?

I have noticed that a lot of people are arriving on this blog after doing a google search for ______(click here)________... ?WHAT? What exactly are you searching for people, that is turning up that blog page in particular? I am REALLY curious! Would someone care to enlighten me?

PLEASE.



Mum and Dad are in Argentina visiting the Donaldsons! I would LOVE to visit them too, but since I can't, I just read their blog every chance I get. :)

Fiona, Bill, Damien, and Danyel!

This is the Pumkin Pie Soap.
It was a pretty orange color right when I popped it out of the mold.

Now it's dark brown!!!!!!!!!!

Wild Indians

Thanksgiving at the Beaird's house - betcha didn't know we are related to a bunch of wild Indians!?!

Erinn has been laying around all day, but doesn't seem to have a fever this evening. The thermometer got lost in the depths of the couch, and I didn't want to disturb her too much trying to dig it out. She didn't feel hot, but does feel "blah". I just heard from Aunt Nell that Johanna has pneumonia - poor girl! Erinn does not have a cough at all, so I doubt she has the same bug they have. Pray for Johanna!
I had a bad night last night and an all day headache, as did Kris, so I actually dropped Mooky off at church and went back to get him later which we have never done before. He REALLY wanted to go though, and I hated for him to have to miss just because the rest of us were not feeling well. He said that Sandra Dee and her husband will be at the church next weekend. He was quite excited about the fact that he "knows" them - he told the pastor that he'd met them before with Kiwi and Rowdy.
I dropped Bonita's soaps off today and she gave me some houseplants that she said wont survive the winter in her cold house. I dont know if they will survive in this house either because we seem to be terrible at keeping plants alive.
Mum has been telling me about a recipe for "Fennel Cream/Lotion" that is great for mastitis:
6 ounces of liquid oil (olive, peanut, safflower or veg)
3 ounces coconut oil
1 ounce beeswax
9 ounces distilled water
2 teaspoons fennel essential oil
5 drops of grapefruit seed extract

weigh the 6 oz oil and place in microwaveable bowl
weigh 3 oz coconut oil and add to bowl
measure 1 oz beeswax and add to oils
melt the oils and beeswax together until liquid, probably about 10 minutes

This recipe was in the Countryside magazine, Nov/Dec 07. It came from a lady named Jane Hinrichs of http://littlebigheartranch.com. I hope it is ok to post here - I would think so since the recipe was in a magazine!

Thanks Mum for the recipe - I can't wait to try it!

New Zealand

OK - who is the New Zealander checking out our blog? I think that is pretty cool.
Could it be someone we used to know many years ago when we lived in Featherston, NZ?
Anyone doing a search for the New family? Naaahh.... probably not, since that last name hasn't been on this blog until now! OKAY - if you are looking for Daniel, Suzanne, Kyria, Rebecca, Rachel, Michael, Gabriel, or Halcyon, you have almost come to the right place. :o) Send me an email. Or leave a comment.
Rachel

MORE soap....

Still no job prospects... it seems half of the Hill Country is out of work and we aren't getting any calls back from employers. Or, maybe it's that Kris is getting a "bad reference" from someone who isn't telling the whole story. I don't know. (We do know for sure that Kris can't get unemployment because of that.) But, I am not worrying about it. We don't have time to worry. There's work to be done. Besides that, when did worrying ever help anything? We are staying very busy getting ready for the December 20th Market when we will be selling soap again.
Teresa and Rob came over yesterday and we made a TON of soap. They loaned us all their molds, so we were able to get a whole lot made. We did peppermint, lemongrass, sea breeze, pumpkin, and mango. The Other Bonita and her kids came over too! (Not the Bonita whose goat we have.) She and her daughter each made a batch of soap and did a really great job. Her son hung out with Mooky since neither one was interested in soap. :o) We really enjoyed all the company. We had chicken salad for lunch with chicken that Mooky grilled for us. I was so busy making soap that I didn't even think to take pictures while everyone was here! Hmph.
Erinn got a fever, sore throat, and ear ache in the evening and has been feeling pretty bad all day today as well. The rest of us had headaches this morning, but it may just have been from the over powering SCENTS filling the house!
This afternoon I tried to make a large batch of soap using a new fragrance - Apple Jack. YIKES! It accelerated, which means that it basically hardened up really fast in the pot before I could get it poured into molds. Both the kids were madly helping me smoosh it down into molds, but we soon gave up and just put the chunks of it into the log molds. What a mess! We'll have to cut it into chunks and use it for decorative chunks in some other soap later on. Wonder what scent apple will go good with? We almost had this same problem with the peppermint soap yesterday, but it didn't accelerate as fast as the apple and we were able to save it.

This is the Christmas Tree Fragrance. Rather strong and manly.

We added green to half the batch.

This is the Pumpkin Pie - with NO added color!

Lemongrass.

Kris made some really nice soap display racks. We desperately needed something that showed the soap off really well, but didn't take up too much space. These are so cool - there are 6 of them! They are going to get one more coat of paint, and then we will put signs on them that say Four Mile Farm and which scent the soap is. In the picture above you can see the nasty mess that was supposed to be Apple Soap! Yuck.