Peep! First egg, goat milk soap, and Solomon walking video

First, I wanted to share a short video of Solomon walking.  A number of relatives have asked me to post one.  (If you are reading this post via e-mail you may have to click into the blog to view it, if you are interested.)  I took this video after Solomon's bath the other night:

Last evening I heard Tabby yelling something as she burst into the house.  I was afraid something had happened to one of the animals but then she excitedly held out her hand.  The first chicken egg!  And most likely laid by a buff named Friendly.  (You can see a picture of Friendly at Tabby's blog, The Goat Chick, here.)   Tabby ate the egg this morning for breakfast and declared it "delicious!"

The big goat in this picture is Christa, the nanny that Tabby milks each morning:

Last week, Tabby and I finally attempted to make goat milk soap using goat milk courtesy of Christa.  I had done some online research trying to determine which soap recipe to use but it was rather overwhelming because I had never made soap before and felt clueless.  I finally settled on this recipe from the Soap Making Resource website.  The owner seems to be a soap making fanatic so I felt comfortable following his instructions.  :)  I ordered the goat milk soap kit.  It came with step-by-step instructions that were easy to follow.  Here are our supplies:

 Melting the oils (olive, palm kernel, rice bran, coconut, palm, castor) and shea butter:

 

This is the goat milk mixed with lye.  (Guess what it is no LIE that LYE burns.  We used gloves at first but later we got a bit cocky and didn't use them and had a little lye splash on our skin. Ouch!)

Here is the finished soap mixture (everything above combined plus eucalyptus and spearmint essential oils added in) poured into an acrylic mold.  (Supposed to be better for goat milk soap than wood because the soap can stay cooler):

About a day later I popped the soap out.  It was pretty soft.  It is now on a rack for about 6 weeks to cure.  (SIX weeks!  We're so anxious to try it now!)

I really enjoyed the soap making process and plan to make another batch very soon.  Tabby and I would like to sell the soap.  Tabby came up with this name:  "The Goat Chick's Utterly Natural Goat Milk Soap."  Thanks Christa!   

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." - James 1:17