinders under the sneeze guard. Life is like that too in other ways.

What you snack, graze on and put into your system.

Not just open wide and down the gullet. But what is fed into your senses. Is it a current, fresh, real, raw and in the moment experience? Just plucked off the vine and succulent? Or pretty much like high quality vending machine food? Looks like food, tastes like cardboard, straw, nothing. Without a lot of dipping sauce.

Ordered up because not so handstand happy about it. But all there is for dining options, fast food, on the run. Maybe living in gentile poverty clears the table to prepare for the feast of life in other ways.
One Potato, Two Potato… Three Maine Potatoes Heading To Market, Winter Storage.

Maine is all about slow food. Take your time.

Quality experiences with home grown, all natural and take your time preparing it. Savoring it, enjoying it fully. Eating with an easy does it mindset. Slow down. The simpler living approach to life means being, staying in the moment. Being grateful for what you have and not lamenting what you don’t. Making the most with what is around you and not living life with an “if” attached. That involves something missing, but not needed anyway.

Maine is not “I’ll be happy if, when” this or that takes place.

That is in the future. Robs today and may not pan out like you wished for or hoped. Delayed, put off is not smelling today’s roses. Or just plain in season Maine wild flowers. The lupines, brown eyed susans, forget me nots. All arranged outdoors sans vase, four walls by Mother Nature. For a limited time that cycles in four seasons. But requires focusing on today. Or miss the Maine slide show.

Lop off that “if”. Just shorten it to “I’ll be happy.”. “I am happy”. Or without words, thoughts, just smile and radiate an inner joy. That telegraphs to man and animals around you this cat is content, at peace, in Maine. Get here quickly. Don’t you hear her calling your name? Don’t stand her up, keep her waiting.

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

September 6, 2014
Saving Money Running A Small Maine Town.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

September 11, 2013
The Maine Fair Italian Sausage Smothered In Grilled Onions, Green Peppers.

The Fourth of July in Maine.

There is no wrong way to celebrate the nation’s birthday. The day of independence, freedom and the beginning of the waving the red, white and blue. But if you have nothing lined up, are looking for a memorable experience, a low cost holiday celebration, Maine should be dialed in on the GPS.

Small town Maine 4th of July celebrations are extra special. Because you don’t attend them as a local particpant when you live here. You work them. Are behind the scenes, sleeves rolled up and not afraid of getting dirty. Digging, pitching in with family and friends. To add to the festivities. The parades, fireworks, the hand crafted, home made local Maine events.

Head north to witness the Houlton Maine State Fair, the multi day celebration of the Fourth Of July. Watch a video of Midnight Madness. Or walk around the crafts, the fair ground exhibits, see, hear, take a spin on the rides too.

Houlton Maine 4th Of July Celebration Lasts For Days, Loaded With Events Video.

Get to Maine for the 4th of July this year.

For any reason to experience Vacationland. Where the fun is always outdoors, natural, real. The people friendly, down to Earth. And you don’t have to lose an arm or a leg. The cost is not funded by having to sell, give up a duplicate organ. We keep it low or no cost. That only serves to enhance the experience. Because the worry about how the heck am I going to pay for all of this is gone. With simpler, easy does it way of life in Maine.

Come sample the waterfront in Maine that is never crowded. Get all wet. Meet the folks that populate the interesting, unique 108 small towns in Maine. Relax, enjoy yourself and see bluer skies, breath fresher, cleaner air. And feel the space around you that helps you relax, open up, settle down. The price is right and cheap is not a dirty, raise your eyebrows kinda of word here. We’re frugal, have to be. Chose to be.

Maine, all the fixings for a family vacation when you are strapped to a budget and thought one was not in the cards, possible.

Think again, think Maine. It’s why it is here in the upper right hand corner of the country. That many think is really in Canada. Which is a whole entirely different discussion on the merits of being on the border. The gateway to Atlantic Canada that offers its own experience for the vacationer, traveler, explorer. Happy 4th Of July faithful Me In Maine blog post reader.

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

June 29, 2013
Not A Revenue Problem, It’s A Spending Habit Foreign To Living In Maine.

The Essentials For A Healthy, Happy Life Taught In A Maine Home, Household Growing Up In Rural Vacationland, The Pine Tree State.

Maine is not an affluent state money wise but rich, bank rolled heavily in natural beauty treasures.

Loaded to the gills with outdoor no cost, low expense recreational options all four seasons. Turn on the tube, twist on the radio, thumb through the national newspapers. Lots of hub bub, wall to wall discussion, opinion on over the spending / deficit coming around full circle. Home to roost. Not a revenue problem, but a spending issue grasshopper.

