Category: Archive

We did a lot of talking last week. Alice Wong the Member of Parliament for Richmond Centre came to visit us.

This was brought about by Doug Mackie who, when he isn’t carving diamond willow walking sticks at the Woodhaven Men’s Shed, carries Men’s Sheds Canada.

Doug has been trying to attract some attention in Ottawa for years but seems to have been put on ignore so he contacted Alice Wong MP, former Minister of State for Seniors and Seniors critic.

Alice responded but Alice lives on the west coast and Doug is located in Winnipeg which is right in the middle between Ottawa and Richmond. So Doug suggested that she contact us, Coquitlam Men’s Shed and meet some real men. What can we say? Alice showed up and we were able to regale her with our stories all afternoon.

Alice clearly understood the purpose, value of and need for Men’s Sheds. She asked many questions and stayed long passed the time it would have been prudent to leave to avoid the afternoon traffic.

Thank you Alice, we enjoyed sharing our story and your company for the afternoon.

We hope that you will keep in touch with Coquitlam Men’s Shed and Men’s Shed Canada when you are Minister of State for Seniors again.

Well my friends it has been quite a month, it started with a BIG cheque curtesy of Vancity Credit Union. The cheque was to update our tools. Wow! Now we had to decide on priorities. As usual everyone came around to my way of thinking in the end.

Susan Devlin of Vancity Credit Union presents the cheque to Mike. Dave Q came along to make sure Mike put it into the CMS bank account.

Then someone else gave us a generous donation if we would refurbish a kayak that had been built by their farther.

Jack and Mohammad get down to business.

And, finally it was Christmas in May. Doug 2 and Dave 2 went shopping and came home with the goodies.

A dust collector system, and a very nice miter saw.

Doug 2 is reading the directions while Don 2 tries to figure out where this bit goes.. It would have been better if Doug 2 had read the English version.

Quality control checks the base.

And miraculously, a compound miter saw on wheels appeared. I suspect it is actually a transformer.

Only a few tealeaves were drowned during the assembly process.

We saved the dust collector for the next issue.

Sorry that it has taken me so long to get around to this, the problem is that there has been very little inactivity this month so I will have to report all the things that got in our way.

Some time ago someone mused about building a small community garden at Sunrise Terrace, the development that hosts our shed. Someone else thought that that was a good idea and asked the local Rotary Club if they would like to pay for the materials. The Rotary Club came up with the darn cash and before we could have a cup of tea a truck arrived with a load of wood.

The wood was long and our Shed is small so we enlisted some help to chop it up.

Then we moved the wood into the shop and that was when we had a bit of luck.

We stacked the wood in front of all the tools. So we had a cup of tea.

Then, disaster. The dirt (sometimes referred to as soil) arrived.

Progress was slow.

Until school was out.

Now we are making progress.

Then a bunch of Rotarians showed up and got stuck in (more or less).

A few finishing touches applied (Doug 2 was in charge of quality control).

Finally the job was done, so we had a cup of tea.

Next year we plan to plant something.

As if that wasn’t enough, we got a call from VanCity Credit Union to say they want to give us $2,500 so we can upgrade out tools. We are going to have a cup of tea and argue over consult about how we are going to spend it.

Already there is a hint that there is a kayak coming in for repair, will it never end? I sure hope not.

THIS IS NOT AN APRIL FOOLS DAY STUNT.

5 cubic yards of soil being delivered to the homeless shelter, to be moved into the garden by a bunch of Coquitlam Men’s Shed volunteers and an iffy weather forecast. What can possibly go wrong?

“You are 9 minutes late” was the first thing I heard as I approached the pile of soil. There were doughnuts and coffee on hand provided by a thoughtful member but everyone was hard at work and they were being ignored, so I had one.

In this photo Doug 2 is driving the wheelbarrow. Clearly Ian and Duncan are experienced shovel operators, Dan is supervising and the apprentice, Ted, is trying to pick up pointers from Duncan and Ian.

In this photo Doug 2 (recently demoted from wheelbarrow operator) is receiving training from Ian and Paul. By the end of the day he had been demoted from this position as well.

David 1 timed it perfectly arriving just as the cleanup was finished. He grabbed a doughnut and sought out a shady spot. If anyone should tell you that I observed all this from an arm chair in the middle of the lawn, I deny it.

I have to admit that it was exceedingly heartening to see Coquitlam Men’s Shed in action. Great job done efficiently and with the best of spirit (don’t get the wrong idea). WELL DONE EVERYONE.

Doug 2 consults with Russel Mitchell of the Okanagan Men’s Shed. Russel came by for a visit on his way through Coquitlam. We learned a lot, thanks Russ, we look forward to more visits.

New member Ted checking things out while Doug 2 and Ian try and figure out what this machine is supposed to do.

Doug 2 (who always seems to be in these photos) making sure that the world is still flat while Paul works on his new tool box.

Doug 2 (yes him again) with more treasure.

Thanks to David 3, Jack, Robert and Ted the painting of the amenities room is progressing (sorry, no photos yet. Thanks to Ian, David Q, David 2, Doug (you guessed it) 2 work on two town houses is complete.

Now we are going to need your help with filling the new raised bed gardens at 3030 Gordon Ave. with soil, building and filling the raised beds at Sunrise Terrace (better get into training). Contact us if you would like to be a part of this dynamic (all things are relative) team.

Now we have done it. Or should I say we haven’t done it yet.

Last week Sunrise Rotary Club gave us $600 to purchase materials so we can build a community garden at Sunrise Terrace. What the heck we already have the Shed.

However, that means WE are going to have to do the work. Going to have to hide the tea and cookies.

There will be up to six raised beds according to how many residents sign up.

The BIG day for the installation is the 27^th. of April 2019 (yes this year) starting at 10am. On that day the members of the Rotary Club (who seem about as energetic as us) will be on site to assist (the word they used was supervise).

Question for the executive, should we make this a fund raiser? We could erect bleachers, sell tickets and run a book on who collapses first, CMS or SRC.

More to come (I hope).

Collaboration is a natural outcome of belonging to a Men’s Shed. For example look at these three Shedders working together. The back story is that someone pointed out that they were all at the Shed on Valentines evening. They put their heads together and came up with a solution.

Doug reports that this little heart saved him the cost of a dozen roses easily justifying his membership dues.

Here we have Robert showing off the first product to come off one of our lathes. It is a small mallet.

Unfortunately Robert got the wrong idea. Maybe something to do with translation.

After about 60 hours of research and development we have completed the prototype of what we hope will be our first product. This spring we hope to complete the pre production prototype with production slated to commence in the third quarter (unless we have a cup of tea).

Not Mohammad, he made the thing (I don’t know what to call it). The thingy is hanging in the doorway behind him. Now we have to figure out how much the market will bare.

Due to a number of happy accidents the Shed is coming together nicely. We have acquired quite an array of tools. I hope that you had intended to make the donation.
We also have a mighty vise (or should that be Vice? Probably).

We have been recycling anything that we can make a bench or a shelf (I hope that wasn’t your fence).

We also welcome Jack, Ian, Dave and Mohammad who became new members this month.

What could we do if the doughnuts didn’t get in the way?

Happy February. If you order soon you could get one of those nice thingies to give to your sweetheart for Valentines Day (maybe).