Run, Jump, Prance!!!

  The kids have been eating, sleeping, running, prancing, jumping, growing, wanting more milk, and doing all the normal things that baby goats do:)  Oh, and trying to get out of their pen...that is something that most goats are pretty good at!
  Today, some of us worked on getting a little fence put up outside so that the kids could be outside during the day.  Both bucks were quite happy to be outside and quickly learned how to jump up onto the logs, and box.  They were quite fun to watch!  After a little while, I remembered that I should be taking pictures and videos of them. By the time I got back out there with the camera, they decided that they were more interested in nibbling on everything, than jumping around.  I did manage to get a few videos of them prancing, but they weren't quite as animated as before.

He was in the middle of sliding down the log!

                                                Here are some other pictures of farm life.

Ashley: "This is the life":)

Sunshine is happily eating her grain.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

~Emily

We've Moved!!!

New and exciting things have been going on here at Garland Goat Soap!  After 5 years, Garland Goat Soap finally has its own space:)  We were so happy to be able to move everything over to the bright, and spacious apartment attached to the back of our home.  Now there is so much more room to work in.  

Starting the process of cleaning out

                                            Every one helped out in one way or another

Things waiting to be organized in the Kitchen

Screwing the drying racks back together

All cleaned, organized, and ready to use!

Mom and I made lotion for the first time there, the other day!

Filling orders

The lotion filled and ready for the covers. 

With the soap business expanding, we were in great need of more space.  The apartment, which has been living space for the past seven years, is the perfect place for the business and now is filled with the wonderful smells of soap.

 Check out the May Specials here. 

We hope you have enjoyed a little glimpse into the moving process.

~Emily for the GGS Team

AND THE WINNER IS...

  We are delighted to announce that Ramona B. is the winner of this years kid guess contest!!!   She correctly guessed that Ellie would have twin bucks. Congratulations Ramona!
  Thank you to everyone who participated in the kid guess!

Both bucks are very healthy

Ellie once again surprised us and delivered the kids on her own Tuesday afternoon.  When Caleb found them, they were all dry and lying in the warm sun that was coming in the barn.
  After getting the kids moved to the kid pen, I milked Ellie and put the colostrum in a bottle.  Both bucks were very fast in taking to the bottle and drank quite happily.  Ellie was quite content eating some hay with the other goats soon after the whole thing was over.

For some reason, every time I went to get a picture, one of them would decide to lay down!

Enjoying mid-afternoon feeding in the warm sunshine:)

I thought this was a cute one...the way the black and white goat was standing:)

~Emily                                                                                                          

KID GUESS CONTEST 2015!!!

 Alright everyone, It is only two weeks away from Ellie's due date!  Are you ready for another kid guess?

  Have you ever enjoyed a baby goat? If not, you don’t know what you're missing!  Only two weeks away now, Ellie will have her kid(s). It is so much fun anticipating the birth of the kids and watching for all the different little signs that help me to know when they will be born. I enjoy watching her and wondering how many kids she will have and if they are bucks or does?  Though I have witnessed many goat deliveries, the whole miracle of birth never ceases to amaze me! The display of God’s incredible creation is truly shown forth at every birth!
   
  Even if you're not a farmer and don't have goats, you can still participate in this exciting time of year! Would you like to join in on the fun of the spring kidding season--and have the opportunity to win a FREE bar of goat milk soap? Why not?  Here's how:

  Garland Goat Soap KID GUESS CONTEST
  "Ellie" is our goat that is due to kid first.  (For those of you who are unfamiliar with goats, it is quite common for them to have a single kid, twins, or triplets.  Sometimes they even have quadruplets!)

 We want you to take a guess:

1.)  How many kid(s) will Ellie have?
2.)  How many buck(s) (male goat) and/or doe(s) will Ellie have?

