Purple martin house-builder builds one more
- Details
- Published on Saturday, April 30, 2016
Photo by John Dietz. Gord Oleksuk stands with one of his purple martin houses.
By John Dietz
Submitted article
It was time to retire 18 years ago, that’s why Gord Oleksuk built a purple martin house. It was something to do. More than 100 purple martin houses later, he’s still building them in the little shop beside his house at the junction of Highway 10 and 25, sometimes called Glanton Corner. At 81 Gord says he still has a few left to build. Gaby, his wife, is fine with that for now but next winter she’d like to be living in Brandon – and the shop may be just a memory.
Gord builds a red-and-white plywood ‘house’ that gracefully spans six-feet across at the outside peaks. The martin house has four sides. Each side has a four-storey nesting arrangement, giving it a capacity for 16 nests. The single-piece face of each side is hooked and hinged, making it easy to open once a year for cleaning.
The nest spaces increase in size at each level, due to the sloping outside walls, which rise to meet a sweeping roof-line, giving an overall impression of open wings, ready to lift off.
Buyers receive five pieces ready to assemble with a screwdriver, but able to be transported in a small car. The set weighs 60-65 pounds, has two coats of paint and is built to slide on a four-by-four wooden post. Buyers need to supply their own post, small winch and cable; Gord recommends a treated post that’s 12-18 feet long which needs to be three feet into the ground for stability.
It all started one fall when he asked a neighbour about the graceful birds that were sitting on a hydro line, flocking to leave for the winter. The neighbour said they were purple martins living in his purple martin house.
“I didn’t know what purple martins were at the time, but I went over and had a look at his house. I dreamt up my own plan for one in my head, and put one together,” Gord says. “We really had good luck. It filled up the first year, so I built another one. I didn’t get a chance to put it up in spring, so I set it up by the road. I thought, maybe somebody will notice and want to buy one. It’s still there. Then I put a sign up, ‘Purple Martin Houses and our phone number.’ I’ve built well over 100 since then.”
Gord kept track of his time for building the first house he sold and after expenses he only made 90 cents an hour.
“That’s when I got to making jigs and templates, streamlining the work. It saved quite a bit of plywood, too. There wasn’t as much waste.”
Now when he needs to build another one, he can start in the morning cutting up three sheets of plywood and the house can be ready to pick up in approximately four days.
He uses 5/8-inch plywood for the core or centre piece, half-inch plywood for the side, back and front door, and 3/8-inch plywood for the roof. Plus lots of screws, an air-nailer, some hinges and hooks.
“I rough cut my plywood into lengths then I start using the jigs. Mostly I use the table saw and a cutoff saw. I build the four boxes for the houses first. I put the roofs on, then I build the carrier.”
A few times Gord has custom-painted to suit a buyer’s request – usually to match their home’s exterior colour.
“They have come back later and said they went back to red, because the birds weren’t coming. I don’t know what it is, but red paint seems to draw them when they’re looking for a place to nest.”
Building purple martin houses has been a great retirement hobby for the ex-carpenter.
“For me, it’s given me an opportunity to keep using my tools and doing what I like to do – working with wood. The most interesting part is where they go. The furthest east one is on Manitoulin Island. They’ve gone west into Alberta and Saskatchewan, north to The Pas and south to North Dakota and Minnesota.”
Gaby adds, “We’ve gotten to really enjoy the birds. They’re phenomenal. I love to hear them first thing in the morning singing away. You go outside and they’re flying around. I just enjoy them.”
