Home Away From Home: The New Duck Blind

There’s something about a permanent Duck Blind on a man’s favorite pond. To the weathered fowler, the Duck Blind serves as more than a hideaway designed to cloak him as he seeks to deceive the winged marauders cutting a path southward. To this lot, the Duck Blind stands in symbolic fashion as a “home” of sorts. As many have heard said, as cliches may have it, “Home” is, indeed, where the heart is. And so it could stand to reason, then, that the Duck Blind is where the heart of a waterfolwer makes himself comfortable, settles, finds peace, and stores memory upon memory of days afield with friends, family, or simply alone with God and the elements… or any combination of those.

And so, the excuse now has been laid for taking 2-3 years of deliberation and thought, consideration and planning – to get things just right.

Seems there were two primary factors driving our reconstruction thoughts. The first, was space. Hunting four out of the previous blind was a fairly cramped and sometimes loud experience. With four, there was little room for additional gear bags and no room left to cook breakfast. And if all four were shooting, caution would need to be demonstrated to protect the eardrums of those next to you. It got to a point where you were kind of glad when you did not have four, as you had some elbow room. With so many friends and family wanting to hunt, it felt like it was time to grow.

Second, with an open top, we felt we lost a lot of mallards, and many other ducks and geese that worked directly overhead – if everything wasn’t tightened up and perfect, birds might see down in, spot movement, or something left out in view. Always a risk, especially with kids in the blind, trying to cook breakfast, etc.

So… we drew up designs for a fully enclosed blind, with plenty of room to cook, protection from the elements, and room to shoot 5 comfortably, and 2-3 more playing cards in the back, ready to switch out. Counter-top space for cooking, a spot for a two-burner propane cooker, windows to see out the back… yeah. Every effort was made to accommodate all of our grandest wishes. We began the process way back in April, when we started tearing out the old one – covered in a post here. From there, over the course of 5-6 months, weekends here and there, we built our new home. I’ll document in the following pics, with captions as necessary…

Do we miss the old blind? Let’s just say that we will always absolutely cherish the fond memories of blustery mornings and fallen feathers that came while we claimed residence in that “old hovel”. But we’d be fools to try and convince you we weren’t looking very forward to carrying on those traditions started there, creating new and equally exciting memories in our new – and vastly improved – “home”.