LMAO... USPS Free Shipping Supplies... Postal Zone Chart Priority Mail Prices Unless you are shipping something very heavy these boxes usually cost more than sending by wt. That is soooooo true. If I mail to someone in mail zone 4 from me, I have to stuff 6 LBS in there to warrant going Flat Rate, as opposed to paying by the pound. I STUFFED a box yesterday until it was bulging, and it only weighed 3 LB 4 OZ. To ship to mail zone 4 would have been $7.85, but to zone 8 would have been a whopping $14.25. I really think a lot of folks tend to think boxes are a lot heavier than what they really are...so they think flat rate is the best deal. I can guestimate things fairly well, keeping in mind how a LB of burger feels, or 5 LBS of sugar...but having the digital scale sure helps to verify I am right. I've also started using the Click and Ship and paying the postage on line, and getting the printout of the mailing label and postage...and taping it on. Silly me, thought you had to have special sticky label paper for that... I also Schedule Priority Mail Pick Up on line...as they will no longer pick it up, if it is not scheduled If it is a First Class parcel (under 13 OZ) and will not fit in the box, I just put a note in the box for my carrier to pick up at the back door. Hey Vic! Stop by the Test Forum and you too can make clickable links and bold and italics and red and BIG! If I can do it, anyone can...I promise. Sue...resident busy body

Thanks for the quick responses! I considered getting something to wrap around the boxes because, well, that makes sense that as the insides decompose it is likely that the outside will, as well. I will look into the chicken wire-- it seems that people on craigslist are always trying to liberate themselves of old stuff like that. As stupid as this sounds, the limiting factor for getting a normal large garbage bin is that everyone here has some sort of small, 2-door vehicle with limited and oddly-shaped cargo space. We're so not equipped for serious gardening. The reason I don't want just a free pile is that our fence is right next to a sidewalk and the community mailboxes (I have only seen this in Texas-- everywhere else I have ever been has had roadside mailboxes or door slots), so if for some reason something goes awry in the pile, I'd rather it be somewhat contained and able to be capped off to prevent aerating to mix onto the hapless old dogwalker who is checking her mail. Obviously the box alone would disintegrate with the elements so, again, I'll find something to give it some sort of structure on the outside. Oh, and unrelated to the topic at hand but certainly related to composting-- I believe there are fire ants in my leaf pile. I am not sure if they are indeed fire ants, nor do I want to find out phenomenologically, but there is a colony of something in there. Have any of you run into this, and would this pose any sort of problem to the pile? Sure, biting and stinging me sucks, but if they're doing something good to the composting process I'm sort of okay with it; if they're eating what should be breaking down my pile, I might have issues. And again, thank you all!

I went to a one room school house. We had to make our own valentine boxes. We had to give everyone a valentine and I remember we didnt want to give too mushy of one to some of the boys but we were all friends. We had a party for that and all of the other holidays and I remember our mothers would come and bring all of our younger siblings along so it got quite crowded. We had about 25 kids in school. Im sure with all of the others there was probably 50 people there. What I remember the most was a chicken that we made out of hearts. The body was a large heart and smaller hearts were glued on to make the neck, head, wing, tail and legs. I sure wish I had the pattern for it. Does anyone else remember this?

Hosta Stop lists they have it, but I don't see mailorder. Looks like 3.5 hour drive for you, but could make a nice road trip. I know nothing about them, just stumbled across them on web. Here's the Link Hosta Stop