All You Need: Quiet Richness of Small-Town Life in Maine
In a world that moves faster every day, there are places where time still respects rhythm. Where the post office is also where you catch up with neighbors, and where the hardware store has what you need—plus the advice to go with it. People care about you, others in a small-town life in Maine. Living in a small Maine town is really like being a member of a very large family.
Small Town, Living On A Maine Lake. Priceless.
Small towns in Maine don’t always make headlines, and that’s part of the point.
What they offer isn’t flashy. But if you’ve lived it, or even visited long enough to notice, you know: there’s something here. Something solid. Something that fills the cup in ways city life never seems to touch.
In a Maine town—especially the ones tucked along a river bend or beyond the reach of a cell signal—you’ll find a kind of practical wisdom that doesn’t come from books or podcasts. It comes from living close to the land. From knowing the seasons. From understanding what matters and what doesn’t.
You learn how to fix things before you replace them in small towns in Maine.
How to grow food or source it from someone who did. How to cook from scratch and stretch leftovers into something better the next day. Frugal, grateful, respectful happens in small town living in Maine.
Maine Is Outdoors, All Year Long. It’s Woods, Water, Major Scenery And Not Crowded.
You learn that generosity doesn’t need attention. That a neighbor who plows your driveway might never mention it—and doesn’t need to. But you can make a pie, drop off a jar of honey or home grown distilled maple syrup to pay them back. To show them you appreciate the good deed doer going above and beyond or out of their way to help in so many ways.
Keep it simple, always be aware that it is not just about you.
Pitch in, work hard, show up and help. Be kind, considerate and don’t hold anger or seek revenge. This is the kind of common sense applied to daily living that knows better than to argue online. Just work steady, quietly, day after day. For the greater good and to make a difference, that’s the mission with simple living in rural Maine.
Not A Lot Of Traffic, Pretty Much Zero For Crime.
There’s a temptation to see the word wholesome as something soft, nostalgic, or naive.
But in small-town Maine, it means something stronger. It means raising kids to look adults in the eye. Taking ownership and making restitution for damaging property that is not yours. It means showing up when there’s a fire, a funeral, or a fundraiser. It means Sunday potlucks and benefit suppers, and you better be the kind of person others can count on.
Life here in Maine teaches respect—not just for people, but for weather, tools, land, and animals, the great outdoors. It builds resourcefulness, humility, and trust. Going home grown and wholesome in the best way: honest, human, and rooted. Uncomplicated and nothing to split hairs about and criticize. Be productive, not decisive. Tackle issues not attack personalities.
Eating Outdoors, Take Out Food In Maine. Everything Is Better Outdoors!
Small-town living in Maine has a way of reshaping your idea of “enough.”
You begin to realize that peace isn’t found in more, but in meaning. A woodpile stacked high for winter brings more satisfaction than an expensive gadget ever could. A pantry of preserved food is worth more than a shelf of imported goods. A kitchen table full of laughter is as rich as life gets.
Have all you need and grateful? Most Mainers are. You don’t need a thousand friends—just a few good ones living in small town Maine. No need for constant noise—just the sound of the wind in the trees, or boots on snow, or loons calling from the Maine lake at dusk or early morning.
Up To Camp In Maine. Leave A Note, Tell Them Where You Too Off To….
Contentment here isn’t loud. It’s deep, a constant, a comfort.
There’s a peace in knowing what’s next. In small-town Maine, the rhythm of life is still shaped by the land and the calendar. You plant in spring, you cultivate and hoe, hay in the summer, you gather and harvest in fall. You get your wood in before the snow for next year.
This year’s wood fuel supply is all stacked, seasoned and more than enough to get you to spring.
You check the almanac, even if only out of habit. And with each cycle, there’s a kind of peace that grows—knowing that whatever comes, you’ll face it together.
Hiking, Climbing, Hitting Rec Trails Part Of Small Town Living In Maine.
Because small-town life in Maine isn’t just about self-sufficiency. It’s about mutual sufficiency. It’s about living in a way that doesn’t just take, but gives back. To each other. To the land. To the next generation. Be a good steward, make an effort to protect and preserve the natural resources. To pass the woods, water and wildlife refuge or farm property to your kids, a new owner in as good or better condition than you received it.
Living in a small Maine town takes a certain persistent positive attitude.
In a world full of noise, trends, and hustle, small-town Maine life offers something far more valuable: a clear mind, strong hands, honest work, strong back and genuine rest.
Everyone’s cup of tea? It’s not for everyone. But for those who choose it—or are lucky enough to have grown up in it—it’s not a fallback. It’s not a compromise. It’s not a step down.
It’s a kind of freedom most people don’t even realize they’re missing.
So what if the road ends in gravel? That’s often where the good stuff starts.
As snow melts into the soil, a certain kind of energy comes back to life.
Living Off The Land In Maine. Amish Are Masters At Simple Living.
You feel it in your boots and hear it in the woods, from out over the water.
It drips from tapped maples, the rattle of a woodpecker, the quiet of your first hike on bare ground.
Across Maine, sugarhouses fire up. Families and farmers boil down gallons of sap, standing watch over steaming evaporators. The smell is unmistakable: smoke, steam, and sweetness.
By mid-April, the trout are moving and so are the fishermen. Along rivers and streams, casting begins again. Foraging for fiddleheads becomes a favorite ritual in pockets of shaded forest. And the trails? Muddy, sure—but full of promise. Minimalist living, rich in what matters and all natural not pretentious. That’s small town living in a Maine rural community.
Sewing Circle, Nap Time, Feeling Safe And Well Fed?
There’s a rhythm to summer in Maine woods trails and open land, and most of it leads to natural water.
With thousands of lakes and ponds, and an island-dotted coastline that never seems to end, Mainers and visitors alike head out in canoes, kayaks, and skiffs. There’s something grounding about a slow paddle or a quiet float on still water. It’s not about the fish. It’s about being there
At the same time, boots hit trails from Mount Blue to Mount Katahdin. Hiking, biking, camping, and backroad exploring keep things moving. Maine’s natural spaces are as open and welcoming in July as they are in October.
Evenings are for grilling, lake swims, or sitting around a campfire while kids chase fireflies. Nothing fancy—just the way it’s always been. Simple living in small town Maine.
Autumn: Color, Harvest, and Preparation
Life On The Maine Farm. Easy Does It Simple. Early Morning Chores, The Day Wraps Up Late At Night.
As the light shifts, so does the pace. Fall in Maine brings a sense of purpose. The air smells like wood smoke and damp leaves, and every hillside seems to catch fire with reds, oranges, and golds.
People hike more, not less. It’s the best time to be in the woods: cool mornings, no bugs, and leaves underfoot.
The views from fire towers or mountaintops stretch out farther than they did in July, clearer and somehow quieter.
Hunters begin to track game, not just for sport, but to fill freezers and carry on traditions passed down for generations.
Others spend weekends stacking wood, storing vegetables, or canning what the garden gave.
And of course, the apple orchards, the farm stands, the cider—autumn in Maine isn’t just a sight; it’s a feeling.
And Then Comes Snow
As the seasons turn again, the land doesn’t shut down—it settles in.
Those who love to ski wax their boards and scan weather reports.
Others strap on snowshoes, haul sleds, or take to the trails on snowmobiles.
Ice shacks appear on lakes like little neighborhoods, each one a warm shelter with a story inside.
Small Maine Towns On The Water.. ‘hole ‘nother Way Of Simple Living.
You’ll see kids sledding down local hills, and people still out walking the dog at sunset, bundled but content.
In Maine, winter isn’t something to survive—it’s part of the cycle. It’s the quieter season, the one where the light changes and so does the pace.
You don’t need to promote it as extreme or wild. It just is. It belongs.
Outdoor Life, the Maine Way
So what does outdoor recreation mean in Maine?
Land Not People. That’s Maine. Loaded With Wildlife But No HOA’s, No Four To Six Lanes Of Traffic.
It means walking a woodlot, foraging for greens, dropping a line, hauling in a trap, sitting on a dock, skiing a trail.
Or hunting a ridge, paddling a cove, hiking a slope, or simply enjoying the view from your porch.
Listen, wait for it, see it? It means being out there, in the elements—not because you have to be, but because you getto be.
And it means doing so all year, because around here, we don’t have favorite seasons.
We just have different ways of being outside up here in Maine.
