Falls is coming and so are some new fragrances!

I just ordered the first of our new fall candle melt fragrances! After testing numerous cinnamon fragrances, I finally found an absolutely, delicious, cinnamon spice blend, along with a couple yummy bakery scents, a divine apple scent (smells like fresh pressed apples, really!) and even a Hot Buttered Rum that smells just like the real thing!

In our soaps, we will also be bringing back some of our best selling fall/holiday favorites like Apple Jack Peel, Cranberry Orange, and Christmas Valley along with some wonderful new fragrances! I can't wait!

Over a week ago, the last of our daughter's does (she owns most of the goats on our farm) gave birth. Yay! This doe had us guessing for many months as to whether or not she was actually pregnant. Mixed physical signs as well as the fact that she's a very large bodied doe bred to a tiny miniature buck didn't help. But at last we found she was indeed pregnant (the two little hooves protruding from her backside was a good indication, just kidding, we actually were pretty convinced she was pregnant a little before that). She had an easy delivery (thank you Lord) giving birth to three healthy, bouncing (literally) baby bucklings (boys).

A minor complication developed the next morning after her delivery. During our morning barn chores we noticed the bellies on the little newborns were empty. Not good. They had nursed soon after their middle of the night delivery (we make sure of that), but it appeared they had not nursed since. Again, not good since newborns really need the immune building colostrum their moms produce and they need it within the first 12 hours of birth.

We observed the doe, making sure she showed all the signs of having properly bonded to her kids. Sometimes when does don't bond properly to their offspring they won't allow them to nurse. In fact, they usually won't have anything to do with them. This wasn't the case with this doe. She was "talking" to her newborns, nuzzling them, and becoming concerned if she became separated from them, all signs she was bonded. Next step was to examine her udder. Yep, there was a problem. Though not visible to our eyes, my daughter could definitely feel the congestion in her udder and this congestion was making it difficult for her kids to get milk and difficult for her to allow them to nurse. It hurt for her to nurse her babies.

To solve the problem my daughter began by gently massaging the doe's udder followed by hand milking her. This was done a couple times a day the first few days to help clear her congested udder and the doe tolerated the hand milking better then she tolerated nursing her kids. We left the babies with their mom so she'd remain bonded to them, and using a bottle, we supplemented the kids with the milk we got from milking their mom. Gradually the doe's udder healed and within a weeks time she was allowing her babies to nurse. Yay again! As cute as they are, we really didn't want to end up with bottle babies this late in the season.


During the week we were helping with their feedings I got these cute pic of the three boys.

All three are different colored, and two have blue eyes like their sire.

Mom is 1/2 Lamancha and 1/2 Nubian while Dad is a Nigerian Dwarf and you can really see the three breeds represented by the different ears. The middle one has the short eared Lamancha gene. The other two express a mix of the long Nubian ears and the prick, upright ears of the Nigerian breed.

Even though we are no longer handling these kids for daily feedings they remain friendly, especially the little brown or tan buckling ( I never remember the correct color names for goats), on the far left. He really enjoys his daily pettings.

Soap Scraps!

Soap Scraps added online!

On many batches of soaps I make I end up with a certain amount of soap scraps. These odds and ends of soap end up piling up in a big box.


When the box becomes full, I chop the soap up into smaller pieces.


Then I package the scraps, by weight, into paper bags. Each bag contain 1lb soap scraps.


I like to use up the soap scraps by putting them into our Leafa nylon soap mitts.



The Leafa has pockets that I can put a few of my scraps into.



With just a small amount of soap scraps I can wet down my Leafa and easily get a great lather.
When I'm done I rinse and hang my Leafa, still containing the soap scraps, in the shower to dry. And that's it. It ready for use next time I shower. I add new soap scraps as needed.

New Bath Shower Gel!

Introducing our New Bath and Shower Gel! Filled with organic goodies like Aloe Vera, Jojoba oil, and Rosemary essential oil, along with conditioning oils like Sweet Almond and Apricot Kernel. This concentrated gel makes tons of fluffy, creamy lather that clean quickly and gently. We are making it available in five of our best selling scents: Cedar & Saffron, Fresh Grapefruit, Japaneses Plum Blossom, Lavender Amber and Sugared Lemon, also available in unscented.

Ingredients: Organic Herbal Infusion, Organic Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice (Aloe Vera), Ammonium Laurel Sulfate, Ammonium Laureth Sulfate, Cocomidopropyl Betaine (from coconut), Cocomide D.E.A (from coconut), Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond Oil), Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot Kernel Oil), Organic Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba), Retinyl Palmitate (Vitamin A), Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Organic Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary), Organic Anthemis Nobilis (Chamomile), and fragrance

A couple new Soap Slice Soaps!

Soon to be added (if not already added by the time you read this) to our online store are two new fragrances in our "Soap Slice" style soaps.


First is our new Petal Pusher: a sweet floral blend of May Lilies and French Lilacs with a hint of Sweet Peas and summer fruits. A soft, sweet, and innocent, floral fragrance.


And Skinny Dipping: A mix of red, tart cranberries, grated orange peel, pink grapefruit lemonade, and a hint of lemongrass essential oil makes this one tangy, fruity, zippy fantastic fragrance.

Caribbean Coconut Soap Rebatched

The other day, after pouring our "Caribbean Coconut" soap into the molds, I realized I had left out one of the oils in my recipe and it was too late to do anything about it. I'm currently out of Caribbean Coconut soap so I really didn't need the headache or expense of screwing up this batch and then having to wait for more fragrance oil to arrive before I could make a new batch. But rather than cry (which I really wanted to), get mad (which I usually do), or complain (which I sometimes do), I decided to put on my big girl panties and salvage my mistake by "rebatching" the soap and I decided to do a little experimental scent blending while I was at it. FYI, rebatching soap is done by carefully and slowly melting previously made soap. You can use a variety of heat sources but for this batch I chose the microwave.

So here is the soap I need to salvage.

Here is the soap cut in smaller pieces sitting in the microwave ready to be rebatched, aka melted.

After about 30 minutes of low heat and intermittent stirring the soap is still not quite ready.

While the soap finished melting I took some time to select the colors I would use to color my soap. I love this part. I decided on some beautiful blue micas and oxides. I also ended up adding a beautiful green mica that's not pictured here.

Here's my soap finally melted and me adding the missing Avocado oil. I also decided to add a small amount of additional almond fragrance oil that I mixed in with the Avocado oil. I figured a coconut scented soap with an additional almond note sounded good.

The avocado oil and almond fragrance oil have been mixed in and now here I am adding the colors. Did I mention I love this part?

Now that the colors have been added the soap is poured/plopped into a mold and left to cool and harden. Rebatched soap has the texture of soft mashed potatoes thus the rough and rustic looking texture.

And here is the soap after it's cooled, removed from the mold, and cut. By the way, the scent turned out yummy. It reminds me of an Almond Joy candy bar. After it's well cured I'll add it to our online store as a "special edition" soap.