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Then come on in and sit a bit while we
visit with Lori Storey in the small, two tavern town of Durand, Illinois.
On her 4 acre farm Lori raises sheep, makes soap and other
So Lori Storey, what about that name? "Now, I'm telling you, I had to look far and wide to find a guy with a last name that rhymed with my first! My husband and I have been married now for almost 28 years. We have one son who's 26. He's given us a wonderful daughter-in-law and a gorgeous granddaughter who was born last September. Being grandparents has been an absolutely wonderful experience for us!" How do you find time to visit with that sweet pumpkin of yours? "Because my business is my job, I'm here all the time--makes me nice and available to baby-sit for my absolutely, positively wonderful, baby grand daughter!! That's my favorite job! I usually have her on Tuesdays while her Mom works." Tell us about your business, Lori. "My little lamby bi-products were the start
of my whole
Wow! We can see that you are busy. Are you able to squeeze in any community service? "I do spinning demonstrations at local and area schools. Usually, during Frontier Days at grade schools, I'm the one they call when they need someone to demonstrate the fine art of spinning wool on a spinning wheel. The highlight of the demo is usually the 'Spinning of Dryer Lint!' Always a big hit with kids :-)" Okay dear lady, you have a business, make most of what you need to stock your shop, and find time for family and volunteer work. Tell us how you managed to find the Soapnuts. "My computer is right here in the soap room where I spend a good part of my day. I belonged to a couple of soap lists at the time. There was always bickering going on in the groups and quite often, they'd seem to lose sight of what they were there for. I think it was J'son who told me about a new list at Onelist, so we both joined. Everyday, religiously, Becky would post a tip, a recipe, something interesting. Never any responses, never anything, just Becky. I was soooooo impressed with her persistence!! She never got discouraged (and at that time, there were 70 members!). She just kept posting her very helpful and interesting information--everyday--all alone. I started posting my little ideas and comments...one a day. So for a while there, it was just the 2 of us. Then, J'son started posting, and then Nicolle. Gradually the list grew and in a blink of an eye; 2 TO 4 DIGESTS A DAY!! Amazing! I love how Becky never got discouraged or gave up. My favorite line from her was, 'What have I got here? A bunch of members of the Witness Protection Plan?' I still laugh about that today! Way to go Becky!!" How did you get started with soap making? "I first made soap about 11 years ago, long before it was "cool" to make soap. Back then, there were no books around to aim you in the right direction. I sent away to Red Devil Lye for their little soap making pamphlet (it was free!). In it was instructions for a 7 pound batch of lye and lard soap. I had sheep back then and spun the wool into yarn using a spinning wheel. I had heard that the best soap to use to wash sheep's wool was homemade soap, so I just had to try it. Well, I've gotta say, that statement proved to be way off! Nothing works better on sheep's wool than good old Tide! But it got me making soap, and I've been making it ever since." How long was it before you fell in love with it? "I hear some folks say that they were hooked the first time they ever made it. That wasn't the case with me. Maybe it was because I didn't have any help out there when I first started. I was the only one I knew that had ever tried it! When I made my first batch, I was very nervous (scared I was gonna hurt myself! hee!hee!). I did everything to the letter. It turned out fine, I guess. The recipe called for 'a few tsp. of scent'. Well, needless to say, it lost that in the process, so it didn't smell too good. And it lathered even worse. At the time, we were setting up and selling at antique flea markets, so I cut it into bars and put it out in an old fashioned little wash pan, and sold it for 50 cents a bar. Good old fashioned homemade soap! People bought it for laundry stain remover (it worked great on grass stains!). Took 6 months to sell one batch and I grossed about $20.00. Well, that's how I started--making 2 batches a year and grossing $20.00 per batch. Now, 11 years later, I make an all veggie soap, offer 20 different scents, and make about 4 batches a week! And thank goodness, I gross a whole lot more than 20 bucks!" I see that the old fashioned laundry
soap wasn't your
"The ideal bar of soap, to me, is one that's gentle to the skin, smells great, lathers great, and is totally SELLABLE!" When did you decide to branch out from
hobbyist to
"I don't think I was ever in the hobbyist mode. Because I was already in business as Lori's Laughing Lambs with my little wool business, I pretty much went right into the selling mode from my first batch. I still have people ask me if I have any of that great laundry soap. Course they still wanna pay 50 cents a bar for it too!" What was your worst batch? "I'd have to say the worse batch would have to be from back in the days when I used lard. I have no idea what I did wrong, but it came out smelling like "pig"! No really! Smelled just like driving by a pig farm! Nasty stuff. Threw the whole batch away!" So you wouldn't sell that for 50 cents? Just kidding. Do you have a funny soap story to share? "Well, the funniest wasn't the funniest at the time! It was when I first started to really sell soap. I needed to make more than just 7 or 8 pounds at a time. So I came up with my 14 pound big batch. I decided I would split the batch in half, scent each have with a different scent that way, get 2 kinds made from just one batch. I bought an old baby scale at a flea market to divide the batch in half. I used a big 2 gallon, plastic ice cream container to pour into. I set it on the scale and proceeded to pour from my big pan. Well, off it slipped--off the scale and onto my kitchen carpet! EVERYWHERE on my kitchen carpet!! For the first time in my life I SCREAMED--just like a girl!! I was horrified! Raw soap everywhere!! And it was slimy like egg whites!! I grabbed bath towels, dishtowels, anything I could to try to clean it up!! What a mess. Would you believe, an outline of the stain is still there?... To remind me everyday! I think I must have looked like a segment of The I Love Lucy Show!" LOL, Lori! What do you do to relax? It sure sounded like you could have used some R&R after that fiasco. "Hmmm... relax and kick back... well, I gotta say, I think I'm doing that. I have a very laid back life here. I worked for almost 30 years as an x-ray tech, extreme stress! I retired 2 years ago, at the ripe old age of 46 to devote all my time to my little business. The whole goal was to take a half dozen steps backwards and concentrate on living for a change. My husband retired last year and now devotes all his time to this too. It's a great life!!! I guess when I really want to relax, you'll find me reading in a quiet place."
"I do fight for one cause--helping the homeless. It's my only cause. I think we all are responsible for one another in need. We have many people living on the streets for many different reasons. It takes soooo little to help them. They don't require much. But they do require! And so do animals-- we're the local homeless animal drop off. Not by choice, we don't know how we acquired that actually. Perhaps it's our pets inviting every stray in the area to come for a visit! Anyway, we run ads to find the owners. If they don't respond, we have them neutered by a local vet and begin the search for a new home. We've been pretty lucky (and we're pretty picky, I'm afraid. Don't want to take the chance of having them homeless twice!). In all the years we've been doing this, only 3 were unplaceable, but ended up fitting in just fine right here at our house. We're real suckers for sad faces ;-)" I wonder if you would change anything, Lori? Where do you see yourself in, say, three years from now? "I hope I'll be right here, enjoying my farm, enjoying my business, enjoying my husband, enjoying my sheep and pets... and maybe even enjoying my SECOND grandchild. hee!hee!" Sounds like a worthy goal to me! Oh, and how do you make a lamb laugh? "Spend a hot summer day cleaning the barn! That gets 'em roaring!! hahahahahaha" Lori, you've been great. It's been fun getting to know you, and I'm sure the rest of the Soapnuts feel exactly the same. Thank you so much! Okay gang, back to the soap rooms with
you now! Well, alright. I suppose you can go visit Lori's farm
first (Lori's home page
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