You're so very clever, OJ! I wish you could post a picture so we could the result of your handiwork. So few of us go to the trouble of repairing and I fear that as a society we are becoming inept in that department--I speak for myself, certainly. And only you would refer to someone who has vandalized your mailbox as, "late-night mischief-making young lads." You're very sweet. :)

those "lads" need to have someone return the favor with said baseball bat to their property, and see how it feels...

sad to say i am in the process of looking for a new ergo handled rake for dh, to replace the existing broken one... (but it's the head that has missing pieces)

The first 9 years we lived at this house, we replaced our mailbox 8 times! 7 of those times were from "late night mischief makers". Until we finally got a big 2 x 4 and DH dug a deep post hole and cemented it in. The box sat on the same thickness board sticking out in front.

We throught, great no more replacing this. Until the next winter when the state highway workers sheered it off at the ground with their plow while plowing snow.

We redid the post/cement again, and have a cheap black plastic mailbox now. Seems the mischief makers only want to smash the decorative/expensive ones. We've been lucky now for about the last 15 years.

When I did the first repair, I brushed the rust off and repainted the box (with some spray bombs that the mechanics at the trucking company had thrown out).

Next time ... I wasn't so fussy, so the poor old box had some rusty sections.

This time - no amelioration of the rust.

Landlord's feeling more at ease, though ... as I told him that Uncle had a spare larger mailbox that, though somewhat rusty, is sitting in the garage, ready (well, almost ready) for use.

As for heads missing pieces ... sometimes I wonder whether mine isn't missing a few (especially recently, when I'm finding it harder to remember stuff).

ole joyful

Let those lads get caught and hope they are 16yrs old or more.

My nephew and two of his buddies got the stupid idea to ride down the road and swat mailboxes from the back of a pickup, and they did it three nites in a row, but they got caught on the third night.

When the cops hauled them in they figured they were in for a minor misdemeanor which would possibly result in a stiff fine.

Well,they were in for a big surprise. The postmaster preferred federal charges of destroying postal property against them and they each ended up doing five years in Federal Prison.

WOW!

(I'd have claimed that I hadn't "destroyed" - "vandalized, maybe ... but not "destroyed").

I'd like to see the young cuss-tomers ...

... repair the dang box!

With people from TV/the newspapers taking pictures!

(If you're gonna do it ... three nights in a row ... is nothing short of plain stupid ... sort of like setting a bear trap ... then stepping into it?).

o j

Holy crap, that seems pretty severe. 5 years? Man o day. I wouldn't want to do that to a kid. But I wish we could have caught ours and made them pay for it and put it back in. And made sure the parents knew about it. Although, nowadays that might not have meant anything either.

Been using the "new" cultivator quite a bit during the last couple of days.

What an improvement: its now a joy to use!

I'll have to thank the landlord ... just slightly less than "effusively", I think.

o j

OJ, glad you were able to rehab the cultivator. We had a free-standing mailbox when we moved in, but it kept getting knocked down when we were negotiating the driveway. So we bought a large black box that mounts on the house. Love it, MIL saw it and liked it , a lot, or so she said. So one year for her Birthday or Mothers Day I bought her one just like ours. She looked at me and said her standard "I can't use it. Can you exchange it?" I took it back, gave her the money and more or less told her I wouldn't be giving her any more gifts, she never liked them anyway. That solved gift buying for her for a few years, then she passed away.

I have a tiny little plastic rake that belonged to my son when he was young. I kept it to rake under bushes and small places. The handle broke, so I used an old broom handle whittled down and screwed in to replace it. That broke off, and I still use it with the broken handle. The other day my roommate was using it and saying what a great tool it is. I figure it's worth getting a new handle for it, but it's hard to find wooden broom handles anymore.

I neglected to mention previously that before I brought in the mailbox, the landlord had used a small hydraulic jack that he has to push up the top some. While we were doing the repairs, I said that it would have been a good idea to have had a piece of wood to carry the pressure exerted by the jack to a fair distance along the top of the box.

I might have known - he's played these games for years, and had known to bring a piece of wood for just that purpose ... but it was shorter than he needed.

ole joyful ... who just bought a bunch more seeds to fill the empty places in the 20+ rows