ISearch Background #1

        Born and raised on an organic potato farm, my influences were rather obvious.  Agriculture and nature in general make up a good chunk of my knowledge today.  They will always be a part of my life, and thus tend be the direction I think of when I consider new projects.  I’m always looking around for new ways to improve on the classic tried and true methods of agriculture and resource conservation.  Taking bits and pieces from different farmers and tradesmen that our family has interacted with and making them my own.                                                                                            

        I was shown a video in my 8^th grade algebra class about making an eco-friendly home, from the ground up.  This video showed numerous ways to save materials in the building process.  Some of those new age methods used were very beneficial in the long run, most notably in conservation of energy and resources.  This was the first time I had seen a large scale home being built to use up about as many resources as a small apartment.  Three of the most memorable examples of such techniques were the use of recycled car tires packed with dirt to form the walls and some of the foundation, soda cans used to make a honey-comb design in all of the cement formations to save on resources while still keeping structural integrity, and large thermal masses for collecting heat during the day to slowly release it at night to maintain a comfortable interior temperature in the home.

        Now these methods and some of the others show worked great for the climate of say… Arizona.  But where I was more interested in northern Maine, there were going to have to be some fresh new ideas brought to the table.  To help save energy and resources in a much more snow laden local.  One of the things I’ve always wondered about was how I could use water more efficiently.  Leaving the hose on, the sink running for a few unused seconds or minutes, there are just a lot of ways to needlessly waste water, and I want to find out some quick techniques to try and combat all of that waste.  And also to find a use for what does end up getting wasted.  Now moving up the scale a little bit I began to consider, what I could do with all of that water.  What would be the best use for it?  Naturally I turn back to my roots, to organic vegetable growing.  Combining these two forces in the right way, could lead to me finding out some very interesting methods for assisting growing veggies in as sustainable a manner possible.