Terry Washburn

TerryW · Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:10 pm

Hi guys! I am Terry Washburn, and I am still ticking. I'll probably be hanging around here a bit. Hi Emil and Steve!

A belated thanks to John Barrow and others for acknowledging my tunnel and traction porch discovery work in my super colony in early 2000's. The sickness I experienced when I throwed in the towel, was my wife's, Parkinson's dementia, I devoted all my free time to taking care of her, so didn't have time to do martins. She died a few years later, and I remarried, am 80, but doing okay. Lots of aches and pains, but that is what getting old is all about; it ain't for sissies! Well, guess I was a bit sick also, prostate cancer, knee replacement, and afib. Everything under control now though.

I tried to connect with Sandy Bunn, whom I sold my little entrance business to, but was unable. Unless there are two Sandy Bunns in North Carolina, he may have died just this past October.

Making plans to install one or two Abare racks, which I am very partial to Chuck's gourd rack design, if I can figure out how to erect the darn pipes. Used to do that by myself. Chuck has forgotten more about PM's than most of us will ever know...although we didn't always see eye to eye, chuckle. Have spoken to Chuck and to Reb Black via email. Trying to remember the Missouri couple's name, who always attended the Mennonite/PMCA gatherings in MS. Can't remember his name, but he came up with the first cling plate. Anybody help me with this?

Course my start will be made with a couple of round-hole SuperGourds, complete with ability to utilize their S&S insertable trap, in the top layer, and the balance of the top layer will be PMCA Excluder II plastic gourds. The bottom layer will be Troyer horizontals with Conley II entrances. However, the first year, I will probably only hang maybe 8 total. I will have one S&S trap available for the Excluder II gourds and one for the Troyer Horizontals, as well. S&S will NOT be tolerated, no exceptions.

C.C.Martins · Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:46 pm

Sir, welcome back! Sorry to hear of your loss, sounds like you have been through it. Im sure as the forum warms up when season approaches your martin friends will chime in more.
The tunnels you mention...have a few from Mr Barrow, love them so do the Martins. Tried my hand replicating them, so so results. I keep them close, Thank you!
Wish you all the best this season!
Look forward to you sharing your wisdom, and hearing from you as the seasons progress and our purple friends return.
Tom

Dave Reynolds · Sat Dec 14, 2019 9:05 am

... TerryW ..... Great to have you back with us on the Forum... Sounds like things are going better for ya now.. It was good to here that you are installing the Chuck Abare Rack.. That is how a friend of mine started and it is still in use today.. I never built one, but I like the design.. Take care and have a wonderful 2020 season.

Dave

Emil Pampell-Tx · Tue Dec 17, 2019 12:17 pm

Terry, its good to see that you are ok...Sorry to hear about your wife, and I too lost my wife to cancer. I will be starting to put up my gourds any day now, but may not put up all 250, just getting too old to keep them all maintained, especially the natural gourds. If you have any starling problems, then try my sideboard idea because it was tested for 3 years and it works. I attach a sideboard (1in x 2in) beside any entrance and attach with Lexol caulk. I put the sideboards about 2in apart, (the outer edge must be at least 3/4 in from the entrance so I use 1in to make sure)and it works on ANY entrance to keep out the starlings and it completely stops wing entrapment. The sideboard forces the starling to go straight in but its chest is too tall to enter a 1-3/16in opening. I use rectangular entrances because the sideboards work on any SREH

TerryW · Sat Dec 28, 2019 11:51 am

Thank you so much Emil for the sideboard rec! I will do it. That's the product of a man who can think...smile...

I expect that also sorta splains why excluders work pretty well on starlings...the excluder offers them no more than 1-3/16" even when the starling tilts its body off center.

I had ordered a couple of round-hole SG's with their traps to do the control with, but that trap is a bit of trouble to install. I am also where I can shoot, which is kind of fun to do too.

I really like the looks of Troyer's horizontal gourd, but don't like the looks of the Conley entrance, because, to your point, the starling can tilt its body and probably get in. I bet your sideboard is almost a must for them?

The plastic gourds are sort of expensive these days!

TerryW · Sat Dec 28, 2019 1:15 pm

Thanks, CC and Dave! Kinda nice to be back, and I will try to be nicer...

John Miller · Sat Dec 28, 2019 2:25 pm

Found the NC obit for a Sandy Bunn, but think guy was older than our purple martin Sandy...hope.
John Millers can be found in obits left and right....whew.

TerryW · Sat Dec 28, 2019 10:14 pm

Yes, JohnM, that's quite a coincidence isn't it! I talked to Louise Chambers a few days ago, and she says that's not him. She thought him to be younger than that too.

Mike Dingman · Wed Jan 01, 2020 1:13 pm

Hey Terry! So nice to read your words again...Grin...I still remember you with a jig saw and a Super Gourd, and your making a new entrance for it. This was at one of the MartinFest's in the 3rd week in June at Finger Tennessee. I bought 50 or 60 of the tunneled entrances from Sandy Bunn over the years. I am using crescents, excluders, and modified excluders. I too am sorry for your loss, but I am glad you found love again and remarried. Being lonely is a terrible sentence to endure. Glad your back. I am down from 57 entrances to 36 Super Gourds, that is enough for me to take care of properly. Since I last talked to you, which was years ago, I also have nesting wood ducks, 3 bat houses, (I counted 649 bats exit a couple of nights ago). Mexican Freetail bats. I had help counting, and one house had a video camera keeping track for me. I built a chimney swift house and hope a single family will occupy this season, starts in April. I belong to a bee keeping club too here in Melbourne, FL, but haven't pulled the trigger on that one yet....no bee hives. Take care and keep in touch.
Mike Dingman, Melbourne, FL

TerryW · Fri Jan 03, 2020 5:46 am

Hi, Mike, you are into many things! Bet you have fun.

Uh, where are your chimney swift towers? Kidding! I would like to have done that sometime, but a little late now. I see fewer and fewer of these interesting little flying cigars with their stiff elbow quills that aid their climbing in and out old brick chimneys.