Today I continued doing the compost, but because I had left my plastic water bottle in a bag with the saw and tree cutters in whilst walking to do the barberry, it started leaking and so I had no water, and had to keep having 'smokos'- the kiwi slang for a break, even if it's not spent smoking. Me and Heather had a nice warmed up cheese scone, and then later on, I helped her move the piglets from the pen they were in with Ginge, the mother, to a new pen. This couldn't be done by herding them in there, which meant we had to trap them in their hut, and pick them up individually. It doesn't feel a very humane way to carry them, but you have to carry them upside down by holding them by the back leg, and it's a bit scary when they squeal as you do it. The last one we caught, Heather carried like it was a baby, and I tried to hold it too, but it was less calm in my arms than in hers. You have to squirt them with a scent so that they all smell the same, otherwise they start fighting each other.

I helped Heather break up the curds and mix flavourings in to make cheese, and then we headed back up to the house to have lunch, although we weren't feeling very hungry, and since her eldest daughter Alesha, Riley and a mysterious man called Trio (possibly Alesha's new boyfriend) turned up, we just snacked on cheese and crackers.

I had wanted to carry on doing the compost, and mow the lawn in the afternoon, but I didn't want to disturb Heather when she had her family over (and I didn't know which wheelbarrow to use for the compost and how to use the lawn mower), so just sat round a bit awkwardly until I went down to at least fill up the 2 sacks, and then helped Heather pick up the black boy peaches.

In the evening, I got David to show me how to use the lawn mower, and then he asked me whether I was strong enough to start it. I was hesitant to try in front of him in case I couldn't... It was embarrassing that I couldn't!

He got out a couple of books for me about 'Forgotten Household Crafts' and one about self sufficiency, both written by the same author. The household crafts book didn't really explain too much on how to do the crafts, but it was funny to read as the author was a very opinionated man who took an extreme view on how days were better in the past. It was almost like he was a book version of a grandparent, telling stories of back when he was a boy, and would say things like 'I will never forget the awful peke dogs my mother's friends used to trawl around with them'.