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Maine TBers: How awesome is your state?

Moe Hickey

Moe Hickey

Feb 14, 2000
1,868
900
California
#1
From my vantage point coming off one of the hottest summers ever and the absolute iron clad worst air quality in the nation, Maine looks like paradise. Seriously. Homes look completely affordable. We're spending a week there in October. I guess the bigger question is what's more tolerable, extreme cold or extreme heat, and it looks like there are four winter months of pure hell. But is it that bad there in the winter?
 
#3
Extreme cold is more tolerable..... at least to me. I've been to Maine a handful of times and could see myself living there.

Hot places like Southern California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, etc..... no thanks.
 
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#4
That's quite a move.
If you like the conveniences of having everything near you, Maine is probably not the right choice for you unless you move to the Portland or Kittery area.
We lived in New Hampshire for a couple years, so spent some time in Maine. I love the bitter cold, so I fit right in.
Yeah, it'll get cold enough there to freeze your eyelids shut walking to your car.
If you decide to make the move, leave CA in your rear view mirror. As in don't try and make Maine like California. Like Maine for being Maine.

-Mike
 
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#5
I’ve never been to Maine but my sister worked in Presque Isle for a while and she absolutly loved it. Keep in mind she’s a hardcore hiker kayaker, wilderness medicine instructor type so being up in the middle of nowhere is her idea of perfection and from the way she described the place that’s what it was, remote and mostly untouched.
 
#6
If Maine is anything like New Brunswick: swamps; hills; glenns; meadows; deep woods replete with alder, pine, spruce, and birch; plenty of wildlife, for better or worse; muggy summers that CAN reach heatwave levels (maybe not as bad as Cali, but I've seen up to 35-40C or so with humidex); not a whole heck of a lot of real cities - the difference between freddy and Windsor is big enough, population wise, but I was still getting over the differences between Changchun and Windsor when I got here - so expect some of that. Things are probably also a good bit less convenient, but the people that ARE here are generally great people.

and Re: Winter - it's all what you make of it, dig out a cellar and start making lager in it, tap some maples and birch before... well about this time of year and start making syrup, pine needles and hay are great at insulating strawberries for the coming spring. Heck, you can make a nice brandy of sorts by making fruit wines, leaving them out in a dark spot like a shed and pouring out the part that didn't freeze, AND it's already in the perfect temperature for a taste. You can also always dress for the cold of Winter - and getting heat stroke IS possible during that time, so don't overexert yourself and dress to be "comfortably cold" at rest (but this is primarily for periods of extended exposure in the cold) - and waking up to see a nice, fluffy blanket of snow just outside your window can be an amazing experience... sure shovelling your driveway sucks and walking through it sucks - but again, it's what you make of it, I say we can all use a bit more intestinal fortitude and upper body strength anyways.
 
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#8
I'm in New Hampshire. Maine is rural, even more so than here. The biggest city, Portland, has about 66,000 people, the next biggest a bit over half that. Having said that, being the nearest thing to a city in a vast swath of forest, Portland is really a very nice town with lots of amenities - concert venues, arts, chic little boutiques and coffeehouses, all that stuff, it's pretty much hipster paradise, but small. Practically all of the population lives along the coast; drive an hour inland and it's tiny towns and lots and lots of woods. An hour more and you're in logging country.

As far as the winter weather goes, you actually don't get the kind of deep-freeze cold snap all that much, compared to a place like Minnesota or North Dakota. What you get instead tends to be heavy Nor'easter storms blowing off the ocean dumping colossal amounts of heavy wet snow. Summers do get warm, we have real seasons around here, but 90 degrees is a heat wave and it's often pretty humid and mosquito-ridden in summer.
 
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#9
I’ve lived here my whole life and am damn sick and tired of winter.
You essentially become a shut-in for 4 months of the year, unless you have lots of money to afford the $100/day ski passes to some of our fine slopes, and most of those days end at 4 in the afternoon because it’s night time.

Living in southern Maine, usually whenever there’s a snow storm the weather will break after a day or two and it will rain, ruining the snow for outdoor activities, and then freeze solid the next day when it tunrns to 5 degrees for a week....I could go on...
 
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#10
Heat .vs. Cold - you can always put a layer on, while there's a limit to taking layers off.

But summer in Maine ain't what it used to be, either.
Air Conditioning is no longer just a thing those crazy folks from away talk about.
Far less need of a small fire on a cool July evening. They are not so cool anymore.

Homes may look completely affordable until you figure out that the odds of getting paid what you did in HaHaLifornia are slim to none unless your job is completely internet-based and portable and does not depend on great internet (which is rather uncommon, despite a fiber boondoggle that isn't well-connected or easy to get connected to.) Also, you may not be used to the concept that your car will rot out in 10-15 years at the most due to road salt, faster if you also have ocean salt from being costal. Any classic car you see in Maine came from elsewhere or spends 8 months a year in a garage.

Air quality may depend on your location .vs. a functioning paper mill, (hydrogen sulfide is referred to as "the smell of money") but that's become less of a concern (while how to pay for things without a job, or without a decent job, has become more of a concern) as less of them function these days. Got a good use for an old paper mill? Maine might be the right choice for you.

ETA: Right, you may also have expectations of things like cell phone and cell phone data coverage, in which you will be severely dissapointed over much of the state.
 
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#12
Speaking of snow....had a gig a couple years back in Portland after a few big storms, the city decides to institute a parking ban for entire city for snow removal, so no one came to the gig....I mean no one, in fact I had to pay $25 for parking because of the ban so that gig was a net loss.
 
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#16
The instant I saw a way out of Maine I was gone. I still have family there and have been back a few times.

Low cost of living? I never saw that. Crap jobs and low wages. Don’t know if it’s still the norm but most residences used oil for heating and that’s just brutal.

Maine - a nice place to be from
 
#20
MJ5150 said:
It was one of the seasons in NH. Summer, fall, winter, mud, black fly, and spring.

-Mike
Click to expand...

Common sight in summer - drive by a Little League game and notice that the outfielders are standing there with their hands up - looks like they’re being held up. Nope. Black flies swarm the highest spot on your body. Hands down they’re flying in your eyes, up your nose, crawling in your hair biting the crap out of you. Hands up = all the black flies are swarming above your head.
 
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