A Family Affair: It's Haying Time!

June 17, 2015

Here at Bend Soap Company, we're passionate about soapy suds, natural products, goats, providing our customers with high-quality product and — most importantly — family.

Playing together is a blast, but we also enjoy working together to teach the kiddos the value of hard work. After all, when we do it together, work is fun!

With the warm weather we have here in Central Oregon, the farm life is bustling with activity and our newest project is haying. Fresh, sweet-smelling rows of hay lie in neat rows stretching across the field, promising lots of yummy food for our goats this winter. And as with everything at Bend Soap Company, haying is a family affair.

Haying Season at Bend Soap Company

From cutting, to baling, to storing, the whole family is a part of the process. In fact, they're also a part of feeding the hay to our goats and milking for products that contain goat's milk, such as our bars of goat milk soap, milk bath, and our goat milk lotion. It's an amazing lifestyle and we're happy to be a part of it!

Dad (Dwight) revs up the tractor and the kids run to the field, sit on Dwight's lap, or jump on the quad. They all want to get in on the action! (Of course, Mama Marilee has to run out too and take care of baby Royal while snapping pictures so we can share with you!)

There's no shortage of energy around here! The Johnson kids love playing games and racing each other.

With seven boys so close in age, they're best friends, but also tough competitors. Who can jump higher off the hay bale?!

Dad (Dwight) and Mama (Marilee) are passionate about teaching the kids to be responsible, capable, young men and women with a love of hard work: doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done.

Yeah, often times it takes longer to show your little girl how to help wash the dishes and sometimes it's less efficient to let your little boy climb onto your lap and help drive the tractor. But those moments of slowing down to teach and share the feeling of accomplishment are powerful. Little children will treasure the moments they get to spend helping do "big" things with their mama and daddy.

You may not have acres of fields to hay or lots of goats to milk, but we encourage you: Next time there's a project that needs to be done, make it a family affair!

"Next time there's a project that needs to be done, make it a family affair!"

If you are fellow farmers and would like to soothe your skin while removing the dust and sweat in the shower, check out our all-natural goat milk soap, goat milk lotion, and other natural skincare products — they work wonders!