norseofcourse's journal - spring and show update

[Southern by choice]

Can you hug your sheep?
I see all that wool and I just want to touch it and hug them... our sheep... run the other way. Once sheared they let you pet them.
I guess that is why I like hairy dogs... love that poof!

They are beautiful sheep!

 

[norseofcourse]

The sheep are beautiful! SO sorry about the quail.

Thank you

Can you hug your sheep?
I see all that wool and I just want to touch it and hug them... our sheep... run the other way. Once sheared they let you pet them.
I guess that is why I like hairy dogs... love that poof!

They are beautiful sheep!

Thank you - I handled Brosa from birth, and she loves being petted and scratched. Sinking your hands into all that wool is like petting a big shaggy rug! The other one that loves attention is Elding - when he's not Mr Studley Ram during breeding season lol. I make sure not to pet his head. But he loves being scratched and petted on his chest and all along his back and sides. And loves being brushed with a stiff brush (which is ok to use on their double coat).

Gracie and Rose are friendly, but not quite as pettable since I got them at about a year old. And I hadn't handled #3 much since I didn't plan on keeping her. And they're all better with me than with people they don't know. Food helps break the ice though!

 

[norseofcourse]

A lot going on this week. The biggest is that my grandma passed away just a few days after her 95th birthday I will miss her so much. She told me stories about her grandma and grandpa, who had a small farm and raised most of their own food. She would go there and help her grandma. She said we were both 'farm girls'.

We're in a spell of really cold weather right now. Luckily we only got about three inches of snow, but it's blowing around so much that it's hard to tell when it's snowing and when it's not. It's 6°F right now, supposed to get to -3 tonight, with a -18 wind chill. And just as cold again Friday night. Everyone is doing well so far. And on the plus side, sunrises are finally - slowly - starting to get earlier again!

On Sunday, I made my first batch of sheep's milk soap. I used the soapcalc website to figure out the weights of the ingredients. I used olive oil and lard for the fats. I read that adding lye to milk would heat it up so much that it scorches and turns a light brown color, and I didn't want that, so I added the lye to the still-frozen milk. It worked as far as avoiding the color change, but I should have at least partially thawed the milk first I had to warm it up to get it to the 100° so I could combine it with the fats.

Then the instructions say to stir until it 'traces' - gets thick enough that a bit drizzled from the spoon will lay on the surface briefly instead of going right in. I stirred. And stirred. And stirred. Nothing was happening, in fact it looked like there was still a fair bit of free oil in the mixture (along with flecks of what kinda looked like curdled milk?). I re-warmed it and stirred again. Then I thought maybe since the soapcalc amounts assumed I was using water, that the calculations were off because of the fat content of the milk. So I put a little spoonful of lye in a bit of water, added it, and kept stirring. It looked better, but I was still seeing some free oil. So I added lye a second, and then a third time (by this time I figured if it was ruined anyway, I couldn't hurt it worse...). It finally at least looked uniform and maybe starting to trace, so I poured it into a container and packed it with blankets in a cooler, to keep it insulated as it cooled.

I had to wait 48 hours before I could look at it, according to the directions. So on Tuesday I took it out - and it had set I think it's already firm enough to cut into bars to let it continue to cure. I'm going to take some of it and try milling it (grating it, melting with water and remolding it), as that's supposed to make better soap. Here's the pan of soap right now:

And last week one of my ponies colicked. I had checked them two hours previous, so luckily I saw it early. I called the vet, did belly lifts and massages, walked her some, occasionally let her lay down but kept her from rolling. She was passing some manure. I heard some gut sounds, sometimes none, then after more belly lifts and massages and time, I'd hear some again. When the vet called back she seemed to be past the worst of it, and was interested in food again and not trying to lay down anymore. He advised me to pull her hay and give her a little in the morning, and check her through the night. He said he sees more colics in the winter and it's often because they're not drinking enough.

