Upcoming Posts

Thanks to those who read my first posts. Here is a look at some upcoming posts I am working on:

Roasting Grean Coffee Beans
Building a Stepped Box Garden
Vegetable Garden Design
Dried Gourd Birdhouses

If you would like to offer advice or information about these topics in advance, please send me a comment or email me at:
nicholaslemonds@gmail.com

Thanks!

Basic Homemade Soap

So one of the first projects we wanted to try was to make homemade soap. I remember going to antique stores as a kid and seeing these rugged looking bars of pale yellow soap. My grandmother said that it was lye soap and that her family used to make it growing up in rural West Virginia in the 30's and 40's. My grandfather told me stories about my great grandmother making lye from water strained through wood ashes and then mixed with lard. This seemed like such a cool process...to turn ash water and fat into something that could clean your body. After doing some research, I have recreated the basic process of making lye soap and I want to share it with you if you have never done this yourself. With the right tools and ingredients, soap making is a simple and affordable homesteading project. Here's how:

**Disclaimer - Working with lye can be extremely dangerous and can cause serious injury. Proceed with caution.***

Basic Soap

This recipe produces enough soap to fill half a bread pan. 

Ingredients:

• 15 oz. Fat (you can use vegetable oil, lard, olive oil, or any other oil by itself or in combination)
• 5 oz. Distilled Water (filtered water or tap will do also)
• 2 oz Lye Crystals*

Equipment:

• Ceramic or Glass Bowl
• 2 Measuring cups (I used one 8oz and one 16oz)
• Spatula
• Spoon
• Temperature Gauge (I used a digital temp gun)
• Hand Blender (you could probably use a wisk or spoon)
• Digital Scale
• Bread Pan or other mold
• Baking Sheet
• Drying Rack
• Knife
• Towel
• Plastic Wrap

*A word about lye - The most traditional way to make lye is to strain water slowly through a bucket of ashes. This was not something I wanted to try the first time I made soap because I don't currently have ashes and to me it seems a little inexact, especially for a beginner. I purchased Roebic Crystal Drain Opener at the local tractor supply store. The container says "100% LYE". There is also a process of turning salt water into lye using electrolysis but I don't have the equipment to do that. See sources below for more information.

Instructions:

Begin by gathering all ingredients and tools. As stated above, you can use any oil you want (as far as I know) and you may also use a blend. To better replicate what my grandparents told me about making soap, I used half vegetable oil and half lard. Place your bowl on a digital scale and zero it out. Then add your oil and fats as desired until the scale reaches 15oz exactly. Exact weights are crucial for saponification to occur - more on this below. If you are using lard or any other solid fat, heat the bowl in the microwave just until the fat has melted. 

 Next measure out your water in one measuring cup and lye in the other. Be sure to weigh it out like the fat on the digital scale. Don't trust the lines on the cup. Also, make sure to wear gloves because the lye can burn the hell out of you. DO NOT LET IT TOUCH YOU!!!


Continue with caution during the next step. Very slowly, add the water to the lye crystals and stir with a spoon. This should be done outside or in a well ventilated area since this step produces caustic fumes. Adding the water to the lye will cause it to heat up very quickly. My first temperature check was about 3 minutes after adding the water and the gun read 174. You need to wait now until the lye water cools a bit. I let my lye cool to about 130 degrees.

In the meantime, heat your oil in the microwave to within 10 degrees of your cooled lye water (my water read 128 and the lye was 130). When they are nearly the same temperature, slowly add the lye water to the bowl of oil. Stir the solution with a spatula. Once all is incorporated, blend the solution with a hand blender on low speed. Be sure to keep the blender at the bottom of the bowl and tip the stick at the bottom to release any air bubbles. Begin by pulsing the blender slowly and then, if your solution is deep enough you can keep it blending, just be sure not to mix a lot of air.

After about 5 or 10 minutes of blending, the soap solution will begin to get thick. This is because saponification is taking place. I am not an expert on this so here is the definition according to chemistry.about.com:

Definition: Usually, a process by which triglycerides are reacted with sodium or potassium hydroxide to produce a glycerol and a fatty acid salt, called 'soap'.

Basically, all you need to know is that it starts to get thick. You want to get it to the "trace" stage when you can drag the spatula accross the surface and leave a small track. This reminded me of pudding that was a little thin.  See the photo below. At this point you can add essence oils, dyes, or abrasives such as ground oatmeal or pumice.

