Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi, I'm Chris.
Currently in Bloomington, IN (south central of the state) (the missus is here for grad school, otherwise I wouldn't set foot in the Hoosier Nation).

Originally from Frederick, MD (just outside Washington DC basically) and will be returning there next year (2014) for good. My parents have a formerly traditional dairy farm that we've transitioned to an on-farm market selling pastured beef and poultry, baked goods, and value crops, plus whatever produce and assorted "farm-type" goods local homesteaders consign there.

I've been all over the USA since I left home at 17, got a degree in mechanical engineering, and having tried to go do the white collar thing, a decade later have decided that farming was a pretty good life, especially now that the dairy cows are gone (no more 3:00 AM milking 365 days a year ) So I'm headed back to it as soon as the missus is finished her grad degree (one of us has to get a proper job with health insurance and all that )

My goal using AP towards the farms goals will be a combination of extended growing season for some bulk produce (salad supplies to go with the beef and poultry), possibly some fish marketing, and using the leftover plants (bean vines and what have you) to supply year round foliage to at least a portion of the animals (especially chickens which can't be left out in MidAtlantic winters or there'd be nought but bare ground across the farm come spring).

Right now I have an itty bitty greenhouse (12'x12') that I'll make a build thread on (I guess this isn't a car forum, so it's a system thread... My other passion is auto racing and I campaign (when they run) both rally and track cars).

Come the farm, I hope to scale up to using a full size fish pond to irrigate an industrial size greenhouse. There are piles of sustainability grants and other such moneys available (assuming the gov't doesn't go totally bankrupt) for traditional farms to branch out. We're already using grants for rotational crop/grazing fields and looking into funding for high tunnels.

I think that's enough for an intro, I like to ramble on in my posts... I'll go work on my system thread now and bore anyone left reading with the trials I've had getting lettuce in a Midwestern winter.

Welcome to the forum, sounds like a good addition to the farm

Welcome to the forum!