Cat Attack

My adventure in making Goat Milk Soap

 This is a picture of  Heidi  with one of Jan's goats. Jan has a great little homestead with cats, bees,chickens,turkeys, geese, and of course goats. Jan and Fred also live in an 100 year old farm house with a huge garden in the back. I hope to post  about it another day. Today I wanted to talk about my adventures in making soap. This was my first time making soap and Jan's second time. So we decide to use a recipe from Our Half Acre Homestead on You Tube. Which I have to tell you is a great channel to watch. She is a lot of fun and very down to earth.  Anyway, things were going pretty good. We picked out our molds.

 Jan got lucky at a yard sale and got a big bag full of soap molds for 25cents each. I loved the little goat one (on the far left). After the molds were chosen we started melting our lard and following along with the video. Let me rephrase that: We did a lot of stopping and rewinding of the video. They always seem to move faster than real life.  Jan added the lye and water together and waited 5 minutes like it said. We then added the goats milk. What she didn't tell us at first was that the oil can't be more then 10 degrees hotter then the lye. Our oil was 30 degrees hotter then our lye so we tried to wait. Only problem was our lye started to trace. Which left us with no choice but to add the oil. Then to make matter worse we learned our stir stick didn't hit the bottom of the pitcher; if all else fails, grab a spoon. We only had time to do a few stirs before it started to get real thick. So we quickly poured it into the molds.

 As you can see from the top right of the picture, it looked as if it was separating. We decided to check to see if the mold on the bottom of the picture was doing the same thing. As is shown by the spoon print in it. Several of our other molds looked like they were also separating. So what to do? We just poured them back into the pitcher and tried to stir it up more. Can you say bad idea!

 This is what we ended up with. The stirring wasn't helping, so we just poured it into a pan and pressed it down.

 Now for the funny part. The soap turned out fine. Even the stuff we poured in the pan turned out. We just paniced a little bit. Ok, maybe a little more then a bit.

 I learned two important things that day: one, no more then 10 degrees difference between the lard and the lye mixture. Two, no matter what happens it's always a good time  with a great friend by your side.

This is my box of the goat soap. Now all I have to do is be patient for four weeks. I am so looking forward to using it. Will I make this again? YES! Even with the mishaps I had a great time. Besides don't they say "practice makes perfect"?

Homemade Wendy's Frosty and low cal version

Homemade Wendy’s Frosty! Only THREE simple ingredients!
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 8 oz. tub Cool Whip
1/2 gallon chocolate milk

Directions: Mix all the ingredients FIRST, then pour it into the ice cream maker. Mix for 20 to 30 minutes until it reaches frozen perfection, pour in a big glass, insert straw and drink!

LOW-CALORIE VERSION:

Ingredients
• 1 cup fat-free milk
• 2 tablespoons low calorie (sugar-free) chocolate instant pudding
• 2 tablespoons Cool Whip Free
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 8 ice cubes

I am back and busier then ever

 I was gone for about two weeks. I spent several days with Heidi. We text or talk a lot on the phone.But it's a rare treat to be able to spend time together since she moved away. We always have such a great time together,it's a little sad when I have to go home. I got to see the babies again. Heidi showed me how to milk. There's a lot more to it then just milking them.

I love these little babies. Their little tails would wag out of control when I fed them. It was so cute. Moony loved to stick his head into my belly and push on it when he wanted to be petted. I could just bundle them up and take them home. Unfortunately Heidi knows where I live and will show up gun in hand." I am not kidding, believe me this would happen . Friend or not."
 The day after I got home we headed to Vegas for my mom's 75th birthday. We pretty much took it easy at my parents house. Before leaving my mother and I went to Wal-mart. They honor other stores ads. So we were able to get tomatoes 5 pound for a dollar and peaches 3 pounds for a dollar. I end up being home 25 pounds of tomatoes and 12 pounds of peaches. Only to discover some of my tomatoes were also ready to can. Not to mention my carrot were yelling to be frozen.

So the next couple of days were spent canning. I end up with 35 pounds of canned tomatoes, 6 quarts of peaches, and 5 quart bags of carrots. There is always so much to do after returning home. My poor garden is next. I am sure the weeds are taking over. Have a great day everyone.  I am off to clean the chicken coop.

Interview With God

 I dreamed I had an interview with God.

"So you would like to interview me?' God asked

" If you have the time" I said.

God smiled. " My time is eternity. What questions do you have for me?"

" What surprises you most about humankind?..."

God answered...
" That they get bored with childhood. They rush to grow up and then long to be children again."
" That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health."
" That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live in neither the present nor the future."
"That they live as if they will never die, and die as if they had never lived."

God's hand took mine and we  were silent for a while.

And then I asked..." As a  parent, what are some of life's lessons you want your children to learn?'

God repiled with a smile,
" To learn they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is let themselves be loved."
" To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others."
" To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most,but is one who needs the least."
" To learn that it only takes a few second to open profound wounds in persons we love, and it takes many years to heal them."
"To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness."
"To learn that there are persons who love them dearly, but simply do not know how to express or show their feelings."
"To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it differently."
"To learn that it is not always enough that they be forgiven by others. But that they must forgive themselves"

"And to learn that I am here always"                                ~ author unknown

happy 4th

This is one of our most important holidays. Hope everyone has a great holiday. 

July's monthly garden photos

 I had seen on other blogs where they pick a garden or animal to talk photos of every month. This way they could showed the changes throughout the year. This is my second month and already I am seeing  just how must differences a month makes. I have three gardens this year. A container garden , raised bed garden and a ground garden. I seem to be adding a garden each year .We started with one garden three years ago and have added on each year. My husband is really starting to get worried about next year. 

 These first photos are of my ground garden.

 My 8 Spaghetti Squash are all in bloom .

 Several of them have squashes already starting .

 I have pumpkin and corn growing where ever they like.The deer must of spread the seeds thru out the garden when they got into it last year. I am letting them alone to do they own thing.

 My green beans look great. I can't wait for them to start climbing.

 The watermelon is also from last year. I am happy to see it return this year. Since we couldn't find Sugar Baby seeds this time around.

 These are my peas. I am hoping they get pods before it gets too hot.

 I only have about a row and a half of beets since I didn't realize they won't weed till after I dug up 2 and a half rows. Note to self pay more attention when in the garden!

 More of my volunteers.

 Can you see the little bloom under my bush cucumber ? All 6 are starting to get them. Yaaaay!

 This was the best angle I could get of the container garden.

 Lots of green tomatoes, and one little yellow one.

 I am not sure what variety these are . They are a darker green on the tops.

 I have three baby peppers.

  This was my first garden ( three years ago).

 I have already harvested a lot of the carrots. This weekend I hope to plant more.

 These radishes are seeming to take forever.

 More tomato plants: these are my Roma Tomatoes.

 Onions....

 My Zucchini has really taken off this year.

 I will never get a strawberry pie out of this bed. My husband eats them as soon as they are ripe. He is worse then the birds.

 My poor potatoes. I keep replanting them and destroying the ground squirrels hole under the bed, but he just finds another way in.

I HAVE HEADS!!!! I was beginning to  wonder if they would ever get heads. I have 6 beautiful heads of cabbage.
 As you can see a lot of changes just in the last month. And I am happy with all but one of them. Bet you can guess which one.