More about gourds.....

Since some of you have asked about the gourds for birdhouses, I'll give what little information I know. For me, it started last year at the Kuntsfest in New Harmony.... If you go to this post, it shows a wagon full of the gourds where I bought the one that I turned into a birdhouse. I bought a really pretty plump green one. I set it on some newspaper in the house and left it alone all winter, eventually moving it to the garage. Over the winter it dries out inside and becomes really light. I didn't pay any attention to how long this took. I asked Eve at Sunnyside Up how to make a birdhouse for wrens after she mentioned one in her blog. She told me to drill a half inch hole in it and shake out any dry stuff inside. Mike put two little holes in the top and put a wire through to hang it up. That is how simple it is! I didn't do anything to mine to paint it or decorate it and if you saw my photos of the birds living in it, it looked pretty ugly.This year after the Chickadees moved in and were successful, I decided I wanted more! These are the seeds that I bought at a local store. It has instructions for making Martin houses on the back. For Martins, you cut a 2" hole. I would think it would be hard to keep the House Sparrows out. Don't put a perch of any sort. The Chickadees and Wrens fly straight in or they stop above it and drop down and hang on the opening. These gourds are very versatile. In the post from the Kuntsfest you can see other crafty things people did with some of them. I bought this beautiful carved one....notice the squirrel on the side :-) It is a bird feeder, but I didn't want to hang it outside, so I have kept it as a decoration indoors.
I know places here where people have dozens of these hanging up high for the Martins to live in. I've always wondered how they get them cleaned out each year.
I'm sure there are lots of directions on the Internet for making these, too.