Soap On The Road

Cut bars in front of the MeToo

 My first batch of soap on the road did not go entirely smoothly. I opted for castille soap, made with distilled water, as I had left my stores of goat and jersey cow milk back at home base, in the freezer. Soap is traditionally made in the fall, when the weather is cooler, but not yet freezing. This being January in Colorado, even with the sun out at mid-day, the highs were only in the 30's. At least there wasn't any wind.

Yak inspecting the soap

I set up my table outside and laid out my supplies. After melting my oils on the RV stove, I brought them outside while I mixed the lye and water. Lots of fumes in that process - don't want that in the RV! Next I poured the lye-water solution into the oils to saponify - or neutralize - the lye, while changing the composition of the oils into the familiar creaminess of soap. I stirred and stirred and stirred some more. When the soap started to trace, or thicken, I poured it into my prepared soap mold. All was well, until...dinner was ready. The grandparents eat early. This is where the trouble began. I didn't want to move the soap before it set, but I didn't want to move it in the dark, even more. So I quickly set up a place for it in the trailer. The tricky part was to move the 4 ft. long soap mold while the soap was still liquidy. It spilled...I thought it was lost. I scooped up what I could off the clean vinyl tablecloth and gave up on the rest. 

You can see some of the crumbles here

   Upon inspecting the mess the next day, I discovered that I hadn't lost as much soap as I thought and I did get a good 15 bars out of this batch. A few more were lost due to the crumbly texture when I unmolded and cut it. That was thanks to Jack Frost. The soap set, or hardened, too quickly in the cold temperatures, resulting in a more crumbly texture. 

These bars cracked when I cut them

Now this is NOT great-great-grandma's lye soap! It does need to cure for 3-5 weeks to finish neutralizing the lye and hardening the oils, but after fully curing it will NOT take the paint off the barn! This pure, unscented castille soap will gently cleanse a baby's bottom, better than that big-name brand named after an elephant's tusk. After curing, my 15 good  bars seemed to shape up quite nicely and my testing with the ones that didn't cut properly went perfectly well. 

Curing on racks in the MeToo

Mrs. D's Pure, Unscented Castillle Soap is available in the Homestead Store or on Etsy. Right now I'm repouring lip butters. I added too much coconut oil to my last batch and they're too soft. Looking forward to a nice day to make some Jasmine Rose Goat Milk Soap. Can't wait!

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Gladius The Show - Review

Two enormous Belgian horses. One large gladiator, with a sandaled foot planted firmly on the back of each. Delicate beings, gracefully performing handstands and other acrobatics on the backs of horses. Chariot races. An elegant goddess, dancing flawlessly with a handsome white Andalusian stallion. "Gladius - The Show" is a breathtaking ballet on horseback.

Yak admiring Director Erik Martonovich and one of the Belgian beauties

Written, produced and performed by Big Horse Productions, based in Las Vegas, Nevada, the most inspiring part of "Gladius" is not just the show, but the fact that the performers have financed the entire production themselves, along with crowd-funding from Kick Starter and some generous private donors. No big corporations with bottom lines, here. Just grass-roots performers, giving audiences their hearts, depending on grass-roots funding. 

Speaking of bottom lines, "Gladius" performers will host a 'Hoofprints' clinic in each city they play. Children from boys and girls clubs will be invited to participate in outreach sessions including warm-ups, stretching, group games, equestrian vaulting (acrobatics on horseback) and aerial circus arts. I don't have details at the moment, but for further info, the email contact is monk_e_monnya@yahoo.com.  

Head Horse Trainer and "goddess" Laura Amandis

I don't normally go to shows with scantily clad actors. My daughter purchased the tickets because we were going to the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo in Denver and she assured me that the horses would be fantastic. They were. The thing that stole my heart, was watching how willingly they responded to suggestions from their handlers. Not commands, not demands. One could clearly see that these horses and their people were a team. The most stunning and beautiful example of this is Laura Amandis' dance with her white Andalusian. At the mere movement of her hand, or the softest suggestion from the lunge whip (which never, by the way, touched the horse), the stallion moved precisely into position, his elegant, curling tail sweeping nearly to the ground, his long mane flowing with his every movement. Even his final bow was executed on the slightest cue from his trainer.

