It was a day that I thought I could get one simple project done and over with in the morning, that was swap the old mailbox with a new one. Then move on to the next item on list.
I wanted to do this as the old mailbox was too small for the amount of mail received. and was being held together by wire. Living in rural Vermont has taught me that even simple home maintenance projects rarely go exactly as planned.
The Rusted Surprise
Well, think again, I gathered all the tools that I thought I needed. Wrench, hammer, new mailbox, new bolts and nuts. The mailbox is at the end of my driveway, which is a short distance from house, so I loaded items in the back of the Polaris Ranger that I use. When I reached the old mailbox I found that the nuts were rusted and would need more attention, and a little more persuasion that I had tools with me. Because everything holding the box was underneath it was hard to see and work on, not one to work upside-down.
So this meant that I had to pull up the poles that were holding the old mailbox out of the ground. This took some pounding with a hammer, pushing and pulling and finally they came loose. Loaded them in the back of the Ranger and back to the garage I went thinking that this won’t take long to fix.
So I sprayed the rusted nuts with a solvent and waited a few minutes before trying again. I am mechanically inclined to a certain degree, I know what most tools are used for, but sizes are another thing. I can’t tell just by looking at a nut what size socket I need or wrench, metric or not. This means I have to get socket set, wrench set and go by trial and error fitting and moving to next size.
Enter Rube Goldberg Mode
That was when one of the U bolts snapped and broke, this almost gave me a skinned knuckle. Now I needed to go into Rube Goldberg mode. I knew I had some muffler clamps in the garage somewhere, so started looking. Found one! But when I measured it with the other one, too large, was for a muffler on a truck or tractor.
Had to put on my thinking cap, looked at the bracket that was now un-attached to the pole, and noticed that if I put a bolt through the hole on the bracket and the hole in the pole that I could again have a working bracket that would hold the new mailbox. I did this, but when the poles were next to each other they were not the same height,. which meant that I have to move the bracket down a few holes in order to match the other one, done!
At this point I was getting frustrated and this is taking longer than expected and they were predicting rain coming soon and I wanted this done before then. So I took a small break and thought of other ways to attached the box, without making this project any longer than it is. Now onward to putting the new mailbox on, but as fate would have it the holes on the box didn’t line up with the holes in the bracket.
Now decision do I drill another hole in the bottom of the box or find another way to attached the box to the brackets. I really didn’t want to have any more holes in the bottom of the box that were already there. I know that I had some glue leftover from another project that I did, and seeing that the object that I hung with the glue was still there, and has been for about 3 years, knew that it could work.
Glue to the Rescue
So I hunted down the tube of leftover glue, and then went to see how I could use the glue to hold the mailbox on. With a little putting the box on the brackets and seeing what part of the bracket actually hit the bottom of the box. Came up with the conclusion that it could work if enough glue was applied.
So put everything in the back of the Ranger and proceeded up to the end of the driveway and went to work. I pounded the poles back into the ground, until they were the right height needed by the postal service, put a level across the brackets to see if they were even, they were or at least good enough for government work.
I then took a box cutter and slit the tube down the middle, and with some craft sticks scooped out large enough globs and put on the brackets and the top of the poles. Then proceeded to press on the mailbox and did so for a couple of minutes, and hoped for the best. I could see the box from my picture window in the house and it was still there before I retired for the night.
The Real Lesson
The best part of this whole project was that it didn’t cost me anything more to accomplish, just some careful thought and using what was handy. By doing this I saved time running around to get what I needed, and used what I already had thus saving me more money. Am one that will usually use what is available to me, as I always will save things with the thought in mind that it might be handy to have in the future. Because of this mind set I have saved material, nuts, bolts, screws etc., yarn from other craft projects, books and magazines, even parts from past toys that might have other uses further down the road.
This experience has shown me that with a little thought and careful thinking, even though it was supposed to be a simple swap mailboxes, it still can be done. Just need some of that old yankee ingenuity, this is what I have learned over the years, and past experiences.
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