Happy September!
This is a long newsletter with lots of photos this month. Sometimes your email will truncate the newsletter, so if you don't see our family photo at the end, be sure to click on your email link that usually says something like "view entire message".
|
|
Limited Edition Soaps
This month we have two new limited edition goat milk soaps available - Dessert Tray and Nag Champa.
There are also some Almond Shampoo, Destinations ($5), Emery's Flower Garden, and Pineapple Coconut limited editions soaps still available while supplies last.
|
|
|
|
|
Nag Champa
Goat Milk Soap
$6.50
|
|
|
|
|
Dessert Tray
Goat Milk Soap
$6.50
|
|
|
|
|
Almond
Shampoo Bar
$8.00
|
|
|
|
|
Remember - If there is a limited edition soap that we don't currently have available, you can have it made as a custom batch.
|
|
Holiday Scents
We have a total of five holiday scents that we make available in soap. Two of them (Cranberry Spice and Evergreen) are available year round.
The other three (Cider Press, Frankincense & Myrrh and Pumpkin) are available now. We try to keep them in stock through December, but sometimes we do sell out of them early if the demand is heavier than we anticipate.
|
|
Milk Baths
For years, we've offered our soap shreds in two oz bags we call CLEFFS. Some people use these as air fresheners in their drawers, cars, and shoes. But many others add the shreds to their baths in order to take a milk bath. We've been asked for these soap shreds in larger sizes and so we are testing an 8 oz milk bath size.
For now, milk baths will be available for $10 in our 10 Fundraiser scents. These scents are Almond, Black Raspberry, Clean Cotton, Honeysuckle, Lemongrass, Luv Spell, Ocean, Oatmeal Milk & Honey, Pink Sugary, and Purity,
The popularity of these milk baths will determine if they become a permanent item and if we expand the number of available scents.
|
|
Bulk 5
For quite a while now we've had a Bulk 10 option where you can purchase 10 of the same scented soaps at a 10% discount.
People have occasionally asked us if these soaps could be mixed and matched (which they can't). In order to give people a little more variety and to help meet the $30 free shipping minimum, we are introducing a Bulk 5 option.
You can get 5 of the same scented soaps (no mix and match) for $30 instead of $32.50. This is an 8% discount.
Please be sure to order from the Bulk 5 section on the website (you can't just order 5 of the same soaps).
|
|
Fall Hours
The end of August marks the end of our extended summer hours here on the farm. Both the Farm Store and the Sweet Shop will now be open:
Monday to Saturday 9am - 5pm (Eastern time)
Closed on Sundays
|
|
Labor Day
Goat Milk Stuff will be open on Labor Day from 9-5. There is no mail delivery on Labor Day, so internet orders will ship out on Tuesday.
|
|
Madison Chautauqua
If you are in the Southern Indiana area, Goat Milk Stuff will be at Madison Chautauqua this year on Saturday, September 30 and Sunday, October 1st from 10am to 5pm.
We do not bring every thing we make to Chautauqua, so if there is something specific you know you want, please let us know ahead of time so we can bring it for you.
|
|
Baby Goat Experiences
We currently have 4 pregnant Nigerian Dwarf goats - Pearl, Sara, Crescendo, and Goldie - that are due to have their babies any time now. We will try to Facebook Live their births, so make sure you are following us on Facebook and are signed up to be notified of Facebook Live videos.
Once their kids are born, it will be a great time to schedule a Baby Goat Experience to play with the newborn kids!
Indigo found these directions on how to be notified when we go live on Facebook:
- Click
 in the top right and select Settings
- Select
 Notifications on the left
- Click On Facebook
- Scroll down to
 Live Videos to make changes to live video notifications
Note: When you're watching a live video or a video that was live, you can click Subscribe to be notified the next time that Facebook account starts a live broadcast.
|
|
Blog
I currently blog on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays with the hope to educate, entertain, and inspire. I am living my dream life and I love to give people a glimpse into our lives and what is possible in their own lives as well. If you've never visited the blog, I hope you get a chance to do so.
Here are August's posts:
|
|
Goat Articles
A lot of people subscribe to the newsletter so they can see what new soaps and food items we have available. Others just want to keep up with what the family is doing, and still others are goat people and enjoy keeping up with a successful goat farm. I have a lot of articles I've written about goats on the website, so we'll be sharing some them here on the newsletter.
This month's article is about why I chose dairy goats instead of dairy cows to milk. You can read the full article at this page, but here is a small excerpt...