    Now you are going to pour the soap into a mold of some kind. I used a silicone bread pan. Anything should work as long as it won't leak. Cover the mold with plastic wrap and then a towel and let it sit for at least 24 hours. After that time, you can unmold the soap and cut it into bars. I used a crinkle cutter made for cutting vegetables.

You have soap!!!

But...you aren't done yet. You need to let the soap dry out for about three weeks or it won't last long in the shower or next to the sink (think about that water-logged bar that mashes easily). Our soap has been ageing for about two weeks now and feels very good. I can't wait to use it!

COSTS:
Our goal was to create a simple soap that would have been like the kind my ancestors made. You can get as fancy as you want...and spend as much as you want. Of course you have to by the products in larger quantities than it took to make this batch but if you break it down, this is the cost, including tax, for almost two pounds of soap.
Distilled water - $1.06/gallon; 5oz = 4cents
Lye - $10.89/32 ounces; 2oz = 68cents
Vegetable oil - $2.73/32 ounces; 7.5oz = 64cents
Lard - $2.18/16 ounces; 7.5oz = $1.02

Total cost per batch = $2.38

I hope you enjoyed this post. Please comment and share your soap making experiences, recipes, etc.

Thanks!

Homesteading Goals

As I stare at this pile of homesteading books on my desk, I realize that one could quickly become overwhelmed with where to start, when to start, and what to do. There is gardening, home energy, building, preserving, housekeeping, animal keeping, and the list goes on and one. This post is about putting our priorities down on paper (digital paper that is).
Goal #1 - Recycle

• We are fortunate enough to have a city recycling collection that comes by our house once a week. Until recently, we have not used this service. About a month ago, we decided to start sorting though our daily trash accumulation and recycling what we can. This has turned into a trash reduction of about 60%!!
• Now that we are recycling, I want to begin to think differently about our trash. What can we compost (see below)? What of the recycling can we re-purpose? 

Goal #2 - Gardening

• Compost - We have actually started this already. I built a compost bin about two weeks ago from scrap lumber and we are filling it with kitchen scraps, shredded leaves, etc. This has also dramatically cut down on our garbage.
• We are planning to have a garden this spring. We are still in the planning phase but we would like to have herbs, lettuce, corn, tomatoes, beets, onions, beans, bell peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, corn, potatoes, carrots, rhubarb, squash, and cabbage. I am hoping to do this in a plot about 24'x24'. We also plan to use some containers and boxes.
• We want to make gardening a family activity where everyone helps. Being a teacher, I have the summers off so this will help in terms of time spent weeding, etc. 
• We plan to use a variety of preserving methods for the food we cannot consume. This will include canning, drying, smoking, and freezing.

Goal #3 - Chickens

• I really, really, really want chickens. I am going to try to build my own coop and have about 4 chickens to start. I would like to start with pullets. I am still in the research method on this. 
• The primary goal would be to have fresh eggs and manure to compost but I would also be open to an occasional meat bird.

Goal #4 - Housekeeping

• We want to do as much as we can in the home with homemade products. This will include homemade soap (see upcoming post), home-brewed beer, cheese, and other items.
• We want to be more conscious about where the things we buy come from, what methods are employed in manufacturing them, and what alternatives are out there. 
• Less store-bought!!

At this point, we are not taking the plunge to alternative energy or massive construction changes. This may be something we look into later.

Please leave comments with tips, suggestions, etc. both about homesteading and our blog!

A Place to Start

I'm not sure if anyone will ever read this but as I contemplated what to write for my first blog entry, I decided that I needed to organize my thoughts about what our family's "homesteading" goals really are. I also wanted to introduce my family and myself to any readers that may come along.
My wife Amber and I are in our late twenties and live outside Birmingham, Alabama. My wife has a corporate job and works from home. I teach high school Spanish. We have two boys - one is 5 and the other is 16 months. We have a small home in suburban Birmingham with a backyard measuring only 6600 feet. We both love our jobs and have a great time as a family.
So why are we deciding to try homesteading? To begin, I don't really like the term "homesteading" because by it's definition, everyone who ones a house is actually homesteading. What my family and I are trying to do is to simplify our lives, redirect our priorities, and become as self-reliant as possible. Some of these goals are short term and others are going to take a while. For us, this is part of the journey. We know that we are one speck of sand on a beach of others who have done this before us and those who will afterward. We aren't sure where this will take us and where it will end but we hope to learn a lot in the process. We also hope that along the way you will find pleasure in reading and sharing.