Soap, Goats and More

2012-01-19T14:43:00.000-08:00

New Candle Melt Scents!

English Lemon Curd: The traditional British spread made with fresh squeezed lemons, fresh grated lemon zest, whole eggs, pure cane sugar, and farm fresh butter, cooked to a creamy, thick perfection. A wonderful blend of tart and sweet with lots of lemony goodness! * I've tested many, many, lemon scents and found them to be either too similar to that of a kitchen cleaner, or fading miserably after 2-3 hours in the warmer. I'm pleased to say this does neither and it is truly a delectable lemon fragrance.

Garden Zucchini Bread: Sweet zucchini bread with notes of vanilla, lemon zest, cinnamon and nutmeg. Sliced, warm from the oven, and ready for butter! *I don't think I've smelled a candle melt that makes my mouth water like this one. I, and the rest of my family, think this smells exactly like zucchini bread!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: Thick, chewy, and warm from the oven. Made with oodles of whole rolled oats, moist sweet raisins, sweetened with light brown sugar, and spiced with cinnamon and cloves. Truly the best of the best! * Ohhh, talk about comfort fragrance, this is it!
Hot Butter Rum: A popular winter drink since the colonial times, this dark rum infused with brown sugar, creamy butter, vanilla extract and spicy cloves. A rich and classic rum aroma.
* The authentic rum notes gives this fragrance depth and richness. It's also unique in that it's a sweet fragrance (though not overly) that is neither fruit, floral or bakery based.

NEW! - French Vanilla: Finding a good french vanilla has taken me many months of trying numerous samples, and finally after finding one that measures up to our standards, it gets discontinued by the supplier:( Back to the drawing board. But the good news is I found one that is even better than the original. This new French Vanilla is a little stronger, lasts longer, and has a richer vanilla fragrance.

* Denotes my personal notes on each fragrance.

Discount Soaps!

2011-12-31T17:46:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year for cleaning out and making room for new soap! Here are some great soaps at discount prices.

Lemon Verbena 2nds Same delicious fragrance as our regular Lemon Verbena soap, with a great creamy and silky lather. When I first made this soap it was a little too cleansing (aka drying) so I let it sit for several months on our curing shelf, allowing the ph to come down with age. Now it's a wonderful, hard, long lasting soap, still strong in fragrance, perhaps a smidge more cleansing than our usual, but still gentle on the skin.

Many Man 2nds Same wonderful fragrance as our regular, best selling, Manly Man soap slices. This was a botched batch of soap that I rescued by remelting the soap and adding yummy avocado oil and cocoa butter. The soap has great scent strength and lathers into a silky, creamy lather. Very rustic in appearance.

Creamy Coconut 2nds Same coconut fragrance as our regular, great selling, Creamy Coconut soap, although a little lighter in scent strength than our regular. Like the soap above, this was a botched batch that I rescued through remelting the soap and adding yummy avocado oil and cocoa butter. This soap has a fluffy, creamy lather.

Pomegranate & Citrus Experiment #1 This is a sweet/tart citrus combo, an experimental blend that actually turned out really nice. However, I also tried to experiment with the looks of the soap by imbedding pomegranete red colored soap curls. Long story short, it came out UGLY, as in, sick to my stomach, win the prize for ugliest soap ever ugly. I ended up remelting the soap and remolding it into my round molds. Though still not beautiful, it's a major improvement over what it originally looked like (trust me;). Delicious scent with creamy, silky lather. Pomegranate & Citrus Experiment #2 Same sweet/tart fragrance blend as above, but this time I colored a portion of the soap with what I thought would be a beautiful pomegranate red color. I was hoping it would combine nicely with brown tan color of the rest of the soap. Instead I got a tan soap with a bubble gum pink accent. It still smells great, with the same silky, creamy, lotion like lather of the rest of my soaps.

Lavender Orange Experiment With more lavender than orange, this soap smells stronger when wet than dry. In fact, I was going to originally write that this soap has very little scent that was until I washed my hands with and the smelled the fragrance come alive. This is another one of my experiments in color. Hard bars with silky creamy lather. Note: Each bar is slightly different in look as some have more yellow/pink imbeds than others.

Apple Jack Spice Unstamped (formally known as Apple Jack Peel): I made way too many of these soaps for the Holiday season, so many that I still had a good sized batch sitting on my curing shelf waiting to be stamped. So rather than stamp them I placed them here in clearance section and priced them to sell! With a spicy apple fragrance, this is one of my personal favorites that I like year round, but then I like spice scents like clove and cinnamon not matter the season. These can also be wrapped in paper (helps retain the scent) and stored in dark, dry, room temperature place for next fall season. The bars will shrink a little, but will be rock hard, long lasting, and extra, extra, gentle on the skin.
Cinnabear I made too many of these and need to move them. Like the Apple Jack Spice, these soaps can be stored, wrapped in paper, in a dark, dry, room temperature place for next fall. These will stay nicely fragranced and be extra hard, long lasting and mild with extended cure time.

Holiday Favorites are in!

2011-11-07T10:52:00.001-08:00

Two of our best selling holiday soaps in our Classic Rounds are now available!

Apple Jack Spice: Cinnamon, cloves and apples blended together perfectly for a delicious fall fragrance.

