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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


  • The Green

    The Green

    Still the weather is holding. And the fields have some green. During the long nights it drops below freezing then in the day times UP the temperature comes again. It is not unusual for us to hover around the freezing mark at this time of year, and not unusual for there to be a little green…

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  • Dog with Pipe

    Dog with Pipe

    Yes – who would have thought it – TonTon is a smoker. Sigh. He knows there is a no smoking rule in the barn. He assured me he does not inhale. What rot.  Like I have never heard that before! A pigs dinner. Though some pigs have to fight to get to eat their dinners unmolested by dratted…

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  • The face of Boo

    The face of Boo

    This is the face I get when it is time to go out and feed everyone.  This is Boo’s are-you-coming-now? Look. Yesterday it was so cold and blowing hard out here.  Wind is often hard to take a photo of in the winter  but the chickens are helping out – showing their petticoats. Geraldine at…

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  • Look Good on Paper

    Look Good on Paper

    I went to Our John’s Work Do last night. I had forgotton about it so I was still in my work clothes, filthy, straw in my hair, working, when he came out to the barn, home from work early, showered and dressed to tell me we were leaving in thirty minutes. I did one of…

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  • Twilight

    Twilight

    Twilight. Such an evocative word. Twilight in Alberta. And I arrived home to twilight in Illinois. The pigs were pleased to see me. And the cows came galloping in. But the birds were galvanised – Geraldine (seen above in the background) positively trilled. She was under my feet and my hands as, working against the dying light,…

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  • Stranded for real

    Ok – so here is the problem. Delivered by my Eldest son yesterday afternoon I arrived in good time to check in for my flight out of Calgary to Chicago. But no. I am not particularly religious but one of my favourite sayings is: God Said No. Well, God said NO. For the first time EVER my…

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