HS and life in the Northeast

[caitlinsmom]

We are from the West and have always lived here. In two years we want to move to WAY northern Maine (Aroostook County). Can anyone shed some light on life and homeschooling in the Northeast? What is the general atmosphere like? HSers accepted in general? Any info on the differences between west coast and east would be great.

I know this is such a general question since it will vary everywhere but humor me. :D I am worried about this move which is odd since I have wanted to move there since I was 5 and first got my hands on an atlas. :) We have tried to get out there many times but for one reason of another it doesnt work out. Now it is finally going to happen and I feel like I am chickening out!

[Parrothead]

Oh, cool! We are looking to move to the Houlton area some time in the future. Dh has put in for a transfer there.

 

Currently we are in the western part of the state. Homeschooling is okay in Maine in general. Year-end testing or portfolio revieewe is required. We are mostly accepted. There are the few that think we are odd, but you get them anywhere you go.

 

Differences between east and west aren't that great. People are people pretty much any where you go. Small communities are some times difficult to break into if you are shy. That is a problem for me. I'd rather be home than putting myself out there.

 

The weather is very different though. We get lots of rain and quite a bit of snow. You do know that there aren't any major metropolitan areas close. Bangor is between 2-4 hours depending on where in Aroostook County you settle. Then again you can go to Canada pretty quickly. I haven't researched close by Canadian cities.

 

Give me some specific questions either here or via PM and I'll see what I can do to get answers for you.

 

It'll be great to have a new neighbor.

[caitlinsmom]

I pm'd you. :)

[Parrothead]

PM'd you back.

[Quiver0f10]

We lived in Fort Fairfield and my DH worked in Caribou until last April when we moved to AR. I highly suggest you take a few trips out there before moving. I would defiitely recommend visiting in Feb/March and spending a few days and then again in the summer to see the area. The Feb/March will let you exprience winter in N Maine. I can tell you that it gets 40-50 below with wind chill, but unless you actually exprience it you have no idea how cold that really is. I snows almost daily throughout winter, but it's not the heavy wet snow you get in warmer climates. It's a fine powdery snow that blows constantly and builds snow drifts every few hours across the roads. The weather in the spring is amazing though! There is NO humidity and it's just gorgeous from May through September, when it starts getting cold.

 

N Maine is stunningly beautiful and I miss living among the farms, horses and open country. I loved living in a small town and knowing everyone. I miss not having ANY stop lights or traffic and just getting in the van and driving lol. I misss seeing moose and bear, coyotes, foxes and wild rabbits. You wont have mosquitos and ticks have to worry @ lyme disease, but be prepared for swams of flies. They are everywhere.

 

Land is dirt cheap and housing in really decent, but unless your DH works in the medical field, is a potato or broccoli farmer, does logging or trucking there isn't much work and the average pay is $8 an hour. My DH's company was sold and downsized significantly. It took us a year to sell our house and we lost $15K by the time we signed papers, not counting the bills we aquired trying to survive paying the mortgage and rent.

 

There isn't much up there to do. There is a movie theather in Caribou that has 2 screens, a handful of resteraunts and mall with 5-6 stores, Wal-Mart, Lowes and thats about it LOL. The nearest large city, Bangor, is 3 hours away and you can find SAMS, a decent maill etc there. There is a smal local hospital in Cariou, but for any major thngs you have to go to Bangor.

 

As far as home school, they are pretty friendly and the laws are easy. You need to send a notice of intent each year and then at the year's end either do a portfolio evaluation or standardized test. You can enroll the kids for a few classes at the public school, while homeschooling, or take advantage of special services and drivers ed.There are 2 homeschool groups that I know of. One in Presque Isle that has @ 20-25 familes and one in Caribou that has @ 10 or so. Both do activities and field trips, but no co-op classes to speak of.

 

So it does have its good and it's bad. I never was happy the 4 years we lived there and couldn't wait to move, but now looking back, I do miss some of it, and would almost consider moving back.

[caitlinsmom]

So it does have its good and it's bad. I never was happy the 4 years we lived there and couldn't wait to move, but now looking back, I do miss some of it, and would almost consider moving back.

 

Can I ask why you werent happy there? Was is personal or did it have to do more with the area? If it was the area I would like to know. :) You named all the towns we are looking at. DH is going to finish up his schooling in Presque. He will be a teacher. We have been watching the school districts but its 4 years away so it is only a minor help.

We love the low cost of housing there....that is a HUGE draw for us. For a 3bd 2bth here we are looking at over 200K. Thats still below national avg but way more than we can even think of affording.

[Quiver0f10]

Can I ask why you werent happy there? Was is personal or did it have to do more with the area? If it was the area I would like to know. :) You named all the towns we are looking at. DH is going to finish up his schooling in Presque. He will be a teacher. We have been watching the school districts but its 4 years away so it is only a minor help.

We love the low cost of housing there....that is a HUGE draw for us. For a 3bd 2bth here we are looking at over 200K. Thats still below national avg but way more than we can even think of affording.

 

You will be able to afford much more house in Northern Maine than almost anywhere else. Keep in mind though that prices for just about everything are higher there because everything is trucked in. Gas, oil ( you do NOT want oil heat lol!) food, etc. Taxes on housing isn't terrible, but there is a 5% tax on food, clothes etc. Teachers are alwsys needed and he should have no trouble finding work, but the pay will be alot les than other areas too, which makes up for the cheap housing. I think it all equals out in the end.

