closing out 2025

Closing Out 2025 

    I know it has been a long time since I have posted, but I hope to get back into the swing of things at the beginning of the new year and  here we are at the end of another year. Never in my life time did I think I would make it to 65 but here I am! I only have one person the thank for this too, Jehovah God. He has moved me through some pretty crazy chaotic things in my life so far and I will be sticking very close to him for it too! 

        I have thought a lot about how to supplement our income with a side hustle and I have decided that my soap business that I have neglected will be my thing, now that all my doll houses are pretty much finished up. Over the summer I stock piled my supplies and managed to have a good bit to get started.  I have goats milk, aloe vera, shea butter, jojoba, coconut  oil, olive oil and many more bases, and over 120 scents and essential oils and many different molds to accommodate everyone.  I really should have started before all the holiday stuff started  to make some money, but  there has been so many house projects to get done and poultry pens to get finished up. I have put it all on the back burner.

        I have made shampoo bars and conditioner bars for a trial run to see how well it turns out for us. I have made several kinds of soap and lotion bars also. It is so much fun mixing and matching scents to the molds. I have even used herbs and flowers. I would like to add bath bombs and lip care salves to the mix also.  I also have stuff to make soy candles. I have had great success with the salves for many of my friends for pain, bruises already, especially since we are all getting older and need that TLC. And everyone loves the nature remedies to keep us all going especially when we have big pharma pushing every which thing pill wise down us. If you know me I try my hardest to stay out of all that stuff. I love a spa setting that takes me away from all the daily chaos, don't you? Much of my soap, salves and lotion bars has already flown out the door to friends.

    I still continue to do studies to keep myself up to date on remedies. I will be glad when the day comes when we don't need to worry about being sick or broken anymore. Working on being more sustainable is what I really want to do in the mean time. 

    Here are just a few Bars I have made. Some are shampoo and conditioner bars and some are soap and some of my stock pile of goodies!

    Well I hope we all make it through to the end of this year and we all have a great start to the new year approaching rapidly. May we all be blessed with better things!

Boy it Really is a Challenge

     Here I am working on the 9th day of the month and I realized I have not hit every day as I tried to do. This writing is a challenge when you have not been doing it for a while like I used to do. Yesterday I got side tracked (which I do a lot these days) ;)  because it was bill paying day and Monday was well Monday I reckon. Not living on the farm anymore where there was always something going on each and every day seemed to be way easier to write on a daily basis. 

    For the last few days it has been rainy and we have not really got out to get anything done, not to mention the heat index is still three digits for us. I do know for certain that soap making is one of those things that need to get done while it is not pouring down rain. Just like baking a cake the weather can screw up a batch of soap and I just can't afford to let that happen. I sold my last 5 bars of patchouli soap last night. Everyone seems to love it and we call it our hippy soap. I cannot keep it in supply even for myself and that is the only soap I use. Pop on the other hand will add whatever scent I might throw in his as long as it is not girly smelling. Funny thing is all the guys love my hippy soap too. I am glad I bought plenty of patchouli leaf to add to my soap so I don't have to worry about running out real soon. 

    I still have a truck load of dirt and a trailer full to unload off into my garden beds but with the rain we have had it will be waterlogs and heavy so I will pulse on that for a moment  but I do know sooner or later it is something that needs to get done. I have several herbs that need to be planted in their permanent space before too long. 

    Yes finding something to write about every single day is a challenge but I will try hard to get as much of the 30 days done even if I have to go into the next month. But for the rest of the day I will call it a day for my blog page.

S Day- Scrub –a- dub I have Soap in My Tub

S Day- Scrub –a- dub I have Soap in My Tub

This is my label for my soap. I found it one day and I love it! I just added color to it!

     Soap making has been one of those things that has been made here on the homestead since 1998. It all started with a book I bought a few years before that. I had been in a book club and bought this book thinking I would love to try making it someday. When we moved to Georgia we went to the Hiawassee Mountain fair with the kids and watched a lady make a batch in a big old cauldron pot. We talked about how hard the soap was and I told her my kids kill bars of soap in one bath every night. She told me once you make your own soap you would never go back to store bought soap and that homemade soap is so much harder than store bought too. Well to me that sounded like a no brainer.

     My hubby and I went looking for all our supplies and started to make soap not much longer after we went to the fair. She was so right It seemed to last far longer with the kids. My kids didn’t destroy it as fast anymore. We started to make more soap through the year, and we started to take it to different health food stores in the area. We had so many different kinds of soap that we made just to find out which of the recipes in the books worked the best.  We made fruit and veggie soaps, we saved all our fat and rendered it and suet for the homestead soap recipe and we used honey and oats and so many different kinds of herbs. We had soap drying all over the house. I guess that the time we started not many folks really wanted to try it, but as the years have gone by we see so many places that sell it and I see a lot of recipes for melt and pour soaps but I just feel like that is cheating because that is all you do is melt someone else’s Glycerin soap to make some you add stuff too. I wanted to have the pleasure of saying I did it all.

      I made so much soap over the years for my family and even used my daughter’s breast milk to make some for her. My kids love the way it feels and how it prevents skin problems like zits. I love it because after all these years I have very few wrinkles and I know it is due to making and using my soap. No chemicals that can damage my skin. That is the best thing.

Patchouli and Homestead soap

      My favorite soap and the one and only one I use is patchouli. I mix the leaves into the soap and put essential oils of patchouli in it to add the best scent ever, it is a great exfoliator and it is great for aging skin, which I sure believe.

      My Hubby love the homestead soap it is a very hard bar and uses a huge amount of lard. He does add a scent to it sometimes like cedar wood or sandalwood.

     My son wants Lavender and cedar wood for him and his girlfriend so as soon as it warms up a bit we are making him some. I think he is trying to impress her because I had to make him some bath bombs too. He and his twin brother are getting a care package with soap, lip balm and arnica salve and a silver generator.

      I am a firm believer that homemade is the best and I do think it is safer for even the youngest ones. Very gentle and soothes the worst of skin. I am so glad I bought the book and tried to do it on my own, but I love teaching myself things I thought were cool anyways. I love to create natural spa stuff for myself and family and that is the way we should always think about our families.

I have purchased many different books on soap making but this book I will show is the first and my number one go to for making my soap.

I have made shampoo bars and liquid laundry soap and liquid soap for the bath too. The more I can eliminate the bad chemicals like poly glycol (which is basically antifreeze which is just about everything from soap to shampoo to toothpaste) I didn’t think my babies needed that.

I will leave you with one recipe: Which soon I will tell you how to make. One batch or slab of soap makes about 30 bars of soap depending how you slice it.

The Quote for the day is

Let your light shine before men.​—Matt. 5:16.