There is a quiet richness to life in communities, to living in small town Maine.
He and his wife think parked next to a Maine lake and watching the seasons change is direction he wants for quality of life. And in the course of sharing information on where he would like to build a waterfront retirement home on a small Maine lake property acreage, we started childhood flashback experiences.
He had roots in Calais, Downeast Maine and his family rounded up the kids and relocated north.
Downeast Coastal Lobster Boats In Maine.
His Dad worked on the border at a custom’s brokerage house business.
His friends called him Ace. I remember his mom working at Day’s Jewelry Store where I bought black and white Poloroid film in expensive packages of only eight exposures each. Small town living in Maine is like that. You don’t just know the person but everything, anything about his or her family connections. In small Maine towns, you bump into each other often several times a day.
Attending St Mary’s catholic school in Houlton ME until high school and said he was a cold lunch bagger.
Some in his Water Street school enjoyed hot lunch. Delivered via bus, created each day at Lambert School, the old high school brick building next to Central.
One day snowballs pummeled at a school lunch bus seemed entertaining for he and a group of his friends.
All fun and games until a sister wearing a habit learned about the activity. Hauling in the crew, using a thick wooden paddle with individual helpings of discipline. Designed to make sure the activity did not occur again.
Early Maine Potato Farm Machinery At Local Littleton ME Museum
Hands extended to receive the one by one down the line punishment.
Remember the spare the rod, spoil the child adage. The punishment dished out down the line leaving no snow ball throwing hand left out from the cure. My friend’s mother reminded him at home he and his crew got just what they deserved. Kids had a lot more responsibilities at school, at home and working to earn their keep.
We moved on to Maine fall harvest picking potato experiences, making your own spending money.
Kenny’s first day was almost his last picking potatoes.
The field boss on the Maine farm had assigned him an end section in the potato field. All by himself at the end of the row.
If you have never picked barrels of newly dug potatoes laid out in two rows by a mechanical digger pulled by a Maine farm tractor, you wonder what’s the big whoop?
Early Maine Farm Life At The Homestead, Surrounded With All The Wooded And Pasture Field Land To Scratch Out A Living.
An end section extends and contracts with the surrounding tree line defining the Maine land potato field shape.
Not only do you get behind as your potato picking field section grows larger. But you get discouraged with fewer potatoes and wrestling to find them under large dirt clods where they are hidden.
It truly is one potato, two potato pick ’em up and put them in the woven basket and your barrel production suffers greatly with an end row section.
It takes four big heaping baskets made of brown ash and dumped in a plywood or cedar stave wooded potato barrel for the 25, 60 cents or whatever unit payment. Mark that barrel with your ticket number for the daily count back in the farmer’s house kitchen tally.
Agriculture, Farm Food Grown Close To Home, Locally Sourced Is The Best Tasting.
If your end section shrinks row by row of unearthed potatoes to pick, low barrel count for you that day in the hot harvest fall sun or rain, maybe spitting snow.
Kenny had enough and slipped away, hiding in the woods to avoid detection on this way walking home.
Potato picking was not for me he surmised. The was a potato field MIA loose, sound the air raid alarm. His Dad got wind of the news, found him, put him in a car, delivering him back to the field with a stern warning. Don’t do it again.
Small Town Public Suppers! Great Meal, Friendly Servers, Good Causes. Win, Win, Win!
The beauty of potato picking besides making your own money to manage as a kid, no one leaves the field until everyone is picked up is a valuable lesson.
We are all in this together to clean up before we can go home. The money you make in the potato field used to buy your fall school clothes. Kids helped shoulder some of the household expenses and learned to shop wisely, develop spending impulse control. To take care of whatever they “earned” with their own money a potato barrel at a time.
Meet Neighbors, New Friends, See Family Members. Local Public Suppers That Kind Of Experience.
No one is abandoned and left behind alone in the Maine potato field.
No rows and rows behind discouragement howling at the moon for anyone on the potato picking crew.
Pick ’em clean. Helping the local Maine potato farmer get the crop out experience was part of growing up in Aroostook County.
Hard Work With The Right Tools Is The Most Productive, Rewarding In Small Town Living In Maine.
I think small town living in Maine makes your connection with others in it much stronger for lots of reasons.