In Maine, no one sees it as a big surprise or is “chicken little sky is falling” terrified.

Because when you make less money living in Maine, you get less dependent on it. And are brought up to save. Have better spending impulse control. To live below your means a tad all the time. To be more creative and resilient in your own skills to survive.

Because “if it is to be it is up to me thinking” adopted. Mainers are pretty independent and not so cranked up about asking for help. Because lots of folks way way worse off need it. But working hard to control every day spending, expenditures in a Maine home is the sport. Savings are the comfort, safety ring to sleep better nights. To get through a rough patch. To endure a spell of rainy days for that Maine household.

In Maine, it could always be worse thinking kicks in to pilot our thought stream. Just the way we are raised. Grateful for what we have in a Maine household. Not whining or kicking, shouting. Melting down about what we want right now or else tantrums with plenty of wall to wall drama kicked in. Not allowed in our Maine households raising kids. The galloping gimmees are talked about, discussed.

Flushed out growing up in Maine with kids around the supper table.

Comes up in conversations early on climbing and hiking up hills. Or discussed while chit chatting riding up a Maine ski lift. To point the boards down those Maine mountains we are blessed with and so easy to access. Building in, hard wiring every Maine kid with a full complement of life skills. To pass on what we were taught by loved ones for long long after they depart and leave the Earth.

I’d like to think most true Mainers would describe themselves as fiscally conservative but socially liberal. Open minded and fair but living within our means at the same time. Knowing no free lunch. Having the resources, privilege to learn how to fish. Rather than expecting someone to just provide the fish as a given, a right. And with the ability to keep an open mind, avoid judgemental narrow, snarky attitudes. And growing, expanding, maturing along the life path to be considerate on other points of view different than our own.

There was a time not so long ago where ninety six percent of this country were rural, farmers, self sufficient.

Food is right up there with air, water, love and family as some kind of important. Three generations growing up under one agricultural providing home roof. Out of necessity and family was an institution to cherish, preserve at all costs. Because we needed, enjoyed each other. On most days.

Now the flip flop is eight out of ten folks are in urban, city sprawling areas of high rises, housing projects. You can not step out back from the little house on the prairie. Like Maine’s lower population density and 4th lowest crime statistic allows.

To work the rich, fertile Maine farm soil. To plant the seeds, cultivate and grow your own table food. Or raise your own household meat. Or make the rounds daily to milk the family cow. Gather the local often double yolk fresh, growth hormone free, cageless eggs from your own laying hens. Or head to the wood lot to chop down, cut up the winter’s total source of heat. Not relying on foreign oil to keep your toes from freezing during a Maine winter.

I am so glad, happy my family was raised in a neat state like Maine.

And worry about those who were not. Stuck in cities with growing concern about what happens if, when the money runs out. How do we eat, create the shelter that is house hold safe for our kids? Without needing an AK 47 or AR 15 assault rifle to persuade, provide for your family the bare essentials by hook or by crook in an over crowded, scared city landscape. Lost in a sea of unknown sober long faces.

If things get bleak, the going gets tough. And the escape route from the city to Maine, rural states like it becomes necessary. Maine, meet you there. Every day I hear from out of state real estate buyers who don’t feel safe. Live in fear and are concerned what if? And who want to not go to the extreme of living off grid and be a Grizzly Adams Mountain Man.

Or that are thinking they’ll try to pay their property taxes with a bushel of carrots, barrel of potatoes. Or run away from the world home schooling, home everything and hide out in Maine. But just looking to simplify. To settle into a sane pace again for a quality of life. To catch their breath for the basics in living without the stress, fear, anxiety that takes it toll. And to escape all the people that invade their personal space on a round the clock basis where they live now.

Maine, not for everyone. But loaded with all you really need to get through this game called life. Being pretty well provided for, with all the essential ingredients to enjoy yourself along the way. Have you been to Maine yet? Considering moving, relocation, living in Maine full time? Buying a Maine home, some real estate like recreational land? I like how you think! Can help with the dream.

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

December 10, 2012
Do Your Insides Match Your Outside?

Happy Campers, Maine Has More Of Them. Make The Vacation Trip.

The you that John Q Public sees, thinks they know, does your outside match your inside?

If you are busy making a living, raising a family, trying to squeeze in a vacation now and then. To make sure to get to church, say your prayers, count your blessings, maybe the inside of you still does not match the outside everyone else sees.

