Madelyne and Benjamin chose to come for a field trip on a VERY exciting day.  Way more than exciting than any of us bargained for!  But we were a good team!  Today was all about Lenny.  Lenny is a 5 year old Alpine goat that had just birthed two perfect kids the evening before.  She had Quinn (a little dueling) and Quade (a baby buckling).  They were wonderful.  She was tired as all new moms are, but nursing and happy.  This morning's field trip was supposed to be all about milking goats.  But the morning took a drastic turn when we got to the barn!  

When we walked into the barn, the first thing to do was to go say "Good morning!" to the new babies.  At first glance, everything looked fine.  But Madelyne noticed that the Quinn was eagerly nibbling at her Mom's face.  She thought this was cute.  Her little baby voice was so sweet!  I thought it was a bit strange, but didn't really think much about it.  Then, while we were watching all the cuteness, Lenny suddenly plopped her head in a very awkward posture against the barn wall.  As we watched for a few more moments, we all decided that just didn't look right.  I went to pet and move her head and it fell to the ground....just FLOPPY! No muscle support at all!  I was instantly worried! Very worried!! She did rally her head up for another stressed few seconds, but she was definitely NOT well.  We all left the barn and ran as fast as we could to go call the vet.  I thought Lenny was dying!  

After talking to the vet, he instantly diagnosed Milk Fever; a dangerously low calcium blood level.  He was unavailable to come out instantly, but told me that I needed to get some calcium in her immediately. So, we all jumped in the van and drove to the vet as quickly as possible.  We had to (very impatiently) wait outside and call the vet since this was the time of the Covid quarantine.  It felt like it took FOREVER before he brought the medicine out.  Finally we drove home as fast as we could (safely).  Benjamin kept asking questions that I didn't know the answers to.  He was mostly worried if this calcium would help her. 

We got to the barn.  We ran inside, all very nervous about what we would find. Madelyn and Benjamin were so worried that they stayed in the milking area while I went to check on Lenny. Lenny was in a coma! She was completely non-responsive.  I actually thought she had passed away while we were out and I didn't know how I would tell Madelyn and Benjamin! Then I felt a heart beat!!! I quickly filled the syringe with 30ml of the calcium solution.  The instructions were to give her four shots of 30ml in her four hip areas subcutaneously (just under the skin).  I gave her one. Refilled. Two. Refilled. Three. Refilled.  Finally at the 4th injection Lenny flinched!  Then miraculously within 30 seconds she picked her head up........heard her very hungry babies' cries, stood up, and beckonned them to come nurse.  AMAZING!!! Truly a miracle! I had never seen such an immediate response to anything like that before. Lenny looked so relieved!  I called Benjamin and Madelyn to come in and see.  They were so happy that everything was OK!  We petted and watched for a while before deciding to go get an apple for Lenny.  We cut up the apple and Lenny LOVED it! Yay!!! Things are going to be OK!

Ok.....so, now that the emergency was under control, I still had to get the others milked and fed. While I was running thru the chores quickly, Madelyn and Benjamin decided to play in the hay loft.  They had a blast!  BUT.....they also found out who has been naughty! We had noticed that someone has been breaking down the boards that block off the hay loft and getting into the hay...... Paisley! It's you!!! Busted! But you're oh, so cute!!! Gotta love a bit of sass and savvy, right? We all laughed!  It was a great tension reliever! 

With the milking chores done, it was time to check Lenny again and make sure these new kids are getting what they needed for their hungry bellies!  They were so hungry and all new kids often benefit from a bit of assist in making sure they get everything figured out.  So, we sat down and helped guide each kid to find the teats to nurse.  They were so hungry that this was not hard for them.  They quickly had everything figured out. Madelyn and Benjamin were super curious about all of that and I was happy to see a successful feeding.  From now on, they'll manage just fine on their own. 

Madelyn was the first to notice that Lenny was licking the baby butts while they nursed.  Benjamin thought this was gross!  And although Lenny gave this her best effort, she was still so exhausted that she wasn't really doing a great job.  I explained to Madelyn and Benjamin that usually the Momma goat does an amazing job of licking all the first pooh and pee of her kids.  The very first pooh is black sticky meconium (just like human babies).  The next pooh is a soft mustard looking poop.  Then after that it starts to pellet like the big goats.  This instinctively goes back to the days of living in the wild where the Moms don't want to leave any scent where her newborns lie.  The mom goat will even eat the placenta usually.  Very nutritious too!! 

