Happy New Year!
It's hard to believe that it's already 2018. It's going to be an interesting year for the Jonas family - one that is full of lots of change. But we're expecting it to be a good one, and we hope that it is a good year for you as well.
This is another long newsletter and some email programs cut off the end of the newsletter. So if you don't see the family photo at the end, you can click this link to view the whole newsletter.
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New Website and Account Activation
Our new website is live! We spent many, many hours designing and setting it up, and we hope you all enjoy the new user friendly experience.
If you had an account on our old site, the first time you place your order on the new website, you need to activate your account because the new website does not recognize you. Please choose "Create Account" at the top of the website. Do not choose "Sign In" your first time (it will not work and you'll just get frustrated). When you click "Create Account" the website will ask for the following:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Email
- Password
If the new website matches your email to an account on the old website, it will ask you again for a password. This is because for security reasons, no password information transferred from the old site to the new site. Once you complete this step, your account information is matched and you should be able to see all your previous orders.
If the new website does not recognize an email match, it will simply treat you as a completely new customer.
It is also important to know that the new website does not require or use a username for your account. It identifies you by your email address. That is simpler in the long-run and we hope causes less confusion.
As always, if you ever have difficulty placing an order, please call us at 812-752-0622 or send us an email at soap@goatmilkstuff.com and we'll be happy to help.
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New Lotion Scents
Until now, we've had 12 lotion scents available in red label, small lotion sticks. Of those 12 scents, some of them were available in other sizes and some of them were available in the orange label.
Going forward, these 12 lotion scents (Almond, Black Raspberry, Bug Out, Cold Relief, Honeysuckle, Lavender, Luv Spell, OMH, Patchouli, Pink Sugary, Tea Tree, and Unscented) will ALL be available in not only both formulas (red label and orange label) but also all three sizes (small stick, large stick, and tub).
We're excited to be able to provide all the size and formula options so people can get exactly what they want.
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These 12 scents were chosen based on purchasing popularity. If your favorite scent is not available, we offer custom lotions a few times a year (the next time will probably be March). That is also when we make available the deodorant-style lotion sticks shown above. If you can't wait til then, for a $5 setup fee, we can custom make you any number of lotions in a single scent and formula. Just contact us with exactly what sizes, formula, and scent you want and we will send you an invoice.
The twelve standard lotion scents are:
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Almond
Black Raspberry
Bug Out
Cold Relief
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Honeysuckle
Lavender
Luv Spell
OMH
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Patchouli
Pink Sugary
Tea Tree
Unscented
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New Deodorant Scents and Baking Soda Free Formula
 It took a while to launch our new deodorant scents, but they're finally ready and you can start the new year with a new deodorant scent.
In addition to the original citrus tea, rosemary mint, and unscented, we now have deodorants in cedarwood, lavender, and oatmeal milk & honey.
All six deodorants scents are now also available in a baking soda free formula (choose from the drop-down menu) so that people who have baking soda sensitivities have an option. If you don't have a baking soda allergy, just stick with the regular deodorants.
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New Olive Oil Soaps
We currently have 3 olive oil based soaps for people who have allergies to the other ingredients we use in our soaps. The organic castile only uses olive oil and goat milk. The calendula and chamomile also have castor oil added.
In 2018 we are planning to expand our line of olive oil soaps and adding more essential oil only scent options. We will only be adding new scents, we will not be repeating any of the scents in our existing soap line. We are testing new essential oil blends now for this line of soaps and will launch it when they are ready in the spring.
If you have any scents you'd like to see, let us know and we'll see how well they work in our olive oil formula.
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Pomegranate Lemonade
Our Pomegranate Lemonade soap is a favorite in the summer time, but it doesn't sell well during the Fall and Winter. Since we added Lavender Peppermint as a full-time soap (and need to make room for more olive oil soaps), we are removing Pomegranate Lemonade from the standard soap list and making it a limited edition soap. It will still be available for a while as long as our current supplies last.
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Reviews
When we switched to the new website, we were able to bring most of our reviews with us. Unfortunately, we could not bring over the "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" review function, which showed which reviews were most helpful and which weren't. We're bummed we couldn't import this information as most people found it very useful to see the best reviews first.
If you are shopping on the website and have a chance to give a thumbs up to your favorite reviews, we would be very grateful! And if you took a moment to leave a review, it would make our day.
Reviews on Facebook, TripAdvisor, and the website can make or break a business's success, and our customers have always been wonderful about leaving reviews for us. Thank you so much for taking the time to write a few words about our products - we appreciate it more than you can know.
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Baby Goats
We are getting close to having lots of baby goats. The earliest we've ever had kids born is January 31st, but normally they wait til February. But either way, they'll start arriving before we know it and we will have lots of kids for sale (we're expecting around 200 and we can't keep them all as much as we'd love to!)
If you are interested in purchasing baby goats, we have a new goat website at https://gmsgoats.com This website is still under construction and not in great shape. We're working on it as much as we can, but Brett's wedding has kept free time in short supply. You can put baby goat deposits down on the the new website, but if you have any questions, just ask! And check back often as we are working on it diligently.
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Kidding Experience
During kidding season in February and March (when the Alpine goats are having their babies), we make sure that somebody is in the barn nearly 24/7. While most of the goats will have their babies without difficulty, there will always be births with complications, and we like to be there. Now you can join us to be there for the best part of caring for goats!
