Another chicken saga.

You may remember that last year one of our hens hatched out 11 eggs. 10 reached maturity.  What a successful "mum"!   And also we think there was a great deal of luck as well.

2012 has NOT been as successful re chicken development.

Our first clucky hen started sitting in October.
She hatched 4 eggs, out of 7.
The chickens were,as usual, very cute.
The mother and her chicks were in the main chook pen....a large cage behind the barn. 

The mother is a White Sussex, and here she is with her 4 new chicks.

By day 3 of their lives we were minus one chicken.
By day 4 we were minus another.
And by day 6 they were all gone.
We have no idea what happened.
A predator of some ilk, definitely, but what?
A snake? Plenty of those on the farm.
A fox?  Plenty of those about. A feral cat? We have seen one.  A bird of prey? heaps of those.  A goanna? Yes, a large one has been sighted.

But something had chicken entree on four occasions.


Our 2nd clucky hen sat on her eggs in November.
Two chickens hatched.  Again, in the main chook pen.
I think you know what happens next? Yes. By day two of their existence they too were no more. Both eaten on the same day.

All our hens are White Sussex. So here is mother hen number two, with her 2 chickens.

Our 3rd clucky hen started sitting on her eggs in late November.
We had to decide where to move the hen because leaving her, and her resulting brood in the main chook pen would surely result in whatever predator had enjoyed the previous 6 chickens, having more tender chicken for a meal.

And here is clucky hen numer three, sitting on her eggs in the main chook pen.

A neighbour had a mobile, predator proof chook pen. I asked if we could borrow it. The answer was "yes"...as you'd expect from country folk.
It is a large rectangular cage, with fine mesh for walls and roof, and a larger mesh floor.
Nothing would be able to get in from above, or from the side, nor even burrow into it.
(You can see it, and get an idea of its size and structure from the photos below.)

So the neighbour, Cal, his wife, Elaine, and I manhandled the aforesaid cage onto our ute., and we moved the cage from his property to ours.

We waited until late one afternoon to move the hen, sitting on her eggs in a laying box.  We covered the box with cardboard so that the hen would not be stressed during the transfer. 

The transfer in progress....hen and nesting box are covered by cardboard.

Now to get in, and push the box plus hen right down to the back of this safe cage.

The mesh floor is hard on the knees, but we are nearly there!

And it was just in time.
The next morning there was the hen, and THREE chicks in the cage. Very cute.

Day one of their lives. Two chicks under her beak, the other at her side. But safe!

It is now day 4 of their lives, and they are still alive.

Four days old.

Wonderful.
Whatever ate the others has no chance of eating these.

When they are large enough to not be eaten by whatever, we will put them back into the large chook pen.....from which ALL the hens and rooster are released every afternoon. They all have the afternoon to "free range" about the farm.....putting themselves back into the main cage at dusk.

Please keep your fingers crossed for our chickens.
With grandchildren arriving at the farm over the Xmas break it will be lovely to have some chickens for them to see.

An example of Shanghai Street Food.

Away from my last Blog on the Ballandean Dump, and back to Shanghai, for a moment or two.
My son and daughter-in-law in Shanghai introduced me to street food, and 99% of the time, it is delicious.

Looking from the laneway out onto Nanchang Lu.

Walking along Nanchang Lu...which I do many many times each visit....I would pass a long queue of locals in the street.
My Shanghai-based daughter-in-law told me that the queue was always long because the people were waiting to buy scallion oil pancakes (or cong you bing ) from, reputedly, the best maker of them in Shanghai.

The address of the pancake maker.

One March day this year, when I walked past, the queue was almost non-existent. 
I had never seen such a short queue before.
There were only 5 people lined up at the doorway to the small room where the pancakes were cooked.
This was an opportunity not to be missed, so I queued as well.
I felt very lucky. Three years after first seeing the queues here, I looked as if I would be able to taste the pancakes at last.

Yes, there are 5 people in this queue.

