Idaho weather........

....where you can have different seasons all in the same day.

A couple of days ago I took a picture of some plants emerging from the soil in mid-February! The time of year when you expect to be covered in snow and wearing your red longjohns. Yet we were having 40-60 degree weather and able to walk around in a short sleeved shirt.

Here are the daffodils:



and the tulips:



Do you see the lava rock around the flowers? You may remember that I wrote on the Soapnuts email list about my adventures in tearing out the lava rock walls that had been in place in our living room since before we bought our home 20 years ago.

I finally tore that all out and we have a much roomier living room now. We piled the lava just outside the front door in the flower bed and have been gradually disposing of several of the rocks each week in our garbage pickup. (We tried to box several rocks up and dispose of them or threw them in individually on top of the trash. But each time our dainty garbage men would leave the rock filled boxes behind or pick the individual rocks out and throw on the ground. But by placing a couple of rocks of average size in each garbage sack, we've been able to dispose of about half the pile. The rest should be gone by spring)

Anyway, just a couple of days later and I hear wind blowing around the house. Being of a curious nature, I got up and peaked out one of the bedroom windows. Where just a few days ago, the sun beating down for several days had brought the daffodils and tulips up and out of their beds, now we have a nice blanket of snow. These pictures were taken from an open bedroom window about 4 am with a porch light on and the camera flash.







Having spent most of my childhood in the wonderful beautiful and windy state of Wyoming, I can live with this!

Through the eyes of a child..................

..........or>>> What happens when your grandson finds the digital camera and becomes an instant photographer!

When I took my first photography class at our local College of Southern Idaho, it was a blast getting each weekly assignment and going out into the community to take various shots. I remember that one of the assignments was to take artistically blurred shots of items in movement. We used timers to capture advancing headlights, water trickling over rocks and delayed timed shots of the moon or clouds moving through the darkened skies. We also were asked to take shots from non-traditional positions.

When I looked through the shots that Jaedan had taken, I thought he very well could have been following the instructions as given by my photography instructor a few years ago.

Can you tell what this is?



If you guessed the corner of one of Jaedan's eyes, you are correct. (If I hadn't had some of the following shots, I don't know that I would have been able to determine what it was.)

When a child looks up at an adult towering over them, don't you think this is sort of what they see?



or what they see when we go "nose to nose" with them as I tend to do when trying to get at eye level during a "papa-Jaedan talk".



Wonder what he was thinking when he took a shot of his foot?



The next two pics are certainly from an unusual perspective. I'll show you the angle that Jaedan took the pictures, then show you the expected angle you would view these two spots when in our home.




Do you feel disoriented? I did until I took the same pictures and set them right side up:

This is where Nana Nancy hangs her purse, on the inside door knob of our bedroom.



And this is where Taylor the cat tends to hide when grandchildren are visiting. It is at the foot of our waterbed and where Nancy's Hope Chest create a little tunnel.



Wouldn't it be great to see the world again through a child's eye? To be in constant wonder of what adults might see as mundane? The innocence of a child is truly one of God's constant gifts to adults, to often overlooked by parents busy with work and homemaking but recaptured by grandparents only if they take the time to try to see the world again through the eyes of a child.

In Memorium

Nancy's mother, JoAnn, passed away two years ago on President's Day. She was a wonderful mother, mother-in-law, and one of the two best grandmothers our children could ever have hoped for (my mom being the other).

This is a picture of Nancy and her mom on our wedding day:



Sometimes you don't really realize how much you have loved a person until they are gone. It would be so great to be able to hear her voice on the phone again. But we have a strong faith that she is somewhere much better and someday we will be there as well.

