...although I guess "adventure" isn't the proper word for it...
 
my ferrets had an old storage box with translucent sides as a rice box for
the longest time, it's about a foot high, with a hole in the lid so they
can climb in and out without spilling rice.  the trouble with the box it
that they hit their heads on top, and I can't see them playing in it from
the side.
 
so I finally build them a new rice box: it has a 2.5 x 3 feet base, and
it's about 2.5 feet high.  it's made entirely of plywood, with the
exceptino that the 2 longer sides are plexiglass.  filled it with 80 lbs
of rice and put the ferrets in, and they all went crazy.  even Birch, my
oldest, who didn't play in the old box, got really hyper and bouncy.  and
of course, the plexiglass sides offers a wonderful view of all the fun.
 
anybody jealous yet :)
 
anyways, I hadn't gotten around to building a lid for it, and the box was
high enough that even Bear can't kick the rice out, so I figured I'm okay
for a while.... had never been so wrong... it was fine for 3 weeks...
 
 ... then one day, came home, and discovered a cat has peed in it...
anybody else knows what washing 80 lbs of rice is like?  actually I have
only washed about 2/3 of it, I had to do it in batches 'cause I didn't have
big enough containers and I wouldn't be able to lift it up anyways, and
didn't have enough flat things for the rice to dry on in the balcony.
and then of course it started raining, so some of the drying rice got a
bit mouldy and had to be thrown out, and haven't been able to wash the
remainder 'cause the weather is still really crummy... had to wash the
box thoroughly with nature's miracle and then add a couple layers of paint
and varnish for good measure...
 
 ...inspite of all, it's a great rice, and I did finish the lid for it...
 
just had to share..
 
// ***********************************************
// Selina, Birch, Dief, Sprite, Storm, Sand & Bear
// http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~ssiu
[Posted in FML issue 3441]