At Ms. Judy's House

A lot of days ago, we, Robin, Via and I went to Ms. Judy's house in Unity, Maine.

It was a two and a half drive. We met at a gas station and went to the diner next store to have lunch.

I don't think I had ever been to a diner before that, but she says I've been to one in Virginia, at the dog show. I ate a slice of lasagna there. It was pretty good.

There was also a jukebox at the diner except that you didn't have to pay for it. I learned how it worked from Robin teaching me and I played a song. The only song I really knew was one that Roxana really liked. Robin told me that a jukebox plays music for money, except this one was partly a fake because you didn't need money to play a song on this one.

Then, we went to a dog training place to train the three dogs that we had with us. Ms. Judy had two dogs with her: Fíesta, her Doberman, and Wiggin, the French Bulldog. Each of our dogs got a turn for training, but Via got two turns. Via went first and last, Wiggin went second, and Fíesta went last. Wiggin came over to me to say hi when he was supposed to be working.

I saw a mole or a mouse. It was walking in the street/ parking lot. It didn't see me or pretended not to see me because when I ran at it, it stayed at the same pace it had been when I wasn't there. I didn't want it to cross the real street, because it would probably die, so Robin suggested we go inside so I don't have to watch it die, or ....not.

We took all the dogs for on walk when we got to Ms. Judy's farm.

At first I didn't trust the wood burning stove that Ms. Judy had for a heater but when I saw that it didn't explode, I was fine. Of course, I was fine with it beforehand, because you can see I'm not dead. Her stove was in the living room.

When we went to bed, it was cold because we were upstairs and the only heater was downstairs. It wasn't cold under the blankets though.

The next morning we, Ms. Judy and I, made soap.

The type of soap we made is called “Cold Process” soap, made by combining fatty acids and sodium hydroxide (lye) together to forms a chemical reaction called “saponifaction.” During saponification, the oils and lye mix and become soap – the process takes approximately six weeks to be ready so the soap has to sit in Ms. Judy's soap room for a while. The ingredients we used are: lye, water, coconut oil, olive oil, two scented oils, goat's milk and palm oil. Lye is very dangerous. It can put holes in your hands. Never pour water into lye, it will fizz up and become very dangerous. Always pour lye into water. If pour lye into water, it won't make holes in your hands, it will just feel uncomfortable. When Ms. Judy put the lye into the water, steams of lye went out of the bowl she poured it into. We all stepped back because, who wants lye in their eyes in water or not?

We made a lot of bars, about 30. We used molds to make different shapes or pictures. On e of my favorite molds were the German shepherds. Another was the swans. One was hard to see like a swan, but if you looked hard enough, you would see it.

I am glad I went. I would like to stay there a whole month!