Cupped Wings: Blind Ambitions

The boys wanted to build a blind, so build a blind we did. Jack and his pal Robbie had watched way too much Duck Dynasty and drooled over far too many two-story duck blinds with bunk rooms and bacon-and-eggs breakfasts cooked on a propane stove. They were agog over the prospect of crafting their very own duck-hunting pad, even a rudimentary one. Chris, who is Robbie’s father and a good buddy of mine, agreed with me that the boys might not have had a fully formed idea of the work involved, but when your kids want to spend time with Pop, you raid the basement for spare wood and hit the swamp.

I gathered some old 2x4s and aluminum tubing from an ancient boat blind I hadn’t used since the last century and kicked out pieces of decorative uprights from a headboard I wrenched out of a backyard junk pile. Chris brought a toolbox and a more refined understanding of nail hammering and sawing skills than I possessed. But there’s really no way to mortise-and-tenon a broken bed rail to a spare piece of angle iron. That’s what baling wire is for.

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