Trying something new…I love learning new things, after all - it’s what has led us to where we are now in our journey. 

 

Learning to make homemade soap was one of the very best things I could have learned to do.  This is my addiction and I look forward to it every chance I get.  Granted, there isn’t always a lot of time when you factor in a full-time regular job, taking care of goats, rabbits, walking dogs, feeding and playing with the dragon (just because he is small, doesn’t mean he doesn’t get just as much attention as all the other 4-legged babies). Now, time to make dinner and relax – not much time left to make soap after all of that.  BUT I DO!  Not everyday of course, but often.  The weekends are pretty much dedicated to soap.  Either making it, cutting it (my favorite part), cleaning it up, packaging, doing inventory, or creating new recipes.

 

Today though, I thought I would try something new.  With all the soap I have made, I have accumulated a massive amount of shavings (from cleaning up the soaps), end pieces, and some that simply didn’t turn out well.  I am not about to throw all this excess away – what a waste that would be!  So today, I am doing my very first “Re-Batch”.  For those that make soap, they know exactly what this is – for those that don’t, simply put: I’m taking left over soap pieces and making new soap.  I’m not stopping there though (I’ve never been one to just try one thing of anything), I’m also going to try to make “Whipped” soap (the kind that floats) for the first time as well… and I’m going to do it with the Re-batched trial.

 

First things first, I need to gather up some of the excess soap shavings and “bad” soaps and shred it into tiny pieces (the cheese grater works great for this).  Here is what 2 pounds of grated up soap looks like.