The kids of my first cousin have hamsters as pets, my sister asked for a pair for her own. She was given two pairs of hamsters, since we have no proper cage for the hamsters they were just kept in an open plastic fruit container.  Time flies and they were very healthy and older, we decided to separate both pairs when one of the female hamsters gave birth but due to unfortunate event, the baby hamsters didn’t even lasts a day.

After few weeks the second female hamster gave birth to eleven baby hamsters, and she is nurturing them well. Some of our neighbors already asked for a pair for them to pet and we said yes since we can’t take care all of them.

We are also planning to give hamsters to my kid’s cousin, since their hamsters died.  The mother hamsters went missing after being taken out from the cage and since nobody will nurture the baby hamsters died afterwards.

We actually don’t know what happened until a neighbour kid asked to borrow a hamster for school project, she told us my cousin’s son asked her to do it.  After long deliberation we found from our grandmother what happened and the real reason why my cousin’s daughter and not the son is asking for a hamster.   Our grandmother’s guessed is maybe my cousin’s daughter told her teacher about having hamsters at home so the teacher asked for her own hamster to take care but their hamsters are all gone and since those time our hamster are still young and no babies yet we told our grandmother we can’t give them a pair of hamsters yet since what we are having is still the pair that were given to us.

It is already rainy season in the Philippines and in regards with this, mosquitoes and ants are getting out of hand.  We are been suffering from ant bites, those type of ants that are too small and can be carried by the wind because of their light weight.

Scratching is not really a good idea, so I have search online for best cream for insect bites. I have known that Fenistil is proven good but I am not sure if it is available in the country since I bought this cream in Europe when we are travelling and got beaten by bed bugs from one of the hotels we stayed in.

Anyway I have found few suggestions online but they are expensive, and that’s where I have found out about Calmoseptine being available in sachet for almost a dollar.  Calmoseptine cream can be bought in any Mercury drug stores, the cream temporarily relieves discomfort and itching from insect bites, rashes, cuts, scrapes, diaper rash, minor burns, chapping, itching, fungal infection and many more.

The cream is just right what we need, it avoids us from scratching all over and making the ant bites to get worse.

The other day, we decided to cook medium ripe banana plantain in coconut milk, my mother initially wanted to have the banana plantain boiled but since we have one coconut from the hill that my Uncle owned I have suggested to have it cooked with coconut milk. It was been a long time since I have eaten this food and I am craving for it.

My sister sliced the bananas in slices and boiled it with the second milk from the grated coconut, and when it was boiled and dried a little she added the first milk from the coconut and a little sugar and I told her to add a pint of salt for better taste.

Yummy snack!

It was a normal morning, as I am busy collecting water I heard a cat crying. I stopped on what I am doing and locate where the cries coming from. I looked at the nearby field and irrigation but I didn’t find anything so I called for it and the cries continues and that’s where I looked up. I’ve seen a scared cat trapped in top of a tree. As much as I want to get him, it was not possible because the tree is a bit high and the bamboo bench wouldn’t reached him so I called for my sister, we tried to scared him down by pushing him with a stick but he is scared even more that he keeps hanging in the tree trunks.

We decided to get the small ladder at home, we put in the bamboo bench and I just hold it very tightly while my sister is climbing and reaching the scared cat. We are able to get him and I took him home, the cat was really scared but he is kind of sweet and loves to be touched and scratched.  The cat was also starving so I feed him a little, I initially tied him so he won’t run away since he is very scared of our little dog probably he got chased by dogs during the night making him climb in the tree.

Within the day, I decided to unleash the cat since he won’t stay still. I initially thought, he will return to his home but he decided to stay in our home, my family named him “Dongsu” he is a very sweet young male cat that loves to sleep in top of throw pillow. He loves to be pat and carried, he acts like a dog as well that wherever I go he keeps following us, it is either I have to walk the dog or I will just simply go out to buy something in the store.

Rescuing a  cat in a tree is easy as long as you stay calm as well as the the cat, you have to ensure the cat that you are his friend and you won’t hurt him. Always used a ladder when trying to rescue a cat to avoid falling.

The water supply in our barangay is scarce; it only runs for 2-3 hours in the past three months so we decided to use larger containers to stock water for cooking, the bathroom and kitchen.  And these past few days after many rains the water supply is back to normal it runs throughout the day unlimitedly.

Today, we decided to empty and keep the large containers but before doing it we end up cleaning them because the water quality in our village is not good and not suitable for drinking. The water builds up some solid white particles in the containers, like a hardened limestone’s maybe because the water is coming from the mountain and deposited in a concrete tank uphill.

Anyway, was thankful that we can now wash clothes and rugs any time as well as bath longer too. We also don’t need to collect and fetch water,  when I was young we only used water pitcher pump as water source, there is no running water but today those type of pump are long gone they dries out.

Avocado was in seasoned in the Philippines so there are plenty of avocados in our local market, prices range from P15.00 – P30.00 per kilo. A kilo consists of 3-5 avocados it depends on the size and variety.

When I was young I remember not liking avocado that much maybe because my taste bud was different that time or I was already used eating them since there is two avocado trees in our backyard, and when they are too ripe in top of a tree or a typhoon they just fell in the ground.

The avocado tree was long gone, they were cut down when the church nearby was expanded, so now we want to eat avocado we have to buy in the local market which we did a few days ago. I plainly ate it with brown sugar while my sister ate her avocado refrigerated mixed with powder milk and sugar.