News - March 2018

March brings breezes loud and shrill

Stirs the dancing daffodil

...did someone mention snow?

February at Mudeford Club saw a good turn out for the meeting with our Mayor, Councillor Nick Geary.

Nick was able to give us some good advice regarding our search for a permanent shed with better facilities and access for our less mobile members. We were able to highlight the benefits of a "Men's Shed" in the Christchurch area and to discuss how a Men's Shed could have a positive part to play in men's health and in combating social isolation in the local community.

After our meeting with Nick, Les Mercer has followed up on a couple of leads and has been in touch with the council regarding other potential sites in the area.

New Members

We have quite a number of enquiries about joining our shed recently and look forward to welcoming some new members over the next few weeks.

Hopefully the lift installation at Greystone's House will be completed by the end of April (see latest schedule below) and we can get our workshop back to normal.

We have decided to skip our regular Room 11 meeting in April due to uncertainty about access during the lift works.

The next Room 11 meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 1st May (easy date to remember) starting at the usual time of 2.00 pm.

Workshop availability

The latest information I have on the lift installation is that Greystone's House will be closed over the Easter weekend and the reinforcing beams will be installed in the workshop at that time.

This means that we can have access to the workshop as usual this coming week - albeit with some disruption to our work space as we have already cleared the area ready for the steelworks to go in.

Greystone's House will close from Friday 23rd April to 27th April inclusive while the lift is being installed and we will not have access to the workshop during this period.

Hopefully everything will be back to normal by May........but watch this space!

Workshop Activities

Lenny has started on a new carving of a Buddha - love the way the features start to appear from a block of rough wood as if by magic!

Barry has made a small router table to improve his home router work

Mack's chess set and box is progressing nicely and Nick Mowl is restoring an inlaid box originally made at sea by his great-grandfather?

Speaking of Nick, what do we think of someone who takes a really useful bull nose shoulder plane and removes the blade to use as a paint scraper leaving him with a perfectly useless plane now that the blade is lost! To be fair, Nick also brought in a nice wooden skew rebate plane which is now restored to good usable condition. Thanks to Peter Varnes who encouraged me to "get the job done properly"

The wooden "jack plane" from the box of old tools has also been brought back to life with a "sympathetic" restoration maintaining the history of the item. Anyone who thought it was only good for firewood should give it a try - the results might be a pleasant surprise!

One of our new members, Steve Dinley, has a band saw and a bench grinder to bring to the workshop - should make great additions to our tool box!

Ann Horan, one of the ladies from Greystone's donated a load of wood from her late husband's workshop.

And thanks to Jerry Russell who brought in a bag of doughnuts to go with our mid-morning cuppa!

Community Projects: Highcliffe Library Shed

Unfortunately I missed out on helping with the community shed at the library but I understand the project went well. Brian Vaughan led the team comprising Les Mercer, Bob Mackinnon, John Scase and Nick Mowl.

Projects like this will help raise our profile and standing in the local community - thanks to the team for getting the job done!

Shed Stuff

There is a stall at Molly's Den Emporium in Christchurch selling second hand tools at very reasonable prices - if you avoid the collectors stuff.

Look out for Derek at Shed Stuff or you can contact him on 07712 165 108

(Molly's Den is in Bridge Street, Purewell very close to the civic centre)

Men's Shed and HCA Membership

I will be chasing up members for their annual subscriptions in April - I have membership packs made up for the new members.

(Any new members, please remind me to let you have the workshop key pad code when you join)

Remember that you also need to renew your HCA (Highcliffe Community Association) membership in April and have me sign your membership card.

Forthcoming Events

Les Mercer is planning a London style Pie, Mash and liquor event - watch out for more details from Les shortly.

That's just about all folks.

Hopefully I will have shaken off the Bubonic Plague / Man-Flu by next week and be back in action at the workshop instead of hogging the sofa and tartan blanket!

Best regards,

John Pegram

Secretary

PS Don't forget to send me any interesting stuff for our next Shed News