Wildcrafter

I love your sense of humor!

I just sent an overnight 8 pound package to someone from Washington to Tennessee. I tried to talk the gal out of overnight, but that's what she wanted. The cost to her? $55.60! I almost crapped my pants at the post office. I hope I don't hear from her because I did try to talk her out of it.

I'm using a kitchen aid now, which just broke today. 2nd one broke this year so far. I went to a restaurant supply and the guy told me that the stick blender they have, which is supposedly industrial, is not any more sturdy than kitchen aid. gah!

I burn out about 5-6 Kitchenaid stick blenders a year because I make a lot of soap and a lot in one day. I have tried using my electric drill with a paint stirrer and the soap just goes around and around, but doesn't thicken up. Any suggestions? Thanks!

I've never used soap calc, so I can't say what all it does. I love my soapmaker program and it's been worth every penny. A big upgrade was just done on it, so it has more to offer than before.

www.soapmaker.ca is a great program where you can plug in your ingredients, packaging, labels, labor, etc. for each recipe of products you make and it will tell you how much it cost you per oz or whatever measure you supply it. I use it for all my recipes, not just soap. It keeps inventory of all your raw materials, paper, packaging, finished product. It will let you know when you are getting low on whatever, how much you've sold from a batch and so much more.

I used to do it that way. One day, I got lazy and put the pyrex bowl of melted oils in the freezer and then kind of forgot about it. When I took it out, all the oils were cold. I went ahead and mooshed it with the beaters to get it going for a couple of seconds and then started whipping, scraping as I went along. It was done in about 2 minutes including adding the EOs.

I have no idea, but upon reading your signature, I want to put my dollars through the wash!

gah! :awww: I hope someone who knows sees this thread!

Have you tried papermart.com?

Yup! I have it in the freezer just til everything is cool and thick again. A bit over that is ok too. I whip for just a few minutes.

Hand mixer. I melt my oils and then put them in the freezer until cool. Super easy and it whips in no time flat!

I just put $1100 on my principal yesterday for my truck loan. That means they get almost 7 months LESS interest from me. Ha! I think in June, I'll be able to put down another $1000 which will be all the less interest they get from me. It's a 5 year loan. The goal is to pay it off in 2.

Sounds real nice, Sara. Some sweet day, it'll be a hobby for me.

That freaks me out on so many levels. So, check out this scenario: A person goes on a forum and requests a recipe for say, a lotion and does not care to know about the ingredients, they just want a recipe so that they can quickly throw it up on their website and make a buck or two. So, a newbie posts a recipe that was lifted from a website that is by another newbie who got the recipe and tweaked it to "sound better" and got it from another website that is by someone who has done no research but wants to look like they have experience and may have a zippy looking website. The person wanting the recipe goes ahead and uses the formula, and puts the "product" on their website. The unsuspecting customer, reading all the "wonderful, skin moisturizing, can heal anything from jock itch to cancer" attributes and buys it believing the hype on the website. Upon using it, however, they have a severe reaction or it didn't save them from halitosis or whatever they bought it for. The customer then sends an email or calls the contact from the website and asks questions about the product and/or ingredients. Since there was no research, just a quick, "here give me a recipe," all the contact person can do is either lie to the customer, get mad at them for questioning their products or say, "uh gee, I dunno, I didn't do any research." That is not any way to be in business, stay in business and is in no way ethical. I have apprentices and even though I teach them very deeply about harvesting the right plants for the right remedy, the why, when, how and so on, teach them in depth how I make salves, lotions, tinctures, tea blends, soaps, etc, etc, etc. Even though I give them so much information, I never give them my exact recipes. Their job is to learn and then do. And do. And do. Get their own experience and it makes them smarter, gives them confidence to do things on their own and gives them the ability to discern the right medicine for the right ailment. I am not blasting anyone in particular, so please do not in any way think that I am. I am simply throwing in my 2 cents in a thread that is very disconcerning.

Every once in a while I think about how nice it would be to not be "in production" so heavy and not do 3 markets a week plus all the holiday fairs at the end of the year and just concentrate on teaching my herbal medicine programs. My passion is teaching. I am so blessed to be able to be out in the woods with people, teaching them about medicinal plants and foraging. But....I'm so seeing this year that doing the farmers markets is just not what I want to do. So, I hired 2 of my students to do 2 of the markets which brings it down to one for me to do on my own. I still have to do all the production for 3 markets, coordinate with employees, have 3 full displays needing 2 canopies and all that crud. Plus a decent web business. My husband got laid off last week after being back to work for only 2 months. He's in construction, so when the housing market goes down....so does the amount of work for him. He was off on medical leave for 8 months last year, so I have to bear the burden of being the breadwinner like it or not. My business is my day job, so that is what I'm concentrating on. I understand that others have day jobs on top of a business. So...going to hobby with my products and having the luxury of just teaching is out of reach for me out of necessity. The markets have been well supported so far. I have a good customer base since I've been doing it so many years. When I had to raise my prices last year, people asked about it and were satisfied with my answers. And kept buying, I'm happy to say. My sales are not down and my registrations for my herbal programs are at an all time high. I think people want to learn how to take care of themselves and not depend on doctors. My husband and I don't have medical insurance and I'm glad to know what I know. It's spooky, though, not having insurance. And him not working again.

:laugh2:

I think you've been given good advice.

2 credit cards I have, have no balances. They are store credit cards. My visa, I did the option where I get an email a certain amount of days before the bill is due so that I can make sure I get it in on time. So, if they change it, I'm assuming the email would still be sent to me in plenty of time. Maybe check and see if your credit card/s have that option. I opted for online bills and online paying and then went from there with the email options. I also get a hard copy sent to my address, so I get my bills twice.

I agree. My shop gets a bit damp temporarily sometimes when I'm dehydrating herbs, my salt bars weep. I use Kosher salt.

My olive oil soap gets hard as a rock. It takes time and no 6 months, either. I'm talking 6 weeks to 2 months.

Have your cake and eat it too. That made me laugh because my Grandma used to call bars of soap "cakes of soap." So I got this picture of eating a cake of soap!

Thanks, y'all. It's just crazy out there right now. Well, I've been stocking up non perishables for a while now. And my husband can hunt and I can butcher. I just wish we owned our house so I could get chickens and dig up this stupid 1/2 acre of lawn and plant gardens and plant fruit and nut trees. The landlord likes his lawn kept a lawn. He doesn't even live here! And we're out in the county, so we could have animals. Well, I can also live up to my name and forage for wild food. We're not big spenders, but we're tightening our belts and really watching where the money is going to go. My DH is an electrician and it's hard to find work right now with the building slump.

I just took out a loan to buy a truck on Monday. Great truck. 11.9% interest rate. Today, my husband came home because he got laid off. This happened since my last post a few hours ago. He immediately went into his cave. He won't talk to me and he has been "napping" for the past 2 1/2 hours. Oh great. Now, I have to go to the bank, take out a grand that's supposed to be part of a down payment for a house and put it into checking so that I can pay bills this month. Already put out 2,300 in the past 2 days. I so f'ing thrilled.

I bought a truck on Monday and the loan is 11.9% interest! phhhhht! It's a five year loan that I'm going to pay off in record time. So, no big bucks for the bank! That's what they get! I think there will be all kinds of ways around the big corporations' money grabbing from little people like us. We'll just have to be creative. Big banks - Be afraid.....be very afraid!