Build a fire under a black, cast iron kettle.

Put in the kettle

3 boxes of lye

12 pounds of lard or grease  (4 pounds to one box of lye)

9 gallons of water

Put on 2 gallons of water. Add 3 boxes of lye before the water is hot.. (Be very careful, lye is extremely caustic!)

Let lye dissolve. Add the grease and let cook until all is cooked up. Add the remaining 7 gallons of water, one gallon at a time. Cook until done.

Use a wooden paddle to test for doneness. Lift the paddle out of the kettle. If the soap forms drops, it is not done. If it forms strings, it is done.

Let stand overnight. The next morning, cut in squares. Use for laundry soap, also for dishwashing.

Lorene (Godt) Feix made cold lye soap instead of the kettle method because she said it was not as much work. She also felt that it was not quite as good as the cooked soap, but was still better than most detergents.

The recipe:

  2 quarts melted strained fat (4 pounds of scraps are generally required to produce 2 quarts of

strained fat.)

  1 can good quality lye

  1 quart water -- 1 cup of the water should be reserved for dissolving the borax.

  3 Tablespoons borax

  1/4 cup household ammonia.

Heat the melted fat and cool.

Dissolve borax in 1 cup water (taken from the quart)

Mix all ingredients together and stir gently until thoroughly blended. Stir slowly with a wood stick. Let the soap set up and cut into squares before hard. (This recipe was usually made in a big gray porcelain wash basin)

When Lorene and Clara Godt were young and lived on the farm, they raised ducks. The duck feathers were good stuffing for pillows and featherbeds. They bought blue and white striped ticking and sewed it in the size they wanted. Then feathers were stuffed and stuffed and stuffed. It was best to stuff feathers in a shed or at least out of the wind -- or it would be raining feathers. The featherbed was just a big pillow. In the wintertime you could sleep on it (for softness) or with it on top of you (to keep you really warm in an unheated room.)

Many superstitions and sayings are passed down from generation to generation. Here are some superstitions, sayings, and other folklore from August and Minnie Godt and their children and grandchildren.

Lorene Godt Feix enjoyed picking blackberries in July. She dressed in loose fitting men’s overhauls, usually those belonging to her brother, Henry, and put sulphur around her wrists and ankles to scare the snakes and keep the chiggers away.