Wow! It has been awhile since I have updated my journal....
I tried making soap the other day.....spent the morning sorting the closet to find all the soap making supplies and reorganized it, then washed them all and measured my oil, ground up my oatmeal and poured the honey into the measuring cup. The lye was on a high shelf so I didn't get it out until last..... and

I didn't have enough!

I couldn't even make a tiny batch.
I did, however, place an order (now that I'm not counting every single penny for food!) to brambleberry and bought the lye, and two adorable goat molds for the soap, and some cool fragrances (I've been making mostly unscented soaps). My whole family likes my soap so that is what they will all get for Christmas this year. They can't say they don't need it!

But I had to leave all the supplies out on the table, and overnight, my piglet-dog Dee Dee climbed up on the table and ate a bowl of honey and licked the bowl clean with the ground-up dry oatmeal.

You'd think the dog never got enough to eat. For some reason this struck Hubby as terribly funny, like Dee Dee was Winnie-the-Pooh or something. I think he was picturing her tongue coated with honey and then with dry oatmeal on the top.
Then this morning her appetite got the better of her again, I was on a mission to clear out space in the freezer, which was crammed full of goat milk. I had every container under the sun filled with it, and baggies of goat milk oozing from every crack and crevice. So this morning I hauled out all the "excess" and melted it all down and make two gnormous batches of farmer cheese. Just when I'm about to pour off the hot whey (it only cools ten minutes after almost coming to a boil), the dog starts sniffing around underfoot and I shoo her away. But when I actually start pouring the hot milk, she comes back when my hands are full and bumps into me and to keep the milk from landing on her, I pull back, and it lands on ME! Yowza! A big slosh of hot whey/milk/cheese flows down my front. I dropped the part I had poured out (chicken food now I guess) and had to run to the freezer and grab frozen hamburger bags to pack between my
breasts. I now have what looks like a sunburn where the sun don't EVER shine including my .....nipps......ouch! ouch! ouch! I'm walking around holding my shirt away from my front so it doesn't rub.....

Dee Dee is in the proverbial doghouse, first the honey and oatmeal and now trying to get to my hot milk! She had better watch her step because the new foster dog Zoe actually HERDS MY GOATS without any training whatsoever at age 7 months. I told hubby "Tell me again why we are giving this one away?" I asked him if we could pass Dee Dee off as a seven-month-old catahoula/RR mix and he looked appalled.
Other than that things are going pretty well. We got Trouble's school supplies all purchased and even got him "cool" stuff so he isn't a nerd on his first day of high school. Computer Nerd never really worried about stuff, but Trouble considers himself a chick magnet and MUST be cool. But we managed to find much of his stuff used and the new things we bought were mostly 1/2 off, so we felt really lucky.
Computer Nerd leaves for his trip to Europe tomorrow. I fear he is woefully unprepared and isn't taking enough money, but .....big boys need to learn things on their own. I expect him to come home with a more expanded mind, an appreciation for taking plenty of money on vacation, and he has never seen how other people live or what other states of the US even look like, has never flown on a plane, and refuses to eat any ethnic foods. SHOULD be pretty interesting. He is camping for part of it (at a concert in Liverpool?) and bought a one-man tent but is bringing no sleeping bag......he never wears shorts or thongs and bought his first pair. I had not seen his calves in years......but I guess the european girls will.
So tomorrow should be interesting....Hubby, Computer Nerd and I are all leaving real early to see him off on his plane, and Trouble will be left home to handle all the animals including milking both morning and evening, because I won't be home till late, I'll stay at my daughter Bud's house until Hubby is done with work to bring me home. So that leaves a 15-year-old in charge of three goats, 25 chickens, 2 ducks, eight rabbits who ain't happy with this heat, four cats including one kitten and six dogs including one undergoing potty training, one that EATS HONEY and the KBD who will escape if you give her a ghost of a chance and smirk at you as she flies out the window or chews her chain in half. I took pity on him and told him his friends can join him. It SHOULD be a rather educational day for all.