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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 Heat is On for Mama’s Butter Cake
The high nineties is hot. Add the dry wind and it is very hot. All the animals have different coping mechanisms. The Matriarchs dog has decided that he would rather ride than walk. So he sits like a mini king in his chariot. And the Tall Teenager pedals him all over the county on their…
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Closing the gaps
Kupa has developed a fixation for the milking machine. Every time I pop my head out of the milking parlour to turn off the pump he is perched on a barn gate staring at the it. He swishes up and down the corridor when I am trying to pour the milk into the bottles and…
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Daisy’s Cup Runneth Over
My skinny girlie arms are SO tired. We collected 100 bales of good alfalfa hay from my friend the straw man and then one by one we hauled them up into the mezzanine floor of the barn to wait for winter. The Teenager unloaded them from the trailer….and carried them through to Our John who…
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The Sisters of Shush make friends and a few raw milk facts
Yesterday the Shush Sisters came with me on their first proper walk. Though it was more of a trot. A nerve wracking barely controlled jaunt. At speed. The first half they spent racing along with me their little sucky chattering snouts attached to my calves. I led them through the barn and back to their…
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I smell like a cow
Well to be precise by the end of the day yesterday I smelt like milk. Hopefully in a good way. It was an odor that hung about me and made all the animals snuffle when I was close. So I figured I would go the whole hog last night and make myself a special Friday…
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Outside my bedroom window
Outside my bedroom window is this view. Doesn’t that just make you want to go wild, like I don’t know, run in disorder through the tidy fields scattering wild flower seed and dancing maniacally, twisting and tangling all the straight rows! All legs and hair! A man once described me as all legs and hair.…
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