Cranberry Orange:A zesty cranberry sweetened with orange. A wonderful classic holiday blend.

New Soap Slice Fragrances!

2011-11-03T19:31:00.000-07:00

In time for fall, three new sweet and spicy Soap Slice fragrances!

Bobbing For Apples: Crisp, sweet apples with a splash of juicy orange and spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon and clove. Reminds me of pressed apple cider fresh from the orchard.

Wild Oats & Beer: Creamy oats with notes of sweet vanilla and rich milk, blended magnificently with smooth dark beer, nutty almond, and warm butterscotch. An absolutely delectable fragrance!

Spiced Pumpkin Ale: Full bodied, brown ale flavored with pureed pumpkin, brown sugar, smooth rum, and spiced with grated nutmeg, warm cinnamon, and crushed ginger. An absolutely edible fragrance!

In the Soap Kitchen: Making harder soaps

2011-10-19T14:01:00.000-07:00

Yikes! I see it's been awhile since I've blogged. My computer crashed not too long after my last blog and it took awhile to get it back up and running. At least that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

With the current economy and people working harder than ever at making their shrinking dollar go as far as possible, I've spent time this past summer working at developing a harder (theoretically longer lasting) bar of soap all without sacrificing gentleness and lather. Easier said than done in my experience. The past 6 weeks I've been experimenting with yummy Cocoa Butter. Not a cheap ingredient, but if it helps keep the soap a little harder and longer lasting I believe it will be worth it. It certainly adds an even extra dose of creaminess that I find very appealing. We'll see what you think. The first batches with Cocoa Butter will be ready early November.

Cocoa Butter waiting to be melted and added to my soap recipe

A couple new Special Edition Soaps!

2011-08-02T12:03:00.000-07:00

We just added two new "Special Edition" Soaps . As a special treat, we've kept the price low on these soaps. These are available only online.
Coconut Almond : This a lite, creamy coconut, with soft green notes, combined with a yummy bakery almond.

Rosemary Eucalyptus: A blending of two favorite essential oils for an invigorating, wake-me-up aroma. Very similar to our best selling Classic Round Eucalyptus & Rosemary soap.

Falls is coming and so are some new fragrances!

2011-07-30T16:02:00.001-07:00

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!

2011-07-24T11:16:00.001-07:00

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!

2011-07-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-07-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-07-17T17:52:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-05T22:03:00.000-07:00

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.

Update and New Bath and Body Gel coming soon!

2011-06-21T18:31:00.001-07:00

I was all excited this past month of June to introduce a new goat milk product. Unfortunately, (big sigh) it's not yet ready. So what was this mystery product I was so excited about? Goat Milk Bath & Shower Gel that we are still (ever so slowly) working on. But wait! There is still some good news. Though not made with goat milk we are getting ready to introduce our new Bath & Shower Gel which is a wonderful alternative for those that love our scents but don't use bar soap. This gentle and moisturizing cleansing gel makes oodles of silky soft, creamy lather. And trust me when I say that a little bit goes a long way. Seriously, I used 1/2 teaspoon ( yes I measured) on one of those nylon poufs and I had more lather than I new what to do with! Now, I'm still doing some final fragrance testing, and putting the finishing touches on the packaging, but we hope to have this wonderful product available within the next two weeks. We'll keep you updated!

In time for Summer new fun and fruity candle melts!

2011-06-15T17:09:00.001-07:00

Fruit scents have been a favorite with our customers so it's fun to introduce some new ones for the summer season.

Introducing............

Juicy Watermelon: Cold, crisp, sweet and juicy Watermelon at its best!

Cucumber Melon: Sweet Honeydew Melon with crisp, fresh Cucumber.

Sun Sweetened Raspberries: Sun Sweetened Raspberries with a sprinkle of pure cane sugar and soft vanilla.

Carousel: With sweet notes of cotton candy, French vanilla, creamy caramel, milk chocolate, dark amber, soft musk and a mix of light florals and juicy strawberry, this fragrance is sure to be a hit with the young and those of us that are young at heart. (Okay, maybe not really a fruit scent, but it is fun!)

Kickin' Kiwi: Sweet like a strawberry and refreshing like a summer melon is this delicious fruit known as the Kiwi.

Jamaican Me Happy: Tropical fruits of pineapple, papaya, and banana, mixed with grated coconut, zesty mandarin and a hint of rum makes this a tropical vacation in a candle melt. Don't forget the sunscreen!

Creamy Lime: Tangy, zesty lime sweetened with soft notes of creamy coconut .

Island Retreat: Juicy notes of ripe mango, sliced pineapple, and fresh citrus, complemented with soft notes of pink plumeria and lush, tropical greens nestled in a base of creamy coconut and white musk makes for one complex and delicious Tropical Retreat!

2011-06-05T15:12:00.000-07:00

Phew! The past two months have been very busy. We've had 11 does kid (give birth) with only two left to go! And as a result, my daughter and I have been spending many hours in the barn these days, milking, feeding bottle babies, monitoring pregnant does, and the list goes on.

