I was so taken with the gourd birdhouses that Courtney made for Christmas.  Then Barry reminded me that we had 2 gourds that had been drying in the garage for a long time.  My yoga teacher gave them to my kids  last growing season (in 2006).  Anyway, the kids painted them and now they’re ready to be lived in.

They were pretty easy to make.  Once they were painted and dry we just drew our 1 1/2 inch circles for the doors where we wanted them.  The we drilled 1/4 inch holes in the middle of the circles and used a little coping saw blade to cut the holes the right size. Hollowing them out was fun.  The stuff was all styrofoamy and the seeds are a crazy shape.  (We saved seeds for future gourd growing.)  I reached in with my fingers to loosen things up, but it mostly just shook out.  Then we found some good perching sticks, drilled holes just smaller than the diameter of the sticks and glued them in.  I’m sure it will be awhile before we have residents, but just the shape and color of these make me smile.