I don't always do the stuff that can be done to save money but I damb sure watch how it can be done. I was up to the colony earlier this fall[kid lost me camera card for a spell
] and the women were making soap for washing clothes and cleaning the kitchen. These folk do not like cameras but as I was there to pay a fellow for something he did for me and I have known the colony my whole life they allowed me to take some pics. No less than 4 elders came over to check me out in the two hours I spent with the women while waiting for Moses to show up. Normally the women never talk to us outsiders but all these women finally warmed up and I think I learned as much from them in two hours as I do from 2 years with the men.
They do this soap making once a year or maybe 2 years as they use all the chicken fat, pig scraps, beef tallow and it looked like most anything an animal may have had. There were more than a few bones I saw put into this batch.
The morning started at 5am for a couple of them as they started the fire to cook up the soap in this.
The goop looked like this and later it kinda/sorta foamed up right to the top before being allowed to cool a bit before being poured into the cake makers.
Some of the ingredients.
The lye came in pails
The cakes of soap after cutting and bagging were placed in a granery for a year or so and then ran through a feed shredder to make flakes[kinda/sorta]. the tables in back held the containment units for the hot soap to be cooled down.
The only pic I will show of the women as I don't want to irritate them.
They made 5 batch's a day and each batch took about 2.5 hours to cook.