shed members help local school

For the last few days MSNS members have been helping with urgent renovation work at the Northcote Maori school Hato Pereta.
The school trust is hoping to complete repairs to a section of the boarding house so that boarders are able to move in at the beginning of the next school term.
Any help is welcome (skilled or unskilled) and much appreciated.
Lunch and dinner are provided, as well as ongoing tea, coffee and scones.
Plenty of parking onsite at 103 College Road - the site is beside the distinctive Maori meeting house on the city-side of College Road near the intersection with Akoranga Drive..
Hours 10am-6pm.
Just turn up and tell them you are from the Shed.

saving the bush

Nick from Friends of the Okura Bush came to the MSNS on Wednesday to collect the first 50 of the 200 rat bait stations we are making for them. He told us that the Okura Bush pest-eradication programme is working very well - with over 600 rats caught in the bait stations we provided them with so far!
120 of this recent batch of traps will go to residents of Okura village who will participate in an “Okura Knock-Down” rat-catching event in several weeks. A “Big Kill” will be held on a Saturday night, with a kill-count and rat-catching festival (with prizes!) to be held at the village hall on the Sunday.
DoC, Auckland University and Auckland Council are also involved.
Watch this space for further news and developments.
Friends of the Okura Bush are asking for donations of rat traps, as well as for volunteers to help with pest-eradication and conservation work at the Reserve.
See their website for details:
www.okurabush.org

donation of tools

Last week I donated all the gardening tools I have been refurbishing at the Shed to the local Kaipatiki Project. A very worthwhile community environment centre.
The folks there expressed their thanks to the guys at the MSNS who assisted with this project.
www.kaipatiki.org.nz

anzac day projects

Members at my local Men's Shed North Shore have recently completed two projects for ANZAC Day memorials.
Below - refurbished crosses for Birkdale primary School:

Below - 172 crosses for Birkenhead War Memorial Hall:

Shed members at work:

 

coffin club

Peter Cheney from the West Auckland Men's Shed showed me some of the coffins the Rotorua Coffin Club construct for the financially-disadvantaged families stillborn babies and deceased infants.
Peter is hoping to form a collaboration with others to produce such coffins here in Auckland for families which may struggle to afford a decent burial for their loved ones.

new shed project

 As an environmental artist I see a lot of perfectly good materials being disposed of in landfill. Having lived in Fiji and visited several Pacific islands I am aware that much of our waste would be very welcome to our neighbours - particularly after disasters such as tsunamis and hurricanes. The remoteness and often poverty of these islands makes recovery from disaster extremely difficult and very expensive.
I have previously organised assistance to Bali after the bombing ("Byron Loves Bali" in 2003), and to Niuatoputapu in Tonga after the tsunami (2010). Currently I am continuing to collect tools, knives, nails, and pots and pans for Niua as many of the people have by no means recovered from the damage of the tsunami.

 See details on my new blog: http://www.pacificneighbours.blogspot.co.nz/

I am learning to restore and sharpen tools at the Shed, and members have been most generous in donating tools as well as hardware (nails/screws/etc) - many thanks guys....

this ain't easy!

salvaged from a hardware skip!

community work

Shed members have begun repair work on the old wooden toys for the Glenfield Community Creche.
Below: Maris and Dave get stuck-in.

another community project

Another successful community project!
Roger Dallymore cut some branches into discs for the Taioatea Kindergarden to help the children learn some skills. They sent him some "thank-you" notes:

community project

Shed members are repairing ten bicycles for Onepoto School.
The kids seem to have given them a fair thrashing, & sadly Chinese manufacturing ain't the best - still, it's all in day's work for community-minded volunteers. Good on you guys!

Stores wizz Rodger

Maris & Workshop Manager Gavin