Holidays Made Easy

What would make your holidays easier? Would it help if someone prepackaged your presents and shipped them for you with a handwritten message? Would it be great if those presents were both affordable and great smelling?

Bonnie’s Own has been revamping the last couple of weeks. We are working on making the holidays easier for you! For example, our Chocolate Apple soap set comes with 3 large bars and 3 medium bars in Hot Cocoa and Applejack Peel. It’s prepackaged in a priority box with a piece of tissue paper. When you check out you will be given an option of adding a message or not. If you choose to add a message it will come on one of our Goat Postcards. The current image we are using is:

The majority of our boxes are $15 plus shipping. We have a variety of sets already packaged and are working diligently to make more. We have everything from unscented to a box that smells like a spice cabinet!

Our current trending shop section is our Fall Soap Sets which is filled with apples, pumpkins, and spices!

Despite being fall today, it was miserably hot! So we made some more soaps.

We made unscented gingerbread men, octopuses, robots, baby animals, anchors, Christmas trees, snowmen, and Easter Island heads. Hopefully later this week we will make a whole new scent- Warm Flannel. Doesn’t that sound warmly delicious!

Please check out our Etsy shop and let us know what you think about our new sets and as always keep an eye on our shop because we add more on a regular basis.

Just in case, here’s the link to our shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BonniesOwn

 

 

 

 

Family Vacation

We do not take regular vacations. Actually we have not taken a family vacation in over 5 years. A lot of the reasoning behind it is that we have to find someone to take care of all the animals. Some it is just because we don’t really think about going on one either.

Needless to say, my Aunt Franny and Uncle Mike thought it would be a good family present last Christmas for us to go to Cincinnati. This last weekend we finally cashed in on that present. Now most people would go on vacation to get away from what they are surrounded by on a daily basis. Not us! We went to the zoo and saw the animals. Then we went to a baseball game (that’s our other family time suck!).

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Above is the slideshow from the zoo. As you can tell we had a blast! We did not get to see Fiona (the baby hippo), but we did see the baby Rhino. We saw some cool vampire bats, a polar bear, lots of primates, an entire bug house (yuck!), and some cool lions. Oh and did I forget to say we saw some goats. Yup, they were in the petting zoo part. We did not spend any time petting them though, we didn’t want Clyde to get jealous.

The bridge

After the zoo we stopped at the hotel and then met up with Aunt Ada for some Frisch’s Big Boy. We loved getting to see Aunt Ada, who we realized it had been many many years since we’ve seen her. She brought us to a park on the top of a hill to see some awesome city views. We teased Aunt Ada because she kept talking about this hill, we had no clue what she going on and on about. It was the hill that Frisch’s was off of. Don’t worry, Aunt Ada we know what you are talking about now and either way we love you! After dinner, AJ went swimming for a little while and then we walked to the river front to see it at night. You see the bridge in the picture, the big suspension bridge? Yup, well Sunday morning we had to walk across that!

Sunday was baseball day! We crossed the bridge, which both Andy and I hated. I am terrified of public water and Andy is scared of heights. Andy wound up taking pictures of me walking very briskly across the bridge. Why I ever thought that walking across the bridge would be a good, I have no idea!  We went to the Reds museum and then to a game- Reds v Pirates. Reds won! After the game we walked back across the bridge and took the long ride home. It was actually not to bad, 2 1/2 hrs and we stopped one more time for Frisch’s.

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Thank you again Aunt Franny, Uncle Mike, Heather and Justin!!! We had a great time.

Meet Cracker

Cracker, which is short for Firecracker was born July 6, 2017. Cracker’s Mama is Rue and his Papa is Hank. We had no idea what to expect! Cracker was our first birth. This is the first time either Hank or Rue had any kids. And we did not know exactly when Rue got pregnant. We let the boys and girls roam together in the winter months to encourage breeding and increase warmth.

Hank has the horns

Rue has the horns

We had been waiting every day. Checking Rue’s body, looking for signs, and Googling a lot! I had been home for several days in a row and there was nothing. Then on the 6th, I had to go to the office. When we went outside to feed everyone, Rue was hanging near the barn door. Now let me tell ya, that goat is never one to miss a meal or attention. She’s always at the gate waiting for us without being called. We went in to feed. Andy feeds the goats and I feed the sheep. That’s when he said we had a surprise!

Goats are pretty amazing when they are born. They can walk, know how to find milk (despite the fact that I was terrified he did not know), and are trusting. I think it helped that Rue is so trusting of us, but Cracker had no issues at all coming right up to us.

Now fast forward two months, Cracker is so strong and huge! We thought he’d be little like Hank and Rue. Hank is part miniature and Rue is part pygmy. Cracker is apparently the bigger pieces of them! And look at those horns already!

Ha, Precious photobombed this one!

In our soap shop we are now selling soap sets. Soon we will be adding an option to include a post card with your purchased set. The picture on the post card will be the one on the left of Rue and Cracker. Want to check out our soaps? CLICK HERE

 

Chicken Say What?!?

One of the first eggs of the season!

White Boy- our rooster

Caramel

Our roadrunner chickens, they are fast and sleek like roadrunners.

 

We thought we’d share some of our chickens with you. These pictures are all from Summer 2017. Our chickens typically start off in our bathtub. Though, this year we did have some born to Chickbocca in the “wild“. We’d also like to point out that chickens are completely free range. They go all over the place- into the woods, in the pig pen, up on the deck and knock on the back door… Hope this was an egg-cellent post for you!

