2 Months and Pole Saws

Our little girl is 2 months old now! She gets cuter by the day and is holding her head up more and more. Today Jen read to Brynn her first book: "But Not the Hippopotamus" and Brynn paid attention. Of course we're starting her out on hippopotami, leapfrogging right past dog and cat and even bunnies. I'll have her on Foucault's Pendulum any day now. In other news, she is 11 pounds 6 ounces which puts her in the 75th percentile in weight. She's in the 95th percentile in height, though. Her 2 month checkup went well other than they said we should work on encouraging her to turn her head other directions. She is very fond of staring endlessly to her right. It's not that she can't or won't look the other direction. She just loves that right side.

I've been out in the 100 degree plus weather playing with a pole saw. Pole saws are fun. I borrowed one from my neighbor and all the sudden all the dead branches that have eluded my pruning are within reach. It's like getting to scratch an itch that has been out of reach for too long. Pole saws are surprisingly effective. I even took down two rather large dead branches on our cottonwoods that had been hanging down in our field of vision for too long. The primary use for it, though was trimming our apricot trees, which are very heavy with fruit. I figured taking out some dead weight might help. The apricots on one tree are just about ready to pick, but the other tree's harvest is still pretty green.

I'm thinking forward to some apricot ice cream, but that is a ways off. Right now I will make do with the berries that are on sale. I did some Raspberry Coconut Frozen Yogurt that turned out quite well. I haven't done a recipe for a while, so here goes:

Raspberry Coconut Frozen Yogurt

• 32 oz. full fat vanilla yogurt (do not try to make it healthier or you will end up with ice)
• 3/4 C. sugar
• 6 oz. fresh, ripe raspberries
• 1/4 C. shredded coconut (heaping)

Combine the sugar and yogurt and stir until smooth and blended. Lightly mash the raspberries (or mash 'em hard if you don't want chunks). Stir in the raspberries and coconut into the yogurt. Turn the yogurt into an ice cream maker and run it for 30 minutes. Transfer the yogurt to a container for freezing and freeze for about 4 hours. It should have a good consistency then. It does get a little icier after about 24 hours, so it's probably better to eat it earlier.