It's been a long time...

I seem to have broken my promise to keep this current, I'm going to try very hard to come up with just the right schedule. Perhaps soap making Monday thru Friday, Saturday barn chores, and lastly Sunday will be for blogging? I will figure it out.

It would be impossible to recap so many months of activities so just highlights. The balance of the summer was relatively uneventful. Goats did very well, the babies are beautiful and no longer babies. I lost 1 hive of bees and the second hive was pretty weak by fall. We have our fingers crossed the hive will survive this snowy winter. The garden lays quietly waiting for spring. I have purchased sooo many seeds in hope of spring. I will start planting in the next few days. I start them in my sun parlor, (my husband's whole family calls the room that, who am I to disagree)soil, water, a space heater, plenty of sun and they will grow. Truly a miracle, something so small and insignificant creates the very plants that feed my family and friends. I'm going to try to grow a few new things this year, including potatoes, purple potatoes, how cool is that? The chickens are tremendous, the best flock I have ever own. We are still getting about a dozen eggs a day. In fact I have about 12 dozen eggs right now, they are yours if you want them, just let me know you're coming. The holiday season was tremendous, I still can't believe the response we had to our soaps and our new milk & honey lotion.

The big news is Kota, my 4 year old goat is expecting. The Saturday after Thanksgiving Kota was in season, for those of you unaccustomed to this technical term, she was in the mood for love. I called my friend Amy, better known as the goat guru, and we loaded Kota in the Astro van and drove to Stillwater to meet Spencer. You would be surprised how many people stare at an Astro van painted a great deal like the Scooby Doo mystery machine with a very excited goat staring out the back window. It made the trip even more memorable. When we arrived there were no candles, music, or quiet conversation, it was straight to business. To say the least Spencer and Kota are very good friends now.

New soap scents! I'm doing so many new fragrances for 2011. I've decided to go with categories. Florals, of course, new this year blue hydrangea & sweet pea Green Scents
bamboo & hemp (my fav), Veggie Scents tomato leaf & zucchini flower and my crazy impulse scent potting soil, it smells just like a new bag of damp dirt, I LOVE IT!!! No one else does yet, but you never know. The lotion is awesome, I'm probably not suppose to say that, but it really is! I'm doing 5 scents sweet grass, lettuce, gardeners, zucchini flower, & lemon grass sage. I put it in these 5 ounces plastic bail jars, the old fashion kind with the silver latch. Very cool.

I'll be at Livingston Mall this Sunday the 13th from 11:00 till 6:00, come visit. Check out the website secretgardensoapofmadison.com, I met a new friend who's going to help me improve the website to better reflect our business and be able to take credit cards. WooHoo! Lastly, I will do my best to update my blog and keep anyone interested up to date on the happenings here at Secret Garden.

A great read that I highly recommend "The Seasons on Henry's Farm" by Terra Brockman definitely in my top 10 books.