Wood stove and heat pump! Neither alone would be sufficient but they work great together.

Shannon Ainslee probably thought the same thing every time he went surfing.

Then he got bit.

Shit happens.

And bus drivers often drive too fast for conditions, especially in wet weather. Nearly 70,000 crashes each year. Just a wee bit more than a one-off event.

Pellet stove is another thing I'd recommend, if a wood stove isn't an option. Doesn't require a big chimney like a woodstove, pellets are relatively cheap, and you can let it run for a lot longer without needing to load it (24hrs+). It won't heat the whole house but definitely a main area.

All three can’t survive without the hand that feeds them and they refuse to admit it.

I don't think what you're describing is really rurality. While it is true that rural NH towns tend to get a lot of through traffic for Mt Wash, Laconia, Dartmouth, etc; the same could be said for a lot of rural Maine. D-FC is a great, unique, example. However, a bigger contributing factor, in my opinion, is the fact that it's in the middle of the state, and not that it's rural. As I'm sure you know well enough, plenty of rural Maine gets a good bit of traffic come summer time.

Fryeburg, Ossipee Valley (Porter/Cornish) gets traffic for Conway, Fryeburg fair. Get up towards Carthage and Weld and you've got Mt Blue, Loon Lake, and Bigelow. Acadia pulls traffic through most of the state. NMW and Katahdin for Millinotcket, Medway, and Ashland.

And lastly, even with D-FC, it's just a short drive to Skowhegan or even Bangor to get some fancy eating. Certainly less than the 45 minute threshold.

I would also argue that a lot of folks in Houlton probably do cross over in Canada pretty regularly.

No arguments about VT, though. Nailed that one.

Omg! So your saying it's possible? It's possible to get eaten by a shark in the ocean too....but yet I swim every year

We replaced an oil burner with a Maine Energy Systems pellet boiler with a 4-ton pellet hopper. It works great, was assembled in Bethel and most of the pellets that fuel it come from Maine too.

That pellet boiler heats our hot water and is backup heat when we are gone or on very cold early mornings, our primary heat is a cordwood burning fireplace insert.

Same looked up prices using heatable and for the Bangor / Orono area it was 3.98

Plenty of folks will talk about the unit that delivers the heat, but how is that heat distributed in your house? Is your unit delivering via forced hot water into a baseboard or radiator? Is it forced hot air? Replacing a unit and its fuel source is relatively easy (ignoring the price) but if you currently are heated by the distribution of hot water, then you've got a whole nuther layer of work and cost to consider. Look at all parts of your heating/ac situation, consider the work that needs done, price it out as best you can, and then make a decision.

We got heat pumps in December and love them. Switched from oil in a 2200 sqft home. Cost us about $9000 for one large unit one small. They’ve done fine heating the whole house. Rooms will get cold if the doors get shut, but they’re heating better than I expected.

It would make me feel better.

How many gallons are you using each month? What temp are you keeping it at?

That’s a very large house. Large houses are expensive to heat and maintain no matter what energy source you use.

I remember this one: https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/as-seen-on-tv/tour-bus-crash-on-i-95-in-burnham-caused-by-driver-falling-asleep-at-the-wheel/97-27030595-af65-457c-a0e3-afa780055fce

This site provides some statistics: https://www.paulsoncoletti.com/bus-accident-statistics/

btw, when I was in college, almost always took Greyhound to get b/w home and school. Twice went off the road, once in rain another in snow. They drive too fast, imho.

I paid $3.70 a gallon on January 1st and I’m seeing around $4 right now.

Sounds like a full time job.

Heat pumps are really efficient. A wood stove is probably more efficient than oil. We switched a couple years ago from oil to natural gas, and supplement with a wood stove.

Best bus drivers out there, imho, are school bus drivers. Yet... https://wgme.com/news/local/maine-90-crashes-school-buses-2022-windham-gorham-casey-southworth#

I love this! ❤️ So lucky

This is definitely your answer today. Especially the lack of services. Also if you get stuck on the airline it may take a while.

Yea, sure. But Manch was a poor smelling dumpster dire a decade ago and has been burning hot ever since. Portland is one of the most charming small cities in America. Comparing the two is a fool’s errand.

Rural Maine is Rural, took me 6 hours to get back to pavement in Ashland yesterday after fishing the big woods.

Get a wood stove! We struggled our first winter in our home with the shock of heating it. The following year we got a wood stove! Problem solved. We haven’t ordered oil since November and we only had a 100 gallons delivered. We got 3 cords of wood which will last us through the winter.

Oil is the cheapest it’s been all winter

The main issue (at least here) seems to be ice, not the snow. Main roads should be fine, but I fell flat on my ass taking the dogs out this morning 😂

Bro i live in dover Foxcroft and this is accurate AF