Bruce Men’s Shed: “Somewhere to Go. Something to Do. Someone to Talk to”
Submitted by Gerry Tilmans
Even though Wiarton Willie predicted an early spring, most other such weather prognosticators stated six more weeks of winter. You decide who is right. We have canceled two Monday coffees and two Tuesday scale model & wood carving mornings since the “early spring” began. This week the Family Day Open House at the Bruce Peninsula Sportsmen’s Association in Wiarton was also canceled in part due to lack of parking with the large volumes of snow. Brian, one of our members, who has lived in Lion’s Head since 1972, said this year is the most snow on his property ever.
Dodging snow days, a small group got together last week to build a batch of birdhouse kits. These were going to be brought to the Sportsman’s Association to have kids nail them together to take home. We will be offering these to purchase as kits or assembled on our Facebook page, please have a look. We are developing a standard product line of kits or assembled bird houses, feeders, bat houses and more.
At our monthly meeting we had member speaker Brian Swanton talk to us about two of his hobby passions: garden railroads and wood carving.
At his home in Lion’s Head Brian has an outdoor scale railway with 900 feet of track and almost 100 bonsai trees that are kept to scale. Numerous scale buildings he’s built are based on the Kettle Valley Railway in British Columbia. The system is designed to be able to operate a number of remote-controlled trains at the same time by several operators. He brought in several rail cars and locomotives as part of his display. Mark your calendars for Saturday March 1 to attend the Bluewater Railroad Day at 1pm at the Grey Roots Museum in Owen Sound.
Brian’s carving hobby started only ten years ago and he likes to use the bark of cottonwood trees, also from BC. This bark can be 5” thick or more and the character lends to some stunning fairy-like or gnome-like houses built on the side of a mountain. There are a number in our group starting to carve and others that would also like to learn, and our Tuesday carving sessions are free to attend.
“Soup Brothers” is the name chosen for a monthly gathering that had its first session this month. Rick bought ingredients and the group made 17 litres of split pea and ham soup which were put into 34 containers. Some took it home for their family and others were dropped off at some of the single men’s homes. Next month Soup Brothers will make beef stew to share.
Every Monday morning we meet for coffee 9am-11am, and our monthly meetings are the third Saturday morning of the month, same time. You don’t need to be a member to drop in for coffee. Both are held at Canadian Legion Branch 202 on Highway 6 just north of Ferndale. Doors open at 8:45 all are welcome.
If you would like further information on how to get involved with the Men’s Shed movement, please contact us at brucemensshed@gmail.com or call Gerry at (519) 793–3005. There are no membership fees.
“Somewhere to Go. Something to Do. Someone to Talk to”
