With our expansion into the barn and gradual increase of visitors, artists, carpenters, and volunteers using the Sea Pony Farm property left to the Living Wilderness Fund in 2019, we have realized we need more off-grid energy capacity and decided that would be a priority project for 2025. We discovered that the father of Carly Dennis, a past SCS intern that has also volunteered at Sea Pony Farm and on wilderness stewardship projects with SCS, was a solar expert. Beginning early in 2025, Samuel Dennis and Jon Muller began working with SCS’s Andrew Thoms and Lione Clare to plan and design an upgraded off-grid solar system for Sea Pony Farm. Samuel worked for BP and retired in 2016 and has been doing solar projects since 2017. Jon is an MD who was in the US Army then worked for the VA, opening clinics near Anchorage and in Juneau before retiring and moving onto renewable energy projects, including a similar project to this at his own remote cabin.

Says Jon, “Sam and I met in 2003 as our daughters were besties in kindergarten and remain so. We quickly became part of each other’s Alaskan families. Sam and I have geeked out on many projects over the years and when he asked if I wanted to assist on a project in Pelican, my answer was simple. “Sure. Where’s that?”

 

SCS is so grateful to Samuel and Jon for assisting us tremendously to make this project happen. They helped identify and source materials needed for the project, donated their time and expertise into designing, engineering, and planning the installation, and volunteered for four days at Sea Pony Farm physically doing the installation of the new system, which included installing the rooftop panels, running wiring to our new power shed and connecting the batteries, inverter, and charger controller. Wild Gratitude to these incredible volunteers helping us towards our vision of using this property to comfortably host a diverse Wilderness Residency and Stewardship Program where visitors build transformational relationships around shared values and ideals, steward the surrounding lands and waters, recharge and rejuvenate from their work as community leaders in Alaska, and inspire voices for the Tongass and its communities in creative and collaborative ways.