Sunday Soap Marathon

I had been meaning to get soap made for the last week or so, but always put it off when I was tired after chores on a week night. This lovely cool weather on a Sunday was my chance to get some soap cooking without me melting into the pot. It takes about two hours to get a batch made, with preparing the wax paper milk carton molds, getting set up with all the ingredients, washing my pots and bowls, melting the silk fibers into the lye, dishing out the various oils and shortening, melting the honey and shea butter into the goat milk, weighing everything, cooking, pouring, stirring, taking temps, etc. Once I got the Tea Tree poured I decided to go ahead and make a batch of lavender. Once that was done I thought I could go for three if I had a good strong cup of coffee. Three batches in a day is a record for me, but I have the Bouckville show coming up this weekend, and will be down low for the farmer's market the following weekend. The Cinnamon Leaf set up (came to trace) so quickly it practically stopped in mid-air while pouring (not good as it's hard to fill the molds properly). I was frantically scraping the big, hot, slippery pot with a cheater to get it all out. Every drop is precious. A spoonful of the soup is almost a bar of soap. All three batches are wrapped in newspaper and towels - no need for wool blankets in the summertime - and will be ready for cutting this week. Good to have all that soap "in the bank."