this week at the shed

Now we have cleared out the new workshop

The floor is painted the benches are going in and all of the equipment

We were pleased to host the latest Southern Men's Shed Network meeting on Monday 6th March at Pilands Wood Community centre.

On 12th January 2016 representatives from 17 nearby Mens Shed's meeting in Portsmouth decided to form a Southern Men's Shed Network in order to:

• Share ideas
• Share skills
• Share surplus tools
• Jointly to promote the formation of sheds in the area
• Work together on insurance, grants and discounts
• Arrange joint functions

Some of the sheds in attendance were Romsey, Portsmouth, and from as far as Poole and Reading. Also attending were Mike and Anne from the National Shed Organisation and Jo Phillips the Mens Shed representative for the Royal Voluntary Service

We laid on a buffet lunch and two of our sponsors Tried and Tested Tools, and Gervase from Sharp Edge had stalls from which they very generously donated tools for our raffle.

As we hope for an improvement in the weather, we have now as good as completed our new bespoke woodstore. again made from pallets and recycled ply boards. We can now move all of the timber that is littering our new workshop and concentrate on getting that fitted out. starting with the floor, we have taken delivery of the concrete primer and resin floor paint and hope to get that all done over the next week or so. as we look forward to hosting the next quarterly meeting of the Southern Mens Shed Network on the 6th March and expect members from around 30 sheds to pay us a visit.

As work continues on our workshop extension, we would like to thank SCRATCH (Southampton City and Region Action to Combat Hardship) for supplying us with the paint we need to undercoat our exterior walls and to finish of the workshop floor.

Southampton City and Region Action to Combat Hardship

 SCRATCH provides services which relieve the effects of hardship, disadvantage and poverty for individuals and families living in Southampton and the surrounding area.

You can find out more about all the projects they run their website http://www.scratchcharity.co.uk/index.php  but here are a few examples: