Virtual Farm Tour

This week we shared on social media some very exciting news! Iron Oak Farm is growing, but for once it's not the furry, feathered or four legged kind. I'm pregnant with our first child! Due October 26th! We've waited a long time for this blessing and are so happy!

Here's the rest of our week in photos.

I received my Eden's Garden order of essential oils. Mandarin, Wild Orange, Lemon Grass, Tea Tree, Key Lime, Vanilla, Spike Lavender, French Lavender and Grapefruit.

The geese are one year old this spring, and have started laying. It can be hard to sex geese, but this confirms that our Pilgrim Goose is in fact a goose and our Toulouse is a gander.

The goose egg compared to one of our large Buff Orpington eggs

Brushing the cashmere from Huck's coat.

I made a Cream of Roasted Root Vegetable Soup and it was delicious. Recipe coming soon!

The ducks enjoying this soggy spring.

Homemade Laundry Soap Half Penny Per Load

I've been using this homemade laundry soap for over 6 years and I have no complaints. We live on a farm and Zach is a blacksmith and it gets our very dirty clothes clean every time. I still use a commercial stain spray for tough spots, but I did that when we bought detergent.

I make this soap in our Food Processor. I use the shredding blade to shed the bars of soap, and the mix/chopping blade to incorporate the mixture and grind the soap flakes to a powder.

You Will Need:

1 3 lb. box Super Washing Soda
1 4lb. box Borax
1 16oz. box Baking Soda
2 14 oz. bars Zote soap

You can add essential oils too, but this drives the price up and I feel like I can't really smell that much of a difference once the load is dry. I feel like essential oils might be better used in the dryer or perhaps a fabric softener step if you line dry. I've also used 2 bars of Fels Naptha soap in this recipe. Sometimes the store is sold out of Zote. I prefer the scent and constancy/texture of Zote when I'm making the detergent, but both work fine for cleaning.

Zote comes in pink and white. Both work equally well, but I like the pink because I can tell if the soap flakes are evenly distributed throughout the detergent. But again, this is just a preference. 

I use our large roasting pan and the canning pot to mix everything. You need two large vessels to mix everything.

I start by shredding the soap so it's in a grated cheese consistency.

I dump this in the pot and add all the other ingredients.

I use a large spoon to stir all the soap flakes evenly through the powdered ingredients.

Then, working in batches, I grind the soap flakes with the powder. Each batch gets dumped in the roasting pan.

When all the detergent is ground to powder, I give it a final stir to make sure everything is incorporated. (You'll get some batches that seem to be pinker than others.) This final step mixes it well.

When it's all done I fill a 1 gallon glass jar, plus a half gallon Mason jar.

I use 2 level tablespoons per load and all my load are large loads. (I rarely wash small loads)

I usually get my ingredients at Wal-Mart, it's our closest grocery store. 

Here's the price breakdown:

Washing Soda                $3.97
Borax                             $3.97
Baking Soda                  $0.54
Zote ($0.97 x 2 bars)     $1.94
---------------------------------------
Total:                             $10.42

There are 256 tbsp in a gallon
The recipe makes 1.5 gallons so that's 384 tbsps
divided by 2 because I use 2 tbsp per load, equals 192 loads
$10.42 divided by 192 loads equals $.054 per load

So one half penny per load! 

I recommend that you read the owners manual on your washing machine before using this soap recipe. Or contact the manufacturer to see if powdered soap is ok for your machine. We have an old top load washer and I haven't had any problems.   

Here are photos so you can see the prices at the store:

KBB Post: Beeswax in Your Armpits!

Check out my latest Keeping Backyard Bees post all about making your own homemade deodorant. Beeswax in Your Armpits!

November Farm Meet'n, Making Natural Lipsticks, Glosses and Balms

I know I keep saying this, but November was an awesome meeting, for so many reasons! First off, making your own lip products ROCKS! Thanks to my dear friend Camille who headed this meeting and generously shared the magic of homemade, natural lip sticks, glosses and balms. I think I can speak for everyone, in that, we all felt like kids in a candy store.

Camille is "owner operator of Autumn Moon Aesthetics, a holistic skin care practice incorporating natural products and alternative techniques, including aromatherapy, Reiki and crystal therapy." She is also a licensed aesthetician and skin care therapist, not to mention a wonderful teacher who brought optimism to everything she shared with us!

We each made a tube and a tin pot of her delicious Autumn Orange Spice Lip Butter. It is incredible! Visit Camille's site for the recipe and other natural, holiday gift ideas at Skin Care for Your Soul.

Check out the cool vintage tin slider pots! Adorable!

We also got to blend mineral colors and all natural scented oil to make our own lip gloss or lipstick. So cool!!

We even got o mold our lipstick in authentic lipstick molds and put our products in real cosmetic containers.
 

I used a pepper and cinnamon oil that also acts as a natural lip plumper, and named my lip stick "The Balcksmith's Mistress". There is a funny story about Zach, that goes along with this...he, he. (No~ he doesn't wear lipstick, it's not that funny of a story.) Zach LOVES pepper, fresh cracked pepper! Like a ridiculous amount of pepper. He loves pepper so much that he carries a miniature pepper grinder in his pocket so that when we go out to eat he can crack pepper on his meal, I mean, this guy likes pepper. So in choosing the oil for my lipstick, needless to say, the pepper oil was looking attractive. 

























We also had 3 new members join the group, Michelle Langefeld, Dianne Jarois and Shannon Cole. (well, Shannon actually joined a long time ago, but hasn't been able to make it to any meetings because she is becoming a brilliant History Teacher, and is a great mom devoted to her kids, love you Shannon!) I welcome all the new members and hope you continue to come and share.

Camille also came up with a great idea, in the theme of being thankful, for each of the members to bring a homemade treat to share and an extra to go to Haven, a facility that helps victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Camille brought the bag over on Monday (don't worry Liz I didn't give away the beautiful basket you gave me) Everyone got to go home with collection of goodies, each one expressing the talents and generosity of a great group of skilled women.



Did I forget anything? It was such a great meeting I feel like I could go on for days. Oh yeah, Zach wants to let the guys know that when us girls are in the house doing "girly things" that he welcomes you to blacksmith with an open forge. Just bring safety goggles. (more for my sanity, than your safety...Ha!)