Steve Craige has many varied & unusual hobbies. In the past he has made a scale replica model of an American destroyer (the name of which escapes me), He has also made a full size Gypsy Caravan that he & his wife lived & toured in, but has now sold.

He is 2/3 of the way through making another scale model of the American PT596. 

He brought it to the Shed recently to make some mounting brackets to sit it on. 

We don't know how you have the patience for these projects Steve.

David Greene is associated with the Australian Catholic University (Strathfield) Gymnasium & is the son of Tom Greene one of our veteran members. 

He said it would be nice if they had some sort of storage racks for the various bar weights they have in the Gym. 

Tommy never shy's away from a challenge so as usual said, 

"I can do that".

We set him up with a bending jig & away he went.

After much cutting, bending & welding, he had the racks professionally painted in a Grey hammertone finish.

For something quite different from your normal timber projects, you did a great job Tom; well done!

 

 

The Shed had a phone call from Kelly who is an avid rabbit lover.

She asked if we would be interested in making a 3 tier rabbit bank to house her rabbits overnight.

There was a specific criteria needed so we agreed to give it a go.

Bryan reluctantly (as always) agreed to see it through to the end & after much stressing out & with the help of a couple of other members managed to achieve a great result.

 Kelly was so elated with the Bank she will be ordering another one early in the new year.  

We don't think Bryan will be interested in the next one.

Some months ago Nicole from Community Wildlife Environment Network asked if we would make some boxes suitable to house micro bats. Our wildlife expert Graham put his hand up, did some research & came up with this simply constructed box with attached mesh.
 His team can now add this to their list of wildlife protection boxes they already make.

. .   

In early August Clive Tubnor, one of our long standing members, attended a function where the new member for Dobel, Emma McBride MP was present. 
He introduced himself & in the course of conversation the activities of Men's Shed movement were discussed. 
Emma showed keen interest in what he had to say & asked if it would be possible to visit our Shed at a later date. A visit was arranged for 26th September & she arrived at 10am in time for morning tea.
Emma was gracious enough to answer all the questions the members had without being too political. 
She then asked to be shown around the Shed as well as the Community garden at the rear of our premises.  
She was suprised by the mens many activities as well as the machinery we have & left with a lasting impression of what Men's Sheds are all about.  As soon as Emma arrived back at her office she posted the days events on her Facebook page together with photos. It turned into a worthwhile visit for all concerned.

The shed has formed a strong relationship with the Central Coast Amateur Bee Keepers & have been working with them on their experiments to increase bee & insect population.
2 of these experiments are shown below.

A Swarm Box is the start of a Bee Hive

Racks inside the swarm box; there are about 7 when installed

Perspex cover over the bee's entry for transportation

The completed unit ready for hanging in a suitable tree or elsewhere

This is a Critter Castle..........Home for all sorts of insects

AGM results for Bateau Bay Men's Shed Inc.

Held 9 August 2016 

Present were 45 Financial Members as well as John Sharples (AMSA - NSW Secretary/ Public Officer) & Colin Henson representing ADSSI Home Living  Australia our major sponsor.

As there were only enough nominations to cover the vacant positions the members were not required to vote.

The uncontested positions are as follows:

 Fred Murray              President

 Graham Craike          Vice President

 Richard Howison       Treasurer/Secretary

 Peter Crabbe             Public Officer

General Committee

Clive Tubnor

John Mills

Ron Belshaw

John Innis

Alex Lee

The President also reported :

 

We are into our 8^th year of operation this year.

Unfortunately this year we have lost some members due to their illnesses.

Shed members have been present at their memorial services, offering help & support to the immediate family. The shed executive hopes & encourages you all to continue this important & comforting roll in the future.

It’s good to know you understand the Shed belongs to you; the members, and you are making decisions for the good of all when asked to do so. The executive need & appreciate all members input. 

Once again we have had a busy year that has past all too quickly. 

The committee has been slowly improving & updating workshop machinery & purchasing upmarket consumables to make life a bit easier for our members. 

 We participated in numerous events & functions some to raise money & others just to spread information about the Men’s shed movement.

 We continued to support the Samaritan’s Purse for children in 3^rd world countries, now in its 20^th year .   400 blackboards with chalk as well as 60 small toy cars; were made & have been donated. Some members donated bags of educational needs & clothing. All these will be packed & shipped to New Guinea, Vietnam, Fiji, Thailand, & a few other countries close to home. 

Due to a strict clause in our insurance policy governing age, we find it impossible to host Whoosh before and after School Care children in the workshop, but we still have a strong relationship with them.

Graham Craike & his disciples made stacks of possum boxes & they remain a good source of income for us.

He also tried his hand at micro bat boxes.

We have become involved with the Central Coast Amateur Beekeepers & have made numerous experimental items for them, that could lead to another good source of income for us.

Then there were all those small projects you were involved in, for people who simply call in seeking assistance, advice, a repair, or to have something made.

 Our members are given until August 30 to become financial so our financial membership at present totals 65 with an average daily attendance of 25.

This shows the importance this Shed has for many men in our community.  

We all need to acknowledge the aid & support we receive from ADSSI Home Living Australia. Their ongoing support & donations from the day we were offered the use of this building up to the present time has been nothing but outstanding.    

Thanks to ADSSI this Shed is un-rivaled, with equipment and facilities second to none; but this will not continue if we don’t look ahead and plan for the future.    

I wish to thank the outgoing executive and committee for their efforts & help during the year and especially their willingness to accept responsibility in their various rolls.  

To the Administration Graham Craike, Richard Howison, Peter Crabbie, & general committee, John Mills, Clive Tubnor, Ron Belshaw, Alex Lee, & John Innis my sincere thank you.

The committee also thanks Robert Colet who needed to resign mid-year for personal reasons but still managed to keep our finances in check.

The eagerness of you all to be involved in running the Shed has been invaluable.  

Once again we should all be grateful to John Innis for his enthusiasm in picking up cakes for morning tea every day as well as looking after the timber storage, garbage disposal, organising & catering for our regular BBQ’s & the myriad of other things he does for the shed. Our thanks to you John; it is very much appreciated. Also a special thank you to Barry Mitchell & his team for their efforts in keeping our amenities clean.  

 I now declare all positions vacant & wish the incoming Executive and Committee a successful year knowing the Shad has policies in place that will make the transition as easy as possible.

Would the returning officer please take the chair.

Fred Murray   President

 

AMSA sent us an Email with an invitiation to take advantage of the BBQ Plumbing Plus would be hosting to aid a local Men's Shed raise funds. The participating store in our area 

 

Eagles Plumbing at Long Jetty. 

They were to provide everything  but asked us to have a few members organise the cooking etc. & others to answer any questions the Tradies may have about the Men's Shed Movement.

We are to eventually receive all the funds raised. There was also a CAROMA promotion attached to the program where for every toilet suite sold in the months of  May to 30th June a donation of $5 would be sent directly to AMSA. Although the Tradies were in a hurry to pickup their supplies & get to site at 6.30am we managed to raise around $400. 

We sincerely thank Eagles Plumbing for their generiosity & enthusiasm in this fund raiser.  

And not forgetting the contribution of our volunteers 

Graham Craike - John Innis - Clive Tubnor - Robert Colet  

 Peter Crabbe -Chris Hendley

Clive, John & Graham with an early starter

Come on fellas you've only served one customer

What's Graham doing........SUPERVISING!

 

 

Mission Australia pre-school at Tumbi Umbi, asked if we would be interested in making a Mud Kitchen for their playground. Nowdays pre-schools are being encouraged to opt for natural wood products 
& to educate children in the outdoors wherever possible. 

One of our newer members Jim Dickason, reckoned it would be a bit of a challenge for him so he opted to have a go at making one. The rustic effect is all the go with this type of thing, so we supplied it in the rough  (with no chance of splinters of course) un-painted.

The results of his efforts are below

Nice one Jim

 

 

 

Ross Jenkins went on the Postman's Riverboat Cruise up the Hawkesbury River recently & brought in some information for the boys to read. 

After much interest & some phone calls it was decided by the members to go on this excursion before if became too cold to enjoy. Members were informed that this outing could include women so most of the boys brought their wives along too. 

We wanted to go on a day the Shed was not open and it was suggested 30th May would be the best day for all. 

There were 23 members and wives supposed to be going but, Ray Thompson contacted the dreaded virus going around & Andrew being Andrew, forgot the date so the number was cut to 19.

It turned out to be a most enjoyable day, the weather was excellent & the narration (by the Captain) of the area was outstanding. Most of us never knew there was so much history and activity in the area from the late 1800's.

  

A map of the tour including return journey

The public wharf at Brooklyn

 

The beast we cruised on

 

Some of the Members & wives down stairs after enjoying lunch

 

 The President of Milson Island & his sub-ordinate waiting for the mail.

More New Equipment

As promised here is the rest of the equipment we purchased with our grant through AMSA.

Our newly installed (double drum) Drum Sander

This Sander will enable us sand large flat items in a very fast manner & eliminate the tedious use of a belt sander.

The metal lathe suds pump

 

This fluid pump will be used on the metal lathe & will keep the work piece cool as well as preserve the life of the cutting tools.

 

 

We also placed an article in the Express Advocate on the 18/03/16

acknowledging the Federal Government's Funding support to the Shed movement in general.  

There are a lot of happy campers @ Bateau Bay Shed

 

Yahoo!!

This is the first of our purchases with the grant ($3500) from the Federal Government through AMSA the head body for Men's Sheds Australia.

A new Makita Compound Slide Saw with a 305dia blade.

It's basically the same size as the saw it replaces but Makita have addressed all the faults (which were many) of the previous model.

The members are extremely happy with this purchase & know that if it is looked after & treated with respect it will give us many years of service as did the previous one.

(Also combined in the grant is enough capital to purchase a floor Drum Sander & a Suds Pump for our Metal Lathe.

These items will be on the blog after delivery)

We acknowledge & are most grateful  to the Federal Government for its ongoing support to all Men's Sheds via funding, without which most of them would be struggling if not nonexistent.  

The members at Bateau Bay would like to thank Karen McNamara MP in particular; for her wholehearted support & enthusiastic approach  to the Men's Sheds movement on the Central Coast. Without people like Karen the movement would be nowhere what it is today. 

 

Another  Fundraiser

 

Early January some of our members were discussing raising money for various Charities. 

We raised quite a lot last year for the Prostate Foundation Big BBQ ($1424), so it was suggested we support The McGrath Breast Cancer Foundation this time. 

Since our members love their BBQ's we decided to have one for 3 consecutive weeks starting with Tuesday 19th Jan, then 

Wed 27th & finally Thurs 4th Feb.

They were a great success & the boys parted with around $400 to $450. 

As is usual we will be going dollar for dollar from our finances so the Foundation can expect a nice donation of around the

 $800 to $900 mark.

A big thank you to the guys who helped with the organising, cooking & claening up afterwards. 

A great effort fellars for such a worthy cause