I live on a little island off of America. Ask me anything.

[Stimmyplip]

Due to living in a small island I'm frequently bored. Hence the thread.

What veg do you grow? It sounds lovely. We are just about to leave London for a thatched cottage in the countryside and I think it will be lovely but a shock.

Hi MissC not seen you in a while. Hope all is well with you.

@Taytotots planning a trip now!

@MissConductUS it was stupidly hot! It's cooled down a little bit. They were some epic thunderstorms!

@NewfieSummer that sounds AMAZING. I can't wait to go. Will wait until ds is bigger and better at car trips.

@nervousnails we don't have anywhere to stay. A couple of people air bnb their houses.

Trades? There is one plumber but Dh has actually learned how to plumb himself which is great.

There's one electrician. Again, Dh has learned how to do that himself.

We have two mechanics. Dh is learning how to fix most stuff on his crap old Range Rover though ha.

@penguinsnpandas we grow potatoes, carrots, lots of different lettuce, radish, spring opinions, tomatoes, rhubarb, sprouts, onions, garlic, different squashes, corgettes, aubergines, peppers, hot peppers, peas. Pretty much everything!

Except for stuff like limes or oranges, it's not warm enough for that.

I really didn't mind leaving London. I'd been sick of it the last 5 years I was there which helped!

One of the best things about living here is tapping maples trees and making our own maple syrup.

Can I come and stay ? (From Scotland)😁

One of the best things about living here is tapping maples trees and making our own maple syrup.

Every year I intend to tap our maples, but don't get around to it. We have about 10 huge ones in our garden.

Morning, everyone. We're going to move this thread over to the new AMA section shortly.

You mentioned you don't have health insurance, are you ineligible? Not being judgey but surely it's cheaper overall?

@MissConductUS we're about to buy a whaler actually! I dread to think of what ds will get up to when he's older.

@hamandpease it's a long standing fight between Dh and I. He says it's more expensive to have it (we'd be around £1000 a month) and I keep pointing out how much we spend on medical bills. I got a bad foot injury last year and that alone cost us $10,000. We're still paying off the $15,000 from ds's foot issues.

I'm wearing him down though.

Do you qualify for the Obamacare credits or Mainecare? My best friend is a single mum at college and gets Mainecare - she has way better insurance than we do, no premiums or copays. Another friend is married with three kids, they're on less than $70k a year and on an Obamacare plan and get a fair bit of the premium paid for from tax credits. Worth checking? I think you'd have to wait till Jan 1st to enroll.

I was on Obamacare a couple of years ago as I'm self-employed and I had a much better policy than I have now through DH's work, somewhat ironically.

What a brilliant thread! Please keep writing. Stimmy.

How in hell do people on "normal" incomes manage to pay $10,000 for a foot injury? Do you have to the bill in one go? So do people take bank loans to pay them? It's mind boggling. When I lived abroad we had to have medical insurance but it wasn't that much, not $1000 a month. Again, how would normal ppl even afford that?

@stimmyplip - don't worry about the whaler. You can cut them in half and they'll still float.

@Semster - Mainecare is the same as Medicare, the federal insurance program for people with low income and dependents. It was greatly expanded as part of Obamacare.

My family have a property on Vinalhaven, I loved visiting as a child. Will have to persuade DH to visit the East coast inc Maine some time.
Your life sounds lovely, very different to London, but lovely.

Mainecare is the same as Medicare, the federal insurance program for people with low income and dependents. It was greatly expanded as part of Obamacare.

Actually a little bit more complicated than that in Maine :-)

The expansion as part of Obamacare was vetoed by the governor. The legislature then passed bills requiring the Maine government to expand Mainecare, five separate times, and each time it was vetoed by the governor. Eventually a referendum requiring the government to expand Mainecare was passed, which the governor cannot veto. LePage is now trying to veto every proposal to fund the law.

The craziness of our governor... Jan 2019 cannot come soon enough.

Possibly a slightly rude question - I read about small islands in UK with declining population where government are trying to boost population, and it is more expensive to have people living there than mainland, eg funding tiny schools, providing health care, keeping ferries running, installing broadband, and encouraging people to move there, when the economic reason the island community was founded initially has gone eg declining fishing industry.

Do you think it is good for governments to subsidise island communities in this way? I can see it is a wonderful quality of life and of benefit to those who live there, but if the reason the community was founded has gone should we just accept that some communities are not economically viable?

I don't have a strong opinion myself as I do occasionally make a fantasy plan for moving to a Scottish island, but I'm just curious to hear thoughts, and on the other hand I wonder if some people might be frustrated if their kids are in a bulging mainland school with little money knowing that the island school only has a handful of pupils and is subsidised.

Just interested to hear your thoughts as an isl

.... islander.

Also do you have healthcare facilities on the island?
If somebody was severely ill and needed a helicopter out to hospital, would they have to pay for the helicopter if they weren't insured?? Or is this covered by a govt/ state service?

Also op are you unusual for having moved to the island from a big city and from abroad? Have most of the islanders grown up there?

Do the islanders tend towards Republican or Democrat or similar split to mainland?
Do they in general have a different slant on politics and international affairs than mainlanders?
Do things get tense during elections between people supporting different parties?
What are the attitudes to Trump amongst your neighbours?

I remember plenty of your previous posts; how have you managed to. It lamp your MIL yet?

Not lamp your MIL!!

@Semster we don't qualify for Mainecare.

We looked at the Obamacare plans and we're still coming out at over $1000 per month. That was a couple of years ago, I want to try again.

I have at least two surgeries that I need and think that will sway Dh!

@BagelGoesWalking luckily they'll put it on a payment plan.

But here the longest plan they'll do is two years so we're paying back quite a lot each month now. And every thing that happens gets added so you never catch up.