What I thought was going to be a quick project to fix my wobbly mailbox, turned into a long project. As I was trying to straighten up my mailbox, the wood post cracked and I had no alternative but to take the whole thing down and start over. At first, I tried to dig out the concrete holding the rest of the post. I quickly learned that was not going to happen. I then started a new hole next to it. I figured a few shovel fulls of dirt and I would have the hole ready for the new post that I had to go buy now. After a while of digging, I decided to go to the store and get the items I needed and give this digging thing a rest. I realized it was going to take me more time than I expected. I had put hours into digging this hole and thought I just about had the hole deep enough, when my neighbor came home. He asked if he could help and I immediately said yes. I was getting to the part of putting the new post in and adding the concrete. I had never done any concrete work before, except cleaning it, and I really wanted to make sure this was done right. After he did some measurements for the height the mailbox should be, I needed four more inches dug out. He gets his post-hole digger and uses that and I'm thinking that would have come in handy, since I was using a regular shovel. I found another "toy" that I have to have. Everyone should have a post-hole digger just in case. We got the post in and concrete in and it is finally done. I have only now spent about eight hours on this project when I thought maybe one to two to straighten up the old one.
Two days later, I go out to finish up since the concrete is set. I spent another 3 hours just staining the post, putting the mailbox on the post and adding my house numbers to the post. I also planted some flowers (still have more to plant) by the mailbox for a little flare. I have to say, I love my new mailbox and happy I did it no matter how much time it took. It goes to show you that if you have the right tools, things can be a lot easier to do. I have a whole wish list of tools I want to do all kinds of woodworking jobs. I guess that is for another time, though.