Second Random Personal Update for August

After sitting through a lovely first day of college classes, I decided to go to the financial aid office to see if the money was there to pick up my books and supplies. I have already given up on it being available for the tuition. The financial aid office is extremely slow at every campus at this college. I know this, because I have waited in uncomfortable chairs at each, surrounded by people with all the same questions and concerns.
The really odd thing about this is that it was much simpler to apply for government insurance, food benefits, and WIC than to get government tuition assistance. I filled out one financial form for medicaid and one for tuition, but guess which one took less time and was easier? Heck, I didn't even know  I was applying for food assistance because the phone conversation I had was for the insurance! Yet have had to come in and sit and wait and talk to people several times, adding a form here and there, to no  avail. No waiting until the last minute on my part either.
How can it be easier to open my arms to the public wealth but difficult to arrange the shuttling of those same funds into the higher education system?

Making Soap from Wood Ash (Potash) and Oils, Part 1

     It wasn't all that long ago that housewives and farmwives made a liquid soap at home using wood ashes and animal fats. The recipes and techniques have been somewhat lost through the years, but several websites have been collecting some information about the process. This website has a bit of background information on the subject, saying, "Historically, potash was derived from boiling down liquid lye (leached from hardwood ash) until it was reduced to a white solid composed primarily of Potassium Carbonate (K2CO3). Potassium Carbonate was used in soap making, glass production, and other manufacturing processes. It could be further refined in a kiln to remove impurities. The refined product was called pearl ash. Both potash and pearl ash were used as an early leavening agent in baked goods."

     One book, the Farmer's Magazine (1859), estimates that ten pounds of ash will make about one pound of salts of lye. The leeched ash water is boiled "to the consistency of tar".
     From Frontier Freedom Magazine and other sources, homemade lye from wood ashes produces potassium hydroxide, an alkalotic relative to the commercial sodium hydroxide that handmade soap is made with. Most online sources agree that rainwater or distilled water is the most desirable for making wood ash lye. The technique they recommend to produce lye, which also sounds to be one of the faster and safer techniques out there, requires you to fill a pillowcase with ashes and place over a five gallon bucket. Pour boiling filtered water into the pillowcase bucket, like you are making tea. Agitate for some time (1 1/2 hours?), then take the pillowcase of ashes out of the water and cook the extra moisture out of the ash water. The lye is strong enough when it can dissolve a chicken feather. The process may have to be repeated several times to get the correct strength (approximate pH?). Avoid scorching the lye (?). Liquid lye can be sun-dried/dehydrated into crystals (?).
     The recipe from Frontier Freedom Magazine calls for 18.2 ounces of homemade lye crystals, 2 1/2 pints of water, and 6 pounds of fat, which they say will make 9 pounds of soap. Their single bar recipe calls for 3 heaping tablespoons of homemade lye crystals, 1/2 cup soft water, and 1 cup melted beef tallow. "A combination of half tallow and half lard is usually suggested." This is somewhat frustrating because most of us use metric measurements for everything this exacting. The soap is made via hot process, and can be hardened into bars and molded or left as a liquid for washing clothing.

What is Potassium Hydroxide, really?

     Potassium hydroxide KOH, is commonly called caustic potash. It is famously used to saponify fats into liquid soap, which is then firmed up with the addition of common salt.
     "Historically KOH was made by adding potassium carbonate (potash) to a strong solution of calcium hydroxide (slaked lime), leading to a metathesis reaction which caused calcium carbonate to precipitate, leaving potassium hydroxide in solution" (Wikipedia). Also historically but not mentioned on Wikipedia, potassium hydroxide was leeched from wood ashes using rainwater and a barrel, a long and indeterminate process which I will explain further in another post. The addition of calcium hydroxide (hydrated lime), which came much later, potentially simplifies and streamlines the process even for the farm wives who historically made soap.
     Other than it's famously historical use in home soap making, potassium hydroxide has fallen out of fashion in the chemical world in deference to it's cheaper sister chemical, sodium hydroxide, now also used for soap making. Potassium-based soaps are known to be milder than sodium-based soaps, though properly formulated soaps of either kind are mild enough for children and pets.
     This excerpt is from a chemistry text on soap and candle making, written in 1856. The science discussed herein is still good, though does not make adequate use of one our great modern advances in alkalimetry, known as the pH scale. Potassium hydroxide can have a pH of 12 to 14, depending on its formulation and purity. A pH of 13 is considered the normal for it.

Personal Update August

     After watching the American Heart Association video again, I realized that my very first CPR class was almost ten years ago. So much has changed both with me and with CPR over the years. Mostly with me, CPR hasn't changed that much, other than a few nuances in technique. On the other hand, I have the two kiddos, bought a house, blah blah blah. Personal details that are difficult to nuance into writing. Where's the mandatory class for that?

Not a stroke, just a goofy picture.