Is your soap — the pictured soap — cold process or melt and pour? Those seem to be the two major camps of soap making. Melt and pour is easy and child friendly, but based on what you said about the addition of oils and such, it sounds like the cold process to me. Which takes WEEKS and requires lye, doesn’t it?

You should do a tutorial! I’d love to see it!

Hm…a new hobby?

Oh, does the soap have detergent of any kind? I.e., will it get you clean? Can it be used as a bath soap, or is it strictly for facial use?

Hm…hmmmmm.…

I’m not being a jerk (on purpose, anyway), but I’ve never made soap so I don’t know how it’s done.

Guess I could Google that instead…hm…

This is much like what my friend was doing — I was going to send you some of her soap but she stopping making it.

She told me she was sensitive to fragrances too, and that’s why she used things like the coconut oil and lavender oil etc. She said the essential oils, because there were natural and not man made chemicals, didn’t cause the same reactions that man made scents do. I can’t speak to that personally because I don’t suffer from it, but surely the natural oils are just better all the way around. It’s too bad more companies don’t offer products like this — but then again, if they did, you wouldn’t be making your own cool personalized stuff. :)

I can’t see myself making tallow candles anytime soon. The smell, gods, the smell.

If you need a moisturizing soap, does this do it? Lots of oils, after all. I’d think a long-oil product like this would be pretty moisture-filled, but I don’t know diddly-squat about moisturizing. And doesn’t all the different animal and vegetable fat leave a film after bathing with it? Or is this not that kind of soap?

Can you make candles from tallow too? That sounds awesome, but does it smell like you’re barbecuing a calf when you light them?

Hm. Questions for a time traveler I suppose. Or someone living post-apocalyptically, like you. :)

They look great!

A blog I follow is actually starting a 3 wk thing on decluttering on Mon, if you’re interested. http://glynniswhitwer.com/2011/12/announcing-a-january-clutter-free-challenge/ She might have some tips or something you can use.

As for the engine — what about high schools? I would think teen boys in machine shop would swoon over an engine, or perhaps finding a mechanic and donating it? At the very least, you might be able to find a boneyard that would haul it away for you. There’s an auto-wrecker here that does that so maybe there’s one down there too.

Good luck with it all! It’s a great feeling clearing stuff away. :)

The shed, remember, is where I had my office before. I walled off a portion of the upper level and put that little a/c in the window, space heater in the winter…worked pretty well. I haven’t written up there in a couple of years, though. After the kids all went to school for the day, it seemed pointless. It needs new wiring, stronger floor joists in the upper level, total insulation, just all kinds of stuff to make it dwellable. I’ve been dreaming of it, though.

Funny you remembered the Possum Durden. That was a keeper.