This picture of her in a denim shirt, comfortable clothing and seated at the table with coffee mug close by is one of my favorites:



Two years after her passing on President's Day, we received a phone call to let us know that JoAnn's mother Dorothy had passed away at 89 on President's Day. There was a viewing this afternoon but Nancy couldn't bring herself to go. She doesn't like seeing people she loves in a casket. Tomorrow we will be going to the funeral at 2 pm. As with Jo Ann and her father who passed away a few years ago, we know that Grandma Dorothy will be now reunited with her beloved Leo, her high school sweetheart, and her oldest daughter in His presence. This is a picture of Grandpa Leo and Grandma Dorothy:



Grandson Jaedan still remembers and asks about his Granma JoAnn. At the cemetary where she is buried, there is a pond with ducks and a playground for kids. When I first saw the playground, I felt offended because I felt that a cemetery should be reserved for solemnity and sadness. But as the kids fed some bread to the ducks, then went down the slide a few times, I realized that this is simply life at its best. We mourn for those who have passed, especially those taken it seems before their time as in the case of Jo Ann. Yet I couldn't help but envision Grandma JoAnn looking over the balcony of Heaven and delighting in watching her grandchildren at play. This is life. This is love. This is family.

Soap Contiuum - You've heard of Spoon Fudge, how about Spoon Soap?

I remember my Mom's homemade fudge. It wasn't the kind that you melted some dipping chocolate and added marshmallows and nuts. It was real and honest "made-from-scratch" fudge, beaten with a wooden spoon for what seemed like hours until it got that certain glossy shine and could be poured into a pan and refrigerated until firm.

There were times that even though the fudge was deemed perfect and ready to pop in the frig, that it didn't become firm. Mother's solution was simply to declare it "Spoon Fudge" and hand everyone a spoon so we could dig in and consume the fudge.

Today, I give you (drum roll please) Spoon Soap! I made two batches of soap, one after the other. These are soaps I've made many times before and have had them turn out just fine. I did reformulate the Fut Spa soap but in my opinion, nothing was changed enough to cause the soap to not turn out.

Nonetheless, well, lets go to the pictures:

You've seen this in my last post. The soap on the left doesn't look weird, don't you agree?



I have to admit that last night I was a little concerned when I peeked at the soaps before going to bed shortly after pouring this one. I thought it looked a little bit "wet" but hoped that by morning, the moisture would be absorbed and all would be well.



Soap clung to my fingertip just by touching the surface of the soap.



Although I've had soaps crack a bit on the top from the intense heat sometimes generated, this crack looked "different".



I know that I probably should have waited a few more hours before unmolding the soaps but the salt bars usually have hardened more then this one seemed to. You can see that the side you're looking at, which is the inside side that abuts the other soap cell, was soft enough that it almost looks melted. Of course, I just told Nancy that it was a good omen because it looked like a valentine heart.



I put it on the loaf cutting board and as you can see, the loaves didn't even have a foundation to stand on.



You could take the soap and squish it in your hand. I wonder if this is how that Squishy soap came to be?



Cleaning this up was a pain! with a capital "P"!



Here is the soap boxed and ready to be set aside to play with later. I always hate it when a batch goes bad. This one had a blend of peppermint, juniperberry, eucalyptus and rosemary essential oils that smelled so gooooood.



Now it is back to the basics, making sure I followed all the procedures and hope to eventually prove that it was indeed those soap gremlins who caused all this misfortune!

Soap Continuum - the Good, the Bad and the Very Ugly!

Do you want the good news first or the bad news? Personally, I've always liked hearing the good news first - sooooo:

The top of the Pearberry Salt Spa Bar in the mold:



The first side of the mold pulled away:



Now the remaining sides and middle piece are removed, leaving the two blocks of soap on the base:


The Pearberry block is moved over to the cutter. There is a cutting board that has grooves to match the first cutting pass through the block of soap to make loaves.



The cutter wire guide in place above the block of soap:



The loaves are removed and placed to the side so that the bar cutter and guide can be put in place:



With the cutting board for the bars in place, the loaves are stacked atop one another and then the bar cutter is put in place just like the loaf cutter above.



The cutter halfway down the stack of loaves and you can see that we have uniform bars of soap.



Bars of soap boxed and ready to be taken downstairs to be placed on the drying shelves.



My green didn't come through, looks more grey. But I have noticed that using the same level of colorant in the salt bars that are used in the non-salt bar made exactly the same yields a much different colored bar.

One of the ladies that came to the Idaho Gathering 2006 remarked that with the salt it made the soap look almost like granite.

Well, this was the Good news. My next post will show that even experienced soap makers will have failures. Nancy says it is to keep us from getting overconfident. "Who, me? Overconfident?" Surely not!