One, knowing a person in your class or neighborhood growing up provides a wealth of experiences. We are more connected, have spent more time together through out life so we know each other better.
Second, working on local community events whether coaching a youth hockey team or raising money for a Rotary project just helps strengthen the connection. When you have personal experiences with someone, you understand them better. They accept you too. Each know where the other is coming from, their strengths and weaknesses and why or how they react to anything.
The many Maine small town experiences through out life help the community.
Oh sure, there can be differences and personality clashes. But first hand personal knowledge of all the skills and talents in a small Maine town can be a beautiful thing. Like a team that pulls together and knows what has to happen for success before the buzzer sounds.
Makes for a better working relationship, the quality of life too because nothing is surface or unknown about the others in your small Maine town.
The small town community members understand each other deeply because there are not strangers. Accepting, needing, proud of where we live. Knowing we all have an important role in creating and sustaining the small Maine town living experience.
Simple Survival And Quality Of Living In A Small Maine Town.
My advice for folks relocating to Maine, is get involved.
From day one and never let off the throttle. Be productive rather than petty. No time for personality attacks and everything about pitching in and combining talents.
And for locals to realize all these new fresh ideas from folks who did live somewhere else can be weaved into what we could do to help the small Maine town prosper.
Realize there are community members who have full, rich experiences and will adopt you as one of their own. But not so much if you bitch and complain and find fault constantly. Easy does it as we all get to know each other and divvy up who does what and when.
Outdoors, Do It Yourself More Independent! That’s Living In Small Towns In Maine!
Brand new to the area transplants need to know the lay of the land and for locals to show them the ropes. To explain traditions and the history lessons they missed.
Volunteering is what small Maine town living is all about.. has to be.
No money to hire it done and what would be the fun in that?
Sure there is room for improvement and change is inevitable in a small Maine town. But easy does it on the “back home we always did it this way, that way”. It can get tedious and make locals wonder then why did you leave?
Hard Honest Work, No One Lazy! Expecting Setbacks In Rural Maine.
Something in the where you lived before location exchange before the move to Maine must have made it worth it.
But sharing and comparing what works and why or why not is important in brainstorming. Remind yourself of those reasons you moved to Maine. All this four season drop dead gorgeous beauty.
Maine is smaller sparse spread out populations, vast unspoiled terrain.
Working Outdoors In The Fields. Amish Farmers Produce Quality Local Food.
You daily travel much smaller local circles really getting to know others living in the village size population. Maine is over 450 small towns, plantations and only a handful of cities.
Living In Small Time Maine. Volunteering Is Big. Crime, Traffic Is Not.
The attraction of Maine small town living is stronger than ever. The longing for space, a sense of connection and being needed is part of it.
The joy of volunteering and helping others is a way of life in Maine small town living too.
Volunteering is a way of life in small town living in Maine.
All ages involved from youngsters helping little ones. Older active seniors training those middle age workers. The volunteers of all ages are the community fuel. Baking for fund raisers, coaching a youth sports team, working on a community event you’ve been a part of for years.
Small town living in Maine is not boring, never dull because you are invested.
The feeling of being needed and relying on the talents and consideration of others is security, contentment. You can feel you make a difference in small town living in Maine.
You are needed.
Folks count and rely on each other for the greater good of the area.
In small Maine town, you can make a difference.
Serving on local community boards and shaping policy. Combining personal talents and collectively guiding the community is its own personal reward. If you don’t do it, who will?
Each season living in a small Maine town there is plenty to work on that improves the quality of life.
Floats to decorate and put in parades, practicing for an upcoming community band concert, playing a role in a community play.
Small Town Community Plays In Maine. One More Way To Volunteer.
The folks who choose to live in a small Maine town step up and contribute their time, money and ambition.
Not once in awhile but all the time due to deep pride for their community’s small town living in Maine lifestyle way of life.
Volunteering at the local Salvation Army thrift store, ringing kettle bells, distributing local food to families who need it most.
Maine, Vacationland Means Lots More To Do For Fun And Recreation. Small Towns Are Friendlier. Volunteering To Help Out Happens In Local Small Towns.
That’s part of living in a small Maine town. Our local Rotary club sponsors a literacy volunteer program.
