PEP BB homesteading.straw.latch - Make one handed gate latch

I built my first chicken paddock for rotational grazing this weekend and needed a gate for it. I made the gate out of scraps and then made a latch that allows it to be latched to a T-post. I spent some time looking around the farm store for something that would work and asked one of the employees but he seemed weirded out that I would want to put a latch on a T-post. Well, I don't have a ton of money to spend on fancy fencing but I figured it out eventually.

To complete this BB minimum requirements are:

       - figure out how you can build a one handed latch from things you have around or repurposed materials
       - gather all materials you need to build a one handed latch
       - build the latch and make it work properly


To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must post pictures of the following:

       - the gate that needs a latch
       - all the materials you need to build the latch
       - pictures of you building the latch
       - picture of the latch mounted on the gate

So here is my gate that I built out of scrap wood and some chicken wire that I cut off from this section of fence. It looks a little crooked because both the barn and the T-post are crooked.


Here are some materials. Some scrap pieces of 2x4 and 1x4. I also found some of these garage hooks all over the garage that the previous owners placed there for very specific purposes that no longer apply so I've been uninstalling them and using them elsewhere.


Here I am starting to install the components on the gate.


This is what the latch looks like closeup after installation. The metal garage hook will catch on the T-post and keep the gate from swinging out to the left and the wood latch will rotate to lock it in place and can be rotated up to allow the gate to swing open to the right.


Here is the gate closed and latched from the inside. you can just reach through the string and move the latch to open the gate.


Here is the gate open. I can keep it open by hooking this chain to the metal garage hook. It really looks crooked here but when the gate is closed it fits perfectly in the opening.


Here is the gate all finished.


Here is a closeup of another gate latch that I made in the same way in case the pictures of the one I just built are hard to tell what is going on.