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Retired and living on Martha’s Vineyard full-time, they recently took on sustainable projects at their Chilmark home.
Amy Cody and John Furst live in a beautiful two-story home in Chilmark that they’ve had for more than 20 years. Any day of the week during the summer, you can find them outside tending to the plants in their gardens, observing wildlife in the pond out back, and enjoying time in their sixteen by nine-foot saltwater plunge pool. They added 24 solar panels to the roof last year and bought an electric Volkswagen. They also have a home “cone” composting system and a pesticide-free lawn. They are full-time residents and have kids and grandkids who love being on the Island just as much as they do. They hope to preserve their home here for the long haul, while also minimizing its environmental footprint.
“We’re just doing a small part, but we’re trying hard to keep doing more,” Amy says. She and John have four grandchildren now, and that’s a big part of what inspired them to take on more green projects at home.
“We’re thinking about their lives and their future,” Amy says.
A former flower shop owner, Amy is captivated by her pollinator and natural gardens and is using BiodiversityWorks’ Natural Neighbors program to survey their property and make recommendations on what to plant to optimize biodiversity. “We were already doing a lot of what they suggested, but they kind of expanded the whole concept for me,” Amy says. BiodiversityWorks also sent someone over to do a botanizing inventory, which is an extension of the Natural Neighbors program, “and that was really fascinating,” Amy says. “They come and they look at everything that’s natural and they make a huge list that includes the Latin names. And it’s more of what you want to preserve and what you don’t want to introduce.”
Amy’s botanizing inventory includes several dozen of the plants that inhabit her property, and a note on what they look like and whether they’re native or invasive. The list includes sassafras, wild strawberry, beetlebung, sweet pepperbush, and many more. “It's amazing how many wonderful and diverse species we have on the Island,” Amy says.
There’s a pond out back that takes up an acre. Previous owners dug it some 80 years ago, but the water was completely clear when Amy and John moved in. The pond started filling in with plants over time, and Amy and John have since let all the lily pads, lotuses, and grasses grow in. Wilkinson Ecological Design (a nonprofit recommended by Felix Neck) surveyed the pond and determined that it was going through the natural process of eutrophication.
“In general, as most pond systems age, they accumulate nutrients that in turn stimulate the growth of plant and aquatic life,” according to an email from Wilkinson Ecological after they surveyed the pond. “Eventually, the accumulation of dead aquatic life and decayed plant material (some potentially resisting decay) may add up and begin to literally fill in edges and show areas of the pond. This is a long-term process, but it is likely what we are witnessing now after the many years since the pond was first dug.”
Keeping the pond clear would require interventions such as dredging and culvert assessment/replacement. The analysis found that the plant community and pond ecology appear to be reasonably healthy, aside from the invasive Yellow Iris found sporadically.
“They said you could dredge it if you want to get the pond back, but then that would kill all the wildlife,” John says.
This Island is so perfect for electric cars. The only downside is we don’t get to see our friends at Menemsha Texaco.
– John Furst
“There’s a lot of pinkletinks and frogs and otters, which is really unusual. So we don’t want to disturb any of the habitat. We’re going to leave it and see what happens,” Amy says.
Around front, there’s another body of water John and Amy have to think about. When they installed the plunge pool four years ago — something you don’t see every day on the Vineyard — their electricity bills spiked because of the energy it takes to keep the water heated, circulating, and clean. It was time to offset those costs and carbon emissions. John says adding solar panels was something one of the Chilmark board members had recommended they do when they were getting approvals for the pool.
“We were happy they didn’t make us do it, but a year later, we realized it was something we wanted to do,” John says.
South Mountain installed the solar panels, “and they were amazing,” Amy says, “From beginning to the end, teaching us what it was all about, how it works, how they interfaced with the electrical stuff. Installing it was like a breeze.” They appreciate how South Mountain assigns clients a project manager to follow up and answer questions.
Not even a year into having them, Amy and John are thrilled with their solar panels and find themselves constantly checking the app (mySolarEdge) to monitor their energy use.
“I’m a little addicted,” Amy says. “Basically anywhere, anytime, you can open it up and you can see how much power you're making from your solar panels, how much is going into your house, how much you’re using or needing or drawing, and then how much is going back into the grid … I look at it when I’m running the washing machine or the dryer, just to see how it changed.”
Amy and John’s home generates a lot of surplus energy, which they plan to donate through Eversource’s program that redistributes solar energy to participating nonprofits. They note that solar panels are a way to generate energy and give back to the Island — even when homeowners aren’t here.
Parked in the driveway is a Volkswagen ID.4 electric SUV with a light interior that John and Amy got last December. “This Island is so perfect for electric cars. The only downside is we don’t get to see our friends at Menemsha Texaco,” John says. (They still visit often to get popsicles.) They also installed a car charger in their detached garage. “When [South Mountain] put the solar in, since they had to do a lot of rearranging of the electrical capacity at the house, we had them put in the charger for our car,” John says. “It was part of this whole package and it was less money to do.”
Amy’s backyard composting system is just beyond her flower garden. Ordinarily, this garden is for growing vegetables, but this year, Amy decided to do a cutting garden to make bouquets for friends. “I’m kind of feeling really happy about it,” she says.
As for the composting system, “I’m very excited when I do this,” Amy says, pointing out a staked-down black container about waist high that holds all her organic matter, and the cone. The cone goes on top of the organic matter, and its walls trap heat and create circulating air, which encourages bacteria growth to help break down the waste. She orders red wiggler composting worms once a year and drops them into the container to also help break down the organic matter over time. “But they don’t like citrus, so you can’t throw anything that’s citrusy in there,” Amy says.
The family collects food waste in a compost bucket in the kitchen, and Amy periodically empties it into the backyard composter. She turns and waters the organic matter a few times a week, and adds things like leaves from the yard. By the fall, the compost is ready. Amy brings her wheelbarrow down, covers it with a screen, and shovels the compost on top of the screen. The compost falls into the wheelbarrow, and she collects the worms from the screen and drops them back into the container. Then she starts again.
“And then I get a full wheelbarrow that’s just packed with this gold soil, which is really just worm poop,” Amy says. “It goes into the vegetable garden and then some of the shrubs around the base. So it’s this whole system.”
Amy and John see themselves as stewards of the Earth and believe that living more sustainably begins at home.
To learn more about BiodiversityWorks’ Natural Neighbors program, visit biodiversityworksmv.org. To learn more about South Mountain solar panels, visit southmountain.com.
