Oh, ya gotta luv the country life

Woke up this morning to minus 20 degrees below. Yup! Never thought that would be possible here. We live near a lake and I suppose the water doesn't help.. I don't know, but when I found out we had NO water in the house, I didn't even want Mike to wake up!. He can be such a bear about things like no running water. After spending two hours trying to thaw out what we thought was frozen (ya we did all the right things, opened cabinets, ran the water..we knew it would be cold), we found out all we had to do was reset the computer on the pump to the well. Something about not enough amps, it shuts down. But you shoulda seen the look on Mike's face when he heard the water running... Like a kid in a candy store. I have to admit, it was a good feeling. The thought of hauling water out to the barn for four horses was not something either of us was looking forward to...

It's been awhile now, but I dragged out all my soapmaking supplies and tackled a recipe I dreamed up. A hand cleaning soap with lanolin, calendula leaves, cornmeal and a fragrance of essential oils of rosemary and thyme. It went together pretty good.

I used to make soap almost everyday several years ago. We sold it for about five years. Did the craft show thing and farmer's markets. Plus worked an 8-hour job. Don't know how we did it but it was fun.

I think back and am wowed at the fact I have been making soap for 28 years now. We don't buy it at the store. All the neighbors come to my house for a last minute gift idea..

Maybe I will post some pics tomorrow if it looks good... In the meantime, last night, I made these beads with the new tool I mentioned in my last post. Sorry about the lousy photos. I usually do better than this...