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