Taking turns, the club members visit local Maine area elementary schools to share the joy of reading. To cause a spark to get new readers in the habit of reaching for a book.
Who says young children today don’t have the attention span to read a book? Literacy volunteers give away so so many books through the year.
Our local small town library in Maine has a summer reading program.
And a children’s section of the library to foster reading for its many lifelong benefits. Christmas stories around the holidays are part of the library festivities. When someone dies, money is channeled to the library to purchase books in memory of that individual. The sticker label in front of what is bought helps you get a sense of what this person loved and enjoyed.
Local businesses contribute funds to put on free weekend movies too.
For families to enjoy a free Christmas theme movie. For kids to munch on popcorn and watch the flick on the silver screen while Mom and Dad can Christmas shop locally in privacy.
Businesses Donating To Local Maine Small Town Movie Theatres To Create Free Holiday Matinees.
Small town living in Maine.
You have a deeper awareness of more than the open space, the clean air, fresh water and wildlife. Exploring the recreational trails and being close to nature is what Maine is all about but who needs help. Those in your small Maine town that are struggling with an illness, loss of a family member or spouse. That’s where folks get together to make sure the person or family suffering is getting the help and support they deserve.
Maine Is Outdoors, Nature. Small Town Living In Maine Is 4 Seasons Outdoor Recreation.
I think you have greater obligations choosing to live in a small Maine town. There is a sense of duty and like I said before in this Maine blog post. Volunteering is a way of life. As you step up, as those around you pitch in, everyone looks for ways to help. You feel the personal responsibility to make a difference if you are able.
Asking if you can give a neighbor a ride to medical treatments down country.
Or to feed their cat, keep the driveway cleared or the grass mowed. While another neighbor offers to shoulder some other burden chore to free up a community member.
Lots more local communication happens in small Maine town living.
Try to pop into the hardware store, dash into the local Walmart or a grocery store for what should be a quick easy task. Chances are, you will bump into lots of people you know and the next things that happens is a conversation. Often about something only those living in the small Maine town would care about or know the individual or event being discussed.
The upcoming big high school sports game, the local weather. How’s your garden growing or your recovery from surgery going? Knowing the names of all your kids and asking about where they are? How everyone is doing keeps the small local town population current in their local community conversations.
Where is there a job for kids to make some spending money? All kinds of those opportunities in small Maine towns.
Money From Working For Area Farmers. Picking Potatoes In Maine. How To Make Your Own Money, Not Spend Mom And Dad’s Important Skill.
Front porches in Maine small towns get used for local new updates.
Folks out for a walk stop by and chat. Same thing happens in small Maine down towns. On sidewalks, or rolling down the vehicle window to talk about small Maine town events and the people living in it. It’s not nosy (usually) and it’s caring and sharing for the most part.
Getting Fresh Air, Spending The Day Outdoors In Maine. Kids Do That.
Living in a small Maine town means more covered dishes and public suppers.
Less trendy chic dining at a slew of local eateries. You need a bigger population to support the greater choice of places to pay to dine. But the local eateries we do have in small Maine towns are well supported and you know or perhaps are even related to the folks you see eating or that put on the apron to work there.
Public Suppers At The Local Farmers Museum. Volunteer To Work Them, To Dine There To Raise Money.
I think there is a greater appreciation for the small things living day to day in a small Maine town. Because you are more involved, there is more sweat, love and tears poured into the local community.
Each of us knows the quality of life living in a small Maine town depends on the individuals.
Home grown not store bought. That describes living in a small Maine town. Fueled on volunteers stepping up and pitching in to create the sense of community.
Window Shopping, Tooling Around A Small Maine Town At Night. Mom & Pop Operations, Not So Many Franchise Set Ups.
Living in a small Maine town means Saturday you help gather folks to get behind a bottle drive.
Or a spring clean up or attending an important meeting. Working or attending on a snowmobile or fish and game breakfast, a farmer’s museum fall harvest supper. Buying a magazine subscription from a youngster who knocks on your door from down the street.
Fitting in when from away in a small Maine town.
If you had problems where you live out of state now fitting in, often the reasons you left follow you to a small Maine town.
The Small Town Maine Local Events. Like Dance Recitals. Everyone Goes. Or Is Working It Behind The Scenes.
