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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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The swine herd gets inexplicably demoted
My photos started out well yesterday. I had this big plan for colour and light. I made a classy shot of the air hose from the pump drying out by the fire. When cold (air) hits heat (steam from hot milk) we get condensation in the lines. Which results in water in the pump (bad).…
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Frigid Sunshine
By the time we had finished milking yesterday morning and brought everything back inside it was minus 3F (-20C). I do not deal in windchills as I don’t understand the equation so I won’t tell you what the windchill was. There was hardly any wind anyway. But it was so cold that my face felt…
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Where are you on my weather map?
I like to know what is coming. Like all farmers I study the weather sites and stare up at the sky looking for action. I don’t like surprises. I need to be prepared. I am like TonTon who barked at the basement door yesterday because he could hear the water overflowing in the laundry. And…
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Feeling bloody.
My Mother used to say that. ‘I am feeling bloody.’ In other words do NOT Bother me with mundanity today – you might just lose your curly little head. Yesterday I wandered about the farmy in the cold, just feeling bloody. Everything just looked cold and grey. Camera house followed suit. Feeling bloody is compounded…
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Dividing up the loot
A couple of times a week the local grocery store gives The Farmy a bag of expired produce. I sit on one bucket surrounded by other empty buckets and set to work chopping and dividing up all the vegetables, potatoes and fruit. I am immediately surrounded in a rabble of watchers, outright looters and opportunists, …
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Beer O’Clock I called to the Kiwi Builder
He immediately began to pack up. After all it was beer o’clock and getting dark. Sadly the weather was not on our side and we were unable to have the Friday drink out on the dance floor of the coupe, instead we sat inside by the fire. The Matriarch said maybe next Friday. I told…
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