Bettacreek - New home? Plus a pic of some of the ladies here

[Bettacreek]

Just had one hell of a scare. Jason called today and said that his youngest daughter was going to the hospital. She had flipped an ottoman last night and hit her head. There was a lump and a spot of blood. She had a nose bleed and blood in her mouth. Her mother kept an eye on her and sent her to school today. The nurse called her and told her to come get her and take her to the ER, because her nose had been bleeding all morning, and under the circumstances, she needed to get checked out. I've been pacing around until I could hear back, sick to my stomach and crying. Finally he got ahold of me, she had a nose bleed. That's all it was. They think she smacked her nose when she hit her head, but there's no major injury, just a nose bleed and a lump. Thank god.

 

[Bettacreek]

So, things are going good and not so good at the same time. The ex-husband made his second payment for childsupport. Apparantly it will come in every two weeks, which is great, much more easy for me to manage. I've also applied for cash assistance so that I can get child care to be able to go back to work. I SHOULD be able to go back in two weeks, which is absolutely awesome in my opinion. I also have $526 a month in "SNAP" benefits (food stamps). But, I have been debating on moving out on my own. My parents and I do NOT get along much at all. I had moved out when I was sixteen because of the same issues I'm having now. CONTROL ISSUES!!! I have problems following demands of other people, and my mother seems to think that life is a military mission and everyone needs to fold to her demands. I'm not allowed to cook the way I wish (she claims I take too long to cook, I don't know what I'm doing, I'm not following directions, etc). So I avoid cooking while she's here. I've been cooking since I was 16, I haven't killed anyone yet, so I'm going to venture a bet that I'm doing just fine with cooking (especially when everyone prefers my cooking over hers, lol). There is so much more crap to it than that, but the food, grocery shopping and cooking is a daily issue. The benefits are for the boys and I, and I cook for the boys and I, so I'm really not sure why she believes she's got an input on how/what we eat/cook. And, no, it's not like I'm buying junk food. Very, very rarely do I buy junk. I buy the Kashi cereals and whole grain stuff, real meals, etc. I sometimes buy boxed food, but prefer to make everything from "scratch", though I do cheat and buy my 'ghetti sauce and such, lol.

Anyways, my soaps are going well. I still need to make a cutter though. I've been cutting everything by hand with a butter knife!
The bath bombs are beyond amazing. I LOVE them. I could never get them right before, but with my bath powder recipe and coconut oil to hold it together, they turned out absofrickinlutely wonderful! Now I need to get around and get new scents!!! I still have around ten pounds of lye, so I'm good on that yet, but new scents definately need to be ordered, period.

Also hopefully getting kombucha and kefir to try. I'm super excited about these. I can't find anything locally to try them though, so I have absolutely no idea what they smell or taste like, lol. Hopefully we like them!

 

[ksalvagno]

Sounds like things are looking up for you. Hopefully it will keep going that way and you can move to your own place.

 

[Bettacreek]

Well, I still have no hunting clothes and it's already more than halfway through archery season. I cannot find any of my old clothes from the ex-boyfriend's house. :/ I DO still have my boots though, which is a blessing. I also have my bow, but no gun. So... I'm not sure if I'll get a deer this year! I do see a HUGE doe and a nice buck (they're actually the same size, lol) in the back woods on a regular basis, always using the same trail, but actually getting out there is an issue. :/
Bear season may be shot for me as well. Same reasons as above, but there's also a craft show on the first day of bear rifle. We're planning on putting in for it, and with bear season, basically if you don't go the first day, you might as well not go the second or third day either. And the tags are about $20, not to mention that not all bear have edible meat, even if you do luck out and get one.
So, I'm desperately hoping for a chance to get at least one deer this year, but I'm not holding my breath.
BUT, my soaps and such have been going fairly well. So far I've had many repeat customers, and others waiting on new scents to cure. We have at least one more big show to do (Dec. 4th) and maybe the one for the first day of bear season. I'm hoping that they really take off after I have all my scents cured and new scents in.

 

[Blackbird]

Good luck on all the soaps!!

Hunting clothes or not.. I say get out there!! We always just hunt in our normal snow clothes. Smelling like animal and everyday outdoors is better than smelling like the back of a coat closet anyway. Needing the brand name fancy expensive camouflage hunting clothes? Hogwash. You should be wearing orange anyway. If you are in a treestand it shouldn't matter a whole lot, otherwise if you are on the ground you can easily rig up a small cheap blind to sit behind, that's what we've done in my immediate family and we get at least one deer a year.

 

[murphysranch]

Hey Betta and BB: I'm making my very first batch of soap right now. Trying to figure out how to get the oils the same temp as the lye water. OMG: it takes so much FO's, I only used one half of what it said! But my hands and kitchen smell wonderful! Better go watch (again) how to line a wooden mold with freezer paper.....

