Thanks for taking the time to keep up with Goat Milk Stuff!  Here's what is new this December…

Custom Lotions and Lip Balms

We wanted to give everyone a chance to order custom lotion scents and lip balm flavors for Christmas gifts! These custom lotions and custom lip balms are now available for one week only! (December 2 - 9, 2015).



Lotions are available in four sizes - small stick, large stick, deodorant-style tube, and a tub.  They are also available in both our mango butter formula and our original formula.  Lip balms are also available in two formulas.

We will start making the custom lotions and lip balms on December 10th and will ship out your entire order to you no later than Friday, December 11th. We will make the lotions as fast as possible, but please understand that there will be a delay in your order shipping out.

We will not be able to make these custom lotions or custom lip balms after the 9th.  There are no returns on custom lotions or lip balms, so please only order if you know you're going to like what you get. The lotion scents are the same scents we use in our soaps, but they will smell slightly different in the lotions.

Since this is the last chance to get a custom lotion or custom lip balm this year, please take advantage of it now!


Limited Edition Soaps

We will be changing how we make and offer our limited edition soaps in 2016.   We are going to bring back the five most popular limited edition soaps full-time in 2016. These five soaps are cucumber melon, dragon blood, kool koala, lilac, and vanilla and they will be available year-round.   The five holiday scents that we make - cider press, cranberry spice, evergreen, frankincense and myrrh, and pumpkin - will all be available starting in August.  We will aim to have all five of them available through December (but we may run out if demand exceeds our forecasts).  

The rest of the limited edition soaps we have made in the past will only be available as a custom batch.  We will have more information on custom batches in the January newsletter. 

We are making these changes because so many people want the limited edition soaps available year round.  We simply don't have enough room in our soaproom to make all of the soaps available all the time.  We're hoping that by bringing back the most popular ones full-time, increasing the time the holiday scents can be purchased, and making custom soaps available, we will be able to satisfy everyone's desires. We look forward to your feedback.

The limited edition soap scents for December are Evergreen, Hazelnut, Hazelnut Scrubby, and Mimosa Mandarin. 


Butter Crunch Toffee Our newest candy is now available! It is butter crunch toffee and it is addictive (in a good way)!  We start with goat milk toffee, cover it semi-sweet chocolate, and top it with a variety of mixed nuts.  It is currently available in both 6 and 8 oz sizes.  We don't have any labels for them yet, but we didn't want you to miss out on it while we wait for labels!




Goat Milk Fudge

We introduced several limited edition fudge flavors this past month to see which would be most popular.  The results are in and we are adding the chocolate almond coconut fudge, chocolate walnut fudge, and s'mores fudge to our regular fudge line-up.  The maple fudge will be a seasonal fudge we bring back in the Fall.  I have the rest of the seasonal fudge (maple, maple walnut, chocolate raspberry, and pumpkin) on sale til they're gone.  Fudge can be frozen if you don't wish to eat it quickly.


Lotion Prices

We have not raised our lotion prices since we started making them.  But recently, the cost of our ingredients (particularly the Mango Butter formula) have increased significantly.  We will be raising prices on our lotions in January.  We are waiting til then to see if ingredient prices decrease after the holidays.  We wanted to give you a head's up so you can stock up before the price increase. 

We've had a great time in November with our Fridays at the Farm events.  We've gotten to meet new people, spend time with friends, and introduce more people to the goodness of goat milk! The events are held in our new food building and we're enjoying seeing the space being used.







We also have been concentrating on three new building projects here on the farm.

The first one (which is completed) was the addition of a new parking lot in front of our soaproom.  It required dealing with drainage of the runoff from the soaproom roof.



We also added a concrete ramp to the front porch.



And then lots and lots of rock.



And concrete parking bumpers to match the building.



We even got a new street light to "light up" the parking area since it gets dark so early.  Overall we're really pleased with how it came out.  It's much more inviting and hopefully encourages a lot more people to stop in and pay us a visit!



The second construction project involves an addition to the buck shed.  Last year we had 40 Mama goats give birth to 72 baby goats.  We were able to do it, but we were really tight on space for the babies.

This year we've bred 67 goats and are expecting over 100 babies!  We simply don't have the room to give them the kind of space they need to stay healthy.  So we're expanding the buck shed and adding on space for baby goats.  This will give the Mama goats the entire barn - which is plenty of space for them.







We're blessed to have an awesome contractor to work with who is pushing hard to make sure the building is complete in time for the arrival of the kids in February!

The third construction project involves a new stand-alone building.  We are going to make the switch from hand milking to machine milking.  I gave the children a choice this Fall.  We either needed to sell a bunch of goats or we needed to invest in a new building and equipment so that we could switch to machine milking.  Seven children voted to keep the goats and invest.  One child (Indigo) voted to sell goats.  When we make big financial and strategic decisions like this, the children are always involved.  It doesn't have to be a unanimous decision, but big decisions do have to have the vast majority on board.

We're also hoping to have this building completed by February so we're praying really hard the weather cooperates.  They've just started working on the site.



Some of the machine milking equipment has started to arrive.



We're both excited and unhappy about machine milking.  While it will make the milking go faster, it also requires a lot more cleanup.  And there is a closeness with the goats that is missing when you switch from hand milking to machine milking.  

But growth requires change and we're confident that this is a good decision.  Even Indigo is starting to maybe change her mind. LOL  

The goats themselves are doing great.  They're pretty unfazed by all the noise and construction around them.  They're spending much more time in the barn because a lot of the fencing has had to come down as the construction continues.  



But they're quite content to eat and relax.  



 

Newsletter Special

We don't have a newsletter special this month.  Instead we're doing free domestic shipping for all retail customers from now until midnight December 15th HAST with a $100 minimum purchase.  You don't need to do anything to receive it.  It will be applied automatically.

We thank you so much for all of your support of our family and our business!

Merry Christmas!
The Jonas Family
Jim, PJ, Brett, Colter, Emery, Fletcher, Greyden, Hewitt, Indigo, and Jade