I've also been spending time working on new products and scents. In our Candle Melts, we have several new scents coming mid June, scents like Kickin Kiwi. Black Cherry, Juicy Watermelon, Jamaican Me Happy, Sun Sweetened Raspberry, and Carousel! I can't wait to officially introduce these along with our new goat milk_______ (not telling yet because it's a surprise) that we will be introducing soon!

Here's some of our kids waiting for their bottle. From left to right we have Lady, Milo (the only guy in the group,) Fae, River, and Molly.

Getting Ready for Kidding!

2011-03-27T15:58:00.001-07:00

Here's a few things we have ready before our does start delivering.

Kidding pens ready!
These pens are set up inside the regular pens. This gives the doe her own space when it's time to give birth yet keeps her close to her herd.

And almost ready!

Fresh Straw for bedding

Relaxing, Calming, Lavender Essential Oil!
We put a few drops in and around the kidding pens.

Clean towels!

Ingredients for Vitamin/Gatorade drink
(Given to mamma doe after she kids)

Plenty of hot chocolate and coffee for those late night kiddings!

Makeshift bed in barn.

Wet, gloomy weather!
The rule of thumb is if you have does due to deliver you have to have cold, rainy weather. It makes those late night trips out to the barn so invigorating!

In The Family Way

2011-02-24T16:33:00.000-08:00

This is Judy's daughter Justine here :). We wanted to share some pictures of our very pregnant girls residing in our barn. These lovely ladies are 4-6 weeks out from their due dates. The average gestation for goats is 150 days. LaManchas average 145 day, and other breeds have been known to go up to 155 days. All but 3 does are bred to our Nigerian Dwarf buck Jack Jack, so their kids will be 1st Generation LaManchas.

Before we go on I want to clarify what exactly a 1st Generation LaMancha is. When a LaMancha is bred to a Nigerian Dwarf, their kids are what is known in the goat world as a First Generation LaMancha. 1st Generation's average size is 80lbs as opposed to the 140lb-170lb LaMancha or the 40-60lb Nigerian Dwarf. You can have 1st Generation in other breeds also, it just requires breeding a standard size goat such as a LaMancha or Nubian to a Nigerian Dwarf buck. I won't go in to more details and bore you guys with the whole genetic dynamics. I did want to give an outline, so you could better understand when I refer to a doe as a 1st Generation LaMancha instead of just LaMancha.

The LaManchas bred to Jack Jack, will have kids averaging about 3-5lbs. The 1st Generation LaMancha's bred to Jack Jack, will have kids averaging 2-4lbs. The size of the kids depends on how many they are carrying. A goat can have anywhere from a single kid to quads and you do have the rare quints, most common is twins although we have had singles and triplets here on the farm. A single kid is going to weigh more than a kid from a set of triplets, which is why I say the size depends on how many kids. I do have 3 does bred to my LaMancha buck Abraham which some of you might remember from last February. Their kids will average about 7-8lbs.

Ping my mom's 3yr old 1st Generation Mini LaMancha, due March 25th. You can't tell in the photo but her belly actually is quite large. Me and mom are guessing she will have 2-3 kids, do you have any guesses?

***

Ricoalette my mom's 9yr old LaMancha due, March 26th. She is also known around here as "The Tank" :). Mom and I where discussing how many she might have and we think maybe twins. She is large in her belly anyways, but do you have any guesses?

***

Rosie my mom's 3yr old 1st Generation Mini LaMancha, due March 30th. She has a pretty large girth going, so we are guessing triplets. Any guesses from you guys?

***

This sweet lady is Nim, my 2yr old LaMancha, due March 30th. She is the first of the three bred to Abraham. This girl is the sweetheart of the farm, she loves her cuddles and kisses as you can see in the top photo :). She is bred to Abraham, so I am thinking a single kid. She might be hiding a second baby up in her rib cage though, any guesses? (these kids will be in the 7-8lb range)

***

Sue Bear is my 2yr old LaMancha due March 30th. She is actually showing a bit in the belly so I am thinking twins what with her being bred mini. She is what we call a first freshener meaning she has never been bred. First freshener's tend to not show as much when pregnant for the first time. Any guesses from the peanut gallery?

***

Mia is my 4yr old LaMancha, due March 30th. I am thinking she will have triplets, with her being bred mini. Her belly is getting quite large, but she has surprised me before. Care to wager a guess?

***

Briar Rose my 3yr old LaMancha, due March 31st. She is one of my most dairy looking does on the farm, add her long body to the mix and she could be hiding twins. She is bred to Abe so you have to remember the kids will be in the 7-8lb range.

***

Tinkerbell my mom's 2yr old 1st Generation Mini LaMancha, due April 7th. You can't tell from the photos but out of all 4 mini's we have due she has the largest belly going on. Mom and I say triplets, how about you guys?

***

Trinket is my 7yr old LaMancha, due March 8th. She isn't as strong in her hocks and that comes from her momma but so far her babies have been nice and strong. She is to Abe and her belly isn't too big so I am hoping for a single little girl. What do you think? (again 7-8lb kids)

***

Last but not least we have Zoe my 2yr old 1st Generation Mini Lamancha, due March 11th. She is just a bit smaller in the belly than her twin sister Tinkerbell so I think twins. Any guesses on how many she is going to have?

