Friday, January 24, 2014

Rendering Tallow

I'm getting ready to make 3,000+ bars of soap for Operations Christmas Child.

As of today the current fundraising for the project is at just under half way. $274.

I was able to get a local supermarket to donate beef fat that I am rendering into tallow.

I've never rendered tallow till this week. This post will be documenting how I did it.

It started Wednesday night when my husband and I picked up this....



Then I chopped it up a crock pot full of it and 4 hours later I had this...  Which amounted to 3 1/2 lbs of tallow.




While that was cooking I sorted the rest so I could take it to my sisters to grind it up. As the above pot did not render out much tallow. So, I felt defeated. Till I cam home from my sisters with this.... 





Which one crock full rendered into this! It had 2/3 LESS waste. See how there is not massive amounts of cooked meat bits floating? That means MORE tallow than the first go round. (about 6lbs of tallow came out of this pot)




Now my kitchen looks like this...








While I'm sure some peoples kitchens look worse. I'm a little obsessed with having my counters cleared off. I have zero energy to go deal with this mess. Yet in an hour I need to go milk the goats so I NEED to deal with the mess. I have to have a clean spot on the counter to filter milk.

I still have 5 lbs of tallow in my fridge that is cooled, solid, and needs to be bagged up.

Then Sunday I will be picking up more beef fat.Which I do have some help lined up for, but don't want to take advantage of.  This is a 2 day project with the use of my sisters grinder, with out that it would of took me 3-4 days.

I keep telling myself that every week rendering tallow won't be this busy. They have a sale on beef at the supermarket this week.  Last week the sale was on Pork and they had NO beef fat for me.

So this is how you can pray for me.

Soap making I can handle, that mess stays in my basement. I can leave it and walk away with out causing myself added stress.

I got over 20 lbs of tallow from that box of beef. Which equals approximately 320 bars soap for OCC children. So, it is worth doing it. I just will not have time to do both soap making and tallow rendering. Anyone (or multiple people) want to take over the tallow rendering? Other wise I'll continue waiting on God to supply the funds to buy the tallow.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Soap For Operation Christmas Child

Have you seen what I've been dreaming of?

Soap, of course! But more than that, soap for Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes.

You can learn more about what I hope to accomplish and how YOU can help on the newest blog page titled OCC Fundraiser.  You can access that page by clicking on that link <<<. Or clicking on the tab at the top of this page that says "OCC Fundraiser".

Above all I could use your prayers. With out God in this it will never happen. I need to get the funds in a short period of time to accomplish big things. I anticipate being able to make 500 bars of soap a month. To make 3,000 bars that will take 6 months. I need the soap to be ready by the first week in November. If you do the math that means I need the money to buy the all the oils needed and have them shipped to me by the end of February so I can get started in March.  I will be buying the oils in bulk all at once, in order to make the most soap.

End of February?! What was *I* thinking?! I AM thinking that our God is big enough.


Thursday, January 2, 2014

Why I Allow My Children to be Slackers!

I'm not good at consistency. As my little buddy Johnathan would of said, "not at all".

I don't vacuum but maybe once a month. The floors get mopped maybe 3 times a year. I clean my bathroom clean when it's gross. I mean REALLY gross.

I don't cook dinner every night. That doesn't mean we get take out on the nights I don't cook, it means the people in this house have to fend for themselves. If they are lucky there is leftovers, bread, or hot dogs in the house on those days.

I get to deal with the consequences of said "laziness".

I don't vacuum, because my children do. But they don't do a great job of it. So, that means I don't have the cleanest of floors but maybe once a month when I decide to vacuum for them.

We "spot" mop most of the time, the floor gets visibly dirty in on the hard floors I hand a spray bottle and a rag to a shorter person (usually the 8 yo) and tell them to clean it. I can live with that.

The bathroom? Well, the kids clean that, too. They are still learning what MY definition of clean is, so it builds up yuck around the toilet on the floor, under the seat, and around the sink faucet... then I clean it WITH them when I can't stand it no more or if we are having company over.

The kids are also responsible for the dishes, most of the dog care, bird, chickens, folding laundry, and whatever else I tell them to do.

I get lazy sometimes. I have days I don't want to be a responsible adult and "keep up" with the housework that I am responsible for. So I don't. I pick my priorities and I leave the rest for another day. It will get done. Just like when my daughter or son hasn't done their dishes for 3 days straight and we have no cups.

We live with the consequences and we move on. They get done and it's usually STILL a fight, but they are learning WHY we do the dishes more than once every three days. It takes less time and is more sanitary to do them daily. But if I let them "fail" they see and live the consequences. Then maybe, just maybe, they will remember that when they have their own home and do the dishes everyday...until they have their own minions in the form my of grandchildren. Then I hope my children will in turn give their children the grace to be lazy sometimes.

And frankly I think my way is working just fine if the 12  year old is singing while he does his work.