Northwest Maine - what's up with it? (Allagash: hotel, home)

[RomaniGypsy]

Originally Posted by Submariner

Oh, baby, blow in my ear and, ...

I hope you realize I'm a guy.

Originally Posted by Submariner

On my land I have seen: turkey, deer, beaver, moose and bear. Standing on my land, looking up I have seen eagles and hawks [plus the usual assortment of small birds]. I saw the last bear about a month ago.

Do the bears ever randomly attack people? I have to figure on this because, if my parents were to move to whatever property I have when they can no longer support themselves, they'd certainly hesitate upon knowing that there were bears in the area.

Originally Posted by Submariner

Today urbanites are more 'cultured'. Today they want to be served:
Metro bus service; (why take the bus when you can walk, ride a bike, or maybe even drive?)
an assortment city parks; (if you have enough property, your back yard is the park!)
art exhibits; (nice, but there are plenty of private museums... or you can make your own art!)
town parades; (it's that big of a deal to some people?!)
free cultural events; (I can get a free cultural event in my own house by cooking one of my grandmother's Hungarian recipes.)
music festivals; (My wife and I are both musicians. We ARE the music festival.)
curbside garbage pickup; (What's wrong with burning the garbage in a big metal barrel?)
fresh pavement on their roads; (I have a one-ton truck and my wife has a 4x4 Tahoe. I can live with old, or no, pavement.)
reliable electric power 24/7/365; (When you have your own solar panels, geothermal system, etc... and/or you don't use much/any electricity anyway in everyday life, who cares?)
sanitized and amended city water; (Which won't be there when the grid goes down. Scratch that one off the list as well.)
municipal treated sewage processed and ready for the city down stream; (I'll dig a hole, put a structure of some sort over it with a hole in the bottom, put a toilet of some sort above the hole, and poop in the hole. I have no personal use for treated sewage.)
47 hundred channels to watch on cable; (That's merely 4,700 venues for crappy shows. Never had cable, probably never will.)
'free' medical care for everyone; (Medical care is NEVER free.)
and they want all of this bundled into monthly tax bills. ("They" are the ones who will be eaten alive when reality finally hits. Count me out.)

Originally Posted by Submariner

There are other folks who would rather burn their town charter than to pay the tax needed to support all that.

Now THAT's more like it.

Originally Posted by Submariner

You are beginning to sound like a local.

A man tips fir trees on my land every year. After the first hard frost [2 weeks ago] until about our second or third snow fall. It is a seasonal job. His wife and children make wreaths to support themselves through winter, until fiddleheads in the spring.

Others plow snow; some tap maples, ...

"Tips fir trees"? Assist me in understanding what that is...

Originally Posted by MadJack

First of all, Piscatiquis and Aroostook counties are NOT in Northwest Maine!

Hey Jack, check this out:

Maine QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau

When looking at that map, imagine that Maine is divided into four quadrants by a vertical line in the right-left center of the map, and a horizontal line in the top-bottom center of the map. The quadrants would then be "northwest", "northeast", "southeast", and "southwest".

Most of Piscataquis County is in the "northwest" quadrant.

Half of northern Aroostook County, including the northernmost point therein, also resides within the "northwest" quadrant.

Originally Posted by MadJack

p.s. but you can take a map & compass course on-line!

I agree. Get cracking.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by RomaniGypsy

I hope you realize I'm a guy.

"You sound like my kind of guy. I like your sense of humor."
"Oh, baby, blow in my ear and, ... "

The smiley face was meant to convey that I was joking.

... Do the bears ever randomly attack people?

Not even randomly.

They just want berries and crabapples. The few times I have seen them on a trail, I stop and go back around the previous bend. Then I start singing loud and continue on my way. If they hear you they leave.



"... if you have enough property, your back yard is the park! ... "

Exactly.

Behind our house


A bit further


Looking left


looking straight



looking right




"... What's wrong with burning the garbage in a big metal barrel? ..."

Sounds like a good plan to me.



"... When you have your own solar panels, geothermal system, etc... and/or you don't use much/any electricity anyway in everyday life, who cares? ..."

We plan to use both photovoltaic panels, and solar thermal panels.

"Tips fir trees"? Assist me in understanding what that is...

Some families make wreathes for the holidays as a cottage industry.

