A little about me.

So since I'm new to the blog universe I figured I would tell all of you a little about myself. I'm 37 years old, I served 8 years in the Army as a combat medic from 1992 to 2000. Currently I work at a hospital here in Vermont doing Vascular Ultrasound for a group of surgeons.
My interest in sustainable living and renewable energy is I have to admit, new. For years I, like many people, bought my food at the grocery store and just plugged my things into the wall without thinking about where the power was coming from. Then one day after listening to a group of my friends complain about what was being put into food, and how "the man" was over charging us on everything I decided to do a little experiment. I challenged all of them, that if things were so bad why not do something about it. Grow their own food and find ways to lower their reliance on power from the grid. They all came back with the same excuses, working full time, no space for a garden big enough to live on, blah, blah, blah. So I decided to show them that it was possible, and not only was it possible but that even I could do it.
I started simply enough, I currently have 10 container gardens growing a variety of crops, but living in a suburban area, and having a very shaded yard, I needed to use my space as efficiently. So I started looking around at hydroponics, and after some considerable late nights reading and watching videos on the Internet, I came up with the system you see in my other posts.
My next hurdle was growing through the long winter months in Vermont. The systems I was building had to be able to grow in the winter. Which meant heating and lights. Something that would drive my light bill through the roof. So back to the Internet and with some help of a friend who knows something about electricity, I started to build a solar panel and learn how to set up a system that I hope will power my lights and heat for growing in the winter.
So here we are now, the long term goal is to build another 2 hydroponic systems like the one in the pictures and 5 more solar panels. Link the solar panels to a battery bank and an inverter then power everything in my garage. I'm going to shrink the space in the garage to make heating it a bit easier and will probably only grow cool temperature vegetables. For this experiment to be a success I have to live, with my wife and two sons, without buying produce from the grocery store for a year, and I can't plug into the grid to do it.
Wish me luck, and please feel free to leave helpful advice whenever possible. I hope you decide to come on this journey with me.