Soap Update
Just wanted to take a minute and update about the soap we made Sunday. We cut in on Tuesday and it was still a bit too wet to cut, so it's not pretty soap, but it's drying well now and it will be fine.
I can't wait for it to be ready so we can give it a try!
Make Your Own Wood Fired Water Heater
I mentioned a while back about our wood fired water heater, and since then, I've had several questions. So here is a little info about it, along with more pictures. We are not experts, this is just how we did it. Whenever you working with something like this, do so at your own risk and with lots of care. It can be extremely dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. This is a full view of our water heater. The green & yellow foam are the water lines going into the house. We used foam "noodles" (for use in swimming pools) to help insulate the lines. The water heater it's self is covered with insulation to help it retain heat. The water heater is just an old gas water heater set on top of a sheet metal fire box.
this is the fire box that the water heater sits on
This is the valve to release water from the water heater (this is an emergecy valve)
This is the smoke stack on top of the water heater and a better picture of the insualted water lines that go into the house.
Here is a picture of the inside of the fire box. Marty is just starting to lay in the wood for the fire.
Here the wood is all layed in the fire box...all ready to be lit.
The fire is lit and the water will start heating!
Now here is some information that Marty wrote down for me...LOL!
1. Cut the sheet metal bottom off of the gas water heater. Build the fire box and set the water heater on top. Be sure and leave the T&P valve on the water heater.
2. Learn to make the right size fire. Don't depend on the T&P valve to release excess steam/water. It's both dangerous and wasteful. If you have any questions, email me and I'll see if I can get an answer from Marty :-)
Making Homemade Soap
I've never made soap from scratch before. I've done a lot of handmilling soap...taking already made soap, melting it down and adding scent and additives. That's easy and fun, but I've never actually mixed the lye together with oils to make actual soap. I've been wanting to do it for a long time, but I admit, I was a bit scared of handling the lye. I'm a bit of a klutz and the thought of ME handling was a bit scary. I finally broke down this weekend and we made out very first batch of soap!
Here I am all geared up to make soap. I've got on my safety glasses, one of Marty's old work shirts, and I've got my rubber gloves.
First thing, I weighed out all the water, lye and oils....okay...Marty weighed out the lye (LOL!)
Then we mixed the lye into the water...okay, I'm chicken little....Marty did this too :-)
Once Marty did this and I saw that all went well, I think I'll be able to do it myself from now on...I'm such a chicken! We melted/heated the oil to 110 degrees and then held it at that temperature until the lye reached 110 degrees. Then we poured the lye into the oils.
After that, we took turns stirring the soap. Took over an hour to trace because we were stirring it by hand...but trace it finally did.
Then we poured it into a rubbermaid shoe box, put on the lid and wrapped it with a towel. We then set it on top of the refrigerator to incubate for 48 hours. I don't have any pictures of this step...sorry! After 48 hours, we'll check it and if all is well, we'll cut it into bars. Then it's got to rest for 4-6 weeks to dry and for the lye to turn into soap! It was a lot of fun making the soap. I don't know why I've been so scared of the lye, because with just a little care, it's really simple to use. I'm going to be making more soap and next time, I won't need Marty to deal with the lye for me....LOL! I can't wait to see how our soap turns out!!
Homemade Deodorant Tutorial
Recipe originally from Tammy's Recipes... T
o begin with you will need:
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup arrowroot powder or corn starch (I used corn starch, as I didn't have arrowroot powder available...health food store was out)
5 tbsp. coconut oil
Just a note: I ended up having to add more baking soda & cornstarch, I think I ended up using 1/2-3/4 cup of each.
In a bowl, add the baking soda...
and corn starch.
Stir the baking soda and corn starch together with a fork (in my case, a spork...lol!)
Add the 5 tbsp. coconut oil
Mix the ingredients together well. Add more baking soda & corn starch as needed. You want this to be the consistence of stiff mash potatoes or playdough.
Place into smaller containers. I used some 1/2 cup sized mini Gladware bowls.
Since I really did not like the idea of spreading this on with my fingers, I added one of those "cosmetic rounds" that are used for putting on makeup. I think these are made from latex, but you can use other things as well. I just had these on hand and they work great for me. You can also put this concoction into an old rollup deodorant tube.
I just store the "cosmetic round" right on top of the deodorant and then...
Pop on the lid and label it! All done! Now, I've just made this deodorant today, so I can't verify how well it works. I've heard some good things about it and so I will be giving it a try. I'll report back to let you know how it works!
Homemade Yogurt, Labaneh & Wild Onion Butter
Yesterday I spent the afternoon making our very first batch of yogurt, a batch of Labeneh (yogurt cheese) and wild onion butter. It was a lot of fun! I've made Labeneh before and my family loves it! It's a spreadable yogurt cheese, kind of like cream cheese. It's super simple to make too. Just a friendly warning...mega photo post ahead :-)
Making Homemade Yogurt using a Yogotherm
For this recipe you will need: 1/2 gallon organic or raw milk 1 cup organic yogurt (MUST HAVE LIVE ACTICE CULTURES) Thermometer
First thing you need to do is heat up your milk to 180 degrees, stirring constantly to prevent the milk from scortching. Once the milk is at 180 degrees, let it cool down to 105-115 degrees. Then you will add the 1 cup yogurt and stir until the yogurt is fully mixed in.
Pour the milk/yogurt mixture into the plastic container of the Yogotherm.
Place the plastic container into the insulated Yogotherm.
Put the lid on the yogotherm and let incubate for 6 hours.
This yogurt is a bit thinner than commercial yogurt, but as you can tell by the half empty container...my kids loved it! I refrigerated it overnight and the yogurt did thicken up a bit. My kids ate it with a little stevia and vanilla...yummy!! It was much milder than what I expected, didn't have a strong sour taste, which is fine with me. I expect it will get sharper over time, if it doesn't all get eaten up first!
Making Labenah (Yogurt Cheese)
Since we had some purchased yogurt left over, I decided to make some Labenah. It's a really simple recipe...anyone can do this cheese!
Pour the yogurt into a reuable coffee filter set inside of a measuring cup (see above).
As you let it sit, the whey will drip out of it. I put mine in the refrigerator to drip
This is how it looked this morning after left to drip, about 18 hours. I'm serving it with supper, so I'll let it continue to drip until them.
this is how much whey I've gotten so far (18 hours of dripping). I'll store it in a canning jar and use the whey for my Nourishing Traditions cooking.
Homemade Wild Onion Butter
Marty was out in the pasture yesterday and found a couple patches of wild onions. So he dug some up and brought them in. I chopped them up and then softened some butter. I whipped the wild onions up with the butter.
It was so good to eat last night on our biscuits and Marty even spread some on his steak. Yummy!!
