Mailbox and wagon wheel

More projects from my "to-do" list done today. That is, once it quit raining for the day.

I've meant to replace my mailbox since Spring and today I did it. The post on the old mailbox was broken - either from rot or being repeatedly hit by snow from the snowplow - or a combination of both. I had patched and propped the post last year to keep it upright as I thought the post might be just loose. When I removed the post today I found it to be broken a few inches below the ground. I am surprised the post lasted as long as it did with my patchwork.

I put two small posts in the ground as a replacement for the one small post. The two posts are next to one another and look like one post in the photo. The thin post on the left is an old post I had to help support the old mailbox, both when snow hit it or someone with a baseball bat. The post is solid in the ground so I left it for the time being.

I also replaced the mailbox itself as the old one had trouble closing completely. The mailbox had been bent too many times from being hit by snow. The upside of the old mailbox was that I knew when the mail deliverer had delivered mail as she never got the knack of completely closing the mailbox door.

Using the old mailbox post I then did another project on my "to-do" list. That is, fix one of the wagon wheels along my driveway. The post holding the wheel up had - you guessed it - rotted. I used the old mailbox post as the new wheel post as the wheel post needed to be on the shorter side.



Before working on the posts I mowed part of the lawn and the ditch around the mailbox post. This is the first time I have mowed this year. The cattle ate the lawn the end of May and the summer was so dry the lawn barely grew. I only mowed parts of the lawn. I decided to wait to mow the rest because

• the grass was still wet in spots from the morning rain
• I didn't have time to mow the whole yard and get these two projects done the same day
• the leaves have not yet all fallen. I found the lawn mower chews up the leaves.

The nuts on the bolt for one of the lawn mowers wheels came off and I had to fix the wheel. This is my problem wheel as I seem to fix it at least once a year - no matter if I only use the lawn mower once a year.

Since I was in the picture taking mode I took photos of the corral fence gate I added a post to yesterday that I wrote about yesterday.



Here are a few photos from when I worked on the mailbox and wagon wheel.



I covered my tomatoes,peppers, cabbage and broccoli plants tonight. The forecast low was to be 32 degrees and the sky was clear over my part of the Valley though clouds ringed the Valley. I only covered my tomato and pepper plants. Shortly after I covered my garden clouds moved in from the north. I had thought my work covering the garden was for naught. However it is near midnight and the temperature is already 34.

The temperature had really dropped when the sun went down so while supper was cooking I also covered my cabbage and broccoli plants. While they can shrug off a light frost, the speed at which the temperature was dropping I decided not to chance an overnight low in the 20s.