 

What goes into making the soap?

Let me start by saying we make small batches. Each batch is approximately 2.5 lbs. Maybe in the future we’ll do larger batches, but for now it’s just perfect.

Here’s how we make out soap:

1. Milk Bonnie and then weigh the milk and freeze then it into ice cubes.
2. Once the milk is frozen, we melt down the oils (lard, coconut oil, vegetable shortening, olive oil, and sunflower oil). While that’s melting we combine our milk and lye. This is the part that can easily go bad. If you get lye on you it causes a chemical burn. Also, it can melt the milk to quickly and cause the milk to burn.
3. Then we mix both parts together in a separate bowl. We use a immersion blender, but have used a spoon and a stand mixer in the past. All have worked, but the immersion blender is the quickest and easiest.
4. Once the ingredients are all mixed together we add the fragrance.
5. Finally it’s ready to mold. We use silicone molds and stainless steel ladles to fill our molds.
6. After about 2-3 days we pop the soap out of the molds and move them to the drying room. This is the worst part because you smell all the wonderfulness but it has to sit for 4-6 weeks. We wait the whole 6 weeks just in case it’s not fully dried.
7. Finally add water, smoosh it around and wash with it!

My favorite part of soap making is definitely finding new and different scents. Our newest combination is Rosewood and Honey.

Meet Cletus

Cletus is a Julianna pig. In actuality he is not essential to soap making business, but he’s cute! We’ve been told that Cletus will grow to about 30 lbs. He’s a pretty good boy and enjoys spending time getting his belly rubbed and chasing toys. He loves to play with Buckshot (our black and white mutt, pictured snuggling with him below). Cletus thinks he’s one of the dogs and is slightly confused as to why he is not allowed to do every thing the dogs do!

Cletus’s Favorite Hiding Place

Cletus and Buckshot

Cletus at Christmas

Picture 1- This is Cletus’s favorite hiding spot. He loves to snuggle right into the bean bag chair.

Picture 2- Cletus and Buckshot! They snuggle together and play together. Definitely BFFs!

Picture 3- This is Cletus at Christmas. It was his first Christmas and he was super excited about his new bed. Since then he has decided that he prefers to sleep on the bed with our son.

Meet Bonnie

Bonnie is our milker. She is about 3 years old. She’s Clyde’s mom. She is a decent milker, though she does get annoyed if it takes us to long (in her opinion, to long). She’s sweet as could be and likes to be petted. She’s a pure bred French Alpine.

 

Update March 20, 2016- We are waiting more or less patiently for babies! We believe she is pregnant. The babies will be a mix of Bonnie and Leroy. If there’s a girl, I get to name her Penelope!! Hopefully we’ll have some pictures soon.

Until then here’s a picture we took about month ago of Bonnie, Leroy, and Clyde. It’s most likely the last picture we’ll have of the three of them together. (Don’t wants babies just randomly happening!) :

Meet Clyde

What the Clyde!

Well what can we say about Clyde, other than he’s Clyde. We bought Clyde when we bought Bonnie. He’s Bonnie’s son. He’s half Nubian and half Alpine. He’s a wether, meaning that he is fixed and can no longer help increase the herd.

 

Clyde on Veronica’s back!

Clyde is definitely Mr. Personality. He is all up in your business whether you are sitting talking, building a bon fire, or trying to eat fruit snacks.

Clyde thinking he can drive the Toyota!

Speaking of fruit snacks- Clyde loves them! He is one odd goat, but that’s why we keep him around.

 

Clyde when we first got him, when he was adorable and not a busy body.

Meet Leroy

Leroy was born July 28, 2015. He’s our new buck. Well, he will be when he grows up a little. We brought him home on Saturday (11-21-15) and of course it was the first snow of the season. So we put him in an old dog jacket to keep him warm. He’s been here 3 days and everyone is starting to get along. They are still working out their pecking order, but in time that will come. Leroy is a Nubian. Nubians were ‘developed’ in England and are milk goats. When he’s full grown he could weigh up to about 175 lbs!  They have good temperaments, which Leroy already demonstrates. He runs to the gate to say hello and loves to nuzzle your hand and leg.

Normally goats have horns. Ours have all been disbudded for their safety, each other’s safety, and our safety. They are generally docile loving goats, but I don’t want to risk a ram in the bottom from a goat with horns!

Washing Your Hair

We use our soap to wash our hair. At first I was a little skeptical, but it works!

The boys have shaved heads so they just rub it in their hair and rinse. It’s that simple for them.

I, on the other hand, have hair half way down my back and it’s thick. I rub it on top some and then lather it up in my hands. Then I massage the bubbles into my scalp. It takes a little bit to cover it all, but I think it’s worth it.

Why is it worth it? My hair has never been so soft! I’ve noticed fewer split ends and more bounce. It smells great when I’m done too.

I occasionally use a tiny bit of conditioner still because we have some that I bought a while ago. Once that’s out it will be apple cider vinegar only.

Apple Cider Vinegar? Yup, I put apple cider vinegar in a small spray bottle. I spray it on and brush it in my hair. Normally I spray it on, wash my hair, and then spray it again and let it dry.   I use it about once every other week. The apple cider vinegar breaks down the grease and helps it wash away.

What should I expect at first? For the first couple of weeks you should expect greasy hair. Your scalp is used to making oily to combat all the chemicals normally found in shampoo. It takes your scalp a little while to adjust to less chemicals, so I would not try it right before you have a big meeting at work.

My favorite hair washing scent is Applejack Peel