Bottom of the List • Notes from the Mountain No. 22

Bottom of the List

Notes from the Mountain • Issue No. 22

Notes from the Mountain is Mountain Goat Soap Co.'s weekly journal, where I share stories from the outdoors, the workshop, travel, and the everyday adventures that inspire both my life and my work.

There are three soaps that have been sitting on my production list for an embarrassingly long time. Alpine Bluebell. Love. Winding Trail.

Every time I make a new list, I write them down. And every time, something else gets made first. It's not because I don't like making them. In fact, these are some of my favorite soaps to make. They're just victims of math.

The molds I use for my Signature Collection make nine bars at a time. Nine. And they're not exactly quick bars to make. The designs are created by pouring tiny bits of soap batter through squeeze bottles, carefully building one perfect circle of colored soap batter on top of another. Once all those layers are in place, I pull a tool upward through them to create the pattern you see in the finished bar.

It's one of those techniques where taking your time really matters. The circles need to be placed carefully, the soap has to stay fluid enough to work with, and I don't really know exactly how each bar turned out until I cut it. Which is also why I love making them.

There's something ridiculously satisfying about cutting into one and seeing the design inside.

When soapmaking time is plentiful, making nine at a time is fine.

But lately, time has been anything but plentiful. My "real" job has been exceptionally busy, and at the same time I've been trying to build inventory for the fall collection. That's also why I've been a little scarce on social media the last couple of weeks. There are only so many hours available, and I've been spending nearly all of mine somewhere else.

So when I finally get into the workshop and have to choose between making nine Signature bars or seventy bars of one of your favorites that's out of stock...Well. You can probably guess which one keeps moving to the bottom of the list. And that's a shame, because I really do love these soaps.

Alpine Bluebell is one of those bars that looks exactly the way I want the scent to feel: cool, clean and a little bit like standing in an alpine meadow. Lavender, bergamot and lemon mingle with eucalyptus, cedar and rosemary, and the whole thing just feels fresh and peaceful.

Love is softer, swirled in delicate pinks and white. It's bright and fresh with lemon and bergamot, winter berries, violet and white musk. It's also probably one of the prettiest bars I make.

And then there's Winding Trail. This one is still one of my personal favorites. It's scented with orange, lemongrass, peppermint and fennel, of all things. The fennel is what makes it interesting. It's a little unexpected, and I love it.

But then, suddenly, all three made it to the top of the list. Not because I suddenly found a few extra hours in the week. But because I got a wholesale order from one of my favorite retailers. Apparently, a deadline for someone else is much more effective than the one I've been giving myself.

So I pulled out my molds, tools and squirt bottles and spent some of my limited workshop time making the soaps I'd been telling myself for months that I needed to make. And I loved every minute of it.

Most of them are already spoken for, so I'll have only one or two bars of each left for the website. That's not exactly what I'd call a restock. But after they've been missing for as long as they have, I'm counting it.

The truth is, this isn't really a soap problem. It's a time problem. There are always more things I could be doing. More soap I could make. More things I could restock. More emails I could answer. More posts I could write. More things I could cross off the list. And lately I've had to accept that when time is limited, getting everything done isn't actually one of the choices.

The only choice is what gets the time I have. Sometimes that's the thing I most want to do. Sometimes it's the thing that needs to be done. And sometimes something I really enjoy just has to wait. Right now, most of the available soapmaking hours have been going somewhere else entirely. Fall.

The curing racks are full, and I can't say I'm terribly unhappy about that part. Fall is my favorite season for making soap. Maybe it's the deeper colors. Maybe it's the warmer scents. Maybe it's because those fragrances somehow bring back memories of football games, fall fairs and that first stretch of cooler weather when everything suddenly feels different.

There are some great bars coming this year that I'm especially excited about. But I'm not going to tell you all about those yet. I need something to write about next week.

For now, I'm still working my way through the list. Some things are getting checked off. Some are getting moved to next week. And some are probably going to stay at the bottom a little longer than I'd like.

I'm starting to think that's just what happens when there are more things you want to do than there are hours available to do them. I used to think the answer was figuring out how to fit it all in. But I'm not sure that's true.

Because every time I make room for one thing, I'm choosing not to spend that time on something else. Sometimes the choice is obvious. Sometimes it's made for me. And sometimes it means a soap I really love doesn't get made for months. I'm guessing I'm not the only one with a few things that keep getting transferred from one list to the next. Maybe yours isn't a batch of soap. Maybe it's a book you keep meaning to read. A friend you want to have lunch with. Something you've wanted to make. Or something you keep saying you'll do when things finally settle down.

Maybe not everything at the bottom of the list needs to move to the top. But every once in a while, it might be worth looking down there to see what's been waiting.

From the Trail:

A short reflection inspired by the outdoors.

“A full life rarely comes with an empty list.”

More soon,

Dianne

Bring the outside in.

P.S. In case you want to snag one of the Signature bars that finally made it to the top of my list, you can find them here. 😊