A producktive weekend and a hut that fits the bill.

     It's been fairly quiet on the homestead the past two weeks, a little work diluted with a lot of rain. Over the last two weekends I was able to piece together enough time and materials to complete the duck hut. The first weekend the rain would not lift so I decided to build the framework for the hut inside the garage. Constructed in 3 pieces, the floor, the hut, and the roof, my wife and I were able to easily carry it out and get it into place between spurts or rain.

     By the end of the weekend I had it wrapped in osb and tar paper, and had the roof temporarily in place to keep it dry for the coming week. As you can see in the picture, the rain barrel to the right has been overwhelmed by the weather and has been pouring over the top for the past week. We may have to get one or two more to take advantage of this weather come late summer. 

     The weather was kind enough on Saturday to allow me to finish the hut and get the ducks outside by the evening. I decided to salvage the siding from the derelict lean-too on the side of the garage. I am planning on taking it down this summer and possibly rebuilding it, so this gets me off to an early start.
         Even though you cannot see it in this image, the ducks have a very stylish, and welcoming vinyl floor under the straw thanks to my wife. When brought the ducks out to their new home, there was an interesting exchange of words between them and the chickens. The chickens all came rushing over to the nearest corner of the pen, squawking and crowing away at their new neighbors while the ducks huddled in the furthest corner, quacking away. 

     When I started this project, I wanted to try and build the hut from materials we had on hand, avoiding any trips to the store. I am happy to say that we were able to do just that, well almost. Even with our surplus of leftover materials and "waste" stockpiled, we seemed to be lacking a few sets of hinges. We did the next best thing to taking a trip into town, we checked our neighbor's "store." We were in luck.
     It's a wonderful thing when you can barter and trade with friends; when you can take the money out of the equation, everything is simplified.

 If it looks like hut, stands like a hut , it's probably a hut