Walking to mailbox

[pigman]

My wife and I walked to our mailbox this evening. It only took us 40 minutes and we walked fairly fast, well as fast as a 60 year old can walk. Took the camera along encase we saw any wildlife. Only saw two rabbits and they were too far for a good picture. :( 
The question I have is does any one have a mailbox farther from there house then I have. Ours is 1 mile out and what seems like two miles back.

[Tom]

That's a pretty good dog trot.  Mine is seven tenths of a mile from the house.  It's 24,901 back to the house if I don't turn around.  :D

[beenthere]

Only 600' here, but it's uphill both ways. 

[pigman]

Tom, now I know why it seemed so far back to the house, I forgot to turn around. :P
beenthere, Yes it is up hill both ways and the snow is still 4 ft deep. ;)

[james]

our place in BC  the mail box is 18 miles from home and we only get mail wed and Friday ;D ;D
james

[pigman]

james,
Now we know why you like to visit with forum members on your trucking trips. You live so far back in the woods that you don't have anybody to visit with. ;)

[Rockn H]

Ours was going to be about 8 ths , but since it was less than a mile and we put a circle drive in, it should soon be almost at our door step. smiley_bouncing

[Bro. Noble]

Ours is about a mile ,  but it's right next to the dairy barn,  so I'm there pretty often like it or not :D

[Pete J]

Wow!
This is one of those threads that has me hooked on the forum. My whole life has been spent around houses with mailboxes no more than 50ft away. If this is one of those topics that gives away another small detail about how life is in different parts of the world. I'd gladly walk 40 minutes to get my mail, but I don't think I'll ever be ready to try noodling catfish.

Thanks for starting this thread.

[Bibbyman]

Our's is a half-mile away - give or take a couple of steps.

[Ernie]

We get our mail at the local gas station, only 9 km away.  I go down there every now and then hoping for a cheque :D :D :D :D

[sawguy21]

 :D :D :D :D Good one

[Timburr]

Mine is 73 feet, 2 inches from my door,
If I meander, it's a little more!!

Tom..your figure of 24,901 is in slight dispute if your mailbox is east/west or north/south....and you could get a bit wet in places :D ;D :D

[crtreedude]

Mailbox  ??? we don't HAVE a mailbox.

Actually we do in a way, our mail from the USA goes to a mail forwarder in Miami and then is delivered in town here - a couple of miles away from us. We go up and get it about once a week - they send us an email when we have mail.

There is no junk mail here - it is a wonderful thing - and we pay bills on line - just about everything can be done on line in Costa Rica.

So, if it is mail, normally it is money - makes it worth the trip.  ;D

[Larry]

Our mailbox is just little over 700' from the door.  Just a short little jog for the boss.

We have a second mailbox at our place in Arkansas...might want a road map and maybe pack your lunch iffen your gonna walk to check the mail. ???

LogRite, noodling season closes July 15 in Missouri...I can teach ya everything you need to know.  I'll even stand on your back, to keep ya down while ya pull the big old sows out of them holes. ;D

[Pete J]

LogRite, noodling season closes July 15 in Missouri...I can teach ya everything you need to know.  I'll even stand on your back, to keep ya down while ya pull the big old sows out of them holes. ;D

The image that thought brings up in my mind is almost too much to comprehend. I think I'll be fine if you just post some pics of how you do it. I learn best by being self taught. Thanks for the kind and generous offer though!

[crtreedude]

Alright Larry,

Tell the truth - how many fingers do you have... ? Them snappers can put a real hurting on your digits I am thinking. 

[pigman]

This is what our mailbox looked like this morning. smiley_angry   About a month ago they ripped the door off the box. smiley_annoyed01  Then two days ago they pulled the post up and tossed it with the box still attached across the road.     This morning I patched the box up as best as I could and fastened it back on the post. 
Does anyone have an idea how I can stop this from happening in the future. I will build another box when they get tired of destroying this one. I talked to the mail carrier today as I was fixing the box and he told me that they had caught some mailbox vandals in the next county last year and the judge gave them one year probation.   That sure was harsh punished for them . :

[Ernie_Edwards]

Our friends in Tucson had some kids drive by at night and knock the box off the post with a baseball bat while driving. Did it to a second and a third mailbox too.The fourth box was full of concrete. The fifth box was never bothered.

