A New Mail Box

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.