We have exciting Jonas family news to share with you this month, so be sure to read through the whole newsletter!
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Limited Edition Soaps
This month we have three new limited edition goat milk soaps available - Pineapple Coconut, Emery's Flower Garden, and Almond Shampoo Bars.
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Pineapple Coconut
Goat Milk Soap
$6.50
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Flower Garden
Goat Milk Soap
$6.50
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Almond
Shampoo Bar
$8.00
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Remember - If there is a limited edition soap that we don't currently have available, you can have it made as a custom batch.
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Free Shipping Minimum
In January 2016, we introduced a standard Free Shipping option at orders over $50. We had a lot of positive feedback, but also heard from people on a budget for which it was too difficult to meet the $50 minimum amount.
As a result, in November 2016, we lowered the Free Shipping amount to $15 and said we'd keep it there as long as we could. We were hoping to be able to keep it at that rate for all of 2017, but the USPS raised their first class shipping prices significantly in 2017.
You can now receive Free Shipping on all orders over $30.
We wanted to make this easier for people on a tight budget to reach and so we are introducing something to help - a Bulk 5 option. Please see the details below.
And don't forget, you can also reach this new free shipping minimum with an uncured soap log. This 12% discount is the best value for those of you on a budget who are able to plan ahead.
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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 out with the new free shipping minimum of $30, 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).
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Food Shipping Policy
While we are the only Grade A goat dairy in the state of Indiana, and sell lots of cheese, milk, yogurt, and gelato here on the farm, we are still primarily an internet company that provides incredible goat milk soap world-wide.
Most of our online customers primarily order our bath and body items. But if you're looking to add some goat milk treats to your order, please familiarize yourself with our food shipping policy.
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Blog
Thank you so much to all of you who have written me to tell me that you're excited that I am back to writing on my blog! It made my day every time I read one of your notes.
If you've never visited the blog, I hope you get a chance to do so. I write the blog 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.
Topics cover what I am learning, what the children are accomplishing, what the business is doing, and how the goats are living. And anything else that captures my attention such as homeschooling, homesteading, entrepreneurship, parenting, fiscal responsibility, organization, health living, and of course, all things goats!
Here are July's posts:
We're having some trouble with people's comments appearing on the blog posts, but we're working on getting that fixed. So please keep leaving your comments, I am seeing them!
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Podcast
Thanks so much to everyone who filled out the podcast survey I sent out in the July newsletter.
I had tremendous feedback and I'm looking forward to beginning The Busy Mom's Survival Guide Podcast again. We've had some exciting family news (see below) that has required a lot of my time, so the podcast isn't going to launch in August, but I am still aiming for September (or October).
Congratulations to Mary Kutter, the winner of the free bar of soap for filling out the survey!
It's not too late to fill out the survey, so if you're at all interested in the podcast, I would appreciate your feedback.
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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 the herd name we chose for our goats, it is called "Aquila Acres" and discusses why we chose Aquila Acres as our herd name. You can read the full article at this page, but here is a small excerpt...
We got our first goats in 2005. Since we were planning to breed them and register their kids with the American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA), we needed to come up with a herd name. We hadn't launched Goat Milk Stuff at that point (it wasn't even a glimmer in our eye), so we didn't choose Goat Milk Stuff as our herd name.
Since we have a history of moving around, we didn’t want it to be geographically tied to a specific location or farm feature (like Walnut Grove), but instead would reflect our foundational values; things that wouldn’t change.
We turned to the Bible, since that is pretty foundational for us, and thought about the parts that really resonated with us. One of the verses that has been meaningful to our family is 1 Thessalonians 4:10-12.
"But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing."
That verse describes not only our family, but it also seems to go along with farming (or goat herding?) pretty well.
After all, with milking twice a day you’re kind of forced into a relatively quiet life, and goat care is definitely hands-on. With all of the feeding, cleaning, trimming, breeding, birthing, disbudding, tattooing, treating, oh- and milking, there’s precious little time for minding anyone else’s business. Of course, the end result is that we get great fertilizer for growing food in our garden and we get great milk, so for the most part we are not in any need. Read more...
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August 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 blog.
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 Patricia Marcum who won the July giveaway!
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Newsletter Special
The August newsletter special are discounted unbagged soaps. The soaps are unbagged and unwrapped and are not labeled in any way at all.
There are unbagged half bars for $3.25 each. There are also unbagged underweight full bars of purity for $5.50 and underweight full bars of unscented pet soap for $6.
Instead of weighing at least 4.5 oz, these underweight full bars weigh between 4 oz and 4.5 oz.
You can find them all at this link only.
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Congratulations to Mason and Brett!
Our biggest news for the month is announcing the engagement of our oldest daughter, Brett, to a wonderful young man, Mason. We are super proud of the both of them and very excited to watch them make this commitment to each other and to prepare for their future together.
You can read more about their engagement in this blog post: A Major Life Milestone
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Homestead Happenings
It's been a fun month on the farm! The baby goats are continuing to grow and get big. Believe it or not, it's almost breeding season for next year. The boys have been giving all of the goats their pre-breeding shots to get them ready for healthy pregnancies. We're also trying to put a little more weight on some of the goats. Between being such good milkers and the heat of summer, some of them are thinner than I would like. It doesn't seem to matter how much food we feed them, they just make more milk instead of gaining weight!
None of them are unhealthy, I'd just like to see them in better condition before getting bred. If any of them are still too skinny, then we have to make the decision whether to delay breeding them or to stop milking them early. That's a difficult choice because either way, we need to separate them from the herd to do that and they don't like being separated!
The garden has been producing non-stop. We are swimming in all sorts of produce - green beans, celery, tomatoes, peppers, We've put up peaches, blackberries, blackberry jam, dilly beans, pesto and salsa. We're also freezing a lot of food as well. Some of the produce is available frozen in the Sweet Shop. We also have the jam, pesto, and salsa available for sale.
We mix our pesto with our plain chevre goat cheese and it is amazing! The state won't allow us to sell it mixed, but people are able to purchase them separately and mix them together themselves.
We also took off a few days and went white water rafting with my brother and his family. That was something we always did growing up and it was a blast sharing it with the children. They all loved it!
Other than celebrating Mason and Brett's engagement, planning a wedding, weeding and harvesting a garden, canning fruits and veggies, we've just been spending time watching some of the pregnant Nigerian Dwarf goats and wondering if they're going to have their kids when we're gone on vacation in August.
Mason will be house and farm sitting (along with lots of other helpers) and he's convinced he's going to have to deliver the Nigie babies and Facebook Live it all by himself. It's a small possibility but we're hoping they wait til we return.
We hope everyone has a wonderful rest of their summer!
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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
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