[Murf]

Our mailbox is about 500' from the door if I go straight across the lawn, 600' if I walk out the curved driveway.

I usually take Deputy Dog with me to fetch the mail, it is about 6 miles from the door to the mailbox and back for him.   :D

DanG dog will chase anything that moves, and sniff at everything within sight, just in case something interesting isn't moving.  :

[sawguy21]

Ernie, that must have been an unpleasant surprise for the morons. 8)

[pigman]

DanG, they got my mailbox again last night.   I am slow, but I am begining to think that someone does not like me. 

[Ron Scott]

Is yours the only one along the route being damaged and have you reported it to the U. S. Postal Service?? They are pretty rough on mail box damages here and pursue it as a federal offense.

I know one timber operator that got in "big trouble" for damaging some rural mail boxes with his skidder and not reporting it.

Maybe time for the "cement mailbox" action. ;D

[DanG]

I guess it's a regional thing, but busting mailboxes isn't big around here.  I haven't seen a smashed one in years.  Up in S. Carolina where my Uncle lives, you can hardly find a straight one.  In these parts, the delinquents are more into stealing cars, breaking into houses, raping women, selling drugs, and killing folks.  Maybe y'all should be glad it's only the mailbox. :-\

[eagles nest]

our mail box is up on the black top were you turn on to the dead end private gravel road .9 of a mile 8).
lucky no ball bats been here yet.

[SwampDonkey]

Only problem we have is snow plows. A neighbor up the road got his box bashed twice this winter and burried in snow and ice. He had a sign up this summer for his mill, but it laid in the ditch all the sudden I noticed. I don't know if some hoodlums bashed it or if they struck it while bush wacking the grass with the tractor. For all the wood he buys in a year, maybe 3 trailor loads, doesn't seem to be worth it.

[pigman]

Ours is the only box that I know of that has been damaged. DanG is right in that it is only a small problem compared to other things that can happen. The Post offfice knows about the problem and the wife even reported it to the local sheriff.  I think I am going to let the mail carrier put our mail in the neighbors box a short distance down the road untill the vandals get bored.

[CHARLIE]

My mailbox is about a 100 yard walk from my front door.  But if the temp is below zero and the wind is blowing, It's at least a mile there and two miles back.......just like Pigman's.

Pigman, I have some thoughts of what to do to stop those kids from destroying your mailbox but they'd probably land you in jail.  I have another idea.  Cabela's and other Sporting Good companies sell cameras that are motion activated so people can take pictures of wild game at night.  I'm thinking you could get one of those and mount it so it would get a picture of the culprits in action including the license plate.

[isawlogs]

 I would make a replica of what ever mail box you have with 1/2" plate and paint it to match ... Let them have a swing at it .

[UNCLEBUCK]

Our local game warden for 20 years had a huge timber with a hole carved out that his mailbox sat in and then barbed wire wrapped all over it except for the front opening .Last year the highway department replaced everyones mailbox posts with a light gauge tubing that sets back aways from the shoulder of the road and the box extends out on the pole so when the snowplow nails it you can swing it back to where it should be !  ;D

[Faron]

Pigman, Time for retaliation!!  Rig up some plastic containers filled with skunk scent.  Those little plastic tubes that kid's icy treats come in look like like they will work.  Fill several and fasten them to the mailbox in the least obvious way you can think of.  Fold the open end back and tape it, and aim that end toward the road.  Hopefully when they whack the box, it will squirt skunk scent back in the truck.   :D  At the very least, they ought to get some on their club, and inside the vehicle when they handle it.  Make sure you pay whoever you suspect is doing this a visit after an attack.  A litttle sniffing around might tell you a lot. ;)   I've never had a problem like that.  Everybody likes me. ;D

[SwampDonkey]

Who's going to catch the skunk and hold the freezie tube open when he fills it?

