My Mailbox Delemma - One Hot Box

For several days this week, I had no mail. That is an odd occurrence for me. I usually get something as some of the girls send their bills here and I get junk mail or bills most days.  

Then one morning, I get a knock at the door. I wasn't dressed yet so I just looked out to see a guy getting into a car near my mailbox. 

When I went out to get the mail that day, this note was on my mail.  It stated that they would be "holding" my mail until my mailbox was raised to 48 inches from the ground to the bottom of the mail box and my trees were trimmed. 
 
I truly don't think it is legal for them to hold my mail hostage and thought about going in and demanding it but not feeling well, I couldn't do it. 

I proceeded to measure how much higher my box would need to be and couldn't believe how high 48 inches is and when you add the box and holder wood onto that, the box would almost be as tall as me! If it is 48 inches from my curb / lawn, it would have ended up as tall as me if I stood in the road. I decided to make it 48 inches from the road.
 
I then went around the neighborhood measuring my neighbors boxes. NOT ONE was 48 inches from the ground to the box bottom!!!! I think if I was a fighter, I would have had an argument but I HATE fights and it wasn't worth it as they cause me so much stress.

Originally, all my neighbors mail boxes were shorter than ours and my then 3-4 year old Princess Three decided she wanted to get the mail. Since she couldn't reach ours, she collected the neighbors. 
 
This wasn't the worst part of that story. She brought the mail into the house and I didn't realized it was the neighbors so I proceeded to open the neighbors mail. 

About then, our mailbox rotted off at the cement line and I needed to replace it. I found an old realty sign in a field next to our apartments we owned and rented out and figured it would make a great mailbox post. I made it short enough that Princess Three could collect the mail. 


A few years later, we had a complaint letter from the post man and I went in explained why we had a shorter mailbox than the neighbors. They said it was alright for us to keep it as we still had young children.

That mailbox has been there for near 19 years. It has worked fine but the carrier has to bend down to put the mail in. 


Last year, I came home one day and there were several branches cut off my tree laying on the ground. The mailman cut branches off my tree and drove off leaving them on the ground. 

If you have read my blog much, you know that I am an avid tree pruner. I always prune my trees yearly and if they would have just given me a note, I would have been able to do that but no notice, just branches on the ground. It left a hole in the tree and I would have gone about it a bit differently but I felt that was not in good form. Click here for a post about my front trees. 
 
I was stressed about the mailbox. This month, I have not been feeling well, it has rained nearly every day for three weeks at some point in the day. I have been having heart pain and almost fainted today. I saw a Dr. This week and had LOTS of labs drawn.

This wasn't something I really wanted to take on but I need my mail and am not feeling like taking on a fight over a mailbox. I went to the recycle place in town and asked if they had a big rusty bucket I could just dig up the cement and put it in the bucket. 
 
You can see one of my neighbors has their mailbox in a five gallon bucket partially buried. I think that looks a bit "uncool" and would rather make it decorative but really, would like to just have the money to go and buy a really nice one and pay someone to put it in! 

Since I lost some of my child support last month when Princess four turned 18, funds are tighter that they usually are. To spend much on a mailbox that has worked great for 20 years seems so silly to me.

I saw a wood stove at the recycle place that was cracked so it wasn't good for use but thought it would be too long and I don't have much space there as there is a drain for the front sprinklers and a sprinkler head as well. 
 
While I was there however, I found a sign that made me laugh. The mailman won't deliver the mail so I thought this sign would have been funny to hang on the post but don't want to offend them as I do need my mail. I figured there would be "restoration in progress" and they wouldn't be using motor vehicles to deliver my mail so it was a funny sign. 

I have a piece of 4 x 4 from a fence post that rotted and I thought I would just make a new post but the piece after being buried, wouldn't be much taller than what I had and was more work.

Several people suggested that I just move up the little piece of wood that holds the mailbox to the top of the post. I show in a picture how it was actually cut into the post so I can't just move it up on the 4 x 4 post. 
 
I spent hours at three different stores asking the workers for ideas. We thought about putting the vinyl white shell on it but then wouldn't have the "arm" that holds the box and so it would set the box back even further on the property.

I was going to cut the 4 x 4 in the middle and add more 4 x 4 and use brackets to hold it on but just for the 8 brackets for the lower and upper joints was $10 and would be hard to cut the post that is buried square to make the new section fit. 

To buy a new one was out of range. I called my friend to see if we could go "rusty bucket" hunting in the hills near here but he was busy.

I called my sister to see if she had anything I could "plant" the post with cement in and she stopped over and as I was digging it out, the cement broke off the post. My sister stopped at the recycle place and looked at the stove I told her about and said, "Why don't you put the post in the stove pipe and plant flowers in the rest. I thought that was great. 


I called my friend who owns the recycle place and asked what he wanted for the stove. He gave it to me and I told him I would take him treats at some point. Yahoo for free things!


Who knew that buying flowers and three bags of bark to fill the space would cost me near $30. I probably could have bought a cheap post for that! 

However, it sure wouldn't be as cute as the one I have now! Thanks to my sister and her family for hauling it to my house as I had no way to get it home without a truck. 
 
I didn't finish until after 11 p.m. It was a long day but I am praying I get my mail today as it is a long weekend and not having mail for a week could throw something off. 

UPDATE: I went out the next morning to see if they delivered my mail and they had. The next day, they delivered all the stuff they had been holding at the post office with this little sticky note attached. I thought it was sweet that they gave me a note. I do think they need to revise their method and maybe say, "You have a week before we hold your mail." 


I will stick a note with a treat in the mailbox for Tuesday after the holiday with a "thank you" and that suggestions. I think maybe I should have left my mail there a little longer as I recieved a $1,500 bill in the mail they brought today!