Nothing says summer better than cooling off with a frosty treat.  Well, unless that treat is homemade, healthy, and a cool way of spending time with the family.

A Real Fruit Popsicle is just that, and it just takes about 10-15 minutes.  

First, you take some of your favorite fruit and chop them up into small pieces.  You see I just used some blueberries, strawberries, and cherries:

Pour any kind of juice into the ice pop molds, and dump an even amount of fruit into each one.  For the juice, I used Minute Maid's Cherry Limeade, but you can use Capri Sun, or any other light juice.  

                   

Pop them in the freezer, wait until they're frozen through (about 4-5 hours), and enjoy!  

Tip #1: To get the popsicles out of the molds, run some warm water on the bottom, and gently pull them out. 

Tip #2:  Cold treat in summer heat makes a pregnant woman very happy.

    

Dozer's New Dog Feeding Station

Dozer was surprised to come in from the back yard to find his food and water bowl sitting on something other than overturned, orange Home Depot buckets.  Oh, yes.  Buckets.  In our kitchen.  For six months.  Well, finally, I braved the 99 degree heat to build my very large 8-year puppy a new feeding station.

I took some spare 6x1 pieces of timber left over from the deck and went to work.  

First, I cut 2 pieces of the same length to form the top and attached them together with mending plates on the bottom:

Then I cut two pieces to make the legs. (Of course, I chose a height that was good for Dozer.  One that allows him to eat/drink comfortably, without bending down.)  I attached the legs to the top with corner braces:

Coat with some polyurethane for a little drool protection, pour some kibble in the bowl, and you're good to go.