When the calendar ushers in spring, what is it like in Maine?
Past times like spring smelting happen. Canoe and kayak river races show up on the Maine community event listings. Folks head to
camp to assess the damage from the ravages of winter weather and water to the outposts are hooked up as spring cleaning in the vacation shanties gets underway. Maine loons return to lakes as do the two legged snow birds that belong to the properties on the waterfront. That side step a Maine wintry setting and avoid the use of a snow shovel for a few months in the sunny south.
Spring in Maine.
A time of renewal, of perusing seed catalogs, planting plots to create a bounty of food from the Earth rich soil. Thoughts of next years the one after that for firewood is always on the mind of a Mainer who uses the renewable resource from the timberlands Vacationland is blessed with top to bottom, side to side. 91 percent of Maine is wooded. I just ordered a F 45 Jotul woodstove and left a message on a tree length timber processor I saw in the local Maine paper. We are prepared for the season called winter and don’t want twenty minutes old sticks of green wood to feed our faithful home heaters.
Boats, old cars, campers all get pulled out of winter storage. Projects around the home and camp properties get put on the drawing board in earnest. Lots of bartering happens in small Maine towns where everyone is a jack of all trades. Resourcefulness trumps the size of your wallet for expenditures in Maine. New fencing gets added to pastures and old posts get righted and put straight on Maine farmsteads.
Hosing down houses, washing windows to make them sparkle in the spring sunshine glinting off a Maine homestead.
The dandruff from asphalt roofing shingles that did not make it through the blustery months of the Maine calendar around the major holidays. A Maine home owner takes notice and plans accordingly. Maybe it is time to replace the roof covering and a trip to an Amish supplier of metal for the job is explored. Estimates for the cost to renovate are on going around the year for a Maine home property owner.
Putting the lawn furniture on the patio or front porch that was stashed away upstairs in a shed or barn. Spring is in the air as lawnmowers are wheeled out into the daylight and oil changed, air filters inspected to get the grass cutters ready. Mainers love to mow lawns and some of your best thinking is done atop or pushing a grass cutter. Big lawns, it is like haying and taps into our old farm habits with the sickle and cutting bar.
Trade shows for boats, house improvements, for gardening all fall out of Maine newspaper circulars.
If you want a renovation hired out to spruce up your home or tackle a much needed repair, this process is going to take a little time. Don’t expect overnight miracle or to snap your fingers and all down quick and easy.
In your home in a small Maine town, you best make the call and secure a place in the line way way early on. Many new to the area transplants remark of the shortage of tradesmen or the fact that it takes considerable time for a new customer to get a call back. Let alone the repair or housing update performed.
The best of the tradesmen are busy and have their regular customers to service. They also don’t pass up a chance to do fiddle heading, smelting, or an outing with the family that is an annual tradition. Mainers have their priorities in order.
You can not look up a list of electricians, plumbers, carpenters in the yellow pages where you let your fingers do the walking in a small Maine town.
Nope. You ask around, you hear the same names come up in the grapevine conversations. There’s your daily double winner in the housing trifecta for the win, place, show.
Have you ever been to Maine? Are the familiar tourist traps the only visit you have made to Vacationland? We recommend traveling deeper, more north into Maine’s interior to sample the goodness of living in this northern most New England state.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA