Hamster – Asbery's Echoes

A Productive Day

We were supposed to wake up to 6″ to 8″ of snow on Saturday. Instead we woke up to ice. Ice everywhere. I was so thankful Eric came home Friday night before the nasty weather started. He needed an oil change, he had two tires leaking and his door handles weren’t working right. Well, his dad changed the oil and replaced two leaky valve stems but the door handles we picked up at the salvage yard awile back were the front handles and not back handles so that means Eric will have to come home again some other time. Yeah!!!! So what to do on a cold and icy day? Well, I had started the process of mustard making and that was ready to be finished.

Gotta let these sit for two days to absorb all the moisture.

Oh my goodness – the beautiful colors, smells and taste of Homemade Lavendar Mustard. And it was so very easy. I’m positive I’ll be making this again and I’m thinking it will be a perfect Father’s Day gift for my dad as he loves mustard.

Then Joe helped me pull Drew’s bed out so I could finish painting his room. This kid and all his treasures. After getting the room done and everything moved back the way he wanted it, he went through the house, through cupboards and drawers, all the nooks and crannys and he “shopped” for things to decorate with. It’s funny what he chose to use from around the house. My old roller skates, some of Grandma Houseal’s dishes, old Sucrets tins, whatever he could get his hands on. Gotta love him!

Then sweet Humphrey got a nice clean rearranged home. Drew decided on a camping theme this time around. With white bedding so he’s camping in the snow! We found some timothy hay and something called Nature’s Salad for him and also scattered some carrot and celery pieces around the cage for him to find. He was one happy camper when we put him back in the cage and he explored for ages. Then he knocked his camper over, decided not to bed down in the timothy hay and instead made a new nesting area and promptly fell asleep!

Not a good picture but this little guy is constantly on the move. I have yet to get a decent picture of him!

We had bacon and eggs for breakfast so instead of crushing the eggs up this time around and giving them back to the girls, I let them dry all day and crushed them up and put them in a jar. Since then I’ve added egg shells two more times to the jar already. Those shells will go in the ground this spring along with the tomatoes we’re going to plant. It feels good to get started planning for spring even though we’re living in an ice covered world at the moment!

Under the Weather Hammy Escapade

I think the fire is a little big compaired to the tent but oh well – it was fun to make anyway!

Yesterday Drew and I were both under the weather. Thanks Joe – it all started with him over the weekend! Anyway, we spent most of the morning sitting together in our easy chair watching YouTube videos on hamster habitats and Drew decided it would be fun to change out Ollie’s cage to a camping theme. We just cleaned him out over the weekend so we won’t be doing a complete overhaul again for two or three weeks but as we were both feeling a little better in the afternoon I helped him drag out all our supplies and we got to work. I really get frustrated with YouTube and Drew wanting to spend his time watching pointless videos of other kids doing nothing but there’s also some really good videos and tutorials on there too. My one stipulation was we could only use what we had on hand as whatever we make is going to get crawled over, chewed on, pooed on, and basically destroyed, so we’re not going to spend extra money. In the end we came up with a tent, campfire (with a battery operated tealight) and a cute little sign. I also want to try making an adirondack chair out of popsicle sticks at some point too for little Ollie to enjoy!

Who knew a little tiny hamster would provide so much entertainment!

Later, while watching the Queen and Adam Lambert Story, Drew decided he’s watched enough videos on taming hamsters to try and get Ollie out and hold him. This has been his goal from day one when we first brought Snowball home. He was so excited he could hardly contain himself and we had to get him to calm down so as to keep the poor hamster calm too. But, this little guy took to being held right off and Drew and Ollie had a blast together. As least Drew had fun anyway! Ollie on the other hand, decided to crawl into the sofa and we had to find him and contain him before Pierre realized there was a free running rodent in the livingroom to try and play catch and release with! All in all, even with none of us feeling the greatest, we had a nice day. Drew learned a few new things on YouTube regarding his hamster and Ollie I think decided he liked having some human contact and love!

RIP Snowball

Drew got a hamster back in December. Something I swore I would never have! And darn if she wasn’t fun to have around. She was extremely active, spent her time filling her pouch with food, running on her wheel, chewing on everything in sight, and biting fingers every chance she got. Of course we came home with a hamster and a cute plastic cage that looked like a house. And then Drew did a bunch of research on YouTube and discovered those cute plastic homes they sell at pet stores are really not good for your pet hamster. So he drug up an old fish tank from the basement that was home to Larry the Lizard back in the day when Eric had his lizard. We spent hours getting it all cleaned up and set up only to decide it wasn’t big enough for a hamster. I wan’t willing to spend money on a large fish tank to I went to Facebook for ideas and Jeremy’s mom offered us their 100 gallon fish tank that was home to Jeremy’s pyrannahs. I now have a gigantic fish tank in my living room, directly under the TV. Oh what moms will do for their kids! Unfortunately, as we were in the process of setting this tank up, Snowball escaped. She was missing from Saturday night until Thursday when we found her on the backporch of all places. She was hurt, her back legs weren’t working. We put her back in her cage but she passed the next day. Drew was heartbroken. I never dreamed he would become so attached to a little critter that he couldn’t even pick up for fear of getting bit in such a short amount of time but he cried and cried. Then he asked if we could go get another one. And we did. We are now the proud owners of a Black Bear Syrian Hamster named Boo Boo Bear!