The Homesteading Thread

My in-laws were here today and apparently my SIL wants a huge garden, wants to get chickens, bees, turkeys, goats, etc. and I’m just sitting there laughing, saying, “Get a half dozen laying hens, plant a garden, then buy the honey and all that from someone else. She insisted she could do it, she grew up in a farm.

I told her go look at the hay I’d just fed to our goats, half of which was ending up in the ground, 4.75/bale at a time.check out the chicken feed prices, almost $20/50#

Nope. A couple on YouTube in Alaska can do it, so can they.

Mazel tov, I guess. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Hahahaha.

Just watch it happen, I guess.

 

I was reading soap recipes last week and realized, if I want them cured in time for Christmas, then I better get to work.

So. I made soap today with my neighbor for the first time ever. We did 2 batches and the second round went way faster. It helps that I had a good recipe, used this:

https://lovelygreens.com/how-to-make-natural-goat-milk-soap/#recipe

I found a small homestead in town for the raw goats milk yesterday. And I have some new molds coming to make flower lotion bars, luffa embedded soaps, and medicine bottles with droppers for oregano oil. Gonna be a DIY Christmas up in this hizzy.

 

Goats milk soap is great. Our neighbor makes it so we buy it from her now and then.

Speaking of goats, our one boy was acting strange two weekends ago. Not presenting any symptoms I could pinpoint a problem, just not himself. The only thing “off” was he was urinating small amounts every 15-20 minutes. I upped his ammonium chloride, just in case. The next day he was acting more normal, though grinding his teeth, a sign of pain in goats.

I emailed the vet and she suspected he was passing a kidney stone and said keep the ammonium chloride to him, doubled amounts, for a few weeks to help dissolve it. He seems better now.

It’s important to know your animals and their personalities. They usually don’t act “sick” until they’re really unwell.

 

How much does your neighbor charge? The cheapest I've found goats milk soap bars locally is $5, but sometimes they are soft and not cured properly. You get what you pay for.

Its so important to know your animals and act quickly. Your goat will be okay because you're watching him. Poultry are worse, often they will exhibit no signs of illness, or will for a super short time and then be dead.

 

$5 or $7, I can’t remember right off.

 

I buy goats milk soap for Ruca. She has been bathed with the same kind/scent, made by the same woman in Texas, since she was born. It is not only great for their skin and coat but it also helps with fleas, as in none, and she still goes to doggie daycare 2 days a week. Highly recommend.

 

Grapefruit scented lotion bars

 

More soap curing in the fridge. This is a goats milk oatmeal recipe. There's an art to mixing in colorants for swirls and such at the end.... My bright purple mica mixed in homogeneously made a kind of dull grey brown purple. Given the scent, vanilla lavender, it's fitting, but not what I was going for.

 

4th soap recipe, used my luffa for these. The soap was too thick to use well in the massager bar molds so I'll probably use these for us and give away the others. I attempted a long gel period using the oven which I think is also not great in the massager mold. I think they call the oven technique oven cpop or something.

 

Made charcoal bars today and cut some I made yesterday. These are an example of pencil lines. I did 3 color combos: green and gold, red and gold, chocolate brown and gold. Frankensence scented lard bars.

 

I think I used too much colorant, causing a bit of brittleness, but the pour style is neat and I'll try it again.

 

Is that soap?

 

Yes, the colors come from charcoal and titanium dioxide. They are pure castille bars with high oliec safflower oil. I found that shit on sale for $1.99/32oz and bought 9 of them.

 

Castille refers to a 100% vegetable oil soap. Traditionally that oil is olive oil. Safflower oil behaves a lot like olive oil when you use it in soap. Castille bars are all around good soap for your body or for household cleaning. You may have heard of Dr. bronner's soap. That's a pretty well known pure castille soap brand. I would compare this particular black and white soap bar to a Dr. bronner's, rather than Irish Spring or Dial.

Dial and Irish spring can be very drying. They also have scents I am not fond of. The cool thing about handmade soaps is that I can control the superfat amount and choose oils that "act" specific ways once saponified. People who have bought specialty soaps may attest to this as the reason why. These small batch soaps can also be attractive, and are nice to put out in your bathroom for everything to use/see.

Goats milk soaps are very popular for their moisturizing and conditioning properties. I've played with that, charcoal and clay additives, some scents, oatmeal and coffee grounds, herbal teas. They all add something valuable to your finished product.

Just.... Go on Etsy. Homemade soaps that look like food are a whole market.

*As for a pitch ... Well. Most of these are going to be gifted for Christmas. I'll work on a pitch in the meantime, unless one of you idiots have some irresistible zingers to share.

 

That shit went everywhere with me when I went camping. The label was entertaining as hell too.

We buy goat soap from the lady I bought our goats from. Always smells great and does wonders for dry skin in the winter. The only drawback is it doesn't seem to last as long as a store-bought bar of soap.

 

I actually bought the liquid castille awhile back (that'll be a new thing to make.... Liquid soap!) For use in my garden spray mix. I ran out of hand soap and started using the lemon scented castille and it's actually really nice, so I might be converted.

I mainly made these black and white soaps to play with that pour technique. They are castille, which is an all around good soap, but I was able to use the cheap safflower oil for an inexpensive experiment.

I have the 4.5 wek old cured goats soaps I made with my neighbor. I tried the bar out yesterday. It was nice but I think a longer cure will help it last longer. The bottom that gets wet sloughs off too fast. 6weeks is typically a full cure time. Maybe the soaps you have bought were too young and not fully dried out on the inside.