:D :D :D

[sawguy21]

Not me :D :D

[pigman]

 I've never had a problem like that.  Everybody likes me. ;D

Faron,  you sound like our sheriff. He told me I must have offended someone and I should apologize to them.  : I told him if he would find out who was destroying my mailbox  I would gladly apologize to them get them to quit.
I am putting up a brand new mailbox today. 8) The old one is getting in such bad shape I am afraid they will get hurt when they rip it off the post or pull up the post like they did last Saturday. : ;D

[Tom]

We go through bouts of this from time to time.  Usually it has to do with a group of kids passing through a certain stage of life. Sometimes I think that young adults have missed out on the gene that allows them to mature.  Along with the smashed mail box, we get empty six-packs of beer bottles and cans set in the middle of the driveway.  I know that we have not done anyhthing to deliberately make anyone mad because they don't avail themselves to the public. The folks moving out here now aren't too sociable.  Still, they walk the street at all hours and perform mischief.  I guess it is the urban way of entertainment.  Most of the country young folk are a more friendly breed of animal.

[beenthere]

Around my rural setting we have been getting mail box's bashed in for the last 40 years. I am on a 'short dead-end stub' of a road (fitting  eh? ) so have not been bothered (I could interpret this that I am well-liked  : ).  Others along the through-roads get bashing of every mailbox for long stretches on occasions. Most everyone's assumption is it's done by kids out having their 'good' time, but what is a bit mind boggling is how long it has been going on, and no one getting caught at it - neither from someone driving by and seeing it happen (or hearing it happen) nor from someone 'tattling' on their buddies or school mates. 

Some just leave the boxes in smashed condition, some make them out of well casing, and some just leave them lay in the ditch (not sure how they get mail). But the pattern seems to be random acts of destruction along stretches of road. Guess I'd least suspect that someone is like the pigman, and has offended the smashers.  (pigman - I can't even believe that is the case with you either.   You'll have to convince me someway :D).

[Bro. Noble]

We had a wierd neighbor (he was harmless,  but different)  that was a target for the kind of low-life that smashes mailboxes.  His box was about a half-mile from his house on a well traveled road,  but out of sight of any houses.  He got tired of replacing his box so finally started hiding it in the brush after he picked up his mail.  He would take his morning walk and put it back in position before the mail came.  It didn't seem to bother him at all

[SwampDonkey]

Actually, most kids around here never bother anything. We had 3 bad ones in their teens at the time act up a few times, but they moved on (or got chased out).  :  What few other run-ins we've had over the years (and they have been very few) was folks from the nearby communities, but sometimes as far away as 40 miles, in their 20's and 30's out on a big drunk in their old beater cars/pickups and could care less if they got caught. Often times they go on those binges equipped with 4x4 pickups put together from the junk yard and muck up peoples fields and woods roads in the spring and fall. Or set old buildings or isolated bridges on fire. We had a couple historic covered bridges burnt over the years.  : Alot of these guys are ones on the Canadian 'pogy' system and are laid off from their seasonal work and do it out of bordom I guess. They guys will hit the small provincial parks and break up tables, out houses and fire places. I've met a few of them on thinning crews over the years, the stories they tell. Only their mothers can love them. : :D :D

[Murf]

There is a dead-end sideroad near me, everybody on the street has their mail boxes all together in one spot, just inside the dead-end, that way nobody's stopping in traffic to tend to the mailboxes.

They had a problem one summer with damage to the boxes.  :

They bought one of those wireless 'driveway monitors' and installed it across the end of the dead-end.

One lovely summer Saturday night several residents sat in their trucks in the driveway of a neighbour around the corner on the main road. When the alarm dinged they pulled their trucks around the corner and into the dead-end and stopped 3 wide across the entrance to the dead-end road.  smiley_curtain_peek

The kids learned some manners, "country style" ...........   smiley_eek_dropjaw

[crtreedude]

Well, once when I lived in the country in Western NY we had a problem with kids running over mailboxes. They would run over even the 4 inch cedar ones. 

Well, someone (not me - wish I had though) decided he had enough and bought a 4" cedar post and drilled it out and put a sold piece of metal, 3.5" in diameter through it, and going down another 3 or 4 feet.

He reinstalled his mailbox - set in concrete. In the middle of the night there was an awful crash. They went out and collected a bunch of drunk kids driving their dads truck. The truck's engine was nearly split in two! 

I guess the father learned to watch his kids better after that. We never did have a problem again. I guess the kids figured it was like playing Russian Roulette.  :D

Oh, we don't have the problem here.