Funny little fact, Trinket is Zoe and Tinkerbell's momma. I was rather tickled to see that they are all due within a few days of each other.

When all these does are 1-2 weeks out from delivering we will post some updated photos of their increasing girth and then of course when they finally "pop" we will give birth announcements along with photos :). We do have 3 other does due later but they are no fun to post pictures of as they are still retaining their girlish figures for another few months. But no worries when they start getting some womanly curves in their bellies we shall post some pictures.

Where did January go?!

2011-02-03T16:17:00.000-08:00

January is typically slow for us. No big shows to attend. No goats to milk. No goat babies to bottle feed. But that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. Food/soaping oils, like coconut oil and palm oil, have been skyrocketing in price! Trying to keep my soap prices down I've been busy tweaking and testing my current recipes seeing what changes I can make to keep costs down with the cost of my supplies rising. I've also been working with different additives like beeswax and stearic acid( aka vegetable wax) seeing how I can lengthen the life of a bar soap all while keep it smelling great, lathering well, and super gentle on the skin.

Some basic soaping ingredients from left to right: Lard, Stearic Acid (Vegetable wax) Palm oil, Beeswax

Early January found our weather gray, wet and gloomy, basically a typical Pacific Northwest winter.

Looking across our goat pasture. Notice there are no goats in the field because they are hunkered down in the barn.

Our backyard in early January. Green, gray, and brown are the predominant winter colors around here. At least we have green grass in January! And notice the beautiful green wheat field in the background!

Our buck pen with its occasional duck pond that occurs during really wet weather. There's Arwen, our lone duck, enjoying this wet spell. She's around 11- years-old!

With all the gloomy weather I took time to experiment with creating some colorful soaps.

As you can see in my color choices I'm longing for spring and summer colors!

I've also been busy testing many wonderful new fragrances for both our soaps and candle melts! I can't wait to introduce some of these new fragrances over the upcoming months!

Clementine Cupcake!

2011-01-13T12:19:00.001-08:00

Clementine Cupcake!

I love this fragrance! It's been a part of my personal "secret stash scents" for many, many months. This past summer I introduced it at one of our local farmer's market as a "limited edition" fragrance. It was trial run of sorts since I never know how well a "foody" type fragrances will sell, and much to my delight, it sold very well! So now I'm excited to introduce it to all our customers. The name says it all and let me assure you that it really, truly, scout's honor, smells just like a delicious, calorie laden, mandarin flavored cupcake! Clementine Cupcake is available in our hand&body cream (jars) and hand&body lotions (pump bottles) and our wonderful Body Silk conditioning skin spray.

Soap Sniffies!

2011-01-12T11:44:00.000-08:00

Coming soon Soap Sniffies!

Soap sniffies, as shown above, are small samples of our soaps packaged and labeled in small ziplock bags. Purchase price will only be 35¢ each, or 5 for a $1.50 (30¢ each.) These allow our online customers a chance to test smell and see the actual color of our soaps at a nominal cost before purchasing a whole bar.

Due to being hand cut our soap samples range in size but are generally more than enough to wash your hands a couple times and see how, and if, the scent lingers on your skin.

Three New Candle Melt Fragrances!

2011-01-07T15:24:00.000-08:00

Lemon Cookies: Rich, vanilla laden sugar cookies flavored with lemon zest.

Mangosteen & Grapefruit: Mangosteen is a tropical fruit that is described as "sweet and tangy, citrusy with flavor similar to that of a peach." White grapefruit gives this fragrance a little extra "zing" and keeps it from being overly sweet. A great remedy for the winter doldrums.

Driftwood: Notes of sandalwood, cedar wood, musk, and vanilla make this a very soothing, calming fragrance. This fragrance is also infused with natural cedar wood, patchouli, and clover leaf essential oils. One of my new personal favorites.

Pretty soaps

2011-01-04T13:12:00.000-08:00

With the Christmas show season over, I'm finally back in my soaping room, aka kitchen, making soap and I love how the color turned out on these two new soaps.

"Firefly Frenzy"
Available Feb 3, 2011
Description coming soon.
Pst. This is a remake of a formally best seller

"Woodland Elves"
Available Feb 3, 2011
Description coming soon.

New style of soaps!

2010-10-31T18:40:00.000-07:00

I'm calling this new style (drum roll please) SOAP SLICES! Okay, not the most creative name, but I think it fits since the soap looks sort of like a slice of bread (sort of, or like the state of oregon), thus the name.
These goat milk soaps have a similar rustic, marbled look as our Classic round soaps, wonderful lather and are incredably gentle on the skin, but are different in shape, with fun names stamped right on the soap, bright colors (with the fragrances that allow me to color them brightly,) and bright, fun fragrances to match! A few fragrances will be ones you are already familiar with from our Classic round line that we decided to bring over to this new line. However we have many new fragrances we will be introducing over the coming weeks. These soaps are also slightly smaller (by weight) and a little more economical. Something we all could use in these difficult, economic times.

Here's what we have so far....

Peachy Keen: Sweet, juicy, Georgia peach, with a hint of zesty, white grapefruit. Summer year round!

Cedar & Saffron: A woodsy, earthy, cedar coupled with the spicy, grassy, sweet scent of Saffron. This is same popular fragrance used in our cream, lotion and body spray!

