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Hi
I'm sending this in from the north tonight as Mary and I went up to Portmahomack today leaving others at the shed to continue the busy week trying to work out where to stop demolishing the portacabin before we start to build it up again! The old saying you get what you paid for holds true but despite the massive amount of work we will have to do ourselves it is definitely a shed project to keep us all involved for some time to come and I’m sure that under Geoff’s expertise a plan agreed by all will come to fruition. It is rather frightening to think we could have bought a second hand one, for a lot of money, ‘newly refurbished’ and therefore not knowing what was behind the panelling until we tried to make alterations! With this one we knew some of what we were letting ourselves in for! The website has photos of much of the goings on and we will continue to update this as the work progresses and if you attend the AGM in July, which will be in the main hall of the Scout Building we should have a plan by then for making it wind and waterproof. So far all comments from neighbours or passers by seem to suggest we have got the siting right as it is below the viewline for many and we did not have to remove any of the trees at the fence to get it in. Kenny, Stewart and Alistair have done a great job planting trees downslope of the portacabin to stabilise the ground there and also in due course provide a screen from below, and keeping them all watered in this hot, dry spell.
Those of you at the shed tomorrow may get a visit from a representative from Balfour Beatty who are bidding for the contract for the new school. They are required as part of their bit to show/demonstrate community involvement so hopefully they do appear and take on board what we require to complete this project either with cash or materials donation. The visit to Robertsons at Heriot Watt was not fruitfull for this particular project but when we get round to doing projects for others again then getting offcut materials etc from them may work.
I had a walk around with Graham last night and Bill appeared having been to look at some materials offered to us by way of donation. Three sheets plus of OSB at this stage most welcome and I understand are going to be collected this weekend. Also one lady popped in on Tuesday when we were at the Portacabin and offered us more slabs so we are well supported by the community also. Graham is appreciative of what we are doing for the Scouts. He is going to arrange with Grant to get the power cable laid for us to an outside power point on the ‘working side’ of the portacabin and he will liaise with John as to what we require after all the internal fitting and bench planning has been done and where this power cable would ultimately be terminated inside the shed. I have agreed with him that we would not be taking anything out of the room in which Grant already installed extra power and lighting for us and that all of this would be new and surface mounted – all in due course.
One thing which we will be looking for very soon is expertise/contacts on treating timber decay/fungal growth and spores prior to any rebuilding so if any member can help in that area please get in touch directly or via the website so that we can follow it up.
That’s it for now, looking out the window on a stormy sea but nice and cosy inside.
Regards to all
Alister


Alister Skinner
Chairman
Pentlands Men's Shed