Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[birdman55]

hope everyones day is going great just came in for a break...got three boards in the ground for the next three coups...gotta love the frozen ground

sounds cool with making your own soap...I might give it a try and see what happens

 

[Stacykins]

While it doesn't help with the wood ash, if you use conventional Sodium hydroxide, soapcalc helps with some of the maths of soap making. I use it when I am feeling lazy, or to doublecheck calculations. Different fats and oils have a different sap value, or the amount of lye it takes to saponify it due to the unique mix of fatty acids. Back in the day when lard was the triglyceride of choice, it probably didn't matter much.

Different fats also impart certain properties into a soap. Coconut oil adds lovely fluffy lather, but is incredibly drying (though a 100% coconut oil soap with about a 20-30% superfat (waaaaaay higher than normal, but it doesn't go rancid easily like other oils) is moisturizing and can lather in seawater, it is so good at lathering)). Palm oil adds a stable lather. Olive oil is very moisturizing, but a 100% olive oil soap (also called castile) has a bit of a slimey lather. So making a bastile with mostly olive oil and some coconut oil makes it a nicer soap.

I either make my soaps with a mostly lard base, or a mostly olive oil base. Then there is some added coconut oil for lather, finished off with a small amount of a very conditioning oil (walnut, sweet almond, and grapeseed are a few examples). Fragrance either comes from essential oils, or fragrance oils (I don't really care if it isn't natural, some scents can't be had with EOs, plus they stick better).

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Could you use cooking flavors instead of perfumes? Still stuck on my vanilla wish. Somewhere i have a recipe for an easy soap you stir up and pour into a dishpan.

 

[tntchix]

Had to cull Dammit Janet today. She was attacking 3 of the others including a rooster. She was the picker. Brat was also preventing Midnight and Sassy from roosting. Poor little things were just sleeping on top of the feeder lids. We put them on roost tonight and they stayed for first time.

They made it up to the deck today. Sparty took a lap around the patio furniture and bolted off the deck. The rest just worked their way to the door and spied on us. LOL

 

[1muttsfan]

Opa, it is certainly a pleasure to spend the holidays with family. My BF and I are with his family, and while I have enjoyed it, I find myself missing my family, especially Dad.
Please tell Granny I said Hi.

 

[Stacykins]

Could you use cooking flavors instead of perfumes? Still stuck on my vanilla wish. Somewhere i have a recipe for an easy soap you stir up and pour into a dishpan.

Cooking vanilla won't stick as a scent. Some people can impart subtle scents using some ingredients, like strong coffee instead of water for a coffee scent. A bit of honey (be careful, can cause the soap to heat up even more than usual during the process) can add a sweet smell. A bit of experimentation helps.

Sounds like that is a melt and pour soap. Where folks buy the soap as a block (already made), melt it, then pour it in their desired mold. It isn't like making soap with lye, and there are a lot of undesirable ingredients, just like with a bar of dove or ivory from the store. By the way, dove is not actually soap. There is a reason it is called a 'beauty bar' rather than soap. It legally is not soap! It is composed of detergents, rather than a saponified fat, which is what soap is.

 

[Opa]

Looks like the year is going to go out on an upswing. Egg production has ticked up slightly and the weather looks to be dry for the next few days so I should be able to get in 3 more days of deer hunting. I did shoot a nice doe this morning so that brings my total for the year to four. Hopefully I can get at least one more so that I can use the hindquarters from one to make pastrami.

 

[birdman55]

well got the base dug in the ground...yep done...that was not fun

 

[tntchix]

I can't believe how hard you are working, I'd have given up by now. LOL

 

[mindylee]

Hi RaZ,
Sorry to hear about your health and ins. nightmare. I have medicare and don't have that much grief shiish! Just for fun, I must admit my feathers are ruffled about something.... Every time I have gone to a TSC or Farm and Home to get VetRX, which says it comes with a dropper, it NEVER has one! who in the flock is taking the droppers? I'm just sayin'.

VetRX dose NOT come with a dropper...
It may say it dose but I can tell you it dose not.
I work at TSC as a receiver and have to receive everything that comes through the door and not once ever through both vendors have droppers ever come with. Sorry for the bad news. But no ones stealing them, just not getting them.