My first winter in Maine

Since we arrived at the end of June, the only idea that we had about winters in Maine were that they were cold and had lots of snow. Now, as a Flatlander we had vision of the photos in the LL Bean Catalogue, complete with adorable puppies and us snuggled by a wood stove eating steamers or something! Well, were we in for a treat!

When I first saw the house it was on the Internet depicting the farm set on a small hill with pretty wild flowers framing the front of it. Our first visit was in February of 2003. We were captivated by the drive up. The farm was two hours north of Portland and it seemed to us in the middle of nowhere. A far cry from the screaming overpopulation of Southeastern Mass. We saw snowmobiles everywhere and could not believe how high the snow was on the side of the road and the endless woods that surrounded us with beautiful mountains reaching out to the sky. We felt now, as I still do that it is truly heaven.

When we arrived at the real estate office the broker took us down the road-the main road in town in her four wheel drive Subaru. After miles of monster hills and a winding road surrounded by the most awe inspiring farms and country landscapes, we arrived at the house that I fell in love with on the spot! The farm was built in 1787 on land that was not even Maine when it was built, but a territory of Massachusetts. The farm consisted of 114 acres (which turned out to be 120 after the aerial survey was done in later years). We could not believe the amount of land and the farm that sat upon it.

We went back home and since the house we were living in at the time was mine before the marriage-it all fell on my shoulders. I decided that it was well worth it to give up all that we had ever known to embrace a new life in Maine.

We arrived in June and could not wait for our first Maine winter. I saw LL Bean dreams in my head of what it was going to be. In the fall were were busy preparing the farm from what our neighbors told of of the winter that was ahead. They told us of the ice storm in 1998 and told us that we should have a generator in case it happened again. They also mentioned lots of other things to have us properly scared of the ravages of nature. My husband at the time travelled in construction and he was away a lot. That left me and the girls to prepare for all of the tales our neighbors told us. We did have some wood in the basement for the wood stove and a full tank of oil. You need two sources of heat in Maine-just in case.

I purchased the necessary winter items for the girls and snow pants and plenty of wool clothing. First the leaves changed which was breathtaking as New England is. The area in which I live is extremely impressive in that in its natural rural state seemed locked in the past. The colors seemed more majestic and took on a life of its own. It was hard not to be captured in its spell. The town I live in has a population of around 800 people and has only a town hall and two markets (only one market is open at the present time-the Cheddahville Mall). When we moved in there was the Village Market and the Corner Store. Everybody knows everybody in a town this small and they all seem to end up eventually in the local gathering spot-the Super Wal-Mart in the next town. But then I did not know anyone, but the people across the street.

My husband started to hang out with the husband of the neighbors and I would hang out with the wife. It was wonderful in the beginning. The neighbor had a strong accent and taught us a lot about the life here in town, the farm life, guns and duct tape. We would go over there and drink coffee and Twisted teas on the yard swing and stare out at the glorious stars that blazed in the blackest of night skies imaginable. You can even see the Milky Way on a normal night. It is completely untouched from any urban lights. It was so dark that I was afraid to walk across the street to my home alone. I was used to some type of street lights that were comforting and now completely gone. From current count, I believe that there are only 5 or 6 street lights to date and not on the part of the hill that I live on!

After the fall set in and the nights grew shorter, the first signs of frost arrived-at the end of August! I was amazed that I had to put the heat on one evening in August! Eventually even the days grew cold and the foliage dropped off to my first winter storm. This occurred in September and after two days we were left with over three feet of snow! I could not believe it! The drifts were over four to five feet! I took loads of pictures and emailed (only dial up here-and currenly as well!) them to everyone back home. Then the snow kept on coming! Unlike in Southeastern Mass, when the snow would melt and then snow again. It just piled up deeper and deeper! It was a lot to get used to. My minivan had also become a victim of the weather and I had snowbanked it countless times to find out that the rear brakes were bad! I just thought that I just did not know how to drive in snow like this. By then I had gotten rid of the full coverage on my van. So, I wore the badges of my first winter bravely on that van and had even duct taped the front bumper up to show how much I really wanted to belong!

During that winter, my marriage had took a turn for the worse and I kicked him out (another long story). Unfortunately when he left, he cleaned up my bank account and left the girls and I with no oil in the tank! I had to idea how to how to even light a fire and had to somehow manage to figure out how to use the wood furnace in the basement-or we would literally freeze to death!
I only knew those neighbors across the street and did not know what to do. My other neighbors from a farm down the road helped us out with some oil. Somehow the girls school found out and the principle came over with a Pointsettia plant and a bag of sweaters and socks and the teachers had taken a collection! It was so wonderful I could not imagine how people could be so loving and kind. In the suburbs it is each person for themselves and you might be surrounded by tons of people-but you are truly alone. In this desolate landscape with several feet of snow and temperatures of weeks on end where it is 40 degrees below zero-I have found more warmth than anywhere I had ever been in my life!

My children soon learned to adapt to this strange new climate and embraced it in full vigor. My youngest daughter even found a way to hook up our two adopted dogs to her sleighs to whisk her about the yard. So many times they had slid down the hills in the back yard to have me frantic and to breathlessly dredge my way to save them to have them laugh and zip back down to be rescued again! It is so cold the girls even walk on top of the layer of ice over the several feet of snow. I had tried and have fallen in to almost up to my shoulders. I have learned how to snowshoe since then. You literally cannot go out in the back yard at all with out snowshoes if you are an adult!

Sometimes it is difficult since I am a single mother I cannot afford the LL Bean Winters as advertised and watch the snowmobiles drive way in wonder. We have a magical winter here and have learned to have fun on the limited budget and to enjoy it the way it should with good old Yankee ingenuity!