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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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I sat Down for a Minute
I cleared out some old dead(ish) bushes from the front of the house and so Tima has shifted camp to under the hydrangea (which is a disaster for the hydrangea) but Mayes for a cute picture! Happy Fourth of July for those who observe. I was chatting to one of my junior farm hands yesterday.
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Sad Seed Germination
It looked like rain would come in the night and it smelt like rain this morning but no rain came so today will be a watering day. With hoses. But I can’t water the pig garden. It is too big. Probably a third of an acre. And. Miserably it looks like our flowering pigs field
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A summer Day on the Farm
I am cleaning in the barn and the yards twice a day now to keep the flies down. And out of my cattle’s eyes. It is good work. Strong work. Scooping the pens and carrying the manure and wet straw out to the pile. Cleaning up the last corners. I take no shortcuts – preferring
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Japanese Beetles Return
Forget the cicadas. Forget the grasshoppers. Ignore the flies for a moment. The most destructive insect in our organic gardens and in the fields is the Japanese Beetle. And they have arrived. They hatch out of the ground in late June and for six weeks voraciously skeletonize the leaves on our trees and in the
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Compost for the Win
After a month I turn the compost pile and add more water. This was my main task yesterday. In these compost piles there is manure, straw bedding (containing urine), matured compost and water. But there is way more straw than manure so when I turn the compost I add more water. To turn it I
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Pink Eye in Calves
Everything was lovely yesterday until I saw the beginnings of pink eye in the two black calves. The symptom at the beginning is a silvery trail of weeping from the eye. Later the eye will film over and become pale and very spooky. Pink Eye Pink eye in cows is an infectious disease causing inflammation
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