Winner of Give-Away Day

Sorry today's post is a little later than usual. I went to bed last night before the midnight deadline for the contest. This morning, I've had the challenging and fun job of trying to figure out who wins the three bars of goat milk soap!

First, I have to tell you I was overwhelmed by the response! I seriously thought about 20 people would want the soap. In the end, 346 people commented. There were a lot of clever and witty comments. Several people wrote poems. And a lot of people told me about their allergies, dry skin, eczema, and psoriasis. Those of you who visited my soap shop online know that I started making goat milk soap because of my own allergies, so I seriously sympathize with you. I wish I could give you all some of the soap to try, but that would cost me hundreds of dollars in postage, so unfortunately I can't do it.

But I can do this: If you want to try my soap, I'll offer these specials. If you just want a sample of the plain unscented soap, send me $1 via Paypal, and I'll send you a small sample, so you can see how it works for you. If you'd like to try more, I'll pay for shipping two or three bars of soap, if you let me choose the fragrances. If you need unscented, let me know, and I won't include any fragrances. Two bars are $10, and three bars are $15. Don't order through my website, since it will automatically add shipping to your order. Just send $1 for a sample, $10 for two bars, or $15 for three bars, to deborah (at) antiquityoaks (dot) com via Paypal, put "soap order" in the subject line, and I'll get your soap in the mail within the next couple days.

Now, for the moment everyone has been waiting for ... As all the comments rolled in, I was seriously getting worried about how I would ever choose a winner. Then I read this one from Raheli:

My husband and I are building a house and we're trying to put in separate plumbing for gray-water so we can collect it and use it for watering the orchard or garden. Now we need to rethink all the soaps that we are using and make sure that they are biodegradable. So I would definitely love to try your goat milk soap... and cheer you on if you developed a goat milk dishwasher soap!
Thanks!

I wanted -- I still want! -- a graywater system in our house. When we were building our house five years ago, I called the county health department and told them that we wanted a graywater system, and they had no idea what I was talking about. I tried to explain it to them, and they just kept telling me that it had to go through a septic tank. Well, when you're in the midst of physically building your own house, you only have so much energy, and I didn't have the energy to continue trying to educate and persuade the sanitation engineer. So, sadly we have a septic tank. I'm excited that Raheli wants to put in a graywater system and would love to support her in that effort, so I'll be shipping her the three free bars of soap.

Thanks to everyone who visited and commented. I'm excited that I've found some new blogpals -- or rather, you've found me!