The End

Well, the last weekend of March was beautiful. A little rain, but balanced with some sun and warmer temperatures. Saturday, thanks to family, we got our hay barn finished.

Next thing I need to do is order some gravel to place inside of the barn, just a few minor checks and adjustments and it is ready to put hay in, however, our tractor is currently residing inside the barn.

Sunday, I took my Working goat project group for a short hike. It's the first hike for this year, so we all have lots of conditioning to do with our goats. Three of the kids have kinder wethers for their pack animal and the fourth (my son Tyler) has a 1/2 Kinder and 1/2 cashmere wether which was our first bottle baby. The three black ones are from a set of quads I raised last year on a bottle, the fourth I sold for a breeding buck. This is the start of our hiking and packing season, for the rest of the summer, we have adopted a trail from the Missouri Conservation Dept. which we will check and maintain monthly. May and possibly September the pack group will have an over night campout there.

Last year was my first campout with goats, roughing it", in a tent, with no bathrooms or running water. It was an experience for all, I read a lot on North American Packgoat Assoc. website, then I had to convince the other goat people goats could be tethered safely on a picket line or on individual stakes. One person offered to bring their trailer to put the goats in over night, but I did point out that most would have their mode of transporting their own goat there and could use that if needed. All goats were staked out overnight with no problems or anything close to a problem. I had mine staked as close to my tent door as I could without them stepping on the tent or chewing on the tent, or soiling tent in some manner. They talked to me until quiet late that night but eventually we all got some rest. As much as you can in a sleeping bag on hard packed dirt, in a tent with two young boys and a tent full of young girls next door.

Since the doeling who arrived a week ago Sunday, there have been four more babies this week, two sets of twins both sets of boy/girl and both out of my young buck THF Snickerdoodle. I decided on the name, Tiramisu, for my first doeling, the next buckling looked just like his daddy so I have named him Caboodle, he is with his mom but mom misplaced his sister and being a first time mom didn't realize she had two babies to care for, so Ginger Snap is in the living room when my husband isn't cuddling with her on the couch or feeding her a bottle.

Here's a picture of the proud new daddy, THF Snickerdoodle.

This Saturday, April 3, will be opening day at the Boone County Farmer's Market. I have to be there to set up by 7:00 a.m. No sleeping in this weekend either. I will get to celebrate Easter with my husband and my in-laws and then Monday, April 5 my hubby leaves for the armory in Lebanon, MO to get ready to mobilize to Iran for approximately 12 months sometime in the next few weeks. Looks like it will be a very busy summer. Happy kidding all, and look me up at the Kinder Shows this year. Montgomery County Fair in June and MO State Fair in August.

This has been a wild weekend. Friday with beautiful weather we started our hay barn. We are putting up a hoop shelter to store hay in this year. We had been using tarps as we've needed more hay storage but this year we lost half of our hay to mold and mildew. So we are setting up a hoop barn for next year. We got our frames up Friday and our family came Saturday to give us a hand, unfortunately, one who was there was Mother Nature and she brought snow! Not really helpful. But we made good progress, hopefully next weekend we'll be able to get the barn finished.

Friday night, while my husband, father-in-law and brother-in-law continued work on the barn; I headed to Columbia for a meeting with the Boone County Farmer's Market. I took a sample of my soap and lotion hoping to get their approval to become a vendor, which I did. Our Boone County Farmers Market opens on Saturday, April 3 in Columbia and continues through October. I am really excited about the market but will need to get even busier getting soap and lotion made, which I worked on again this weekend. I am still letting my does nurse their babies, so I am using milk I have frozen from last year. When I first started making soap I bought my oils (lard, olive oil, and coconut oil) from Wal Mart and the lye from Lowe's. I bought essential oil for fragrence from a health food store and a soap mold from a craft store, with that I experimented with different recipes, different techniques, and continue today trying new ideas. My last mold I bought on Ebay, but I also now have found online stores that are cheaper for buying in bulk and I am now purchasing my coconut oil in 50 pound buckets. Bramble Berry is a favorite site for supplies and ideas as is Whole Sale Supplies Plus and Soapers Choice for supplies. It's getting close to time to place another order, if you notice the square, plastic container with the spigot in the back of the picture is getting pretty low, that's my 50 pound conainer for olive oil.

I also held a project meeting this afternoon for my 4-H group to work on our demonstration for pack goats which they will present at our April 1 club meeting.

Tonight, when we went out to feed, I found a new baby. My second group is beginning to kid. Paddy-Wack was bred to Snickerdoodle and she had a beautiful daughter this afternoon, I'm thinking maybe Creme Brulle' for her name.

So goes another weekend, certainly never dull.

Making Goat Milk Soap

Well it was perfect weather for staying in and working on my soap this weekend. I made several batches in January and February preparing for this summer when I hope to have a booth at a local farmers market. I let my soap cure a minimum of six weeks before using it. This allows the lye to reach a safe Ph. level and the bar to harden. Now I have approximate 12 batches that have cured and it is time to trim and wrap to get ready to sell. I am experimenting with different molds to find something that will give me a nice 4 ounce bar everytime. Here are my latest ones, they are made from a food grade plastic which the soap doesn't harm while in saponification (this step gets really hot) and I don't have to put a liner in the mold to remove the soap from the mold. With the wooden molds I use either plastic trash bags or freezer paper to line but both have drawbacks. The plastic trash bags leave wrinkles in the corners and the freezer paper is more expensive and more time consuming.

I have been making soap for about four years. I gotbought my first kinders in 2005 and started making soap in 2006. I was very hesitant to make it because the first thing I read on every book or article telling "How to" make soap, was the warnings and cautions of the dangers of working with lye. Finally after reading, Anne Watson's book "Smart Soapmaking" I jumped in and gave it a try. Once I began using my home made soap, with the milk from my own goats I have not used anything else. It is fun trying different oils and fragrences for different benefits. Olive oil makes your soap harder, coconut oil provides a nice lather, and of course different essential oils offer their own benefits. There are many websites with recipes and directions on how to make soap so if you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it. It doesn't require a lot of goat milk and the finished product feels wonderful and your friends and family will enjoy receiving it as gifts.