It has been a long time since I have had time to sit down and write here. Time seems to slip away, through cracks and seams, between fingers, and out of my grasp. They say that everyone has the same amount of time each day and it's all about how we utilize it. I, however, seem to have found a special world that has less time than others.

Over the last year we have been busy. I homeschooled my daughter for her first year of school starting the year in Kindergarten and ending in 1st grade. We're following a year-round schedule, and this "year" she's in what most would call 2nd grade. We've connected with some local homeschool families, and found some other extracurricular activities to participate in. I tried focusing more time on doing things as a family instead of so much on work. We lost some chickens, gained a bunch more, and failed miserably in the garden (as did most of everyone around here thanks to a very hot yet too wet summer). Recently we acquired a 20-year-old pony that my daughter named Dixie. She's the sweetest pony and we love her so much. I hope she loves it here as much as we love having her. This past year I also spent a lot of time visiting doctor after doctor, never finding answers for the many mysterious symptoms I have been suffering with for years. One doctor has given me the diagnosis of Lupus. After having a round of self-pity, I decided I don't want to accept that diagnosis and have again started seeing new doctors for a second opinion. The jury is still out, but it's confirmed I do have some sort of autoimmune disorder. This all has taken its toll on me, and after much deliberation, I've decided it is time to close Niffer's. I have tried to hold on for as long as possible, but I just can't seem to balance life with Niffer's, and I need to be able to focus on my family and health.

I wanted to give everyone as much time as possible to order products and stock up if they wanted to, but I seem to have found that special place where time ran away again. So, I'm unfortunately just giving you a couple of weeks. If you need anything you don't see listed in the shop, feel free to email or message via Facebook. I'm happy to accommodate everyone as much as I can, but some things I'm not restocking supplies to make just one last time.

It has been such a wonderful experience the last 6 years. When I started Niffer's I never thought I would reach so many people around the world. I just needed a little extra income during a difficult time and it bloomed into something much more. The research and time spent learning how to make products that were not only useful but natural and good for everyone is something that will be with me forever. I have enjoyed the opportunity to share my knowledge and products to people near and far. I hope everyone has enjoyed Niffer's All Natural Products, too. Together we have helped people all around the country after disasters and locally at shelters and with other fundraising charities by raising money or donating laundry powder directly. I hope anyone who wants to make a small difference will take the chance, like I did. It has really been a pleasure and I am sad to say goodbye. Perhaps I will start again in the future, but right now I need to utilize the little time I seem to catch and use it to focus on things closer to home. Thanks again to all of you that have supported me for the last 6 years. I cherish each one of you!

<3 Niffer

The flooding in Texas hasn't receded, but we want to offer as much help as we can. Volunteers from around the country are already headed to the affected areas, and until the water levels go down the true magnitude of the damage is still unknown. But, even now people need help. Niffer's has had a disaster relief program since 2013 that sends single load packets of unscented laundry powder to victims of natural disasters. In the last few years I have had fundraisers to send monetary donations to other charities that provide services directly to people in need. This time I have decided to do both. I'm planning on making at least 200 single load packets of laundry powder to send to Texas in addition to a fundraiser to send funds to All Hands Volunteers, a charity that is providing services to people in need in Texas. You can read more about All Hands here, and visit their Facebook page here.

The fundraiser is just like the one I had last year for the flood victims in West Virginia. I created a special laundry powder label honoring Texas, and half of each sale of these special bags of laundry powder will be sent to All Hands. The Texas state motto is "Friendship" and I think Texas can use a lot of friends right now. We are all friends in this great country, and we can all do a little something to help out our fellow countrymen. For now, I plan on running the fundraiser for a little over two weeks (ending September 14th). Each Friday I will send available funds to All Hands. Depending on the response to the fundraiser, I may extend the fundraiser to the end of September.

Meanwhile, I will be working hard on making laundry powder and filling, labeling, and packing up single load packets. I've reached out to others who might be able to help with distributing the packets, but if you or someone you know would be able to help please contact me ASAP at [email protected]

You can find the special Texas laundry powder bags for sale in each section of the laundry powder categories in the shop.  You can also click HERE to go directly to the shop page.

I look forward to working hard to offer as much help as possible. Let's work together and lend a helping hand to Texas!

It's been a beautiful summer here in Tennessee. The weather has been cooler than average, and we've been getting lots of rain which has been great for the garden. Keeping busy has been easy, and I've been trying to balance my time between keeping up with the garden and preparing for our first year of homeschooling.

In the last couple of weeks we dug up enough carrots to fill the 21.5 quart canning pot. I'm not sure how many pounds that translates to, but it was a lot! It was exhausting work because our soil isn't root vegetable friendly yet. We're slowly trying to amend our soil, but it still has a way to go. Right now the soil still has a lot of clay and it makes it difficult for root vegetables to grow. We also have an abundance of rocks! The clay soil makes it even harder to pull root vegetables up, so we have to carefully dig them out. I snagged some of those garden gloves with claws on one hand, and they worked wonderfully for digging around the carrots. My fingers hurt for days afterwards, though.