Finally, it was time to see if Lenny was ready for a bit of grain.  She ate only a little, but anything is good at this point.  She was really doing very amazing considering..... All in all an amazing day! I think that Madelyn and Benjamin learned a lot!  I sure did!  We have never experienced Milk Fever here on the farm before, so now I know what to watch for.  I also realized just how important it is to be nutritionally balanced. I had no idea that calcium had such an important role in body functioning!  Our friend and neighbor who is a doctor told us that it's no different in human bodies.  Calcium is what 

controls all muscle contractions.  That is why Lenny was basically comatose. Her heart muscle would have been the last to go.  I am so very grateful to experienced and educated people who know their job!  The local vet literally saved Lenny's life thru a quick diagnosis!!! He further recommended a liquid oral drench of calcium for a couple of days after.  Lenny HATED it, but we got it down.  

Whew! What an adventure!!!! But all are happy and healthy in the end.  Thanks Madelyn and Benjamin for your moral support! I couldn't have done it without you!  I hope you had a really great field trip!!!

We just recently returned from being on vacation and guess what I forgot?  Yep...soap!  Ugh!  I had to use whatever they had in the hotels on the road.  Actually though, it was a good experience.  Honestly I hadn't used any other soap other than ours (except for a for a few awesome bars from other soap makers) for years now!  The experience was rather eye opening.  The commercial soaps that I used were so....cleansing....I guess for lack of a better word.  And....drying!  They left my skin squeaky clean.  Now that's a good thing when I'm washing dishes (except for my hands), but not in the shower.  After the shower I was left with that alligator tight skin.  Do you know what I mean?  Yuck!  And where's the lotion to get rid of that tight feeling?!?!?!  With our soaps, I haven't used lotion in years!  Even in the drying winter!  The soap (and especially the goat milk) naturally takes care of that.

I had forgotten what a difference the goat milk and the high quality oils and butters make....not to mention the natural glycerin that is left in our soaps and extracted from most commercial soaps.  Did you know that commercial "soaps" are not actually soaps?  They are classified as detergent because of the harsh cleansing, drying and non-glycerine nature of most of them.  Check them out in the stores sometimes.  Most of them will be listed as "beauty bars" or some other name that doesn't contain the word "soap".

A detergent is a surfactant that helps water and oil to combine instead of separating.  This allows a surface to be cleaned with water even if the surface contains oil.  Skin contains oil which is removed when a detergent is used.  Therefore, commercial bar soap dries out the skin because it removes the skin's natural oils that provide the body protection from weather, viruses, and bacteria.

In order for commercial bar soap to be more moisturizing than drying to the skin, other ingredients need to be added to the soap like lotion and cream.  Many commercial soap ads say “it won’t dry your skin” because they added moisturizers.  These additives also contain many harsh chemicals and chemical preservatives.

So...back home and back to ahhhh soft, moisturizing, skin nourishing and gentle soaps.  Speaking of soft:  our soaps have been a bit softer lately with the intense humidity.  People LOVE the skin softening qualities of our soaps and I began tweaking our recipes just a bit to add more of that skin softening feel--called superfatting.  But with some recipes, that just doesn't work with the humidity.  If you've ever been dissatisfied with ANY of our products, please contact us and we will make you happy!  Really! Home crafted soap may not last as long as the commercial soap, but it doesn’t contain the chemical preservatives or other harsh chemicals.  Isn't that why you buy our soap in the first place?  (**Always remember to let your soap air dry as much as possible between uses, and it will last much longer.)

What's your travel soap experience?  I'd love to know!
Happy Showering!
Janelle

This is a small snippet of a bit of soap making in my world. This soap was made for Amy Warden's Great Cakes Soapworks Soap Challenge.  I haven't named it yet, but it will be something Earthy as it smells kind of earthy and musky AND it will be ready just in time for Earth Day 2014. 

As always, I start with fresh goat milk.  I freeze it into ice cubes, weigh the correct amount (usually about 30% of the total batch volume) and add the lye (slowly). On this day, since it was cold out, with snow on the ground, I mix the lye and milk outside.  It is always a game to balance the temps just right to keep the mixture cool enough so the milk doesn't burn, while allowing it to warm just enough to dissolve the lye.  The goal is to keep the mixture nice and light and creamy.

Then the milk/lye mixture is added to the pre-measured oil mixture.  This must then be mixed until a light trace forms.  Since this batch is large and the recipe takes a while to trace, I've pulled out the big guns and mix it double duty.

