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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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Thankful I am not a flower caught in a marketing funnel
I am grateful for chrysanthemums. and sorry for them too. And thankful I am not one. Though I have no chrysanthemums to show you. Because I refuse to succumb to the marketing that tricks me to only buying them in the autumn when it is too late to plant them. The chrysanthemum are forced to…
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A Thanksgiving Calendar for November
Today I am taking the matriarch to the dentist to get her six teeth cleaned. They called with a cancellation appt or she would have had to wait until April. Dentists are busy I guess. And as a life long smoker she does not have many teeth left. So I am grateful we could get…
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White Rabbit, White Rabbit, Green
Pinch and a Punch for the First of the Month. In the playgrounds of my youth. On the first of the month. As we first came through the gates in the morning. Walking across the field. Swinging our bags. Even while lining up to file into class, in the early morning air, on the first…
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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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Letters To My Mother
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