Oatmeal Milk & Honey: New look, but same great fragrance! Creamy oatmeal and milk sweetened with golden honey makes this fragrance absolutely edible. This soap also contains whole ground oats, local Clover Honey, and of coarse Creamy, White Goat milk.

Vanilla Bean: New look but the same great, classic, vanilla bean fragrance.

Star Man: New look and and formerly known as Star Anise & Lemon The sweetness of Star Anise and the Zing of bright Lemon. Truly Enticing!

Hunter's Moon: New Look but same great fragrance as found in our classic round Hunter's Moon. This is a rich masculine blend of musk, woods and oak moss, with a touch of lime and whisper of rose and cyclamen.

More coming soon!..................................................

2010-10-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

testing testing

2010-10-21T12:54:00.001-07:00

testing again

2010-10-21T12:52:00.001-07:00

testing

Working on New Soaps!

2010-10-20T20:45:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a prior post many weeks ago, I've been busy working on a new style of soap I'll soon be introducing. I've been having fun, fun, fun developing these soaps where there is no such thing as too little color;) Here are pictures of some I made yesterday.

Soap hardening in mold

Soap out of the mold and cut

Soap being Stamped

Soap ready for the curing rack

Testing Day

2010-08-25T19:53:00.000-07:00

I've been working (ever so slowly) on a new line of soaps that are going to be fun in color, fragrance, and name, and a little more economical than our round classic soaps. So today I spent the day testing new fragrance oil blends and color blends. Here are some of my test soap samples. Each are labeled with the scent or color blend I used.

Now if I could only remember what I scented this white, unlabeled sample with.

More New Candle Melt Scents!

2010-08-23T18:59:00.001-07:00

We've added some new candle melt scents! As well as being great as they are, several are great blenders, meaning you can mix them with other fragrances of candle melts we carry for a different or unique blend of your own.

White Vanilla: Strong yet light vanilla with subtle notes of white orchid and white musk. No bakery notes so that even those of you that are not into food type scents would probably enjoy this one. Great on it’s own or try blending it with any of our floral or fruit scents.

Cinnamon Strudel: Flaky pastry made with real butter and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar warm from the oven. This is great on it’s own or mix with any of our fruit scents for a delicious fruit pie scent.

Peppermint and Eucalyptus: A clean, brisk, energizing blend of two favorites.

Baked Apple Cinnamon: This is a yummy baked apple sprinkled with cinnamon, sugar and butter. And if you aren’t counting carbs blend this with our Cinnamon Strudel for a wonderful Cinnamon Apple Strudel scent.

Testing new pumpkin and spice scents!

2010-08-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last couple days testing pumpkin and spice scents for our candle melts and during this time I've learned that 99% of these type of fragrances are predominately cinnamon blends. Now I like cinnamon, but what's happened to clove, allspice, or nutmeg(one of my favorites)? They probably don't sell as well (big sigh.) Oh well, I do have a couple pumpkin scents that smelled yummy when pouring my testers. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will throw well in our melts.... To be continued!

New candle melts scents added!

2010-07-27T09:20:00.000-07:00

New candle melts scents added to our web store, and all other scents (except Lily of the Valley) are back in stock. New scents include the following: Bartlette Pear, Clean Cotton, Twilight Woods, Ripe Cantaloupe, Lemongrass & Sage, Black Raspberry Cream, Sliced Pineapple, and Apple Harvest. For descriptions see web store;)

If you notice, many of the scents we carry are single notes fragrances which make for easy blending. For example if you like apples and oranges, blend our new Apple Harvest with our California Orange. Like Lavender blends ? Try blending our Soft Lavender with our new Clean Cotton, or classic White Gardenia or.........you get the idea. The blending combinations are endless.

Fresh Soap!?

2010-06-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

I was recently at a local market when I heard a fellow soapmaker promoting their product as being "freshly made." Ahh, fresh soap! Sounds so good doesn't it? And watching how people were responding to this marketing angle it was working! I mean we all love fresh things like fresh baked bread, fresh picked vegetables, or fresh bottled milk. So why not fresh soap? We'll because like a fine wine, soap is best with aging, or what is known in soap maker's lingo as "curing."

Curing is a very important part of the soap making process and should not be overlooked by the serious soapmaker. Curing allows freshly made soap to lose the excess moisture leftover from the soap making process thereby causing it to become harder, longer lasting, and better lathering. Curing also allows time for the soap to become milder (ph lowers naturally with cure time) and thus much gentler on the skin than a piece of freshly made soap. The curing process usually takes about 1 month to six weeks and sometimes even longer depending on the soaping method used and the oils used in the recipe. And there's just no good substitute for the time spent curing soap if one wants to produce a premium soap. So leave fresh for bread, vegetables and milk, but buy soap that has aged some if you truly want a premium product.

Some of our Almond Delight soap on the curing rack. The card notes the date it is ready for sale.

Two Best Sellers Back in Stock!

