Road Trip

Today, we finally got caught up enough from me being gone two days last week to a seminar to make a trip to Stokesdale, NC to Sadie's Herbal Garden to purchase more essential oils and lanolin for my Buffalo Gal's Soap. I also purchased some new ingredients to make three new soaps: Lavender Lace with dried lavender flowers and lavender essential oil, Romantic Rose with dried red rose petals and rose essential oil and Rosemary Mist with dried rosemary and rosemary essential oil. Look for these new soaps beginning in November. I've also begun collecting some woven baskets and ceramic bowls to make gift baskets for my soap. I've got some good ideas for the gift baskets from friends and family and I am gathering all the items I need. I'm going to include some handmade dish cloths with my Nitty Gritty soap, loofahs with some goat's milk soap and raw honey from a local North Carolina farm with my honey creme soap. These will make good gifts for birthdays or the upcoming holidays. We were somewhat delayed in our leaving the farm this morning because traffic had our driveway blocked. Neighbors who were already stuck in traffic were calling to see if we knew what was going on. About 10 AM, fire trucks were streaming into downtown Germanton from stations in Rural Hall and on Highway 8. After we returned from Sadie's, we found out that the dumpster behind Germanton Baptist Church had caught fire and that fire hoses were run across Highway 8/65 stopping traffic in both directions. Before the shut down, Johnny had gone to Walnut Cove to the welding shop and he had to take the "scenic route" back to the farm to avoid downtown. The temperature here is still extremely hot in the afternoons with no rain in sight. We do get to hear thunder almost every night and see black clouds, but still no rain. As I write this, the sky is filled with heat lightening. The Nubians lay in the barn all day with the fan blowing on them cooling themselves. Too hot for them to eat or venture outside. Even Little Boy Blue the llama likes to come into the barn and let the fan blow his hair.