Thanks for letting me know about Men's sheds. I think it is one of the ways woodworking brings people together and helps many of us in different ways. I am interested to get involved and help up out, however what I had in mind is a little bit different.
Firstly, the idea of separation on any ground, in this case sexual, is something I choose not to practice. Though, I believe into an immense importance of personal (or sacred) space. Those possessing a shed/garage/downstairs, no matter how small, have something that so many don't: time spent by yourself concentrating only on one thing, no matter how unimportant and trivial, decreases or eliminates all the static from our minds at least for a short period of time. Why gardening, sewing and woodworking (among others) are so popular? Concentrating on ONE thing at a time brings a sense of peace. Which in it's turn is a natural state of existence. That's why we are constantly drawn back there.
When I was talking about "lighting other's up", I want more people to experience that sense of peace and from that everything else will stem.
The problem of motivation is the big one as few of you guys mentioned. I think the main reason is that so many of us concentrate solely on the final outcome. For example, to unite 100,000 woodworkers over 7,617,930 sq km sure is a big goal. And the moment I'll start imagining all the problems I will encounter, I might as well quit right there and then. Ancient wisdom states: "Do the difficult things while they are still easy, do great things while they are still small." The way I interpret it for myself: we can only do one thing at a time, save one bit of timber from waste, talk to one person about what is important to us, help one neighbour to weed their garden.
The Men's shed concept is brilliant, the only problem is that in the eyes of many it's one of those big goals that is just too big. Find time, organise funding, find a shed, find machinery, find timber, find people who needs help, convince them they need help, teach them, watch them so they don't cut their hands off........
How about we make everyone's shed an Everyone's Shed. No need to go an extra mile, no need to spend months. Start with your next door neighbour. Let him know that you would like to spend say an hour each Sunday doing something for your neighbourhood. You lived next to him for 15 years and only say hello? It's never too late to change something in your life. See what it feels like. Is he looking at you like you've just came out of a saucer? No worries, that doesn't make you any lesser person. Try next door. May be some old bird needs fixing her fence.Change the world in a small way, your way. And the moment you'll making a positive change in someone's life, even just by putting a smile on their face, the question of motivation will be gone for ever.

It is in giving that we receive.


Alexander Yashin


p.s. Just coming up with some ideas on processing the offcuts. Kids stuff is definitely one of them. Here are some Spottie decking cut on an ancient band saw, lightly sanded and coated in parafin oil. Didn't take long to do, rough as guts, though kids wouldn't care about quality of finish. There is a lot to learn from kids I must say.