A Kidding Experience is 5 hours in the barn with a member of the Jonas family and the goats. Depending on which shift you schedule, it includes dinner or lunch. We start in February, and the Kidding Experiences are only open for 4 to 6 weeks depending on how many goats are left to deliver.
If you've ever wanted to be on hand for a birth, click here for more information.
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Winter Milk
The goats have slowed down their milk production and so we have limited quantities of milk in the Sweet Shop. We're hoping to be able to make it through the entire winter, but as demand for our healthy milk increases, and the goats' production decreases, it's going to be close. Give us a call to see what we have before coming to the farm!
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Why less milk? We "dry our goats off" (stop milking them) for the last two months of their pregnancies so they can grow their kids. We do stagger the breeding a little bit, but it depends on when the goats get bred (which we don't always have much control over). The first goats are due to freshen in February, and then we'll once again have lots of milk available.
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But until then, winter milk prices are $18 per gallon and $10 per half gallon.
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Farm Store and Sweet Shop Hours
We will be closed Monday, January 1st for New Year's Day. We will also be closed on Saturday, January 6th for a very special occasion - Brett's wedding!
We're so sorry if you were planning to visit us that day, but we wanted our employees to be able celebrate Brett and Mason's wedding as they are all good friends and we can't imagine them not being there. This is the first time In GMS history that we've ever closed on a (non-Holiday) Saturday, but we think it's a pretty good reason to be closed.
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January Giveaway
This month we're giving away a $25 Goat Milk Stuff gift certificate! You can find the entry widget here.
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 Margaret Dormon who won the December giveaway!
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Newsletter Special
The January Newsletter special is $5 soaps on some of our limited edition scents while supplies last. These scents include:
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Werst Soap Ever
With less than a week until the wedding, it's the only thing on our minds at the moment. Indigo is giddy at the thought of being a bridesmaid, Jade is cautiously looking forward to it, and the boys are almost over the fact that they have to wear a tuxedo for a whole day. ;)
As many of you know, Mason's last name is Werst, and we have been making "werst" puns for the past year. We decided to take it one step farther and create a soap - the Werst Soap Ever. Brett and Mason will be giving it out as wedding favors, and we made enough for y'all to try it too!
It was previously announced that the Werst Soap Ever would smell like Lavender and Cedarwood. That was the original scent we blended, and it smelled wonderful in the bottle! However, when we turned it into soap it smelled completely different (not uncommon with scents), so we had to scrap that idea and start over.
The new Werst Soap Ever is a citrus-y blend with a hint of floral. We love it, and we hope you do too!
As a reminder, we will be closed on Saturday, January 6th, for the wedding. Don't worry, we will share wedding pictures on our Facebook page and in the newsletter as soon as we have them!
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Homestead Happenings
December was a busy month on the farm! Just in case Christmas, wedding prep, and two birthdays wasn't enough, we added Jim and I leaving for 2 weeks, running ultrasound pregnancy tests on all of the goats, and two Nigerian Dwarf baby goats being born. Oh, and in the middle of that we launched an entirely new website.
Yes, it was as busy as it sounds.
We started the month off with Jim, Mason, and me being in Vermont for two weeks at "Cheese Camp", learning how to make all sorts of new cheeses. We're hoping to experiment with those in the next few months, and the children are excited to start that project - mostly because they want to taste-test all of the new cheeses. Hopefully within a few months, the rest of you will get to try them too.
While we were gone, the children and a vet from a few hours North ran ultrasound tests on the Alpines. We have at least 106 pregnant does, which means we could have around 200 baby goats born in February and March! We won't know the exact number, since the vet only looked for one baby and then moved on, but it was a very cool process. Can you see the baby goat staring at us in the picture below?
Brett put together a video of the process and posted it on our Facebook page, if you're interested in watching it.
 Lady had her babies on December 7th. When we checked on her, there was nothing happening, and an hour later when we checked again there were two healthy babies on the ground! Their names are Fiddler on the Roof (or Fiddler) and Singin' in the Rain (or Rain), and they are the cutest things! They are growing well, and are enjoying all of the attention from visitors to the farm.
While we were gone, the children ran the farm and kept everything going. In an effort to keep the little girls from missing us too much, Brett, Indigo, and Jade watched two seasons of When Calls the Heart, they painted ornaments, put up our Christmas tree, and visited friends a couple of times. We're very proud of how they managed everything without us, though we never doubted them for a minute!
We got home on Greyden's 15th birthday, and two days after that was Brett's 21st birthday.
It's hard to believe that our firstborn is 21 already, but here we are!
 We went out to our favorite Chinese buffet for Greyden's birthday, and our favorite local Mexican place for Brett's. We made Brett wear the sombrero, and we had to snap this picture. She was a good sport about it, and Mason thought it was hilarious.
Christmas came and went quickly, as we hurried to ship out packages in time while switching over to a new website and working on last minute wedding details. We didn't have many presents under the tree this year, because our big family present was something we couldn't wrap - a Beach Boys' concert! Jim's first concert was the Beach Boys back in the 80's, and this will be our children's first concert. We're all very excited, and some of the boys have been heard whistling Beach Boys songs while they work.
It was our last Christmas with all of our family under one roof, so it was bittersweet. Mason and Brett spent most of the day with his family, so we woke up a little earlier than normal in order to enjoy our Christmas morning tradition - opening presents and eating cinnamon rolls. It was totally worth losing a few hours of sleep, and we had a very good Christmas. We hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas as well!
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We wish everyone a wonderful New Year!
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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