Cure time aside, hardness is a factor is bar soap. When you look up the characteristics of a saponified oil, it has a hardness rating. Some soaps are indeed softer.
Cool. I was mainly wondering why somebody would make their own soap, and that makes sense. Wondered if you were planning to sell them at a Farmer's market-type thing. Yeah. I'm on a well at my house, and we have hard water. I have definitely noticed different soaps lather better or worse.
Some people really notice a difference in their skin with different soaps. In my environment, I have a problem with dry skin, so having a moisturizing bar with a superfat good for your skin is really noticeable. Soaps good for me might not be great for my sister's down south, in a warm humid environment with soft water. As I give these out, I am also hoping for feedback on their quality so that I can perfect my soaps. I would like to sell my surplus as I learn, but I don't think I'm ready to sell them on Etsy or anything. If I can get comfortable with it and find recipes and bars I really like, I will look into upgrading packaging and such. I have priced out packaging and labels and it's not really cost effective until I'm ready to buy them in 500-1000ct amounts. I'm just not there yet. Here is a soap calculator. It's good to run recipes you find through it to make sure your lye amount is correct, and it's simply required if you want to formulate your own recipe. https://soapee.com/calculator The main reason I link though, is the oil list down if you scroll a bit. Hit the question mark next to it. There is a hardness factor but also other established qualities. These come together when mix different types for different qualities in your final barsoap.
The young guy at the store where I get my feed ( and a contact high from, but that's another story in keeping with my other post today ) informed me that they were going to be carrying a new line of feed. He gave me a sample bag of this: He told me they have several customers using it, and they swear it's better than layer pellets. Said they're chickens LOVE it and lay more. I told him I'm sure the birds love it, it's practically candy for poultry. Just looking at it I knew it'd be expensive, though he couldn't tell me the price yet. I asked if they'd be carrying pellets still, because I wouldn't be feeding my flock this stuff. He said they would, just from this brand. Which kinda sucks man, I've been feeding my animals Blue Seal since I was 16 years old and working at the local feed store that first carried it here. But okay, it's not like I'll have a lot of choice if they switch, so long as I'm not feeding them this stuff, which is like caviar for chickens. Here's a closer look at the sample bag: I looked at the website, and it's 29.99 a 50# bag. I might consider feeding this if I had one or two show birds.... maybe. Otherwise? Fuck that. A big part of me wonders how much this has to do with all the suburban/ homesteading "experts" that have popped up over the past couple years. The ones that build a Taj Mahal coop, get a half dozen birds and 6 months later are blogging or doing YouTube videos.
It's 100% the crunchy granola bloggers influencing middle class suburban homesteaders. These people also treat their animals closer to pets. I know how much I pay for dog food. Premium chicken feed for a handful of chickens is probably about the same as quality dog food, and that's the cost basis comparison.
Also. PS: the flock raiser I feed my ducks is $26/50#... So not a lot cheaper than that premium stuff you looked at. I think it was $18 a bag when I started with my ducks.... Sigh
I use that brand, but not that mix. Mine is just regular pellets, I'm pretty sure it's $19 for a 50lb bag. We get it on autoship from Chewy along with our dog food.
We talked a long time ago, about pigs. I asked if anyone would like video of the process, and some of you said yes. Well, I'm just not a video taker, so it didn't happen. But, one of the young couples has started a homesteading channel, so you can finally see it. https://youtu.be/LJjkxZVFeRU?si=YPWnnxLaPldIBC0O
That's a really cool channel, and it's nice to see a homestead channel that's more realistic than some one by suburbanite who just bought three or four chickens six months ago. Love to hear those accents too. I watched the sausage gravy and biscuits video. Megan is my kinda woman.
I could tell right away, and it's refreshing to see. Kinda reminds me of some of the things I grew up seeing my family do ( I've helped castrate a pig and calf or two as a kid ). I subscribed to their channel, something I don't often do.
Same here. We had cattle, hogs and chickens. We grew so much stuff when I was a kid, even oats and corn to feed the animals. Some of us have forgotten more about real homesteading and farming than some of these youtubers that post about it will ever know.
Our kid loves to play with all the farm animals when we go back home to visit family. So we're going to try having a goat. We're not really a farm, and it's a Billy, so no milk or anything, just a pet. Probably try to get him to ride on the boat with us and the dogs. It'll be a boat goat. The goat... Its sire playing around with me... We are weird, I know.
I would tune into that channel! @Fiveslide I've heard a male goat that's been neutered makes a fantastic pet. It's like they stay kids forever. Speaking of goats. One ingredient I need for goats milk lip balm is powdered goats milk. So I did this in my dehydrator. I also just made a batch of vanilla extract.
They absolutely do, I have three of them that are very personable and friendly like dogs. The one thing you have to watch for though is kidney stones. They’re often castrated before their urethras have had a chance to grow to full size, so you have to be careful about the calcium to phosphorus ratio in their hay. A stone will block up the works and they won’t be able to piss. It’s deadly unless treated. We’ve had one that had to have the tip of his penis (called the pizzle ) cut off to allow a stone through and a second one that was showing signs of a kidney stone but I managed to get ammonium chloride into him and dissolve it before requiring surgical intervention ( thank God, he would have fought us hard ). They now get daily ammonium chloride supplement to their feed in addition to minerals which also contain AC. Consult a local large animal vet for preventative recommendations. I’d also recommend having at least two goats. They’re a herd animal and not meant to be alone.
Thanks for the tips. We may get another if he starts acting like it's necessary. I'll need to cut a deal with the property owner behind us to use for grazing, our back yard isn't big enough for two. It's vacant anyway and the only time we see them is when they come to mow it a couple times a year. He will get to spend a lot of time with our dogs, and if the kid's half as interested in him as the family's bunch of goats, it won't spend much time alone.
Finn the boat goat is here. He spent most of this morning testing the fence for weaknesses, found one and got out. Got him back in and fixed that. By early afternoon he and our pit bull were fast friends, laying together on the picnic table and he followed the dog into the house before I shooed him out. And I finished his barn, a re-purposed greenhouse. He strolled right in it to eat.