Homemade Liquid Handsoap

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Homemade Liquid Handsoap

Slowly but surely, I'm learning to recreate many of the items I use to buy at the store for a fraction of the cost. I like that it's not only frugal, but the products are often safer because the ingredients are much more simple. I know every single item that goes into the soap, deodorant, or whatever it is I'm making. And this liquid handsoap is no exception... it's a fraction of a fraction of the original cost! Woo hoo!

You may remember my recent batch of bar soap? I actually had extra soap that wouldn't fit into my molds so I just poured the excess into some disposable plastic containers and then pulled it out a bit early in chunks because I had a little trouble getting that batch to firm up. But it eventually did and I saved these pieces, not knowing for sure what I'd use them for.

Then I was on Pinterest and found Robyn's liquid hand soap recipe on The Farmer's Nest. Jack pot! I knew exactly what I was going to do with the soap scraps I'd been saving. And in fact, this was very timely because I had been searching for a bulk supply of liquid hand soap at a great price, but hadn't found one that I was pleased with in terms of cost and quality. Even if this experiment was only so-so, it would be almost free since I had all the ingredients on hand.

Liquid Hand Soap Recipe

1  8 oz. bar of soap, grated (or more - I'll explain below)
2 T. liquid glycerine
1 gallon water
favorite essential oil (optional)

Place the water in a large pot and begin to heat it on medium-high. Add the 2 T. of glycerine and the grated soap to the pot and stir. As it warms it may get a bit bubbly. Stir in several drops of your favorite essential oil if the soap is not scented and you want your hand soap to smell nice. (I just did this until it smelled like I wanted - sorry I didn't count drops!).

Continue to stir until all the bits of soap have dissolved. Then turn off the heat and let it sit over night or for about 10-12 hours. After sitting, mine seemed to separate and was very watery, so I followed Robyn's instructions and reheated it and added more soap shavings (believe me, I had plenty!). So in all, I guess I used about 16 oz., not 8 oz. But mine was a homemade soap. Robyn used an 8 oz. bar of Mrs. Meyer's and it got very thick after sitting.

After mine sat a second time overnight, it didn't look cloudy like Robyn's but it did look like a liquid version of my soap. And if I put my hand into it, the liquid was certainly soapy! This time it was still runny, but thicker than before, so I decided to call it done.

Using a funnel, I loaded up a couple of my very empty soap dispensers and stored the remaining soap in a couple of large canning jars.

And now, I have a lot of soap for literally a few pennies. I think I can live with it a bit runny at that price!

It the runny soup bothers you, perhaps these two tips will help:
• One reader on Roby's blog made a solution of 3 T. table salt and 8 oz. hot water, stirred until dissolved, then added it to her room temperature liquid soap. According to the reader, it instantly thickened it.
• Another reader suggested not adding as much water if your soap is high in oils (which mine was).

If your soap ends up being too thick:
• Try using an electric hand mixer and breaking it up a bit.
• Try adding a bit more glycerine.

So I hope this extra info helps because every bar of soap is going to produce different results. At least our hands should be clean for a long time!

Selling Eggs?

I just put this sign up in my front yard. Anyone else out there selling chicken eggs? Just sayin'...

Go to this site and order your own Vinyl Chicken Lettering

~Karin

Just a thought about "What if.....?"

So I was thinking (yes, it does happen periodically....

What if there was an earthquake? EMP? Or whatever. Your vehicle is dead, the bridges are down. You're at work, or even visiting a friend, 20 miles away from home, and the only way to get home is to walk?

Do you have an emergency pack, aka 72-hour kit in your car?

Are you wearing flip flops (or "beachers" as the 60's beach kids called them) or those silly high hills? Get some good walking shoes and put them in the car!

You may even want to practice walking a mile or two a day - just in case.

Anyway, just a suggestion.

~Karin

Woodpile Karma

Woodpiles
No known cure

If you've come here expecting to see geranium inverse woodpile photonic band gap crystals or somesuch, well son, you're at the wrong place. Nobody here is that smart, for openers. Which is not to say that actual woodpiles are all that low-tech. Ol' Remus has a fair amount of experience with woodpiles and he's here to tell you they can be at least as fiendish as those geranium whatever-they-saids.

Fer instance, he's made woodpiles all nice'n neat with cobbed ends and robust pile bottoms and just the right amount of space between the chunks for air to flow through, maybe calculated the delta-p (air) with a fluid dynamics program on his steam-powered, belt-driven PC, yet a few months later the stacks were leaning and otherwise askew and a visual offense to those of ordinary sensibilities.

The cause is shrinkage due to drying, on account wood will lose 'way more'n half its moisture over not much time and do it preferentially and malevolently against his ernest desire for a nice, rectilinear woodpile that looks so fine and well-behaved passers-by nod in admiration.

Some folks build the pile-ends leaning inward from the start. It's a practical if somewhat inelegant solution. Others go all Mother Earth with out'n out exhibitionism, like circular piles, and still others favor industrial means like driving metal end-posts into the ground and there's those who make a continuous woodpile like some replica of Hadrian's Wall using standing trees as bookends. Ol' Remus figures these ways are jes' surrender in disguise and relies on the tried 'n true, namely and to wit: instinct and luck. Then he hopes he's not having a bad day.

