7 am
First the
soap. Did it work? Hmmm, well, I guess I won’t really know for several weeks. At
first it decidedly did not work. I mixed the lye in water and it got really
really hot so that I was afraid it would melt through the yogurt container I was
using. I poured it into a second container to help cool it, then I got a jar to
pour half into to help it cool. Meanwhile, the fat was still melted but not
very hot. So I came inside to wait for it to cool. I think I was messing with
this little computer that was having some issues. And I think they started
after I clicked on a link on the blog stats page. The page lists the sources of
traffic to the blog, and I am often curious – if the stats say there were 7
visitors yesterday, well who the heck were they???? I think they are mostly
people that get to the blog via some random google or other search (and here’s
an odd thing – the entry from 2 years ago about frog muscles from when I was
labeling images to use for class is I think the most visited one, odd). So when
I clicked on the source url it took me to a weird place and I bet that put something
nasty on the computer. Anyway, after that I was having trouble shutting down
and starting back up so I was messing with it, and eventually ran a full scan
that took forever. When I got back to the soap, the lye was still hot but not
as hot, the fat was warm, so I decided to mix them and stir and hope for the
best. I stirred and stirred, expecting it to take quite a while to reach “trace”
which the info I had warned about. Nearly every site says to use a power
stirrer, but I do not have one and damn it, people have been making soap for,
how long? Centuries anyway with no power stirrers. So I used a wooden spoon and
mixed and it seemed to very quickly get really thick and gloppy. I decided that
was “trace” and poured it into the mold (such as it is, just a plastic bin). It
almost immediately separated, with thick gloppy stuff on the bottom and clear
fat on top. That did not look good. I went back to the computer and looked up
trouble shooting, which did not help that much. They said the cause of
separation would be adding the wrong kind of scent…. Well this was goose fat
and lye, nothing else. There was a lot about reheating it, though it sounded
like that was to be done with a batch that did not work but not for a few days.
It was confusing. I am glad, though, that I had found a site that really
explained the chemistry involved (I guess I did not bookmark it, too bad) in
terms of the NaOH removing part of the backbone of the fatty acid chains in the
grease. Anyway, it certainly seemed to me that a lot of that free-floating pure
looking fat sitting on the top had not properly saponified, so I decided just
to mix it all more. And so I did that. Oh, one more thing, once I mixed the fat
and lye it got really hot. I had not expected that to happen. I guess the
reaction is very exothermic. And according to the sites I read, you are
supposed to wrap it up once poured to allow it to stay hot to continue the
reaction. Anyway, I stirred and stirred more to mix the fat in with what was
underneath, and it indeed helped. The whole thing got thick like applesauce,
and once it finally seemed like there was not more separate fat, I stopped,
smoothed it off as best I could and wrapped it in towels. I still left it outside,
not wanting this hot stuff inside. When I got back from my meeting last night I
brought it in. It looks like it actually worked and is still warm though no
longer hot. Pretty exciting, eh? Of course, the trouble-shooting sites talked
about things like if your soap is not completely smooth, if it has bubbles, if
it is grainy. I don’t care about any of that. I just want it to be soap that
one can use to wash things. Now I must let it “age” for about 6 weeks so that
it will not be caustic from excess lye.
As for
today – I head to Maine in a while to get L. Yay!!!! We have her for all of a
whole week before she is off again. That will be nice. I don’t have to leave
real early because she’ll be busy until 6. And she asked if I was interested in
going to the fancy restaurant she has always wanted to check out. I told her to
make a res – and the earliest she could get was 9:30! So I guess we’ll be
having a very late supper. We don’t have to leave right away in the morning, so
that is good, we can take our time packing up. Maybe we’ll do a bit of a hike
or walk or explore, maybe not. Anyway I want to go to the MoGlo for breakfast. Odd.
She will no longer be in Bar Harbor. No longer any reason to go up there. End of
an era.
Meeting
last night was very good. I now have the
job of writing up the things we talked about, as well as writing up the things
we talked about in the workshop meeting last week. And I need to do that before
I forget everything….. We went over lots of ideas about locations, where to put
things like the contests and drop in spin. We talked about new ideas for how to
run drop in spin. It was very productive.
Ok. Time
to do buns and eat lots of fruit for breakfast since I have a lot.
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