A Permaculture Homestead  

We have been on Steemit now for about 3 or 4 weeks trying to learn the in's and out's of the Steemit platform and though this was a good time to formally introduce ourselves!  

My Wife Colleen and I would like to give you all some insight into what we are  now and what we want to be as time goes on.  If I had to describe us I  would say we are Christians, Permaculture enthusiasts, Dirt Loving Gardeners, Master Canners, self-sufficient wannabes, cooking creators,  and just good country folk!  Wow, that’s a mouth full and I am sure it  will evolve as time goes on except that good Christian country folk part. 

 Serenity Valley Farms encompasses 50  acres, 15 of those acres are comprised of pasture, the homestead and a  rental home.  The other 35 acres are woods.  We are at an elevation of  about 2,200 feet above sea level in what I would call the foothills of  the Appalachian Mountains.   Folks here like to say these are mountains, but I have spent a lot of  time in the Rockies and in my mind these are just hills.  

 The  drive from town is a rolling, winding road with photo perfect views of  the hills, farms and forest.  Every time I pass the "Cow Rock", someone has painted a rock to look like a cow it just makes you smile.  A mile down the  road from the painted cow you get to our drive that is lined with  flowing pear trees with a couple small wood fenced pastures on each  side, you dip down a small hill then you come up to the log cabin we  live in. 

 We have a large barn which is set for  horses and outdoor fenced in arena which is now our test garden and  winter home for our chickens.  The folks we bought this property from  had all the creature comforts heating and air conditioning and a 20’ X  40’ swimming pool!  The pool is nice but it is a lot of work and we are not big on chemicals and a pool is a chemical eating  machine. Funny thing is we opened the pool this year but we have not gotten in it, just to many things to do!

What we have is a great start for the dreams we have to be more self-sufficient.  

My Wife is disabled with a blood disorder and I am a cancer survivor, I was diagnosed in October of 2015 and I am finally cancer free now!  I was a hard time, but we pulled through.  Things move slower now but that's OK!  Living in Southern Kentucky is a much slower pace of life so it fits perfectly.

So even with the health issues I had  early in the year we did get our test garden in, we thought we were  pretty good gardeners, but I guess gardening in 4’ of the richest  topsoil you will ever see is quite a bit different than red clay we have  here.  Look for a blog on our garden adventure coming soon.  We also  put in a water capture system on the barn and piped it down to the  garden and we are able to collect rain water for watering rather than  the county water that is full of chlorine. 

When I was sick I had a lot time to do research and I  started studying permaculture and soon got Colleen hooked on it as  well.  My background is in surveying and engineering, but I had never  heard of these concepts I felt and still feel drawn to them. Homesteading and permaculture is a way of life, most folks think its about working hard and yes it is hard work, but hard work makes you work smarter, the smarter you get the easier the work is.  A Permaculture system if properly set up will run itself after a period of time.

What is next for us?

We have accomplished much, but there is still much to do and we look forward to bringing you guys along for the ride. We will be sharing blog posts and videos of our journey.  We will post not only about homesteading and permaculture, but so many other this that interest us. Look for posts on the following:

• Hay bale Gardening
• Aquiponics
• Food Preservation
• Hunting
• and much more! 

What do we want out of Steemit?

We have been apart of the Steemit community for about three or four weeks now, and all I can say is WOW! the response we have received has been positive and the Homestead community is growing by the day.  There is also the monetary aspect, it can be hard to get some projects up and going, farming / homesteading costs money and we hope this will help us in our journey!

We have a lot to learn, I did not even really know what a block-chain or crypto currency was a month ago, there is a whole new world to explore and we are having a lot fun doing it!  Thanks to everyone that has followed & up-voted us, we really appreciate it!

Welcome to Serenity Valley Farms!

Bob & Colleen Browning part of the Steemit community since May of 2017