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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MenzShed Drum Roll newsletter 1 December 2010

Sheddies:

We are trying something new with today’s newsletter. Any corrective comments and suggestions are most welcome, so feel free to speak you mind.

For the moment, send your remarks to nkabak@msn.com  Until we acquire another email address.

News Items: (Some less worthy than others)

Still Urgent:  We need to find a tenant for the space upstairs. Vincent, Our former tenant helped to pay our rent and we are desperate To find a replacement tenant.  If you have any suggestions, please contact any of the Shed committee.

New News: We have a world class cyclist Sheddie.  Robbin, our resident Thomas Alva Edison, has completed eight (8) laps around Lake Taupo and has been invited to participate in the “Race Across America”.  Congratulations Robbin. Now we have to see how we can sponsor a ticket to get him there. Any ideas??????

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.

When you come to the shed, you will see that a tremendous effort has been made by a number of our Sheddies to have a more presentable and useful work area.  A special “tip of the hat” to Garry Procktor for his efforts along with Terry Street, Jim Yates and Jim Baltax for planning, preparing and then assembling the shelving along the wall in the work area.  It goes a long way to making us look like we know what we are doing, not to mention the safety factor of putting things in the proper place. When finished we can sort out all the tools in the shed and make them more accessible for use.

Henry Hodge and Don Matheson have measured up 2 shelving jobs for the Inner City Project, Riddiford House, Newtown

Henry was the lucky man to get part time employment with Photo Higher, assisting in assembly work for precision camera gimbals and unmanned aircraft systems.  No doubt with his eye in the sky experience, Henry will end up working with NASA.

We are still looking for somebody with upholstery skills to reconstruct 8 seating pads for the Inner City Project.  Contact Jim Yates (564 5834) for details

Jim Baltaxe has a neat idea for for easily accessible fire alarm systems which could be an assembly job for John Neilson

Norman Kabak has been checking out a request for a carved wooden house sign which came in last week.  "Colgate Pete" might help on this job - can anyone tell Jim Yates where he can get in touch with him

Henry brought in two more assembled rocking horses and Doug Walklin has got them undercoated, ready for a colourfull top job.

It was good to see Bill Flanagan back on his feet again.  He called in on Thursday morning and is taking things a bit easier now

Nigel Clough paid us a visit on Wednesday and after a good natter went away with some Meltica boards on "permanent loan" for the Kapiti Shed

Grumpy Old Men session last Wednesday continued with John Shrapnell, among others attending..Today, Dec. 1st had both a morning chat session and just a bit of a continued clean up and this afternoons Grumpy Old Men gab fest had a surprise visitor, Robbin, who popped in, and told us of his experience while doing the Lake Taupo race.

Peter Randall of the Omnibus Society, based at the Karori Bus Depot, visited on Thursday to look for volunteers needed to restore and maintain some of the  40+ buses and coaches they have at the Depot.  The small society has expertise in metalwork but would appreciate anyone who could help with woodwork - skill levels, he says, are not crucial.  The society meets every Tuesday night, at 7.30 pm.  If anyone is interested get in touch at obnz@paradise.net.nz or phone 970 1405.

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

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Australasian Mens Shed video clips

A list of videos on the web showing activities of a number of Sheds

• The Carina Shed in Brisbane - a “do-it-yourself paradise for blokes of all ages,” 3mins 11secs Carina..
• The Melbourne Storm - supporting Men’s Sheds in Men’s Health Week 2010, 6mins 07secs Health..
• The Forest Community Men’s Shed begins, 6 minutes Every man needs a shed.
• The Taieri ‘Bloke’s Shed’  - starts in NZ, 2mins 3secs Taieri.
• Kalamunda Men’s Sheds - click on links Several clips Short clips.
  
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Men's Shed - Barry Golding, Associate Professor Barry Golding University of Ballarat

This is a chance to go to the replay of an ACENet  FlashMeeting or view the recorded notes of the same meeting held on 4 November 2010.

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A place for blokes to be blokes

Grab this Dominion Post article about Wellington MenzShed guys. Just ignore the photo!

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MenzShed 22 October

Tom Says Make More Use of the Shed

Tom White the Wesley Community Worker who is one of our founding members wants to see the more use made of the Shed.