But once we got them dug up, we rinsed them off in the kiddy pool to get most of the mud and dirt off. Then we brought them inside and started cleaning them up for being canned. The plan was to can as many as possible as just plain sliced carrots, and then can a few jars of pickled carrots. I used about half and canned 12 pints of carrots in the pressure canner. I didn't get to pickling any. It was the first time using the pressure canner, and I was a little afraid. My husband and I watched videos on YouTube, and read both the manual that came with it and the Ball book that came with the water bath canner. Once we triple checked the steps we got started. We succeeded without blowing anything up! And my fears are mostly gone, and I'm looking forward to pressure canning lots more!

The day after we dug up the carrots our neighbor stopped by and asked if we wanted some green beans. We can't turn down free food so she popped her trunk and handed me a full 5 gallon bucket. Much more than I expected! Luckily we had already Christened the pressure canner, so I picked out and cleaned the beans, snapped them, and canned those, too! She had given us a type of green bean that's a beautiful deep purple until cooked called Royal Burgundy. They're a delicious bean fresh or canned. I was so grateful because we had lost our bean plants to Japanese beetles. Once I got the beans ready I had a really awesome helper who really enjoyed snapping the beans and filling the jars, and it was awesome being able to preserve food and teach the little one about canning.

In the last couple of weeks we have also added a few babies to the farm! One of our hens went broody last month and hatched an egg. She had 4 other eggs under her after the one hatched, but one of the other chickens got to them. Addie and I built a temporary Mama and Baby Sanctuary in the middle of the garden and moved Tom (the mama) and baby. Since she lost the other eggs I was hoping if I brought home some chicks that she would adopt them. Well, I was wrong. Our local Tractor Supply had chicks and we brought home 4 Isa Browns, but Tom didn't want them around. So we have 4 adorable chicks living inside for a few weeks until they're big enough to move into another pen outside.

With all this extra dirty work we've had a lot of tough stains on our clothes so I've been using the pure coconut oil soap bars as stain sticks. It works so well I wanted to share the awesomeness with everyone. You can find Niffer's All Natural Laundry Bars in the Bar Soap and Eco Bag Laundry sections in the shop. I use a simple recipe that packs a punch and lifts stubborn stains with pure and natural power. You can dampen the cloth and rub the bar directly onto the stain, or you can grate some of the soap into your laundry as an added booster. So check it out, and keep the summer memories but not the stains!

I've got more updates about our bees soon. So check back often for more updates!
Until next time, have fun and stay natural!

Just like most things in life, you usually have to wait for the good stuff. The redeeming part of having to wait, is that it's worth waiting for! I've been promising soap for almost a year, and just recently I've been officially rolling the soap off the cutting block.

I posted before about two of the scents available, but I'm excited to share that there is a third! This soap is different from the others because it has less ingredients, making it more simple, but not lacking in cleansing power. Say hello to Patchouli & Vanilla soap! Made with coconut oil and aloe vera juice, it's a super cleansing bar that won't dry your skin out. Some single oil and fat soaps can be drying. For example, the soap I make to grind into the laundry powder is a pure coconut oil soap. It could be used for skin, but I wouldn't recommend it because it's too powerful for delicate skin, but it's perfect for soiled laundry.

Let's look closer at the Patchouli & Vanilla soap. The name might indicate just two scents, but I've used a few to make a well rounded, sweet, floral, and intoxicating scent. Vanilla is a hard scent to get when you're using only 100% natural ingredients. Most vanilla scents you find are fragrance oils, some are made with other natural ingredients, but most are lab creations. I prefer to use essential oils, but there's technically no such thing as vanilla essential oil. Why? Because, unfortunately, the vanilla bean doesn't allow for the steam distillation process most essential oils are made from. Since steam distillation doesn't work, the only natural solution is creating an absolute. While researching I found this explanation about what an absolute is, and I just cannot word it better so I'm just going to quote the Soap Queen, "To produce an absolute, the plant material is placed into a drum and introduced to a solvent along with gentle heat. The solvent is then removed, which leaves behind a resin known as a concrète or resinoid. This resin is then treated with alcohol to separate the aromatic compounds."

But vanilla absolutes are incredibly expensive, so I had to find a more affordable solution to still offer bars of soap at an affordable price. My solution? Vanilla smell-a-likes! I've used a combination of Vanilla Absolute, Ylang Ylang and Peru Balsam essential oils, to create what is the most lovely sweet vanilla combination. If you don't already have a bottle of Peru Balsam in your essential oil stash - go get some quick! It's like sugary vanilla heaven. When I mixed my vanilla blend in with the dark patchouli essential oil, it was magical. Now, you can sniff the magic with your own bar of Patchouli & Vanilla soap!

I'm excited to experiment with more scents, but for now I'm sticking to the three currently available: Peppermint & Rosemary, Lime & Basil, and Patchouli & Vanilla. Creating soap is an art, and I'm still in the beginning stages. Once I've become more of an experienced soap maker be on the look out for some funky colored soaps using natural micas, shaving soaps, and who knows what else. Help me learn and expand and order today - click here to see all three scents.

It's good to be clean!

References & Mentions:
Image credit: History of the World-Part I, Mel Brooks
Soap Queen - The Truth About Vanilla Essential Oil