Today I traumatized the ducklings by mucking out their house, as it was getting a bit ripe. I also made a hacky brick patio next to the duck house.

Firstly, a photo from last night, shortly before closing up the duck house for the night, showing the main vent all the way open, since it was fairly hot yesterday:

This morning’s mess:

To muck out the house, I firstly used a small rake to scrape the straw into a plastic bin (for later transport to the compost); the ducklings all hid in the back nesting box:

Then I removed the shelf liner that was there to give traction in their first week:

And hosed out the floor; I designed the house to be fairly waterproof, with vinyl tiles, caulk, and outdoor paint, since ducks are very messy:

All that done, I added fresh straw, and put the waterer back:

Then I added and filled the pool, and the ducklings quickly emerged; they love swim time:

Hand feeding leafy treats:

The ground next to the duck house is a bit muddy from all the water, so I decided to make a hacky patio out of some spare bricks in a junk pile elsewhere on the homestead. So I collected a bunch of bricks in a cart:

I just laid the bricks on the ground. Eventually we might make a proper patio, or just have gravel:

One more project for sometime, adding gravel to the path to the duck house.