There was a fellow down the hollow a time back that got so exasperated with all this he threatened to set fire to the woods and open his windows and be done with woodpiles altogether. 'Course, he came to his senses, but only somewhat, 'cause last anybody knew he was figuring to cut a hole through the wall and on through the back of his wood stove and feed the whole log from outside with spring pressure from behind so he wouldn't need to refill his stove 'till it was time for a fresh log.

Contrary to appearance, woodpiles do more'n just sit there, they become a community center for critters, home to residents and transients, chipmunks and mice and snakes and spiders and such. And too, a place heated with wood likely has a mosquito or two hummin' around even in cold weather on account they get revived when you bring chunks inside. They think it's still summer and no amount of logic seems to dissuade them.

Woodpiles are also a source of comfort and reassurance to ol' Remus bein' as how he can jes' look outside and see his winter's heat regardless of power outages or come what may. It's not like with distributed fuels like oil and propane and such. Jes like precious metals, there's no third party. Come to think on it, there's no second party, no depending on delivery promises. Look outside and there it is. One full cord of good hardwood—meaning four feet high, four feet deep and eight feet long—runs about 20 million Btu, for red oak specifically, and it's simplicity itself, your woodpile is either there or it isn't. Coal runs about three times the Btu of wood, but it would take forever to stack. Still, Remus thinks about it from time to time.

Woodpiles are educational too. A person who puts up his own wood soon learns the difference between, say, an ash—good—and a tulip poplar—bad. Poplar will put a good fire out. The difference is easy enough to see in the summer, jes' look at the leaves, but in the fall you gotta go by more subtle things. Ol' Remus started out laying his hand on the bark, poplar will have a slight soapy feel to it, but eventually he got good enough at it so's a good look sufficed.

He also learned not to take down a beech near water on account the grain is so twisted and dense they're all but impossible to handle with a peevee or split with a Go-Devil. And he learned a healthy cherry tree looks dead when the leaves are off on account the lowest big limb really is dead, most often. And when he's felling a tree he backs off perpendicularly when it starts to fall so as to avoid getting speared by springback. Ol' Remus has seen folks stand fast when a tree begins to fall, to admire their work you see, only to have the butt-end go by their face like the Midnight Special. And they were the lucky ones. Then there's all the stuff that can happen when using wedges, or when the cutting bar gets pinched, or when one tree gets hung up in another, and so forth.

Woodpiles are more'n they appear to those who figure the whole of life can be dialed-in, folks who figure real involvement is setting a thermostat. A woodpile is planning ahead made tangible, puttin' up for the future in elemental form, something akin to having elderberries in February from yer own patch. It ain't easy and it ain't simple but come deep winter there's nothing more satisfying than a woodpile. Well, not nothing.

Are you ready? Like if you had to leave right now?

Well, are you? If the "something" happened and you had to leave within minutes, what would you take? Let's start thinking about that now. What to put in a Grab and Go bag aka 72-hour kit.

• WATER. Store 1 gallon of water per person per day. Keep at least a three day supply of water. 
• FOOD and UTENSILS. At least one to three-day supply of nonperishable food that could include ready-to-eat meats, juices, high-energy foods such as granola or power bars.
• NOAA WEATHER ALERT RADIO, either hand crank or battery powered, extra batteries if needed.
• BLANKETS/PILLOWS/SLEEPING BAG
• FLASHLIGHT and extra batteries or hand crank, or light sticks. Do not use candles/open flame during an emergency.
• WHISTLE for emergency signal. Ready to hang around neck.
• DUST or FILTER MASKS, readily available in hardware, N95 mask recommended for preventing inhalation of airborne particles.
• MOIST TOWELETTES or Baby Wipes for sanitation 
• TOOLS - Wrench or Pliers to turn off utilities, Broom, Shovel, Hammer and Working Gloves.
• CAN OPENER for for food (if kit contains canned items).
• PLASTIC SHEETING and DUCT TAPE to “seal the room” for sheltering in place.
• MEDICATIONS to include prescription and non-prescription medications such as pain relievers, stomach remedies and etc.
• FIRST AID SUPPLIES. An assortment of bandages,ointments, gauze pads, cold/hot packs, tweezers, scissors and sanitizer.
• PERSONAL HYGIENE ITEMS to include at least one change of clothing/shoes/outer ware.
• GARBAGE BAGS and plastic ties for personal sanitation.
• PAPER SUPPLIES. Note pads,markers, pens, pencils, plates,napkins, paper towels and etc.
• CAMERA. Disposable camera to record damage.
• CASH/ATM AND CREDIT CARD. Keep enough cash for immediate needs in small denominations.
• EMERGENCY CONTACT PHONE LIST.
• MAPS. Local road and area maps.
• MEDICAL HISTORY LISTS.For every family member in your home make a list of medical history, all medications(by name) and dosages.

 All this being said.... Don't rely on the ATM machines working. Or the phones. 

~Karin