Herbs...

I took some herbs from the garden today...I am drying the lavender, chives and chocolate mint and I made a nice basil oil.

Here is how I did it...:

I took my olive oil and put it in my pan.

After heating the oil, I added the basil in torn pieces...

After turning off the heat, I let it cool to room temp, took out the basil and chopped it up small. I then added basil back in and froze it all in little cubes.

Be careful, these melt very quickly when out of the freezer.
These are great to toss into a sauce, directly on pasta or in a pan to saute anything!
Keep them in a freezer container until you need them.
Enjoy!

Getting homemade clean!

I took pictures of the hot process way I made soap in my crock pot! This one is a scent free soap for sensitive skin. I also made a lavender soap and added those pictures as well. Enjoy!
First I measured out all my ingredients:

Do your lye outside people!!!!:

Then melted my solid which was beeswax this time:

Added my liquid oils and lye and started to blend:

Blended until trace (about 15 minutes):

Cooked it until it folded up twice:

Stirred it down:

Cooked until it was done - then molded it in a pan...

Here is the final product of my lavender batch that I made the same way:

Making tons more - I have become a soap addict!
I love knowing that there is hardly anything in my soap - it has no fake flowery smell that I have always hated. These are light and great for anyone!

Just being...

I love where I live. We have almost 5 acres and most of them are woods; the rest is for our dog, goats. horse, bees, chickens and ducks. We live within a 1 minute walking distance to the reservoir. There we can ice skate in the winter and kayak in the nice weather.

It's quiet. Where we live, we can just be..