Did I mention the fire? Juggling, spinning and spouting, there is even fire being swallowed. I am not familiar with the art of fire manipulation, so I was dutifully awestruck, watching. I also noticed that the horses weren't the least bit concerned about it. Now that's some trust, which only comes from long hours of devoted training.

The show did not end when the lights came up. Afterwards, we were invited to the barn to meet the horses and acrobats. It was exciting to see the 18 hand, 2,000 pound belgians close up. Toddlers in arms reached out to touch their soft noses, while the horses stood patiently, apparently enjoying the attention.

My horse-crazy family loved Gladius - The Show. We give it all thumbs up. For more info on locations, dates and tickets see their Facebook page, or website.

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Keeping the Water Flowing

This  happy, homey scene is our bathroom sink in the RV. Featured are my homemade Lavender Tea Tree Goat Milk Soap and Lavender Tea Tree Lotion Bar made with all natural coconut oil, shea butter and beeswax. The bottles in the background contain homemade mouthwash, toner and nasal spray. But enough product promotion. This post is all about how we make the above picture possible. RVing in sub-zero temps is not what we had in mind for starting our full-time RV lifestyle. We have adapted.

After a few minor freeze-ups in December, earnest efforts to keep the flow of water steady were undertaken. Both fresh and gray/black water systems had to be addressed. The sewage pipes were wrapped with R30 insulation and further protected by surrounding them with old hay bales. We discovered that, when parked for more than a few days, the gray and black water need to be kept moving. Normal driving of the RV usually takes care of this. If you are traveling slow, as we are, and are parked for a few weeks or months in one spot, you need to run more water through your black tank, especially, to flush out all the solids. This is fine, because we are also hooked to pressurized water and can afford to use a bit more for flushing.

As for the fresh water, the hose was heat taped and covered with foam insulation, which has kept the water flowing into the RV. I leave the faucets open to drip slowly overnight and the Colorado sunshine keeps the hose thawed (along with the heat tapes) during the day.

The addition of plywood flashing or some more of those old hay bales around the bottom of the rig would undoubtedly help, as well.

As for my little trailer, well, spring is on the way...here you can see my latest batch of soap - Pure Castille, cut and waiting to be put on the curing racks inside the trailer. It should be ready to ship in March. Look for details on my first adventure in soapmaking on the road, in my next post.

Thanks for stopping by.

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Dry Skin Relief - Coconut Oil, Shea Butter and Goat's Milk

It's well into winter and relief from the dry air seems far away. Heaters, fireplaces and air cleaners don't help with the dry skin issue. Even normal, everyday activities like washing clothes, dishes and produce, even just handwashing seems to leave my skin ready to dissolve into powder. That might actually be less painful that the cracking, splitting and peeling that is taking place. 

Wait, I'm a soap maker! I should have soft, smooth, healthy skin, right? Regular use of my goat and cow's milk soaps certainly helps. They are gentle and nourishing. My reformulated lotion bars, with extra coconut oil and shea butter, are easier to spread in winter's colder temps. The thing is, in the drier climates, I find I need to reapply frequently. My homemade lip butters are handy for this. The coconut oil and shea butter are soothing, and heal up our chapped lips quickly. If we would remember to keep using it, the chapping would also be prevented.

My favorite lotion bar in the winter is the Jasmine Rose. Rose oil is reputed to be soothing for dry skin. I like to recycle a 2 ounce size tin or snack container with a tight-fitting lid, smoosh a lotion bar inside, and carry it in my purse for easy application after handwashing on the go, or any time. I also keep a lotion bar next to the soap on each sink in my house, RV, trailer and in my travel bag. Okay, that seems obsessive, but I really am the biggest fan of my homemade soaps and lotions. Of course, that's why I make them. They're all natural and if I'm not happy with them, I know you won't be, so I make sure they're just right.

