New Adventure Turned Sour: Part Two

What an adventure! New baby goats. We all fell in love with them immediately and named the babies Billy the Kid and Annie Oakley. They jumped right up into our laps when we went out and sat on the tire playground the children made. We spent hours playing with them. I never new when I got a goat that I could become so attached.
I was also thrilled to know I would have more milk than I knew what to do with. Unfortunately, the day after the babies were born a Courtesy Notice was delivered to our door, informing us that we were not zoned for goats. There had been some misunderstandings between the different departments of the city and as I looked into the ordinance, I found that in fact we were not zoned for goats, even with our half acre.
We were all devastated to lose the goats. But after many tears, we found a new home for Ms. Billy and began our new adventure. Goat legislation. I am in the process of putting together a proposal to change the Tooele City Ordinance concerning goats being kept in residential areas on properties with appropriate space. I've read ordinances from many other cities to learn how they have dealt with such issues. I've learned that cities like Seattle, Washington and Pasadena, California have made room for goats, adding restrictions appropriate to those areas. I'm thinking that if they made room, surely surely there is room on my half acre in Tooele. I've had some positive conversations with City Councilmen and the Mayor and hope to finish putting my proposal together and gather up the signatures for my petition soon.
We all miss Ms. Billy, but I did put some milk away in the freezer so we could start on the project of making goatmilk soap. I'll add another entry about that project soon. I've learned some interesting things about goatmilk, and am anxious to test out some product.

New Adventure Turned Sour: Part One

Meet Ms. Billy, my hope for goat milk soap. We adopted her about six months ago. She had been found running loose and was picked up by animal control. They couldn't keep her at the pound and was fostered by one of the officers that owns owns a property behind ours. I have wanted to make goat milk soap for years. I love the smooth creamy texture of soap made with goat milk. When I realized she was seeking a home for Ms. Billy I jumped on the chance.
The next challenge was getting milk, since Ms. Billy was all dried up. After spending about four months reading and learning and caring for Ms. Billy, she began producing milk one day. Being no goat expert I took her to the vet and started asking more questions in general, only to discover that Ms. Billy was prengant. Well, at least that's what I was pretty sure of. It wasn't until I walked out early one morning to find two babies that I was absolutely sure. That is when the adventure began. I was going to make goat milk soap.

Another Batch of Soap

We made "Cucumber" soap today. I love the shade of green this one turned out. It's always fun to see how it forms in the molds. Sometimes it pushes out the center a bit as it processes and other times it just bulges up in the middle.
Sandalwood Vanilla is the other soap we just made. It is curing in the cabinet. Can't wait to use it. I'll have to get some lotion made to go with it. The fragrance is to die for. I wish I could have taken a picture of my uncle's face when I let him smell it. He about went cross-eyed. That's when I knew we needed to introduce that fragrance for sure. Another few weeks and we'll have it available on our site.
Yeah!

Something to Say

I've always got something to say. Just ask my children. So a blog seems like a fun way to share my latest experiments in formulating some new wonderful product for the skin. Hope you will join my adventure.
Somebody asked me recently how I got started formulating products and I stumbled over my answer. I'm not one to come up with a quick answer, but later as I thought about it I realized that my fascination with formulating probably had its earliest roots in my experience with cancer and chemo. I don't think anybody walks away from cancer without some kind of a change in perspective. For me it was the realization that there is more than one way to do things as well as the understanding that I'm not really in charge.
However, I also became more aware of the many chemicals that surround us. We breath them, put them on our skin and eat them. Some chemicals used in cleaners were developed for chemical warfare. We put ingredients on our skin that may be cancer causing, or affect our nervous systems. But what are our options?
The options for safer product are increasing. We are becoming more informed as are the companies we purchase our products from. But no matter what a company claims about a product the only way to be sure what you are using is to learn what the ingredients are.
So my message is "read the labels". Learn what to look for and what to avoid. In fact, I challenge you to stop in the lotion section the next time you are at the store and see how many lotions contain mineral oil or anything with the word petroleum or just petro. This is the first ingredient I avoid. You'll be amazed how many lotions or lip balms have these ingredients in them.