DIY Gourd Birdhouse

Okay, today I'm cleaning up some old gourds from my friend garden from last years crop. You really have to let gourds dry out before you start working with them. 

And FIY some will look like they have some rot to them but it's just there colors, others are rotten, just gently push againsts the discoloration with your finger, it's it's soft and bends inward alittle it has already started, you can still use these, some I put the hole the the entrance of the birdhouse. 

First we're going to wash them, this helps loosen up that dry outer skin that's going to need to come off. 

Then I used some of Billy's medium grit sand paper and these sponges I found from the dollar store. I love these sponges they work great and have a nice nail guard and grip on them. 

Most of it comes right off with the green part of the sponge. I had to alternate scrubbing and spraying it with the hose here and there do get chunks of skin off. 

And now we sand down the rough spots and the extra hard parts of the skin that wouldn't come off with the sponge. 

So naturally pretty, I couldn't imagine sanding them. 

Here I missed taking a few pictures. I took a screw gun and I don't know what it's called but I attacked the head to it that drills whole. This is using a 1 inch diameter drill. Then using just a normal drill bit. Drilled a whole underneath the big one for the perch and then drilled a few on the bottom for water drainage. Also one of the top and strung zip ties through them. 

Here I used three different colors of wood polish and used a cloth to rub it in. You can use stain which I would probably recpmmend using but this is what I had at my house at the moment and was impatient and wanted to finish these that night. 

I let them dry for about 3 days. And let the polish rely soak in. Even after a few days thru still feel greasy to the touch but I just wiped them down with paper towels. 

Took them out side and hung them up using hemp.  

I love them, I feel like I couldn't hang enough of them. 

We had a branch fall on the corner of the fence last year but when we went to move it in the spring it stayed strong and grew so we left it. It process a cute shaded corner anyways! 

Please note it can take a few years for birds to take to any type of bird house. Leave hair from you comb and strings out on your branches or fences to let them pick and play with it and help encourage best building.