Year round living in Maine.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by YorktownGal

YEAH! My house is sold and I'm out of NY! It was a long and stressful five months from the first open house to moving day!

We are renting a house in Virginia near my daughter. Over this spring, we'll start looking for our Maine home!

Nice, congratulations!

[n8ivmainah]

Originally Posted by YorktownGal

I loved vacationing on Peaks Island last fall. I love the ferry! The supermarket sells everything including french wines! It's different and I want something different now.

My problem is the houses in my price range have small lots. However, I'm keeping an eye out for new listing.

When we lived in Norwood, MA on a 5,000 sq ft lot, our neighbors pitched their pop-up camper outside their back door which was outside our bedroom window. We heard everything they said and I know they heard everything we said too. I'm trying to avoid that situation again.

I was raised on peaks island. Left in 1984 and hadn't been back until I took my family there in 2011.
Was trying to find the beach we used to go to when I was a kid, Sandy Beach, but couldn't find it to save my life, as what I thought was Sandy Beach had no sand.

Anyway, so walking up the road I asked some kid, "Where is Sandy Beach?" and he pointed at the beach we just left and said, "you just came from it."

It was funny as hell. So now I'm not sure if it actually WAS sandy when I was a kid. But then I busted out some old pictures and sure enough it was. not sure if it's erosion or not. but Sandy Beach is no longer sandy, circa 2011 at least.

We used to go to Hadlock Cove which was near Sandy Beach and then Centennial Beach on the other side of the island. Those were sandy. I don't know if they still are though.

BUTTT, there's definitely something to be said for sandy beaches, don't overlook having a sandy beach in close proximity. Just my opinion, of course. Higgins beach in Scarborough was always real nice and sandy and Crescent beach in Cape Elizabeth too. But mind you, been decades since I've been to either.

I've never been to Camden or Rockport or any of those places, so I don't know if they have sandy beaches up there.

[n8ivmainah]

Originally Posted by citychik

I do, too! I grew up in NJ, not far from a commuter train into NYC. We lived at the bottom of a hill, and the train was at the bottom of the same hill but on the other side. You couldn't hear it during the daytime because of regular traffic, but at night the sound carried. I don't think I'd want a busy train track right behind my house, but to hear it whistle as it approaches and then the sound dissipate as it passes through - it's almost romantic. I love that sound!

I hear a train every now and then, now that I'm in Thomaston, but I don't know where it is.

Man, that's funny! When I took my wife to Peaks Island in 2011 the sounds of foghorns and buoys drove her crazy! For me, it was like stepping back in time and was the most relaxing thing ever. Foghorns, buoys and seagulls. man, oh man. Peace!

My wife though, island fever like you wouldn't believe. We left 1 day earlier than our 7 day rental. She couldn't take it anymore.

So, no island life for us.

[n8ivmainah]

Originally Posted by YorktownGal

Thanks for your good wishes Phoebesmom abd Maine Writer!


I'm waiting for them to signed contract and for their good faith money deposit. In the meantime, we are still showing the house.

I notice you said the zone is 6B in Eastern Maine. I'm in North GA on right on the line of 7a and 7b. We have very acidic soil here, great for blueberries. Given blueberries are everywhere in Maine, I assume it's the same up there? Do you know?

[YorktownGal]

Originally Posted by n8ivmainah

I notice you said the zone is 6B in Eastern Maine. I'm in North GA on right on the line of 7a and 7b. We have very acidic soil here, great for blueberries. Given blueberries are everywhere in Maine, I assume it's the same up there? Do you know?

Sadly, we are putting off our Maine home for a year or two. Prices are too crazy up there. We are renting in Williamsburg VA now.

To answer your questions, I think blueberries do well all over Maine.

One of my favorite children's book is Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. It's about a mother/daughter picking blueberries in Maine. It created an idealized imagine of Maine for me.

Also If once you have slept on an island by Rachel Field is another Maine book. It makes me want to move to Peaks Island or any island on the Maine coast.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by n8ivmainah

I notice you said the zone is 6B in Eastern Maine. I'm in North GA on right on the line of 7a and 7b. We have very acidic soil here, great for blueberries. Given blueberries are everywhere in Maine, I assume it's the same up there? Do you know?

Blueberries definitely grow naturally in well-drained acidic soils. I grew up in Jersey's "Pine Barrens" - an area with sandy soils and a layer of natural peat, and we had native highbush blueberries, mountain laurels, hollies, birches, sassafras, scrub oak and pitch pines still growing on our forested lot - all those like acidic, well-drained soil.

Oh, and gotta be careful - in Camden, for example, it's USDA zone 5b.

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by n8ivmainah

I notice you said the zone is 6B in Eastern Maine. I'm in North GA on right on the line of 7a and 7b. We have very acidic soil here, great for blueberries. Given blueberries are everywhere in Maine, I assume it's the same up there? Do you know?

Eastern Maine is the wild blueberry capital of the US.

[CARas2020]

Originally Posted by YorktownGal

Sadly, we are putting off our Maine home for a year or two. Prices are too crazy up there. We are renting in Williamsburg VA now.

To answer your questions, I think blueberries do well all over Maine.

One of my favorite children's book is Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. It's about a mother/daughter picking blueberries in Maine. It created an idealized imagine of Maine for me.

Also If once you have slept on an island by Rachel Field is another Maine book. It makes me want to move to Peaks Island or any island on the Maine coast.

My daughter loved that story. We have a collection of his stories.