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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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Breaking the Rules
Yesterday Nick and I shifted the Rescue Piglets out of their nursery (the turkey house) and into the sunroom of the big barn – it is bigger, sunnier and airier and hopefully there will be less flies. This rain and heat is breeding a LOT of flies. It very quickly became evident that Lurch, the…
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Weaning without Whining
Of course it rained torrentially yesterday so Nick and I worked in the barn repairing and cleaning. At one point Molly plonked herself right in front of me to watch what I was doing so I had a really good view of her teats and belly and immediately decided to wean her from her big…
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Gardening Chooks
You have not seen much of Mr Flowers lately, but I have – him and all his wives up on the veranda. This year I decided to employ the meat chickens as gardeners. With this endless rain, combined with the terrible heat earlier in the month, the garden is officially out of control. Some areas…
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Stress then Rest
Stop worrying about me. You know I look after myself. I have always maintained that a person can deal with a decent stress load as long as she has a Rest space in front of her. We work hard for the morning then have our siesta time from 12 to 3pm. At 3pm we start…
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Why am I cold?
I asked this of the busy kitchen after dinner last night. No-one had an answer of course. It is not cold like real cold is but I am sitting writing to you in August on the prairies with a sweatshirt on, thinking about socks. It is 52F /11C . Not warm. And the middle of August which is the hottest month…
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Walk the Walk
Yesterday I had morning visitors come to help on the farm, readers and members of the Fellowship, they cleaned out the Rescue Piglets pen and we arranged the honey boxes into an even bigger and more challenging maze for the two piglets who are learning to walk. And K held the sleeping piglets propping their…
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