WILLIS -- Bill and Liz Garthly live on this 10-acre Floyd County farm with four dogs, four cats, 16 goats, 200 chickens, four Muscovy ducks, nine guineas, a rabbit named Freckles, a Jerusalem donkey called Sassy and God.

God is an integral part of life on Faith Mountain Farm.

"That's how we came here -- by faith," Liz explained. "That's why we call it Faith Mountain Farm."

Clean living is the virtue that defines this couple.

Clean living, inside and out.

No wonder the Garthlys make their living making soap.

It was 5½ years ago that the Faith Mountain Farm soap making operation was born out of necessity.

The Garthlys -- who moved to Floyd from Pennsylvania shortly after their marriage in 1997 -- decided to invest in a few goats. Bill remembered his mother's tales of a colicky infant who thrived on goat's milk.

"It's highly digestible," he said. "I was raised on it."

So when the couple's neighbor, Sharon Oestreicher, decided to downsize her goat herd, the Garthlys became the proud owners of a pretty doe.

A pretty pregnant doe.

"We didn't know it when we got her," Liz said, explaining that it wasn't long before that doe and two others they had bred were doing some serious kidding.

It wasn't funny at the time.

"When all the babies came, we had so much milk we didn't know what to do," Liz remembered. "Sharon said, 'I'm going to show you how to make soap.' And she did."

Long known as a natural emollient, goat milk soap is recommended by dermatologists for people with sensitive skin.

Because it has a low pH level, the milk helps reduce the alkalinity of soap, making it a gentle and fortifying cleanser.

After learning the process of soaping and sampling the results, there was no turning back for Liz.

"I got hooked," she said.

Autumn of life

The Garthlys met and married at the onset of their "golden years."

Bill -- who lists his age as "old enough to know better" -- and Liz, who admits to being in her 60s, left their careers and metropolitan lifestyle to settle in Floyd County.

"We came here to retire and all we are is tired," Bill sighed.

Tending to pets and livestock, preparing soaps and lotions, gathering eggs and keeping up with Internet orders keep them plenty busy. Rain or shine, they're at the Radford Farmer's Market every Saturday from May to October and every other Saturday in the off season.

In addition to their goat goods, they sell chicken, eggs, homemade baked treats and small knitted items Liz makes in her idle time.

They also attend some area crafts fairs and supply stores such as Floyd's Harvest Moon, Radford's Coffee Mill and Christiansburg's Super Regal Nails with goat soaps and lotions.

Cao Boi, manager of the nail salon in the Christiansburg Wal-Mart, said he met the Garthlys when he spotted their van in the store parking lot and chased them down.

"I had been searching for goat milk for a long time," the Vietnam native said. "The pH balance of goat milk is closest to human skin. It keeps the skin soft and supple."

Cao Boi (pronounced "cowboy") said his customers love the Faith Mountain Farm products he uses, especially the Gator Cream.

"It's a deliciously rich and thick cream. You apply it to thick skin spots like elbows and knees," he said, noting that he also has recommended unscented goat soaps with aloe for customers with psoriasis.

The quality of the local product, he added, "is so much better because they don't make it commercially. They make small batches."

Boi said there's another reason he patronizes the local business.

"They are awesome people," he said of Bill and Liz Garthly. "Bill looks like his goat, but he's a wonderful person. If business is slow, they have us in their prayers."

The Garthlys believe the power of their prayers always comes back to them.

When Bill had a quadruple heart bypass two years ago, his neighbors pitched in, wading through snow to feed the farm's menagerie and do the daily milking.

"Now, we're only milking once a day," Liz noted. "After Bill's surgery, we had to cut back. It took about a year and a half for him to get over that surgery."

"As you get older, you find you can't do the things you used to do," Bill said, nodding.

Bill's barn

Cupcake, the only one of the Garthlys' herd now giving milk, listens to Christian radio as the steady pssst-pssst-pssst of her milk rains into the pail under Bill's gentle hands.

"I used to do the milking," Liz said. "I miss it. Every once in a while, I sneak out here. I always give the goat a kiss. She always gets thanked for her milk."

Bill milks Cupcake at 4 p.m. Her kids bleat plaintively as the bell around their mother's neck jangles when she steps onto the milking stand.

"She's as nice as she can be on the stand. Some of the goats are prima donnas," Liz said.

"I get four pounds from the one goat and that's it," Bill noted. "That's like half a gallon. We freeze it and have it in stockpiles."

Bill's barn -- an aluminum shed equipped with a refrigerator, several sinks and the ever-present radio tuned to the Bible Broadcasting Network -- is the place where he is comfortable.

The earthy smell of goats and chickens and Sassy's protective bray, combined with the gospel message, provide all the company he needs.

After retiring from a 25-year stint with the Air National Guard and operating a small oil business in Pennsylvania, Bill was ready for life on the farm.

A "honeymoon trip" brought him and Liz to Floyd, he said.

"We decided to come see the area in the fall. ... We just thought this is some place we would like to hang out for the rest of our lives."

Liz's lab

One side of the Garthlys' round house is stocked from floor to ceiling with the things Liz needs for soaping.

Industrial-sized jugs of peanut, safflower, canola, coconut, wheat germ and extra virgin olive oil stand beside tubs of lard. Fat or oil is an essential ingredient in all soaps.

Shelves lined with black bottles of essential oils contain exotic fragrances promising an olfactory orgy: sweet orange, fresh cut roses, almond, peppermint, French lavender, lily of the valley and -- much to Liz's dismay --patchouli.

"I just can't stand the stuff," she moaned. "It's a '60s scent, particularly popular in Floyd. I have all the windows open when I'm making it. I don't put it on my Web site because I don't want to make it."

