April 2019

April, 2019

St Leonards Men’s Shed Newsletter 

                                            


April

Well, what a great time of the year, Easter is here and its time for chocolate.  The best part for us is that we can do an Easter Egg hunt with our partners, we hid the eggs in the garden, go inside to have a cup of coffee and do a bit of reading and then go and find the eggs.  By this time we have completly forgotten where we put them, oh the fun, then the grandkids come and find them all and we miss out.  

 

It is also ANZAC time, a time when every Australian should respect those who fought for our freedom.  This year, there will be a service at the St Leonards Memorial Hall.

Boathouses

Remember the hours of fun we had stripping back doors and windows for the boathouses, I was over Barwon Heads recently and thought I'd check the progress.  They look very good, but looks as if progress has been slow, will be interested to see how they replicate the third boathouse.

Debating Club

They questioned us when we decided to form the Debating Club and scoffed at our Brew Crew, it turns out we were on the right track.

Cannot remember which Medical Journal I got that clip from, Taras will probably remember.

  


Pen Making

Well, what has Leigh started, first with Bruce (now the Pen Master) and it seems everyone is having a go.  We'll be set for when we get the big order, with three lathes and the mini one being assembled we will pump them out like there's no tomorrow.

Here, on the right, you see one of Bruce's better apprentices at work.  Below, one of the apprentices that require plenty of supervision.  Lucky for me there is a lot of help.

The Paint Remover

Look who else has been on the lathe, not making a pen but turning a handle for a knife. We were all wondering why the knife, what has he got in mind.  Notice the nice clean shirt, well we soon found out his cunning plan.  

Kev started helping paint the bird boxes, or so we thought.  What he was doing was covering his shirt in the green paint, taking it home and using the knife to scrap it all off.

 

 

Movers & Shakers

 

Always looking at opportunities to get some grants I have met with a number of people recently that our workshop manager (MM) said I was in with the movers and shakers.  Don't think so but it sounds important.

Editors Note;  This is by no means a political statement, just calling it as I saw it.

Firstly, together with our President, I met with Srah Henderson.  She was a good listener and engaged with those around the table.  Following the meeting I emailed her to ensure she understood what I was requesting for the Mens Shed and the progress association.  A few weeks later I was invited to the St Leonard Pier for a Sarah Henderson funding announcement.  Well, nothing for us but $5M worth of funding for Murradoc Road improvements.  This was not for the work recently completed, She advised in was in the soon to be announced budget, which should be carried regardless of who wins the election.  Watch this space.
First photo is the Beautification Committee, who arranged all these mover and shaker meetings to which I was invited.  My thanks for the photos to Marie Reed.  The next photo was the funding announcement.

 The week after meeting Sarah I was invited to a meeting with our Mayor, Bruce Harwood.  Again, he was very engaging but the meeting went off track and I had to wait and corner the Mayor on the walk to his car.  I explained my frustration with the lack of support we had received from the council in trying firstly to get a container, then build a shed to use as storage and free up some room at the Shed.  He acknowleged the situation and there has been a few email exchanges since.  Fingers crossed.

lastly, showing no bias, I met with Libby Coker.  She was great, very engageing, told me to see her after the meeting to get her card and email her my requests for funding for the Shed and Progress Association.  I follwed up and was sent two emails within two days.  Rather than summarise, here is the second email.

Dear Shane,

Thank you for your correspondence and making me aware of this important project.

I understand the critically important role that the St Leonard’s Men’s Shed and the St Leonard’s Memorial Hall play within your community and the border electorate of Corangamite.

The St Leonard’s Memorial Hall is a centre for community activity and I would like to commend the ongoing efforts of the St Leonard’s Men’s Shed in making it such a vibrant and welcoming place. 

All projects considered in the lead up to the election will have to meet strict criteria to ensure their viability and ability to effectively service their community. 

I can ensure you that I will endeavour to do my best to get this project over the line and I have passed it along your correspondence to the Shadow Minister for Regional Services and Member for Whitlam, Stephen Jones MP, for his consideration. 

I will keep you up to date with any developments going forward. 

Fred's Folly

 

Stumbled upon this sitting on the work bench one day, no idea why Fred is starting a glory box?

  





Birdboxes

Another order of boxes from sophie and the Bellarine Landcare Group, once again everyone got involved.

 

 













 

New Member?

Look who came in for a visit, looking very good and in good spirits, no too bad for someone turning 95 in May.
 

 





Neville Richards Bowls Challenge

We had 14 players in this challenge, unfortunately, missing 2 players so we had one team miss out for each game.  Our Scorer (and myself) forgot to take this into account when announcing the positions at the end of the Challenge.  No matter the winners were still Jum and Christina.  A great day had by all and again thanks to the Neville Richards team for sponsoring the day.  Scoreboard was not a good look for myself nd partner.

Position Team Score 1 Jum & Christina 20.75 2 John & Trevor 17 3 Heather & Barbara 16 4 Fred & Lou 15.67 5 Bob & Kevin 12.67 6 John & Dave 12.33 7 Shane & Phil 10
Following are some snaps of our players in progress.

