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