Finally - perfect homemade liquid hand soap

Thank you to everyone that has been praying for my aunt Pam ("Shisshy") who is in the hospital with double pneumonia.  She is still on the ventilator but her lungs are better so she should be weaned off soon.  Unfortunately, her throat became very swollen because of the tube in it that it had to be surgically removed today and a tracheotomy placed temporarily.  :(  Goodness - pneumonia is so vicious!  But I'm grateful for modern medicine.

yay! daffodils are giving the yard pops of color

Tabby had her first track meet of the season yesterday, and she had trouble running the 1 mile.  First lap was great but then I saw her face and knew her lungs were hurting.  Not just the regular runner's hurt, but it was pneumonia hurt.  She had to go to the medical tent after she finished running.  (She refused to quit the race.)    After that race, her coach told her she would not be running any more that day.  But after awhile she felt so well she begged him to let her run the other two events she was scheduled for, since they were shorter.  He talked to me about it and then let her after she promised to run slower.  She did and she ran just fine.  Lord willing, she'll be completely back to normal soon.

I love bringing daffodils inside

Last summer, I wrote a post about the liquid hand soap that I had made.  (Click here for that post.)  I tried tweaking that recipe a number of ways, but the soap just wasn't thick enough and I couldn't figure out why.  Finally I read that if you start with a bar soap that is heavy in oils, then your liquid soap will not be thick.  Oh!  That was it.  I was starting with our homemade goat milk soap, which is a wonderful bar soap, but is full of different oils. Great for your skin but not great for making a thick liquid soap.

So I bought a few bars of some good soap.  But those turned out rather gooey.  Still I didn't want to give up and go back to spending a lot of money buying liquid soap, so I kept trying tweaks.  (We wash our hands around here a lot and liquid soap works better for handwashing than bar soap for us.)

Then earlier this year, I came across several recipes for FOAMING hand soap.  It looked even easier that the liquid soap I was making!  All I needed was the foaming dispenser.  I like using pint sized mason jars for my liquid soap, so I bought the foaming dispensers for them off Ebay.

Here is the recipe I used:

* 2/3 cup unscented liquid castile soap (I use Dr. Bronner's brand)
* 20-22 drops of essential oil (I used Young Living's Thieves Essential Oil for powerful germ killing)
* distilled water

I put the soap and essential oil into my pint sized jar, then filled it up the rest of the way with distilled water.  Mixed it and it was ready to use!

Right now, in Tabby's Etsy shop, The Goat Chick, we currently have three of our four soaps in stock:  original (spearmint/eucalyptus), peppermint, and lavender/tea tree.  Peppermint has been selling like crazy lately!  We need to make Thieves asap.

zzzzzz ...

Making homemade liquid hand soap

As Obama's UN-affordable healthcare plan goes into its final painful phase at my husband's workplace, I am trying to find more ways to save money to make up for the financial blow we are taking.  (I will spare you my rant about this forced healthcare.)

One thing I tried last week, was to make liquid hand soap.  We go through liquid soap like crazy around here!  And I wash my hands so much that the regular/cheap/chemical filled stuff from the store makes my hands really dry.  But I've decided, the wonderful stuff I was buying is a bit too much with our financial readjustments.

So ... homemade liquid hand soap!  This is a recipe that I have seen in several places online.

I started by grating a bar of our our wonderful, original scent homemade goat milk soap.

Then I put the grated soap in a pot with a gallon of water and 2 tablespoons of liquid [vegetable] glycerin.  I set the stove top to medium high heat.  I stirred the soap occasionally.

Once the soap was melted, I turned off the heat and left it in the pot overnight.  This will help the soap thicken up some.

The next day, I used a hand blender to mix it all together.  (Though thinking back, I am not sure this was necessary.)  Then I poured it into a empty, clean jug I had.

We have two places in the house where using liquid hand soap works best for us.  (In other places we use our homemade bar soap.)  I just had to put the hand soap into dispensers that were pretty and interesting.  So I got out two of my blue Ball pint sized mason jars and added in the dispenser part, which I got here for cheap off Ebay.

The soap smells great and works good.  BUT ... it is not quite thick enough for our liking.  Before I make another batch, I need to research online to see if I can find how to do this.  (If you know how - please share your tips!)

Another money saving tip I wanted to share was, anytime you get ready to order something online and don't have a coupon code, go to retailmenot.com.  I almost always find coupon codes there.  Plus, I have noticed lately that there are often really good coupons that are exclusive to RetailMeNot.

In barnyard news, Sherlotta has suddenly developed a terrible case of wanderlust.  Since last week, we have had at least three neighbors call us, worried that she'd be hit by a car.  (Like her wandering mama Dixie was, earlier this year.)  We decided that "The Bomb" (her nickname because she's got such explosive energy) needed a cooling off period behind bars.  So - into the goat pen for her!  (Which she actually LOVES.)

"Bomblotta" - this picture even though blurry - captures her perfectly!

Exhaust Pipe went in to visit his sister, and so did some chickens.  It looked like a barnyard party!

Of our 17 guinea keets that hatched last month, sadly there is only 1 remaining.  We named this tough little survivor "Tribulation."  Here is Tribulation with his/her ever present parents, Leah Rose and Rayford:

The next time we find a pile of guinea eggs, we hope to incubate them.  Then we should have a good success rate.

