HOPKINTON, NEW YORK · ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY
I live off grid on solar and batteries. My family owns and operates a specialty food store and café and a regional fragrance brand my mother started in 1979. I build the arrays that power them, and I work at Clean Energy Associates helping deploy solar and storage around the world.
They look like separate lives. They are not. Each one only works because of the other two.
I live off grid on solar and batteries. At the fragrance farm, two ground mounts feed the factory and credit the store's power bill eleven miles away. I helped my father build his array, and I enjoy building and maintaining all three. Every kilowatt made in the North Country is one that does not have to be bought from somewhere else.
Canton and Potsdam are home. My family owns and operates Nature's Storehouse, a specialty food store and café on Main Street since 1972, and Adirondack Fragrance Farm, the regional fragrance brand my mother started in 1979. We bought both in 2023 as a way to build more here rather than somewhere else. We own two buildings that house people and businesses, and I direct a USDA grant to build a regional food delivery hub. The point of all of it is that a small place stays a good place to live and work.
By day I work at Clean Energy Associates, where the systems and data I build help deploy solar and storage around the world. The part I find most useful is pointing the same tools at small places: a warehouse that reconciles the store's books, networks across five sites, and AI agents that watch a wholesale inbox, tag product photos and help price a shelf, so a small team gets more done. Big-company tools, aimed at Main Street.
The interesting work is at the seams.
ENERGY × COMMUNITY
The Potsdam array's surplus is credited against the store's power bill in Canton under New York's remote net metering rules. A food store's power bill is large and mostly refrigeration; an open field eleven miles away now helps pay it.
TECHNOLOGY × ENERGY
At Clean Energy Associates the systems I build help put solar and storage in the ground around the world. At home the same discipline sized the farm array to what a factory uses and what the utility will accept, before a pier was poured.
TECHNOLOGY × COMMUNITY
Every entity's accounting, point of sale and e-commerce data lands in one place I can query. When something is off at the store, I find out from the data, not from the bank.
ALL THREE
The USDA grant I direct is a logistics model for getting North Country produce into North Country kitchens: routes, totes, program income, and the data to prove it works. Energy, place and systems in one project.
The North Country part, in practice. We bought both in 2023.
Canton, New York · since 1972
A specialty food store and café at 21 Main Street: natural foods, produce, supplements and local goods. In Canton since 1972. Our family bought it in 2023 and added Nature's Café in the summer of 2026.
Potsdam, New York · since 1979
A regional fragrance brand: candles, fragrance and body care, made on the farm since 1979. My mother started it. Our family bought it in 2023, along with Nature's Storehouse, to build more here.
The clean energy part, in practice. Each one built by hand, each one still maintained by hand.
Hopkinton, New York · off grid
A ground mount in the woods and a battery bank run the house year round, with no utility connection. The tilt gets set by hand with the seasons. This is the one I live with.
Potsdam, New York · grid tied
Two ground mounts behind the factory. What the factory does not use is credited against the store's power bill in Canton under remote net metering. The largest of the three, and the one with the paperwork.
St. Lawrence County · grid tied with battery
The one I learned on and still help maintain. Most of what made the farm build go smoothly was learned here first.
THE NAME
My great-great-great-grandfather: a farmer, a lawyer, and for more than forty years the justice of the peace in Hermon. His portrait hangs in my house. The family's historian, Stan Maine, wrote his story.
The technology part, for the record. The résumé has the detail.
2019 to present
Clean Energy Associates · Potsdam, New York
Enterprise applications, data integrations and security for a global company, and a fourteen-person IT and data team across four countries.
2017 to 2019
Xerox · San Diego, California
ERP reporting and SQL performance, and the ETL for a large customer migration into CRM.
2016 to 2018
Clarkson University · Potsdam, New York
2011 to 2015
St. Lawrence University · Canton, New York
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