2010-06-23T15:35:00.000-07:00

Our Best Selling Almond Delight (made with freshly ground almonds) and Oatmeal, Milk & Honey (made with whole ground oatmeal, local raspberry honey, and creamy goat milk) are back in stock!
Almond Delight- Oatmeal Milk & Honey

Mango & Cream

2010-06-15T11:37:00.000-07:00

Yum! Coming July 17th our Mango & Cream scented soap. Ever have a mango shake? Well this delicious fragrance reminds me of just that. Ripe, succulent mango blended with sweet vanilla cream makes for one dreamy, tropical treat!

Growing like a weed!

2010-06-10T14:55:00.000-07:00

I blogged about my daughter's new herd sire, Abraham, last March.
Look how he's grown!

Then
(2 weeks old)

Now
(3 months old)

Then
(2 weeks old)

Now
(3 months old)

Two new soap scents coming in July!

2010-06-07T13:41:00.000-07:00

Two new soaps scents coming in July!

Mmmm. My kitchen smelled so good when I made these soaps last week.
I can't wait till these are ready for sale!

Introducing Lemon Verbana a fresh, citrusy, slightly herbal fragrance that's very reminiscent of the actual plant. And, by far, the best Lemon Verbena fragrance I've smelled.

And Simply Clean a refreshing, yet relaxing blend of lemon peel, cotton blossom, English violet, white musk, and Egyptian Corn Mint. Seriously, "clean" never smelled so good!

Kid pics!

2010-05-19T06:04:00.001-07:00

It's been busy around here with the Farmer's Markets back in full and swing and the kidding season upon us and I haven't had time to post like I'd like to, but I thought I'd share some of my favorite kid pics from this season.

New Candle Melt Scents!

2010-04-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

We added 6 new candle melt fragrances. Five are pictured above. The scents include:

California Orange
Fresh Linen
Grass Patch
Juniper Aloe
Pink Plumeria
Yellow Rose

For descriptions check out our website!

New "Limited Edition" Soaps!

2010-04-06T15:04:00.000-07:00

Just for fun I've created two new "limited edition" soaps. Okay, actually I was making one of my regular batches of soaps and screwed up by forgetting to add the white coloring to the raw soap base. Once I realized my mistake it was too late and I had 16lbs of cooked soap I needed to quickly figure out what to do with. With some quick scent blending and creative coloring these two delicious soaps are the results.

Introducing;

Tickled Pink
A blend of sugared raspberries and bubbly champagne. Fun and berry bubbly!

And

Orange You Happy?

With notes of juicy orange, golden honey, candied fruits, lemon peel and patchouli, this sunny, orange fragrance is the perfect remedy for the chilly, wet and dreary days of spring we are currently experiencing here in the Northwest. And a special note to you patchouli haters, and I know you are out there. I only used a smidgen of patchouli ( I swear.) So don't let the name patchouli sway you from trying this yummy blend.

And as a special treat for our online customers, during the month of April, these soaps which are regularly priced $6.95 will be available at $5.00 each!

Woodland Tulip Festival

2010-04-04T16:15:00.000-07:00

I hope we didn't disappoint anyone with our no show at yesterday's (Sat. April 3rd) Woodland Tulip Festival. Vehicle troubles (couldn't get the van to start) kept us grounded for the day. Curt was able to get her up and running for today's outing at the festival. And hopefully the weather was better in Woodland, Washingtion than it was this afternoon here in Molalla, Oregon. Probably not, but it looks like next weekend is shaping up to be a little better weather than this weekend was. We'll see.

Removing Candle Melts from Packaging

2010-04-01T17:02:00.000-07:00

I want my blog to be a place where you can get the nitty-gritty information on our products, so with that in mind let me show you how I remove our candle melts from the clamshells packaging.

Some of our candle melts are easily removed by gently pressing on the bottom of the packaging as shown in the two pictures below.

**************************************************************************************

However, some of our fragrances make the wax a little stickier, but using my method, pictured below, even those are easily to removed from the clam shell.

First I open the lid.

Next I bend the package back along the crevices of the clamshell like pictured below.

Bend 1

Bend 2

Bend 3

Now the candle melt has cracks in the wax that look like this

And now, by pressing gently on the back of the package, I easily remove the wax 1 square at a time.

2010-03-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

Good News! You asked for it and we listened, finally;) We've taken several of our custom fragrances and added them to our regular line of fragrances. So now, most all our fragrances are available in all three of our wonderfully moisturizing body products without the extra custom fragrance charge. Our new fragrance line-up looks like this:

Goat Milk Hand & Body Cream:

Almond Delight
Cedar & Saffron
Fresh Grapefruit (New)
Hidden Orchid
Japanese Plum Blossom
Lavender Vanilla
Lavender Amber (New)
Lilac & Lilies (New)
Passionfruit & Papaya
Pineapple Cream
Sugared Lemon
White Gardenia
English Lavender & Mint (New)
Unscented

Goat Milk Hand Body Lotion

Almond Delight (New) This almond replaces Almond Biscotti which has been discontinued due to low sales but it's still available as a custom fragrance.
Cedar & Saffron
Fresh Grapefruit
Hidden Orchid (New)
Japanese Plum Blossom (New)
Lavender Vanilla (New)
Lavender Amber
Lilac & Lilies
Passionfruit & Papaya (New)
Pineapple Cream (New)
Sugared Lemon
White Gardenia (New)
English Lavender & Mint
Unscented

Body Silk Conditioning Skin Spray

Almond Delight (New)
Cedar & Saffron (New)
Fresh Grapefruit
Hidden Orchid
Japanese Plum Blossom (New)
Lavender Vanilla (New)
Lavender Amber
Lilac & Lilies (New)
Passionfruit & Papaya (New)
Pineapple Cream (New)
Sugared Lemon (New)
White Gardenia (New)
English Lavender & Mint (New)
Unscented

Sadly, Honey Patch, Baby Powder & Orange and Yellow Rose have been retired due to low sales but are still available in our custom fragrances.

