Homemade Liquid Hand or Body Soap

I got this recipe from:

http://www.thefarmersnest.com/2011/11/liquid-hand-soap-diy.html

Cheese grater (from the dollar store)
2 Tablespoons of Liquid Glycerin (found in the band aid section at any drugstore or grocery store)
1 – 8 oz bar of soap
1 gallon of water

Grate the entire bar of soap. Fill a pot with 1 gallon of distilled water and add the soap shavings.

Add 2 Tablespoons of liquid glycerin and turn the heat to medium/high and stir until the soap dissolves.

Leave it alone to cool for at least 10-12 hours. It begins to cloud up after 3-4 hours.

After it has cooled completely around 12 hours later it will harden and look like liquid soap.

If the soap is harder than it should be you can take some beaters and blend it while adding just a little bit of water until the consistency is more like liquid soap.

January 24, 2013 0

A Ride Down The Parkway

Hello everyone! I thought I would share a few pictures from along our beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway. It is lovely this time of year.

I have always loved this church sitting upon the hill. Saturday was a wood cutting day here. Chuck and his family came over to help. We brought down 2 huge trees. We got them all cut and brought home. We still have to split them though. It was a really fun day. Chuck’s girlfriend had never been part of wood cutting. (She’s a town girl). I think she had a good time though. The kids had lots of fun.

Today the girls and I went to Roanoke to pick up a few things. We went walking through the mall, which is something we don’t do very often. I stepped into Macy’s-my first time. You all remember that I have been looking for a hard anodized pot to use for cooking down my sauces. One like Mrs. Sally let me borrow this summer. Well, they had one on sale for 1/2 price!! Yeah, me!!! I was very happy. I very seldom come across deals like that. I certainly am glad I walked into that store.

Well, that’s about all that’s been happening here. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

October 15, 2012 3

Fall Colors

Here are a few of the pictures we took Saturday at Grayson Highlands. The colors of fall are looking pretty good here.

We have had rain for several days so lots of the leaves have just fallen off.

Hopefully, not all though. I love the colors of fall.

We started school yesterday. So far, everything is good. Mostly just review right now. We had some rather chilly weather yesterday so I built our first fire. It was nice to feel the warmth and smell the wood smoke again. Today we made a huge pot of chili beans for supper. We plan on canning some of it-if there’s enough left. It sure does smell good.

Well, lunch break is almost over. Enjoy your day and God bless.

October 2, 2012 4

Homemade Yogurt

For a quart of yogurt, you need:
1 quart of milk
1/2 cup dry milk powder (not absolutely necessary but makes it thicker)
1/4 – 1/2 cup yogurt starter (plain – not vanilla – yogurt) room temperature

To Make:
Mix the milk and dry milk powder well. Heat in microwave to 180 degrees. Cool down to 115 degrees. To cool faster put pot in a pan of cold water. When cool, add a yogurt starter to a small amount of milk. Add all milk and whisk well. Pour milk into a yogurt maker and incubate for 6 to 8 hours. Refrigerate. Serve!

I got this recipe from http://homejoys.blogspot.com/2008/10/make-it-yourself-yogurt.html

August 1, 2012 0

Beautiful Day

Today has been a beautiful day here in Floyd. Temperature as I type this is 72 degrees with a slight breeze. An absolutely georgeous day. Thank you, Lord.

This is a picture Grace took yesterday. This is the view from the back yard of the house Hubby is working on. The girls and I have been working on plums today. We did one batch of freezer jam. I am trying out the ponoma pectin that my blog friend Cheryl at http://holcombhappenings.wordpress.com/ uses. You only have to use a small amount of sugar with it. I have some now on in the steam juicer. I wonder how plum juice will taste? One thing for sure, the house smells delicious!

I am also making yogurt today. This is a new recipe for me. I got it from Cheryl too. The recipe is Sweet Yogurt:
7 cups milk
1 pkg unflavored gelatin
2/3 cups instant milk
1/2 cup sugar
4 Tablespoon yogurt

In a small bowl, measure yogurt and let it sit. Mix ingredients (except yogurt) in a large saucepan and cook to 180º; do not boil. Cool to 112º in pan. Stir in a small amount of milk into the yogurt and then mix it all into saucepan. Stir well. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla (if desired). Divide into 2 quart jars, cover with lid and band. Wrap in a towel and set over a pilot light or on a heating pad covered with a large pot. Check in 4 hours.

The only thing I did different is use my yogurt machine. Well, actually, it is Jessica’s machine. She is letting me borrow it. The recipe filled up the yogurt machine with about 1 pt left over. I put that pint in the oven and turned the oven light on. I want to see how that works. I’ll let you all know.

Well, the juice is almost done so I better get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.

A later note to this post. The girls and I were working on the plums when the house started shaking. David, my son-in-law called almost immediately to see if we were okay. Evidently, there was an earthquake somewhere close to Richmond VA. We have never felt an earthquake here. It definitely was strange. Our friends, the Horn’s, felt it at their house also. We said a prayer of thanks to the Good Lord for his protection over us. We also prayed for the safety of others. I will let you all know more about this as I learn of it. God bless.

August 23, 2011 6

More Snow

More snow! We already have about 3 more inches and as you can see it is still coming down. It is supposed to snow all day today and tomorrow. Wow! I think it is going to be a snuggle in weekend. I hope to work on Grace’s quilt this weekend, maybe make a few aprons, have fun with my girls, make a pot of coffee to share with my hubby. Our front porch is enclosed with glass. We love to sit out there, drink coffee and watch it snow. All the beauty without the cold. I have a beef roast on the wood stove cooking. I haven’t decided what to put with this yet, probably potatoes and carrots. Yesterday’s menu was meatloaft, mashed potatoes, green beans, mac & cheese, and biscuits. School today as usual, maybe make some snow cream later. Enjoy your day and God Bless.

February 5, 2010 1

Critter Chompin

Tonight our church sponsors something called a Sportman’s Banquet, or as we call it The Critter Chompin. Our church has a really great men’s ministry that reaches out to the hunters in our community. Many women and youth from our church are hunters too. So this is a great opportunity for them (and us) to enjoy the fruits of their labor. They will bring lots of wild game especially deer as they are in abundance here. We’ve taking turkey chili and it is simmering now in the pot. It smells SO GOOD in here. I can hardly wait to sample all the good food tonight. We give away door prizes and have people give testimonies to what Christ has done in their life. A very nice way to spend an evening. Today has been a georgeous day in Floyd. Sunshine, wind, warm temperatures. Just wonderful. I think I’ll go enjoy some outside time before we have to leave. God Bless.

October 24, 2009 1

Geese

Nightlife Events

Fall must be quickly approaching Floyd. The geese are back. Lots of geese. We counted at least 40 this morning on our pond. They are very interesting to watch however they are quite loud. I haven’t posted anything in a day or so as we have been really busy. We went back to Jess on Monday and worked more on her bathroom. It is started to look more like a bathroom now. We were planning on going back tomorrow but they all have a cold so I think we will just stay here. We went on a picnic today with good friends of ours at a little park here on the parkway. We took the puppy so all the kids had a great time playing together(especially the puppy)

I wanted to show you this strange cucumber(yes it is a cucumber) I raised it on the back porch in a large pot. The plant did fairly well but this one is pretty strange. I put some tomatoes and cucumbers in pots this year. They did okay but required me to remember to water and I am not really good at this. All in all though it was a good experiment. Night has fallen here on the farm. Katydids and crickets are making a joyful noise unto the Lord. I think I will go out on my swing and enjoy.

August 27, 2009 2