Tom, my purple martin house is an old "Heath" house and definitely not up to current standards. It came from my Dad, who purchased several insertable layers. At the time, it was sold by Sears and you could buy and add as many "stories" as you wanted. When he replace it with all gourds, he put the pole and Heath house up in my yard. I think you can still get the Heath house but it is not recommended/sanctioned by Purple Martin advocates. The link below tells the story of my pole and how it works. (There are two "pages" to the post.) Again - this set up - all my Dad. He had the idea, got the parts and put it all together. Also again, he came up with this way before the internet and current standards of daily nest inspections, etc. You will fall in love with them if you get the Purple Martin house! Every Feb/March, you will watch the skies, waiting for YOUR birds to return. Yes, they are migratory birds and the exact same birds will return to your house once you have a colony established. Over wonderful open water like you have, it shouldn't take long. Carol Here is a link that might be useful: Purple Martin Pole

That's funny that you name them. Mine are Momma, Blackie, Little Blackie and "the other one"... LOL! They don't usually bother me (even to the point that they come out to "help" when I'm raking leaves) but when they started doing the twisty thing as a pair on my pool deck - I drew the line and got out the hose! BTW - If you missed your hummer for a day, she came down south here for a quick visit - thanks for sharing! It was the first time I have seen one here.

It is better than most of my pics Candy...good job! Penny

i like snakes... as long as they are eating mice/rats and don't come springing out at me. one day, at school, kids were hauling in bags of equipment from whatever they were doing outside in PE. as one boy was putting bag into closet he says... "Look... a snake!". no major commotion but i cautiously went over to take a look. it was probably no longer than a pencil and not even that fat. it slowly eases up over lip of closet door and went into hiding. PE teacher had to find kids to help him take EVERYTHING out of that closet in order to find the critter and send it back home outside.