I was optimistic...mistakenly so. Each of the people above had HUGE orders, so it was 45 minutes before I could order my lowly TWO pancakes.

But in that time I could watch the Chinese cook at work. And work he did. Never stopped.
My DIL (Daughter-in-law) told me that he starts work early  every morning, and works practically non-stop until late afternoon. Talk about a work ethic!

The cooking takes place on a steel plate which is placed over a 44 gallon drum. This is at the front of the alcove where he works.
Behind that is a small bench where he shapes the pancakes. Here he has a roll of unleavened dough, a bowl of sliced scallions/shallots, and a small bowl of oil.

This is the workbench.  Unleavened dough, bowls of oil, pancakes ready for next batch of cooking. (Cooked ones at front of photo) The shallots are in the green bowl....you can see just a bit of it in the background.

He takes a dollop of dough, glazes it with oil, adds the scallions, rolls it up ready for cooking.

A batch just placed on the hot plate.

...and flattened with hands.

and then with a metal hand-held press. (and another customer's shoulder is in the corner of this photo...oops!)

The pancakes have been flattened, and now brushed with oil.

Probably my favourite photo of the day...why?

What do you think about that? No WPHS rules here. Cigarette in hand, mind on job. And I did not notice any ash falling on the pancakes.
You can see that the two middle rows of pancakes are almost done, the outer rows waiting their turn.

Yes, after 45 minutes I left with two pancakes. I felt a little embarrassed ordering two only, especially after the large orders requested by my fellow buyers, but the cook didn't turn a hair. Just collected two pancakes, and placed them in a brown paper bag, and charged me my 6 yuan (about $1 Aust)  

So I was a happy person, strolling along Nanchang Lu, munching on my food. Crisp. A little salty. Fresh scallion/shallot taste.  Great street food, made all the more tasty because of my 3 year wait! (and my mouth is watering just writing about them.)
If ever you are in Shanghai, go to the Former French Concession, and stroll down Nanchang Lu, and queue. But have a heap of time to do it! It's worth it.

The Ballandean Dump Beautification Project...Part Two.

A long time ago, yes, sometime last year, I wrote about the Ballandean Dump Beautification Project.
It started for us, well, for my husband actually, at a dinner. After a hearty meal and a few good red wines, the idea was born.
One of our neighbours, a long-standing local, Sam Costanzo, a grape grower and wine maker, suggested to my husband, also a grape grower and wine maker, that they meet at the dump early next morning to plant some trees.....to make the dump look better.
Well, after more than a few wines, what do you do but agree?
So they did. They met at the dump. They planted tress.

That was 12 months or more ago, and over that time some of the trees planted did not make it. Some died.
What to do?
Recently Sam spoke to Ade again about the problem, and a second day was planned, to replace the dead trees, and add more plants.

Ready for work.

Here is Sam's truck, with a 44 gallon drum of water, a hay bale for mulch, and plants. All ready to go.

Sam, with one of the Golden Robina trees.

Ade with buckets of soil.

Last year they planted some Chinese Pistachios, which have beautiful red Autumn foliage.
This year they replaced the few dead Pistachios with Golden Robina, which also has colourful Autumn leaves.
As an extra they planted some Virgina Creepers, which look like grape vines, and have magnificent red leaves in Autumn.
Sam is hoping that they will grow up and along the walls of the dump.
(Apparently, this creeper which originates from China, is an excellent climber. The Chinese have called it Mountain-climbing tiger because of its vigorous growth. Don't you love the descriptive Chinese names?)

Sam telling Ade what to do!

The tree is planted, so now the support stake must be placed.

"Just add water"

...and then cover with mulch.

 

And the Virginia Creeper is in.

 The Golden Robina (Robinia pseudocacia) has clear yellow leaves in Spring, which turn bright yellow in Autumn.

The Virginia Creeper (Perthenocissus tricuspidata) has magnificent scarlet, yellow or purple Autumn colours. Then the dump walls will truly be beautiful!

It really should be the prettiest dump in Queensland by the time all the plants mature!