But it was really the rain that did it in. I don't have a rain gauge, but we got a whole lot in a very short period of time, and the weight on top of the tarp was just too much.
The ducks are fine, though. Unlike the last surprise hailstorm, it ramped up slowly enough for me to shoo the ducks into the coop. And none of the hail was over marble size, so that's the extent of the damage.
It's clearly time to do something about duck shelter, at least if we're keeping them. They like to sit in the shade, which is why we added the tarp. But we don't actually use the pen as a pen - technically, city code requires them to have an enclosure that's at least ten feet from the property line. I'm sure it also requires them to be in it, but our neighbors don't care (in fact, as I've mentioned one has asked if they'll come over into his yard for weed control), so they have the run of the yard. It's easier than lugging the 8x12 pen (or "chicken tractor," properly) around to rotate where they get to forage, and we only close them in it when we need them out of the way. So all we really need is something smaller, that doesn't occupy the middle of the yard like this has.
Ironically, because the wind will actually pick up the whole thing the ducks haven't gone in it lately, and I just bought some shiny stainless stakes to tie it down. Guess I don't really need those now.
1 comments:
Dang, that support wasn't meant to be load-bearing... it was supposed to create a peak so that the water would run off, decreasing the load!
Unfortunately, if the tarp isn't taut, it still collects water... not as much as without the support, but the new tarp is bigger and sags more.
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