Continued from page 4
You decide to try your hand at soap. While at the local farm store you add four ducklings and a book on natural soap making to your basket. Unfortunately you are unable to find a book on caring for donkeys.
While looking through the natural soap making book you feel a little uneasy about the use of lye, yet decide that it will work out fine and push forward. The amount of equipment that you do not have on hand makes you slightly nervous, and you quickly jot down the items needed.
You decide to think on it for a moment and procrastinate by heading over to the blog Stop The Ride, to see what from scratch items your fellow adventurers have made.
With a long sigh you now have to make the decision on what type of soap to make first.
What soap do you make? Choose wisely.
9 comments:
I have chosen animal soap and I'll tell you why.
I have checked out the Soapmaker's Handbook (or something titled like that) from the library and was pretty ticked that the author dismisses animal based soapmaking saying: "do the vegeterian thing and don't bother with animal based soap".
Sorry lady, the point is: we're not killing the pig to get its fat specifically for making soap, we're killing the pig for its meat and the fat will end up in the garbage if we don't use it to make stuff such as soap. The whole idea of making soap with animal fat is to waste as little of the animal as possible.
If you are interested in a copy of "Looking After a Donkey" by Dorothy Morris, or "The Definitive Donkey: A Textbook on the Modern Ass" (yes, that's really the title), by Betsy and Paul Hutchins, let me know. The first is like new, the second a bit worn.
Love your blog. Good luck with the soap. That should be fun...
Malva, I am right there with you.
e4, thanks! I will send you and e-mail.
I love your blog...I'm making vegetable soap tonight. I'll be blogging it later. I'm nervous about the lye!
Just make sure you have good ventilation and wear protective eye wear.
Don't inhale over the lye/water combo. It burns, it burns!
Animal soap is supposed to be harder (versus soft -- not in difficulty). I've only made vegetable soap, but if you have a recipe with cocoa butter or coconut oil, it will get hard enough.
Good luck!
I voted for vegetable soap...just because it sounds politically correct...but if that donkey acts up, you can go ahead and change my vote to animal.
e4 - "A Textbook on the Modern Ass"?
Who's picture is on the cover?
Hi there
There's what seems to me to be a good description of soap-making (complete with photos) here:
http://www.selfsufficientish.com/soapmaking.htm
Melanie (aka Beansprouts) who's making the soap has a blog I really enjoy too:
http://www.bean-sprouts.blogspot.com/
The lye would put me off as well but one of these days I'll get around to making my own.
oh I have been wanting to make soap for a long time!
Or you could just veto the whole soap thing and make the basket! :)
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