You finished your second cup of black coffee as the sun rises…off to the barn to throw some hay down for the small critters you are raising. Your partner is getting up too and fixing a big hearty breakfast. You have plans if the weather cooperates to climb on the old John Deere B tractor to pull a plow thru the back five acre field. If you get rained out, there is a box stall door needing repair and a long list from the job jar to tackle. Jack up the settling porch. Fix the fence charger. Head to town for parts.
This is Maine farming. No extra money to hire out the chores, repairs, updates. You can do it. You become a bit of a mechanic, part gambler, a half baked carpenter but all with the satisfaction of working the good earth. You burn wood from the sections out back that are studded with mixed hardwoods. Four out of five Maine homes burn oil but your home is not heated that way. The six cords out back cut, split and ready to throw in the cellar proves it. You work steady. You are not pinned to a wall or chained behind a desk. Everything around you is paid for. The home needs paint, but you are not worried or trying to impress anyone. It will get painted but your farm building repairs take priority as they are where you make your living.
You enjoy lemonade on the open porch at dusk, have no trouble sleeping and feel more alive than you have in years. Fresh produce from the garden. A cow you named Sirloin in your freezer is what’s being served on tonight’s menu at your Maine spread.
Your grandfather was a farmer and you remember bean suppers, summer canning and helping out around the place summers when you were “knee high to a grasshopper”. With the high cost of living, worries about heating your home in the city, are you ready to sell out, head north to Maine? Low cost living, high quality of life, longer years of being in the great outdoors and self sufficient. Sound like something you would like to try? You’ve had these thoughts for some time, that something’s been missing?
Maine..the way life should be. For fun you explore the back roads of Maine on snowsleds and atvs, your neighbors are deer, moose, wild birds. The best part? Elbow room, space, friendly fewer people, no crime. Runaway from where you are living now while you are healthy. Your family will benefit too from the local community values and courtesy. They still exist in Aroostook County! Dependent on the soil, the weather, each other. Having everything you need, not necessarily everything you want and being patient. Could you see yourself on a Maine farm?