Good news, bad news. I'm baaaaack.

Well, hello there. Did you miss me? I know I haven't posted anything for a while, but between being extremely busy and then extremely exhausted, I just didn't do it.  First, let me say THANK YOU to all who came out to the Tour of Homes. That was incredibly successful. Our Methodist Women's group at church now has the funds to continue supporting the children's homes and other mission work we do. We also bought some sharp knives for our kitchen. Have you ever tried fixing a funeral dinner with dull knives? Mercy.

I love this cooler weather, too. I've been taking hikes in the woods and gathering odds and ends of stuff to experiment with. I snipped some twigs from a sassafras tree, since I had read that using sassafras tea in soapmaking turned the soap a lovely dark purple. I don't know what planet this person is from but in my experimenting this is what my results were:

First I made the tea by steeping the twigs for half an hour or so. It turned the water a lovely shade of dark red.

I added my measured lye to this red-stained water and then the lye/water mix to the melted oils.  Don't be so alarmed. It takes both an acid (the fats) and a base (the lye), to make soap. It's simple science, really.  Otherwise, you have a vat of oils just sitting there wondering why they were born.  I completed the process, and molded the soap, and this is what I had:

Does this look dark purple to you?  I didn't waste any fragrance oil on it, since I didn't even like the texture of it. I'm wondering if the roots of the sassafras may make a difference in the saturation of the coloring. I'll try that next.  The twigs smelled great, though:

Now, for the good news, bad news portion of the post.  Which do you want first? Ok, let's start with the bad news.  Remember this little guy?

This is little Reuben, the banty rooster I gifted to a neighbor.  He had a great life, as long as it lasted, but I'm sorry to report that a chicken hawk got him one day last week.  Reuben was quite a ladies man, I hear, so perhaps there will be some little Reubens out there.  That is nature. It is cruel and raw, but the chicken hawk also eats lots of rodents and other undesirables, so it is a valuable member of the countryside.  Reuben sang his little heart out and was spoiled rotten.  R.I.P. little friend.

Now, let's get to the good news. Today I was blessed to find the first blue/green egg from either Betsy or Dolly, my new ameraucanas.   I let out a little squeal when I saw it:

Sorry for the white light in the middle of it. It actually is all-over blue/green and so pretty. All my other eggs are shades of brown or tan, or just this side of white.  I have three americaunas, so I'm hoping that soon the other two will be producing, as well. 

I have signed up for a few fall festivals and have begun making soap again, on a limited basis. There won't, however, be any dark purple sassafras tea soap. Or will there? :)

Blue egg blessings,

Brenda