Homestead Soap

     I find it hard to believe that it's already the middle of January 2009.  So much has happened good and bad.

     Due to some health issues, orders placed on the web may take a couple of extra days to be boxed and shipped.  Holly, our Mistress O' Soap, has been under the weather and is recuperating.  We have lots of inventory still and we're doing our best to keep the website updated with what's out of stock.  If in doubt please email us.

      On the farm front, we are now registered members of CoCoRaHS which is a volunteer rain, hail and snow observation network.  Data that we gather is reported on a national map and used by NOAA and the National Weather Service.  We're also in the process of revamping our gardens.  We're moving from row planting to using permanent garden beds.  This has been our plan since moving here but time was against us last year so we had to go with traditional row planting method.  All of our food and herbs are still naturally grown.  With the addition of the permanent beds, we'll be going no-till.  No-till is better for the soil and the environment in general since we don't have to burn any fossil fuels to work the land.

Jason

  We had really hoped to be at Thomasville's Victorian Christmas later this week.  Everything was ready to go and the coordinators had given us the best spot in the vendor lineup.  Unfortunately we've had some health problems that while not extremely serious, will preclude us from being a vendor this year.  We'll really miss being at TVC this year since we had such a wonderful time last year, but hope to be there again in 2009.

Jason

Hello everyone!

     We've been hard at work on the homestead getting the winter prep for the gardens done.  Holly has also been hard at work getting your old favorites and many new items ready for our appearance at Victorian Christmas.  For more details on Victorian Christmas, see our Calendar.

     There have also been a few updates to the website.  We have a new Calendar page where you can view events by week, month or all events at once.  We've also consolidated our links to our products under our Online Store.  We did this in a effort to declutter the navigation bar.  Finally we've renamed the Web Links page to simply Links and reworked the entire page.  We've categorized the links, included brief descriptions, added thumbnail images of the web sites we've linked to, as well as added a few more of our favorite places on the web.

     More updates to the website are in the works as well as many new products to be added so keep checking back.  If you don't see something you'd like, feel free to contact us and ask for it!

Jason

So, for a soapmaker, the holidays are right around the corner and we'll be preparing for them soon!

You can look forward to seeing some of our seasonal scents such as clove, apple butter, cinnamon vanilla, etc.

We also put together gift baskets by request.  I prefer to tailor these to my customer's preferences so email me or see me at the Green Market to talk about this.

If you're wanting something special for gift giving and you don't see it on the site just email us and I can most likely get it together.  I'm always coming up with new things and they don't always make it to the website before they're sold out.  For example, we have a fabulous grapefruit scented bar and a cherry almond bar that just hasn't made it to the site yet.

There are always new formulations that I'm testing on humans and I'm always looking for new challenges.

I will also be offering a couple of workshops before the holidays if you are feeling industrious enough to make gifts for your family instead of buying them.  Basic soapmaking for the family will be our first class.  If you'd like to learn how to do something in particular send us an email!  Sign up for our email notifications or check the site for updates on our workshop schedule.

Hello again everyone!

We have been busy here just keeping the homestead maintained and working on our little projects.

Our greatest development has been our first harvests of the year and our hens.

We've harvested many vegetables and herbs so far and have been very happy with the garden this year.  As it's our first year at this location we may not have much to sell at the market, but it's great to get the gardens started and be able to enjoy fresh beets, green beans, squash, peas, strawberries, tomatoes, etc.

And eggs!  Our 11 hens are doing wonderfully and loving their new home.  For their safety we don't allow them to free range everyday but they do get at least an hour each day while we can supervise some bug hunting in the evening.  Their antics provide endless entertainment and there's nothing like hearing our girls chatting while we go about our chores during the day.

We do have eggs for sale.  One chicken lays light green eggs and the rest are brown.  Most of our girls lay extra large eggs but there are a few medium sized.  Unless specified you will receive the largest eggs we have available at the time and will include one green egg for the novelty, they're just so neat!  We are currently charging $2.25 per dozen.

I hope everyone else has been enjoying their spring!

Hello everyone.  I'm taking a few moments to give an update on the farm operations.

One of our major projects here on the farm as been completed.  The installation of 3, 300 gallon tanks for rainwater catchment is done.  As you know one of the ingredients we use in our soap is rainwater.  The completion of this big project makes harvesting that rainwater effortless for us.  We'll also use the stored rainwater for irrigation of crops since rainwater is healthier for crops than well water.  We now have a little over 1,100 gallons of rainwater storage capacity with plans to expand this as funds permit.

Our chicken tractor (portable chicken coop) is almost complete and we hope to have it full of chickens and out in the field improving the soil.  We're looking forward to being able to provide farm fresh eggs.

Bats!  This is one of our side projects.  We'll soon be installing a bat roost that will house around 500 bats.  Why bats?  Insect control.  South Georgia is bug paradise and having bats around will help us control harmful insects that can damage our crops.  This also seems to be the Year of the Mosquito and one bat can eat up to 1,200 mosquitoes a day.  If we get a full colony of 500, that's 600,000 mosquitoes a day!  Not to mention bat guano is wonderful fertilizer once it's been composted properly.  We also like the fact that we're doing our part to help the declining population of bats in our country.

That's it for now.  So much more going on than I can write about here.  For more details about the rainwater catchement project including pictures, check out my personal blog here.

Also don't forget the Thomasville Green Market on Saturday April 12th from 9AM to 12PM at the corner of West Jackson Street and Stevens Street.

Hello again, everyone!

We had our first Green Market of the year and really enjoyed everyone there!  The laides with the City of Thomasville do a wonderful job getting things like this organized and we talked to so many people that were thrilled that our city has such a wonderful event each month now (March through November).

As always, it was a joy to get out and talk to the other crafters/growers/etc from our area and chat with all of our visitors.  There is always some interesting talk and tons of information sharing at the Market.  If you haven't gotten out there yet I highly suggest it.  There's a little something for everyone, even if it's just good conversation.

Thank you all who visited us and we look forward to seeing everyone again next month!  We will also be at Art in the Park on April 26th and we're looking forward it!

Also, Jason will be adding some wonderful information and tidbits on the gardening and fresh produce and herbs that we'll have soon.  He's been working very hard around the homestead getting our garden straightened out and going as well as building a chicken coop!  Farm fresh eggs, we can't wait!

Welcome!

As you can see, our site is still under construction and we are continually adding new items.

We love our customer's feedback so please don't ever hesitate to contact us with suggestions.  They are all written down and I look each one over when preparing to make/formulate new batches.

Also, we've added a page for lip balms and other miscellaneous products.  Please peruse and we'll be adding many more soon.  I'm really looking forward to making several batches and types of whipped shea butter.  They are simply luxurious and work so well!  We have had wonderful feedback on them so far.

Thanks for stopping by and keep checking every now and again....we are definitely a work in progress.