A rainbow of eggs

My little blue (she's gray, but for some reason they call gray chickens "blue") Easter Egger chicken finally laid her first egg today, a lovely light greenish blue one! Here it is with the rest of today's eggs:

In other news, still hauling water to the cows. At least we have 2 frost-free hydrants out in the yard, and I'm not having to bring water out of the house!

Made scalloped cabbage with supper tonight. I haven't made it in ages, and I forgot just how good it is!

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Scalloped Cabbage

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium head cabbage, cored and sliced thin
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cup crushed salted Premium Plus crackers
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x12 inch casserole dish.
2. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add cabbage and onion and cook for about 20 minutes, or until tender, stirring often. Add milk and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Gently pour in eggs, stirring constantly. Stir in 3/4 of the cracker crumbs, and the salt and pepper; mix well. Pour into casserole dish and top with remaining cracker crumbs. Dot with butter.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown and heated through.

Originally from AllRecipes. I've altered the amount of crackers to suit my personal taste.

A fridge full of bones

I find I appreciate my food so much more when it's something I've raised myself. I never made chicken stock before we raised our own chickens. Now, I have a very hard time just throwing the bones away! I had a LOT of chicken bones in my fridge... now, I have the bones from 3 chickens roasting in the oven (the 4th carcass did end up in the garbage - bones should not be fuzzy and green! I swear it wasn't in the fridge that long...) I discovered a lovely recipe for brown chicken stock about a year ago: Brown Chicken Stock. It's a little more work than just hucking the bones into a stock pot, but it makes such a lovely stock. One set of bones this time are from a chicken that I tried soaking in brine - I'm curious to see if it will effect the flavor of the stock!

Got the donkey/goat/sheep/goose shelter cleaned out today, and broke apart one of our brand new square barley straw bales into it for bedding. One square bales seems to be the perfect amount to bed that shelter (technically it's a small calf shelter). I'm hoping I can pick the shelter clean for awhile, and the straw will last for a reasonable amount of time!