Ed visits the wonderful and fruitful allotment that belongs to “The Shed” in Chippenham. Formerly “The Men’s Shed”, they now invite female members as well and are a lovely bunch that offers gardening and wood-working among their other activities, all in good company. Have a look at this podcast and Trevor’s expert guidance on how you could become a member and what to expect (except organic fruit and veg!). Thanks to Trevor for showing us around.
Kandu-Arts
S.H.O.P. - Social Hub of Positivity Podcast Episode #193
I welcome the sharp social helper positivity this week for not in the shop, but out of the bout and the wonderful cricket lane allotments from by the town council with this beautiful man here, Trevor and all the guys from the shed, if you remember, maybe we'll put some historical footage of the new shed that's in Chippin'em, great organisation, really good sort of community initiative, but as you've seen here, all different people helping out, growing all sorts of manner of things from vegetables, tomatoes, potatoes, etc. but also beautiful flowers, strawberries, you name it, and it's also a total place that people come out and have a cup of tea, you've got Kelly, we've got a lot of football gusto in there with Kel, we're actually not, I'm growing water in the moment, but when the summer comes on there's a big bottle of steel wool. There it goes, I'll come and see, see you later, Matt, right, should we sit down over here? Yeah, sure, yeah. So, do you want to sit there, and we can, we can talk about the fantastic, so this is, is this a new thing for the shed? It's been going a while, we've had a lot of support from the town council and very, so the charities as well, the co-operative and the tank has been extremely helpful, they've supplied us with a brand new rotobated, because we've got an extension on the back, which I'll show you. Yeah, we've got a brand new rotobated, we've got all the latest equipment, we've got a pair of multi balls. Put the this, or put a shed at it. Oh yes, if this. Oh, we've got a pair of made also, inside by a brand new rotobated, bought a brand new back dropper, it's not that much. Is that for everyone's use in there? Yes, the guys, the guys can come down. No, I mean, all the allotments. No, just very specific. Well, that's all for us. Just solely for us, the guys to use, and it's our property that's been donated to us by the town council with the extremely generous, and they've been absolutely fantastic. They're very supportive of us, because they like the idea of the shed because we're bringing together people who are lying on their own, and our membership, we actually know quite a few ladies members. Yes, we've got this mix of individuals, and we have a few people that are sent to us from the living boxing and shipping. Yeah. So, we've got a really mixed match, and the beauty is that being at the old front is the restaurant and bar facilities there, and we can get, the guys can get meals there. Lovely. And the price, the price is very, very cheap for us. Sometimes, we're all also organising some events there. We've got Italian nights, which would be taking place at the Bolstog restaurant, and I think at the moment we've got 23 going so far, but that's like two countries. So, you know, people bring in their wives, and they help, and they've got in it, and their friends along, and really have a good social evening. We also have a breakfast club that's once a month, where the guys can come and have limited breakfast, and go round twice, and help you out, stretch your unlimited teas and coffees, and I think for that, an nominal three of eight pounds, and they totally enjoy that, because it's all freshly caught. Yeah, yeah, it's not really good up there. It's not a stew. Yeah, no, it looks really good. They look really good, and quite a few guys go in a couple of times, and they're a big girl, but it's a big girl. Save it up for a month. You save it up for a month, yeah. You'll go out really, really smart on the place at the end of the day, and we're having also racial and events tripped out, and it's a museum that actually has artifacts from the past, and they have reconstruction of old 1960s, '40s, '50s shops, and how it used today, surely old, a product on view that are no longer available, and they have a fantastic amount, they've got mini submarines, it's immersible to the names of the World War II, if you don't have a shifting step. Oh, it's amazing. They've got great supplies from there, yeah, and it's extremely popular, but really, really educational as well. So the guys, you know, can look back, don't you remember that project? Of course, actually, not bad is it, because that's great for the mental health and for sort of memory, and how would you all get there, though? Oh, it all goes, indeed, very steep. Oh, right, okay, so it's not a coach trip, maybe more of it. Well, it depends, if the numbers are set and we'll probably catch the day down there, and we're also trying to encourage obviously young people to take part because we've got a fantastic workshop. Yes, we've seen that as we've seen enough. The workshop is probably really, really well supported. We've got all the latest equipment in there, and a lot of that is donated by Martin, but we've just actually finished the project for both our own cities, now in the open space, we've had to work it, and it was quite a big project because it really, really had it, and it has to be completed then, and the guys did a fantastic job with that, but we've said any questions, this was the assembly on Sonic. It was too heavy to do, it was too heavy to carry, but they're going to assemble that on Sonic, but yeah, it's going really really well, and the guys turned up each week, and last week we've had over 20, 25, all of its workshops. No, all into the restaurant area. We have a meeting there, we are doing meeting, yeah, so this is what we are doing. We are doing sort of workshop lessons, and we were planned on, it had to be some evening lessons, so people wanted to get more savvy, we'd get more savvy, we would work, make any quick bird tables onwards, that's perfect. So we're basically becoming a member, just remind us how much has it come to be a member of the Shed? I think it's just started at 60 candies, which is not a lot on the ground screens, but it used to pay two pounds subs every time they came, and now we've thrown them at the team conference, but they don't pay them, have they get that free? Yes, so they have a limited tea coffee this year, and that's all included in the package. It also includes being a member of the Bolt of Ivy, when I say a member of the Bolt, it gives them a pass to get into it, to use the bar and the restaurant only, so they don't actually... It's not bad though, is it? Because that's a great lot set. Well, it is, because, especially on Sunday launch, you just take your fantastic Sunday launch down there, and I think it's 12 pounds to do courses, well, and the food is excellent. I mean, you have a choice of about half a dozen sweets and two, well, and it's extremely popular. So, the yearly membership gets your membership, so do you automatically... And it's paid by a direct gadget, or they can pay in one month or a card, but in Belgium and they pay when going together. We also, when we have functions, we can pay card or patch transfer, for various functions, so it makes it a lot easier to be prepared by transfer, because we don't have to pay any cost. So, automatically then, if you're a member of the shed, you can come up here and work on this a lot. They don't necessarily come on their own. They can come on their own. I mean, we get quite a few members from on their own, they will know the pass days to get in. Yes, and they just maintain their little bit of... They just maintain, they can bring plants down if they want to put some extra plants in, you can do whatever they want. So, how do you do the at the produce then? Well, what we do is, what I do is, we say that it's the guys that are working down here, they can take a certain amount of produce and the rest, the self, the shed, the member to go into the sun, that's the good idea. So, you know, if they do a lot of work down here, you can take a certain amount of produce with them, and there's no agenda to that, and then you can leftover, go into the... You can put some of this pain, share your own vegetable boxes. Yes, correct. And that goes back into the sun to help the members. That's perfect. Only, um, stuff down here like, you know, space, book, the lot, I mean, we've bought a lot. It's, um, a part of 2000 pounds towards, including the central, that's the course, you've had the quality plan on that. Yeah, yeah. And obviously, you've had all the fantastic equipment, you know, moving, you know, being bought for the time. It's amazing. So, we've gotten all the lines before. Yeah. I mean, in the summertime, what we're hoping to do is, we're getting a load of guides coming down here, because I'm getting wonky at the moment. It's, it's like, sort of not level for the guys that we've got in the work that we've been, basically for the past, we're going to come down and see if it can straighten out. Um, it's always come to the work. We'll be putting in a bit to a new show, because it's steady down. Right. So, it's all really, um, we've paid the Robin feed monthly, the nominee, year, year, year, year, year, year. Yeah. The, the, the login society. So, and you see, you know, we're all here, Robin, how we feel about the course and, you know, that's just, so what, well, obviously, if you've got loads of people from up here, will it ever happen? No, it is restricted to, you know, I mean, at the moment, we've got five people to be out of the whole lot, because we're really interested in doing it. If there was more and more and more, we'd have to do it on a road to bank. Yes. It's, uh, where, you know, you try out the bank, it doesn't do to them, you're doing a really good job. So, it has to be on a road to banking. But we've got five people, and they all come down in different ways. And, and times, and we, we also have a WhatsApp feed, uh, Robin, where, uh, we, for our messages, we have some, we come down and go to the, uh, allotments. Yes. And, um, our bonds, you know, we get people hanging out and say your bonds, and before I trade your house, I'm going down to Robin and do you want to join me? Yes. Yeah. And we, we have that communication to do that. So, like the shares that people might have your workshops to learn how to use equipment and or to do techniques and stuff, do you ever teach any of the members into that garden or? Well, a lot of the methods that play out in, uh, that I think if we had some younger people coming, then we would most certainly teach them how to work more on them in the better ways and how to find them. But at the moment, most of our members are, uh, senior citizens. So, they're all worldly wives. Yeah. So, that's good. I would, you know, they don't need, need to tell them to do whatever they already know already. And they can probably tell me a few things. Yeah, it's interesting because we've gotten a lot of them, which we have our young people working on. Yeah. For them, it's all new. Yeah. And they actually grow into which we then cook it and do to help feed them. So, it's invaluable for the contact with nature, but also to know where food comes from. It's great for the mental health. I think it is good for the mental health, especially for all the members. I mean, we get members to, you know, come to us because they're on the line. They've lost their heart and they've started new functions. And, you know, some come down here, you know, last year, I see down here to coffee tea, you know, and other channels. And it's a challenge, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It can't be. It can be a free piece of it here as well. I mean, we will be, we have got projects to do with this once, once we've done it a little bit often. We'll go to be really painted. We'll probably put this in a patio, a small patio area, down here. It's a nice little light stand. We don't want to get out of glading, but, you know, we're doing it in babysitting. Of course. We like to see, you know, the changes are absolutely fantastic. You know, and the guys here, you can ask them if they want. So, you've got both sides up here, just as well? No, just as well. No, just as well, yeah. Literally, about 11 years. I mean, I just didn't know that. Yeah. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]