Shed update 8 May 2012 - it's all go!

We had an artist who has been painting Murals around Wellington to try to curb graffiti approach us about painting a Mural on our roller door, as it had been tagged and looked unsightly With the Sisters blessing we gave him the go ahead and that has been completed and looks great. We have some Sheddies building planter boxes out of pallets we had been given by Bunnings. Some old fashioned wooden Jig Saw puzzles owned by Paparanga Kindergarten had pieces missing which the Sheddies have replaced and painted.  A Sheddie  has started doing some traditional Maori carving. Another Sheddie who has all the right tools and is cleaning up Paua shells and carving out animal and butterfly shapes to make Mobiles for babies cots. Another job is coming up for the Wellington City Mission -  they need shelves built. They were so pleased with the food donation box that Ron, one of our coordinators made, we are going to be getting all their jobs. The donation box is so bright and impressive at the supermarket that the likes of the SPCA had a new box made because ours made theirs look shabby. So it’s all go atTHE SHED.

Back in business in the New Year

The Wellington Menzshed has been quite active since opening again after Xmas.

We have a number of new members and some old ones have been in.

We have built a food donation box for the Wellington City Mission, made a table for an injured pensioner, fixed some toys for a kindy, made shelves for someone who was unable to do it for himself.

We are in the process of helping build a glass house for the community garden at Owhiro bay run by the Sisters of Compassion.

We also have a new member who fixes bicycyles for a few people.

Come along to join in these activities.

Grumpy Old Men article, Capital Times 23 November

This article is a sequel to that below - the response from the Sisters (our landlord)

Whose shed is it anyway? A Capital Times article 16 November

This article in the Capital Times 16 November is an update on the situation of the original MenzShed Wellington.

Note changes of times for activities.

Menzshed 26 April 2011

Projects on hand

Stuart Hudson, Jim Yates and Henry Hodge have been busy painting the children’s chairs for Kilbirnie Plunket and have now completed 6 of them. There are 4 more chairs and a table which need attention and Jim Yates hopes to get them to the shed by Thursday. Henry Hodge did such a good job repairing the first 6 - and with luck he may return this week to deal with the second batch - it’ll be good to see you back Henry.

DIY Power

Robin Bodley, who is a recognised expert in the differences between scale and surface rust, has an interesting project on the go at the shed. He’s constructing a home based electricity generator using a man-powered bicycle frame, with a stator that he obtained from an old washing machine. (Do hope I’ve got the technical description right!). Robin hopes to demonstrate and exhibit in the future. I’m sure he’ll pass on tips to anyone interested in constructing a similar machine to reduce their domestic power bill

Coffee News

There’s palpable air of sophistication at the MenzShed these days. When we first started, smoko was usually a cup of lukewarm brown stuff made from the remnants that you could scrape from the coffee jar. However all that changed with the arrival of man-about-town, Les Collins, he of the trilby hat Les introduced a touch of class to the shed by donating a working coffee machine that used real coffee beans. Now we have been gifted a second one and Norman Kabak is spending some time get-ting it into optimum condition.

A Ring of Steel

Rolf Kluger called in last Thursday for a natter. He donated welding equipment to the shed which he would like to see used. Rolph has a wealth of Wellington engineering stories in his backpack.

Our Treasurer, Jim Yates, is looking forward to sign-ing up members for the shed this week. The annual subscription currently stands at $1.00 - so get your gold coin ready when you visit.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) from 1pm the evils of the world will be discussed by the Grumpy Old Men. On Thursday the real work will continue on our various projects.

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MenzShed 16 March

Fellow Sheddies -

A reminder that the Shed is open tomorrow and Thursday.

"Grumpy Old Men" meet Wed. from 1:00 till 3:00 ish.

Conversation, Coffee, Conviviality, and Crunchy Bickies,

precede more serious talk about issues and ideas.

Come and expand your mind, or at least what is left

of your mind.

Thursday, we hope to start on a special project of painting

little chairs for an early childhood center, and painting the

apartment upstairs, so that we might find a tenant and help

to reduce our out of pocket rent.

So, come one, come all, and meet some new members

who signed on last week.

