SOAP MAKING 101

Julie and I have been eager to make our own goat milk soap. We have been reading books and watching videos about it. I have been following my FB friend Ann who is a fellow bee keeper. She invested a lot of time and effort this winter teaching herself how to make all kinds of soap. She used Mama's goat milk in some of her first attempts. Then a couple of FB friends who are also rabbit and goat breeders began making it and gave me lots of tips.
   But I went into it with trepidation because, well because I am a spiller and rather messy when I cook or bake. That is fine of course, wiping up warm goat cheese, or chocolate melting on the floor is no big deal in cooking. But LYE is one scary thing to work with. You can not read a single thing about soap making without dire warnings about the dangers of lye.
   Just finding the lye proved a Herculean task.  Shaws use to carry it but since you can use lye to make crystal meth they apparently no longer sell it.  The same with Walmart and Aubuchon Hardware. Tractor Supply not only did not carry it but I think we freaked the girl out when we told her the varied uses of lye. "You can use it to unclog a drain, destroy a dead body, make drugs, or, you know, make goat milk soap." When we said that to her, with a big grin, she nervously commented, "But you are making soap, right?" Some people have no sense of adventure or humor I guess.
     Anyway we eventually found it at Lowes. But the gods of DIY were against us because when we returned home we discovered that not only was there no olive oil (a staple in this house) but that Yon had thrown away the Pringles cans I was saving to use as a mold.
   Mind you I have been planning all week to make this soap. I put the date aside on the calendar, purchased the items, double checked that every thing was all set to go. Julie and I even re watched videos about it last night so we would be all set! Yet we still got off to a late start and I was fuming about the delays. Then, at the last possible moment I realized that I could not find the book that contained the simple recipe we were going to try first. I hope I returned it to my friend Barbara!
   Soap measurements seem quite exact and there are dozens of recipes and ways to do things. Everyone stresses warnings of the dangers of lye, and exact measurements by WEIGHT of ingredients, not cups. However, some  measurements are in ounces and some in grams, oh and some in cups lol, just to confuse. By the time Julie and I began we felt like chemists.
   But once we had our work stations all set, things went very smoothly. She is a fun person to work with because she is very easy going, yet precise. The whole thing from set up to clean up took about 2 hours. We carefully put our soap making products away in one designated box, to make things easier the next time.
We have already decided to get a new container to stir the lye into the goat milk because the one we had, contained internal ridges that the lye granules stubbornly clung to.
    Now we wait overnight for the soap to set in the Pringles can. Tomorrow we will cut the soap into pretty round pieces and then let them cure for a month, when they will be ready to use. We are going to make this type of soap a few more times until we are sure we have everything correct, then we will move on to honey soap, from our own bees, and maybe some oatmeal soap, or lavender soap, or or or.....
   It is pretty amazing to think of all the adventures I have gotten into all the people I have met, all the things I have learned, and all because I wanted to have a little milk goat.
   
9 ounces olive oil
9 ounces coconut oil  ($6 for 14 ounces.)
8 ounces goat milk
4 ounces lye  ($14 for 2 pound bottle)
$20 for stick blender
$15 for pan, spatulas, bowls forever to be used only for soap making
$15 safety goggles (Because we are afraid of lye).
PS: Saponification is a fun word to say and thorough out the soap making process I said it under my breath like Brick on the tv show The Middle, saponification, saponification.