New Addition to the Herd!

2010-03-27T16:39:00.000-07:00

Meet Abraham

Last Sunday found us near Grants Pass, Oregon, at Fir Meadows Farm, picking up my daughter's long awaited new herd sire, "Abraham." Abraham is a pure bred Lamancha from excellent dairy lines. He's only two weeks old in this picture. Yep, he's a big one.

Since we have no goats yet born on our farm we also picked up a companion to keep Abraham company. Meet "Boomer," an active, cuddly, pure bred Toggenburg wether aka neutered male.

Here's Cat, the owner of Fir Meadow's Farm surrounded by some of her beautiful and friendly dairy does.

Back home in our barn, here's Abraham getting snuggled after his morning bottle

Not be left out, Boomer soon crawled up onto Justine's lap too. Fortunately there's still room, for now.

Abraham and Boomer getting use to our rowdy German Shepherds.

Making Lotion

2010-03-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

We made lotion today and here are some pictures of the process.

Here is the "water phase" containing the distilled water, goat milk, aloe vera, and silk being heated to a minimum of 176 degrees and held for a minimum of 20 minutes. The heating process is used to kill potential bacteria and mold spores.

We use a canning kettle as our makeshift double broiler when heating the water phase.

Here's the "Oil Phase" and it contains the Abyssinian oil, Fractionated Coconut oil, Rice Bran oil and the emulsifying waxes. The oil phase is heated so that the wax melts. In this picture the mixture has not yet been heated and so you can still see the wax.

The oil and wax blend has been heated, the emulsifying wax is melted and is now added to the water/milk phase.

Using an emulsion blender we mix the oil and water phase together.

We chill the mixture in a sink of cold water, blending periodically.

While the water and oil mixture chills in the sink we measure out the silicones.

The water and oils are now cool enough to add the silicones.

Using a a hand drill and mixer attachment we mix the silicones in.

The mixture is thickened and once cooled to room temp it's ready to be fragranced and bottled.

New Soaps!

2010-03-16T19:24:00.000-07:00

A few new soaps!

Amazon Teakwood
Primary notes of Brazilian Teakwood, fresh cut cedar, with subtle notes of
patchouli, sandalwood and moss makes this an exotic, woodsy, unique fragrance.

English Lavender & Mint
A bright, clean, refreshing blend of two favorites.
This first batch is definitely more mint than lavender. Next batch I'll up the lavender to better represent it in the blend

Star Anise & Lemon
Actually this is our "Lemon and Black Licorice" with a new name and look.

Eucalyptus & Rosemary
The blending of eucalyptus and rosemary essential oils creates this invigorating, wake-me-up soap. Especially important now that we are all trying to adjust to the current time.....(Yawn)....... change;)
This soap replaces our "Eucalyptus and Thyme" which tended to be too strong and medicinal for many people.

Vanilla Bean
Back for a limited time, classic Vanilla Bean.

2010-03-02T14:24:00.000-08:00

Normally, by this time year, my daughter and I have baby goats to care for and does to milk, but this year we decided to take a longer break between the busy holiday season and the tiring kidding season .

Since we don't have new baby goat pics to share I thought it might be fun to look back at some of our past kids to see what they look like then and now.

February 2008
Briar Rose at a couple days of age

February 2010
Briar Rose at 2 years of age

May 2008
Rhapsody at a couple weeks of age
February 2010
Rhapsody at almost two years of age

April 2008
Goat kids

February 2010
Same group of goats as above but now two years of age

Candle Melts Are Here!

2010-02-25T18:35:00.000-08:00

After much testing the new candle melts are now available online!

Fragrances currently available include:

German Chocolate Cake
Summer Sweet Pea
White Gardenia
Gentle Lavender
Sun Baked Figs
Frosted Cinnamon Rolls
Creme Brulee
Lily of the Valley
Southern Honeysuckle
More Coming Soon!

Two new scents!

2010-02-11T16:08:00.000-08:00

Here are two new scents that will soon be added to our web store it they haven't already(Curt are you reading this?) The first is a lovely rose fragrance we are calling "Red Rose." This fragrance was first introduced last May during Portland's annual Rose Festival celebration. It was brought in as a limited editions fragrance and sold very well, in fact I had numerous request to bring it back once it had sold out for the season. So I did, but I recolored it yellow and named it "Yellow Rose." Big mistake. Though the fragrance was enjoyed the color was not. It was a slow mover with the yellow color. So it's back to its original color with a new name.