Small Maine towns are protective and highly invested in their communities.
Make an effort to get involved and with a positive helpful attitude, you can blend in wherever you live right? That’s pretty universal and along the lines of if you want friends, be one.
If you are highly critical, pretty much self centered and like to whine or dominate a conversation where everything has to be done your way or it’s hit the highway.
Well, there may be a real estate for sale sign planted shortly after your initial move to small town Maine. If you think folks were not friendly, you have to make an effort to get involved. Pace yourself because there are so many avenues of service to consider.
Small Maine Towns, Food Vendors Working Community Events. MMmmmm Good.
Many people start small.
Investing in a simple vacation property to try out small town Maine on a part time basis to see how they like it, how the simpler lifestyle fits for maybe longer periods.
Expectations, what caused your desire to move to Maine and leaving where you used to live before?
Maybe you were raised in a small Maine town but left for college or job advancement and poof. Next thing you know, four or five decades whirl by before the return to your small Maine town roots.
Tap Your Toe, Sing Along. Music Made Locally And Live Is Huge In Maine Small Town Communities.
The older we get the more change is resisted and maybe the small Maine town experience is not going to be exactly as you remembered it years before you left.
Interstates and Internet have impacted small town life in Maine in good and not so healthy ways.
In life, there is a constant stream of trade offs and where you would enjoy living most is a highly personal decision that only you can make.
Attending Local Sporting Events, Alumni Games Are Popular. For Fans Of All Ages.
So what to plan for as you bite the bullet and make the leap into living in a small Maine town?
If you used to let your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages looking for a long tall list of contractors. Well, welcome to small town Maine where anyone good is busy and worth the wait. All about timing. You need to be the first guy or gal out of the gate in the spring for home building.
Keep Your Eye On The Black Circle. Dangling It Skating Down A Maine Ice Arena Contest.
Or hit it right just before winter getting the groundwork down to construction a house that is weather tight from the elements. And you slowly finish it off as local tradesmen become available. Not into the slow cooked, think it out, easy does it approach to building or house repairs? What the delay causes is folks to develop and sharpen their own skill set.
Tired of waiting? Let’s attend another session of YouTube University to DIY as much as we can ourselves.
If you are used to hiring everything done and highly skilled in one discipline and pretty much helpless in all the rest, it may be like the old TV slow “Green Acres”.
Traveling Instate Maine To Enjoy Mini Vacations. Easy When You Already Live In State Maine.
Heart ache and frustration and longing for where you used to live that offered different taken for granted luxuries.
In Maine, independence to control your destiny and not be so tied to others to help and serve.
It is a strong deep running trait of folks in small town rural Maine. Used for more than survival but for the joy in making more of your own decisions. That’s satisfying and custom made to what you want your life to look like and not so helpless just bumping along seemingly out of control.
Out For A Walk, Gradual Climb Up A Waiting Maine Ski Area.
Lack of traffic because you live in a small town in Maine with only one or two traffic lights.
Because that’s all you need to direct the flow of traffic that is slower moving and more considerate.
Lower cost of everything because money is tighter and not spent so freely in small Maine town circles. That’s part of what you get in the Cracker Jack box of living in a small Maine town. Let’s face it, the way of life in small town versus large city is very different. It depends on where you are in your life cycle of what works best and weighing the pros and cons.
Gathering, Squeezing Local Apples To Make All Nature Cider. Do That For Fun Where You Live Now?
Community owned and not privatized for profit.
Where I live in Maine, you see a lot more of that. Our local electric utility is a co-op and not for profit. If the local electron power juice provider makes money, there is a utility price reduction. Less exploitation and more for the greater good.
Small Town Living In Maine, What’s Like? Home Made, Local Talent, Volunteers Pitching In.Maine Is Farms, Lots Of Land, Less Population, More Wildlife.
Money is not the end all but managing it is in living in a small Maine town.
Jobs in small towns in Maine can be less varied but the need to make lots of money from a highly specialize vocation is not so important. Housing prices, no cost for parking, less concern about personal safety, low crime all have their own reward in small town living in Maine. Barters, no money exchanged is huge. Some folks are hard to pay back too and very generous. Which is contagious.
