Episode 21: Maine Island Living: Community, Family, and the Beauty of Chebeague with Erika Gabrielsen Neumann

What does it really mean to build a life on one of Maine’s most enchanting islands? In this episode of Elegant Maine Living, I sit down with my friend and client, Erika Gabrielsen Neumann, to talk about the unique joys and challenges of living year-round on Chebeague Island.

Erika shares her remarkable journey from California to Chebeague Island where she and her family settled in the signature Log House, raised children, and became deeply woven into the island community. We talk about:

• The magic of Chebeague — why the island itself feels like a character in residents’ lives.
• Community at its finest — from civic engagement to the unforgettable “chicken funeral” that brought neighbors of all ages together.
• Raising a family on an island — the logistics of raising children and going off island for middle and high schools, and how island life gave her children independence, resilience, and confidence.
• Tradition and change — how Chebeague seceded to become its own town, and how its small scale fosters civility and meaningful conversation across differences.
• The natural beauty and daily rhythm — from her porch at the Log House overlooking Casco Bay to lobstering at age eleven, life here is grounded in both hard work and extraordinary beauty.

Erika also reflects on the deeper lessons of island living: tolerance, resourcefulness, and the elegance of welcoming others to share in what makes Chebeague so special.

Whether you’re curious about Maine’s islands, dreaming of a more connected community, or simply love a good story, this conversation will make you smile, nod in recognition, and maybe even long for a ferry ride across Casco Bay.

✨ Don’t miss the follow-up episode, where Erika and I dive into her career, conscious capitalism, and the next chapter of her life centered on “the Log House.”

The Log House

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Transcript

Elise Kiely: [00:00:00] The phrase of the day is Maine Island living. Welcome to Elegant Maine Living, where we explore the world of real estate with insight and intention. Every month, I share market updates to help you navigate Maine's dynamic real estate landscape, but the true elegance of real estate and the true elegance of Maine lies not in.

Houses or pieces of land or investment properties. The true elegance of Maine lies in the communities that we build, and so I often spotlight Maine's visionaries, entrepreneurs, and everyday leaders. I am especially thrilled to have my friend and client, Erika Gabrielson Newman in the studio with me today to talk about [00:01:00] being an entrepreneur, raising a family.

And building community on one of Maine's beautiful islands in Casco Bay, Chebeague Island. And we're gonna get to all of that about Erika. because she has a really interesting story of how she came to Maine, how she came to Chebeague. And we're gonna talk about. The logistical challenges of raising children and doctor's appointments in schools with living on an island and the special community that one is able to have on an island like Chebeague.

And we are going to get to this incredibly funny, wonderful story about the chicken funeral and how that drew the community together. And there's some really good points. And the chicken funeral story that I can't wait to get to but first, Erika, welcome. I'm thrilled to have you here. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: Thank you so much for having me.

It's just as a pleasure and I think I was telling you before we started that it's my first ever interview, so thank you for the privilege of [00:02:00] being here. 

Elise Kiely: Oh, Erika I'm delighted and I know you've got lots of great plans for the next chapter of your life, and I anticipate you being a repeat guest on this podcast because of some of the things you have planned.

And Erika owns a home that is affectionately referred to as the Log House on Chebeague. And we're going to talk about the Log House and what's happening with that. But I also wanted to. Chat with you about how did you come to Maine because you're not a Mainer like me. You're not a Mainer. And I think people's paths of how they found Maine, and not only Maine, but Chebeague Island tell us how you came to Maine.

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: Oh, yes. Landing in Maine has totally changed my life and been probably the best thing that ever happened to me, and it came in a really unusual way. As you mentioned, I'm not from here. I'm from away. My stepfather is my connection there, and his family went back. His great-great-grandfather was the first minister of the Chebeague Island Methodist Church.

And so he spent all of his [00:03:00] childhood going. They and his family had moved around a lot, so the consistent connection. Was Chebeague in the summers and he had just finished building the Log House with his second wife. My mom was his third wife, and everyone just graciously welcomed her and graciously welcomed me.

And I knew the first visit that I would end up there. 

Elise Kiely: Wow. Wow. And we're gonna talk about the Log House, but I think you shared with me when I was visited the house, you were on that front porch looking at that amazing view. Out on Casco Bay. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: I just knew there was something that was very calm and I said, yep, this is where I'm gonna end up.

Elise Kiely: It was very grounding. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: It was very grounding. It's hard to explain. I knew. 

Elise Kiely: That's wonderful. And then so you eventually, you said you were out in California, but eventually you all decided to make Maine a year round home. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: Yes, it's a long story, but it was like a long plot where Chebeague was the true north.

Elise Kiely: Let's [00:04:00] talk a little bit about Chebeague because even people that are, that lived in Maine for generations or people that are looking to make Maine a home, they may not be familiar with all of our wonderful islands and the communities in Casco Bay. Can you give us a little background on the island? 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: Oh, I'd be, I'd love to.

And I think I'll one of the things I wanted to get across is that when you move there, it becomes a character in your life so that the sense of community is so strong there. You might be on the boat or catching up with someone and they'll say, how are you? How's your family? And then how's the island?

Elise Kiely: So it's a, it's its own entity. It's its 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: own entity. The island is you hear different things, geography, but about four miles by one mile. Long has about 400 year round residents. A mixture of summer natives who stayed and long, [00:05:00] long time Islanders. There's two dominant families. The Hamilton's and the Hamilton's, the Ross and the Dowdy are the families that have been there for generations and the Island Institute. I'm not sure what the statistic is now, but it's one of 11. At the one point it was one of 11 islands that had a year round school. 

So there's a pre-K to grade five school, 

Elise Kiely: which your children 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: went to, which my children went to. And the studies show that once there's a school on the island, it be, makes the island sustainable.

Elise Kiely: Oh, interesting. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: Yeah. It's just a different Yeah. Fabricate to the community, but the thing that really strikes you, in addition to the people wave coming and going is this balance of total respect for people's privacy and tolerance of people's choices and lifestyles with this incredible sense of community that put that the wagons surround you when you need anything.

So you're [00:06:00] known and you're needed, and you're let to be alone if you want to be alone. It's an incredible blend of introverts and extroverts, people from away natives, really caring for each other sense of community. That's so hard to put into words. 

Elise Kiely: It's so interesting about that, Erika, when you're describing that, I'm thinking about what's happening to us nationally.

And the different fractions that people have. And not to get political at all, but, and. Everybody, no matter what faction you're a part of, you think I'm the good guy. I've got the right answers. And the guess what the other parties feel exactly the same way. They under that they understand bigger picture and they're being more altruistic and it's for a better world.

But that creates a lot of friction. And it's hard for people to listen to each other when they know their fundamentally different opinions on politics or what should happen with the economy or world affairs. And it strikes me that you probably have those same factions on the island, but people, it's from [00:07:00] what you're telling me, people put that aside and treat each other as community members as opposed to your, you feel differently than I do. So you're my enemy. You're not my, you're not part of my community. You're part of a bigger community on the island. Is that a fair representation, 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: would you say? I couldn't agree more. And again. As someone who loves words and poetry and communications, it's always been hard to put into word the sense of community out there without putting on a pedestal or or making it sound like it's hard to know. Is it the island, an island communities? Is it the, that it's 400 people. Is it Maine? Is it the humans who were there now, but. My experience has been that we have town hall meeting, we have the traditional New England town hall meeting where we have select men, select people.

There's five on, there's no mayor. The island seceded from the county of the, from [00:08:00] Cumberland in 2007. And one of the big frictions was that they were starving our little island school. They just kept, and then they wanted. They took more and more funding away and then they wanted our little guys in fifth grade to start taking the boat over because we'll probably get to that, that the structure of raising a family there. Lots of logistics and what you do after you go to the island school, you go to the mainland, so there's transportation and logistics and partnerships, and when we seceded from Cumberland, the process on the island was extraordinary because it's very much about discussion and consensus.

Which is very old fashioned model of democracy. Where you keep talking and keep answering questions and keep, and from my understanding, I wasn't there during secession in 2007, but the community leaders in the discussions that led to it, it was mixed. Really. And then by the end it was almost total consensus.

There were very few people against Wow. The town of [00:09:00] Chebeague Island, becoming the town of Chebeague Island on July 1st, 2007.

Elise Kiely: And being its 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: own municipality, rowing our own boat. Mabel Dowdy was very famous of saying, it's time to row our own boat and testified, up in Augusta.

So my experience is that I think of Maine being quite purple. 

Living old democratic values where you can talk to people with civility and respect. On the island, it's even more I've had more diverse conversations with people that I never would've known in my life and probably wouldn't have engaged in because when we got into the politics, we were so different than when I lived in Washington dc San Francisco, New York, or Princeton, New Jersey.

Elise Kiely: Isn't that incredible? Let me just, lemme just. Let's echo that because the diversity of thought and opinion was more noteworthy that diversity was stronger on the little town of Chebeague Island, four miles plus or minus, and a [00:10:00] 15 minute boat ride from Yarmouth or a 45 minute ferry ride from Portland than it was in the nation's capital, New York City, Boston, San Francisco.

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: In my experience, 

Elise Kiely: yeah, 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: I've talked about. Guns. I've talked about abortion. I've talked about people who have bumper stickers that at other ports in my life I wouldn't touch. 

Elise Kiely: A 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: conversation and I'll be at the store having coffee saying, why do you have that bumper sticker? What do you think about that?

But, because the first thing is, how are you, right? How's the island doing? How are your loved ones? Did you see that? Those turkeys that went across the golf course 

Elise Kiely: by turkeys? You're not talking about politicians or people. You're 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: talking about the real turkeys. The real turkeys or the geese.

Yeah. What do you think about the coyotes? What do you think about the great blue herons? How about that storm? That's amazing. So the connection is very much, and then the other part is when you live in a community, that's small, oddly to say, but when there's a memorial there's a funeral, a memorial, everyone shows up. It's like a. It. You just go [00:11:00] because you're hearing history. People stand up and tell stories. You definitely are going to cry. You're gonna learn a lot, and you'll definitely laugh until it's embarrassing. You're laughing so hard at a funeral because people will stand up and tell the most random stories of the person who's just passed.

Wow. Because they can, 

Elise Kiely: so if, let me shift gears just a second. because I want to get to the day to day. How is it to raise a family on Chebeague? because that to me is so interesting. But when you, let's say you were to host someone coming in from out of town, out of Maine, and they're gonna stay with you on Chebeague, they only have a couple of days.

What is something you're going to try to share with them just to give them a taste of what the island is like? 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: That's such a good question. Everyone's so different. Early on though, my mother-in-law made it clear that sitting on the porch at the Log House was an event. And that the view is so special because it's naturally beautiful.

But there was a lot going on. We have an active working waterfront that [00:12:00] we love and preserve on the island and we have a deep water anchorage. And so we had always offered our dock to anyone at any time that needed to use it to drop off a deckhand or a storm was coming and they didn't want to.

They needed to get in. 

Elise Kiely: Yeah. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: A lobster smack is a bait relay, not for anyone listening that doesn't know about lobster smacks. And so we always had a lobster smack moored right in front of our, it just changed in the last couple years, but there was always the smack. So the boat traffic coming and going.

And I remember my mother-in-law saying. It's so fun to look at a beautiful view that has activity. 

Elise Kiely: It's a moving landscape. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: Yes. So that was always a big thing to make room for when someone was visiting. We always do a tour. We tell 'em, take 'em to the beaches. Take 'em to the beaches, take 'em, there's a nine hole lovely golf course.

We have a clay tennis court. We have another really incredible thing about Chebeague Island is I remember the Island Institute saying that. If there, if someone did the [00:13:00] statistics, we probably have more per capita civic engagement than anywhere else in the United States, if not the world. Chebeague Island has 30 nonprofits and associations to get involved with.

So if you have 400 people and maybe 2000 in the summer, it's the per capita civic work and engagement is. You're busy. You're 

Elise Kiely: busy, and if there's something that you feel passionate about, odds are you're going to find it on. Should be.

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: Or you're gonna start it or you're gonna start. It moved there.

Two moms and I wrote a welcome guide, so I published a book in my first year living there of how to live on the island. 

Elise Kiely: Wow. And you would give that to people that were moving to the island. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: So all the realtors to all the island, to because you get there and it is very enchanting and a lot of people are like, oh my, again, they get a little crazy I'm gonna live here.

How could I do it? And we were, we wanted to say this is how you do it. because it is not for everybody. As the logistics. We have incredible rescue fire department. EMTs and Rescue is a [00:14:00] partnership with the life flight, but for some people it's just too much, even though the boat runs 10 times a day.

And we have partnerships and mutual aid with Long Island and exceptionally talented and devoted, community that, that are firefighters and EMTs and with Lifelight, but for some people it's just too much to get their heads around that you'd have to go on a boat. And that an ambulance is waiting.

Me too. But then you're at the Five Star, you're at Maine Medical or Mercy for just world class medical facilities. Or that it's not for everyone that you're commuting. You're an international career and you've gotta get to the airport. It just, it seems so far, but you're so much closer than if you lived in Princeton and you had to go to Newark or LaGuardia.

It's a very 

Elise Kiely: different experience. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: Or you're in San Francisco and you got to get to SFO. Yeah, I could. I could get from Chebeague Island to Portland and fly to London probably much easier than all the other places I lived in my life. And that a big, that's so interesting. Big factor for me. Yeah. When we were thinking, are we gonna move there 

Elise Kiely: and we're gonna talk about this?

Yeah. But you had a consulting [00:15:00] career. You had an, you were an entrepreneur, so that had to be on your mind too. Erika, I want to go back to something you just said, because I think this goes to the elegance of Chebeague, that you had been there under two years when you and some friends decided to write this book to welcome people.

I sometimes, I think Maine. There's a misunderstanding about Mainers, and I had this feeling when I found out we were going to move to Mainer when we decided to move to Maine, is I was very worried that I would not be welcomed, that people were introverted cons, socially conservative, maybe not welcoming someone, an outsider.

And I have found the exact opposite. And that story that you just told about writing that book. That is elegant. That is saying writing a welcome letter to people you haven't met, but people mi who might be like-minded and want the same experience for themselves or their families on an island that you [00:16:00] wanted.

And rather than saying, now that I've got mine, I don't want anyone else to come, which is a very common feeling and I think creates a lot of issues. You did the opposite. Oh my gosh. Look what I have discovered. If this is appealing to you, we welcome you to me. That is just elegance. And I'm so glad you shared that because it is, it belies a perception that some people, I think, can have of Maine.

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: I appreciate you saying that and I did look up, I was telling you before we came on that the word elegance on all of the, they're beautiful definitions for the word elegant, and the one that stuck out for me was this sense of symmetry. And balance and graciousness, like just the grace and el, behind the word elegant.

And, but the one that kept coming up was symmetry. Whether it's political tolerance, symmetry balance, listening to others or being welcoming. And at that point [00:17:00] when we, right after we moved, that island had seceded and become its own town and. We bought property. My daughter was the first baby born into the town of Chabe Island as a taxpayer.

Oh, so she's the first taxpayer baby. And then her buddy who's they just graduated from, he's the first child who lived on the island. So we were summer people at that point. In 2007, we had bought a little summer cottage, but technically she's the first child citizen of the town of Sovi Island.

Elise Kiely: Naturalized citizen. Yes. Naturalized citizen. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: And. I get, I always felt welcomed there. 

Elise Kiely: You know what's interesting is that on an episode that I did with Liz Moss, I think it was episodes 16 and 17, we talked about how Monhegan Island, the artists from New York, just post World War II discovered Monhegan and which was populated mostly with lobster and fisher fishermen and lobstermen, and how welcoming that [00:18:00] community was to the artists and how respectful the artists were of the community and appreciative and. I just think that's such a beautiful story and it's sounding very similar to your experience with Chebeague, and I think that's the Maine way we welcome you to be a part of this community, and we appreciate that you respect our nature and our lifestyle, and you are drawn to this for a certain reason.

Let's protect. What we all really cherish and it's like a social compact that we're going to. Respect. What we have, and most of it relates to natural resources. And beauty and lifestyle. And I would say tolerance too. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: I think I couldn't agree more. 

Elise Kiely: Erika. I'm fascinated with the day-to-day life of raising a family, running a business from Chebeague, [00:19:00] and how many miles is Chebeague off of the coast of Yarmouth's. Two miles. Two miles. So you can see Chebeague from Yarmouth. And from Cumberland. And definitely people in Chebeague can see the lights, Freeport lights in Portland. And Freeport Yarmouth. But you're enough, you're not swimming between the two. You're taking a ferry or you have a private boat.

And I think of the logistics, our children are around the same age, mid twenties. Yours, you have one that's teens. I think of the logistics of what was involved with raising children on the mainland between soccer practice and orthodontist appointment and piano lessons, and baseball and ballet, whatever the activity is and how all consuming that can be and.

I am in awe. For those of us that aren't familiar with that logistical challenge can you just describe that for us? 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: Yeah and I think I had mentioned, I, we wrote this welcome guide and a big part of the island's [00:20:00] seceding become its own town was sustainability. And when you have 30 nonprofits, you want people coming up.

To fill those board seed and do all that exceptionally generous civic work. My stepfather being ubiquitous in every civic organization, when we were getting to move there, he was very much in the sustainability that we needed high quality childcare. So he and a, he always worked in teams and groups, never alone.

And he got a group too, which eventually became this wonderful organization called Kids Place. Which is for families to have childcare 

On the island, connected to our world class recreation center, which was also, 

Elise Kiely: you do have a great recreational center on the island. It's extraordinary.

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: It's amazing. And he really pushed to have a pool and his main impetus was for teaching swimming. 

But he just felt that the rec center should also have a pool. And that was one of those times where people were. Like, [00:21:00] no way. Are you kidding me? 

Elise Kiely: We're surrounded by water. Why do we need a pool?

We're surrounded 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: by a world. You're from New York or New Jersey. This is a from away idea. And little by little everyone many people came around. The vast majority came around. It was like most things raised with lots of participation, not just one big donor. And it's been a gem and we're.

Generation. My children learned how to swim there and my daughter this summer's a lifeguard teaching swimming there. So it all comes around. But so kids' place was, and when we moved there was around the time this gets get to the logistics, but it's not for everyone to raise your family there. But then the island becomes a family too.

It's so small that everyone knows everyone's name. Just my daughter wrote in her college essay about she didn't know about Cheers and bars, but she knew that song. You know where everybody knows your name? Yes. Because growing up you do. And she's an introvert. My both my kids are pretty shy, but not living on the [00:22:00] island.

Everyone knows who you are and you're on riding on that boat. You're going to school. Everyone knows you by their first name. 

Elise Kiely: Do you think that made your children feel a certain sense of safety? A hundred percent that other children maybe didn't have 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: cared for? Safety, that grownups multi-generational learning how to engage, talk to people, answer totally awkward questions from grandparent figures. So that when we moved there, it was really a heyday in the Chebeague Island school too. My kids were there when there were 33 children. Wow. So to go back to the logistics I had other parents to lean on, but that really is the backbone. Some people believe the sustainability of the island when you have young people and families coming up, you just really want the age diversity, the kids there, it's a different vibe. Sure. But then it becoming a summer community. So it's definitely a big part of it, but it's not for everyone. because like you said, you go to the island school, it's a two classroom [00:23:00] schoolhouse. So there's a pre-K to.

I'm not really sure how it is now. I think it's pre-K to first. And then second to fifth is in another classroom, fourth to fifth. When we were there, it was, kindergarten to second. And then third to fifth. And then we have a partnership after succession. We all, for generations, they went to Greeley High School.

In Cumberland. In Cumberland. And then they change the contract to Yarmouth. So our kids go to Yarmouth Middle School and then Yarmouth High School. So what I always say about the island kids is they are. Unbelievably skilled at logistics and plan, like just a calmness sense of flexibility and had a maturity about thinking things through and not freaking out.

And then there's weather, 

Elise Kiely: right?

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: And then there's groceries and that's what the welcome guide had a big part on in our lifetime, oh my gosh, there's so many options for groceries, for from Hannaford's to go to Whole Foods, to Uber Foods, to, you could, if you want to pay, you can have Portland's food delivered to the [00:24:00] Casco Bay Lines.

There's lots of ways to make it. Convenient. I imagine it taught your children 

Elise Kiely: resourcefulness. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: It really did. 

Elise Kiely: Confidence because they can do, they can manage the logistics and a sense of peace. I think the safety thing, I think, for children to feel safe is such a gift and increasingly rare.

You hear about all the. The significant rise of anxiety in children. And depression. And we can all speculate as to why that's happening, but seems to be pretty universally understood that's happening. I imagine for children raised on Chebeague or Line or long or peaks or great Diamond, that there is a feeling of.

Of contentment and safety particularly when you get back on the island that they must feel, you must be able to let your children, what age could they ride their bike anywhere on the island? 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: Yeah. I can't generalize for each individual or family, but I would say that sense of community and being known and even down to just someone [00:25:00] genuinely saying, how are you?

And knowing your name and the eye contact, and it is a sense of that you are. In a community, you just, you're in my kids and I know the kids, their friends and the summer kids too, because they have long-term summer friends, 

Elise Kiely: right? 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: We have this big summer swell and they all, it's not kumbaya all perfect, but they're, it's very multi-generational.

So even the kids that hang out, they hang out from age. 13 to 23, which I didn't really have that growing up. It was much more like you hung out with a certain age group. It just, when there's not many kids, you just hang out with everybody. Everybody you know. And yes, you can. My kids are, this gets to the funeral story, but Oh, we're gonna get to that.

Elise Kiely: I can't wait to get that. You can 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: put your kids on their bikes. Little guys. Yeah. Ride their bikes to school and around the island and walk because, walk around because everybody is 

Elise Kiely: Watching out for them. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: And you cross. Path. You cross over old cart roads and rights to shore [00:26:00] and there's trails on the island and people have eyes on your kids.

I, all 

Elise Kiely: the time, one of the things I want to make sure we highlight. Is, I'm so impressed because one of your children, you have two very amazing children. I've heard what their plans are. One of them started lobstering at a young age. 

Can you tell us just a little bit about that? 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: Yeah. My son is just he'll.

He's self-admitted. He's from a different era. He was born in a different era, so he could listen. He could have engines from the 1970s and the music from the seventies, and he loves the stories of them riding snowmobiles and all the old trails when there were less houses on the island and. We're college educated, Connecticut, New Jersey parents, and we live in this very lovely, elegant, large the water.

And we're gonna, the water, we're 

Elise Kiely: gonna, we're gonna talk to about that in just a minute 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: with a deep water dock. But he saw the lobsterman coming and going, and he wanted to start [00:27:00] lobstering. So he got a little wooden skiff and became an apprentice lobsterman and hand hauled when he was 11. 

Elise Kiely: 11 years old.

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: Yeah. And. Then the old timers just took him under his wing, he stern for some of the most respected lobstermen on the island. And they didn't. 

Elise Kiely: And when you say, sorry, when you say stern, can you sta share what that is? Yeah. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: So that's when you lift all the traps and you bait the traps and you're working for like the lobstermen at the helm and at the steering wheel.

And a stern man is a person who's,

Elise Kiely: working 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: physically lifting and baiting the traps And, and listened to the stories and just this summer, my son said, I, that was a rite of passage, mom. It was really an honor to be asked on that boat, like he really got it. Because he could have been shunned.

There are all kinds of stories of lobster wars and Sure shenanigans still happen and lobster. Lines get rivalries and rivalries get cut and it can, it's led to violence in some parts of Maine, but he's been so warmly accepted. So yeah, he's now has his own boat [00:28:00] that's got a hauler and he still sterns occasionally, but he's been working for himself the last couple of summers.

And 

Elise Kiely: so he hauls and then he sells to and then sells them to the fish market's on the mainland or 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: on the mainland through the smack. And then he's one of the few people that will sweat through orders. So he also. Sells 'em directly on the island. That's amazing. That's everyone. Everyone wants to do that.

because it's a hassle. 

Elise Kiely: It's a lot of work for you. High volume, low margin. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: Yeah. 

Elise Kiely: Yes. That's fantastic. What a sense of, again, competence and confidence that, that must give him to, what a great college essay that would make. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: He loves it. He's not really so interested in college.

He's gonna be going to a technical high school to study marine services and there's a nice pipeline on the island of Maine, maritime academies. Which is college, but more focused and. So we'll see. He's looking at all the options and a 

Elise Kiely: really nice young man is that when I go up to the Log House, he's caught lines for me when I come in.

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: He loves the island. He loves the island. He's told me, never wants to leave the island. Really? It's his, it's, and he was born, [00:29:00] both kids were born at Maine, Med and came back to the island. So they're under their, they made it. I'm from away, but. They're island natives.

Elise Kiely: It's funny, I talk about this in other episodes. Both my children are born in Maine on the mainland. And incredibly proud to be from Maine. And I don't know, I know that your your daughter is going off to college this year. And a really wonderful school. And when she says where she's from, people must lean in.

It's so interesting to be able to say that and the background and the stories. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: She loves it. Yeah. She, and I think I mentioned her essay was about it, it, one of her stories was quoting that where everybody knows your name. Yeah. From that, the Cheers old song that we song. That's fantastic.

Sentimental song. 

Elise Kiely: Erika it's so impressive to hear how you raised your children on the island and the sense of community. I now have to ask you to share the story about the chicken funeral. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: How to come to it. I found myself living on the island. The dream had prob had happened. It took a long time.

Our compass pointed to this [00:30:00] beautiful island with this incredible community, and my son was learning how to bike, so he had decided it was time to take the training wheels off and bike to school and back. He's a little guy. He doesn't really know when to stop. And there are no stop signs on the island, 

Elise Kiely: right?

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: No traffic 

Elise Kiely: lights, 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: no stop signs, no traffic lights, no stop signs, no street signs. And an 

Elise Kiely: older community and 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: an older community, which you, the kids eventually know, watch out for, the red truck, that's the one that could run, knock, local knowledge. So I'm trying not to run him over, trying to make sure he navigates it and Sasha loader.

Who lived right there comes tearing across his lawn. On foot. On foot. And my, it's the fall, so you know, the windows are down and he's Erika, I'm hoping that your whole family will be at my house for the chicken funeral. And I said, oh, Sasha. Okay. When he's now I'm like, oh, [00:31:00] okay. I'm just following Nate home. He said, okay, as soon as you can get here, and then he runs away. So I And did 

Elise Kiely: you have any idea what that, what he meant by that? I had 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: no idea. This is an 8-year-old who's running with Earnest. Oh. This was an 

Elise Kiely: 8-year-old that came year carrying across the lawn, 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: tearing across the lawn.

And it, when you get that invitation, but it's very important to show up. So I get Nate home, he makes it up the hill. Down the hill. We get home. And without, throwing anyone in my family under the bus. The other members of the family when I walked in the door were in cranky moods, to tell you the truth.

Elise Kiely: They weren't ready to go to a chicken funeral. Hey no. They didn't know 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: about the chicken. I said, Hey, we're back. Nate made it and they're like, it's just one of those, families. Yeah. Everyone's in different moods and I said, there's something very important I need your attention for.

And that kind of got their attention. I said, we have been invited to a chicken funeral and the whole family. Got in line without any questions whatsoever. They just un instantly got the urgency of being invited to a chicken funeral. No one asked a [00:32:00] question. I grabbed, forget me knots from the garden. I grabbed a poetry book.

My daughter, who at that point was maybe nine or 10, decided that it was important to change and to address. I don't think she'd even been to a funeral yet in her entire life, and she knew that you should show respect and get dressed properly. We headed over and there were, it was multi-generational.

There were about four families there. And. We were standing around and no one was, could say out loud that, we were there for a chicken funeral. It was all just about what's the, what's the order of events? What do we need to, who's gonna speak? Is everyone okay?

Some of the kids were crying and you just how many people are 

Elise Kiely: here at this 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: house? Okay, this is a family of five. And then the neighbors were there. We were there. Another family showed up. It was, the invitation was [00:33:00] immediate. So it was as many people who could show up, who knew about it, who knew about it.

There's an assisted living facility across, I think some of the people came over from our seven bed. Lovely. So you probably have 

Elise Kiely: 15 to 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: 20 people. Yeah. With a one minute notice. And so we're standing around and everyone's looking at each other is this really happening? And one of the sons gets up and at that point, the school had music.

Spanish unbelievable programming that you can do at a small island school. They had guest speakers. One of the island residents was the founder of the Museum of Modern Art in Jordan and Aman Jordan, and Wow. He would speak like the programming at the, so the music was incredible for these guys, as was the Spanish program.

So that said. Children who were just getting their first recorder don't sound so great. So one of the sons got up and played, hot cross buns and so on the recorder, we were like on the recorder for the chicken funeral that was at the chicken funeral. And then the clincher we're all sitting [00:34:00] there just taking it all in, what was happening. I read a poem that I thought might be appropriate and we, I put, forget my nuts on that. Is there a casket? No, there's just a hole. And there was some discussion about what should be there and there wasn't a headstone yet, but there, I think there was a piece of granite and the, and then the second son got up and that's when we really knew that it was a chicken funeral because he got up and said the family's name was Loder last name.

And he said. Goodbye cock loader for you are my third favorite. Chicken. No. We're all looking at each other oh my gosh, no one is gonna, you cannot laugh. This is not a time to laugh. Like it was like, I'm sorry, I'm laughing now Erika. I can't. It was every muscle in your body not to like laugh at cock loader or that it was this third favorite chicken and that we had just heard hot cross buns and on the 

Elise Kiely: recorder.

That is wonderful. That's, it just shows the sense of community. Multi-generational [00:35:00] people had other stuff they had to get done. Work, raising children, homework, spelling, bees, whatever. But nobody was gonna miss the chicken funeral. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: I know. And there are a lot of people who had chickens on the island, but this was the first and last chicken, funeral chicken. Funeral chicken. I don't think you could top it. No. And I did. I think that. Afterwards when we told that story, people said that's what the kind of thing that happens here. Like you're just, you don't know when the next thing's gonna happen.

And it's like that. But that was, yeah, the chicken freeze. 

Elise Kiely: And I imagine if something significant happens it's known island lore. If something dramatic happens like a chicken funeral or if somebody needs something, if somebody has a life event and they need help, they need some dinners, they need some support people.

As you said, they respect your privacy, but they will circle the wagons for you. 

Erika Gabrielsen Neumann: Yeah, they really do. Erika, 

Elise Kiely: this is such an interesting conversation. I really appreciate your coming in and sharing about. Your story of how you came to Chebeague, how you were captivated by it, and then [00:36:00] ultimately decided to move from California to make Chebeague your year-round home sharing about your children going to the island school.

That's just a very precious school and a such a very special community. So I really appreciate your sharing all of this. And on the next episode, which I'm so excited to get into, we're going to talk about this lovely, amazing home, the Log House. And we're going to talk a little bit about your career and conscious capitalism and your focus of the next chapter.

Thank you for joining us on Elegant Maine Living, and remember, if you are dreaming of a lifestyle in Maine or already living it, this podcast is for you. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. And I invite you to take this journey with me. Please share it with your friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers.

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Until next time, keep living with [00:38:00] elegance.