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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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Survivors
This is what happens when you survive the Polar Vortex. Your comb is burnt off, your wattle disappears, you lose the nails from your toes and sometimes the toes themselves. You are no longer pretty because maybe your tail feathers never grew back. But you never give up. Because you are chook and giving up…
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Aunty Del pops in
For a while now Aunty Del and the sheep have been wandering about in the fields down the back, checked every day but without much interaction. The feed in the fields is good but with the cold coming I decided to bring her in to the barn for some TLC. Really I am just…
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The Bat Cave
You know the cold is coming when Sheila my big fat pig starts building her bed. Last night she had gathered it all up high, she stands in the middle of her bed and goes round and round scraping the straw up with her hooves and her nose moving up into the centre of her bed as she…
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the face of halloween
“So what happpened on the farm today? ” Our John said, as he tracked his muddy boots across my newly scrubbed kitchen floor. “Oh, nothing much – I planted 300 garlic bulbs, the cooking oil car got a flat tire when I was out at the old farm so I abandoned it but I got a good shot…
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A moments respite
You know how we run our lives expecting that all will be well when we get all our ducks in a row or something. We plan endlessly expecting a perfect life. Save against that – insure against this. We roll along thinking I will get over this hump and solve this problem and sort this situation out…
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writing farmer
No prettying this shot up. I spent most of yesterday working on the children’s book. The one where Daisy and Poppy and Kupa and Sheila and Marmalade and TonTon all go to Milan and crash a fashion show, and Poppy overcomes her fear of flying. Charlotte the wonderful illustrator and the brains behind…
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Letters To My Mother
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