A warm welcome and a good workout are always guaranteed at Petersham and Ham Sea Scouts and this morning was no exception.

Adam, Chris, and JP were set to work mixing concrete, loading it into barrows, and wheeling it across the site to create a base for the new firepit, which we started at our visit on Monday evening. The team took turns loading the mixer and barrows and pouring the sloppy mix out for levelling.

Meanwhile, Rosie’s persistent tardiness was rewarded with sole use of a shovel and pick to dig out the base of a rotten post on some exercise bars very popular with the scouts.

Everyone put their backs into the various elements of the task and we soon ran out of time but made a big impact and look forward to our next visit.

A busy evening by the river this evening as the group set off along the sunny path past pubs, cyclists and picnic-eaters, as well as dancing midges, mozzies and mayflies as the path opened up towards Petersham.

Arriving at the Sea Scouts, Scout leader Russell had already put Chris and Mazin to work mixing concrete and wheelbarrowing it across the field where the scout group were adding to the adventure practising archery! The rest of us go stuck straight in too with active tasks happening everywhere: shovelling the fresh concrete into position for the new firepit, measuring up, pumping up the dinghy, moving bags of soil around, moving logs about on the trolley and clearing invasive balsam plants.

An all-round perfect example of a GoodGym task, keeping us all fit by doing good! We are back there on Saturday morning to help further, sign up to join the fun!

The clocks had gone forwards, the sun was shining and the skies were blue at 6:45 in Richmond! There was absolutely nothing better to do than be outside on a joyful spring evening!

Feeling Fly

Chris, JP, Liz and Lucy thought so, and made our way across the green and along the riverside path, taking in lush views (and the pesky flies that had also decided to enjoy the new warm and light evenings!). We arrived at the Sea Scouts, where Russell was already working on the nights task. A huge pile of construction aggregate had been delivered, and rather inconveniently dumped on the path leading to the scout hut. Our job was to make a start of shifting this off the path to level out the surface, and move it out of the way!

*Rake it off *

Once Chris had a new dating profile picture from atop the mound of gravel and stone, we got to it taking it in turns for a full body workout, sharing raking out and scraping from the bottom with shovelling down from the top. And, a bit of wheelbarrow lifting and loading too.

*Worth the Pile *

Although the mound of aggregate was still present, we had made an impressive dent on it between the four of us. And of course we had to make sure there was something to do for next week’s task! We waved goodbye to Russell and enjoyed the sun setting over the Thames as we made our way back home.

A chatty run by the river on a super clear night under the stars as we headed to Petersham to the Sea Scouts base. Task owner Russell knows exactly what GoodGym can help with and had a large pile of heavy driftwood to move from the area it was drying out to the logpile, making room to store the newly arrived boat for the scouts.

Team work, a very hardworking trolley near retirement, two wonky wheelbarrows and a lot of heavy trips across the lawn and the job was complete!

We will be back at this lovely spot by the river on the 31st March.

A night of rolling out the wheelbarrows at Petersham and Ham Sea Scouts. A peaceful jog along the riverside under a starry sky led us to the scout base where task owner Russell was ready with shovels, barrows and bags for one group to shovel soil that had collected on the driveway and bag it up to use elsewhere at the site, while another pair lifted and shifted some heavy concrete posts from one spot to another! Sea Scouts always means a good workout of some nature and tonight was no exception!

We are back there later this month to help further with outdoor tasks.

One GoodGymer turned up to help 27 Sea Scouts cubs from Petersham learn how to plant trees. This involved a lot of digging to plant holly and hawthorn trees on Petersham Common followed by hot chocolate making. In the end 75 trees were planted and almost an equal quantity of hot chocolate was consumed.