So put on your thinking cap, join the fun, and let us know what your guess is by:

1.) leaving a comment here on the blog (please include your email address),
2.) email it to  garlandgoatsoap@gmail.com  with "Kid Guess" in the subject line.
3.) leave a comment on Facebook, or
4.) leave a comment on Google+

If you guess correctly or come the closest, you will win one free bar of our goat milk soap! If we have more than one correct guess we will send out more than one free bar but only the first three people who guess correctly will receive our special mold.  If there are more than three people, we will send them a different design. 
Last year I started using this new design exclusively for the kid guess! It is one of my favorite designs now and I'm sure it will be yours too.  So enter as quickly as you can so that you have a chance of winning it. 

When Ellie kids (has her babies), we will let you know the winner(s) of our Kid Guess Contest.  Who knows, maybe you will be the one to enjoy a free bar of our goat milk soap!

~Emily

Preparations for the New England Made Show

 What greater fun can there be than working together getting soap ready for a big trade show?  When there is a lot of soap to wrap or label, you can be sure that there will be several of us working on it.
This month, one of the big changes that took place in our soap business was the re-designing of all our labels!  It was so much fun! When the boxes arrived, we went through each one and compared the labels - new to old.   We were so thankful for all the time and effort that the Lenspiration team put into re-designing the labels!

  So... Once the labels were finished at the printers, Nathaniel drove an hour and-a-half away to pick them up.  That left us with two days to wrap and label all the soaps, lip balms, and lotions for the show.  Everyone pitched in to help!  We had shelves of soap on the kitchen island, on the dining room table and on tables in the soap room...everywhere!  Most of Wednesday and Thursday were spent getting ready for the "New England Made" wholesale show in Maine and by mid-morning Friday, Nathan and Mom were off to Portland, ME.

                                                                                 

Everyone even down to the grand-children wanted to help!

Joshua explaining part of the process 

In training!

Brushing off the soap dust

Daniel is happy to have the first label on:)

Pamela does a great job making all the lip balm

Carefully pouring it into the tubes

Labeled and wrapped!

Cutting fabric for the Old Fashioned bars

Ready to go into the drawers

                     Other jobs were being accomplished but were not captured by camera:)

At the New England Made Wholesale show!

Lots to choose from!

~Emily

Red Raspberry Leaves

  With spring on its way to our little farm, many things are about to happen!  One of them happens to be more kids being born into our goat herd.  With Ellie due in only three weeks, there is lots to do in preparation for the rambunctious little kids!  About six weeks before the due date I start adding Red Raspberry leaves to Ellie's grain once each day.   The red raspberry leaves are naturally full of magnesium, potassium, iron and b-vitamins. This helps in preparing her for the delivery and speeds up the healing process afterwards.  Several years ago, I came across an article about someone giving red raspberry leaves to their expectant does and how it helped with making the delivery easier!  So...I decided to try it on my goats and since, haven't had any problems.
  The goat pen was another job that had to be tackled.  With the long cold winter, I wasn't able to clean that out at all until this past week!  So, needless to say, it took a little while:)
Other things, such as: clipping hooves, getting the kidding pen cleaned, getting different supplies together, etc... are still on the list of things to do.

Ellie enjoys her grain immensely!

The red raspberry leaf mixed with the grain.

Here are some pictures of different happenings.

Patches loves his milk!!  He usually will go and get squirts of milk from the cow and then come over to the sugar house where I milk the goats and get his bowl of food and goat milk:)

Clover and Patches on their way to the sugar house.

A very content cat!

Looking forward to Spring!

~Emily

 

And the Winners Are...

  We are delighted to announce that Tammy J., Claire N., Sarah S., Renne F.,  Annette B., Julia F., and Salinn R. are the winners of our  Kid Guess Contest #2!!  They all correctly guessed that Clover would have twin does!!  Congratulations to all of you.  And a big thank you to everyone who participated in the Contest.  It was a lot of fun!!!!

Very soon after they were born.

   Clover delivered her kids out in the sunny, warm pasture, yesterday afternoon.  The whole delivery went very fast.  She was a good mama, and cleaned them up very well.  Now she is getting used to the routine of milking etc...
  Both baby does, are doing very well and were quite active from the beginning.  They have some very pretty, but different markings!

Finally standing!  That took a lot of work:)

Enjoying the warm colostrum

More pictures will be put on soon!

  ~Emily