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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


  • Bleeding Warmth

    Bleeding Warmth

    Yesterday our warm spell began to bleed away.  The  warmth bled out of the landscape. There is a cold spell coming and it will last until I leave here.  We will be below freezing for a week.  Fair enough.  I am off to the Southern Hemisphere in a week where it is warm. I can deal with…

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  • Sheila is a tall girl

    Sheila is a tall girl

    Sheila is 72 inches long ( 6 foot, 182cm) and her girth is 68 inches ( 172cm). She is 34 inches high at the highest point of her back and when I measured her girth I could not reach all the way around her, I had to lean over her back and kind of throw…

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  • Guess how much Sheila weighs!

    Guess how much Sheila weighs!

    A competition for us. Go on guess.  How much do you think Sheila weighs? I finally took my dressmakers tape out to the barn to measure her and then applied the equation and the result is pretty close to her actual weight they say.  So I have the answer in my mind. What you do is measure your pigs length from…

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  • Nosy Cow

    Nosy Cow

    As I wrote Nosy Cow I wondered how often I had written Nosy Cow as a header.  But every where I turned yesterday with a fork full of cow manure, as I cleaned and remade the cows beds, there was Lady Astor, watching, standing right in the way, not moving an inch, being suspiciously sweet…

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  • Tima! Come Home!

    Tima! Come Home!

    In the mornings when it is sunny (and not too muddy yet) I let the kunekune’s Tima and Tane out for a walk.  Tane goes straight out to the South field. Tima heads the other way – down the drive right to the end and picks through the field in the East. There was corn in…

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  • The Nod

    The Nod

    Geraldine the peahen does this  very sweet thing when I call to her. I call her name. She gives a little nod, a dip of her head, then lilts her eyes to the side and tipping her beak she looks to me out from under her lashes  as if she had lashes.  A tilt of her head…

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