Another worthwhile evening was spent at Stepney Bank Stables painting the fence at the arena. This was the third and final time doing this and we managed to finish the job (and all of the paint).

We welcomed Leo, Ruby, Kanishk and Selim for their first GoodGym good deeds. Hopefully the first of many! We also look forward to seeing you all in the GoodGym red t-shirts soon.

As was the case last week, the darkness rapidly crept in once we got started painting. This time we were better prepared, with spotlights, a head torch, a chest torch and a hand held torch. We managed to illuminate the fence pretty well (unlike some of the photographs) as we applied the paint. A good level of effort was put in by everyone! We ran out of paint marginally before we ran out of time, but the fence was looking much better at the end of the session.

Ten GoodGymers descended upon Stepney Bank Stables on an overcast, but dry, Monday evening to continue the job of painting the fence at the arena.

Welcome to first time attendees Rory, Nicole and Sofia. It was lovely to meet you all and we hope to welcome you back again soon. At least you know how to find us now Sofia! Well done for persevering and tracking us down.

Well done to Claire and Arie for completing their second GoodGym good deeds. We hope to see you in the red t-shirts next time!

The fence received another good amount of paint tonight but the job wasn't quite complete. The darkness moved in rather quickly, much more so than two weeks ago at the same location. Everyone did their best in the gloom, with perhaps one more session needed to finish the job.

It was a busy night at Stepney Bank Stables as 12 Newcastle University students, from a wide variety of places including Buffalo (New York), Nova Scotia, Costa Rica and even Coventry joined us. They joined some of our regulars in painting the fence at Stepney Bank Stables' arena, filling some goody bags for a party and smoothing some walls. Everyone worked hard and some good progress was made!

Sara from Stepney Bank Stables was as welcoming as ever, giving us a tour of the stables, which involved meeting several of the resident horses. GoodGymers new and old always relish meeting the four-legged residents, one or two of whom were a bit grumpy tonight as their evening meal hadn't been served yet.

We'll be back at the stables in two weeks to try to make some more progress with painting the fence.

In a last minute change of plan, we had a request from Stepney Bank Stables to put some flat pack furniture together after an IKEA shopping spree. I've been visiting Stepney Bank Stables for years but had never been inside 'The Cottage', nor staff member Andrew's lair, which was filled with tools and all sorts of weird and wonderful things. Such was the confusion at times tonight, a phone call to Sara asking for help was even required!

Welcome to new GoodGymer Daniel. We usually look like we roughly know what we're doing, unlike tonight, so please come and join us again soon so we can demonstrate it!

There were a number of IKEA items in their boxes, some large and some small. One of them unfortunately needed a drill to put together, which we did not have. We did however manage to put a cabinet together, which we were quite pleased about. We even had the opportunity to say hello to a horse or two as we were returning the tool box to its room.

The planned Ouseburn Festival leafleting task was postponed until next week, which we will complete just in time for the festival.

In eight years of GoodGym Newcastle we have used wheelbarrows before, but (correct me if anyone knows better) I don't think we have moved mountains of sand with them. Tonight's task was to move the sand from Stepney Bank Stables' bottom yard up to their outdoor arena, to be used to create enrichment activities for the horses.

Stepney Bank is an actual bank with some decent inclines, as is Stepney Road, which leads up to the outdoor arena. With some encouragement from some slightly tipsy pub goers, five trips involving ten wheelbarrows full of sand were made. The tyres in the centre of the outdoor arena took quite a lot of filling, but we got there in the end. Given the highly physical nature of the task, this was a unique Monday with no run offered. This proved to be a good decision as we had a later than usual finish in order to complete the task. Many calories were burned by all involved.

The final throws of the task were distracted by a game of cat and mouse with an actual cat and mouse. After a lengthy chase in the dark, it wasn't a happy ending for the mouse. Hopefully the horses fare better with their enrichment activities.

We always love a Monday night at Stepney Bank Stables.

Lloyd was meeting the resident horses for the first time and Aimee for about the fiftieth time but the novelty never wears off! Lloyd almost got mugged in the dark by one of the horses trying to steal the hay he was carrying!

Due to the amount of rain that had fallen, the hay at the bottom yard had gotten wet, so we had to move some from the top yard. After we had done that, we did a little digging around the edges of the arena. Quite a physical task tonight but as enjoyable as ever! Thank you to Sara for inviting us along to help.