Time to start making soap!

We always try to plan to make enough soap to last at least through the end of the year based on our sales for the previous year and forcasted growth. I could probably win the lottery sooner then figure out just what soaps need to have plenty of shelf stock!

Our top selling soaps for 2006:

#1 - our signature original Spud Sack Soap
#2 - Huckleberry Bar Soap
#3 - Huckleberry Spud Soap
#4 - Tater Bar Soap
#5 - Pearberry Bar Soap

This has pretty much been the same lineup for the past 5 years.

Our first batch of soap since October was a restock of Pearberry Salt Spa Bar. This has avocado butter and oil, clay for slip, liquid silk and sea salt. Our mold is a dual cell mold so I like to make two batches at a time which seems to be more efficient use of our tools. Here is a picture of the mold we use. We use a recipe that yields a 90 bar batch. Theoretically this mold could produce 120 bars per cell, but I find it challenging to just lift the 90 bar soap block to the cutter.



The second batch is a reformulation of our Foot Tingler. The Foot Tingler had baking soda and powdered luffa with peppermint essential oil. Nancy really liked this soap for use on her feet. I kept the original formula and made it our third Salt Spa bar by adding sea salt and liquid silk along with juniper berry, rosemary and eucalyptus essential oils for antifungal and antiseptic properties. The essential oil blend is 5 parts peppermint, 1 part each of juniper berry, rosemary and eucalyptus.

Here are some pictures of the process for the "New & Improved" Fut Spa Bar.



When I make soap I usually add most all my additives (colorant, essential oils, powdered luffa, baking soda) to my melted oils before adding the lye.




I should say that I usually mix my lye and water several hours before I make my soap. The lye solution is at room temperature when I mix it into my oils. Here I am taking a quick temp check on the oils. Depending on type of soap and the temperature both inside and outside, I mix the oils and lye water between 90 and 120 degrees. This batch was done at 120 degrees.



For the Salt Spa bars, I add the sea salt to my lye water right after I've mixed it up and have set it aside to cool. Most recipes I've seen pretty much call for an almost ounce for ounce ratio of sea salt to oils. Our batch uses 18 1/2 pounds of oils to which I add one cup of sea salt. Here is the oils with the lye/water/sea salt slurry added:



After the soap comes to light to medium trace, it is poured into one of the mold cells.



Since this is a salt soap, it will need to be cut sooner then our other cold processed molded soaps. So first thing in the morning I'll unmold and cut and will take more pictures to post of the unmolding, cutting and putting on the drying table.

The first soap I did this evening was Pearberry and this is it resting in the second cell. You may notice that I've placed a sheet of waxed butcher paper (wax side down on soap) on top of the soap. I've found that sometimes soaps will raise up in the middle from the gelling heat. By placing this sheet of paper on the top of the soap, it seems to greatly lessen or even stop the soap from cracking.



After filling both cells, we usually throw a blanket over the mold except for the hottest part of the summer when we use just a towel over the top.



Well I'm off to bed now. Check back to see the results.

To borrow from Art Linkletter: Kids say the darnedest things

The weather has been beautiful this past few days, one of the advantages of living in a high desert region. While other parts of the country are experiencing minus degree weather because of cold and windchill, we have been having temps close to 60 degrees.

Jaedan and Ashlynn are loving it. We took them to the park yesterday for half an hour. While many kids become couch potatoes, given a choice, both kids would rather be outside. Our daughter Jamie is very good to see that they go for bike rides together, as well as other outdoor activities.

Today, before going to Costco to purchase supplies to start soap production again, we took the kids to the Artic Circle. This is one of their favorites because they have an indoor kids gym.

After eating, Jaedan said he needed to go to the bathroom to "poop". Because of so many little ones being accosted in public bathrooms, we make sure that one of us is in the restroom with either of the kids to ensure their safety.

Anyway, before I digress, Nancy noticed that Jaedan's face was quite red and he was obviously in some distress (possibly slightly constipated?).






Nancy commented, "Jaedan, your whole face is really red! Are you ok?"

Jaedan replied, "No, it's stuck!"

Well, alls well that eventually ends well and he was able by sheer will power to get it "unstuck"!