These little animals are sooo cute.
But are you sure about raising beef, or other small animals or milk cows that need your attention seven days a week with your new Maine hobby farm? Growing acres and acres of christmas trees is intense at harvest prior to the holiday too. Worrying about the weather being cold enough three days in a row to avoid spillage and other factors. No...what else..can you do that won't tie you down but still give you a sense of being a productive farmer? Grow potatoes and go into commercial farming in a big way? No...no to much invested in time and money for equipment, etc. Not you at this stage of your life. Making a living...not a big living but a respectable living on the farm, working the soil. Want some weekends to do something other than animals too in case you want to take off for a few days. Not wanting to do vegatables only and truck farming as there are already enough other local road side stands. Hmmmm... Hey, hey, hey.. how about dry beans? Good old yellow eyes, pea beans, soldier or jacob cattle dry beans? Okay...if you have a simple corn planter...(saw one in Uncle Henrys sell buy swap guide for $300 recently) and you change the plates for the seed to bean set up cheaply. Old M Farmall tractor or vintage John Deere model is plenty bigger enough to pull a planter. You'll need some cultivators and hoes to hill the soil. Beans are not that aggresive against weeds. A shot of nitrogen to give them a boost too in addition to the 40 to 50 pounds you put on during planting or to side dress them during the summer growing season may be required too. Have to worry about blight so stay out of the field if it is wet. And a wet fall harvest is the only other big headache. If dry beans get wet...oh oh they swell like the ones you put out to soak over Friday night in water for the Saturday night bean ritual.
You'll need a set of pullers for harvesting and to decide if you bring the beans in their husks/stocks into a fixed place harvester or thrasher or wind row and bring a harvester thru the fields. You don't step out and buy brand new..you do your home work. You can talk to alot of bean farmers in the Kennebec and Penobscot Counties of Maine...and you'll need some silos or storage that will be well ventilated to keep the beans from heating up at harvest when they are first put into storage. Moisture in these facilities should not be over 15% or so either. A grading table to pick out the half ones and little rocks that make it to this part of the process from the field needed too. Or you can get an automated grader but if you are looking to keep the kids busy, and doing most of the work without a lot of money being spent to automate, you can grade them into a large galvanized cans from a table you sit on both sides up to grade. Then pack them in two pound bags and heat seal them. Or sell them bulk to a special line or organic markets you set up to display them all polished and attractive in a big maine made cedar barrel. You'll have to think of a logo, a combination of colors, find an economical way to get the plastic bags made.
As a kid, we grew dry beans. It was an easy crop to plant, havest and without a slug of money on the line in start up costs. The other neat thing is if you don't sell them all this year, they don't go bad as long as you keep them dry, ready to peddle next year. We would pack the two pound bags and head out to sell them to every little store along the highway, coming home when the truck was empty. We sold them along the road side too in a vegetable stand. Potatoes, strawberries all eventually go bad in time. Grew those too. But beans can last thru seasons. Not a need for major heating..tuff little vegatable and we eat the musical fruit Wednesday and Saturday nights.
Not sure if that is a New England tradition or Canadian ritual where Houlton is right on the New Brunswick border, but beans are great for breakfast too! Add some brown bread, home made potato salad, the red dye number three hot dogs that will kill you but are so good...hey...let's eat. Lots of bean varieties to consider and different states have various markets / taste buds for other types like black, kidney, navy and pinto. Read more on a synopsis of being a Bean Farmer here at this thorough site on growing dry beans. Some call it eating like a hobo...and my dad would say.."Son, the West was won on a can of beans" with cowboys cooking them over an open fire while herding grazing cattle. Lots of protein but they can make you "verbal" in a non verbal sort of way if you get my drift. Read more on dry beans here and get a super recipe to make them. Check the Maine Agricultural Center for more on beans and other vegatables where they say demand for organic good food is up!
Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers - Maine Living Is Simple, Healthy, Wholesome And Peaceful.
Ice shacks dot Drews Lake this time of year. Snowsleds come in and out visiting on their way to other destinations. This weekend's Moose Stompers Winter Celebration starts Friday night and runs thru Sunday. There are local events for all ages and even fireworks during the Bon Fires Friday and Saturday night! If you are in the Northeast, load the snowmobiles on the trailers, point the rig north up I-95 to Houlton Maine for a fun, low cost winter outing! Have a horse drawn sleigh ride, gut busting meals from three sled clubs that take part and meet the friendly peole of Southern Aroostook County.
Ask about listing #7427 (mls 825950). Major view, quiet side road, extra well and septic pad for your company in that fifth wheeler or motor home. Or rent it out for profit! Whoa..get 2005 ranch style home with cathedral ceilings with a fireplace too! Check it out! Let us know what you think! $70's!
