Re-Introduction

[MullersLaneFarm]

It's been years (literally) since I've been on SMF so I thought a re-introduction might be in order. What a relief to recognize some screen names!

I've been soaping since 1999, exclusively milk bar soaps since 2002 using raw Jersey milk at a 33% lye saturation.

This year I want to try my hand (again) at Liquid Soap. When I did it years ago, I wasn't pleased with the process. I see there have been advances to the method. I'm looking into Cold Process LS.

I'm retired and homestead with my husband. We raise the vast majority of our food ... all our meat, 85%-90% of our vegetables, fruits, herbs & seasonings (plus eggs & honey). We no longer keep a milk cow since the children are grown and gone (and we are NOT goat folks!)

Besides making soap I am a fiber artist ... meaning I spin my own yarns then weave, knit or crochet.

I hope to stop in quite regularly this winter ... FB is making me crazy!!!

 

[lsg]

Welcome back!

 

[Soapprentice]

Welcome back... looking forward to leaning from your experience...

 

[cmzaha]

Welcome back, you have been missing for awhile.

 

[IrishLass]

Welcome back! It's good to see you again! :wave:

I hope to stop in quite regularly this winter ... FB is making me crazy!!!

You're in good company here- FB soapmaking groups have become the bane of many of our members. lol


IrishLass

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Hiya Cyndi! Funny thing... I bookmarked your natural colorant page long ago http://www.mullerslanefarm.com/soapcolors.html

...and I was over there the other day and wondered if you were still making soap! ...and how you were doing? I guess I got my answer... here you are! You may not remember me... it's been so looooong. Happy to reconnect after all this time.

​

Liquid soap has progressed considerably since 1999 when Catherine Failor's book was first published, mind boggling, really. The first time I tried it, like you, I totally flopped and wasn't impressed. I swore I'd never try it again and then, a year later, I ran across something that made sense to me. After several batches where I shared my techinique, I was invited to join a LS Yahoo Group in 2004 and the rest is history.

I make LS almost exclusively these days, but I don't sell. Just for personal use and lots of playing around! (Some things nevah change!) I make Cold Process LS and so do other members of SMF, as I recently learned, so whenever you're ready to get after it, start a thread over on the Liquid Soap Forum here and I'll learn along with you as the SMF LS experts guide you down that path.

 

[SunRiseArts]

Hi there! I am somewhat a newbie on the forum .... goat milk ... don't get me started. Love it in soap, but I tasted it once, and is so gross!!!! Yuck!

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

Irish ... Zany ... :wave: good to be back.

You're in good company here- FB soapmaking groups have become the bane of many of our members. lol

FB as a whole makes me cry

You may not remember me...

I sure do!

I make LS almost exclusively these days

This is probably too much as a starting point, but I've always been one to run before I walk ....

CPLS is what I plan on making .... 3%-4% superfat using 90% KOH .... dual lye (70/30 KOH/NaOH) and 50/50 water/glycerin for liquid in lye solution ... maybe using sodium lactate in a 1:1 lye solution @ 3% of oil weight ...

Hi there! I am somewhat a newbie on the forum .... goat milk ... don't get me started. Love it in soap, but I tasted it once, and is so gross!!!! Yuck!

I don't mind goat milk .... it's the animals themselves I object to!! LOL

 

[earlene]

Welcome back! Your yarns are beautiful! I see from your website that your husband is also a blacksmith. My brother is a blacksmith and asked me to make soap especially for him, so I developed a blacksmith soap that he likes. And my SIL, his wife also weaves, a passion of hers. And they keep chickens (and ducks). I enjoyed seeing your draft horses and other livestock.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

This is probably too much as a starting point, but I've always been one to run before I walk ....

CPLS is what I plan on making .... 3%-4% superfat using 90% KOH .... dual lye (70/30 KOH/NaOH) and 50/50 water/glycerin for liquid in lye solution ... maybe using sodium lactate in a 1:1 lye solution @ 3% of oil weight

Perfect! Sounds like you know what you're talking about. Post it just like that over at the LS forum. I have no doubt that one of our SMF experts can help you with that. Happy LS-ing!

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

Welcome back! Your yarns are beautiful! I see from your website that your husband is also a blacksmith. My brother is a blacksmith and asked me to make soap especially for him, so I developed a blacksmith soap that he likes. And my SIL, his wife also weaves, a passion of hers. And they keep chickens (and ducks). I enjoyed seeing your draft horses and other livestock.

