Birdhouses, Gingerbread Cookies, and Some Folklore

I don't know if you have ever grown gourds, but many people do.  I got these from a neighbor at home and brought several back with me.  We immediately started making birdhouses because the birds here are busy looking for nesting sites and mates. 

  I drew a circle on the gourds and started drilling little holes around the perimeter.  Before I knew it we had a birdhouse!

Getting the wire through was too hard and I ended up using  nylon string too.

I made a couple and gave them to my neighbors but I couldn't part with these odd shaped ones.

They have the most interesting seeds.  A bit like George Washington's teeth I once saw when I visited his birthplace!

The silver thing is a wire I used that was left over when  I scooped up everything lying on the porch and put it in my "dipping gourd".

As you can see I've made a dipper out of it already.  I put a loop of wire in the end so I can hang it up and let it dry in the sun so it doesn't rot.

This brings to mind an old American folksong so indulge me while I go on one of my American History/Folklore tangents! Follow the Drinking Gourd is a song that refers to the constellation The Big Dipper which served as a guide for slaves from the south to escape to freedom in the north via the Underground Railroad.  They could flee under cover of night and find their way to the Ohio River and thence to freedom.  For those of you outside the USA the Ohio River forms much of the border of Kentucky which lies along the Mason Dixon line, the divisor of north and south.  Anyway, I thought of the song because of the gourd (of course) and also I learned the song when I first learned to strum a guitar.  It is in a minor key.  In this case I played it in e minor which is just about the easiest chord of all to strum on a guitar.  A minor is easy too but it forced me to learn that finger tipping monster B Major 7!

After all that hard work I had to make my visitor some of his favorite cookies.  I pulled out my trusty old cookbook of tried and true southern favorites .....

I found some molasses cookies and gingerbread cookies so I adapted my own recipe.  I mean really, with sugar, molasses, butter, flour and spices who can go wrong?  The result was a success and the 4 dozen little cookies disappeared in a few days.  I was delighted that they keep very well.  Now I really must write down the recipe before I forget!

Next time I will make twice as many and freeze half the dough.  This is an excellent way to use up old sorghum that is getting hard.