Load up the boat, pack up the vittles, grab the fishing tackle, you are heading out on East Grand Lake Maine to catch some fish with the rest of your family. Beautiful picture post card day, water like a bottle and smooth, just saw a bald eagle swoop down for a fish and your holler "Hey...leave some for us Baldie". Check out this new listing on East Grand Lake Maine in Greenland Cove area. $85,900 More Maine waterfront listings to consider depending on your budget size. Or just buy a piece of Northern maine land that you can afford! 
Planning to eat tofu on diet, unsalted crackers this Super Bowl Weekend at your house during the big football game? How's the list you made about a month ago going that is magnetted to the refrigerator? Bike lock on the fridge working well for you? Or have you used the gym membership much one of the elves gave you? Or are you making head way quitting smoking? Is your "Do More Of This - Do Less Of This" list holding up? Are you making life changes and self improvement for you and your family's quality of life? With over 68447 Active Rain readers, you may not be alone in the struggle. Here a new one too..."Are you planning to stay living in an area where you need to carry a taser?" Earlier blogs popping up on the subject. As John Cougar Mellencamp sings "I Can Breathe In A Small Town". Rural living and low cost or no mortgages are looking more attractive and in Maine seeing a real influx of folks sick of traffic, giant mortgages and overhead and being fearful of gangs at their kids schools. Check out the taser's blogs and give you two cents on whether you need a special sport model taser for everyone in your family, stored right next to the pepper spray and large baseball bat you carry in the car. The byline about "Home Taser Parties" must get your attention and get you thinking!
You go to games to hoot, holler and root for the team your son is on, so while you are there, why not cover and film the game for the folks back in your hometown that did not make the road trip? Following Maine high school hockey and basketball in the dead of winter is fun! Making every player feel like a hero, that their home town is proud of them and seeing them work together like a team is one of life's biggest thrills. You know the lessons, win or lose, that these high school kids learn about the game, about playing together as a team will stay with them for life. The effort they put into the game to play with all their might, seeing the coaches and the drama in the stands and on the bench and getting a hot dog in between periods and being excited about the game. High school sports is a big deal in the winter in Maine when your home town is center ice with a little black circle or center court with an orange ball. Anyone else use the camera skills they sharpen on the job to help promote their team and indirectly put their home town on the map? Visit the 
Ask us to ping you more on 7583! On more to consider? Okay..this one is just a half mile on a river in Haynesville, Maine! Over a 1000' frontage on paved year round road with power, building spot all set up with gravel and driveway. Near East Grand Lake Million Dollar View Region and the famous deer infested Haynesville Woods. This one is 86 acres for $95,900. Buy and develop or hog it all with your new home, camper site or cabin on the river in a town of 136 people! Ask for 7554! For all the waterfront to consider, double click or 
What's a "Moosestomper's Weekend" and should we call animal right leaders to let them know about the event? No..."Moosestompers Weekend" is a celebration of winter..with fireworks, horse drawn sleigh rides, kids scrambling in different age groups thru piles of snow for hundreds of half dollars donated by local banks, snowsled club breakfasts and suppers and trail rides. The Wild Katahdin Snow Run foot race. Colored light parades with snowsled brought up thru Houlton's Main Street to a Bonfire, special dances and the "Moosestomper's Ball", youth events including human curling, human dog sled and sliding competition on Derby Hill. Hockey games, public skating..and the best part? It's free and put on by community minded local businesses and three area snowmobile clubs with the support of the local 
rides, radar speed runs, demonstration of the real old pioneer snowsleds from back in the early 1960's on up. Free local movies....restaurant and lodging deals geared to involve the entire family. Cross country ski courses are also set up around the sled club and near the Houlton International Airport. Plus an ice fishing derby is another element of the weekend celebration so something for everyone involving all the fun events of winter in Aroostook County. Hockey games thru out the weekend involving tournaments and all age groups thru high school level are played continuously at the Millar Arena. The outdoor games and sliding are behind the arena so everything is centralized making it easy for parents to know where their youngsters are as the entire family enjoys the celebration. This event is a tradition in Houlton Maine! Plan to snowsled in "Moosestomper's Weekend" which is always the first weekend of February! Pictures from past 
you? Snowsleds let you see the wild but with out the huff and puff of cross country skiing or snowshoeing. If you wonder what is the weather from out of state as you head north up I-95 to Houlton Maine and Aroostook County, here is one of the most reliable spots on the internet for 
Ever thought of a day when yo u will own a Maine river home sitting on close to 6 acres with nearly a 1000' of water frontage? We thought of it for you. Here are the details..the owner is a machinist..very precise and the place is over built...not finished but what was done, and we say this nicely "overdone". You can not see the home from the paved side road...so the first time we were looking for it, went right by the driveway. Did it the second revisit too so that gives you an idea of how tucked away like the entrance to the Bat Cave this one 
is. Check out the images, let us know if it does anything for your pulse or curiosity. 990' on the Mattawamkeag River is nothing to sneeze about. Plus Grand Lake region and Haynesvilles Woods are two pretty special playgrounds in addition to the recreational options around this one! 