 

I wasn't happy because we never found a church home mostly. I did make a good firend in Maine and we got together a lot, but I was really missing our church. Looking back, I think alot of it had to do with home sickness and given time I think I would have adjusted. It was just so hard to leave our friends and family and move to where we knew no one.

 

I hope I am not discouraging you, for that isn't my intent, but rather just wanted to share some things I wish I had known/thought of before we moved. We literally picked a spot on the map, DH applied and got a job and was living there within 3 weeks. It is a wonderful place to live and it was really nice to be out of the rat race, kwim?

[Denisemomof4]

and it took me 16 years to consider this home. Friends was a big part of it, but once we relocated to small town, I became so happy. We also bought our dream home on acreage, which is nice. But I think to live in the country you need to simplify your life. You need to learn to do HUGE bulk shops and stock up on stuff. It's good to do anyway because power outages are fairly normal for us, although not as often as they used to be. And it's now my hearts desire to lead a simple, quiet life and country living is the ONLY way to do that, IMO.

 

You need to learn to LAYER, LAYER, LAYER to keep warm in the winter! I froze my first few years until I met dh and he taught me how to dress properly. :001_smile: LL Bean will have great stuff for you. It took this CA girl getting used to some of the conservative styles of LL Bean (I *LOVE* color and prints!) but I really have grown fond of their stuff. We LOVE huge bonfires on New Years Eve with lots of friends, snowmobiling, hikes in the woods at NIGHT during the winter with only the moon to light the way - it's really quite wonderful.

 

We live in NH, ME gets far colder. And ME is very humid, too. I'd be surprised if you didn't get lots of bugs! in NH it's VERY buggy, ticks and all. Of course our farm draws all the critters in. But to give you an idea of how cold it gets, dh has had to come home from work to take a blow torch to our well in the barn; we've gone out to the barn to find our horse's faces covered in ice cicles, sometimes it's so cold I can't smile because either it hurts my teeth OR my skin is partially frozen/paralyzed from the cold, etc.

 

I have to humbly disagree that people are people. I found the people on the west coast to be MUCH more open and friendly. It took me YEARS to get real close friends. It's HARD to break into people's lives out here. But for me, church and homeschooling allowed this, but only after moving to a small town. I could NEVER move away from my little town now!

 

While I *hated* winter for years and years, I do love it now. And there's nothing I love more than having a howling blizzard outside and sitting in the home with shorts on, the wood stove keeping us all TOASTY warm. We love power outages as we all camp out around the stove, play games, etc. We have a large supply of candles just for that. The kids get SO excited when we lose power! :001_smile:

 

There's NOTHING like New England in the fall time. It's not only SO BEAUTIFUL but the activities are nice. I LOVE the change of seasons and fall is typically many people's favorite around here. Also, coastal ME is BEAUTIFUL. I love it there.

 

I do miss the nicer, milder climates, but the trade off is acreage and privacy, all four seasons, oh I don't know, but you will learn to love it! I do believe making connections is KEY to happiness when relocating.

 

Denise

[JWSJ]

We're looking to make a similar move to central Maine (30 minutes N. of Bangor) in a few years. The family looks forward to the change.

 

(But, it makes me nervous too.)

[Quiver0f10]

And ME is very humid, too. I'd be surprised if you didn't get lots of bugs! in NH it's VERY buggy, ticks and all.

 

There's NOTHING like New England in the fall time. It's not only SO BEAUTIFUL but the activities are nice. I LOVE the change of seasons and fall is typically many people's favorite around here. Also, coastal ME is BEAUTIFUL. I love it there.

 

Southern ME is very humid, northern Maine is not. Once you get above Bangor, it's like living another country LOL. You will have horse flies and cluster flies and that's about it. They don't have ticks, roaches ( a major blessing after living in the south now lol) etc. They don't vax pets for heart worms in N Maine because there is no threat of it.

 

We lived in southern NH and MA our whole lives and there is no compariosion to NH/MA/VT in the fall! It's amazing and breath taking. Northern ME has a nice fall, but its nothing compared to NH.

 

We arrived in Caribou 2 days before Thanksgiven and rented a farm on top of a hill with no trees surrounding it for @ 6 weeks. During that time there was a week or two with the wind and cold it was @ 40 below. My DH had to plug in a space heater and stick it under his truck every morning to thaw it so he could start it. That was our initiation to Northern Maine :D

[caitlinsmom]

:) We are definatly planning on winter once we get there. We have winter out here and this last year was the worst we've had since we moved here that said we only got about 3ft all season.....nothing compared to the 16 in Houlton. We both come from cold area that regularly see below zero temperatures so that is fairly normal for us. We will definatly be prepared for the cold.

I think my biggest thing about the move is fitting in. lol retarded I know but I am so tired of being an outcast (my whole life) that for once I want to feel normal. I am sure that has more to do with me than where I live but I do want to feel like we have true connections with people. We have little family and we arent close to any of them. It would be nice to find some place that we can make a "friend-family" with. While it is easy to say that generally people are people every where you go there are definatly some nicer places than others.