Also, someone wants to make a movie about the "Shed",

so this needs some conversation as well.

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MenzShed open for 2011 - come along!

Sheddies:

Shed open hours:
Wed.  1pm – 3ish Grumpy Old Men
Thu. 10am – 1pm Projects and General work activities

Please note that Independent projects and activities can be done
in the shed premises, as long as you can bring someone
along to be with you.

Our rules say that no one can be working with tools by
themselves. This is for your protection.

Thank you.

Shed committee

PS. Have a look at the soil moving photos in the slideshoow on the left top of the page. Note that we weren't leaning on our shovels the whole time!

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MenzShed - 2011 opening meet 27 January

Gents and other camp followers -

The first work session of the New Year will take place

tomorrow at the Shed.

Doors open at 10 am.

Please bring your best smiling faces, and ideas for a

creative Sheddies season.

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MenzShed 13 December

Sheddies -

Two announcements:

1- Please invite your favourite people to our "Seasonal Sausage Sizzle" thisThursday morning. The Shed will be open the usual time at 10am, the festivities should start at about 11ish till about 1pm.

HOWEVER!!!! if some hands could be available on Wednesday in the morning starting at about 10:30 to make the shed a bit more presentable, that would help.

2- Speaking of "hands", we have the following request:

Habitat for Humanity is currently sprucing up a property at 41 Hankey Street, Te Aro (off Hopper Street which goes south from Webb Street). We are in need of some guys to help us tomorrow (Tuesday)to level out a section as a volunteer team had to pull out. The job will involve shovels and rakes as we prepare a lawn for grass. I realise this is short notice, but if any of your fellows are free and willing to lend a hand, please could they call the Project Manager Murray McGaughran ( ph 027 244 9422) about the details. People will be on site from about 8.30, but any time that the guys might give would be appreciated.

MenzShed Drum Roll newsletter 8 December 2010

Sheddies:

Shed open hours: Wed. 10am – 12:30pm General work activities
Wed. 1pm – 3ish Grumpy Old Men
Thu. 1oam – 1pm Projects and General work activities

Save the date: December 16th, we will be having a pre-Christmas gathering and Bar-B-Q, so bring spouses, friends and some food would be welcome too. This is an open invitation to all the MenzSheds in the area, so please make it known to one and all. Robbin has agreed to give a short talk about his Lake Taupo experience.
New News:

News Items: (Some less worthy than others).

Good morning at the shed last Thursday - 8 men there.

Garry Prockter pressed on with the new shelving for tool storage, using the handy versatile ladder recovered from the back room - we wonder what other useful articles we have stashed away in the corners of the shed.

Henry Hodge has had his quote accepted for the project of installing 2 sets of shelving in the offices of the Inner City Project on Riddiford Street, Newtown - so that is all on the go.

Don Matheson was in working on his Roadrunner windmills, shaping up the metal propellers.

Good to see Desmond return with his mate Jonathon.

Alan Royal poked his head round the door. He has continued updating the Wellington MenzShed website with copies of the newsletter, and has also updated it with interesting stuff from Australian MenSheds - take a look at it.

John Gibbon was busy showing off the upstairs premises to prospective tenants

Jim Yates recently visited the Omnibus Society at their premises in the bus depot on Darwin Street in Karori. They have 20 old buses stored there in various states of restoration - the oldest bus was produced in 1929, and there are a few buses there in the old Welllington Transport livery of red. He got shown around by Morris Moller, who had stories for every last one of the buses and a wealth of mechanical knowledge. If any sheddies are interested Morris invited us to go visit one Tuesday night in the new year. And they still welcome volunteer workers - no special skills required, just interest, elbow grease and common sense

Jim Baltaxe, our Health and Safety man is away on the mainland and will be returning on December 12.

The National Menz Shed Aotearoa Steering Committee has recently been in touch with a survey of all Mens Sheds in the country - they reckon there's about 35 in all. Take a look at their website: http://www.menzshedaotearoa.org.nz/index.htm

As Porky Pig would say, “Th..Th..Tha.. That’s all F..F..Fo..Folks”

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