My small Maine town has it’s own broadband Internet provider too. Wired wall to wall and beyond with speed of thought connectivity is a beautiful thing. High speed Internet connects rural Maine to the rest of the blue and green revolving marble quite nicely.
Mt K, Maine’s Highest Peak! Fun To Climb, Memorable Climbs Up And Down Growing Up In Small Maine Towns.
The audience does not know I am blogging this early morning post from a wireless laptop pausing to peer out over the misty, magical Maine lake today.
Unless I tell them. Or show them to let the cat out of the bag.
Peaceful, Quiet, Magical Mist Enjoying Fresh Coffee Early Morning On A Maine Lake. Priceless.
The move to small town living in Maine often is due to where is the best place to raise a family. We don’t worry about the white van sliding open the big side door and snacking our kids in the 4th lowest crime state in the nation.
Walk to school, ride your bike to the movies, library or little league practice.
Would your kids be able to have that kind of independence? Get that kind of exercise outside the house and off the eerie blue glowing screen living in a big city setting?
Crisp Clean Air, Pond Hockey Or Cross Country Skiing, Snow Shoes Strapped On For Exercise. Small Town Maine Populations Don’t Hibernate.
Healthier, not just your kids but everyone gets out to enjoy the four seasons of living in a small town in Maine.
Instead of climbing on the commuter train and all the time stuck in traffic to get to any destination, walk. When your small town home location is a block from the corner store or a place to eat a meal, hoof it.
Your backyard in a small town in Maine lifestyle is not a few feet with a tall fence to define it.
There is no need for a fence. You are not in a 300 lot subdivision with snarky HOA bylaws living in a small town in Maine.
Small Town Living In Maine. Means Trail Rides With Your Family And Friends.
Most of the neighbors you can’t see spaced well down the country road live in homes not weighed down with a mortgage. Their cars and pickups, SUVS have many miles on them but are owned outright.
Spending money with impulse control is taught early on with kids earning their green bills wearing the dead Presidents.
Money not doled, handed out like candy by parents to meet their kid’s every needs.
Voting in a small Maine town is taken seriously. Being in line to cast your ballot and knowing by name the folks in front and behind you. To be in a large polling place and not know a soul living in a large urban area would not be the same experience.
Artistry Thanks To Mother Nature. What You See On A Walk In Maine.
In a small town in Maine there is pride and also concern on problems we need to tackle together.
There is not a feeling of hopelessness or of what good would only one person be in the outcome. No matter how small the group, band together and make the situation better than it was in whatever way you can.
You don’t just blend in with the landscape or step back to avoid responsibility in small Maine town living. Not everyone gets along peachy keen all the time and like families, there are squabbles and division. But there is a shared love of the small town way of life in Maine communities.
Spring Means High Fast Water, Canoe Races.
The parents in small town living in Maine don’t fear their kids.
There is mutual respect mixed with love going both ways in the family connection. It is true the village really collectively raises the child in a small Maine town. Small towns in Maine are really like one large family.
The stigma of living in a small town anywhere comes from feeling trapped.
FOMO, fear of missing out. Or due to early on being told by family and teachers that you have to leave after high school. See what’s out there, travel, relocate for perspective. But never let anyone make you feel somehow you are local townie loser for choosing to put your heart and soul into living in a small town in Maine.
People wave, smile, stop in traffic to let you cross streets in small Maine towns.
Holding doors open, striking up a conversation. Friendly happens in small town Maine town living. Less fears, more comfortable and no one ignores others. Social happens in small Maine towns. Lower population means closer to all the special places folks flock to Maine to tap into on vacation.
No crowds at a lake boat launch or need to reach for your wallet.
Parking in a small Maine downtown is free and plentiful.
Everyone Outdoors Meeting, Greeting, Attending Local Small Maine Town Events. Click For Farmer’s Market Video.
Restaurants, stores are mom and pop unique not always franchise branded in small Maine town.
The economics of small Maine towns are not rich and flashy. More simple down to Earth practical. Using common sense for survival and Maine humor applied in large doses. Locals are fierce about supporting their friends and neighbor’s business establishments. Every dollar spent locally turns over six to seven times.
Trading with each other in a small Maine town feels good inside.
Like being current on property taxes, casting a local ballot, supporting the many fund raisers around you. There is a shift in more and more working remotely and an exodus from expensive, impersonal city living underway.
