A visit from The Conservation Volunteers (and more painting|)

Hywel here is with Katie Lowry from the Conservation Volunteers based at Sale Water park. We have been repairing some of their tools so that they can continue with their great work. Katie brought in more tools to repair and took some of the ones we have repaired back with her 

Meanwhile the painting continued. The brickwork is being painted dark green and we finished the undercoat. Will look better when we get the top  coat of grey/green on as the sky blue and dark green don't look great together

Painting the front of the shop.....

Painting the City Blue?

Last week we sanded down and cleaned the outside of the shop front on Merseybank Parade. Today it didn't look like it would rain, so we started painting the woodwork. 

Here are Ron & me staring the painting (as viewed from inside) with the "Bee Nice" planter in the backgroun

And here we are from another angle

You might notice that the paint looks rather like Manchester City sky blue colour. Indeed one passer by favourably complimented us on our choice of colour. I would point out though, that this is an undercoat, using one of the part used tins of paint that Hywel had brought in

Here are Bob and Terry outside the shop with the newly (part) painted frontage. Tomorrow we aim to cover it with a top coat of a grey/green paint, which as far as I know, no football team has as its colour

Meanwhile in the shop, Rick and Izzy were looking to repair Izzy's bike but a stripped thread on the crank shaft put paid to that

Touch wood - wood and more wood:

  Visit to Touch wood – My Kind of woodyard

I was shown round by Mechelle Gibbons from Touch Wood who was really friendly and helpful in my search for wood for various projects we are undertaking at the Shed Touch Wood sells re-cycled wood which is my kind of wood

Mechelle, with Laura Kenny & Jason Kenny and their new table made of wood from the old Velodrome track

(sorry I don't know her work mate' s name)

Laura  Kenny

These cycling stars were at Touchwood to collect the table that had been made for them from the old racing track at the Velodrome in Manchester which Touchwood are


recycling. 

Laura & Jason Kenny

The track was made from Siberian Spruce. Maybe we should get a piece for the Men’s Shed, but at £30 sq metre? 


Mmmmm...would look good having a piece on the wall of our shop, especially if we could get a some ex-track with a coloured line on it 

Hard at work

!

Touch Wood are a part of  Emerge, based at 

New Smithfield Market, M11 2WJ

                                                                              

                                            

Scaffolding boards

    
2400mm long x 70mm thick x220m wide

You can make raised beds with these but they don't last as long as sleeper   sized wood. Good for constructing things like the borders of vegetable plots

Sleepers  -  very thick ones

2400mm long x 115mm thick x240mm wide

Can also buy half sleepers
(1m to 12.2m long) 

Also chunky timber is available:
70mm thick x190mm wide, various lengths

Great for raised beds. Could make one that was two sleepers high (480mm) for about £85 and with that thickness of wood it would last a long time

Pallet Wood

At £1 per 2m slat, this is good value. It is a bit thicker than normal pallet wood and good quality.I bought 15 strips of the wood for the Mud Kitchen project, whilst I was there. 






Here I am ready to  drop them off  dropped them off at our Merseybankpremises ready for Bob to get to work on them

This is the mud kitchen which is part of  an outside play areas at Barlow Moor Community Centre where young children can play in a 'kitchen' with lots of mud, water, kitchen utensils and opportunities for plenty of splashing, pouring, squishing, mashing, stirring, and splatting! It is in a bit of disrepair so we are going to work on making it safe and looking better. The new wood will come in handy

Large Posts

These posts are 2400mm long x 95mm wide (square) and cost bout £5 each

They will be very useful when we build a rain shelter with a perspex top in the back yard of the Shed for the bike repair workshop we plan to open soon

Update on what is happening at the Merseybank Men's Shed

Although we have called ourselves the South Manchester Men in Sheds, in practice we are becoming more and more embedded in the local community and an alternative name would be the Merseybank Men's Shed. Having said that, we do get people coming from all over south Manchester so best stick with SMMiS

At the end of this week here is a summary of what has been happening:

• The lease is about to get through its last legal hold up and we should officially take over the tenancy for the shop at 38 Merseybank Road from Sep 3rd 2018
• we are gradually working through developing our  policies and procedures (thank you John Mulvenna). On a day to day basis from September everyone new member will receive an induction pack and some basic training on safety issues and handling equipment especially
• We have submitted a NIF application for funding to design and construct 10 planters/raised beds on spare land, owned by the Council, on the corner of Whiteholme Ave and Merseybank Road . If successful this will be done in collaboration with the Barlow Moor Community Centre (BMCA) Groundwork Youth MSSTT 13+ programme. Should be an interesting and hopefully enjoyable and instructive experience in intergenerational cooperation
• DIY course a sub-group will be meeting to discuss the scheduling and content of the 2 approved DIY courses. This will includepeople who were on the first DIY course to see how it can be improved. Certainly we need to get more hands-on activity rather than talking about it (we are very good at that)  All being well we aim for first course to start on Sep 25 2018
• Work has started on preparing and then painting the outside façade of the shop, Nice shade of grey/green paint chosen by Bernard (very tasteful, very eco, very Chorlton….err…Green)
• Tool repair
   John meeting with the Conservation Volunteers (Kaite Lowry) next week to get to work on repairing the various handtools that need it for work in the Mersey Valley
• Prison Cell Project
  Mike Ossi aims to build a mock up cell and related acted-out scenarios for a schools roadshow. Bernard & Bob have met up with him y to discuss options for his project
• Lathe: Ken Norton is making the missing part for the lathe (impressive). He is happy to put on a course on using the lathe once the workshop is fully operational (very soon - back room floor just needs a couple of coats of lacquer
• Bike project
  Priority is to have a meeting of key people involved so we can get this started, now that we have the funding
• Mud Kitchen
  Bob has taken on the job of renovating the Toddler mud kitchen in the playgroup area at Barlow Moor Community Centre (BMCA). Again this will involve younger people too in carrying it out
• Spirit of the Beehive
  Denise Bishop, who lives locally and is a very experienced bee keeper and swarm collector, came to talk about possibility of a hive in the far end of our back yard which may catch some morning sunshine. 
• Future Social?
  We could always have a bitr of a do, perhaps with BMCA and make use of their outdoor clay pizza oven. Denise offered to make some scones and provide fresh Merseybank honey to have on them if we do have a social
  
  Bernard

A lot has happened in the last 2 weeks....

There has been a lot of activity in the last few weeks at the Merseybank shed

Our Neighbourhood Investment Fund (NIF) application to Manchester City Council has been approved, This means we will be able to do up to 3 Do-It-Yourself courses in the coming year. We will consult with those people have been on our first DIY course (see below)

Photo from our first DIY course

Part of the grant is to go towards setting up a bike repair and refurbishment project for which we will be purchasing a metal Bike shed (of sorts - see below) and various equipment and parts. We hope to get this off the ground fairly soon and get the shed set up in the back yard

The shed from Screwfix that we will be getting

Jim, watched by Saleem,  inspects a bike wheel calibrator that someone from BMCA across the road,dropped off just while we were talking about the bike project

Community Greening & Youth involvement project 

Funding has been  has been set aside for this project which will be led by the Men’s Shed but involve a collaboration with the BMCA Groundwork Youth MSSTT 13+ programme. The aim will be to design and construct 10 planters/raised beds on spare land, owned by the Council, on the corner of Whiteholme Ave and Merseybank Road (see below). 

Outdoor Mud Kitchen for children at Barlow Moor Community Centre (BMCA) across the road

 It has lots of mud, water, kitchen utensils and opportunities for plenty of splashing, pouring, squishing, mashing, stirring, patting and splatting! Well there is one in the BMCA toddler’s area, but it is in need of repair (see photos)

 Well Bob's back from his holidays now so I am sure he will soon get to work on that, Aim will be to repair it (it’s made from pallets), clean it, sand it and treat it, together with the BMCA youth project group who come to BMCA  Thursdays 7-9pm. 

Meanwhile, Hywel and Rick were busy laying the wood floor in the back room (see photos) 

Today, Tues 21st Aug, has been a busy day too. As well as our committee meetings - which go on a bit as so much laughter and banter takes place- we had a visit from Denise Bishop, who is a very experienced bee keeper and swarm collector. She was wondering is we could have a bee hive in a place in the back yard which gets some early sunshine in the day. She also bakes terrific scones, which go even better with Merseybank honey on top

Finally, we got down to preparing the shop frontage to be painted, Here are Bob & Terry sanding and cleaning up the woodwork