Old-fashioned vanilla soap recipe

I haven't made soap as often as I would like since the girls were born, so some of my oils have been sitting around for a couple years. Time to use them up! I made a lovely batch of vanilla soap last week and it's creamy, lathery and reasonably sudsy. Here's the recipe...

Base fats and oils (oz wt):
28 ounces rendered tallow
7 ounces coconut oil
5 ounces sweet almond oil
4 ounces grapeseed oil
3 ounces olive oil
2 ounces cocoa butter
2 ounces shea butter

17 fl ounces distilled water
7.2 oz wt lye (NaOH)

Vanilla fragrance oil and honey added at trace.

See my basic making soap instructions in a previous post. I use the lye calculator at https://www.thesage.com/calcs/LyeCalc.html

Here's some pretty photos I took in our backyard on the rocks. :) The vanilla fragrance is so subtle and sweet!

Growing PUMPKINS!!

Well folks, I'm really turning into a pumpkin nerd! This is the fourth year I've tried growing pumpkins and this year's patch is by far the biggest and most weed-free. By the looks of it, I'll have a nice little surplus to sell by the road. I know people stop for our sweet corn, but will they stop for pumpkins? I hope so! Here's a few little sneak peaks of the growing pumpkins and gourds...