 

Safe Plate Day

Just a reminder that we have another Safe Plate Day on Saturday 27th April from 10 - 2pm, volunteers welcome.  We will also hold a sausage sizzle that day, if not for sale and making a bit of cash, to feed the workers.  please tell family and friends, spread the word.

Footy Tipping

We're off and so is my football side.  After the first four rounds our footy tipping ladder looks like this.   

Footy Tipping Round 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Total Maree Morris 4 8 6 3                       21 Alain Gilette 7 6 4 3                       20 Dave Chadwick 6 4 6 4                       20 Russell Bath 4 4 8 4                       20 Shane McManus 3 4 7 5                       19 Fred Wade 4 6 5 3                       18 William Boyes 3 4 6 4                       17 Cheryl McManus 4 4 6 3                       17 John Stevens 4 5 5 3                       17 John Boyes 3 6 4 4                       17 Bruce Swain 3 6 4 3                       16 Bob Evans 4 4 5 3                       16 Trevor McManus 4 4 5 3                       16 Lorraine Evans 4 4 5 3                       16 Taras Mikulin 3 5 5 3                       16 Kevin Callinan 4 4 5 2                       15 Kevin Venville 3 4 3 4                       14 Flynn Boyes 3 3 3 4                       13

 

New Equipment

The Committee is always trying to ensure we have the best equipment we can source for members to use in the Shed.  To that end we have mad some purchases recently of some new equipment.  A new thicknesser to replace the hardest working piece of machinery we had, a great new lathe that is working overtime producing the Pens and a sharpening rig ( only to be used by authorised members) for the hard working lathe chisels, finally the mini lathe.

Member Profile

As you know, each newsletter we introduce one of our members and complete a profile.  Last newsletter you met  Jim "Jum" Chadwick
this month its Mick " The Discerning Palate" Morris.

Editors note.  Mick tells me, following his recent hospital visit, his palate is stuffed and he craves for his taste buds to start working again.

I was born and grew up in Rockhampton Qld. Left school in 1965 and joined the PMG, now Telstra, as a trainee telephone technician.  Trained in Brisbane and Townsville, then in late 1966 back to Rocky to start with Vesteys Cattle Co. as a stockman. 

Worked all over Qld, NT, and WA as a stockman, contract musterer and fencer, then got a job as station overseer on Santa Teresa Mission, south east of Alice Springs.  There I met and married Maree in 1970. We have had 6 children and now have 10 grandchildren.   

In late 1970 we decided to visit my parents in Rocky, and Maree's in Ballarat, so we bought a 1948 Dodge 4x4 Power Wagon at a U S airforce auction in Alice and set off with our cat. I was 21, Maree 20. 

 We went via Tennant Ck. Mt. Isa, Cloncurry, Winton, Longreach to Rocky. We struck flooding at Mt. Isa and the road was cut outside Cloncurry. The Police were stopping vehicles at a creek crossing, which had 3 cars washed away when we got there the police decided we and a couple of Landcruisers could get through and because we had the highest clearance and a winch we went first so we could help if the others got stuck. From there it was just ploughing through black soil mud, until just outside Kynuna we struck a convoy of trucks pushing and pulling each other, stuck at a big bog. We parked up at the side and spent the night winching them through. We had plenty of food, fuel and water, most of which we gave away to stranded travellers, and the rest was easy. We lost the cat in Rocky!

We spent a year in Ballarat where I worked as a window installer for Franklin Caravans, then moved back to Alice, where we stayed until 1973 when I joined the Army. I trained as a heavy vehicle mechanic and served 6 years, stationed at Wodonga, Perth Workshop Coy., 6RAR at Enoggera Qld, finishing at Jungle Training Centre Cunungra.  We decided to settle in Qld and lived in Beenleigh, between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, where I worked as a car, truck and motorcycle mechanic and RWC inspector until 1998, when I was offered a job as manual arts instructor at an alternative school in Kingston, a very poor suburb with a high crime rate and lots of gang violence. The school was set up for young people 12 to 16, who had been expelled from all other schools for various reasons.  I liked it there, had my own workshop, and taught woodwork, metal work, welding and basic mechanics, plus functional maths and english.  I got on well with the students, had no trouble and stayed 10 years.

From there I went to Boystown, also in Kingston, to work as a Trainer/ Instructor in a new program set up by the Qld Govt., working with young men and women age 16 to 24, newly released from prison or youth detention. I had a team of 8, every 6 months, and we worked in Council parks and State forests, maintaining paths and firebreaks, doing controlled burns, weeding and re vegetation. This was the best job I ever had, and I did this for 5 years until the Govt. funding ran-out, so I took a redundancy and retired at 64. We had been living on Tamborine Mountain for the last 7 years, but a combination of family and finances saw us moving to Victoria, first to our daughter’s place at Broadford while our house was being built, then to St. Leonards. We have children in Broadford, Rye, Sydney and Canberra (shortly to be in U.S.), 1 family in Mexico City, and have a good relationship with them all. 

I enjoy retirement and apart from the Mens Shed I restore old hand and power tools, and old lathes, and keep fit and busy gardening and following Collingwood!.  2 things you may not know about me; I have owned over 50 cars and motorcycles in my life, and I am a speed reader, I can read and retain 160 words per minute!