I have 4 ponies drinking out of the same water tub so I can't track them individually, but I thought back to that morning, and they hadn't drunk as much water through the previous night as they usually do. So at lunch the next day I went to TSC and got 3 different flavors of mineral salt - apple, carrot and peppermint! They already had plain salt, and a salt/mineral block that's molassas flavored, but I thought mixing up the flavors might get them drinking more water. It's pricey salt, but it's cheaper than a vet bill.

We're almost halfway through January - every day is one day closer to spring!

 

[Southern by choice]

Wow!
Sorry about your grandmother My favorite person ever was my Grandma. I miss her and still think of her often and she passed 16 years ago. It is wonderful that you have fond, lasting memories of her.

Interesting what your vet said about the water intake. Glad you caught it in time and your pony is ok.

Love your soap!

@babsbag showed us to do the frozen milk with the lye too.
We purchased, under her advisement, an Oster stick blender.
Works great!
http://www.target.com/p/oster-immersion-hand-blender/-/A-14648965
on another site it is on sale for $13

 

[babsbag]

@norseofcourse you really need to buy the stick blender, no good way to do soap without one. You need to stick to the amount on lye on the soap calc no matter if you use milk or water. As far as the temperature, I am impressed that you could keep it that cold when you added the lye. I use solidly frozen milk and still have problems keeping it from turning a light shade of tan; the temp is probably around 120 but to be honest, I don't check temps anymore.

That soap is nice and white, I am envious. How long did it take you to add all of the lye to the milk? The slower you go the whiter you can keep it.

 

[norseofcourse]

@Southern by choice sorry about your grandma too. It is hard but I'm glad I had her in my life for so long.

Thanks SBC and @babsbag on the soap advice! I think I had a great deal of beginners luck with this first batch. Yes, I definitely want to get a stick blender - it took forever stirring it with a wooden spoon. It took somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes to add the lye to the frozen milk - I would sprinkle some on, wait for some of the milk to melt, scrape off a partially melted layer, repeat... I think I ended up near 70 or 80 degrees, and the book said I needed 100 so I put it in a bowl of hot water.

Adding the extra lye might have worked because the scale I used only measured in 10g increments, so I might not have had the exact right amount of lye. I will get a more sensitive scale before I do another batch.

I have now milled and repoured about half the batch so far. I'm going to do the rest scented with cinnamon. This is some of the first stuff:

As it's drying and curing, it's turning brown anyway, even though the lye didn't get the milk hot enough to scorch. Oh well. It has a nice feel to it. In the background is the grated soap I still have to melt and pour into molds.

Oh - do *not* use paper muffin liners as soap molds. They stick to the soap

 

[Southern by choice]

They look cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Babs is the soapmaker for sure!

You should see her soaps!!!!!!! @babsbag you really need to put up some pics!

 

[Chivoville]

I actually love the color of your soaps...Anyone who's not a soapmaker would think you made them that color on purpose....

 

[babsbag]

Those soaps are very pretty. Many soaps will turn brown as they cure, some of it is the fragrances that are used; vanilla is known for that. I buy most of my fragrances from Brambleberry and they tell you in the description how it will behave in cold process soap; very useful information.

I don't know about cinnamon in milled soap but in fresh CP soap it can cause a faster trace and if you are stirring by hand it may be so fast that the oils don't get incorporated the way they should before it traces. That mixer is invaluable.

I really enjoy making soap; marketing it...not so much. I need a salesman.(person)

 

[norseofcourse]

@Southern by choice and @Chivoville - thanks!

@babsbag - thanks, and good to know about the fragrances.

I made about half the soap plain milled, and the other half I added cinnamon and cinnamon essential oil - they look like dark chocolates, and smell so good! It is hard to be patient as they dry.

Yesterday was the "two months till first possible lambing" date, so I checked udders (sounds better than 'felt up the sheep' ). I know two months is a long way out, but I wanted to do something besides just wait (and read everyone else's kidding and lambing threads). Nothing felt on Gracie, Brosa or number 3, but definite udder development on Rose! I would not be surprised if she lambs on March 16 or shortly after.

Only a few more days till I take the wethers to the processor. Hope I get through it alright.