A couple of points sheddies:

The shed is used for at most, one to one and a half days per week! Feel free to find ways to utilise the other 5 and a half days (before we even begin to think about evening use).We have upstairs office/accommodation space still to utilise also.

Setting up this shed took three years and the combined efforts of half a dozen people. I would really love to see any sheddies with spare time, energy and oomphhh for our lovely Shed to step up and offer to be more deeply involved in the operation of our current shed to make it even more successful. For example we are still in need of a ‘shed coordinator’ to manage the daily use of the shed”. All the best, Tom

Longer Opening Hours!

We’re always willing to help out a nice lad like Tom so next Wednesday, 27 October we’ll try opening up the Shed from 10.30 to 1 for workshop activities . Then, as usual, from 1-3 Norman’s Grumpy Old Men group will take over the place to talk about a variety of erudite matters such as Why do Albatross’ Wings Ache to Why is There Such Zeal for the Zioty.

Fire Engine Makes it’s First Call

The fire engine that’s been part of the shed for some months now has left the Shed for its new home at the Johnsonville Kindergarten. The kids were absolutely thrilled so see the Fire Engine, although they didn’t know it was brand new engine specially built by the MenzShed. There was an immediate competition toset a new record for the number of preschoolers that you can fit on a Fire Engine. The local newspaper turned up to cover the event and I understand the paper has already been published in the Johnsonville area. I was planing to give you a spread of pix in this newsletter but my computer had a melt down and they were lost.

Health and Wellbeing Expo

Garry Procter and myself spent a day in the Wellington Town Hall manning the MenzShed stand. Thank you Garry for your company and enthusiasm. Thank you to Nigel, Doug, Bill and Tom who also popped into give us moral support. It was disappointing that there were so few visitors to the free Expo were. I know that Helen Young worked tirelessly to make a show a success but despite substantial advertising, we spent most of the time talking to ourselves.

Help for Vincent

Please keep your ears open for some part time workthat might suit Vincent, our Artist in Residence. The current recession means that people are cutting backon buying artwork and that affects Vincent.

People News

If you know that someone is leaving the Shed for good or moving away or joining please let me know, so that we an let all the sheddies know. I’m bringing a potential new member tomorrow. He Chinese and speaks little English, so speak to him slowly. Hisname is Jin Hua. See you there. John- shrapnell@clear.net.

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MenzShed 30 September

Just 3 Days to Expo!

Yes, this Friday the Health and Wellbeing Expo opens in the Wellington Town Hall at 10 am till 3pm. And yes, I’m beginning to panic! We have a trestle table, a power point and I’m hoping a few leaflets. In terms of people, there’ll be Garry Prockter, Jim Yates and me. We’ve been offered moral support from a couple of others, but it’s not the state of our morals that I’m worried about. What concerns me is how can we project a good image of the MenzShed and what it does for men, and for the community? If you’ve been to an Expo before you’ll know there’ll be lots of stands with great displays and eager people trying to sell their way of life to the visitors to the Expo. I’m not certain that Garry, Jim and me handing out a few leaflets will convince people that the MenzShed has something to offer. If we had the room we could set up Norman, Robin and Garry as a Grumpy Old Mens’ group and invite passers by to join in. It would be great to have the Fire Engine there as an example of our work for the community, but there’s not the space, and the logistics involved in getting the engine from the shed to the Town Hall and back again are too great. What we need is YOU and some small part of your project working at our table - putting something to-gether, taking it apart, repairing it. Anything moving that will attract peoples’ attention so that we can tell them what a great job we’re doing. This is your shed. How can you help make our Expo stand a great success of which you’ll be proud.

There’s Nothing Like a Good Insult

These days the English language seems to have been reduced to short words of litte more than four letters. As one writer put it, “Some people never use words that might send a reader in search of a dictionary.” So I was pleasantly amused when an old RAF friend passed on a couple of good insults he’d come across in his reading. As you might expect both involved politicians, but from an era when the use of one’s intellect was an essential political attribute.

From a a certain Winston Churchill to Lady Astor.

Lady Astor “If you were my husband I’d give you poison.”

Churchill “If you were my wife, I’d drink it.”

