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Posted By: Trumpy Our Working Bee - 04/20/03 04:39 AM
Just like to relate a story that I was involved with recently.
About a year or so ago, the Local Scout Den, here in Ashburton was destroyed by fire caused by an arson attack.
The building was Un-insured, as it was owned by the Local Scouts, who could not afford to insure it.
Recently it was rebuilt by a team(read:battalion) of Builders, Plumbers, Painters, etc, in the good old Kiwi institution, the Working Bee!.
It took us 3 weekends to Frame, Pipe,Roof, Wire,Line and Paint the new purpose-made building, which some of the Scout leaders said was actually better than the original one.
(OK, we did add a FEW things!)
ALL of the Materials we used were supplied by the sheer generosity of our local Trade Suppliers, all we had to supply was the skills and tools.
One of the local Hotels even kept us all fed
(don't know how!) with BBQ's and refreshments.
The only problems we had was the weather was a little cold and the Building Inspector that kept getting in the way!
But, I'm really glad that I was involved in this project, it was good to see a team of people work together(and everyone helped each other, ever seen a painter laying an U/Ground cable?) and it went a helluva lot smoother than any job that I have ever been paid for!!. [Linked Image]


[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 04-20-2003).]
Posted By: old Appy Re: Our Working Bee - 04/20/03 06:59 AM
Well done Trumpy, good for you and the others that helped.
Posted By: Trumpy Re: Our Working Bee - 04/20/03 07:50 AM
Gidday Appy!,
You should have seen it all, my workmate
Jimmy couldn't believe how many people showed up.
I was quite staggered myself.
And they all worked out of thier skins, too!.
Scouting's big down here and you can't run a scout troop without a Den, it's like the Police not having a police station. [Linked Image]
Posted By: pauluk Re: Our Working Bee - 04/20/03 04:14 PM
"Good on ya," Trumpy, or is that expression confined to Australia? Sounds kind of loike a good old-fashioned barn-raising, only with modern conveniences! [Linked Image]
Posted By: Trumpy Re: Our Working Bee - 04/23/03 06:11 AM
Yes,
In some respects, I suppose it could, although I didn't see anyone with pitchforks
or bringin along thier favourite tractor.
But, in the process of the Den being burned down, the Scout troop lost a lot of equipment, photo's and other records, this is the worst part of the whole thing. And they never caught the @*&$%#%@ that set fire to it in the start, the sheer heat of the fire, caused any trace of evidence to be destroyed, it was professionally lit.
But, I think that we've got the only Scout Den that is Air Conditioned!. [Linked Image]

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 04-23-2003).]
Posted By: Trumpy Re: Our Working Bee - 04/25/03 11:34 AM
Just an addendum to this topic.
We added (Electrically) the following:
  • 3 Phase Supply @ 50A per phase, U/G, the old supply was O/Head
  • A new pole, the old one fell down, lines and all when Jimmy leaned the Pole ladder up against it, it was rotten!.
  • A new Hot Water Service with 270 Litre Cylinder on Ripple Supply, the old Den had a Cylinder that was only 50 Litres and was continuously energised.
  • A new 20 kW Air Con Unit(Cassette), this serves the whole building(hall),I piped and charged the whole thing and it went like a rocket!.
  • Allowances were made for future expansion, we installed a switchboard that was twice as big as what we should have had and all of the holes that we drilled in the dwangs were no smaller than 32mm dia.
  • We also left draw-wires, where we thought appropriate.
  • We ran Cat-5 wires all through the place "just in case", it's a lot easier to do this before the wall linings go on.
  • The Mains can be up-rated to up to 100A per phase, should this be required, but I doubt it!.
  • A new ADSL phone line, Telecom over here were so miserable, that they were not even going to re-instate the old phone lines, let alone do an upgrade, so Jimmy rang one of his "mates" up, who incidentally is an ex-Telecom tech,and works for a competitor
    company, would like to check out the Internet speed at that Den!, and to think they've only got a telephone hooked up to this demon!.

I wish all jobs were like this, life would be a dream!!. [Linked Image]
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