We don't even have mailboxes. It is either delivered, or you go and pick it up. There really isn't any mail anyway. All bills are on line and you don't get notices to pay.

And, there is no junk mail.

[SwampDonkey]

I wish we didn't have junk mail. I look at the County advertiser and the rest either goes to the fire bin or the trash. I learned long ago, what they say is a sale is either regular price or back down to what is was 2 weeks before. Also, the pricing on some items is a gimic to get you in the store. The only time I go to Shoppers Drug Mart is for Kleenix on sale, that's become a very high priced establishment. I get my rasors (same brand) $2 cheaper at the grocery store.

[crtreedude]

Junk mail is like someone who always yells. It no longer gets your attention, but it sure is irritating!

[Faron]

Yeah, I forgot to mention the skunk scent comes out of a bottle from Rural King or some sporting goods store.  Deer hunters use it to disguise their scent. Or you COULD collect your own, I guess. " Everybody likes me" is kind of a joke.  I know of one guy who I hear can't stand me, though we've never met, and I don't know of anything I have done to him.  I guess I'm breathing his air.  From what I hear, that puts me on a long list, though.

If your mailbox is the only one being destroyed, it is hard telling why.  People get their noses out of joint over the silliest things sometimes.

[Bill]

I 've never seen skunk scent in stores but when I was a good bit younger you used to be able to get rotten egg scent ( hydrogen sulfide I think ) in a bottle if that'll help. I don't recall how I came by that info   ;) .

We have kids driving around with baseball bats every couple of years as the neighbors moved out and others in. A bunch of us went through the trouble to put in some decent sized high dollar solid metal boxes bolted to concrete posts in the ground. Those of us haven't had too much trouble but the regular sheet metal type boxes still get trashed.

I kinda like the idea of taking their picture with one of those game cameras. If the nearby city folk can take pictures of people running red lights we country ( suburbs ? ? ? ) folk ought to be able to take pictures too !


Pigman - cheapest and easiest solution I've seen is some folks in the next town put a small mail box inside a large mailbox on a stout pole and then fill in the space between the two with cement. If you keep the outside door closed the world just thinks its a large sheet metal mail box. Gives the kids a buzz if they take a crack at it - especially with a wooden bat.

Good Luck

[Coon]

We had a bunch of kids from the next town over coming into town to party at a local drunks place EVERY Friday night.  The police don't ever seem to patrol here even when told they are vandalizing and tearing our streets up.  Being a small town a couple of us phoned every household to make an action plan to stop it.  Everything from mail boxes to fruit trees to throwing rotten eggs at houses was being done.  Well it came Friday Night.  The vehicles started rolling into town.  More than usuall this night.  Around 11:30 most locals stopped by our yard to get ready.  I handed each person an old piece of hydraulic hose or plastic hose all of about 3 feet in length.  Even women too were involved in this action.  We got into our vehicles and all proceeded to block every exit from town.  About midnight or within the hour the tearing around started.  With every exit blocked so they could not leave town (even some of the ditches too), the townspeople proceeded to move in on these people and use some physical force.  14 people were caught beaten and held and tied up with ropes to trees.  When the people from the party noticed that the rest weren't coming back they decided to retaliate back.  In the meantime I called the police telling them they better get here ASAP or there would be some seriously injured people.  Within 10 minutes they arrived at the first access road into town.  The police were going to charge the townspeople for assault with deadly weapons until one of the teenagers parents gave one of the cops a dirty lick with a piece of hose and said "Charge these kids or your badge will be gone.  We will go to your superior and take action on you as well."  He did and he even called in back up action.  Over 120 charges were laid that night, including two on me.  I was charged with assault causing bodily harm and destroying privat property.  What I had done was pulled a 20 year old guy out of his truck window by the hair when he said that he would burn down the town and do some nasty things (which I won't mention) to my wife.  I laid a dirty licking on that guy and busted him up pretty good.  The charges to me were dropped in court.  A total of $21,000 in restitution was awarded to the residents of town for damages.
 About a month later my hayfield was tore up by vandals as well as 40 square haybales were burnt and some windows were smashed at our farm.  We were later informed by one of the teenagers from town that there was a demolition party to be held there that night as a retaliation.  Police from 6 detachments were called in by the local police.  They hid their vehicles over a hill and waited upon arrival of party goers.  A total of 26 charges were laid that night and all of em stayyed in court.  Vandalism has cost me in excess of 20,000 dollars damage since that night.  Had enough.  We have the farm sold when we are ready to move.  Plan on moving to British Columbia as work and family health problems are also of concern.  My spine specialist resides in BC and I have to attend monthly visits for therapies to be done.  I will therefore also be alot closer have a need for emergency surgery arrive at any point.
Brad.