Liz's lab also contains dozens of cans of Red Devil lye (the alkali necessary for making soap), as well as everything from lavender leaves and aloe to oatmeal and grits (an ingredient in a soap for gardeners).

The process for making soap is simple but time-consuming. On soap making days, Bill believes the hardest thing is getting out of bed.

"It's a slow, tedious process," he said of soaping. "It takes one person to stir, another person to pour. Once you get it mixed, you have to get it into molds before it sets up -- or else you've got one big block of soap!"

The key, Liz noted, is to have all materials ready and accessible before beginning.

Good quality equipment makes a difference, too. The Garthlys invested in a stainless steel Weck electric double boiler with a spout. When the soap recipe begins to trace (thicken), the spout makes it easy to fill the molds quickly and safely.

"It's really hot," Liz noted. "The lye is causing the milk and the oils to come together and stay together. That's called saponifying. The lye disappears after the soap cures for several weeks."

Once the soap is cured, Liz imprints figures of goats and bees and tiny leaves into the creamy bars with wooden stamps. Then she wraps the bars tightly with plastic and attaches the Faith Mountain Farm label to the finished product.

She is spared one step in the soap making process, however.

"Bill does all the clean-up," she said. "Bless his heart."

The business plan: faith

Two years ago, Liz Garthly's son gave her his old computer and she was able to start a Web site advertising Faith Mountain Farm products.

"We ship all over the United States now," she said, noting that both the online business and sales at the farmer's market and crafts fairs have shown a steady increase.

Whenever the retired realtor has a business concern, she just folds her hands.

"We prayed about a van because we needed a van," she said. "We found one on eBay. It had everything and you could walk through it from the cab to the van."

With the addition of the Web site, she said she and her husband were able to double their sales from last year.

"It's becoming a nice little business for us. It takes five years to get a business going, but I think it's something we're going to continue with. We prayed about that."

Although their "retirement" has turned out to be taxing on both their resources and their energy, the couple believes in the Bible verse printed in their brochures: "For we walk by faith, not by sight."

"Bill and I are so tired after a day at the market," Liz explained, "but we hate to think of giving it up. We've built such a good following."

"I really have to attribute that to the Lord."

7 easy steps to goat soap making

1. Assemble and prepare all materials needed for the recipe you are using (there are hundreds of recipes). Measure ingredients by weight.

2. Bring the oil base to the temperature the recipe calls for. Use a stainless steel pot.

3. In another container, mix lye with goat milk. Be sure to follow safety precautions when handling the alkali.

4. Pour the lye-milk mixture into the oil base when it reaches the correct temperature. Stir constantly.

5. When the liquid starts to trace, add fragrance, petals, essential oils, oatmeal or whatever you’re using in the recipe.

6. Pour hot mixture into prepared molds.

7. Cure soaps for two to six weeks in a cool place.

The dope on soap

Soap making dates back at least to 2800 B.C. The excavation of ancient Babylon uncovered a soap-like substance found in clay cylinders.

Ancient Egyptians bathed regularly. The Ebers Papyrus, a medical document from around 1500 B.C., describes a soap-like material used for treating skin diseases and washing.

Early Greeks did not use soap but cleaned their bodies with blocks of clay, sand, pumice and ashes. Then, they anointed themselves with oil and scraped off the oil and dirt with a metal instrument known as a strigil.

Cleopatra, it was said, preserved her beauty by bathing in milk from goats and horses.

According to Roman legend, soap got its name from Mount Sapo where animals were sacrificed. When rain washed a mixture of melted animal fat — or tallow — and wood ashes down into the clay soil along the Tiber River, women found the mixture made washing garments easier and got them cleaner.

The first Roman bath was built around 312 B.C., following the installation of aqueducts. Bathing became very popular.

Soap making was well-established in Italy, Spain and France by the seventh century. Guilds guarded their soapy secrets carefully.

The English began making soap during the 12th century. Well into the 19th century, soap was heavily taxed as a luxury item, but when the high tax was removed, soap became available to the common folk and cleanliness improved.

In the 1500s, most people got married in June because they took their annual bath in May and still smelled pretty good. One theory is that brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide odor.

In America, soap making began in 1608 with the arrival of soap makers on the second ship to reach Jamestown. For many years, soap making was essentially a household chore. In 1837, William Proctor (a candle maker) and James Gamble (a soap maker) teamed up and started selling soap.

During the Great Depression, Americans again started making soap at home because money was in short supply. During this time, radio dramas were introduced and became known as “soap operas.”

Because the government bought all of the commercially available grease during the 1940s for glycerin used to produce weapons, this caused another shortage of soap and kept home production strong.

In the 1950s, a boom economy made soap readily available and the need for producing it at home declined.

The popularity of goat milk soap has increased in recent years as beauty-conscious consumers discover that soap made with goat milk is gentler to the skin. Homemade soap contains glycerin which helps skin retain natural moisture and goat milk delivers calcium to the skin, purportedly making it smoother and healthier.

What is this made of?

Natural old-fashioned soaps are made from three basic ingredients: oil or fat, water and an alkali. The water dissolves the alkali and allows it to bond with the oil molecules, creating a new chemical component -- soap.

Creamy, moisturizing soaps come from using milk in place of water in the lye solution. Coconut milk, cow’s milk and even buttermilk are common choices, but Bill and Liz Garthly like goat’s milk best. Unlike cow’s milk, goat’s milk is naturally homogenized so the milk and cream do not separate. The result, the Garthlys say, is a rich, creamy product that is gentle to even the most sensitive skin.

For more product information, go online to faithmountainfarm.com.