Walks, Talks, Everyone Brings A Covered Dish To Enjoy After The Outdoor Exercise. That’s Small Town Living In Maine.
Have you thought of where to move and Maine comes up in conversations or in the thought process?
Glad to share what we know as a life long native of small town Maine! Here to help answer questions about what small town living in Maine is like as a local insider.
Where you live has a big bearing on how rich your life plays out.
The enjoyment, fulfillment and personal satisfaction squeezed from the way things roll in your surroundings. It is different for everyone because no one is an identical snow flake right?Sitting Pretty, Living In Maine. Knowing, Liking, Needing Your Neighbor. Pitching In Back And Forth In The Barter.
But consider you live in a city not Maine with a stressful job.
And it takes it toll. You gobble handfuls of the RX from the child proof containers. Are on lots of anxiety medicines. Trying to find the right combination to create the cocktail that helps you cope. And it does. For awhile.
Or spending too much time listening to Piano Man. Elbows sore leaning on a bar with stale peanuts. Other pawed through salty debris in front of you. Touched by many, who knows who just returning from the bathroom. Or blowing into the joint for a shot of gas. One bourbon, one scotch, one beer as the Destroyers and George crooned along with the lead guitar chords. Bottoms up.
Or you are a woman, noticing hair loss. The four walls closing in stress creates the vise grip. Causing the shedding of Clairol #26 shade of hair. Weight loss too. Dropping to the point of the clothes are wearing the woman, not the other way around. City urban living, pressures of the job and where you hang your hat taking their toll. When you are just not in your right place under the sun grasshopper.
A prison, that’s what it feels like. Except the key thrown away at the crow bar Hotel California. Pass the bread and water please. How do I look in black and white vertical stripes or a government issue bright orange jump suit? Bust out, time for a great escape before you are an old fogey. In that nursing home rocking chair screaming for your meds, more cream style corn.
Sometimes the bright lights, big city are what is preached around the kitchen table.
Teachers, not just parents encourage the youngsters in the nest. To spread those new wings and see the sights.
Figure out what you like, what is missing. Sampling life and all the choices that must be made just so can make life purrs heavenly. Or runs ragged, pure hell. For you. Not maybe someone else. But me, myself, I. Small Maine Farm Sustainable Agriculture. Hard Work, A Highly Rewarding Lifestyle.
Are you happy?
Have a laundry list of regrets? Can you be content, at peace and build inner joy easily? Or is something missing in your life? No matter where you live? Or just where you are now? You think?
Peel back the onion layers, see the problems needing to be out in the daylight, fresh air. Don’t just medicate the symptoms with band aid solutions. Those scabs never heal over. Keep opening up.
Explore Maine. Just imagine, consider the what if if it was here in Maine. And it all starts, ends with taking out the thrash. Lightening the load if you are an Eeyore with stinking thinking.
I remember a fellow from New Jersey that when he moved here wore a neck brace. The big padded collar reminded me of the grill on a 1959 Edsel. Or one hanging off a pair of work horses with traces, harnesses to slide cut trees to the yard for trimming, racking, stacking.
But the demeanor of the man blossomed, as he opened up where he was wilted and reserved. The collar got tossed. He was in his right place but had been treading water much of his life being in the wrong end of the pool. He told me when he had to go back to New Jersey, he felt his body, mind tightening up. Relax, Unplug, Recharge In Maine. There Is No Bad Time To Vacation, Visit ME.
Bob felt his former life and the pace of it was toxic for his body.
He would just forget how much. Right up until he had to make the trip south for a family wedding, funeral. Something that could not be put off and avoided.
Like visits to elderly parents where everyone in the room knows the days are numbered. Enjoy them while they are on Earth, not below it.
Self medication to cope, just get by comes in many forms.
Hitting the sauce, too many trips to the medicine cabinet or opening the three door refrigerator. Or retail therapy to peacock proud all the stuff you had collected. Temporary fixes but long term solutions can mean time to move, relocate to Maine. Small, rural, friendly and crime free compared to other places with crowded conditions and high price living attached to it.
Explore the World, travel and work where your heart’s desires lead you. But doubling back, come to Maine for a day. End up staying for a life time happens a lot in Maine.
