homemade liquid laundry soap (recipe by Kathy Russell)

ingredients: 

• 4 cups hot water
• 1.5 cups grated laundry soap (5 oz bar Fels Naptha)
• 1 cup super washing soda (Arm & Hammer)
• 1 cup borax (20 Mule Team)
• (optional) 1/2 oz essential oil (lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil) 

makes: 

• 10 gallons
• 256 loads (top loading machine)
• 640 loads (front loading machine)

to mix:

• add grated Fels Naptha Soap to warm water in non-aluminum saucepan.
• stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves.
• fill a clean 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water.
• add melted soap, washing soda and borax powers and stir until all powder is dissolved.
• full bucket to the top with more hot water.  stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
• after soap has cooled, you can add up to 1/2 oz essential oil).

to use:

• stir thickened soap.  fill a used, clean, laundry soap bottle half full of the liquid soap.
• then fill the container to the top with hot water.
• shake before each use.
• (the soap will thicken as it stands.)

laundering:

• top load machine - use 5/8 cup per load.
• front load machine - use 1/4 cup per load.
• this laundry soap will not produce suds as it cleans (perfect for front load machines).

Autumn Hills Farm sells ready-to-make kits for $10, containing everything you need for this, available at the Calhoun County Farmer’s Market.

imagine that you're Noah's youngest child...

imagine you love your modest home and the simple quiet life you have there. every afternoon playing in your yard makes you smile, every dinner by the hearth nourishes your soul, every night cozy in your little bed is safe. imagine you have no love of adventure and hate this whole “Ark” plan. your older siblings won’t play with you today, so busy are they sawing timbers. Mother is overwhelmed preserving every scrap of food in the cellar. and Dad? don’t even talk to me about Dad. Lord knows, these days he’s got no time for you. (he’s too busy talking to “The Lord”.) and the plan? what’s the plan? 40+ days adrift on Waterworld in a rudderless ship full of copulating animals and manure, scanning the horizon for pirates?

can you be a child, for just a minute, and imagine those feelings?

this is how I feel about yet another day of rain.