Continuing on . . . .

 It seems that life sometimes hands you things to change ones path.  I have made lots of soap and find it very fascinating.  I love seeing how it turns out, and cutting into a new loaf is fun.  I AM finding it a bit frustrating not to have the money to invest in mica for coloring it, and the various essential oils to add aroma and medicinal benefits.  It is frustrating!  Also not to have the molds I want starts to get frustrating as well :(.

I have found ways to make incredible soap for laundry and for shampoo.  I only use my shampoo bar now for my hair, and I rinse with my homemade vinegar as well.  My hair is soft and not falling out as much as it was, which is wonderful! The laundry paste I created is wonderful, and cleans the clothes marvelously.  I get nice bright white clothes if I use the bleach substitute I found how to make.  So, all in all, I have found ways to make what we need to keep out household going with things I can make.  Most of my laundry cleaning supplies needed washing soda, and I even found a way to make this using regular baking soda, so that is cool too, though it is less expensive just to buy the washing soda.

I did learn to use my drop spindle and spun some alpaca roving into yarn.  I liked the yarn, but wasn't crazy about how slow it was to make it.  I had to do the "spin and park" method, which wasn't as relaxing and fun as I had hoped, so I purchased a spinning wheel.  I found some alpaca fiber at an estate sale, so am excited to spin some yarn on it.  I just watched some YouTube videos on how to card and clean the fiber, so am excited to try my hand at spinning.  I found a Hitchhiker spinning wheel, and it seems to run smoothly, so am excited to try my hand at spinning on it.  It didn't come with written instructions, so I had to find a YouTube video about that as well.  Thanks goodness for people liking to post things there!!  Without it I would definitely be in a mess with all the things I like to learn about.  

I have also found videos on something called Rocket Mass Heaters.  This looks like a very economical way to heat a home.  It uses about 1/10th less wood to heat as a regular wood stove and can be converted into a cooking surface and oven.  I think it is a great idea.  One can also build one outside, so it can be used in the summer to cook on and even heat water.  

I also looked into cob construction of homes, and various other ways to build that are economical and uses renewable resources and can be built fairly rapidly.  I wish I were younger so I could physically do more of this and have the time and resources more at hand to accomplish the dreams in my head :(, but who knows, I may still be able to accomplish all of this, or something even better!

I would still love to have chickens, alpacas, goats, and a small farm to meet all of our needs, but my health is getting bothersome, and I have had other commitments come up so I can't get into all of this at the moment.  My husband and I are committed to helping our daughter and grandchildren for the next several years, so we have put all the other things on the back burner until then.  In 5 years, or so, we can look for our dream place, and move to where we will spend the rest of our lives.  By then we should have enough money saved back to have a nice down payment, and have everything planned out to what and where we want that place to be.

In the mean time, we will continue to dream and plan.

In The Beginning

I am just starting a few new hobbies, and thought it might be a good idea to journal them, as I know I will forget what I thought when various things happened, and when they happened.  My memory isn't the best anymore, and I think it will help me keep track of what I am doing, what worked and what didn't.

My goal is to have a mini farm where we can grow our own food, make our own things, and enjoy living our lives as we have always wanted to do.  My husband and I are both retired due to disabilities, and therefore on a fixed minimal income.  It is nice to do what you feel you need to do in a day, but not having as much money as you need to meet bills is a bit annoying, so I have set out trying to find ways to make our dollar stretch.

I have started making my own soap and my own yarn.  I love to crochet, and am interested in learning to weave.  Making yard will be so much fun, and I just purchased my first drop spindle.  It is a Turkish spindle so it creates a center pull ball. This makes it so there are fewer steps to creating a skein of yarn.

I had to wait so long to get my spindle that I started making soap.  I am SOOOOOO excited about making soap.  It is a fun and rewarding experience.  The start up to make soap is a bit overwhelming, but if you go to thrift shops and garage sales, you can improvise with some materials, and then save to purchase quality ingredients.  My husband told me today that the first batch I made, a Bastille soap, has helped his hands so they don't itch.  His hands became damaged through his work, and they don't produce oils to protect them anymore, so they crack and swell.  They itch him terribly, and it has been a constant irritant for him.  I am happy that the soap change has made an improvement.  I am now looking into other recipes that will help with his Eczema.  If I find one that helps him, I can send some to his siblings who also have this problem.

My eventual goal is to have my own fiber source for my yarn making, i.e. alpacas, angora goats, and angora rabbits.  I would love to use organic dying material, and be able to use my own yarns in my crocheting and then learn to weave to make my own material.  I have learned a few plants that create their own dye, and I would love to experiment in this area.  
I would also love to grow our own food, and raise our own animals.  I love gathering my own eggs, so would love chickens, ducks, and quail.  Their poo also is good fertilizer  so this would help with growing our own food.  We would be able to use the eggs, as well as eat the birds.  

I want to raise goats for fiber and milk.  The milk makes lovely cheese and is great in soap!  To have my own supply would be great.  Roye has raised goats before, so he is good in this area.  I am slowly getting him sold to do this with me :D  He isn't as excited as I am, but if I add a few things at a time, I think he will come around.

I would love to get to the point where we could have seminars a few weekends a month at our place.  Put up a Bunk House and people can come and spend the weekend and learn various things.  I would have different people come to teach things like soap making, spinning, weaving, photography, gardening, self reliance, home canning, and such things.

In this day and age people seem to want to know more how to do things for themselves, and are looking to find people that can help them do this.  I am thinking we need about 10 acres and a few years to do this.  I wish a few of my children would want to get involved, so it would be a sustainable business, but I will have to see how that works out.

For the time being I have started making my own soap.  The first batch I made was a Bastille soap with a recipe from Soaping 101 video I watched on YouTube.  Cathy is very good at showing someone how to make soap.  I have watch many many of her videos, and have joined the Soaping 101 Facebook page and learned so much.  I created my own Peanut-butter Oatmeal soap recipe, that almost got messed up, but am finding it is nice to wash with too.  It doesn't have as much bubbly lather, but it has a satiny lather that is nice, and the oatmeal is a very mild exfoliant.  It is softening to my hands and it is fun to wash with.  The Bastille soap has nice lather and is non-drying as well.  This is the soap my husband likes the most so far.

I am planning on a batch with rose water and shortening, and one with lemon, lime, and orange.  Roye is making me molds from some bamboo we got from our daughters, so I think the natural ribbing inside the bamboo will make the soap even more cool.

As you can tell I am very excited about starting these new things, and have a hard time waiting for my soap to cure so I can cut it!!  There are so many things I can do with soap making to improve problem skin, and I have so many ideas running through my head it is hard to keep them straight.  I have a notebook that I am keeping so I know what oils and additives I would need for various problems that I want to help.  Looking up how different herbs and plant help with varying things is fun as well.  I am learning how to make tinctures, balms, and salves.  These things can be added to soaps and lotions that I make to help as well.  FASCINATING!!

I know it will take years to get to where I want to be, but the journey will be fun, and who knows, I might end up somewhere totally different, but if I am enjoying the journey, then it will all be worth it!