LittleHouseQuilting: MAKING SOAP AND OTHER THINGS

Sunday, June 6, 2010

MAKING SOAP AND OTHER THINGS

The Mixer

The ingredients

Today was soap making day, I have been trying to get this done for weeks. Truth be told," soap making terrifies me", it is really dangerous. But dog gone it I love the soap, I use it as regular bar soap though the best use is for shampoo. Yes my hair has never been better behaved and no dry scalp other wise known as dandruff. My sister claims it cleared up her face. I am sure she was talking about clearing all the blemishes and not clearing her face off. I have heard that this recipe can be grated and use as laundry soap, but I would never waste it that way.

Lye and Water

Olive Oil, Rice Oil and Coconut Oil

The trick to soap making is to get the lye solution and the 3 different oils at 50C at the same time. Since I am now experience in soap making I realized to mix the water and the lye first. Once this dangerous procedure is done I can breathe easy if I have done it correctly. Meaning I did not inhale any of the fumes, or splash any of the lye on me, particularly in my eyes. The first time I mixed water with lye I gowned, gloved and goggled up to the task. However I soon realized I could not see through the 30 year old goggles or feel through the thick thick gloves that was advised to wear. After spending much thought on how more dangerous it was for me to wear all this garb then just to take my time and be careful. I work around deadly organisms on a daily basis, things like hepatitis, Aids, mersa, etc,etc........ And their are ways to be safe called........BE VERY CAREFUL, ALERT, ON GUARD, THINK, MOVE SLOWLY, USE YOUR BRAIN!!!!!!!! So I now use this philosophy (training) when making soap. So far so good

Put in mixer and blend till "trace".

Pour into pans and cure for 6-8 weeks.

You can find a wonderful how to on this blog, one of my favs.

I bet you are wondering why I would put a dirty bucket in my tub? Well silly , of course it is to collect the water from my shower before it runs down the drain. You see I figure I paid for that water and I am going to use it. How? Watering all my pots around the yard. Works great, it is called" Grey Water". A short shower I can collect 5 gallons of grey water. Oh do not mind the dirt, it is not from me, but stuck to the bottom of the container. I should not have left this container sit outside all winter!

These are my new running shoes. Well not really new I found them in the back of the closet and thought great I will start to run again. Running isn't going to well, you see I am too old to be young and too young to be old. In other words my arthritic joints some I did not even know I owned and 50+ year old knees are screaming " Are you kidding me"? I ignore them and keep moving. Moving is not the problem it is when I stop! I stiffen up so tight I know what rigor mortis feels like. Staying healthy never gets easier and the end product is always the same , sick or healthy!