Sheep milk soap & new lambs

We sadly lost our first ram lamb born. We didn't recognize that his mom wasn't feeding him until it was too late. :( So, to keep mom from getting mastitis, we've been milking her and I made my first batch of sheep milk cold processed soap. Messy & time consuming, but it was rewarding!  Here are my boys with some fresh sheep milk... which tastes AMAZING, btw. I wish I had the time for a larger scale sheep milk venture because it's creamier and better for you than cows milk, and just as mild in flavor.
 

 

The first thing to do was to add lye to cold water. It gets VERY hot, so you let it cool to around 90 degrees which took over an hour.

 

 

While that was going on, I combined coconut & olive oil, sheep tallow and lard, melting it to approx. 90 degrees as well.

 

 

After the lye-water cooled off to 90, I added the sheep milk. 

 

 

It has a chemical reaction and gets hot yet again...so you wait for it to cool back down to 90 degrees

 

 

The lard and coconut oil take a little longer to melt and there was a layer of 'lard foam' on the top.

 

 

& once it's all melted to around 90, I let it sit by the woodstove to maintain it's temperature until the milk & lye cooled down.

 

 

When both mixtures are at 90, you combine the fat to the milk-water-lye pot and stir, stir, and keep stirring! I stirred for over an hour before it reached a nice heavy pudding consistency.

 

 

I have no molds yet, so I used some old loaf pans with a layer of Vaseline, a little plantain oil & black walnut for looks.

 

 

Ta-Da! And wow, that is ALOT of soap! I was so happy that it turned out. It smells so wonderful! At the stirring stage I added tea tree and cedar oil. Now I wait 4-6 weeks for the lye to mellow out and the finished result should be creamy, soft, sheep milk soap to sell.

 

 

 Here is my son with our Calfornia Red ewe lamb, Poppy. She's doing great! My son loves his sheep.

She's so curious, I can't get her to stop long enough to look at the camera, but look at those adorable red curls!

Protective mom, Holly

Ginger the barn kitty hanging out in the hay.

 

Play till you drop!

Baby hen chicks brought home for my husbands birthday from our teenage son and best friend. They think they are sooo funny. ;-) I'm always happy to get new hens!

 

I honestly have no idea what breed they are... 6 chickies.

Thorin, the Icelandic ram, looking for a treat. 

 

 

Icelandic ewes, hopefully with lambs coming soon!

It's so funny when all the animals hang out together in the barn. 

 The ducks & chickens are checking out the new ram, that my teenage son insisted we name
Sir Lambs-a-lot

 

He's sleepy, but seems to be healthy & nursing.

Ducks hanging with mama sheep, haha.

 

One of my hens is a real slacker!!



It's March 3rd and we're having our second snow day out of school this week with record cold temps. Here's my lovely daughter to remind me that Spring will get here, someday!! <3

 Celebrating my husbands birthday this week... he makes this farm - thing all possible.
I love him so much! <3



We've been sharing stories of our lambs and our pioneer winter with our daughter who'se serving an LDS mission in Tempe, AZ. She shared this picture with us that is on one of her pamphlets that she hands out to potential investigators into our church... Jesus, the good shepherd. <3 Having sheep has given me some simple but priceless insight into the life of my Savior. I am grateful to care for and love my little lambs because it reminds me how gently he loves and cares for us.

 

 

 

 

For more information on our farm, please visit :

 http://samsbillthepony.wix.com/getting-liberty# 

Longest winter, and Big Red!

Finally, after months of waiting, the first lamb is born on our farm! :) This is Big Red, a California Red lamb. The ewe is Lanolin, a first time mom. 

 

The kids got off the school bus and saw the puppy "playing" with a squirrel... then they realized it was a lamb! This was Dagny's first lamb and I was worried she would have roughhoused it to death, but it seems she just helped licked it clean... a little too close on the head where she took off a little skin. We read that young sheepdogs often accidentally kill their first lambs, so we were fortunate!  The rest of the flock headed up to the barn for feeding, but these two stood around a little bewildered.

Dagny & the boys, and the mud-pit.

The weather was mild and we got mom & baby near the barn. He couldn't figure out how to nurse and mom was unsure of what he was doing. We held her and let him to the teat where he got his first colostorum.

 

 Since it was nearly evening, we carried little Big Red to the barn and mom followed. We got them settled under a couple heat lamps and stayed with them to ensure he was going to nurse. Lanolin is affectionate with her lamb, and her 'run away' instinct dissapeared. She stood calmly while we helped make sure he found the teat and nursed again.

 

Sooo precious!

 

 

 Most adorable thing I've ever seen. Look at those red curls!

