Here are a few pictures of the past three weeks.

Our cat Moses wondering what those other small black animals are.

Taking a walk.

Our little doe, Clover.

Nibbling on some grass.

Following Daniel around.

The kids and I.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

We are getting around two gallons of mik a day from Touche and Ellie right now so milking takes a little longer.  If any one would like to help with the morning milking just come on over around 5:30 and I would be glad to have your help.

~Emily

Gina S., Diana S.,  Tammy J.,  Felicia I., Marie F., and  Fern S., are the winners this year! They  correctly guessed that Touche would have TWINS: a buck and a doe.  Congratulations!!

Touche had a fairly quick delivery yesterday, April 24th, around 5:30 p.m. She was such a good mother and licked them off until they were almost dry!  They are the cutest little goats that look almost identical.  As you can see in the pictures, they are mostly black with small white markings.

Here are a few pictures from yesterday and today.  Enjoy!

Just born

Touche drying one of them off

Learning to walk is exhausting!

Today.

Enjoying a mid morning meal

staying warm

You may be wondering why I didn’t list any goat names yet….it is because I would like some suggestions from some of you in naming them.

So if anyone would like to help in naming the kids, you can leave a comment with your suggested names.

I am hoping to put some more pictures on soon!

~Emily

Have you ever enjoyed a baby goat? If not, you don’t know how cute they are!  At every birth, we have a whole crowd of excited spectators for the wonderful event.  Everyone wants to get a chance to hold and pet the kids.  I have prepared for several  goat deliveries in the past but have not had as much fun as I did this time.  I was able to get new ideas and learn different ways of doing things. 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!

Would you like to be part of the fun of this kidding season – and have an opportunity to win a FREE bar of Garland Goat Soap’s great goat milk soap?! Why not? Here’s how:

Garland Goat Soap Kid Guess Contest

“Touché”  is our goat that is due to kid this month.  (For those of you unfamiliar with goats, it’s 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) you think Touché will have.
2.) How many buck(s) (male goat) and/or doe(s) Touché will have.

If your guess is correct, or comes closest to being correct, you’ll win a free bar of our soap! If we have more than one correct guess, we’ll send out more than one free bar of soap!

So put on your thinking cap, take a guess, join the fun and email us at: garlandgoatsoap@gmail.com with your guesses! Please put “Kid Guess” in the subject line.

Or, simply leave a comment here on the blog with your guess. Please include your email address.

When Touché  kids (has her babies), we’ll let you know the winner(s) of our Garland Goat Soap Kid Guess Contest! Perhaps you’ll be the one to enjoy that free bar of soap!

We will also have some pictures of the kid(s) and Touché !

~Emily

Two constituents in goat milk, alpha-hydroxy acid and caprylic acid, both play a crucial role in rejuvenating your skin, adding vital elements of skin-care to our soap. For instance, over time your skin looses its ability to get rid of old cells fast enough. Therefore this outermost skin layer thickens, which reduces your skin’s elasticity and fresh look. Here’s where the alpha-hydoxy acids come into play, breaking down the glue holding your dead skin cells together, and thereby providing the way for your skin to easily shed those unwanted, dead layers. This results in less wrinkles and age spots, less acne, and less dry skin. Alpha-hydroxy acids also help to plump the skin and smooth fine lines. Additionally, these acids neutralize free radicals, slowing the aging process and refreshing the skin.

Caprylic acid is a fatty acid contained in goat milk that reduces alkalinity, giving goat milk soap a pH level very close to that of the skin. This enables our soap to cleanse without stripping the skin of its protective barrier of natural, neccesary oils. Caprylic acid also soothes the surface tension of the skin, allowing it to be moisturized and to absorb the other healthy nutrients of the soap. In addition to alpha-hydroxy acid and caprylic acid, there are other fatty acids present in goat milk that are natural antimicrobials and antifungals.

It is a well know fact that in ancient times, Cleopatra, renowned for her beauty, took milk baths. Now we know why it worked so well for her!!

Vitamin A acts as an antioxidant to neutralize harmful elements in our skin, helping to prevent wrinkles, resist infection and keep your skin youthful! It also slows down the effects of aging, as manifested in your skin, and helps prevent both dryness and brown spots on your skin.