 

[Bettacreek]

BB, I've been thinking about it. I just don't know how much I stink with all the soaping crap I have in the house, lol. Our unfinished basement, which used to smell like, well, unfinished basement, now smells like a french whore's studio apartment.

Murphy's, I researched and researched soap making, then tossed 75% of what I read out the window and did it my way. I don't have three hundred bucks in thermometers, molds and professional scales. I use a postal scale, a punch bowl, a wine bottle (large mouth), a stainless steel fork and a wooden mold I made. I don't worry about temperature. I haven't noticed a difference in finished product with hot or cool lye water/oils or with them being the same temperature. I HAVE noticed that hot lye water does make trace go faster. But, you really don't have to worry about making everything the right temperature, coddling the crap in blankets in the oven or any of that crazy talk everyone else mentions. Just mix your lye/water, mix your oils, dump in the same bowl and stir. Then dump it into your lined mold (I have a hinged mold, which makes everything so much easier), place it somewhere that you won't get hair/lint/dust in it, then wait a day or two, unmold, wait another day, cut. Everyone makes soap making sound so damn difficult, but it's really not. Research and everyone's over-reaction to everything is why I had been interested in soap making, but never tried it for like six years. Use caution with dry lye, but for real, you're not going to have some massive explosion that takes out your entire town if you add your water to your lye (it's the only way I do it) and you're not going to end up with a botched batch of soap if the oil and lye isn't the same temperature (my oils are usually below room temp from being in the basement, and my lye water is fairly hot from being mixed fresh) or if you don't insulate the mold like a baby out in the snow in negative degree weather...

 

[Blackbird]

I am SO regretting deactivating my FB now. The stuff you say.

Betta is so right. I was rather reluctant to start soaping but said to hell with it, and found out that it's a lot easier than it seems. And I actually have gotten dry lye on me and nothing happened (though I wouldn't recommend doing it on purpose.. just in case).
I will, however, recommend getting a stick blender. It's cut 2 hours of stirring down to ten minutes. Not kidding you. I love that thing. They cost like $20 new, but I've seen some much cheaper at thrift stores.

Oh, and what you said about fragrance oils? I used them once ad had to use half the entire bottle too, and then it still didn't smells that great. I have used essentials oils but they are spendy and didn't have much luck with them.

Betta, maybe if you hang the clothes you're going to hunt in, outside for a while to air out and absorb the smells of nature it would help? You could also see if you could get fox pee to cover your tracks, or doe in heat pee to lure em in! (Is that legal now?)

 

[miss_thenorth]

Well, I still have no hunting clothes and it's already more than halfway through archery season. I cannot find any of my old clothes from the ex-boyfriend's house. :/ I DO still have my boots though, which is a blessing. I also have my bow, but no gun. So... I'm not sure if I'll get a deer this year! I do see a HUGE doe and a nice buck (they're actually the same size, lol) in the back woods on a regular basis, always using the same trail, but actually getting out there is an issue. :/
Bear season may be shot for me as well. Same reasons as above, but there's also a craft show on the first day of bear rifle. We're planning on putting in for it, and with bear season, basically if you don't go the first day, you might as well not go the second or third day either. And the tags are about $20, not to mention that not all bear have edible meat, even if you do luck out and get one.
So, I'm desperately hoping for a chance to get at least one deer this year, but I'm not holding my breath.
BUT, my soaps and such have been going fairly well. So far I've had many repeat customers, and others waiting on new scents to cure. We have at least one more big show to do (Dec. 4th) and maybe the one for the first day of bear season. I'm hoping that they really take off after I have all my scents cured and new scents in.

The first year my hubby hunted, we couldn't afford camou either. he took an old pair of coveralls, (grey) and bought a coupola cans of spray paint and we made our own camou. He got a deer that year-our first. You don't need to have fancy equipment, just a creative mind.

 

[Bettacreek]

Lol. I've had dry and "wet" lye on me, I've had raw soap on me, and I've even done the unspeakable... spilled lye on the granite counter tops. When I did first research, I remember some gentleman talking about how dangerous lye was because it had eaten through his granite counter top. I've come back later and found a grain or two of lye (now liquified, but the minor irritation is all it takes to identify it) melted on the granite countertop without any effect on the granite. People are just nutters. Now, I can understand the caution warnings, since America is sue happy and one really wouldn't want to get sued for saying that it's not dangerous, but, well, sometimes I wonder if they're not weird fanatics who want to bogart the soap hobby, lol.

Now, I will say that if you mix your lye and stir it without gloves, the fumes WILL dry the crap out of your skin on your hand, and you defiantely don't want to breathe that crap in. But, since switching to the wine bottle, I add my lye, then add ice and water (yeah, I'm such a rebel), cap it, then swirl. It cuts out accidentally breathing any in and my skin certainly thanks me for not drying it out to make it look like leather.



I really hadn't thought about painting clothes I already have... That's actually a brilliant idea! I have acrylic paints in camoflauge colors (don't ask) and know for a fact that regular washing won't remove it from clothing (ask me know I know, lol).