New From Eastern Maine (Downeast)

I'm just getting started in life. Trying to make a go of it in Doweast Maine. Great Site!

I was born and raised in Bangor. Spent every summer in Columbia Falls and Sullivan. Given much thought to moving back, but there is no snow down here!

I believe it! Especially with a last name like Peavey.

Do you have a game plan yet? I moved to Maine 3 years ago and am really just getting started myself.

I too have been here for about 3 years (not counting college a couple of years before that). I've got a good start on life I guess, but just getting started with small scale farming/self sufficiency.

Our first goal is to at least buy as few non local foods as possible, and slowly add our own produce, and if it one day seems feasible, produce everything ourselves. Small steps. Right now we buy our beef locally, raise our own chicken and eggs, hunt game, mill our own lumber, and raise some of our own vegetables. Growing vegetables in downeast Maine has been a challenge. We are right on the coast, so the frost stays away pretty good compared to the rest of the state, but we don't get the heat in the middle of the summer either. Its like having a garden in a refrigerator. Everything is sooooo sloowww.

Have you read Eliot Coleman's books? He's an intensive veggie farmer in Harborside ME. His books are full of tips that you may find helpful, especially in his book " Four season harvest" where he talks about growing all year long with a variety of different methods for keeping the cold away. He's got lot's of planting date charts which have helped me greatly in getting my timing right.