APT FOR RENT - POSSUM BOX

REBUILDING the Possum box was way over-due. The wood that surrounded it and served as a floor had pretty well rotted out. Wood does that when something sits out in the weather for 20 years or so.
This nest once was an air conditioner cover from a huge air conditioning unit at my old school... it was just laying on the ground in the courtyard, and after a couple weeks, I asked if I could have it.
I have asked for stranger things.
When you are an art teacher, you can get away with stuff like this. And the faculty had learned not to ask what in heck I was going to do with it because I might say something stupid like 'it would make a good cover for a possum nest.' So they don't ask.
Half filled with straw, it turned into a cozy bed for whoever needed a warm dry space... but it was over due for cleaning out and rebuilding.

Since I first built it, back in the 90s, I have discovered foam insulation board and I use it all the time at the Train Station for building scenery. Mostly I appreciate its being so light weight, I can lift huge pieces  that I could no longer lift if it was plywood. So, I had a half a sheet of 1 inch thick insulation foam left over from a section of the Town of Bethlehem that I built for a local church, so I cut it up to insulate the floor, sides, and had enough to put on the roof and cover it with tarpaper and some old shingles...
A good layer of straw inside and even more spilled outside - oh well - and the nice new clean box was almost ready. I need to figure out a way to close more of the opening, but I need to wait until someone makes their bed and packs the straw down first.
With the amazing amounts of rain and consequent flooding we've had this summer, it is all sitting up on 6 concrete blocks. The window leaning across the opening is an old window from the Train Station, left over from having all the windows replaced. Since I bought the Plexiglas in the window, I figured I might as well bring it home and salvage the Plexi. Instead, I will use it in its entirety for now. Its a work in progress.


The possum nest sits under 2 huge camellias and not very far from the Beautyberry bush which is now entwined in a really big fall blooming azalea. On the other side of that azalea, closer to the house is a deep red fall blooming azalea. On the other side of the beautyberry and its azalea is a bi-colored fall blooming azalea. In other words, the nest box is in a pretty neighborhood! These azaleas are all 5-6 feet tall and 5 feet across.
Location, location, location...