Ugly Soap

I made an ugly batch of soap yesterday. I'd been wanting to try another batch of Kitchen Thyme & another using vegetable glycerine leftover from the biodiesel process. I've been tweaking both recipes, but thought I'd figured out the problem with both, so decided they'd be a good match. Well, the soap seized, which means it very quickly gets too thick to pour. I patted it into the mold, & had to hand cut this batch, just like I always did up until last year. On a happy note, it's the first batch of the Kitchen Thyme that hasn't separated. It smells delicious & will be perfectly usable soap. But pretty... not so much.

Winterizing the House

Joseph has been working hard getting the house ready for winter. He made some thresholds to tighten up two of the doors, and has been caulking between the siding on the house. So, far he's used up 46 tubes of caulk, plus a few cans of Great Stuff for a few really large gaps. The house is noticeably warmer & quieter. Which shows that it really does make a difference, as the house was pretty warm & quiet to begin with. Joseph's Aunt Faye & Pamp came for a visit & lunch on Saturday. It was their first visit, & Joseph had to go meet them & bring them to the house. We do live in a pretty rural area, & they just couldn't find us, even with Mapquest directions. But we all had a nice visit, which included exchanging plants. They gifted us with a banana tree, which we'll keep in the house until spring. Lyle at Piedmont Biofuels got bananas from his this year, so you never know. We did take some time out to go see Men Who Stare at Goats this weekend. We both knew a little about remote viewing, in the military and otherwise. Pretty interesting subject. The movie didn't delve into it with any substance, but it was fun and had a good ending. We enjoyed it. Today I made my first batch of soap using biodiesel glycerine. It looks OK so far. I'll post a picture once it's out of the mold.

Fired Up to Can

Today Joseph & I put to use the wood-fired canner I got at auction a number of years ago. I hadn't used it in some time, as it works best if you've got over 2 canners full to put up. It's a good tomato year when I can fire it up. Yesterday I joined the folks at Piedmont Biofuels for their Friday lunch. While I was there, Leif gave me some biodiesel glycerine to play with. I want to review some of the soap recipes that incorporate it, & see what I can come up with.