will I survive Maine Winter (roofing, moving to, oil)

[kevin5098]

Jim,

Thanks for the great post! We are moving to Maine from Missouri in about 2 weeks. We are in our 50's and have a house and about 6 acres in S Aroostook Cty. We are both from the NE so no strangers to snow. We plan to be as self-sufficient as possible but have some outside income (pension, etc) as a back-up. Neighbors we have met so far meet your description. Hope that you can return some day.

[msina]

I used to think when folks said; "Once a Mainer, ALWAYS a Mainer!" that they were just stating that out of pride. And to an extent, that's true. But Maine has a way of attaching itself to your heartstrings, a feeling like nothing else you'll ever feel.
25 years came and went, and now I'm no longer in Maine, but OH, how I wish I was. Because I'm a Mainer.

And once a Mainer, ALWAYS a Mainer!

~ Jim ~

great post.

[kellym_40]

Something to consider in trying to raise your own food in Maine is the shortness of the growing season here. If you're real lucky you can get your garden in by the end of May, though there have been years when we were lucky to get everything in by the end of June.

Maineah - this was a very good point. Being from NJ our growing season can sometimes go all the way into October. When and if we ever get up there - this is something to really consider. As of right now, my only "garden" is my topsy-turby tomato plant on my deck. Didn't feel like weeding a garden this year and now with weeks on end of 95 degree weather....well no thank you. I'd rather go pick a tomato from my deck

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by kellym_40

Maineah - this was a very good point. Being from NJ our growing season can sometimes go all the way into October. When and if we ever get up there - this is something to really consider. As of right now, my only "garden" is my topsy-turby tomato plant on my deck. Didn't feel like weeding a garden this year and now with weeks on end of 95 degree weather....well no thank you. I'd rather go pick a tomato from my deck

We had our "pioneering" days when we were in our 30's and 40's. We grew a huge family garden for about 20 years until both of the kids got out of high school. We burned coal for heat which was real inexpensive but kind of dirty. We grew all of our own veggies and put up potatoes, carrots, squash, turnip, pumpkins, pickled beets, dill beans, bread and butter pickles, and filled two big chest freezers to the top. We also raised turkeys and chickens and made our own bread and beer, harvested a deer about every year or a moose (three times), fished 35 lobster traps and caught smelts in the winter. It's practically a full time job in the summer staying ahead of the weeding, watering, pest control, fertilizing, harvesting and packaging of that much meat and produce. It IS rewarding to be sitting on enough food to get a family of four or five through an entire winter and we did save alot on the grocery bill. The season IS very short here in Maine and that compounds the amount of time and effort you have to put in to raising your own food.
I really do not miss all of that labor and fuss growing all of that food and we're content to go to a local farmer's market now and pick up a few fresh veggies in season.
It's comforting to know that if we HAD to do it again we know how to do it .

[Maine Writer]

Originally Posted by kellym_40

Maineah - this was a very good point. Being from NJ our growing season can sometimes go all the way into October. When and if we ever get up there - this is something to really consider.

It can here too. The growing season starts in April (March this year, very unusual) and ends in October or early November. You can keep some things that are frost hardy going until late fall.

[davey cricket]

bring warmer clothes

[Zarathu]

Originally Posted by boonelsewhere

I grew up and live in the area that all I need to ware is short and t-shirt. The food market always near by can easily walk to store and buy enough for dinner and breakfast for the morning.
In the past couple years I have been try to find a place in the northern states to live for a change. I found a large parcel of forest land in Ellsworth and plan to move there in 2008, will grow/raise my own food and live on the what ever land provide, use wood stove to keep the house warm.
Am I ready for Maine?, I am scare, exited and not sure I will survive the winter there.

What I want to know, since this thread was started in 2007, whether boonelsewhere actually did die during the winter of 2007-2008. Or maybe in that last snowstom around late March when we were in MDI to settle on Our House.

Zarathu

[starwalker]

He last posted in on CityData in mid-Novenber of 2009...

[Zarathu]

Originally Posted by starwalker

He last posted in on CityData in mid-Novenber of 2009...

So.....he may not have survived the winter.

[Maineguy04654]

If you have to ask then I would say you are not ready.