The biddies we bought this spring are really growing!  They're still not full sized chickens yet though.  I think this Gold Laced Wyandotte is so pretty.  She looks like she's on a mission here:

Finally, here is a Solomon sandwich:

What a funny way to fall asleep at naptime.  :)

Our 4 Thieves Goat Milk Soap and Snow Fun

Germs germs germs ... I became extra paranoid about germs when Lilly was alive, due to her fragile immune system.  I still get freaked out about germs.  So that is one reason I am loving the new goat milk soap that Tabby and I made:  Thieves.

Recorded in the Royal Archives (Britain) is a story what has become known as "the 4 Thieves."  This dates back to the time of the Black Plague in the 15th century.  A group of four thieves, reputed to be spice traders and perfumers, concocted a special blend of garlic and herbs in vinegar to use on themselves.  Thus protected, they entered the homes of dead and dying plague victims and robbed them.  The thieves stayed healthy and protected.  When they were finally caught, it is reported that they shared their recipe.  Then the story is confused - they were either set free for telling it - or killed anyway!

"Thieves, spices, and herbs?  Now that is crazy sounding talk!"

There are several recipes for "Four Thieves" to be found.  We chose one that uses the following essential oils:  Eucalyptus, Clove, Lemon, Cinnamon, and Rosemary. The other ingredients in this goat milk soap are:  goats milk (from our goats which I milk!), olive oil, palm kernel oil, rice bran oil, coconut oil, Shea butter, palm oil, and castor oil.

The milk in our soap is from the two white goats - Pippi and Christa

Each bar of Thieves soap costs only $4.00 each.   You can order from Tabby's Etsy shop - the Goat Chick.  Or just contact me.  :)

If you like the smell and/or cooling sensation of peppermint, we have still have several bars of peppermint soap in stock.  Didn't Tabby stage the photo nicely?

On a different note, Tabby has been drawing pictures of the dwarves from The Hobbit on her Goat Chick Blog.  If you liked the movie, be sure to click into her blog and scroll down to see them.  (It would make her day if you clicked the "like" button or left a comment!)  She is not quite done and still has some more to draw and post.  Here is a sample - this is Bofur.  I continue to be amazed with how accurately she captures the faces she draws:

Finally, yesterday is snowed for much of the day.  It didn't STICK most of the day though.  But we still got a pretty dusting.  After our school work was done, the boys and I went out for a romp before Solomon's naptime.

"Hey big brother - that's a funny snow joke!"

making snow angels

I noticed that the chickens did not mind the snow like they did last weeks ice:

"What are you gawking at?!" (Bard, the Barred Rock chicken)

Tonight "they" are predicting we might get a foot of snow.  As I type this, it is snowing!

Tabby - not feeling very happy about the snow

"For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ . . . ." - Job 37:6

The Goat Chick's Udderly Natural Goat Milk Soap

In case you missed Tabby's blogpost earlier this week, we have about 9 bars of goat milk soap left to sell.

From Tabby:

Soap is $4.50. (Plus shipping.)  This is VERY high quality soap.  The ingredients are:  Goat's Milk, Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, Palm Kernel Oil, Rice Bran Oil, Shea Butter, Palm Oil, Castor Oil, Eucalyptus and Spearmint Essential Oils.  

This is a very moisturizing soap. 


This soap smells really good too.  We've been using it this winter.  Thankfully Christa's milk supply is slowly increasing again, so hopefully we'll be able to start making soap regularly.  

If you're interested in purchasing some, just let one of us know.  FYI - the cost of shipping on one bar is $2.50.  Several bars could be packed into a priority mail small flat rate box for $5.80 shipping.  (I haven't yet figured out how many bars would fit.)

I need to get a more up-to-date picture of Tabby milking Christa (the goat that supplied the milk for the soap we made.  But here is one from last summer:

In the chicken world, we are still waiting for the chicks to hatch.  Chicks normally hatch at 21 days, which would have been yesterday.  I did read that it can take 25 days during cold weather.  I hope that that is the problem.  It will be so very disappointing if no chicks hatch.  A friend told us that we should be able to hear the chicks peeping inside the eggs.  We can't hear a thing and one egg was sloshy sounding.  :)

Earlier today a family came and got Watsonia to take home.  They have a dog and are going to keep Watsonia if she gets along with their dog.  As Tabby and I tearfully watched the family leave, we agreed we could never be dog breeders.  We'd be too sad every time a puppy left.

Watsonia (left) and Exhaust Pipe (Hunter's dog)

 Bongle is the last puppy needing a home.  I've had a few inquiries so we'll see if any pan out.
 

Bongle - feeling sleepy in the sun

 Finally, here's a quick science experiment that Hunter enjoyed recently.  Very easy to do if you have kids that like fizzy foamy type experiments.  It has sort of a lava lamp effect.

Pour some water into a plastic bottle.  Add a few drops of food coloring - your choice of color.  Then add corn oil.  (I think this is the only time I've ever bought corn oil!  I imagine it's awful GMO stuff.)  The water and oil separate.  Then the fun part - drop in 2 alka seltzer tablets.  Fun to watch!

Hunter added alka seltzer tablets several times and really enjoyed watching it as we talked about what was going on in the bottle to cause the reaction.