"The way life should be..." (tax, money)

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

Now that winter's here I'm on "vacation" for a while. If I'm not at my desk with this open I've got my laptop sitting on the table with it on. Too bad we don't have auto refresh.

My name is Robin and I'm a...... forget that! I refuse to admit I have a "problem".

no we do not have a problem.. unless the problem n is that all of our friends are NOT IN MAINE YET <g>

[BacktoNE]

I just have to say that I don't know what I'd do without you guys! You do know that you're all saving my sanity, right?

[moughie]

Originally Posted by 7th generation

This time of year the surface of the newly fallen snow reflects the thousands of crystals not unlike the shimmer of diamonds resting on the landscape.
Perfect time to see our wondrous four legged critters surviving in the woods.
Hiking yesterday I came upon many tracks-deer,rabbit,squirrels and the bobcat. Unlike many predators the bobcat will track their prey for hours. As a rabbit crossed the old twitch road, I observed cat tracks following the rabbits' I veered off the trail to see if it was a successful hunt and noticed the bobcat had come across a squirrel track and promptly left the rabbit track to pursue the "rat with a red fur coat."
Higher at about 2200' was the same track of a smaller moose that my friends and I have observed since late fall. He's a loner and we are surprised at this time of year why he hasn't joined his brethren higher in the winter yards. Hopefully he will make it through this season.

Always a pleasure to read your posts!

[GOODave]

Originally Posted by Parrotpaul

Geez, it does happen in California. People out here aren't ogres, you know.

No, but there are a lot more ogres there, per capita, than most anywhere else in CONUS. Nice people who go out of their way to help you are, in California, quite rare.

[halfabuck]

Reading these posts gets me all excited about moving to Maine. As I have said in another post my wife and I have built a house on a lake. The house is not finished on the inside so we do not have any plumbing and I run a wire out to the telephone pole for electric. But we always visit and stay for days at a time while "roughing it". I wanted to mention that our next door neighbors are Mainers and everytime we come up they move their trailer onto our yard so that we can shower and do dishes etc. They are just unbelievable. They made a fire pit in our front yard so we could enjoy sitting by a fire and he even cuts my grass although I have hired someone to do it. They always call us in Massachusetts to see how we are doing. They otherwise keep to themselves although the invite is always open. How can you beat that? I cannot wait to retire to Maine, hopefully within the next year. Life in Massachusetts has changed drastically. The populated areas are no fun anymore for us. People seem to be so uncaring as it is such a fast-paced life these days and everyone seems to be chasing the dollar, never slowing to smell the roses. Maine is so different. Time slows way down and the people are nice. I am in mid-Maine a little inward from the coast. And we have a Reny's in town too!

[peachie_in_maine]

50 years ago,
.............. I think Maine was a more ideal place for families to grow up in. We were with industries- where both men & women could work AND did Work so they were able to support their familes.

But the world has changed,our industries here in Maine have all but disappeared and now that work is being done over seas.
Our next generation is begining to move away to work in states that provided a job in their desired field. We find our state going backwards.

Happy Note:
Other then that, it is lovly, simple and the pace is low key.
For me- I have great hope... I love it here will stay FOREVER!!
(* my opinion only of course)

[Zarathu]

Not that I beliebve that the state government should be responsible for jobs, but ther could impact this. All they have to do is choose several kinds of industries, and provide enormous tax breaks for those industries, as well as assistance to move here.

The could use industries that would benefit by the natural resources that Maine has. It shouldn't be too hard to brain storm that.

The problem is that people would probably complain that these industries are getting unfair breaks. And that would be that. Delaware used to have and may still have a huge number of corporations that incorporate in Delaware, because its extremely cheap to incorporate in Delaware.

It can be done, but you have to give an industry, a corporation, etc, some reason to move here. Also they must have enough manpower to do the job for the corporation. And you must get enough training for the locals in the area to give them the skilled manpower to do the job. There are very few industries left for unskilled labor.

Its all not that complicated, but it requires a will, and a willingness to favor some people and some kinds of occupations over others just to get the ball rolling. After that, people and move-ins will begat more. But then of course that will change the course of life in those quaint little towns. You can't get something new without paying for it in many different ways.

[Jellybean50]

Originally Posted by elston

This exactly what we needed! It warms my heart to think of msina up there in milo living the life the way it should be! I have been away from small town America for quite a while and I had forgotten the ".....do you want me to pick anything up for you.." sort of neighborliness.

When I lived in an over 55 community in a pretty good sized city, there was some of that--people did check in on one another if they were missing from the club house bingo or card game, and folks even shared something from their stove or oven if they were proud of it or made more than they could eat.

I do hope that eventually my place will sell and I will get to live in Maine. Until then I will just try to live some of those values out in the way I treat people here.

I'm also happy to see this thread.

And i'm also waiting for my house to sell - so i can move to Maine. Hopefully the Eastport area.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by peachie_in_maine

50 years ago,
.............. I think Maine was a more ideal place for families to grow up in. We were with industries- where both men & women could work AND did Work so they were able to support their familes.

But the world has changed,our industries here in Maine have all but disappeared and now that work is being done over seas.
Our next generation is begining to move away to work in states that provided a job in their desired field. We find our state going backwards.

Happy Note:
Other then that, it is lovly, simple and the pace is low key.
For me- I have great hope... I love it here will stay FOREVER!!
(* my opinion only of course)

the one constant is...change

time may change me, but i cant change time...

not all kids move away- many college kids come to maine to our colleges, and many like it enough to stay, if they find employment.

I hope my son stays in maine after pharmacy college, im sure he can make more outside of maine, but he knows already it's a trade-off

there use to be a natural "let's get the hell out of here" attitude by many seniors in high school
not so sure if that is as prevalent-

I know many younger family members, that grew up in maine-went to college, got a good job around boston- but dislikes the rat race- they want a place where kids can still be kids,
and move to new hampshire, or maine

we may be surprised- maines future might be brighter than we expect- we are a state with 90% trees, plenty of room, and workers for new industry

[daydreamin71]

Perhaps one positive to come out of the troubled national economy is that young people may be more inclined to opt out of the rat race and prioritize what they are looking for differently.