In this case the husband goes out the forest [with land-owner permission] and gathers the tips of tree branches. Some fir trees, some spruce, etc.

Then they either sell wreathes by the dozen. Or else fill a few thousand into a U-Haul, drive them to Boston, NYC, or some such place and sell them there.

[MadJack]

Originally Posted by MadJack

First of all, Piscatiquis and Aroostook counties are NOT in Northwest Maine!


What you can't see-read from a computer screen is actually knowing from living here.

p.s. but you can take a map & compass course on-line!

...And that is how we know you're NOT from Maine. .........................

[RomaniGypsy]

Originally Posted by MadJack

...And that is how we know you're NOT from Maine. .........................

OF COURSE I'm not from Maine! Why would I be asking about Maine if I lived there? It isn't THAT big a state... if I lived there, I could investigate everything myself!

I'm originally from New Jersey and I have lived in Texas for several years. Given that I'm over 2,000 miles away from y'all in Maine, I have to ask my questions from afar. I don't have the luxury of being able to take an extended trip up there right now to investigate for myself. That's prohibitively expensive, and it carries with it the double whammy of how I'd lose out on income for however long I spent up there.

Jack, go away. You're not helping the thread, by being annoying.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Ask away. Most here provide factual information based on experience. Maine is as big as the other five New England states combined. Asking what Maine is like can get answers that compare with Burlington, VT or Point Judith, RI.

[retiredtinbender]

Originally Posted by RomaniGypsy

OF COURSE I'm not from Maine! Why would I be asking about Maine if I lived there? It isn't THAT big a state... if I lived there, I could investigate everything myself!

I'm originally from New Jersey and I have lived in Texas for several years. Given that I'm over 2,000 miles away from y'all in Maine, I have to ask my questions from afar. I don't have the luxury of being able to take an extended trip up there right now to investigate for myself. That's prohibitively expensive, and it carries with it the double whammy of how I'd lose out on income for however long I spent up there.

Jack, go away. You're not helping the thread, by being annoying.

Must be pure magic being around the Madman.

[Maineah]

It's a nice place to visit but you have to be a pioneering type to live there year round. The majority of the area has no electricity so you need to make your own which requires fuel of some type. You can heat with wood, lug water, grow a modest garden etc. but life is pretty tough unless you have some kind of income, pension or what have you. Most people prefer to live in more populated areas with a few amenities like electricity, running water and grocery stores. If you're living in Aroostook county Maine you can easily visit the North Maine Woods and many people do. Just buy the seasons pass for the gate for $117 and you're good for the year!

[RMoore007]

Originally Posted by Maineah

It's a nice place to visit but you have to be a pioneering type to live there year round. The majority of the area has no electricity so you need to make your own which requires fuel of some type. You can heat with wood, lug water, grow a modest garden etc. but life is pretty tough unless you have some kind of income, pension or what have you. Most people prefer to live in more populated areas with a few amenities like electricity, running water and grocery stores. If you're living in Aroostook county Maine you can easily visit the North Maine Woods and many people do. Just buy the seasons pass for the gate for $117 and you're good for the year!

^
Ayuh. Couldn't say it better with less words.

[Revi]

There are places in Northwest Maine where there are towns. Jackman and Greenville are the only two I can think of, but there are places where the roads end in Canada, and there are a few people living right where the roads come out. I went out through Jackman and back in through the St. Aurelie gate and saw the huge maple syrup operations up there. Very impressive. 65,000 taps. I think you'll have a hard time finding land up there though. Most of it is paper company land. Talk to Northern Maine Land Man.

[Snowball7]

There's a lot of hunting grounds and hiking trails, places to camp in Maine
that really are just better than the extreme Northwest. So there's just not
much of a reason to get far up there extensively.. nobody I know of strays
very far from the logging roads if they venture up there. Canoeing the
Allagash and St. John's is a pass-thru.. fishing the ponds, but there's
nothing up the other way into the moutains but a few campsites which
may or may not have anyone there, have you downloaded google earth ?
once you get about halfway through the state things really get coniferous
with the trees, basically cross the line no longer in a deciduous forest at all.
Vermont makes over 3x the maple syrup that Maine does..
My friend all I can say is I'm no expert, I've been up there a couple times
and it's no man's land, trailing and canoeing is one thing but living up there
too far in the wilderness I would think gets hairy very fast.