Life is Good: July 2012

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Another Adventure . . . Making Soap

With a herd of five dairy goats, currently three of them with full udders, Karah is up to her ears in goat milk. Her freezer is filling up fast. She's decided to start up her own business as a FFA project creating a line of soaps and lotions using her supply of goat milk. Yesterday I was invited up to help out (which I did by reading directions from a "how to" book). The soaps "we" made yesterday had no fresh goat milk in them but some of them had powdered goat milk added. We discovered these were pretty easy and fun to make.

Using the silicone soap molds aids in making beautifully-shaped soaps plus the final product is easily released from the mold.

The first soaps were made using dried lavender buds . . . so fragrant!

Karah decided to crush the buds up a bit.

The crushed buds were added to the melted soap base. . .

. . . which was slowly poured into the silicone soap-mold to cool.

Jennifer lends a hand on the next soap . . . a pretty layered one.

The layered one has two soaps poured in four layers . . .

Cornmeal and Wheat Germ Scrub . . . looks good enough to eat!

By the end of our first soap-making session Karah ended up with 20 bars of soap.

Now that we have our hands wet in the beginning stages of soap making, next we'll learn how to make soap the old-fashioned way by using lye and fresh goat milk, like our ancestors did years ago—in addition to making goat milk hand and body lotions.

Jennifer has already started making goat cheeses of various kinds so this new adventure will just add to the use of the generous daily offerings of their goat herd.

Life is good!

Friday, July 20, 2012

Opening Night

We were treated to a fabulous show at Roger Rocka's Dinner Theater last night! Louise Mandrell is in town and she is fabulous! A sold-out crowd enjoyed Louise and the entire cast at this fun-filled musical. I read an article in the Fresno Bee that reported this was her debut to acting on stage in this type of venue . . . she should do it more often because there was a standing ovation following her performance. She then treated the audience to a quick fiddle tune while she dance around the stage . . .

Playing the title role Louise Mandrell stole the hearts of everyone on stage and the audience as well.

Life is good!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

First of of the season!

We've been waiting to really be able to pick some red tomatoes before the critters get them. Ken brought these in this morning . . . glorious red Romas!

Live is good!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Mariposa Coffee Company

Yesterday we took a trip over to the town of Mariposa . . . for two reasons, one of which was to purchase ten pounds of freshly roasted coffee beans. It's about a 25-mile drive but it's a beautiful drive.

A beautiful drive through our mountains . . . the southern Sierra Nevada mountains, with the south entrance to Yosemite National Park just twenty miles north of us.

You'd almost miss it if you didn't know it was there.

The owner roasts coffee beans on a daily basis..

Nestled among oak and pine trees, we could smell the coffee roasting as we drove in to park at the Mariposa Coffee Company

Here the owner's daughter measures out our coffee which happened to be still warm from the morning's roasting process. Mariposa Coffee Company is a real friendly place and we think it's worth it to make the drive. The coffee is rich in flavor and far better than we can find anywhere and the customer service . . . well it can't be beat!

Coffee beans from all over the world are roasted here. Our favorite is called "French Silk" . . . and it is just that, silky smooth.

Beautiful view to the south on the way home.

To the north . . .

Now I have the task of vacuum-packing the coffee into two-cup portions to use in our coffee grinder . . . there will be the fragrance of a coffee house in my kitchen!

Vacuum-packed and ready to store in the pantry.

Life is good!

Friday, July 06, 2012

Better Start Than Last Summer . . .

If you'll remember last summer our tomatoes were prolific, however neither the Ace nor the Romas turned red, and the ground squirrels and rabbits nibbled away at the zucchini and crookneck squash!

This year we've taken a few precautions to keep critters out . . .

Deer deterrent . . . sprinkler triggered to go off using a motion detector which works quite well!

Ken installed an electric fence around the perimeter of the garden (note yellow sign hanging on the top of three wires spaced about four inches apart). Ahh, life in the country!