[crtreedude]

We tend to be a bit more primative down here. There was a problem with a gang of teenagers in town I was told (before my time) and so the men of the community decided something needed to be done.

They showed up dressed for work - that includes machetes.  May I suggest that to never show up to a knife fight with a switchblade when the other guy has a machete?  : From what I hear the punks got quite the beating and decided they really weren't men.

The gang disolved overnight. No arrest, no problem - oh, and the police moved in more people to make sure they were gone.

Often I think police in the USA have forgotten that if they can't stop crime, they have to NOT get in the way of the general population.  The job of the police during war is to make sure that things don't get out of hand. When you get a group terrorizing the community, you have civil war.  It has to be dealt with promptly.

[Engineer]

There's been occasional problems with "mailbox baseball", enough so one guy decided it was time to get back at the culprits.  He took one of the large mailboxes, the "oversize" ones, and suspended a small box inside it with wires.  He filled the space between them with concrete and mounted the concrete box to a piece of steel pipe as a post.

Vandals came around, two kids driving a pickup truck and one in the back with a baseball bat.  Kid swung the bat at about thirty miles per, broke the bat, took him out the back of the truck, road rash, bruises and a broken arm.  On top of that he was charged with vandalism.  Box was undamaged. 

To get back on the thread topic - I have both a PO Box and a mailbox, the mailbox is now 100 feet away, but our new house it'll be 450 feet away.   Good walk.  I can't walk to the end of the driveway and back without stopping and "planning" things in my mind, so the trip takes a lot longer than it should.

[sawguy21]

Coon, retaliation is the problem with dealing with these young turks. There is a segment of the population that simply won't learn. Ifn ya get to the Okanagan, let's hook up for a coffee.

[pigman]

New mailbox has been up for over a week now and no problems yet.  8) I knew the vandels would get bored and quit, but just didn't know how long it would take. :

[Paschale]

My mailbox?  Well, it's just outside the front door.   ;D  I shouldn't have to take a walk at all, but the previous owners placed the mailbox on the house, on the opposite that the door opens, such that I need to step onto the porch in order to get the mail.  Let me tell you, that's brutal in the thick of winter!   The cold, blustery snow and wind makes it feel like one mile there, and two miles back.  ;D

[Alta]

Dont have a mail box - we live too far out for mail delivery. I read somewhere lately that the USPS delivers mail to every home in the country and felt a little left out.... :'(

[SwampDonkey]

Up in Hyder, Alaska it comes through Canada Post to Stewart, BC so I was told by folks up there.  ;D

[sprucebunny]

Don't feel left out, Alta. I live exactly next door to the PO  and they won't deliver to me :

[DanG]

EH?  I'd be PO'd about that! >:(

[Furby]

I'm about 200 yards from the PO, they deliver to me. ;D
But not to the streets that come off my street. :D

[Tom]

Does this mean that these people have to rent a po box?

What is the cost of the stamp for then?

[Furby]

Yes, they have a PO box, don't know if they have to pay for one or not.


Know what a stamp costs at a truck stop?
Try 2 for $1.25 or 4 for $2. >:(

[sprucebunny]

A small PO box is $24/year here. They are angry with me for getting so much mail. I told them to feel free to keep all the junk mail which is about half the volume. :

There are certain companies like Cabelas that send WAY too many catalogs . They must send me about a 6"dbh tree every year :D :D

[sawguy21]

Trouble is they make way too much money from the bulk mailings. Frustrating for the carrier and the customer though. I got annoyed (po'ed? ;D) and saved all the junk until I had a good load then just  about filled the street box. I bet the pickup driver called me some not so nice names. :D :D :D

[Engineer]

I dunno if this is possible, but I have heard rumors of people who saved a month or more worth of junk mail, put it in a box and taped pone of those "business reply - postage prepaid" envelopes on the box and sent it off.  I know that Capital One sends me two or three pieces of junk mail every week, and I tear them up and send them back to them in their own envelopes.