Vitamin B12, also found in goat milk, is essential for a variety of synthetic processes in the cells, including skin cells, and an absence of it can be detrimental for skin health.

Vitamin E is another of the vitamins contained in goat milk that protects skin cells from free radical damage (in other words, keeps them from aging).

Consider another component of goat milk, zinc. For some of you, zinc may bring to mind a type of metal, but in reality, zinc is an essential mineral that is a component of more than thirty enzymes. Zinc contributes to the reconstruction of collagen fibers, resulting in firmer, smoother skin (collagen fibers are responsible for your skin’s strength and elasticity, and its degradation leads to wrinkles that accompany aging). Zinc also encourages moisture retention and assists in maintaining your skin’s elasticity. Is the value of goat milk as a wonderful, natural skin-care product beginning to make more sense? There’s more yet…we’ll continue to look at more of the components of goat milk in another post!

Raw, whole goat milk is a virtual storehouse of nutrients that enrich and pamper all skin types! Goat milk is rejuvenating, anti-inflammatory, and moisturizing. It contains over fifty nutrients including the vitamins A, B1, B2 (riboflavin), B6, B12, C, D, E, and K, niacin, zinc, and calcium, as well as minerals, amino acids, citric acid, unsaturated fatty acid, proteins, various enzymes and many other nutrients. Many of these components of goat milk play an important part in skin-care, working in our soap to gently clean your skin without stripping and drying it, moisturizing your skin, smoothing and plumping your skin, and soothing sensitive and allergenic skin conditions. It’s true; we think goat milk soap is THE BEST kind of soap we can use, and that’s why we use goat milk in our soap!

Here are a few pictures from a couple of the above events:

Cleaning out the goat stall

Nathaniel and Daniel working with the wood

Wood waiting to be stacked in the basement.

Lip Balm tubes waiting to be filled.

Two of the finished gift baskets.

We have also been busy making soap for the coming shows.  I made  gift baskets today and will be making more soon,  Pamela made some vanilla lip balm,  and then we made several batches of soap to keep ahead of the high demand of customers from all over!

The Vanilla lip balm is NEW!  It has the  same ingredients as the peppermint lip balm, just the new vanilla essential oil.

This weekend Garland Goat Soap will be at two different shows – the first is the Middlebury Winter Market at Flat Bread in the Marbleworks in Middlebury, VT and the Rutland Holiday Show at the Holiday Inn in Rutland, VT.
We are very excited about both and hope to see many of our current soap users and to meet many new people.

Have a wonderful November!

~Emily

Putting the shelves together

Sanding the shelves

Shelf frames, sanded and waiting for netting

Nailing the netting to the frames. It looks like an uncomfortable way of doing it, but I needed a solid place to nail, and the slate floor under the rug was the easiest.

Dad built the main frame for the soap rack, and I did the shelves.

It took a few days to build but was well worth the work.  It is now almost full of soap and will be used all year round.   We also put a top on it for storing all the molds, because we have over 1200 molds and over 27 designs!

We are still making all-natural goat milk soap in quality-controlled batches just as Arielle (previous owner) used to do.

We hope you have a great week, and looking forward to the holiday season.

Nathaniel

Early Sunday morning,  we made some more calls, but nothing was open to rent a car.   Almost three hours from the show, and no way to get there, reluctantly, we had to cancel.  Mom came and picked us up, and we are now back home planning for this weekends shows.  We will be in Belmont, Springfield, and Brandon, VT. on Saturday the 8th of October.

We look forward to seeing you all this weekend.
Nathaniel for the Moores

Mom watching the booth.

Nathaniel watching the booth. We were very close to the waters edge!

A customer buying soap.

People picking out their favorite designs and scents

Two little brothers smelling all the sample bars!

Our Booth from a little hill.

Looking out behind our booth into Alton Bay!

With all the flooding in Vermont from Hurricane Irene,  the normal 3 hour route took us nearly 5 hours.  But since then, more roads have opened and many more are due to open soon.  Our next show coming up is in Poultney, VT. Come visit us at the Fall craft Extravaganza!

~Nathaniel