Christmas Dinner Came a little early for Smithers Mens Shed….
What a great closeout to the year at Smithers Mens Shed. We have been so blessed this year with all of the outpouring of support, and to think it has only been seven months we have been in existence.
We hosted our first of many to come annual Linner, yep that is not misspelled. Linner is the name of that in between lunch and dinner meal. You see, we have to have our Christmas dinner a little earlier than usual because none of us older generation appreciate driving in the dark anymore.
Spouses and quests enjoyed the afternoon and ate too much…. Bring on the GERD medication!
We are getting warmer….
We have made great progress since our last news letter. Our goal has been to get our Shed insulated and the interior finished so we can turn on the heat. A heated shop will be a great step forward to allowing us a comfortable environment to get our shop equipment and work space set up.
There was a lot of wire pulling….
We had to add several branch circuits to our panel in order to support the larger equipment we want to run.
And a lot of insulation stuffing in the walls….
The Polly was stapled in place with care…..
And in general we just hung out and sometimes learned a little stuff,
Oh and there was the obligatory Tom foolery and shenanigans….
Lee Valley helps promote our cause
Lee Valley is a great Canadian outlet store that has been extremely supportive of the wood working community across Canada and abroad. They have stepped up significantly in support of Mens Sheds throughout Canada with a series of videos that give a glimpse of life in a Mens shed. I am sure you will find this series interesting, informative and heart warming. Please check out the videos and then checkout your local Mens Shed…
Copy the address below into your web browser address bar to get to the videos:
https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/discover/inspired-to-make/mens-shed
It has arrived (with a little help from our friends)…
After a visit to the Harvey tools warehouse in Vancouver this month we made a final decision on the table saw that would be most suitable for the needs of Smithers Men’s shed. Obviously the most important and most utilized tool in the shed needed to be considered very carefully. Our friend Leif Bergen at Sharp machine tools spent valuable time with us and explained all of the benefits of the Harvey brand and all of the features of the different models.
Once the decision was made we had to have the 600 pound machine transported to our shed. With the help of our friend Lil and Bandstra transport, the heavy piece was dropped of in our shed in no time. The wonderful folks at Banstra donated the transport for us! Another shining example of our community supporting each other when needed.
Lyle couldn’t wait to check it out
The ultimate Table Saw
Thanks to Bandstra
A little under the weather but great progress still !
Fall has arrived with a vengeance and so has cold and flu season. A few of our members have succumbed to the dreaded corona virus that has been affecting our community significantly.
On a high note we have received a significant donation from our big brother parent association, Men’s Shed Canada. this donation has allowed us to make a couple of purchases towards our goal of creating our “boutique” wood working shop. The heart if our shed is the Harvey industries table saw ( https://harveywoodworking.ca/products/alpha-hw110s-36pro-52pro-10-4hp-stain-less-cabinet-saw-with-big-eye-rip-fence?variant=45315398828289 ) This purchase was made possible by both our local Smithers Rotary Club and Men’s Shed Canada. Along with the marvelous table saw we have purchased a Makita compound miter saw and a King industrial dust extraction system. This combination of tools will allow us to get under way with the work we need to complete on the interior of the shed before winter arrives.
Speaking of work under way… the Bulkley Valley Bowmen who own the building, and have graciously let us use it, have provided a path forward for us to expedite the completion of the interior finishing of the building. This week we built a wall (no not to keep migrants out) to start the interior finishing project.
The Table saw that is the king of all table saws is ours!
Check out the new wall, almost looks like the old fellows know what they are doing !
Great support and a plan is coming together!
Our new shed is nearly at the point where we have a clean slate to build a plan for our future. We have managed to clean out and reorganize a few of the Bulkley Valley Bowmen’s storage sheds to accommodate the critical items that were stored in the maintenance building. We are nearly set to start wiring, insulating and paneling the inside of the shed to suit our needs and to better serve the Bowmen and the community with many worthy projects to come. Check out the plan below for some of the preliminary ideas for an arrangement of our shop.
This plan does include the purchase of some great quality equipment that the members will enjoy creating on and will last them long into the future. The equipment we intend to purchase is expensive so we are busy trying to raise funds for the purchase. The Rotary Club of Smithers has recently provided us with a sizable donation to assist us with our first purchase. This will be the heart of the shed, a 10 inch cabinet style table saw with a slider table attachment. This donation gets us half way to the goal line so we have a little more work to do yet! A big heart felt sincere thank you to our Rotary club, they do great work. (and make great food at the fair !!!!)
Proposed shop layout
Another great partner
The journey continues with a new Home
A new home
Well it has been a very momentous week for Smithers Mens Shed….
we have a new permanent home !!!!
I can not express my gratitude to the Buckley Valley Bowmen Society enough for the gracious use of their maintenance building which will suit our purposes perfectly. In exchange for the use of the building, Smithers Mens Shed, will be taking on some of the much needed maintenance of the grounds and buildings for the bowmen. The Bowmen will have projects for us that we can work on together, at our own pace and on our own time.
With this in mind we are also going to be expanding the meeting dates to be more inclusive of people who may be interested in joining our band of merry men (and women) Starting Monday September 16th we will be meeting at the archery/mens shed grounds at 6:00 P.m. Our regular meeting times of thursdays at 1:00 p.m. will also continue as usual. If you are interested in seeing what we are all about and meeting the gang, head over to our “contact us” page.
A very supportive visitor
We had an important supportive visitor to the shed this week, our area MP for Skeen-Buckley Valley, Taylor Bachrach. Taylor has been very supportive of the Mens shed movement in Canada including a speech he gave in the house of commons which you can view here:
https://youtu.be/3UfQ8EkiRwU
Taylor was very attentive and sympathetic with our need to find a more permanent and suitable home for our group here in Smithers. Taylor also shared our information on social media to help us garner interest in the community to help us grow our membership.
Taylor Bachrach meeting with our mens shed gang
Getting some support…
We have been very fortunate to have board member Toby Walsh (yes his is the old man who lives in the Kitseguecla shoe) as our VP in charge of grant applications. Toby has secured us some generous cash donations from a few of our local corporate groups. Many thanks go out to:
Bulkley Valley Credit Union
Regional District of Bulkley Nechako
Helpage Canada
Their financial support is much appreciated as we work hard to create a good working relationship in our community
And so it begins…
Our first home
Kindly donated to us by member Bruce Hobson. This old log building in need of a clean was his fathers original wood shop
May 16th 2024 is a day that may or may not go down in infamy (but probably not) as the day that Smithers Mens shed was officially formed with an elected board. It has taken us 11 weeks to realize that a website is a very important piece in growing our association.