People ask me all the time why I chose to raise dairy goats instead of dairy cows. There are two main reasons - the milk itself and the animals themselves. After owning and milking a Jersey cow, it quickly became obvious that our family much preferred goats. I'll discuss why we like goats as animals better in this article and why I prefer goat milk over cow milk in another article.
Dairy goats are smaller than cows. An average full-sized female dairy goat weighs about 140-180 pounds, whereas a female Jersey cow can weigh between 800 and 1000 pounds and a female Holstein can weigh 1300 pounds. This smaller size makes them easier and safer to handle. This is very important since my children are involved with the milking animals. It also makes them easier to transport if you need to take them to the vet or to be bred.
Dairy goats are easier to get bred. Have you ever been around a bull? They can be scary and dangerous. Not something that I wanted to deal with, and definitely not something I wanted my young children around. It requires a trailer (which we don't have) to bring a cow to another farm for breeding. Bucks (male goats) are much safer to handle (although you still need to be careful) and goats can be transported in a car or truck and don't require a trailer.
Read more...
|
|
September Giveaway
This month we're giving away a $25 Goat Milk Stuff gift certificate. You can find the entry widget on the Goat Milk Stuff website.
Since you're already signed up for the newsletter, all you have to do to get your first entry is put the email address that you used to subscribe to this newsletter in the widget. It's that easy! For extra entries, you can follow us on various social media sites or answer a question. Just make sure you go through the widget, so your entries are counted. Good luck!
Congratulations to Cindy Barr who won the August giveaway!
|
|
Newsletter Special
The September newsletter special is a discounted 5 Pack of our Holiday scented soaps. You get 1 bar of each of the following - Cranberry Spice, Pumpkin, Evergreen, Frankincense & Myrrh, and Cider Press for only $30.
Do not order them individually (or you will pay full price). Please order them at this link only.
|
|
|
Homestead Happenings
August was a busy month on the farm! We started the month with the Jonas family leaving for vacation - our last family vacation before Brett gets married. We went to Topsail Island in North Carolina, and had a wonderful time.
While we were gone, Mason and the rest of our crew ran the stores, sent out orders, milked the goats, cleaned out stalls, made cheese...and processed almost seven hundred pounds of tomatoes.
Our tomato plants have exploded and we have tomatoes EVERYWHERE. We've made tomato sauce and salsa, filled our freezers with chopped tomatoes, and we're quickly running out of room. In completely unrelated news, we now have canned homemade salsa available in our Sweet Shop! ;)
The end of August means that it's almost breeding season on the farm, which means we should expect lots of baby goats in February! Keep an eye out over the next few months for information on our Kidding Experience, which is where you get to spend a few hours in the barns with us, helping to feed and take care of (and maybe even help deliver!) baby goats.
If you're interested in bringing home some baby goats of your own, we're taking deposits for 2018 kids. We offer doelings out of first fresheners at a discounted price, so if that is something you're interested in, please don't delay since we sell out of them every year.
We are sad to announce that we lost our big buck, Saturn this year. To counteract the loss of such great genetics, we decided to bring in a new bloodline and well... we ended up getting 3 new bucks instead of 1! Meet Shipwreck, Steven, and Monsoon.
Aren't they handsome? Monsoon is the little guy and we'll use him next year. Steven is the oldest (at four) and he'll be breeding about 30 does this year! (Yes, he'll be busy). Shipwreck has a white belt like Saturn did, and will also be used some this year. We can't wait to see what their kids look like. Do you suppose Shipwreck will throw flashy patterns?
We ended up getting three bucks not only because we couldn't choose between them, but because we work hard to be able to provide people with starter herds each year. This requires using several different bucks to make sure that we have unrelated kids that can be bred.
Monsoon, Shipwreck, and Steven aren't the only new animals on the farm these days. We're having fun babysitting two bottle calves! Mason was going back to his farm a few times a day to feed these little guys, and since we have the pasture space, we told him to bring them here so he wasn't wasting so much time traveling. They're currently in a pen next to the goats, who really aren't quite sure what they think about these strange creatures. Greyden, however, has fallen in love with them, and is hoping to convince Dad that he should get a bottle calf!
The main topic of conversation this month has been Brett and Mason's upcoming wedding. They're getting married in January, and everyone is very excited - especially Indigo and Jade, who can't wait to be bridesmaids. They're currently house hunting, which has been challenging since they're hoping to stay close to both Mason's family farm and GMS, but we know that God has the perfect house for them somewhere!
|
|
As always, we thank you so much for all of your support of our family and our business!
The Jonas Family
Jim, PJ, Brett, Colter, Emery, Fletcher, Greyden, Hewitt, Indigo, and Jade
|
|
|
|
