Our projects

Occasionally, items arrive at the Shed and we are asked "Can you do something with this?"  That was the question we faced towards the end of last year when a visitor taking a break at his Stewartry holiday home turned up one day with a kiddies trike and wondered if we could give it a new lease of life.

As a regular visitor to our static caravan from delectable Wigan (home) and attending DMS, my woodworking skills have really improved. This has been due to much friendly guidance from other members. I can now turn a screwdriver the correct way, and cut timber without trimming my nails at the same time.

When you get older, and bits of you don't move the way they should, our doctor sometimes suggests various therapies. Mine said Pilates would help my sore back, and it certainly helps, alas with the shut down I can't get to the village hall so we have to do it by Skype. One of the exercised is 'the plank' which strengthens the core muscles.

"Yes! It's a train set -- sort of. Unlike many railway modellers, I'm not interested in building tiny houses, or planting tiny trees. Apart from the locos my interest stops at railhead height.

In fact, it's a very small model railway layout intended to operate two trains completely under the computer control of an Arduino. Just an oval of track with two 'stations' where the trains have to stop and four signals to control the trains' movements.

With time on our hands, and the sun shining, I went into my shed this morning and made myself a sundial. It only has hour marks, from 7am to 7pm because we tend not to be out before 7am, the minutes do not matter, the hours are a vague guide, and by 7pm we don't care what the time is (we've had our tea, and are in evening mode)

Even though shed visits are curtailed at the moment, it’s great to work from home on other pet projects. I’ve been making animal planter boxes featuring belted Galloways, spotted dogs, and the pictured red squirrel (inspired by a visit to Barhill Woods).

It's not often we get to do rebuild like this so we accepted the challenge eagerly.

The Sunbeam Trike, made around 70 years ago and purchased for young Mary Exelby around 1955 shortly after her birth in Lincolnshire. It was passed down to her children, Simon and Jane who can be seen in the image below riding the trike in approximately 1983.