Now, to get the additives ready:  mixing the colors with a little extra oil (color choices are charcoal, kelp powder, and an infused oil with alkanet root), measuring the shredded loofah, and mixing and measuring the essential oils. 

Before the soap batter was divided, I added the essential oils.  For this I chose, vetiver, ylang ylang III and lime.  I thought I had more lime EO, but alas did not, so I improvised and upped the quantities of the other 2 oils.  Also, in the instructions for the challenge, the obvious was mentioned:  Only use oils that you are used to working with and know how they will perform.  Well I had never worked with vetiver yet and you can see from the photo how one oil is much darker and more dense than the others.  Yep, that is the vetiver.  A little worried here that my soap will be brown, but onward I go. I poured most of the scented soap batter into my mold and saved out just a bit for each color. 

With the colors all mixed, I began dropping and plopping a bit here and there at different heights to create differing depth penetration.  Here I discover another mini mistake that resulted in yet another ever present learning experience.  I had also never used an infused oil.  I had not waited long enough for the alkanet to infuse and I didn't use enough of what I did have infused.  So that color was basically non-existent.  It was supposed to be purple.  You'll see in the finished picture that there is NO purple.  Not even a smidge! 

Next, a little swirly action with a chopstick, a little bit of dried calendula on top for fun, and off to "bed" it goes. 

Finally, the most exciting part:  the cutting!  Every piece is like opening a present.  You just don't know what you will find until you see it.  I'm happy with how they came out.  This is one of my favorite recipes (that I have used before) and I LOVE having the shredded loofah in a soap; so I know that the soap will be great!  I love the scent, but I know some will not.  It is a a bit smokey, musky, and earthy all in one.  Next time I will use a bit more lime EO and a bit less vetiver EO.  And even though the "purple" alkanet disappeared, that didn't really matter.  What do you think?  Do you have any good ideas for a name?

I am in a quandary.  Whether you have tried our soaps or not, I would really like your opinion about this topic.  Warning:  this blog is long. I like to be wordy.  If you want to skim, at least please read the paragraphs with *s. 

As you may know, we are still relatively new to the business.  We are growing quickly as a result of our wonderful customers who are loving our soaps.  Yah! I'm convinced that it's the fresh, raw goat's milk that is truly the key to our soaps' success.  We are very proud of our product and what it stands for.

However, as we grow in popularity, more and more people are enjoying our soaps and more and more people are offering their requests for ingredients, scents, and products--which I LOVE by the way, and have asked for.  Originally, our business vision was to keep things the way we like them:  all natural and as organic as possible.  Of course there is such a personal preference when it comes to things like scents, textures, colors, and etc....  We wouldn't want to make ONLY what we like, as that would be ridiculous!  For example, I love a highly exfoliating bar of soap and I love peppermint essential oil.  My husband, Scott really dislikes both of those.  He likes the sweeter scents and smoother textures.  Would I only want to make one over the other? Of course not; we make both! 

**Recently, we have had several very specific requests for certain scents that are only found in fragrance oils.  As we aim to please the customer, we have responded by meeting those requests.  Of course all of these soaps still have all the other high quality ingredients as usual:  organic goat milk, organic oils and butters, and natural colorants/exfoliants.  Also, I have researched to find the highest quality fragrance oils as possible and that are phthalate free.  BUT, they are still a synthetic product.  All of our products are clearly labeled and most of our products are still only using essential oils.  Also, we don't ever mix essential and fragrance oils, but here's the part that is finally getting to my original question:

**The soaps with the fragrance oils are quickly becoming our best sellers!  We only have 3 soaps currently (out of 20+) that use fragrance oils.  Everyone who picks them up LOVES them.  We have been getting more and more requests for different fragrance oil scents.  This is taking us in a direction away from our original "all natural" goal.  Part of me wants to jump on the band wagon and get many more fragrances that will sell like crazy, but part of me is bothered by this. 

I personally don't like to use the fragrance oil soaps because some of them make my skin itch.  We NEVER put fragrance oils in deodorants or body butters (products intended to soak into the skin) but research seems to indicate that although soap is a wash off product, still some components are absorbed through the skin.  Maybe my skin is more sensitive than others, but it still bothers me to think that you may use our soap, have some sort of reaction to the fragrance oils like me, and think it's the soap as a whole and not realize it's the fragrance oil.  Of course, many people have different allergies/reactions/aversions to all kinds of things including essential oils, liquid and solid oils, and even the gluten in the oatmeal used in some soaps.  But if that is the case, you know who you are and as long as everything is clearly labeled, you can make appropriate choices.  Fragrance oils are a propriety market and "secret" recipes are protected.  So you really don't know what goes into them--thus what we're putting on our skin when we use them.

