Boulders and wood arrives

Boulders and wood arrives at Merseybank 

9 large Scottish granite boulders arrived at the corner of the parade of shop on Merseybank Ave. Now we can move on to the next stage of greenifying this rather desolate corner with some raised beds

Today, the wood we had ordered from Emerge arrived. As you can see it was a very tight fit for the lorry to get down the alleyway

It got there eventually (well done lorry driver)

The heaviest parts were two large wooden platforms which we hope to use as a base for doing the bike repairs on, under the rain shelter we plan to build in the back yard

A bit of a squeeze getting the platform under the gate

It required 4 people to carry each platform (we had two)

Irritatingly we couldn't find the key to the lock on the gate of our back fence. So we had to stack up the wood outside until we eventually unscrewed the bolt on the gate

Here is Roger stacking the wood inside our yard

These 3"x4" lengths of old joists (in great condition) will provide the posts for the rain shelter (2 x 2.6m & 2x2.4m)

A very wet day at the Shed

Wet Wednesday at Merseybank

Felt like the wettest day of the year as in never stopped tippling it down. With the heating on it felt much cosier and there was plenty of time to have a cup of tea & a chat

Steve sitting beside one of the veg racks we have built for Quids In 

'Quids In' is a food club, run by volunteers, is aimed at the many households in south Manchester struggling to feed their families each week. ‘Quids In’ offers £15 worth of food for just £2 weekly membership – a sum that goes to charity Fareshare.  Unlike food banks, Quids In is an on-going membership offering fresh and chilled items that can be difficult to find and expensive to buy locally.

We then had a visit from Richard Dudley the local Neighbourhood Officer (Chorlton Park & Fallowfield) from the City Council together with some contractors from Dalys

 
They were looking at the best place to put boulders as a feature to complement sthe raised beds we would make. John was there (looking at his watch), so here he is with some boulders in the area of ground at the end of Merseybank parade (an artists impression!)

Meanwhile back in the shop 

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