I had a long talk with the local postmaster, who is a pal of mine, and we discussed the junk mail problem and how it could be combated.  I opined that a lot fo the problem could be solved by having USPS drop their discounted rates for bulk mailers.  Last I recall, it cost 25 cents for a bulk mailed envelope, versus 39 cents for a regular customer with single piece rate.   Maybe if it cost everyone the same, they could drop the overall rate back down to maybe 30 cents.  It sure does not cost the P.O. any less to deliver junk mail, so why should they charge less money to send it?

[SwampDonkey]

Businesses like Capital one and other businesses have to sort their junk mail by zip/postal code, that cuts their postal rate compared to the regular mail that is unsorted. At the marketing board they have to post on each newsletter their bulk rate number and sort all the mail by postal code for that bulk rate. Most of (but not all) our advertising flyers from grocery stores and Walmart and such are delivered by a separate currier service, like the newspaper deliveries.

[Tom]

Because it's their "Golden Goose". 

Given the choice, I think they would drop citizen service and even spend more money to make delivery of junk mail more profitable.

[SwampDonkey]

Costs us $0.51 in Canada and $0.90 to send to the US for a regular letter and they are real sticky on dimensions and weight. Used to be we could put the change in the mail box for a stamp instead of having to drive to town burning $10 of gas for a little piece of sticky paper with $0.51 stamped on it.  :

I could never figure out how 15 % tax on $0.10 = $0.02 tax, they keep rounding up in their favor, as if 15 % isn't high enough to start with.  Anything under $1.00 should be exempt. :

[Murf]

Our local newspaper is part of a big chain of newspapers, all just little ones like ours, 3 times a week they deliver a paper free to nearly every household in the area around Toronto, out to about a 100 mile radius.

They can deliver flyers and such so cheap the post office can't compete with their prices, since they offer a discount to the merchant to both print & deliver the same piece.

Makes it real handy, all the junk is one nice neat group as an insert.  ;D

They even print it with veggie ink so it doesn't clog up my chimney!  8)

[SwampDonkey]

We get that too Murph, only 6 days a week, plus one day a week they stuff a full bag of additional flyers and shove it into the box. Most of it isn't good paper for fire building. The newspaper is the best paper and if I have a choice I like yellow birch over anything because it doesn't go poof, it burns for 5 or 10 minutes with a hot flame. ;D

[Tom]

Well, tonight, they got one of the little boogers.

One of the neighborhood watch people saw someone tearing up mailboxes and called the police.  Four squad cars arived in no time at all and arrested a 14 year old girl who lives in the trailer court up front.

Her Mom is a 911 operator and was told that her job is in jeopardy if she can't control her daughter.  Seems this isn't the first time the girl has met the acquaintance of the local constabulary.  The threat to the mom might have been more for affect in front of the daughter.  I hope so.

I sure wish they could have been that quick responding when I had those two burglars at gunpoint a few years ago.

We just put up a new mailbox too.  Glad she didn't get down this way yet.

[Kcwoodbutcher]

Had a problem gettin my mailbox smashed until I made up a special one. Took some 6" by 1/4 " wall pipe and slit it down the middle. Then I welded that on top of some 6" channel iron. Made the front and back out of 3/8" plate. Ground down the welds and painted it. This is all welded to a 2" schedule 80 stainless post sunk 4' in the ground. The thing looks just like a regular mailbox but laughs at anything short of a 30-06 round. It's been hit a few times - I can tell by the splinters on the ground. I hope whoever did it has their wrist in a cast.

[drobertson]

Wow, just did a quick search on the topic, what an old thread this one is,, and it seems to still be a problem.  Found our box dead on the ground this morning, got hit by a large rock,  going into town all but four were hit, in a 5 mile stretch,  saw some law enforcement checking it out already. not sure what they can find, but can always hope,,

[SwampDonkey]

The bums of the same mind set even think bashing and pushing over tomb stones is fun to. Some folks teach their offspring some bad habits.