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I am Cecilia. A New Zealander who farms in Illinois.
My farms are organic and regenerative and full of stories. I have been writing here about environmentally sustainable farming and food and travel since 2011.
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LATEST POSTS
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Tackling Farm Tasks in a Gale
These pictures look calm. Right? They may look calm but yesterday as we tackled the odd jobs around the farm we worked in loud gale force winds. So loud R and I were shouting to each other so we could be heard. We cleaned out the stock trailer. So naturally Tima lay in the doorway
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Under the Eagle Eyes of a Black Cat
As Black Cat watched from high on his tower of hay, the plonkers, the group we called The Charlottes, had a gallop through the fields, upset all the other pigs with their exuberance then proceeded through the barn exactly according to the script. Like a boat going through a lock, they moved through the barn.
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The Charlottes Have Their Day
A person cannot herd pigs. We nudge them and entice them but they do nothing in herds. Once released they scatter. Today is the day for the most recent plonkers, a group called The Charlottes, to be loaded into the stock trailer. They leave early tomorrow morning. And I do not load just before they
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Starting at Four in the AM
This morning R and I loaded all the white chickens into crates and all the turkeys into another taller crate. Thanking each one individually. Heaved them up onto the back of the truck and off they went to a small local bird abbatoir. They call them (abbatoirs) lockers here but I am not sure why.
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Rain on a Tin Roof
Such a sweet, sweet sound. Especially after months without much rain at all. And all the corn is out. The harvesters are finished. So the rain came at the right time for our fields. Tima and Wai are free again! Tima. Such a dear when she is not bossing Wai around. They need distance those
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