June Newsletter

            St Leonards Mens Shed Newsletter - June 


      
                               

                                                   
Winter is again with us and as is normal at this time of the year a few have taken holidays and have headed to warmer pastures.  It is also a time when we know whether our football team is headed to finals time or taking their holidays in September.  Don't forget to get your names in for the Mid-year Dinner.

In The Press

We have been in the Press quiet a lot recently, last Newsletter showed all the stories and photos for the work we did at the Primary School.  This time its the Bird box work. From the Bellarine Times -

 

and from the Port Report,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Political Correctness

Doing this newsletter, I have to be very careful in meeting the ever changing requirements of todays environment.  To ensure I meet the standards expected, I sought the advice of our Cultural Ambassador, asking exactly what is  this "Political Correctness", I keep hearing about?.  Naturally, he steered me in the right direction advising that,
 

 " Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by the delusional, illogical minority, and promoted by mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end."

 

Bunnings Trade Expo

We were approached by Bunnings to see if we would like to send some representatives to their trade show at the showgrounds.  I spoke to the President and said we should send our best and brightest to professionally represent our Shed. 

He said no, I'll take these guys.

I sent out a roving reporter to take some photos and there were the best (and only ones) we got. The boys had  few good buys, got a free blower and drill bits, pens etc.  From all reports they had a good day.

 

94 Years Young

Many thought he would never make it, but Chris celebrated his 94th birthday on the 27th of May.  The boys helped him with a chocolate cake.

 

 

As you can see, he has a way with knives.  Looks like it was left to the sure hands of Kevin to do the honours.

 

 

 

Boathouses

We were asked by John at Coastyle
Homes if we would be interested in helping with some restorations to two old boat houses.  The family had holidayed in them years ago, the father paid for a large block of land in Barwon Heads and it is being setup with these two boathouses (John to build another one) and then his three sons will have one each.  Oh, there will be a two storey house wrapped around each boathouse.

  

We have been asked to restore all the doors and windows, and Mick and I had removed the first four when these photos were taken.  The work has commenced, with everyone chipping in to make the job much easier.




Tannoch Brea

 


It only took  six or seven emails and a number phone calls and finally we received the $500 credit card (s) we were promised over two months ago. It is amazing how quick a response you get when you send all the people that have helped (???) an email stating that you will CC them on the email that your sending to their CEO. 

Our Youngest Member
 

Earlier there was a picture of our most senior member, well this is our youngest member, "Olly" .  Olly is 15, suffers from Autism and attends the Shed every second Monday afternoon after he gets home from school. Here he is with his carer, all being supervised by Mick.


 

Bird-boxes

I was told the Council had put up the bird boxes made by the School students around the lake, so I took the dog for a walk around the lake to see how many I could find.  Here is one easy to see, notice the chain around the tree.  Go for a walk and see how many you can find. 

While we were walking look what we spotted.  He was in a small tree at about eye height.  I thought he was asleep but as "Bailey" and I started to move off, the owl's head moved ever so slightly watching the dog slowly move away.

Mens Health Week

To celebrate Mens Health Week, our resident "Doc", Taras, gave an inspiring talk on men's health.  Unfortunately, I was unable to attend but one of my roving reporters sent the following photos.

 

The serious and not so serious "Taras".

Mid Year Dinner

Our Mid-year Dinner will be held at the Ivary on the 6th of July. It will consist of a three course meal followed by tea and coffee.  To begin we will have platters, followed by lamb shanks or lasagne and the tiramisu or cannoli. Should be a great night with the Shed subsidising $15 a head.  All payments in by the end of June so we can confirm numbers for catering, Thanks.  Lots of photos in the next newsletter.

 

Member Profile

As you know, each newsletter we introduce one of our members and complete a profile.  Last newsletter you met Dennis (The Horse Whisperer) Smith.  This month it's Kevin "The Cook" Venville. 

Name	Kevin Venville
Partner	Monica
Children/Grandchildren	0/0
Great Grandchildren	0
How long have you lived in St Leonards?	2 years
Before St Leonards?	North Coburg
What did you do before retiring?	Bus Driver (The list is endless, Kevin chose this one )
Football Club you support?	Melbourne

 

April, 2018

            St Leonards Mens Shed Newsletter - April 


      
                               

                                                   
I hope everyone enjoyed Easter with the grandkids, had a quick Easter egg or two when no-one was looking and had a great Anzac Day.  The Football season is up and running and proving to be a very close season and tipsters nightmare.

Our Life Member



Chris has been doing it pretty hard of late, so a few of the boys went around and helped him with a bit of a clean up, although Mick said he wasn't helping with the washing.  Chris was of course on hand to provide guidance and some clear direction.

Speaking about the old fella, in the last edition you saw the work he was doing under Dennis's guidance to complete the Horse.  There were some jobs Dennis couldn't leave in Chris's hands so he did them himself while Chris did some sanding.  We start with this task and some other photos showing the completion of the work.

 

 

 

As you can see, it was all work and no play for Chris.

                                                                        

And there we have the finished product, Chris looking very proud and emotional.  Great job Dennis, Chris and everyone else who helped Chris with his Horse.



 



Storage Update

We had a plan to apply for a grant and build a garage near the shed for storage as it gets very tight in the shed, more so with wild horses around.  We had to first get Council permission before applying for the grant.  Needless to say, we are no longer applying for the grant.

Some days it really feels like this, especially, when trying to get any Council approvals to build a garage to meet our storage requirements.





Tannoch Brae


We received an email suggesting some of our members may like to visit Tannoch Brae.  It was part of their Community Connect program and if we managed to get 15 visitors to go have a look and a morning Tea, then they would give the Mens Shed $500.00.  Well, we managed to have 19 visit the establishment, enjoyed their non sales threatening hospitality but are still waiting to receive the $500.  I'm told the cheques in the mail, anyway, a big Thankyou to those who attended.







St Leonards Primary School

 In the last edition we showed photos mainly about the construction work we did at the school with the funds we received from the Connected Communities grant from the City of Greater Geelong.  Here is the finished work, hope the video works.

 

You can see in the video (if working) that the students have painted the compass directions on the seat, some faces on the sleepers and flowers on the concrete pots near the vegetable garden.  So they were not left out, the students also painted the door Mick and Kevin put in. Very appropriate as this is the sports store.

On Wednesday 28th March, we were asked to attend a special school assembly at the Ga Ga pit.  All the children from the school where there and thanked us for all the work we had done.  They presented us with this plaque, and a book that each of the students had completed a thankyou drawing and then two of the students and John planted a commemorative tree.

The following are a sample of few drawings that took my eye. 

Jenny had arranged some local press (other than me) to attend and we made the papers.

A couple more pictures that didn't make the papers.

Medical Update

Our Off-site Storage  
We have a large amount of timber located at our off-site storage facility.  Please don't forgot about this timber should you have a need.

Bird Boxes

We've made a few bird boxes over the last few months, starting with the 8 we did with the school last September and then 10 Rosella Boxes and 7 Microbat boxes for the Bellarine Landcare Group (BLG).  We then received another order from  the BLG for 18 bird boxes (for 6 different types of birds) and 45 boxes for Bellarine Bayside.  Below is Garry Kendall BB Environmental Officer taking the last of that order of 45.  While he was in the shed he saw the Kookaburra and Owl boxes we were doing for BLG and asked for 2 of each.

Sophie Small from BLG has now asked for 29 more boxes to be installed around the Drysdale area and Garry has asked us to do two Sacred Kingfisher boxes.  They keep on keeping on.  Some photos taken when Bellarine Bayside had some of their bird boxes installed at a reserve on Point Richards Road,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bruce and John unloading, Bob and I posing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was the team from the Shed, Sophie from Bellarine Landcare Group, a lady from Friends of Edwards Point and the Bellarine Bayside team in attendance.  The photographer, was the same one from the Times who took the school photos and he sent me these photos.  I checked the Bellarine Times, 26 April, thinking we would be in there again, but the photos were taken for BB, not the paper.  Be interested to see where they appear.  Well, if you want to see, I was just sent an article from the Bellarine Bayside Facebook page that has the large photo above and a few words and the bird boxes.

 

Another Update

 

Neville Richards Bowls Challenge

I was worried that my champion Bowls partner, Phil "The Count" Murphy was not going to get off jury duty and front up to defend our title.  (He did, but as it turned out, we had a shocker)  We had  16 bowlers on the day with everyone getting on the scoreboard, but at the end of 3 gruelling games there were two undefeated teams, Bergs and Dean (in their Mens Shed shirts) and the colourful combination of Ray and Taras.

 

Taras and Ray were full of concentration throughout the day, but it was Bergs and Dean who won the day.  Congratulations to the winning teams.

 

New Band Saw

 

With all the work we have been doing (and Chris cutting back on the biscuits), we managed to put away enough money to purchase ourselves a new band saw.  Here's Mick and his apprentice completing the final stages of installation.

 

Member Profile

As you know, each newsletter, we introduce one of our members and complete a profile.  Last newsletter you met Phil 'The Count" Murphy.   This month we introduce Dennis (The Horse Whisperer) Smith.

 

                               

Name	Dennis Smith
Partner	Lorraine
Children/Grandchildren	2/3
Great Grandchildren	0
How long have you lived in St Leonards?	12 years
Before St Leonards?	Ferntree Gully for 30 years
What did you do before retiring?	Ran Ladies Fashion Company for Nike
Football Club you support?	Bulldogs (Lorraine has told me)