Setting up the Nusery
We've got several litters of babies due soon, so Sean and I set up the nursery tonight. I went to Walmart and bought some new bins for expecting moms and then to Home Depo to look at shelving units. I'm happy with the bins I found. They are smaller then the 90qt Steralite bins I use as regular cages, but I wanted them smaller in order to keep the moms closer to the babies. I think they are something like 55qts, but I don't recall offhand. Either way, they are large enough to fit the hut and still leave mom space to run around and spend time away from the babies. Once the babies hit 4 weeks and start roaming around, mom and the litter will be moved into a 90 qt bin.
I looked at some different shelving units at Home Depo, but everything there either was the wrong size or too permeant an installation. Some of the options would have worked just fine, but I decided to see if one of the plastic units we already own would fit in the space.
So Sean removed the shelves that were already in the over sized closet in the hedgehog room, and we got started on turning it into a nursery. One of the plastic units we already have (just like the units I am using in the rest of the room, only this one was supposed to go in the garage once Sean organized it) fit in the closet with room to spare. Oddly, we had a little black plastic shelving unit sitting outside that fit the space exactly. I almost threw that shelf out when we moved, but now I'm glad I didn't.
With the 2 shelving units, I can fit 3 cages side by side and go 5 rows high. Or I can fit 1 long cage on the bigger rack and 1 small cage on the other rack.
We also closed on the Haverhill house earlier today. It was grand! We are now down to owning only one house.... I feel so normal! It's been a long few months between prepping the house, getting it on the market, finding a buyer, losing the buyer, finding a new buyer, and actually closing. Not to mention everything that went on with buying and moving into our current house. I feel like I haven't had a break since early June.