The other from the British House of Commons.

A member of Parliament to Disraeli:

“Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.”

“That depends, Sir,” said Disraeli, “whether I em-brace your policies, or your mistress.”

Now if only there was an occasion on which I could use one of those.

Tomorrow Wednesday Grumpy Old Men 1-3

Thursday Workshop 10-1. Its the lastThursday of the month so I thnk that means a barbecue.

Thursday 2-4ish Mens’ Social Group

Don’t forget the Expo - Please let me know how you can help. John shrapnell@clear.net.nz

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Urgent message from the Shed Friday 24 September

Help Needed

Health & Wellbeing Expo for Seniors

10.00am - 3.00pm, Friday, 1 October, Wellington Town Hall.

Come to this FREE expo and:

Discover a proactive approach to ageing...Come to Wellington City Council’s Health & Wellbeing Expo for Seniors, where you will find everything you need to know to enjoy a great life as a senior in Wellington.

Information available about travel, computer training, keeping fit, Tai Chi and genealogy. You can talk to people about services you may be entitled to and go shopping too - there’ll be a great range of gadgets, clothes and other interesting things on offer. Providers of care services and home support will be along too.

Wellington MenzShed has a stand at this Health and Wellbeing Expo next Friday, 1 October.

There will be many professional stands there from organisations like Grey power, Age Concern,

and others with interests in this area. We are a small player, but we are doing our part to

help men in our community.

We have a great opportunity to demonstrate and talk about what we are doing. We could

gain new members, new men with skills, and possibly funding to ensure we can keep going.

At the moment we have just a table, a power point, and one person to hand out leaflets.

We will attract people’s interest if we have something happening on our stand that shows the

sort of things we do. Then they’ll stop, watch, and we can talk to them.

We urgently need some sheddies to bring along anything small they are working on, and

spend perhaps an hour working at our stand. It could be screwing together some parts,

designing a better letterbox, gluing another part on your project, sharpening a tool, making

a Christmas present for your grandchild. Keep it simple to that you can easily carry in your

items, and any tools you need.

Please me to let me know what you will do, and what times you will be there.

John Shrapnell 473-7128, mobile 021-403-003, shrapnell@clear.net.nz.

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MenzShed 21 September

Tom Says Make More Use of the Shed

Tom White, the Wesley Community Worker who is one of our founding members wants to see the more use made of the Shed.The shed is used for at most, one to one and a half days a week! Feel free to find ways to utilise the other 5 and a half days (before we even begin to think about evening use). We have upstairs office/accommodation space still to utilise also. Tom says setting up this shed took three years and the combined efforts of half a dozen people. He would really love to see any sheddies with spare time, energy and oomphhh for our lovely Shed to step up and offer to be more deeply involved in the operation of our current shed to make it even more successful. For example we are still in need of a ‘shed coordinator’ to manage the daily use of the shed. All the best, Tom.

New Fire Engine for J’Ville Kindergarten

The children at the Johnsonville Kindergarten will get the surprise of their life on Tuesday (12 October) when a brand new fire engine will be delivered to their kindergarten in Kipling Road, Johnsonville at 11am. A couple of months ago the kindergarten asked the Wellington MenzShed if it could repair the childrens’ old fire engine. It was a favourite plaything but it wasfalling apart and when the MenzShed team look at it they decided it was beyond repair. Not to be defeated, the team from the Wellington MenzShed measured the dilapidated old vehicle and used it as a model to build a brand new fire engine. It is now painted in bright red and decorated with NZ Fire Service decals. It will hold several kindergarten children and can be pushed and steered around theplayground area. The material for the new fire engine was kindly provided by Mitre Mega 10 at Petone. The “sheddies” who worked on the project Terry Streeter, Andrew Stephen and Wayne DeLaCroix. They will be at the presentation of the new fire engine together with a real fireman in full dress for the occasion.

Silverbeet for the Sisters

The garden out the back might look a little thinner this week. The first harvest of leaves was to go to the Sisters of Compassion for their meals.

Anyone for the Expo?

So far Garry Proctor is the only sheddie to offer to do something for the Health and Wellbeing Expo on Friday 1 October. We need more.

shrapnell@clear.net.nz

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