I gotta come clean.

I'm absolutely loving having goats.  I have, indeed, become that crazy goat lady.  I'm a lost cause. In two short weeks I've taught my goats to come when I call.  They seem to love me back.  Peter says the sound of their bleats changes when they see me.  It's like they start hollering "Mom!!  Hey!! MOM!!!"

Een likes to nibble.  She even likes to nibble toes.  It tickles.  A lot.

Just for fun, we are babysitting a third goat, Een and Twee's sister/cousin.  She needs to be weaned and had no where to go while she gets use to her new diet.  So now we also have Sprout.  Three recently weaned kids means there is lots of milk.   A goat shop needs soap to sell and this gave me the opportunity to try my hand at making it.

I found a recipe for oatmeal and honey goats milk soap.  I've been wanting to make soap since I first dreamed of My Little Goat Shop.  I shopped second hand stores to find a used enamel pot and other equipment, I borrowed a food scale from the freighbor and I gathered the ingredients.

I figure my first batch of hand made soap cost about $50.00.  If I sell each bar for $3.00 I can actually make a profit.  Not a big profit but a profit none-the-less.

Part of soap making requires a lot of stirring.  A friend came over to help stir - with water (just water!) in hand.  It was hot and she had worked all day.  She was such a good sport.

I had built a mold out of wood and lined it with a black garbage bag.  Then I looked at the amount of soap in the pot and the huge size of the mold.  We decided my mold was not going to work - unless we wanted 1/4 inch bars of soap... so we scrambled for a smaller container and lined it with a Dead Frog Brewery bag.

Then we poured the soap into the mold.

By nightfall the soap had gotten quite firm.

Today I cut it into bars and now I have to wait and let it cure for 3 to 6 weeks.  I don't do wait well - but if I don't wait the lye in the soap will eat my face off.  No one wants that.  Ouch.