Solar home uproar

I have lived in Maine most of my life, I have lived elsewhere for only a handful of years, so I am a Mainer through and through. I miss the ocean, the pine trees and sea rats....err seagulls when I am away from Maine.

To me part of being a Mainer is being in tune with nature and the environment. When I was growing up my parents did organic gardening before it was hip. They composted everything they could get their hands on and I didn't know that there were people out there that threw away newspaper rather then bundling them and taking them to be recycled. You should have seen me when I first went away to college....I had emotional issues when I had to throw out a newspaper. Recycling wasn't common then and my roommate just didn't understand why I had a pile of newspapers in the corner.

Even now I don't go a day without thinking about what choices I am making and how it effects the world around me and a lot of it I attribute to being 7th generation Mainer. When Fly Guy and I bought our house we could afford to buy a house any where we wanted and nearly any house we wanted. We wanted a small house, because it takes less time to clean and less oil to heat. We wanted a place that we could walk or ride our bikes to a lot of the places we go to. We contract to have our electricity come from dams with fish ladders so we aren't dependant on fossil fuel for that and it doesn't harm the fish which is important for the environment and for Fly Guy so he can go fly fishing. It is all about living simply so others can simply live. It is more then just a bumper sticker to me.

Why am I telling you all this. Well in a town very close to where I live there is a house being built that is going to be solar powered. I think that is awesome. The car mechanic I go to has a windmill and generates his own power which is something I would love to do, but we don't have enough land to do it.

Any how back to this solar house. The neighbors of this solar house are all upset that a solar home is being built next to them because it is a 'monstrosity' and it looks like "the movie with Jodie Foster in it. You know with the aliens and such." There have been articles in the paper about this. It makes me angry when stuff like this happens anytime of the year, but at the height of tourist season it makes me even more angry because all these out of staters see this and don't get the impression of Maine that I believe is the true impression of Mainers being people who care about nature and the environment. I know I would be proud and excited if one of my neighbors ended up getting solar panels...it means they are putting their money where their mouth is and living what they believe. I don't understand when people don't think about the environment before aesthetics. People complain all the time about our nations dependent on oil from other counties and here is a person actively doing something about it and they end up being harassed by their neighbors. I am embarrassed that these neighbors call themselves Mainers....I hope that are really are "from away."

Here is an article about the solar home I am talking about in Scarbrough, Maine. I hope Laurance Gardner and his family realize there are many people out here that support his solar home 110%.