My day started off so well. I was out having a wonderful walk along our loop track with the dogs. Laurie had done some scrub cutting to get the gorse off the side of the track, so I was pretty keen to check out what he had been up to. Pretty impressive!!! After joining back onto the driveway track we walked to Mustard Alley (short for mustelid alley as the trap there has so far caught 3 stoats and 1 weasel). I took a bit of a detour through the bush to see what fungi I might find. This bush is different to where I’ve been the last few days; lots of ponga, spagnum moss and wet hollows with water in them. Found some lovely blue mushrooms but as I was crawling underneath a log I felt a sting on my hand. I didn’t see anything but OUCH, it hurt! I assumed it was a wasp sting. Not too big an issue except I have an adverse reaction to wasp stings and I didn’t have my wasp kit on me. I cut my walk short and headed back home to deal to the sting. Because I work in the bush, often on my own and usually in remote locations I have a kit that my Dr prescribed for me. Depending on the location of the sting depends on how I treat it. On my hand is pretty low risk, so I took some meds and hoped it would be okay. As I write this the swelling has all but gone and I can’t see the poison tracks anymore. It’s still pretty sore though!

Once I’d milked the goats and put Holly out to graze it was time to freeze apples that were cooked yesterday and finish off the cheese. The curds and whey were perfectly separated so I cut them with a knife and let them rest for 10 minutes. After that the curds need 20 minutes of stirring. I did that while watching a live stream of our church service!! The curds were put into the press and in the morning I’ll take it out. I also made the apple jelly from the apples that I processed yesterday and they are labeled and ready to go away until opening for eating. The next lot have been put in a bag to hang overnight and process tomorrow.

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I did some knitting this afternoon. We have a new baby grandson. I was going to be up in Auckland meeting him this week but am having to make do with photos and video chats. I’m knitting him a hoodie. I posted a parcel up last week – I hope it arrives.

Petra is so funny! She thinks one of her jobs is to help put the goats away in the evening. She waits until I untie their tethers and then grabs the rope and takes them either to the feed shed or paddock. She’s worked out which goat goes where (Willow gets nuts at night but Moon goes straight into the paddock for hay).

I asked Laurie and Kayden last night if they would like to cook dinner tonight as I’d like a break from the kitchen. While they were cooking tea I saddled up Holly and went for a ride. I haven’t ridden her for a while as she had her shoes off recently and her feet have been a bit sore. It was wonderful to be out on horseback again! She is such a honey to ride.

And then I came home to a delicious tea while watching a spectacular sunset.