Secondly, let me introduce "Lady Lavender." Did you know that plain jane lavender fragrance out sells all other soap fragrances 2 to 1? We'll I didn't know that until recently while reading about in a bath and body fragrance trend article. So I thought it was about time I get with the program and bring in a good lavender fragrance. Fortunately I have tested many, many lavender fragrances over the past years so I knew just the one that would be perfect. It's actually a "tweaked" version or rather my own customized lavender fragrance that you won't find anywhere else. Slightly sweet, wonderfully smooth, and classically relaxing, as any good lavender fragrance should be. And there's a hint of something else tucked in there, but I'm not telling.

Coming Soon! Candle Melts!

2010-01-27T13:59:00.000-08:00

Nope, I haven't forgot about our candle melts. Over the past several months I've been testing and testing and testing many new fragrance oils trying to find the best of the best to offer in our new and improved candle melts. In fact, the picture above shows just a small portion of fragrances I've tested for our new melts. And.......drum roll please.... I'm finally pleased to announce some of the new candle melt fragrances we'll have available this coming February.

Creme Brulee
Frosted Cinnamon Buns
Gardenia Blossom
Gentle Lavender
German Chocolate Cake
Lily of the Valley
Summer Orange Blossom
Sun Baked Figs
Summer Sweat Pea
Sweet Pipe Tobacco
Wild Honeysuckle
With more coming!

Descriptions and more details coming soon!

Hot processed Soap

2010-01-07T16:47:00.000-08:00

Over the past two years I've been experimenting with "hot processed" soapmaking. Hot processed soap is made by adding extra heat via the microwave, double broiler, crock pot, oven, or whatever else you can think of, to the soap making process. By adding heat you speed up the saponification process there by turning oils and lye into soap faster than when using the traditional "cold pour" method. With hot processed soap you can go from a raw soap mixture to a completely saponified soap within an hour. The traditional cold pour method can take up to 2 days for the oils and lye mixture to completely turn into soap. Both methods still require cure time on a shelf before they are at their best IMO. Check out the pics below of some soap I made recently using the hot process method.

Here's the raw soap (melted oils, lye and water) ready to go. I chose to use the oven, set on warm, to "cook" the soap.

As the soap begins to heat up and "cook" you can see around the edges of the bowl how it changes texture.

In this picture the soap if fully saponified, no lye remains. The texture is like that of soft mashed potatoes.

Here I'm adding the goat milk after the cook in order to keep the sugars in the milk from burning and turning brown and stinky. For hot processed soap I'm using a food grade, spray dried, whole fat goat milk that has been reconstituted into a concentrated slurry.

The soap has now been scented, colored and plopped into a wooden mold. After it cools I'll take it out and cut it.

And here's the soap out of the mold and cut. It needs to cure another months to 6 weeks to be at it's best. I scented it with an energizing orange, mint and lavender blend and colored with bright sunny colors! When this soap is ready, I'll make it available online as a limited edition.

2009-12-31T17:03:00.000-08:00

Here's in northwest Oregon we are having a day made for a duck! To prove it I've included a picture of our lone duck "Arwen" enjoying today's rainy weather. Arwin is a dwarf breed of duck known as an East Indie and at nearly 10 years old she is the last of our waterfowl. She woke me early this morning when I heard her quacking happily in her "pond" in our driveway.

2009-12-07T13:04:00.000-08:00

I've tried many, many coconut scents and had trouble finding one that "sticks" in my goat milk soap. Finally, I found one that passes with flying colors. This is a creamy, soft, slightly sweetened coconut fragrance. Enjoy!

2009-12-05T19:53:00.000-08:00

On these damp, chilly mornings I often see the goats standing like statues absorbing the warmth from the sun. I can't blame them.

candle Melts

2009-11-02T16:10:00.000-08:00

Candle melts where art thou? Well, (big disappointed sigh) I have the new packaging (see pic above) in stock and sitting on the shelves in my storage room just waiting, hoping, to be filled with fragranced wax. Unfortunately, a couple rained out markets this fall along with higher than expected Christmas show expenses left us without the funds to purchase the rest of the supplies needed to make these. So I apologize for not having these ready for sale especially since we've been advertising these on our web store and on the front page no less! I will continue to work hard at getting these back in stock with yummy new fragrances.

Coloring "Hunter's Moon" soap

2009-10-29T20:14:00.000-07:00

I was making our best selling Hunter's Moon soap tonight and I took this picture to show how I color our soaps. Using cosmetic grade colorants (color that is safe to be applied to the skin) I custom mix my colors for each soap I make. For example, as shown in the picture, Hunter's Moon is colored with 4 custom mixed colors using a mix of 5 different mica and pigment colorants. You can see the recipe card for my Hunter's Moon soap in this picture. Each soap has it's own recipe card with the exact color combination I designed for that specific scent.

First blog and Christmas soaps

2009-09-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our blog!
Here's where Curt and I can share what's happening around the soap shop ( aka kitchen) and
goat barn.

First Christmas soaps of the season were made yesterday. Below is pictured a tray of our best selling Cranberry Orange scented soap. The kitchen smelled wonderful as I was making this soap!

Another holiday edition is Christmas Valley, a fragrance I introduced last season. It became an instant hit. With notes of Siberian Fir and sugared Spruce this is definately not your typical Christmas pine scent. The color this season is different than
last season's but the scent remains the same.