🦆 The DUX has woken up! 🦆

[Canadian Wind]

You're using pallets already, so use some for the top, and place wire over it, then cover with the reeds/grasses.

If you go for something solid though, make sure you give it an angle so the snow, rain, ice can slip off. But I'm sure you thought of this.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

You're using pallets already, so use some for the top, and place wire over it, then cover with the reeds/grasses.

If you go for something solid though, make sure you give it an angle so the snow, rain, ice can slip off. But I'm sure you thought of this.

I thought about using pallets for the roof, but it would require at least three pallets and would be very heavy. I would prefer a lighter roof construction…
But anyways, first i must restore the ReStore windows, the putty is falling off and some fresh paint would be nice. And the floor must be installed first because now access is easier. Once the front- and back-walls and the roof are installed i can only crawl in on all four.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Sunny laid her first egg after being a Momma Duck yesterday morning:

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I made little progress with the new duck-house during the last week, due to heightened demand from my real job…
And the Sunny Sunshine came up with a special request:

The family matriarch requested a raised bed.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I made little progress with the new duck-house during the last week, due to heightened demand from my real job…
And the Sunny Sunshine came up with a special request:

The family matriarch requested a raised bed.

Well, on second view, it also looks like she is voluntarily sitting in roaster-pan on a bed of crispy yellow onion rings…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Update on the new Duck-House: The sub-floor is almost complete:

Just the last board is missing, which needs some serious marking and cutting and it was too dark for that this evening. In fact that sub-floor turned out to be such a tight fit that i don't have to cover the former undersides of these long pallets that i use as sidewalls:

That table-saw i bought this spring has earned its price today - if not earlier already…
Now i am on borrowed time with the floor and - at least a temporary roof - as those boards are not water-resistant at all. Tomorrow i need to glue down the floor-tiles:

I would not be surprised if mother nature would create a very local thunderstorm right on top of that duck-house tomorrow out of pure spite, while leaving the tomato plants thirsty…
Fortunately i can permanently glue these with liquid nails to the wooden boards, tried this with a piece of a broken tile on a piece of board and it quickly becomes inseparable. With a lot of force i peeled off the tile and it took the glue and the first layer of wood with it.
If i have enough tiles left over and enough liquid nails, i will use these as baseboard on the walls to make everything "moisture" resistant - aka poop-proof…

 

[Canadian Wind]

Update on the new Duck-House: The sub-floor is almost complete:

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Now i am on borrowed time with the floor and - at least a temporary roof - as those boards are not water-resistant at all. Tomorrow i need to glue down the floor-tiles:

​

Ummmmmmmm

Your floor is not water resistant? And this is a DUCK house??

 

[AntiqueB]

I think it will be once the tiles are down.

It looks good!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Ummmmmmmm

Your floor is not water resistant? And this is a DUCK house??

Those boards have three layers:

• thin layer of wood
• thin layer of fiberboard
• thin layer of laminate (made from fiberboard and epoxy)

I have installed them upside down with the intention to have the hard epoxy-layer outside. Would it rain today, the wood-layer would soak up the water and the fiber-layer would expand and destroy the floor.
But as @AntiqueB has already written, once these composite tiles are installed that floor might even hold water…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

What did i said yesterday? What?

«I would not be surprised if mother nature would create a very local thunderstorm right on top of that duck-house»
​

Well, the universe turns out to be an evil place:

I was half way through with the floor tiles when i felt something wet on my back:

So i ran to get one of the few really water-tight tarps that i own to use as a temporary roof:

And what little we got from the clouds was not enough to even put a scratch into the exceptional drought situation here. It did not saved a single plant but would have been enough to ruin the sub-floor in the dux-house. Just 30 miles north around Parkersburg was a thunderstorm, i could see the lightning, hear the thunder and smell the rain - and had to water the pepper plants again.