Baby Rabbits

The babies bunnies are a week old today! Their eyes should open in three days and they'll probably start venturing out of the nest box in about a week. They are an American Blue/Champagne D'Argent cross.

Farm Additions

The last couple of months have been very busy and have resulted in several new faces around the farm.

the count currently stands at:

 

7 rabbits

9 ducks

5 guinea fowl

9 chickens

and our newest mouths to feed

Meet Wilbur and Charlotte the potbelly pigs 

and the four pygmy goats

Caesar

Pixie 

 

Toffee

Expresso

The pygmy goats are definitely some of the most fun animals on the farm. Toffee and Expresso were both bottle fed and follow me all over the yard as I tend to all the other animals. 

Sometimes they play king of the hill on Wilbur's back. 

Expresso is always getting into trouble.

Caesar and Pixie Hang out together

 

Apollo thinks Wilbur is an awfully funny looking dog

We also had baby rabbits born yesterday morning! I don't have any pictures because I don't want to keep bothering them in the cold weather. From what I was able to see there are at least four babies!

Homemade Soap Recipe

In my last post I talked briefly about making homemade soap. Let me just tell you that this project has already gotten a little out of hand. Since that post not only have I made several different types/scents of soap, I've also experimented with making lotion bars, lip balm, and dead sea salt body soaks. I think this may be Ashley's favorite project I have gotten caught up in since she gets to test all the products. In addition to the previously listed products I've produced over the last couple of weeks, I have several pages of handwritten notes and speculations about recipes for even more types of soap, body oil, effervescent shower disks, massage oils, clay masks, bath soaks, shampoo bars, milk baths, linen sprays, body butters, and sugar scrubs. Like I said, just a little out of hand.

 

Keeping all this in mind, we have decided to open an etsy store to sell the excess products that we don't use. If you're interested here's the link. Right now the only product we have posted is the lip balm. As we get more things packaged and labeled we will continue to add to the shop.

The original batch of soap I made turned out better than I expected. Other than the odd shape of the bars, it lathers well and most importantly smells good.

For the recipe I am giving you today, I wanted to make sure it had three specific qualities.

easy good lather made from readily available oils

There are several different ways to make homemade soap and each one has its own set of positive and negative attributes. However, the method we will use with the recipe is called the cold process (many times in soap blogs and forums you will see it referred to as cp). This process will allow you greater control over what goes into your soap, and also demonstrates exactly how the oils saponify.

Here are the ingredients you will need:

3.95oz Lye - also known as sodium hydroxide (this is marketed as drain cleaner at lowes and ace hardware. Just make sure you get a product with 100% sodium hydroxide).

10oz Distilled water

12oz Canola oil

8oz Olive oil

8oz Coconut oil

Optional: Essential or fragrance oil. (tea tree oil is easy to find at most drug stores)

Supplies:

Kitchen scale

Large microwaveable bowl

Heat resistant spatula

Heat resistant measuring cup

Food grade thermometer

PPE (chemical resistant pvc gloves and safety glasses)

Stick blender

Mold for your soap (an easy and cheap option is to use a pringles can that has been rinsed out)

***Measure each ingredient by weight with an electronic scale. They need to be as precise as possible for a successful batch of soap***

Before you get started be aware that lye when combined with water is very caustic and WILL burn your skin if you spill it on yourself or splash it into your eyes. Therefore it is very important to wear your PPE and if you do somehow get spill it on yourself keep some white vinegar nearby to neutralize the lye. Even though lye is caustic, it is completely neutralized during the saponification process and as long as your oil/lye ratio is correct you will end up with a completely neutralized bar of soap. If you want to check the ratio yourself, I like to use the lye calculator at thesage.com

The first step will be to combine the distilled water and the lye. ALWAYS add the lye slowly to the water. NEVER add the water to the lye. This can cause the lye mixture to bubble up and out of your container causing a chemical spill that you don't want to deal with. Remember that the lye mixture will burn you and makes for a not so fun soapmaking experience. I always mix the lye in the sink just in case of a spill to make for a less dangerous clean up. The lye mixture will quickly heat up and will give off some pretty noxious fumes. I usually set the mixture somewhere safely away from  my work area so I don't have to worry about breathing any of the fumes.

While you're waiting for the lye to cool, mix your carrier oils together in  the large bowl. Depending on the temperature in your house, the coconut oil may be solid. This isn't an issue because once all your oils are in the bowl, microwave them 20 seconds at a time until the oils are all melted and the mixture is between 100 and 120 degrees.

Many sources I have read say that both the oils and the lye need to be between 100 and 120 degrees when you mix them together. I usually just mix them when the oils are ready even is the lye hasn't cooled down as much. I have never had any issues doing this, however, you may find that this isn't the case for you.

Pour the lye mixture into the bowl with the oils and begin blending everything together with your stick blender. Be careful not to splash any of the mixture onto your skin or your clothes as this can cause painful chemical burns.

The mixture has begun to saponify at this point, and the lye has begin to be neutralized, however, this process doesn't complete until up to several days after the soap has been poured into the mold so still use cation when it comes to letting the soap contact your skin.

Continue mixing the soap until you reach trace. Trace is when the mixture is so thick that when you take the blender out, the mixture hold it's form instead of falling down to make a flat surface.

At trace, mix in the fragrance if you chose to add one according to the calculator at thesage.com.

Pour the soap mixture into the mold. Make sure to tap the molds against the table to make sure there are no air pockets.

After 24 hours you can take your soap out of the molds and cut it into bars

.

Your freshly made soap will need to air dry for at least four weeks to harden enough to use in the shower without disintegrating.

(If you're so excited that you can't wait the four weeks then it will be safe to use after two or three weeks. Just know that the bars won't last as long)