Newbie- Introductions (for rent, houses, school)

[wnc-eky-me]

Originally Posted by elston

Robert Frost wrote a poem entitled "The Last Mowing" in which he describes the return of a field to woods. He describes the progression from the decision in the farm house not to mow "the place called the Far Away Meadow". He says, "the meadow is finished with men" .... "now is the chance for the flowers, that can't stand mowers and plowers" and then he describes the triumph of trees, "the trees are all I'm afraid of; the meadow is done with the tame"....he celebrates the interval between field and woods for the "tumultuous flowers, to go waste and go wild in"...

NMLM's concern for the fields brought this to mind and had me wasting more than a few mins. searching my "The Poetry of Robert Frost". It was a nice interlude, but now my chores call out to be done, so the similar progression of dust and clutter doesnt claim my home.

I have never read much peotry but that was really nice. I may just have to get a book of poetry by Robert Frost and read it.

I have a personal favorite book although it is not poetry it has some poetic stories in it. It is called "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold it is about his time living on a farm in Sand County Wisconsin and has some great stories written by "The Father of Wildlife Ecology" But it has some stories like this Robert Frost Poem about letting the field go back to nature.

[BacktoNE]

Originally Posted by wnc-eky-me

Thanks BacktoNE. We will definately give yall an update after our trip to ME. We are staying in Belfast, B&B cheaper than any Waterville Motel go figure. But now we get the chance to see the Ocean and not have to drive out of way to do it. Mostly business trip to scout rentals(APT) and jobs etc. We can look then about daycare.
But if anyone has any ideas and live in the area then that might save us time while we are there that would help a lot. Thanks to all.

I'm not surprised by that. Belfast in March is off-season. Waterville is never off-season because of Colby College and Thomas College. The hotels are very expensive year 'round there.

I'm from Waterville originally.

[wnc-eky-me]

BacktoNE, well that makes more sense now. It is good to know someone who is familiar with the area close (close for me is 30 miles or so)to Unity. My wife is looking at jobs in Waterville and we may just look into towns midway between Wtrville and Unity to live in . Can you think of any not shown on the map. She is also looking into Belfast and might go midway between there and UNity. Brooks is one town I know of in between Belfast and Unity.
Thanks

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by wnc-eky-me

... Since reading this forum I have always respected your opinion as well as Forest Beekeeper. Both of you guys give sound advice.
Thanks NMLM
S

Thank you.

On another forum about eight months ago a poster was asking about moving to Unity to attend college. That poster was from Florida.

I will give you the same advice:
Enjoy, you will have a ball.

And, bring a vehicle. Vehicles up here rust badly. If you have to make repeated trips, fly down or take a greyhound, buy a junker-car at a used car dealership and drive it up here.

Maine vehicles rust out quickly, and 10 year old cars commonly have rust problems. 20 year old cars are rare.

A rust-free 20 year old sedan down South that you can grab for $500 or $1,000; will sell up here for double to triple that. Just because it has no rust.

We have lived North, South, East coast, West coast; and we have consistently driven 15 to 20 year old cars. Because they were cheap and readily available. But now since moving to Maine [and having driven through piles of salt on the pavement as high as my bumper] we have seen that Maine does not have as many old cars, as does everywhere else.


Just wait until MOFGA "Hippy" fair time; we will be posting it, and arranging meet spots. Again.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

The town assessor came around to a farm and said to the owner, "You must be doing pretty well to afford a hired hand. The farmer gave him a Maine squint and replied, "Oh, he ain't a hired hand. He works for me until his back wages add up to the worth of the place. Then I go to work for him."

[wnc-eky-me]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Thank you.

On another forum about eight months ago a poster was asking about moving to Unity to attend college. That poster was from Florida.

I will give you the same advice:
Enjoy, you will have a ball.

And, bring a vehicle. Vehicles up here rust badly. If you have to make repeated trips, fly down or take a greyhound, buy a junker-car at a used car dealership and drive it up here.

Maine vehicles rust out quickly, and 10 year old cars commonly have rust problems. 20 year old cars are rare.

A rust-free 20 year old sedan down South that you can grab for $500 or $1,000; will sell up here for double to triple that. Just because it has no rust.

We have lived North, South, East coast, West coast; and we have consistently driven 15 to 20 year old cars. Because they were cheap and readily available. But now since moving to Maine [and having driven through piles of salt on the pavement as high as my bumper] we have seen that Maine does not have as many old cars, as does everywhere else.


Just wait until MOFGA "Hippy" fair time; we will be posting it, and arranging meet spots. Again.

Hey Forest, I plan on having a great time and learning a lot. Since I am a married man and father of a beautiful daughter my definition of fun is probably different than a lot my fellow students. But you can bet I am still going to have a blast.

We are hoping to only have to make one trip out to get Apt. and send out resumes etc. But since we will have extremely limited budget I think we will have to stick with the cars we have (95' toyota previa van and 00' ford ranger 4x4) there paid for. Although I really don't want the ford to rust out as i was wanting to make it last me for another 10 yrs or so.

Definately look forward to meeting some of you guys and gals at the hippy fair this fall.

[wnc-eky-me]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

The town assessor came around to a farm and said to the owner, "You must be doing pretty well to afford a hired hand. The farmer gave him a Maine squint and replied, "Oh, he ain't a hired hand. He works for me until his back wages add up to the worth of the place. Then I go to work for him."

Now that's what I call Job security!

[cdodge04]

If you plan to attend Unity College you will love it! All the people that I have met at UC are extremely nice. The weird thing about Unity is that it is a place where 2 or 3 different "classes" of people clash. I find Unity to be a rather interesting place...As a college student you fill find no lack of entertainment there.

[wnc-eky-me]

Originally Posted by cdodge04

If you plan to attend Unity College you will love it! All the people that I have met at UC are extremely nice. The weird thing about Unity is that it is a place where 2 or 3 different "classes" of people clash. I find Unity to be a rather interesting place...As a college student you fill find no lack of entertainment there.

cdodge04 thanks for the input. Did you attend Unity? Or just live in the area? And yes it looks like quite an assortment of activities for such a small town. Should be fun.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Maine has three incentives for land owners to keep their land in a natural state. First is the tree growth program. Maine needs woods to provide the resource base for our forest product industries. If you agree to raise trees for eventual harvest the state will agree to value your land at around $90 per acre for tax purposes. It han be a huge saving if you NEVER intend to develop that land. The penalties for taking it out of tree growth can be severe.

Next is the farm program. Your farm will be valued as farm land, even though it could be worth much more has house lots.

The third program is the open space program. You agree to leave the land in its natural state. This allows you to maintain old woods roads, trails, meadows, dams and woods. Again, there are big penalties if your needs change.

When you go into your town office to ask about this the town clerk or tax collector may mention farmandopenspace as though it is all one word. That's because the state combines checks for the open space program and the farm program. The town fathers are very happy when they get that check.

All that said, none of my properties are enrolled in any of those programs. the risks and penalties are too severe. Remember from my post a few days ago that no paper mill in Maine owns forest land any more. They can't manage their lands if they can't plan. Our legislature took away the opportunity to plan. I caution anybody considering these programs to weigh the penalties very seriously before taking the bait.