 Exhausting first day!

  
Having our first lamb is a great ray of sunshine and hope for spring after one of the coldest winters on record! Here we are the week before, with 14 inches of snow!

 

 

 

At least with this round of weather, the sub zero temps were gone so coatless snow forts were the order of the day! :) This was something like the 8 or 9th snow day off school this winter!

 

 

 

 
 The boy, the dog and the chicken... that would make a great children's book of some kind! B-)

Scrubby Icelandics, out foraging in every sticker patch possible. This will make carding their wool an absolute JOY come spring. Not!

These runner ducks are a new addition to the farm. Raised by a good friend, they are friendly and will peck your hand off if you show up without food... They are a great laying breed and run around in a tight pack, and upright like penguins. They are hilarious to watch!

 

In the middle of this deep freeze we decided that $4.00 a gallon for propane was totally outrageous, so we opened up our fireplaces and installed woodstoves. It has been quite an exhausting experience, trying to keep this big house with high ceilings heated only with wood. In addition to carrying in 3-4 wheelbarrels full of wood a day, (and trying to find and cut and split wood in the middle of winter!) we've had to adjust by closing off rooms, and wearing 2-4 layers of clothes. I've never worn thermals on a regular basis, so I often have clothing claustrophobia. I can hardly wait for spring! This wood stove is a Jotul, a brand I highly recommend for anyone looking. So easy to start a fire in it, and it cranks out the heat with a long burn.

 

 

This is a replica of an old Franklin Stove. It's not terribly efficient, but it heats up fast and it doesn't distract too much from the period of the old colonial -type fireplace.

 

 

This one is a 1975 old Vermont woodstove. SUPER heavy and it takes a long time to get a good fire burning, but once you have it, it will burn all night. This heats the upper story of the house.  Sitting on the stove are our pile of 'bed bricks.' My husband surprised me one night, by sticking one in our cold bed...they stay heated for hours, no cold feet or hands cuddling with a brick! LOL! It's great to feel like we're picking up a little 'old school' ingenuity.

 

 

A little project in the midst of stoking fires...3 different, badly done floors painted checkerboard for continuity. I like it! Covers the hideous ugly tile that was totally wrecked by the repairmen who replaced our well. Did I mention we were without regular running water for over a month in the middle of this long winter??  

 

 

My husband and I started a low carb diet... Here I have toasted coconut ground up in our wondermill grinder. Needs to be refined a little more, but it's almost easier to whip it up in the blender at this point. This makes AMAZING pancakes with:
 2 oz cream cheese, 1/4 c coconut, 2 eggs, 1 packet of sweetner, 1/8 tsp bkg soda, splash of vanilla & 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Whip all together in the blender & cook like regular pancakes. Served with sugar free syrup ! Abt 4 net carbs per serving.

 

 

Sugar free - low carb chocolate cheesecake! Another super easy recipe! Recipes like this make low carb dieting a pleasure!! :)
Blend 1/2 c coconut with 1/4 c melted butter and 3 packets splenda & spread in bottom of round cake pan and baked for 10 minutes @ 350.  In a food processor, mix 2- 8 oz packages cream cheese, 2 eggs, 3/4 c xylitol or equivalent of splenda...basically sweeten to taste, and approx. 1/4 cup cocoa. Pour on top of  baked crust and bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Rest in fridge overnight, and drizzle melted sugar free chocolate chips over the top. Approx 5 net carbs per serving (8 per pan)  I think this is sooo delicious, much better than a box -cake. Some variation of this may be every birthday cake in our house from here on out!  

 

 

 

This is the low carb diet saving "bread" recipe. So easy, and you can adapt to sweet or savory.

1 TBSP melted coconut oil, 1/4 c flax flour, 1/2 tsp bkg soda, 1 ex large egg, 2 TBSP water. Whisk with a fork and pour onto a heated skillet. 2 net carbs for the whole recipe!! I add garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, parmesan cheese, etc. when making a sandwich. If I want something sweet, I mix all into a mug with 1 packet of sweetner, cinnamon, ginger etc. and microwave for 1.5 minutes. It turns into a mug-shaped "muffin" that you can top with cream cheese or coconut-oil frosting, etc. :)

 

And one last project...hoping for spring, starting my cold weather vegetables!

 

 

The best and last highlight of this long winter, are the weekly letters home from our daughter serving an LDS mission in Tempe Arizona, where she's been enjoying fresh picked citrus fruit and 70 degree temps while teaching the gospel! Soooo jealous! :) <3

 

 

 

 

 For more information on our farm, please visit :

 http://samsbillthepony.wix.com/getting-liberty#