Your approach to the day to day, what’s important when you live in small town rural Maine?
Lucky to be in Maine with all this drop dead gorgeous scenery is a big part of what you feel when it’s rise and shine.
Or when it’s time to lay your head in the bed.
Every waking moment of life in a small Maine town is also not focused on non stop eat breathe debate politics.
The what’s important zeroes in more on daily life, work, family and navigating in and out of Maine’s four seasons.
The right to vote is important and don’t waste your right.
But when you live in a small Maine town, life revolves more around local activities and way less on national new politic debates.
Working hard in logging, farming, fishing and other work and outdoor recreational pursuits.
That takes up a lot of our time and energy and way more fun and rewarding then splitting hairs in political debates living in small town rural Maine.
It’s all about simple living in Maine by design.
Our family holidays, birthdays, anniversaries and volunteering to improve our small Maine town life is what’s important.
Not monitoring non-stop national and state events, the what happens in Washington DC and August Maine legislative news.
Our daily life on the local level comes first, is kept front and center.
What’s on the to do list to check off and tackle.
Not wearing blinders but keeping everything in moderation on what’s really important in sharp focus.
When you live in a small Maine rural town whether a native born or a transplant with new ideas and creativity, it’s all about helping your neighbors.
You are the small town, you are the community that row the boat together.
One person can make a very big difference in small Maine rural towns.
Kids are a big part of life here and they grow up earning their spending money.
Rather than just handed $10 and $20 dollar bills like a parental ATM machine.
Regardless of who or what they voted for in the last election or the next, we band together with our neighbors.
Rough weather, tough times, rural Maine offers a slower pace of life than the loud television broadcast or online heated arguments or debates.
I upload a lot of Maine real estate videos and the comments usually ask about the property, the flavor of life in the small rural Maine community.
But once in a while, the commenter on a property or community video will say something political that is sharp edged and ugly.
Or the commenter assumes everyone in small town Maine feels the same way on a topic.
Is ready to roll up their sleeves and let’s knock down drag out debate the politics and attack anyone who disagrees.
Take a hard stand this way, that way and rarely in between and let everyone know how they need re-schooling on this, that, anything and everything.
In Maine, living in rural parts of the state here is what people focus on instead of politics.
It’s the outdoor recreation, gathering next year’s firewood, hiking a mountain trail around Baxter State Park. Or cleaning out your dooryard, the one next door for your neighbor after a blanker of new white snow.
Looking out over a freshly planted garden or mowed lawn and thinking you did a pretty good job.
Respect for property, your neighbors and their property, their opinions and the local environment takes priority.
Attending your grandchild’s Christmas or spring concert or sporting event.
Slicing into a grow your own beef stake tomato.
Soaking, bathing scallions you grew in a bowl of vinegar.
Sharing vegetables out of your garden, attending a town or school board meeting.
Setting up or tearing down a church supper.
Stopping by the corner store for coffee and to catch up on the local grapevine.
Ordering your favorite flavor of ice cream at the local Maine dairy bar.
Hunting, fishing, skiing, biking, out for a walk with your family, partner, your dog.
Enjoying nature kayaking a river or lake.
Watch the 4th of July parade and knowing most of the members on the floats.
Maybe this weekend it’s back to building a house or updating your camp.
Planning a picnic lunch somewhere you enjoy that is your happy place in Maine to unplug and recharge.
It’s all about making an effort and taking ownership rather than just complain, feel sorry for yourself.
It’s about others, being a helper.
Kindness goes a long ways and once the political mud slinging and spring get ramped up, good will can go out the door.
Those political soundbites that try to pull you in and get you fighting with others.
They do not promote good will or coming together for the greater good in your small Maine town, county, state or country.
In small town rural Maine we like to be productive, industrious, stay caught up and prepared for the season change ahead.
There are lots of reasons we live here and why many move to Maine.
I think part of the focus is work hard to make a difference in your small Maine town, serving on a county board.
Closer to home feels like the effort if more worthwhile and you can see the results.
Trying to fix problems in Augusta or Washington DC feels too far away to impact your local zip code.
So moving to Maine expecting a day in and out debate on national politics in small town Maine?
You will be sadly disappointed because it’s just not how the majority of small rural Maine residents spend their time.
When you live in Maine you get to enjoy all year-round what vacationers flock to the state for just a long weekend or seven-day stretch.
It’s not all work and no fun living in a state called Vacationland, the reminder stamped on the bottom of state license plates.
Because an average house that costs $113,000 in Aroostook County, the exact same house is priced over $380,000 in Portland.
The financial sheet of a rural Maine homeowner carries no or way way less debt load than the ones closer to the southern end of the state’s big green bridge.
The cost to insure the two houses in Maine is vastly different too.
When you live with more space in a place with no use for a multi-level concrete pay-for-parking garage.
Rural Maine fix their own old houses, barns, trucks.
Money is no so important when you have a skill set taught early in life to benefit from all your years.
Small town coastal workers haul traps, rake blueberries. Inland farm workers tend crops, livestock.
Woodcutters and mill workers labor hard and can live on less because the cost of living is much lower to the ground.
Living in a small Maine town is more like being a member in a very large family.
The sheer space of Maine’s 3.5 million acres called the Great North Woods or the feeling that hits you gazing out atop Mt Katahdin is humbling.
Or hiking trails around Acadia, up Cadillac Mountain and absorbing the view that surrounds you.
Nothing compares or creates quite the same backdrop for personal reflection on what’s valuable in life.
What is worth preserving and protecting in Maine is not man-made but pure nature.
Living in Maine is a lot about being good stewards for Mother Nature around you.
Working hard, earning what you have and are grateful for that was not just handed to you is real World in simple living Maine.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA
