The Adlington Post

Last Sunday I went for a drive amongst detritus of the annual inorganic collection...finds included a sleeping bag (new), a pair of woman's hiking boots (good condition), an oil can (with oil), and a couple of old wooden planes - I will refurbish the tools at the Men's Shed North Shore. See: www.mensshednorthshore.org.nz and my Shed blog: www.shedyarns.blogspot.co.nz  

Last week Men's Shed North Shore member Bob Stirk gave us a demonstration of vacuum-forming veneer. This is a process (on a much larger scale) used to make the Americas Cup boats. Bob uses pieces of curved veneer and laminated wood to make some very interesting furniture.   Bob kindly gave me a piece of this laminate to make some jewellery with. See more photos on my Men's Shed blog www.shedyarns.blogspot.co.nz

The annual inorganic collection is on at present here on the North Shore, maybe for the last time if the whingers about the collection "lowering the tone" of their neighbourhoods get their way. Three of my more interesting finds last Sunday were a filter mask, a cast iron pot - great for the campfire, and a bevy of broken Barbies. The latter demonstrate the fate of most consumer products - fervently desired, soon trashed, and then dumped. I haven't found any iPhones in the trash - yet....... While I was going through a pile of trash a Japanese TV crew came along & interviewed me re the inorganic collection & the reason for my collecting junk: "Is it part of your culture to pick up what other people have thrown away?"......I asked them to send me the link for the programme, but won't hold my breath.....

Geoff (right) is giving Constantin some help with building a 3D printer at the North Shore Men's Shed...see more pix at www.shedyarns.blogspot.co.nz

Last week I spent the day with the boys at the Whangarei Community Mens Shed. They have just bought the old railway goods station for one dollar from the local council, & are in the process of moving their equipment over from their old shared premises at the steam engine heritage centre. The station has been derelict for 15 years and has been knocked around by kids with nothing better to do. The shed members have some serious working bees ahead of them, & I will go up whenever I can to give a hand - so stay tuned for progress reports.... The chairman is Mike Mansell: mikeandrosie@clear.net.nz

On my way up to Waipu last week I spotted a dead male pheasant at the side of the road. I stopped and went back to check him out - altho he was stiff, he had not been dead long, as he smelled fresh. The body was intact, tho his neck was broken. In the kitchen I gutted the bird, removed the tail feathers to give away, then poured boiling water over the bird as I plucked it - this way the feathers come out easily. My experience with pheasant is that the flesh can be a bit tough, so I mashed up 6 kiwi fruit & squeezed the juice out of a large grapefruit to make a marinade. I filled the body cavity with the mixture, placed the bird into a plastic bag & poured the rest of the mix in on top. This I placed in the refridgerator & left for four days. To roast the bird I placed it into a baking dish with some oil (still filled with fruit), covered the dish, & cooked it slowly for 80 minutes at 160-170 F. The juices and the rest of the marinade made a delicious gravy. The mea...

So now the word is spreading that the US government using code-name PRISM has been accessing all online content with the complicity of google, apple, facebook, etc etc....... and my truther contacts are shocked/outraged & blowing hard about it.....however this should come as no surprise, and I predict that there will be even more sensational revelations to come...... I have said for a long time that the internet is not a www (World Wide Web) as much as an sss (Secret Surveillance System) - and in fact the US government itself has made the fact clear for even longer..see the illustrations below......not so much the "eye of the tiger" but the "eye of big brother".....  Above - a prism Below -  the triangle/prism on the  reverse of an American dollar bill has told us the same thing for a very long time...the triangle at the top of the pyramid on the reverse side of the US dollar bill is a prism, and inside that prism is an eye - simple isn't it?

Last night was busy down at the skip - I hauled home some $200 worth of groceries, and had to make two trips....most of the packets were before their "buy by" date, and one of the 4 trays of eggs had been dumped because ONE egg was broken! I noticed that someone has taken up after-dark occupation in one of the paper cages nearby - under the eaves and so out of the winter rain...he was munching on a bagel from the skip as I went past....hopefully he  will not draw the attention of the supermarket jocks & lead to them putting a lock on the skip....

Here's last night's find while out dumpsterdiving & trash trawling. A rounded meal, as my friend Laurie says: "Gotcha protein, gotcha carbs, gotcha greens" - & a piece of fruit for desert!

One of the doctor's offices in the Bay is closing, and they have a skip for the trash. I found this compressor last night. It was a bit wet from the rain, so I stood it in front of the electric heater I bought at the market on Sunday for .50c and dried it out. It works perfectly - now I can finally hook-up my airbrush and do some graffiti stencilling.

How's this for a great idea for a bike rack! I will look into making one for the Men's Shed North Shore.... For info on the Shed see: www.mensshednorthshore.org.nz And/or read my Shed blog: www.shedyarns.blogspot.co.nz

With winter here the skip at the back of the local supermarket is easier to approach unseen. I picked out these six packets of fetta cheese last night, still cool from the chiller - expiry date tomorrow! Delicious in salads....

Overseas pupils from the local language school dump their old phones etc into the bin. I found this phone today - complete with charger & sim card.

With some help I produced my first car-tyre swan. Thanks to Kevin & Laurie for their assistance & advice. Now it's off to the Men's Shed North Shore to make a head.

After seven years work the Men's Shed North Shore was opened on Sunday 7th April 2013. Kaipatiki Local Board Chair Lindsay Waugh did the honours and cut the "ribbon" to applause from the large crowd of members and supporters. The Shed was then opened for inspection, and The "Pink Ladies" put on a sumptuous afternoon tea in the lunch-room. Photo courtesy of Jude Woodside, The Shed Magazine www.theshedmag.co.nz See more snaps at  www.shedyarns.blogspot.co.nz See the MSNS facebook page HERE

At last I have found someone who can show me how to make swans out of old car tyres.  It's just a matter of scale, & having the right equipment:  Watch how they make this gigantic bird HERE

Last December I was invited to help present a workshop on the power of art to effect social change at "Artshift" a sub-activity of the international Youth Climate Change Summit (known as Power Shift : New Zealand- Pacific where well-over 600 young people signed up ) at Auckland University.  “The Power Shift NZ-Pacific 2012 Youth Climate Summit will create a powerful movement that will push New Zealand to raise its ambition in tackling climate change, and challenge our leaders to make meaningful change to climate policy.”  (From PowerShift.org.nz )   watch the video of the workshop HERE

I have joined the crew at the Mens' Shed North Shore, and have had a lot of fun helping the team with the final finishing-off of the new shed they have built at Glenfield. The grand opening is scheduled for early April, and after that things will swing into action and the place will come alive with people working on all manner of projects.. .