After a few months crammed into an oversized storage bin (they had more than the recommended amount of room, trust me), our not-so-little ducklings are moving on up!

As mentioned before, we had this ugly (and I mean UUUUUGGGGGLLLLYYYY) pool area that had been in ruin for many years. It was probably a beautiful pool in the 70s, but served no purpose for us besides being a Tetanus riddled play house. It was too expensive to maintain and not worth fixing. And let’s be honest, we are not pool/swimming people. My ideal open water experience usually involves a pina colada or a canoe. We used this dastardly area as our burn/extraneous plant fill for the longest time.

The pool frame is made of corrugated aluminum. Something we were going to scrap or see if we could recycle/upcycle. Underneath this “pool” was a bit of dirt and a very thick concrete slab. This rendered our potential garden oasis unusable. Keith then got an awesome idea (sometimes, he’s full of them– but we won’t tell him that all of the time… 😉 ). He tore out the pool, moved some dirt around, and planted some grass. If we secured the surrounding fence, it would make a nice little duck haven.

I purchased an oversized chicken coop on Amazon. But, only one box arrived. The other was sent back as “damaged.” I was reimbursed for the entire thing, but was left with only the base of a coop. I had no roof. What am I supposed to do with only part of a house? Again, enters Keith. His creative carpentry side went to work. He measured the area of the top, made a frame (out of recycled wood– I removed an old picnic table from work [we will post on what we did with the rest of it later]), and cut up the corrugated aluminum into triangles for the new roof (also free/recycled). After a little bit of cosmetic paint (and I painted the crumbling back wall), the end result is a fantastically whimsical little house for our duck friends! Don’t you just love it?!?! A duck house that is basically FREE!

We are still working on their oasis area, but in the mean time, I am super proud of the result. These birds can finally call this area home and I can rest easy knowing I am a better duck parent. Once they get accustomed to knowing this is where they will live, I will save so much time in the morning and at night with letting them out, giving them food and water, and corralling them back into their pen. Now, if I can only keep them from constantly eating ALL OF THE GRASS!

Here’s to delighted ducks! They even have a self draining pond (idea compliments of yours truly, with the man muscle of Keith).