The person you talk to in the mirror each morning brushing your teeth… do they have a little black box that you are not so sure what is inside? Have you learned the combination to that history recorder or do you want to? Or does it matter? Have you ripped off the rear view mirror and moved on from anything painful in your past? Or are you stuck, waiting, wondering on the inside while the outside world rushes by?

Events, experiences, relationships that happen to all of us help shape the DNA we are born with.

And everyone goes through life differently. Values, beliefs, traditions. Gleaning a lot or a little depending on how open their heart is. Or considering how easy it is to change old ideas you held near and dear. But that no longer work and need discarding. Revamping, overhaul. It is okay to change your mind. But fear that re-examination of everything we all filter through our senses could make some tired. That is a lot of work. But maybe surrender is where the peace comes from, stays for a healthy, happier life. For a rock solid foundation to build something that lasts, endures, grows deeper.

When you spend time in Maine, the great wide open space, less people to bump in to means you get in touch with you.

The one that may have been on hold due to other pressing matters. Many that have wrapped up. Others that were not so pressing when you really sit down and take inventory of what is important, really matters in your life. Maine, a place to become a happier camper.

Don’t put off visiting Maine. Start the process of the inside work. That is needed to match up with your outside the rest of the world sees, knows. Maine, find your place in the space of Vacationland. Come for more than lobster, to see a Maine lighthouse or roam the wild life infested woods.

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

July 26, 2012
Maine, The Setting Leads To Personal Enrichment.

How To Avoid Stinking Thinking, To Capture Your Thougts The Four Sons Learned From My Mom.

Develop what you already have deep inside but locked up, if not worked on daily.

Sounds like wise enough advice right? Maintenance of your inner workings to maximize the experience during the short time on Earth. Like lifting the hood on the car, truck, SUV you drive to check the fluid levels. Adjust the richness, leaness of the fuel and air that make the wheels go round and round.

But unfortunately people get comfortable or lazy or prideful blind.

Or just drift like a rudderless boat in the wind, breeze at the time. To and fro and maybe adding frustration to wishing things around you were better. When looking inside for adjustment is the key. But blaming others is the default mode of choice. Think about it, approach it differently. Happiness, contentment is an inside job requiring surrender.

Mom called it “stinking thinking”.

Everything you do is thought about first. Like putting an order in to the kitchen after studying the menu options. The way you behave is motivated by a belief. Your attitude prompts, kicks you in to gear for the action you decide to take.

How you think determines the way you feel. We are a selfish bunch, out to set the world on fire. Seeking fame and fortune until wisdom, maturity is developed to show what really matters most in life. Others.

If you and I think only of our own needs we become talented at receiving, collecting.

But bankrupt in the department of giving to others. It is better to give than receive. But until, unless you do it on a regular basis, it is easy to get one raised eyebrow on that advice from folks not in the habit of serving others. Scratching their head in a competitive society that promotes number one. It’s all about you.

My oldest son had a girlfriend who’s Dad made the most exquisite hand weaved pack baskets. And as the daughter lamented, his “lungs are full of sawdust”. From decades of perfecting the craft of preparing the brown, white ash and other wood materials for the delicate craft of the soon becoming lost art of basket weaving. The girlfriend selflessly gave Alex the best, last basket her Dad will ever make. Whoa.

Letting go of something made for you out of love by someone older, feeble and not able to replicate it. Something you don’t trot in to Walmart and pluck off the shelf to red lazer scan on the way out the automatic doors. I pointed out to my son that act of giving shows you how dedicated, how much she thinks about you to give up a possession hand made by someone she loves, her Dad. The act shows what you mean to her son.

The “giving away something held dearly” attitude also helps you and I travel light too.

Not to get in to the materialism rut treadmill so many around us are on because of highly effective advertising. Or because the momentary ritual of purchasing something gives fleeting feelings of well being that wear off. Hankering something’s power weakens when you possess it. As the Red Hot Chilli Peppers sing “give it away, give it away now”. It creates as One Eskimo puts to song an “Amazing” feeling to form our time as one in a relationship.

Love life. More. Study how you are wired and why. Inside focus not outside so you don’t go backwards. For life changing so you don’t stand still frozen, stagnant. Get on your knees. Not just once a week or a handful of holidays like Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Count your blessings. The heart of the matter is deep down in places not many are allowed to see inside. Maybe even areas we ourselves don’t visit often, are strangers to. So the spiritual inner personal garden gets no weed, feed, love and attention.

Maine is the place to visit often. To reach deep natural spots in Vacationland to arrive at special areas within yourself at the same time. Free of clutter, not wall to wall people and loaded with wildlife, scenery of woods, fields, waterfront of all kinds. Maine, find the space, your place.

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

June 3, 2012