**So here are my questions that I would LOVE your opinions to:
-Would you like us to continue to offer choices:  fragrance AND essential oils that are clearly marked?
-Does it offend you that we call ourselves "natural", yet offer a very few--and clearly marked--soaps with a tiny percentage of non-natural ingredients?
-Should we grow our fragrance oil selections to include more of the very wonderful and yummy scents that are made and that so many of you love?

Your opinions are VERY important to us.  I am laying it out here in a very honest way, wondering what to do, and we would love your honest opinions.

I LOVE making soap!  I'm addicted to it!  I'm rather obsessed with it.  I read about it, dream about it and think about soap all the time.  Here's my story.

We've had goats now for near 9 years.  We first got the goats purely out of a desire for healthy, wholesome raw milk.  I honestly can't remember what led me to desire raw milk, but since a youth, being inspired by good nutrition from my parents--especially my mom-- I have been rather a health nut.  I read constantly and am always striving for optimal nutrition.  Somewhere along that path, I decided that my family needed raw milk.  I thought a goat might be easier to manage than a cow; so began our life with goats. 

We milked for many years and enjoyed many of the obvious benefits from the milk:  fresh of course for drinking, making all kinds of cheeses and yogurts, and sharing with friends.  One year, probably about 5 years ago, our good friends and neighbors, Nichole and Paul, gave us a small kit for making goat milk soap.  The kit included everything that I needed except the fresh milk and the lye.  Well the milk was easy, obviously.  But the lye intimidated me.  I pondered that kit for a long time...years in fact...not quite sure how to tackle the lye issues.  Where do I get it?  How do I handle it?  Where will I store it?  Yada, yada, yada...  But the kit stayed in the top of my pantry closet teasing me all that time. 

Then one day I met some new friends, Alyssa and Jen.  We met over the impending delivery of a goat in labor.  Goat conversations abounded.  They had been making soap with their fresh goat milk!  I was so excited to meet real live people that were on the other side!  I was invited to their home to make goat milk soap with them.  I was enthralled!  They made it look so easy. I could do this!

I immediately ordered the proper ingredients that I needed and plunged in head first!  I was in love.  I quickly started exploring many recipes and started developing my own preferences and recipes.  I came up with strategies and techniques that helped make things easy and interesting.  I read incessantly, both real books and online.  That first year, I made soaps for all our personal and holiday gift giving needs.  People seemed to love them.  There was only one problem:  I just couldn't stop!  A creative outlet had been unleashed and I was loving every minute. Throughout most of the following year, I dabbled (both seriously and jokingly) with the idea of starting my own soap making business. 

At one point, a great friend of mine, Erin, sent an email to me addressed to "Jangle".  I wasn't exactly sure what she meant by that, but just loved the ring of it.  It sounded happy and playful. I sent my reply and signed off with the name "Jangle".  We had a good laugh when she later explained that it had been a typo that she hadn't even realized she had made. I told her right then that if I ever started a business that I would name it to include my new name of Jangle.  

Around the first of October last year, again I was musing about the notion of selling some soaps and my ever inspiring friend Jill said "Get out your calendar and let's plan an open house!  I'll help you."  She did indeed help me.  She listened to me, gave me advice, listened to me, sampled soap, listened to me, and held my hand all the way through my open house.  And she still has to listen to me about soap!  I must also mention here, that my family--especially my husband, Scott--did an awful lot of listening, sampling and hand-holding too.  I made soap like a mad woman all through October, and then shifted to business details (website, Face Book page, labeling, etc... for all of November).  Early December, 2013,  I had my Grand Opening Open House that was a smashing success! 

So, with the start of some awesome fresh milk, and the support of some really great friends and family, Jangle Soapworks was born and has been going strong ever since.  The quest for a healthful, natural lifestyle is a perfect match for our business.  We use only the BEST ingredients possible.  The goats are fed organic food and tons of love.  We buy organic oils and other organic ingredients whenever possible.  We love our soap.  I love soap.  I love all things soapy! Thank you for loving and supporting our soaps too!