Build Your Own Mailbox

(Page 5 of 5)

October/November 1992
John Vivian 
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Keep the roadside-shoulder area by your box free of rocks, kids' bikes and snowfall before delivery. If the ground beside your box is rough, fill the depressions with crushed stone, or grade and fill with a few whacks of a stout hoe or pickmattock. Smoothing out a long-rutted approach in front of your new place is a good way to befriend the carrier. If your box is on a fresh portion of the roadside berm, the topsoil just off the road surface will furrow quickly in wet weather. Fill ruts with soil or gravel until it is dry and compacted.

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Tips are definitely appreciated. Drivers do a lot of personal service six days a week through the worst kind of weather. The more you use ancillary services (such as leaving money and asking the carrier to make change, mail packages, or sell you stamps), the more a tip is in order. Christmas is the traditional time, and $10 to $20 is a safe amount if you can afford it. If you can't, homemade bread or preserves, or a small personal gift are as well-received. Don't leave candy, cookies, or fruit cake—especially the bought kind.

Lastly, don't use use your mailbox for purposes other than mailings (such as leaving eggs out for the neighbors). Newspaper carriers should not use the box except on Sundays and federal holidays. Have them put up a separate paper tube to the side of your mailbox post opposite the flag. Always inform the post office with a phone call or note to the carrier if you will be away for more than a day (unless your neighbor can pick up the mail).

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  • Roselyn T 5/16/2009 2:49:39 AM

    Sending letters are still being observed by the people even if there are still other ways of communicating more easily than snail mails only that new postage rates are out, and it's no surprise that the new postage rates are going up. Anyone with a large backlog of stamps is going to need a bunch of increment stamps to cover the difference, or just order a bunch of new ones. Stamps have gone up to 44 cents from 42, but the weight fees remain the same – just 17 cents per ounce after the first ounce. It still means you won't need no fax payday loans for your simple letters – yet – but a lot of people will want to get forever stamps, or stamps that are accepted as payment regardless of what the postage rates are, or the debt relief you need from buying them. Visit and learn more at : http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2009/05/11/postage-rates-effect-today/

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