Thank you, Earlene for all your wonderful compliments.

Yes, my husband is a blacksmith (and leather worker & wood worker), it really comes in handy here on the homestead!

The fiber arts was the 'down fall' of my soap making. As I got more and more into the various areas of fiber (spinning all the wonderful breeds of sheep, venturing out into the various plant fibers, then picking up weaving), making soap almost became a chore. I scaled back with the number of stores where I sold my soaps and have just kept my return clients these past 10 years. It sure has made it a lot easier on me!

We no longer have our draft horses but I can't bear to take them off the web site. They were such a big part of building our homestead.

I see you're in western IL ... we're in NW Illinois (or ILL-Annoy ) about 30 miles north of I-80, west of IL-40

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I see you're in western IL ... we're in NW Illinois (or ILL-Annoy ) about 30 miles north of I-80, west of IL-40

I was born in Rock Island, IL on February 6, 1943 and grew up in the Quad Cities! My mother, who is 98 and living in a retirement community in Phoenix, started cleaning out stuff recently and she sent me my original birth certificate -- along with the hospital bill:

Hospital Services, 1 week...........$31.50
Laboratory Examination...............$1.00
Delivery Room..........................$10.00
Medicines & Sterile Dressings.......$3.50
Nursery care of babe (sic)............$3.50
Total for week ..........................$49.50

Hospital services, 1 day...............$4.50
Nursing care of babe (sic)..............$.50
Medicine & sterile Dressings...........$.50
Extra dressings, oiled silk..............$.50

Total.......................................$55.50
Less allowance...........................$2.50
Balance...................................$53.00

 

[Steve85569]

". FB is making me crazy!!!"

Welcome back!
Good to see you.
While we don't manage to raise as much of our food as you and yours do we still do what we can.
Great to see you back!!!

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

I was born in Rock Island, IL on February 6, 1943 and grew up in the Quad Cities!

she sent me my original birth certificate -- along with the hospital bill:

Balance...................................$53.00

:shock:

I'm an Okie by birth, but lived in Davenport from '69-'89 (graduated from Dav't Central)

"Lardinator in training

Love, Love, Love this!!! I will be rich in lard soon ... 2 Berkshire hogs coming back from the processor soon and every available pot will be rendering.

We'll have to wait until it warms up a bit (currently -2*F) so we will be able to smoke the bacon & hams)

 

[earlene]

I was born in Rock Island, IL on February 6, 1943 and grew up in the Quad Cities! My mother, who is 98 and living in a retirement community in Phoenix, started cleaning out stuff recently and she sent me my original birth certificate -- along with the hospital bill:

One of my husband's aunts may well have been one of those poorly paid nurses who cared for you or your mother. Besides a couple of nurses on my side of the family, he has a few as well and this is where they all lived (the QC area.) 50 cents for nursing care! My former SIL is a neo-natal nurse and she would be shocked!

 

[CaraBou]

Welcome back - hope you have fun here.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I'm an Okie by birth, but lived in Davenport from '69-'89 (graduated from Dav't Central)

I graduated from College in Davenport in '65, 5 month's pregnant, BTW. Hubby and I rented a "carriage house" over the garage owned by the county coroner. Shook us up every time he raised the garage door in the middle of the night to go out on a call! LOL Ah, those were the days... fond memories.

Earlene: I was shocked too! It's hard to believe, really, compared to hospital costs today. What's neat tho, Mom got a good week's rest before having to go home and pick up where she left off.

 

[earlene]

Cyndi, I was in your neck of the woods twice in the past two weeks. My husband's car had to be replaced and we first looked at a used 2007 Volvo S80 with less than 35,000 miles on it, then drove back a week later to buy it. It's a beautiful car and what an unbelievable bargain to find a 10-year-old Volvo with so few miles on it. The owners only ever took it the dealership for service and it looks like it was only kept in a garage, never left out in the weather. We are both very happy with the purchase, both because it's a great car, and because now I have my own car back and how I hate to be without my car!

Anyway, I looked on Google maps and find you are a mere 49 miles from my home via roads, so even less as the crow flies! I stopped in Dixon for groceries on the way home, about as close to your farm as I got probably. (My small town grocery stores have such limited supplies, I have to shop in big cities for some of my needs.)

 

[SoapAddict415]

Welcome back

 

[SaltedFig]

Hi Cyndi,

Glad you are here