Want some help with your dry skin? Check out my Etsy shop, or my website, Mrs. D's Homestead.

Thanks for stopping by.

Back To School - Blogging As Language Arts

One great thing about homeschooling is the flexibility in the schedule. After nearly 2 months off to help with fixing up the RV and trailer, closing up the Homestead and packing for the road, not to mention celebrating the holidays, 10 year old Yak is back to school. He is still working at the conventional "6th" grade level. He is taking more control over his schedule, often completing his work late at night so he can have the daylight hours free for his fort-building work and other projects. I check his work first thing in the morning , write his assignments in his record book and make sure he reads for his minimum 2 hours. Also, during the day sometime, I will sit him down and go over any particular difficulties he may be having in math, spelling, grammar, etc.

This past week he has started blogging. I supervise each post just to make sure everything looks good. I am also his final spelling/grammar check. It's really all his. Sometimes we discuss why using certain phrases may not be appropriate and we discuss online safety issues as we go along. I think he is learning a lot as he works on his blog and he enjoys having people other than just mom see his work.

We would like to invite everyone to check out his blog: http://horsecrazyjacob.blogspot.com and please comment. In fact, I would love it if you would leave a comment here, as well.

Stop by again, soon!

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Vintage Trailer Rehab

We've finally arrived at our first stop on the road - the grandparents' in Colorado. As we spend some time enjoying the holidays, here's a little bit of what we've been doing to make my 1975, 14ft. MeToo travel trailer more suitable for full time living:

Tearing out the bunks and dinette resulted in an large open space. Now, what to do with it? The bunks from the house would have fit, but too heavy. A lightweight futon was a consideration. Yak wanted a hammock to sleep in. The man of the place came up with the idea of removing the bunk from the old RV and making it a fold-up bed. That sounded good, so he went ahead with it.

Here you can see the bed folded down, with a little bit of a shelf next to the wall. The bottom picture is the bed folded up. You can see the mattress sticking out the top and the hinged leg supports folded against the bed. I still have to add a center support and straps to hold the bed in the up position. There is now quite a bit of easily accessible storage space under the bed, and when folded up, storage boxes can be moved outside, to give me a large workspace for sewing, writing, whatever.

Another modification we made was to remove the smaller, non-working fridge and replace it with the larger fridge from our old RV. This involved removing the entire door frame and building out the cabinet to accommodate the bigger fridge. A few more cubic inches doesn't seem like much, but it really makes a difference.

A former owner upgraded the electrical system, including putting in an independent battery system, which I have yet to figure out. I still have some work to do on the heater and oven, though the stove works. The hot water system is a battery operated pump at this time, until I get the hot water pipes replaced and can check the water heater. The cold water works fine. When it's not frozen solid. I fiberglassed a crack in the gray/black water tank and have a minor repair to do on the toilet, but then I think the plumbing will be ready to use.

Right now, everything's thawing out, as I had no electricity the first few days we were here. Now I'm plugged in and have the electric heater going. Luckily, we've been warm and dry in the grands' guest room while we work out the bugs.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

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Sunset at Wild Horse Ranch

I have been a bit slower to post this past month, as we have been working hard on the new direction our life is taking. Preparing for full-time living in an RV and travel trailer has meant major renovation to the travel trailer, which I will post about in the weeks to come, and getting animals to the vet, to update shots and such.

The horses are now safely ensconced in their new home in Northern Colorado, under the watchful care of my daughter, the horse lover. We are taking a little break, to enjoy a late Thanksgiving and early Christmas together, and then will head back to the homestead to put the finishing touches on the travel trailer before heading up to the grandparents' in Southern Colorado, where we will spend the holidays. Both of these towns are wonderful, and I am excited to explore them and write about them in the coming year. There are lots of farms and dairies, local beekeepers and other homesteaders. As well as all kinds of activities and points of interest for travelers.

Moonrise over Wild Horse Ranch

For now, here are a couple of pictures of the horses enjoying Wild Horse Ranch. I hope to post a couple more times in the coming weeks, and then more often again after New Year's. Looking forward to sharing about our Homestead on the road.

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