soap stuff...

I had some questions on how I mix water and lye for soap making so I thought it nice to share this picture. This is my typical set up for water/lye, where I have the water for soap measured in a large beaker which is placed in a bucket with cold water and a frozen icepack. It feels safer somehow to walk around with a bucket with the lye mixture rather than holding the beaker in my hands (I mix outside and then transfer the bunch downstairs to my soap making room). Plus it leaves one hand for opening and closing doors etc.

I also like the cooling down effect of the water & ice (this works better than snow, like cooling soda cans with ice cubes is slower than using a water & ice cube mixture - more cold surface to cool down I guess) and now it takes about 20-30 minutes to cool down from ca. 180-200 degrees F instead of forever LOL

Just a nice picture to show the maple leaves I like making with left over soap from larger recipes. I bought some candy boxes with a see thru lid and made gift sets, each with three differently colored leaves, and I think they look great! I'm real curious to see how they'll do coming market season...

my big little helper

It's been quite a difference between having a three year old around or a four year old! He's much more aware of how body actions affect animal behavior (a.i. throwing arms around equal running away kid goats) and is actively interested in what and why we do things - like weighing the newborn kids! Of course, he thought it hilarious, having kids in a bucket :)

Here he is showing first time mom Gazelle her kid is fine, she kept bleating for him and Simon understood without prompting what about, and what to do about it :)

and for some good news

more kids!
These are the two new ones from Thirteen, Cookie Doe and Buck Lightyear. Gazelle, on the left, Monica, in the middle and still pregnant, and mom Thirteen are checking them out. Thirteen totally took me off guard, her pelvic ligaments hadn't seem soft like Gazelle's to me at all. Plus, tho she will call out to me when the others are delivering, she will not say a thing when it's her turn - she really likes her privacy!

in memoriam

In all the five plus years we've had chickens we've had aerial hawk attacks, sneaky opposum visits, dog chases, raccoon break ins and fox drive by's - we sometimes lost just a few, sometimes many, but we always had some of our girls left... Up until last week when I picked up apple pumace for the goats and compost (bruised apples & winter squash) for the chickens. I had noticed the cracked corn on the pile but dismissed it as spoiled animal feed... except it wasn't, it was spoiled mouse bait dumped by an unthinking farm employee. By the next evening all my chickens we're either dead or dying and we ended up loosing 15 hens and 2 ducks, including Moe's girl Olivia. I am just grateful my two geese are OK, they're nesting right now, and we have at least a few khaki campbells left over for eggs. Of course, the hens had just started laying that week with us waiting all winter for fresh eggs!

I really miss the girls who helped me dig in Spring... the three Araucana hens we'd had for four years and knew what me kneeling in dirt meant: worm time! I would toss them any of the big worms that would inadvertently come up... The two bantham Buff Orpingtons I got last year thinking they were normal sized ones and wondering why they didn't grow, but they were the first to start laying. The assorted bunch of Columbian, Barred Rock and Buff Orpingtons we were given last year as replacement for the ones killed by the fox... They were raised by indoors and really friendly, so friendly I would trip over them if I did not look out when carrying buckets! They'd caught on to my compost buckets real fast and loved eradicating all the nearly, almost and pretty much spoiled foodstuffs I could haul home! I have so much left over now we actually dumped a bucket of mushy apples on our manure pile which is a first - I've never had enough foodstuff leftovers to compost, ever!

I'm glad we had already ordered replacement chicks and now have a sunroom full of squeaky peeps - not quite the real thing but getting there, haha. We also were lucky to receive nine four month old mixed breed pullets so should only have to wait for a month or two before eggs start showing up again... But I must say, this was the single most heart breaking experience I've had in my animal husbandry years... it was good having a really big bonfire a few days ago to clean up, say thanks and remember.

soap making tricks

two things I learned along the way which make making soap easier:

influence the time it takes for the soap to trace
The closer together the temperatures of the oils/fats and liquid/lye the faster they'll trace. So if for instance you make a slow tracing milk and honey soap it's good to really cool down the oils but if making a pumpkin or cucumber puree soap, where adding the mash tends to immediately trace the soap, it's good having some extra time - thus if you keep the oils/fats about 20 degrees from the liquid/lye you buy yourself some extra time to properly mix the soap and the mash.

cooling down the melted oil/fat mixture by adding cold liquid oils at the end
Meaning you can measure out olive oil, for instance, but keep it separate and add it at the end when the solid oils/fats are melted to quickly cool down the recipe. I do take the crockpot out of the heater and place it on a cold concrete floor for a bit before adding the cold oils, otherwise it heats back up pretty fast. The crock pottery retains a lot of heat (or cold).

I tend to put the crockpot on the floor, get all my lye stuff together, depending on the temperature (< or > 140F) put it back in and add olive oil or mix my milk/lye first and then put the crockpot back in, add the olive oil and add the milk/lye (keep an eye on the lye, don't let it sit for too long). This way I can make two recipes in one toddler school day :)

goats eat trees

including Christmas trees - I blogged about it last year, but now have visual proof! First go th needles and then goes the bark, strip by strip... They do seem to like certain pine species better than others looking at the assorted half dozen we gave them, but not sure what makes which better or worse. Except one that was really dried up - dropped needles by the bucket load - they never really touched it... I shouldn't have either, my husband's Honda civic trunk is still full of needles.

I pick threes up around new years from the side of the road BUT if you do make sure the trees don't have artificial snow, tinsel, spray glitter or other plastic, glue, weird stuff in them.

By the way, this is why the trees out in our pasture (one pine and a handful of junipers) have seven foot tall chain link fencing wrapped around the trunks! They'd strip'm bare...

It's spring!

Our geese are laying eggs...

(yes, it's the BIG one bottom right - the other two are store bought chicken, see the color diff?)

Everywhere bulbs are showing their tips, the ducks are quaking a chasing each other, the hens can't get out of the run fast enough (our cold storage snacks are starting to run low) and

we have our first KIDS!

Gazelle our first time mom gave birth to two beautiful boys and they look just like their dad, including the white spots and floppy ears! Already nursing and gaining weight in a couple days they'll meet the rest of the herd. Gazelle, I am so proud :)

oh, the boys are wearing goat sweaters - or the legs of a pair of sweat pants from my four year old, and now he has a pair of shorts! - because she delivered right before the two coldest nights of this insanely gentle winter. Even with the sweaters, and lots of fresh bedding hay, they were shivering until it warmed up to the mid thirties today. No problems with the long nubian ears though, sometimes the tips can get frost bite but it was not cold enough for that, I am glad to see.

my soaps are now at Ithacamade!

My natural soaps will now be available downtown at Ithaca Made, a quirky locally owned gallery, stocked with locally made arts & crafts. Check it out next time you visit Mama Goose or Mimi's Attic!

For more info you can also check my soap blog at www.farmountainfarm.blogspot.com