Homestead Update 7-21-2017

Good morning from hot, hot, hot southern Kentucky! Wow its been hot and muggy!!!

Before I get started into the update, I just want to take a minute and thank the Steemit community and those that have developed this platform, I would have never imagined the progress we would have made in such a short time. We are up over 300 followers and our posts are having some impact. The responses have been thoughtful and very kind! Thank you to ya all!!!!

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, the heat stroke I suffered 9 days ago has really beat me down and my brain has been pretty scrambled, no creativity at all this week…. Check out the heatstroke post to hear my story and learn about the issue and how dangerous it can be.

https://steemit.com/life/@svfarms/heat-stroke-watch-out-it-will-get-you-it-got-me#@weetreebonsai/re-svfarms-heat-stroke-watch-out-it-will-get-you-it-got-me-20170721t124920777z

Great comments and helpful advice, thanks everybody. I also need to thank my wife Colleen for picking up the slack during my downfall. She is my rock, we make a great team!

So with the heat, special precautions need to be taken with our animals, it’s all about water when its you have heat indexes of 115 degrees or better, coming in a close second is shade, you need to make sure they can get out of the sun if they need to. Our hens are drinking 5 gallons a water a day, so we are hauling a lot of water. Even the chicks who are in the barn are drinking twice the normal amount!

Egg production has decreased about 25%, this is normal during heat spells, hopefully our customers will understand!

The garden is still not showing any big signs of stress and is producing like gang buster. We are harvesting 20 to 30 pounds of tomatoes every other day, we have been canning pretty much every night for the past two weeks.

Canned Salsa, Done See recipe here https://steemit.com/food/@svfarms/salsa-anyone
Stewed Tomatoes, DonePickles, on going
Green & Purple beans on going, slowing down….
Coming soon, tomato juice & spaghetti sauce

Lettuce bed #2 is starting off pretty slow but is making progress. The herb garden has been stunted by the heat but is surviving.

On a final note: We have a drunk bee! This bee has been drinking non-stop for three days now from the hummingbird feeder, he never leaves. He just keeps walking around in a circle, around the feeder. He has tripled in size,

I believe his is going to pop!

Well that’s all for this week, we need to pray for some rain, it’s getting pretty dry, hopefully we will get lucky and get some. The long range forecast does not look promising though…..

Let us know what ya think, will see yawl real soon!

Bob & Colleen Browning

Serenity Valley Farms

Monticello, KY

Check us out at…..

And Facebook: www.facebook.com/Serenity-Valley-Farms-167719676966401/

And on Instagram: www.instagram.com/serenityvalleyfarmers/

Check out our Website: www.serenityvalleyfarms.us